Peanut may be big enough to keep up with her siblings outside… but that doesn’t mean she’s tall enough to keep the burrs out of her hair.
Just like any hard earned battle wound, she wore it with pride.
No worries, the DW had her cleaned up and back outside in minutes.
Last week was a big week – Lulu had her scheduled tonsillectomy. Or, as she likes to put it, “I’m now a part of the no-tonsil-kids club.” I was rather shocked at how quickly the entire process went. It was 7:10 when the OR nurse carried Lulu into the operating room as we went to sit in the waiting room. Twenty five minutes later, the procedure was over and Lulu was already waking up.
After a popsicle and ten more minutes of rest, Lulu was up in her bed and playing around. She even felt well enough to joke around with the nurses and surprised them when she said she wanted to see her tonsils after one of the nurses jokingly asked. True to her word, the nurse was back in a few minutes with Lulu’s tonsils in a specimen container. (I’ll save you from seeing any of those pictures.) By 8:45 we were all in the car and headed home.
Lulu seems well down the path to recovery at this point, though it may take a few weeks before the popsicle industry catches up to the sudden spike in demand. She even felt well enough yesterday to sit down and read through an impressive stack of Get Well Soon cards that her classmates had made and sent her.
If all continues to go well, she’ll be back to school for a few hours on Thursday and Friday this week.
This is why you can never turn your back around this place… Peanut actually started it, but once she figured out that we were watching her dressing up the dog she took off and left Lulu to pose for pictures.
While I’m no expert, I’m fairly familiar with grafting plants. Growing up, we had a dozen or so apple trees in the yard that were the result of some ISU Extension program from many years ago. While we got various types of apples from the trees, they were all grafted onto crab apple root systems. There was even a tree that had Yellow Delicious on one side of the tree and crab apples on the other. And while I’ve never purchased any, I’ve seen various types of grafted tomatoes promoting higher yield, higher disease resistance, etc. But, I’ll say this is a first…
Talk about maximizing space. I realize they’re both from the “nightshade family,” but I’m not sure I could shake the feeling that this was less like grafting and more like I was living in a bad sci-fi movie every time I had to water it.
Sticking with Tuesday’s “goal” theme, it’s about time to start thinking about what’s going in the garden this year. We’re still eating potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, and garlic from last fall that were stored in the basement all winter. Plus, there’s all the stuff we canned, froze, or dehydrated: pickles, salsa, tomatoes, peas, beans, strawberries, raspberries, peppers, zucchini, cilantro, kale, carrots, green onions, and broccoli. (I think that’s it.) While we love having all of it on hand, this year we’re simply planting less. Now, before you think we’ve seen the light and realized this was all way too much work let me explain why I say we’ll be planting less this year so that you understand we’re still crazy.
First, Peanut no longer requires green beans in her daily shakes. We were growing the equivalent to approximately 125 cans of green beans in the garden every summer. Picking and processing was a daily chore while the beans were in season. Not any more. Second, last year we planted potatoes in our garden for my parents – who where trying to avoid the potato beetle that had set up camp in their garden the last couple years. Wanting to have enough for everyone, we may have over done it. My parents want to try returning potatoes to their own garden this year. Finally, now that we’ve been doing this for a number of years, I finally feel like I have a decent handle on what the garden should produce compared to what we’ll eat so I shouldn’t have to plant as much in some instances. For example, I now have a pretty good idea how long the row of carrots needs to be so that they’re gone without a lot of waste.
Of course, there’s a few things we decided not to plant this year – peas, squash, Swiss chard, and kale. After four years of planting peas, it’s the one thing I can’t justify the taste difference for the work… maybe that’s because I really don’t care for peas. I’m the only one in the house that will eat winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc). Knowing this, I planted 3 seeds last year figuring one wouldn’t germinate, one wouldn’t make it to pollination, and the last one will give me a couple squash – perfect. Instead, all three went all out and I was looking at 20-some squash all to my self. The Swiss chard and kale were a test run last year. We’d never grown them before and thought we’d give it a shot. They grew fine, but just didn’t appeal to anyone – not even the kale chips we made.
So, what is going in the garden this year?
Potatoes – likely Pontiac reds and Kennebec whites
Pumpkins – Connecticut Field to carve and Musquee de Provence for eating
Peppers – a heritage green and a mild Jalapeno
Onions – green onions and table onions
Carrots
Garlic
Cucumbers – the standby – Straight Eights
Tomatoes – Super Sauce and Brandywine
Cilantro
Green Beans – a Blue Lake variety
Zucchini
Broccoli – Waltham
Egg Plant
Decorative Corn
Sweet Corn
Spinach
Beets, Radishes, Sweet Potatoes – all still on the “maybe” list.
There’s also everything that will come back on its own:
Raspberries – red, black, and yellow
Blackberries
Strawberries
Asparagus – we’re crossing our fingers to be able to harvest this year
See… no worries. Even with planting less we’re not expecting any bare spots in the garden.
Those of you who check in on a regular basis likely noticed there weren’t any posts last week. To be honest, I didn’t even think of it until earlier this week. It wasn’t because of a lack of things to write about, but rather the alternative…
It all started almost two weeks ago – on Feb 12 – when I packed a bag and took off for the weekend to help my family and a family friend at the Iowa Beef Expo. Four days at the State Fair Grounds in Des Moines working with cattle, catching up with other seedstock producers, and trying to stay warm – it was a balmy 4 degrees while walking cattle from tie-outs to the display barn on Saturday morning.
Photo courtesy of IBE Facebook page.
By the time Monday afternoon rolled around I was ready to head home and see the DW and kiddos. Four days away is more than enough for me. Instead, a call from work let me know that I needed to be in Portland the rest of the week. I was home in time to throw my bag from the weekend next to the laundry, pack a carry-on, and grab a few hours of sleep before heading out early Tuesday morning for the airport. By Tuesday night I was checking into a cheap hotel near the airport.
Photo courtesy of the Port of Portland.
Wednesday was a bit of a whirlwind… in order to get on the grounds of the $150 million construction site I was visiting, I had to go through a site safety/orientation class starting at 7 am. Then it was off to pee in a cup at a lab downtown – a drug test to get on site was mandatory, even though the results wouldn’t be back until after I was comfortably back in Iowa. I guess they figured if I was willing to submit to the test it really didn’t matter what the results were. Finally, I was allowed on site for a few hours of work. Come Wednesday night, I was tired, had a good supper at a dive near my hotel, and it was starting to look like I might have a little time on Thursday to be a “tourist” before flying back to Iowa on Friday. Then the DW called… Peanut was sick.
While it appeared to be a stomach bug, the same symptoms can also be signs of a “mechanical” issue for Peanut. Additionally, even a simple stomach bug can quickly dehydrate Peanut to dangerous levels. Since Peanut only seemed to get sicker over night, the DW was taking Peanut to her specialist at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital (UIHC) Thursday morning. I was trying to rearrange my flights to get home asap on Thursday.
I was lucky enough to get home late Thursday. Peanut spent most of the day Thursday and Friday between UIHC and the local hospital re-hydrating with an IV, and though she was sent home late Friday night, we had to take her back to her local pediatrician for a check up Saturday morning before the IV was removed. By Saturday afternoon she was running laps around the living room and screaming at the top of her lungs while playing with Lulu and Potato Boy.
A noisy house is a wonderful thing.
It’s calving season… and for as much as I like the excitement and potential in each new born calf, I could never get excited about checking on the cows in the middle of the night. (and to be fair, I’ve only had to do that a small percentage of the time compared to others in the family) There is something about crawling out of a warm bed on a cold late winter night to get dressed and stumble across the yard through the snow in the dark to the barn to find a cow chewing her cud that wreaks havoc on a good nights sleep. Best case scenario… you could be back in bed while the sheets were still warm. Worst case… you stumble across some critter – racoon, opossum, or better yet, skunk – almost under foot the moment you flip the barn light on. If you weren’t wide awake from a cutting wind chill, those surprised little beady eyes will get your heart rate going for the next 45 minutes.
Once I moved out of my parent’s place- where these middle of the night excursions take place – I was eager to get them set up with WiFi cameras in the barn after seeing how well it was working for a few other people. The fact that it would save me 20 minutes in the car in the middle of the night if I ever had to check some night was also a win.
Now, instead of having to get out of bed to check on a cow in the middle of the night, who ever is checking just opens an app on a tablet or smartphone, flips from camera to camera, and – if there’s nothing going on – goes back to sleep. All without having to get out of bed. As long as you have the login information, you can check in from anywhere – preferably somewhere without surprised critters.
For a number of years now, a local radio station – Y105 – has hosted a Radiothon in benefit of the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital through the Children’s Miracle Network. This year’s event wraps up today. As part of the radiothon, the station brings in a number of parents and children that have experienced the services offered by the hospital.
This year, the DW and I were asked to come speak briefly about Peanut’s stay at the hospital during a live in-studio interview. The DW did the heavy lifting and did a great job – my plan to not say a word backfired when they stuck the mic in my face and started directing questions my way. Peanut, on the other hand, ate the whole thing up – I’m a little surprised we didn’t end up with a Frozen soundtrack montage when we gave her a live mic.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Y105 Radiothon, or would like to donate, you can find out more about it here.
It was a bit of a tradition growing up… when the Christmas decorations were put away, the puzzles came out. 500 pieces. 750 pieces. 1000 pieces. 2000 pieces. I remember one year we even had a 3D puzzle. Now that the kiddos are to the point that puzzle pieces don’t mysteriously vanish by the thievery of tiny fingers, I’ve been able to reestablish the tradition and the last couple winters have had snowy days filled with searching, sorting, and piecing together.
I can even say that the kiddos are starting to enjoy the past time as well.
Lulu received this circular puzzle for her birthday from one of her grandparents last month. Each night after supper I helped her work on it until it was completed.
Now, as far as I’m concerned, the bigger, more challenging, puzzle the better. Especially when the pieces are crisp and fit together without question.
Last year we worked through a 2000 piece puzzle of the Las Vegas strip. This year it was a scenic shot of a town in Italy.
Of course, you still can’t beat the basic 50 piece Disney special.
