Let Us Eat Lettuce

Salads are great - so how amazing is it that you can basically take a palmful of microscopic lettuce seeds, sprinkle them on some dirt, add a bit of water and boom...salad. I'm not really sure you can mess up growing leaf lettuce. I just planted these toddlers about four days ago. In a few weeks I will start pulling them up and mixing them into a delicious salad along with the purple-vined Malabar spinach, which, based on its growth rate and production, could probably survive a nuclear holocaust.

I see every single plant I grow as a step toward independence. A freedom from commercial pesticide-coated farms. A liberation from the American "need" to eat twice as much meat as vegetables and fruits. Every seed brings me closer to becoming a home that produces more than it consumes. I'm not an environmental nut by any stretch of the imagination (come on...cow farts damaging the ozone...seriously?) but I do believe in taking care of the creation around us. I am amazed at the amount of trash my little family produces each week, which I take out to the curb and is then hauled off to some overflowing landfill that's probably stinking up someone's beautiful farm next door. We make tons of trash* from all the junk we buy in stores that we could be growing or producing ourselves with a fraction of the waste. I always feel a little depressed on trash days driving around the city and seeing the shear amount of garbage stacked next to the streets. We suck. So I'm going to keep sowing and growing, and hope that someday I can make more than I waste.

*And we use cloth diapers. So our trash would easily be doubled or tripled per week with disposables.

A Little Toilet Reading Material

Biscuits!

When I was a kid around 4th-5th grade my friends and I thought the word "biscuits" was the funniest thing ever. We would blurt it across the cafeteria, yell it down the hall, use it as a victory chant after winning a playground race, and best of all we would wait for a quiet reading moment in class and when the timing was just right..."BiScUiTs!" Such a simple pleasure. A few years ago when my nephew was approximately that same age I realized all little boys are on a endless repeating loop of stupid when he loudly proclaimed in my mother's kitchen, "Cornbread!" in the exact same ridiculous manner I had so joyously shouted my baked good word. The other day while cooking I further realized that despite the years stacking up since 5th grade I still find myself mixing batter with the unstoppable need for an annoyingly loud "Biscuits!" or "Cornbread!" Still stuck on the Stupid Loop.

Dad: 1, Moms at the Park: 0

Isabel and I went for a quick run in the cool morning air. In all actuality, I did the running and she just sat in her fancy Jeep running stroller frequently putting her hand to her ear and shouting, "Hear!" as birds squawked in the trees and planes flew overhead. Once we got to the park, we decided to stop and take a swing break. Fortunately, Dad had a rare stroke of genius before leaving the house and remembered to bring along the Holy Diaper Bag of All Things A Toddler Could Ever Possibly Need. The swings and playground were soaking wet with morning dew, therefore it was difficult to contain my Park male arrogance when I broke out a burp cloth from the Holy Diaper Bag of All Things A Toddler Could Ever Possibly Need and began wiping down the swing and slide prior to Izzy's use while the Moms' at the park were loudly bemoaning the muddy state of their children's butts. One of the mothers looked over and saw me diligently wiping down a slide and exclaimed to her child, "He's a good daddy. He remembered to bring a cloth to wipe down the slide." BooYah! In your face moms everywhere! Score one for the Dads!

A Swift Death

Fall Tramp and a Face Lift

I received two separate revelations last night. One, Autumn is a cruel teasing mistress! She blew through for a couple of days to entice us with dreams of no more sunburns and less sweat only to run away as fast as she arrived. As I was driving home from work at 11pm, it was still a stuffy 82 degrees. How dare she play such games! Second, the Front Porch Farm looks like crap. I'm not talking production here, I'm talking appearance. The fact it was ugly was first presented to me not-so-subtly by Nocona a couple of days ago, but how could she say that. When I looked at it I saw nothing but production - okra lengthening, pumpkins blooming, spinach climbing, flowers brightening, and cantaloupe ripening. However, this evil seed of aesthetics was planted in my mind and as I drove into the drive way there it was. The ugliest freakin front porch in the neighborhood. Mixed matched pots strung out all over the place like battle field casualties. Not a hint of symmetry. Organization a long lost cousin. Just random placement of anything that will grow inside anything that can hold it. I was thankful it was dark outside while I hurried around (still in uniform) repositioning the raggedy pots behind the nice ones and taking inventory of what should be done away with all together. I was gardening with a gun on! Those plants were going to comply. Eventually I realized how utterly ridiculous I might look to the few cars driving by on the late night road and decided to postpone the effort until morning. So, I'm finishing up my breakfast and a cup of strong coffee and returning to the front porch face lift.

All Natural

Nocona sewed these bean bag bookends for the new baby's room (even though he technically doesn't have a room yet since we live in a 2 bedroom casa). We are starting him off with a very natural earthy style. We want all of our kids to grow up with a passion and love for nature - to wander in the woods, to go camping for days at a time, to work in the dirt and grow their food, to stop and smell the rain, to recognize the cries of different birds, to swim in a dirty pond, to know which berries are good and which ones are poisonous, to recognize animal tracks in the mud, to fish, to climb up trees, to build a fire, and to just lay in a hammock while reading a good book.

Better Late Than Never

Cantaloupe Baby! Last night when I got home from work I took a second to poke around at the Front Porch Farm and discovered this little guy hiding under the leaves. He's about two months late but we'll take it! I had pretty much written off the cantaloupe crop for this year and had actually considered yanking up the cantaloupes the other day to make room for some new fall crops. I'm glad I didn't. I guess the key to growing urban-North Texas cantaloupes is four consecutive days of nonstop pouring rain. Now maybe he can convince his pumpkin cousins across the porch to come out and play too.

This morning was a productive one. It started with a steaming cup of fresh coffee and a bowl of cereal while listening to the latest Family Life Today podcast (my usual morning enjoyment). After breakfast, I kissed the girls goodbye as they left for their regular Stroller Strides exercise group then I went to the kitchen and made two big batches of Tomato/Basil (and Vegetable*) Soup. I also got the weekly bread started which is currently on rise #2 in the kitchen preparing itself to fill the house with its baking aromas. Due to the fact I still had about 20 tomatoes left over from a huge box of "blemished" ones I bought at the market, I decided to make some homemade pasta sauce. Let's just say...mmmmm! Now we are sitting around watching the rain beginning to fall again and hoping for a small reprieve so we can go outside of this tiny house and do something fun!

*I added some mushrooms, zucchini and carrots to the Roasted Tomato/Basil Soup recipe I posted back in August.

Autumn Winds

Slower

How is it possible that we have so much "time saving" technology yet we are the most rushed people in history. Always behind. Always speeding. Always stressed. I am consciously deciding to slow down. At work, I write slower on paper work and the results have been neater work and fewer mistakes. While driving, I leave a little sooner and drive a little slower and the result has been less anger toward other drivers. When cooking, I try to do it all the old way without all of the "time saving" technology and the results are better tasting food and a bigger smile on my face while eating a meal that was carefully created solely by my own hands. The more I slow down the more I realize how much I was missing. The more I slow down the more joy I find in every corner I didn't see.

Rubber-Shoed Tree Hugger

Birds, Birds, Birds

We recently rearranged our microscopic living room, which left one wall pretty bare. I figured since I always have an abundance of scrape wood lying around, I would try to create something cool out of wood to hang. I recently saw a beautiful iron bird sculpture on the wall of a home featured in Ty Pennington at Home magazine, and thought it would be pretty easy to make a smaller scale version out of wood...it was! All I used was the tools you see in the picture: pencil, jigsaw, clamp, sandpaper and wood glue. I took a big piece of el cheapo thin plyboard drew some half inch wide branches and used the jigsaw to cut them out. Next, I drew a bird, cut it out, sanded it, drew a bird, cut it out, sanded it, drew a bird, cut it out, sanded it, drew a bird, cut it out, sanded it........After that extremely delicate, excruciatingly long ordeal, I placed the birds on the previously cut and sanded branches then glued them in place. Finally, I stained the whole deal and called it done. Actually, I screwed up one portion that was boldly amplified once the stain was applied, but the problem was easily fixed by returning to my 3 friends: drew a bird, cut it out, sanded it. I glued him over the problem area, slapped on some stain, and taadaa. Bird Art.

Setup Camp

The Bug is back! The Camping Bug! I am not sure what triggered it but last night I found myself overcome by the urge to go camping - to get lost deep in the dark woods, find some old wood, start a roaring hot fire, roast some marshmallows and let the smell of smoke sink into every pore. No tent, no sleeping bag, no flashlights, just man communing with men throughout human history who have fallen asleep on the cold hard dirt next to a dwindling fire staring up at the same distant stars and galaxies. I can think of nothing better. As soon as that first cool blast of wind blows, you will know where to find me if you want to join in.

Greener Pastures

I went to bed late and woke up early. Too early. But even running on fumes I love the morning. Working an evening shift has been a hard adjustment - the inability to go to bed early, the need to sleep late. My body is built for waking up just before the sun, sitting outside with a hot cup of fresh coffee followed by a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes with homemade syrup, a tall glass of juice and the morning newspaper. Perfect.

Today, we are skipping church (again) to "worship" a grande yummy something with soy and no whip at Starbucks. It is hard to conjure up the desire to connect with people when you have no desire what-so-ever to stay in a certain place. Although introverted by nature, I do enjoy making friends, but when your nomadic its difficult. I am officially ready to settle down. It would be nice not having a new drastic career and lifestyle change every 2-3 years. I just finished re-watching Lonesome Dove which, despite the hardships depicted in it, arouses deep longings in me for the stability and simplicity of a time past.

Uniform Upgrades by Izzy