Multiconstruct

Staycation 2010 rocks on. I have been doing a terrible amount of gardening. Most of the place has been cultivated, I planted all but one of my new wildflowers, and I got in three rows of okra. I am experimenting with putting them pretty close in a square foot garden approach. Yesterday I harvested half of my mixed greens. They were getting tough from the 90+ degree heat so i made wilted lettuce and it was quite delicious. I set aside some bacon grease for another round later this week, then no more backyard lettuce until fall. I was also able to host a little breakfast thing around the world cup which was fun and an exciting game with the usa coming back in the end to advance. I grilled a nice sirloin with paprika, dried aromatic basil, and garlic powder with some baked red potatoes from the springfield market (i suspect they were last years).

In the evening Jared came by and we drove out to Overton  Bottoms and canoed around the flooded wildlife refuge. There was supposed to be a group but no one else showed. We offloaded the canoe and ran over to Woolverton for a six pack of Redstripe. Of course their was a client in the parking lot, that always happens on the rare occasion I buy alcohol. Coming back in I got the truck stuck parking off the side of the road. We got ‘er rocking and with Jared driving and me pushing out of the flooded ditch we got ‘er out. I was covered in mud but relieved not to have to call for rescue. Getting stuck makes beer taste good.

We canoed around, first through some brush and weeds and it felt very evergladey. We then moved through the woods which was pretty cool, i’ve never canoed in that kind of situation. We went down the flooded road and explored a parking lot to read the informational signs. Jared spotted a tree frog clinging to a lonely dry reed. I broke it off, loaded him on to the canoe and carried him to a large tree. He hopped off happily.

We were going to head to the river to see the transition from flood to river but the weather turned ominous. We instead had a mad dash back to the truck as lightning struck along the horizon. It was coming in a few large drops and not a minute after we had the boat strapped down it came down in buckets. A beautiful trip and the end to a really wonderful day.