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With hope and anticipation, small drops of potential buried in moist soil, warmed by the sun, three days to the hour, a seedling revealed.
Lettuce.

One of my recent projects that has taken so much of my time is to learn as much as I can about kitchen vegetable gardens. I have started several seeds inside in a humidrome. Carrots, beans, scallions, peppers, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, thyme, sage, oregano, and chives are the first contenders, to be followed by broccoli, mint, and basil. These will be eventually transferred to suitable sized pots and live on the back deck and around the edges of the back yard, where they will be joined by a garden bed of asparagus, corn, onions, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, and zucchini. Hopefully, some fruit like watermelon, raspberries, peaches, apples, and cherries will also eventually make their way along side of the veggies. Oh yes, and strawberries. I would never forget strawberries, the most beautiful fruit of all (and my favorite).

This is one massive science experiment, with data notes and supply prices and time stamps. Hopefully, what I learn this year from my own garden I can apply to other people’s gardens next year in a dispersed sustainable community agriculture technique- you pay me to put the garden in your yard and pay me to maintain it and harvest it, you get in return very fresh very local natural veggies for less than the price of the organic ones you buy at the natural grocery market, plus the pleasure of having a garden without all the work.

And it all starts with lettuce.

I put a bunch of pictures from our Grand Canyon Trip in the Trips and Adventures gallery of our photos. Enjoy! We did.

1800 miles (+/-) later and we have…

driven through the upper Moab Colorado River Valley skirting the edge of Arches National Park, down through Monument Valley, through the uplift of the Colorado Plateau and into the Grand Canyon National Park, enjoyed the canyon in a fresh snow and cold for several days, driven through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona to visit my Aunt, see the Chapel of the Holy Cross, trekked back up only to decide at the last minute to not retrace our steps but to go past Lake Powell and the dam at Glen Canyon National Rec Area, scrape the southern, western, and northern edges of the Grand Escalante Staircase National Monument, went to Zion National Park, to Bryce National Park, and then Capital Reef National Park, to head back home, arriving safely after 5 days of adventure and relaxation.

Pictures to follow, after we sleep…

Quick thought… We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat today. That was cool!

We are working on updating our website, and I asked Doug if he would be willing to teach me more about updating the website (other than the blog and gallery) so I can keep the tabs more up to date for everyone. But for now, he is doing the updates.

Hopefully we will have some new pictures in the gallery soon and the background colors of the blog and gallery have been corrected and he removed the entry screen flash page, but more importantly, we have a new tab.

Check out our new tab… “…Makes 3”

Thanks for reading!

Hey all, my sister got engaged! (Announcement) Wahoo! I am really excited and happy for her. I have only ever wanted the best for my younger sister. She is a great math teacher, she coaches tennis, she owns her own place, she travels to see her friends in different states, she has two cute cats, and now she has found someone to spend the rest of her life with! Congrats Natalie!

Watching the Inauguration!

Wahoo!

Monday- snow on the ground, slippery, but even worse, high wind blowing the snow around. Not the day to travel on the morning highways, so Doug decided to stay home.

I am glad he did.

It was luck that my body chose that exact day to get the ever-so-rare sick. (I will spare you the details even though I think they are funny) All of Monday, I either slept as still as possible or was sick, and Doug held my hand through all the gross parts. He brought me things to drink and whatever else I needed.

I slept from Monday night, all day Tuesday, and into Wednesday. I learned that Cheerios are a 5-star meal if you haven’t eaten in two days. Thursday found me once again, sleeping through most of the day, but today I feel sooo much better. I am surprised that it knocked me down for so long- normally I am only sick for a day, and then back up and going again. This down-for-several-days is new to me.

Summary- I have the most awesome husband! He took such good care of me. He held my hand the many many gross times, brought me whatever I needed, made several trips to the store just to get specialty things we normally don’t have, he brought me pillows, blankets, my teddy bear, and one of his Calvin and Hobbs comic books when I was bored but couldn’t leave my bed, listened for the smallest sounds from me in the other room, kept the cats in their room Monday, did laundry, did the dishes, cleaned up after me, and all sorts of other things I am sure I don’t know about because I was unconscious.

I have an awesome husband!

Tree up, house decorated, presents wrapped…

Need to make chocolate chip cookies.

Otherwise, ready.

I think.

Blinking, I was suddenly awake. There had been a loud noise. But all was silent, so I closed my eyes again. It had been a long couple of weeks and I was exhausted.

“Bang!”

And then silence.

“Bang!”

Ok, that was certainly not my imagination or the neighbors. That one shook the walls of the house.

I was in motion before I was fully aware of what was going on. Dressing quickly, I dashed upstairs and opened the door to go figure out what was wrong, when the wind sucked the door shut again.

Mariah.

I pulled it open and discovered the source of the sound. It was not just a loose shingle or a bit of stuff blowing against the side of the house.

The wind had ripped through the atrium and caught the screen glass door, yanking it open, time and time again, until the chain that keeps the door from extending too far broke off of the door. One more solid gust and the door extended too far and the plunger mechanism that keeps the door from slamming shut tore from its mounting on the wooden door frame and now dangled in mid-air with a chunk of wood still attached. The door was slamming wildly against the side of the house. Amazing enough, the glass in the door had not broken.

My sleepy mind struggling to figure out what was going on and how to fix it was far behind my feet, already taking me back inside to get keys to get into the garage.

Rope. I needed some rope.

Once inside the garage, I found a bungee cord with hooks on it. That will do.

Back outside in the wind, I sliced through the corner of the screen and wound the cord through it and tied it to the new loop handle on the front door. Both doors lashed together now meant that nether was usable. “A fire hazard.” I thought.

I walked the perimeter of the house to check for more damage, only to be met on the west side by a solid wind from the north. You know the kind- it makes you stumble back a few feet and rips the breath from your lungs. Mariah is angry at something.

There was no further damage visible, but the sounds of the skylight in the atrium slamming around didn’t make me feet too happy about the whole thing.

Then the thought struck me. “It is trash day.” But not in this wind. It can sit in the garage for another week.

With that, I groggily went back inside and fell back asleep to recover from the last several weeks.

That was exactly a week ago.

Sadie, sitting at the window in the computer room with Sprite, suddenly jumped and ducked, Sprite in a close second running behind her. All cats react funny to the smallest things, but it takes something major for both of ours to run for cover. I looked out the window to see what had startled them. A large object took up half the window and it took only a moment for my mind to put it all together.

A sudden microburst had swept through the back yard and pushed the vehicle gate open, springing apart the top and bottom latches that, until now, had kept the invisible hole in the fence concealed. Leaves and other debris raced through the opening and dashed up into the sky. The three guardians of the corner, three large very dignified blue spruces, cowered in Mariah’s early winter wrath.

I put on a coat and went out back to shut the gate. I drug the gate doors shut and latched them. No sooner than I had latched it, a fresh forceful gust blasted it open again.

Time to get the bungee cord again. I had taken the screen door off only a few days ago and put the bungee back in the garage.

Leaving the gate open for now, I got the keys from inside and opened the door to the garage. There before me was Mariah’s last week victim- the screen door leaned against the shelves, safe from the wind. I grabbed the bungee, walked past the trash cans that were starting to smell a little, and headed back outside.

The initial gust that blew the gate open had even moved the small rock that acted as a block at the bottom of the gate. I pulled a heavier ornamental stone from the garden nearby and put it at the base, but the top still leaned open. Wrapping the bungee through the top slats in the fence, I crossed the cord and hooked it to the opposite gate. The wind pushed, but the bungee held strong. I will have to get something for it when I go to the hardware store.

So, for the second week in a row, I will not get to put the trash out. What does Mariah have against the trash men and the recycle guy?