It's Easy Being Green

Our society seems ripe with abandonement. Apparantly many individuals believe that when the going gets tough, get rid of it. Because of that thinking, we see abandonement just about everywhere we go in America. It could be that Sears refridgerator dumped out of the back of a pickup truck in an empty lot. It might be the junked Toyota Corrola pushed over the edge of a canyon, coming to rest in the middle of a stream. It could also be the fluffy persian cat, silently dumped in the middle of the night behind the tv station. Or, in the saddest of circumstances, it’s the infant left on the front steps of the local fire station. While my most recent run-in with abandonement is worth a chuckle, it’s kind of sad at the same time.I took the recycleables out to the recycling dumpster this afternoon when I was greeted by the most unusual “freebie”. Left by the side of the dumpster stood an indoor palm tree…a houseplant. This palm tree had certainly seen better days. I’m not one to let any abandoned object, sitting beside the dumpster, go unnoticed. So, I went in for a closer look. The tall spindly palm tree was tied to itself. Five shoots came out from the soil. Two of those shoots had perfect green leaves on top of them. Another shoot had a brand new leaf, ready to unfurl and spring forth with new life. The other two were as brown as cowhide and crispy. The palm was sitting in a rather large terra cotta pot, complete with a terra cotta drip tray. The pot looked as if a mere sneeze would turn it to dust. Lines of calcium stained the rim and sides of the clay. Another spot almost seemed to ooze blood, like the damn thing had been shot at in one last fit of rage between the plant and it’s owner. The soil was covered with dead leaves…like the thought never occured to simply throw them out.

Abandonement: A houseplant tossed out of the very house it tried to pump oxygen into. It’s not as if the damn thing has given up the ghost, not wanting to grow or participate in life. No. This palm has two good fronds and another on the way! But why bother cut the dead and decay from this horrible plant? I’m just going to place it gently by the dumpster and walk away, hoping someone will save this tragic thing.

And so, I waited until darkness fell around the dumpster and his leafy mate. I skulked through the parking lot, almost fearing for the harsh reaction of the neighbors. The neighbors who would recoil at the thought of picking up someone’s abandoned house plant. With the crumbling pot firmly in my arms, I carried the poor palm back to our front step. Bathed in the porchlight, I knew yet another abandoned object had come to our home to stay. A stay that will breathe new life in the abandoned potted palm. At the same time, I feel sorry for the poor sap that just gives up on their houseplant.

Popularity: 16% [?]

You’ve seen the mug. Some probably have the t-shirt. You know the ones I’m talking about, screen-printed with the phrase World’s Greatest Dad. It’s so subjective, how could one argue with such a special title. Maybe that Dad is the World’s Greatest for one person but not necessarily another

There is no other place to analyze and compare the styles of fatherhood closer than on TV. Throughout the decades we’ve been able to watch the role of dads change along with societal expectations and the progression has been interesting to watch. Gone are the days of Ward C leaver being served breakfast by his wife before he departs for his 9 to 5, only to return again for a cocktail, dinner and a brief fatherly anecdote on some life lesson mom has been dealing with all day. Finally, to have his slippers and robe fetched before turning in for the night. It seemed to work for Wally and the Beave but is it the best way to father?

Strangely, one TV dad I think has influenced my style a bit is Herman Munster. Yes, the guy does stick out like a sore thumb (something I try to battle on a daily basis) but he has a level of fatherly empathy that I applaud.

Herman, played by the great Fred Gwynne, was always there to coach his son Eddy and daughter Marilyn through life’s ups and downs with a measure of grace. Respecting his children for the individuals they were (werewolf or not), Herman provided love and guidance with the perfect mix of humor to keep things from getting overly awkward. Besides, I think humor is such a great way to keep a connection with your children and reveal that you don’t always have to be quite so serious.

My Darling Daughter is still young (barely turning two) and with another girl on the way, I consider myself fairly new at this ultimate life test called being a dad.  Only time will tell if I’m the World’s Greatest Dad for these girls. I hope with all of my heart to show them all the love, empathy, guidance, fun and humor one  man can have with his wife and kids.

So who do you think was the World’s Greatest Dad on TV? The guys over at Man of the House have a bracket going on right now, pitting TV dads against each other. They’re in a showdown as people vote for their favorite until one will be named World’s Greatest TV Dad for Father’s Day this year (June 19th).

After taking a look at the field, I’m placing my bet on Phil Dunphy (Modern Family) and Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Praire). Phil is just a goofball with a big heart, two qualities I hope come through in my parenting. Charles, aside from the obvious quality of being able to support his family by living off the land, was able to handle the rough and tumble frontier life but still be an even-keeled and tremendously loving father. Take your pick and register a vote for your favorite TV dads!

- I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received promotional items to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I really enjoy living in a place where you can feel connected to nature and the natural environment that surrounds you.  Last night, while coming into the village where we live I got to see the local herd of elk grazing on grass around midnight.  I stopped the car probably about 10 feet away from them.  They looked at me and continued munching their evening meal.  I just watched for a few minutes before coming up the hill to the house.  It was a very relaxing and peaceful sight to watch.

Today, I was out in the the front yard talking to one of our neighbors when all of a sudden, I felt a piercing pain in my right hand.  I immediately looked down to see a wasp planting his rear end  into the palm of my hand.  Sure, it stung and still does nearly an hour later.  But, I just brushed the little guy off and let him go about his day and thought how lucky I was it picked me!  Sometimes it’s just the simple little things that put a smile on my face.

Popularity: 3% [?]

This week around the Half-Acre Homestead has proven to be just as crazy as any other.  Our main car had some catastrophic engine problems and now sits back out our mechanic’s shop in several pieces.  One of the fuel injectors (something they just so happened to work on a month ago) completely broke off and fell into the engine.  We are waiting to see how he’s going to take care of us, especially since we just dropped $1300 with him to have the fuel injectors fixed and now this huge mess.

Add to that the usual madness that surrounds spring weather here in the Midwest.  We’ve started our yearly battle of cold air taking on warm, moist air and have already had some severe storms because of it.

Tuesday night was no exception.  A strong, wavy line of severe thunderstorms formed out in the plains to our west and barreled into our area, sometimes racing at 90+ miles per hour.  We kept an eye on the wall of tornado watch boxes steadily marching toward us on the National Weather Serivce radar and put our severe weather plan into place.  Without a basement, we must resort to taking shelter in the downstairs bathroom which requires a little bit of prep to make our stay more “comfortable”.  Pillows and blankets make a trip to the dry bathtub more enjoyable.

We knew the situation was serious when windows started getting blown out of homes about 60 miles to our west in Illinois.  Wind gusts were topping 100 miles per hour with the cluster of storms headed right toward us.  About 15 minutes before the line’s arrival time, we woke up our Darling Daughter and locked ourselves in the bathroom.

Several trees around our house were ripped from the ground, some landing on the nearby railroad tracks.

Listening to our emergency radio, we heard the TV station get hit with a tremendous force of wind and hail.  At one point, even meteorologist Jeff Lyons had some worry in his voice and indicated they might have to move to shelter in a moment.  Just about 5 minutes later, the storm finally hit us with a tremendous roar and energy that only Mother Nature at her rarest can dish out.  A cell that was tornado warned was moving right over the top of us.

We emerged from our bathroom storm shelter about 30 minutes later and found we still had a roof, four walls and all of our windows (minus one screen that blew out).  Our neighborhood is newer and pretty much void of any big trees associated with the upper Midwest.  After 2008’s terrorizing ice storm and living beneath three huge trees gripped by the thick frozen coating, we knew trees over the house were trouble.  This lack of big trees proved to pay off for our area, with no real damage to be seen except a neighbors mangled backyard trampoline.

Metal debris from a nearby building was strewn through this soybean field at Kansas & Hwy 57

Driving to work yesterday I got to see what that full force of wind did to our area.  The airport weather station a mile to our south measured a peak wind gust of 76mph during the storm but just to our north, the impact seemed to be much worse.  Trees snapped like twigs were strewn all over the Indiana Southern rail line, on driveways and along the shoulder of Highway-57.  Railroad crossing gates were left bent at 90-degree angles and wrapped around support poles.  A nearby soybean field was littered with house-sized sheets of metal ripped from an industrial building across the street.  Shoe Carnival’s huge distribution center was closed after a portion of the roof was ripped off and tossed into a pile.  A concrete block barn across the street was leveled, pieces of twisted metal left wrapped in electrical wires across the street.

This concrete block barn took a massive hit, leaving a pile of rubble beside Hwy 57

This barn seems to be a total loss. Some corrugated metal roof sections were wrapped around power lines across Hwy 57 from this barn

A bulge can be seen in the middle of the roof at the Shoe Carnival distribution center. Two days later their roof is repaired.

To me, just a weather nut, it looked like the storm cell that hit us was indeed producing at least a weak tornado.  Our area has endured straight line wind events topping 60+ mph before with just some minor tree damage.  This was something completely different.  Luckily no injuries were reported and crews were busy picking up the pieces the very next day.

We’re under the gun again for severe weather on Friday, just enough time for us to catch our breath and do it all over again.  But hey, nature’s yearly temperature clash keeps things interesting as usual around the Half-Acre Homestead.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Yesterday, my girlfriend took her home business to one of the local Holiday Craft Bazaars held every year in our city. This particular bazaar was really busy and usually is. She made several sales over the course of the day and met several customers who want to order from her in the near future. I walked around the room a couple of times to take in some of the stuff that was being sold. While there were a lot of re-sellers (like Avon, Gold Canyon Candles, etc.) there were also a ton of home crafters. I saw just about everything from holiday decorations to hand thrown pottery and some really great Christmas gift ideas. We’re all dealing with tighter pocketbooks this holiday season and these craft bazaars are a great way to help ease around that strain. You can find some great, hand crafted gifts at local bazaars and probably save some money in the process. Plus, the items you buy are much more unique than what you’d find at a huge retailer like Wal-Mart. And, best of all, your money is staying right in the community that you made the purchase from. Keep an eye out in your local newspaper, church newsletter and PTO memos for craft bazaars in your area. Check it out, make a purchase and support a small, sustainable and locally owned business.

On other random thoughts this morning, I woke up and walked out to the kitchen to get the coffee started when walked by our fish tank and noticed a weird noise. I looked over to see only 1/3 of the water left in our tank! It seems one or our cats had dislodged the tubing to the air stone and it steadily self-siphoned itself all night. The leak is stopped now and the floor is drying. Now we’ll have to slowly fill the tank back up with water. Our poor fish are looking at us through the glass with very concerned looks on their little faces.

I racked over my Honey Brown homebrewed beer on Friday. It smells great and has an awesome brown/amber color quality to it. It’s also rather clear which is another huge plus in the world of homebrewing. It will sit in secondary fermentation for another three days or so before I finally get it into some bottles, just in time to enjoy at Christmas!

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I have a lot of extended family that lives back on the East Coast. They’d never really traveled west of the Mississippi before let alone to the Grand Canyon State of Arizona. That I could believe because to this day, I’ve really only seen nine different states. I guess I’m doing better than some now that I’ve taken a count. What I couldn’t believe about those relatives though was their vision that everyone in Arizona must be a cowboy. I have to admit it is a pretty romantic vision of what life in the west is really like. If only every day could be an amazing trail ride, cooking over a campfire and sleeping under the stars.

I once had a penpal in France that toyed with the same romantic notion that everyone in Arizona lived in the wild west. I was often asked what it was like to have to ride a horse to school and to not have any paved roads…just dirt. It made me laugh on a number of occasions just picturing the visions these people must have of me living in the wicked desert of Arizona. For some reason I think they took the celebrations of the Parada del Sol (what’s said to be the world’s largest horse-drawn parade in Old Town Scottsdale), the Hashknife Pony Express and the Prescott Rodeo and rolled them all into one great idea of what life in the west was really like.

Living in Arizona, the sport of rodeo is around almost constantly. It seems to take a small break during the fall and early winter months but runs the rest of the year. It’s pretty amazing to watch cowboys and cowgirls strapped to the back of bucking bulls and broncos, roping calves, and the “mini-cowpokes” riding on the back of a crazed sheep. If you’ve never been to a rodeo before you should try checking one out sometime. The rodeo circuit really just kicked off this month with everyone now competing for the National Finals Rodeo that is the culminating event at the end of the year. In fact, you know a sport has a following when they can get a couple hundred dollars for NFR Tickets! Even if you can’t afford tickets to the NFR in Las Vegas, I’d recommend checking out a local rodeo near you. For a schedule of events you can head over to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association website and click the 2008 Schedule of Events on the left side of their page.

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In case you haven’t already noticed, we’re all chickens this week. Our three Auracana hens have already tripled in size over the past few days and their antics are getting more and more hilarious. They’ve taken to roosting on their feeder at night. I was able to sneak in and catch a photo of them in the act! Don’t forget to watch the live stream from their brooder cage by clicking the video box to the right!

Popularity: 4% [?]