Bits and Pieces

Spring is turning to summer here in Kansas and I’m finding it hard to believe we are four days into the month of May already. I love the activity that warm days bring, especially this time of year when the mornings are often still cool and the heat is not yet enough to make us feel sluggish or slow. We are back down to one push mower which makes keeping up with our large lawn a bit of a challenge. We’ve tossed around ideas, including a move up to a riding mower or a push mower that’s all electric, but in the interest of health to ourselves and the environment, we’ve settled on a new reel mower. Probably two once we’ve affirmed that our enthusiasm for this sort of mowing is all that we think it is.

The Farmer’s Market started on Saturday (there’s a picture I actually like of myself at Flyover People). We bought lettuce, onions, jelly, candles, meat and eggs. I am looking forward to the Saturday morning bike riding ritual commencing once again. I am looking forward to filling up my freezer again with product to carry us through the winter. Nothing better than a crock full of marsala made with tasty tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market on a cold winter’s day.

With the market and the CSA (community supported agriculture) share that we joined this year, I decided I would not spend any time of my own pretending to garden. The munchkins, however, had their own projects in mind so we have strawberries blooming thanks to middle munchkin and should be seeing potato plants soon thanks to munchkin #3. I have to admit that I was a bit thrilled at the good clean dirt smell from my composting efforts from last year. I continue to envision an eventual move back to the country… some chickens, a real compost heap, a goat or two…

The family just completed Walk Kansas, a program put on by Kansas extension services where teams compete to log the total number of miles it would take to cross the state of Kansas on foot. We celebrated our victory yesterday with a trip to the China Buffet and a movie. We watched Iron Man, and I have to report that I liked it way more than I imagined I would. I never imagined that Robert Downey Jr. might become my favorite superhero, but he sure nailed his role with this one.

The kids and I are putting together pin-hole cameras. It’s a project I’ve wanted to try for years. I hope to have some results to share in the coming weeks.

The working writer’s life is treating me well. I have few links to share since much of my work is as a ghostwriter at this point. I enjoy the challenge of adopting different voices for different tasks. It’s nice to write as someone other than myself. I’m not sure that it’s the kind of writing I ever really saw myself doing, but it is a good fit for this moment in my life.

That’s all the bits and pieces for today.