Let Us Talk About Lettuce

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

If I could paint a mural of my mind this morning.  It would be a scene of me - standing in the center.  And this - whirlwind - would be rotating around me.  All these - faces - human and animal - would be riding inside this whirlwind.

It would represent the end result of the heaviness I woke up feeling inside my heart this morning - for so many in this world.

It’s impossible to save the world.  But it’s possible - for the world to save itself.

All it takes is everybody collecting together - with those right around you - to deal with overcoming obstacles - with and for everyone.

Wow - did I just say that? 

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

 

Dwayne and I are nowhere in any true beginning of getting this place we bought set up enough to where it’s operating - yet.  And that will come in time - as long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other.

That doesn’t bother me.  What does bother me is - sitting here looking at all this land we have - wishing we were doing something with it - with others - in ways that it would be helping several of us.

Sometimes - this rat race world can become so overwhelming for too many of us.  There are those of us existing - without ever realizing - how much this world’s selfishness and demands has robbed us of our own God-given power to lead our lives.  It like this friggin’ world has taken over and is now running the show in our lives.  And too many of us are - too busy - to even stop long enough and take notice - realize - and care enough to get mad about it.

People today - it usually takes getting mad - enough - before they’ll stop everything and deal with a wrongdoing being thrust upon their lives from elsewhere.

It amazes me how so many of us will let everything just roll with the flow - until we find ourselves sitting on our butts - totally exhausted - feeling like we’ve had every ounce of our strength beaten out of us.  And we’re wondering how that happened - because we never even noticed anything - or - anyone - coming around to do such a thing!

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

As if that’s not enough - the thought of doing one more thing - even for the sake of taking back our own lives from the selfishness and demands of this world - tends to be put on this other list - something that seems to have become a new fad with the latest generation - which I call - “ Today’s Human Wrecks. “  ( fits right in with “ Baby Boomers “ - huh! )

The list - it’s the “ I Don’t Have Time For That “ list.

It’s the list of labor intensive tasks that sit outside the immediate “ Fun stuff “ - and all that ever-so-unfortunate  “ Necessary Crap “  ( example - employment ) which they absolutely cannot manage to escape. ( poor thangs! )

What they don’t realize is - you have to work to save money - just as much as you have to work to make money!  The only difference in that equation - there’s nobody else giving you the paycheck for the work you do to save the money.  The one giving you that paycheck is - yourself!

Are we all losing self-respect and devaluing ourselves?

Kit - The Garden of Weedin' by Kimberly Stewart

Ya’ get out there and work in a vegetable garden - short story end result is - you’re doing something to help save money at the grocery store and the doctor.  Barack Obama just had his physical done this week.  Here’s an example that would scare the living hell out of him!!

Head of lettuce in the grocery store - $1.19 each  ( You get 1 head of lettuce that you have to hurry up and eat! )

Pack of Lettuce seed - $1.95 ( You get rows loaded with heads of lettuce to share with several people - that you get to go pick when you need and want it - for much longer than that one you bought at the grocery store! )

And let me tell you something about the lettuce around here.  I got so mad when I found out Dwayne threw it in the trash before I could get a picture of it - but…

I had a head of lettuce in our refrigerator - stored in a gallon-size Ziploc bag.  I never cut the end off.  Simply washed it really good - drained - patted dry with paper towels - and stored it inside the bag.

He threw that head of lettuce away about two weeks ago.  Now - this is February - 2010 - alright ?

I bought the damn thing in SEPTEMBER - 2009 - just before my in-laws came up from Texas !!!

There was only a little bit of brown wilt on the outer layer of leaves when Dwayne threw it away.  Yeah - I know.  Sounds gross - leaving something in the fridge that long.  We just don’t eat sandwiches that much.  And all the other salad stuff is not in season.  And - I just - forgot about the dad-gum thing - okay?!

I bought this head of lettuce at - WalMart.  And there seems to be a common denominator going on here.

We tried buying Grainger County tomatoes at - WalMart - last year.  Everybody around here goes simply ga-ga over Grainger County tomatoes when they come into season every year.  The supply stocked at WalMart had red flags going up with me - already.  It just seemed a bit early for that many tomatoes to be out on the shelves.  It was hard to believe these tomatoes we bought were from Grainger County.

And I should have followed that red flag.  They were red.  They had absolutely no flavor.

WalMart likes to buy in bulk from their suppliers.  And they don’t like to pay for what they buy.  I will be bold enough to ask.  Could it be possible - our farmers have become the wiser?  Could it be possible - our farmers have found ways to give ‘em only what they’re paying for?

Either way - WalMart continues sticking that same outrageous price on the goods - and the money is coming out of our wallets!

Does it make you wonder about - just exactly what that was - that you ate?

I will be buying my Grainger County Tomatoes from the Maryville location of Horn of Plenty - as I always did - before I began growing my own - and as I always do - before my own come ready for harvest.  They make the best fried green tomatoes!!!

Down Came The Wall!

Casey came over this evening and helped us get the big beam set into place.  Here is the before and after view of things - at the moment.


(Click on photos for larger view)

 Before -

 

 

After -

 

 

 

We have much more work to do.  But this is a huge change!

Crazy Schedule is Becoming Even More Crazy

The routine around our house has been shaken a little more than what’s normally expected when Dwayne’s shift changes. He only had two days off during this last round. Currently, he’s working a run of six days – covering for a coworker that had to take his son up to get settled in for college.

Before going any further – I received a very sad email this morning from my friends, Heidi and Monica Narr. Heidi was reporting that Monica is back in the hospital after a terrible fall from her bed. She has broken an arm and a leg. Doctors are in the middle of deciding whether or not she can handle going through surgery for repairing the femur in her leg. I’d like to ask everyone to add these two ladies to your prayer list. Heidi continues marching on with her commitment to taking care of her sister. Here we have one more challenge that she faces with her sister – despite her own health issues that continue to add to the struggles. However – this is living testimony to the truest depth of love one can feel for another!

We have dropped everything to focus on our issues with getting the house resealed. We got the deck of the front porch finished. The staircase is all that’s left to the front of the house. Dwayne is doing some reconstruction on that during his next round of days off before we reseal it. We don’t know what the previous owners had in mind when they built it. But right now – even after requesting another handrail for the top steps – I have these vicious thoughts of somebody falling through the mangled mess. We’re not happy about it. So Dwayne’s gonna make it right.

(click on photos for larger view)





It’s amazing how time can help you see all the “brick walls” that actually exist around this fiasco! You would be surprised at how many things you are unable to do around this crazy mess – above – below – around – all the above. You can't tell from this view - but there is about a 1.5' space of wasted area on the landing between the landing rail and the railing for the top steps.



He dismantled the outside railing for the top steps so we could finish the porch decking. But here you can see how the top steps to the porch are actually eating up the landing. The remaining intact rail for the steps really shows the difference in the finished efforts with resealing! To the left of that railing is that area of wasted space between the top steps and the landing rail below – which makes absolutely no sense.



Dwayne is going to move the entire landing and bottom stairs out further. The top steps will meet the landing properly - and he'll be widening the top set of steps. He may have to cut the support posts from the pads – if the same ignorance was applied here, as was done so with the piers for the back porch. But I think it will look and function so much better after he gets it all corrected!

I’ve been watching Craigslist like a hawk, lately. Came across a queen-size headboard and footboard for $125.00. We drove all the way up to the Halls area in Knoxville to pick it up. Without being fore-warned about all the road construction in that area – we ended up going through a maze of roads that had the feathers coming out. The map guidebook I bought a few years ago - and got teased for buying - turned out to be our saving grace - once again! The new find looks great in the guestroom! Needs a little bit of cleaning up. But the Old English is on my grocery list. So that little job will have to wait a day or two.



Beyond that – I’m in the middle of trying to situate a few things down in the basement during the evenings while Dwayne’s at work. However – this evening is one of those time-consuming jobs. I usually mop the wood floors with only water – damp mop at most. Tonight’s job will consist of using the wood cleaner and hitting all the rooms in the house – except the bathrooms, of course.

So – if you go to any of my two farms at FaceBook and you see plots not planted – now you know why. LOL