fresh from the garden

fresh from the garden

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Welcome to the ramblings of a fifty-something suburban "farmer"

Hoping that if you should stumble upon this blog my daily musings might bring a little smile to your day.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Time difference hmmm

There is a two hour time difference between here and Honduras , but that's not the only one I notice. I think their seconds are longer as it seems that the day's got more time in it. Or maybe they're just bigger so that time doesn't slip away as easily. So many distractions make it tough to get the things I need accomplished. I did manage to get the blueberries in and the fence up. Two down a million to go. At least I can feel my fingers again .It's felt like the Arctic here this week after being in the tropics.This temperature swing has made me question why people go on vacation to Florida in the winter. While it's nice to bask in the warm sun ,it just magnifies how bleeping cold it is. Luckily for me it's supposed to be eighty something this weekend. Go figure. Gotta love New England.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

back in the saddle again

Woke up this morning with a little nip in the air and dogs sleeping on my legs .It's good to be home. It's great to see everything here turning emerald green.As I settle in my mind drifts through the last week and a half coming upon highlights kind of like finding rare mushrooms in the forest. Time had softened my resolve to serve God through missions trips .The further away I got ,the more blurred it became .This trip has brought it back into crisp focus.The fresh memories of the faces and smiles have renewed me and helped remind me me that I am making a difference for eternity .While I really enjoyed the trip I have so much to do I can't let it overwhelm me.I'm going to have to start by prioritizing life and death things first (for the plants not me). If I don't get the rest of the blueberry plants in today they'll probably die so I'll tackle that first .then I must transplant the leeks and plant another round of cukes and peas . I have to get the fence up around the blueberries so that I'm not putting the rabbits on the "Wanted dead or alive" posters.Then on to the raised beds so they will be ready for the new plants . Gotta clear up the back yard and start on the mud oven. I've been offered some blackberries just gotta dig them up (plenty of time no problem).I finally got to talk to Eric and the guitar cake was a big hit. There are pix in the slide show at the bottom.I'm sure in the future it won't take fourteen hours. I told him when he makes the bigs I'm his "cake boss". There's a fifty to sixty degree difference from Honduras to here .Did I mention it's kind of chilly?

Sunday, April 25, 2010

home again home again clickety click click

Well after almost twenty seven hours of layovers and traveling I 'm finally home. Pastor Ken asked us to leave it all in Honduras so I guess mission accomplished.I am totally spent. It was an awesome trip. Don't know if we'll ever see these folks again this side of heaven but I hope so. They are truly great people and provide further proof that materialism isn't a guarantee for happiness (thank you English spell check). Most of them make less than fifty dollars a week but would gladly give you the shirt off of their back literally. I will have pix later in the week.
Tomorrow back to the hustle and bustle of life in the USA .Funny thing my list of things to do didn't get nay shorter

Did I mention it was HOT?

Saturday, April 24, 2010

On the road again

Well today brings to a close the Honduran chapter for missions trips ,at least for this year .It will be a whirlwind of transfers as we go from Honduras to el Salvador and then to an eight hour layover in Wa before finally getting to bradley about noon tomorrow. This may be our last trip here only God knows for sure ,I hope not as the people here are wonderful (and they have the best filet mignon in the world).Did I mention that it is HOT?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

It is finished

We got back a little while ago from our last day of work at the school . This week has flown by(except at the restraunts) it seems like we just got here. The only ways I can tell that we been here a bit is the color of my skin and that fact that my muscles are more buff and sore . Did I mention that it's hot? I got to help cook lunch today with the ladies from the church (which was good because I had muscle spasms in my back from shoveling last night) We are going to the church tonight for our dinner. I bet they won't take two hours. Off to the beach in the morning. Did I mention that it's hot?.

And then there were none

Sorry about not posting the last few days I don't think it had enough strength to push down the keys. Did I mention it's HOT? It has been between ninety two and ninety eight IN THE SHADE.We have worked hard (that's what we came to do) .The resteraunts ( I know it's wrong but after working in them for thirty years I still can't seem to spell it right) would make chef Ramsey cry . They have added an additional meaning to having reservations.The food has been ok but the service ,oh my gosh .Two hours to get our food . I felt like sleeping at the table. Last night we worked until seven thirty (after dark) . Today is our last work day, it goes by so fast .Tomorrow we go to the beach and home on Saturday. Even though my back is killing me and I've got a little sunburn it's great to be back .Did I mention it's really hot?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

a hard days night

Sitting here in the cyber cafe at the hotel and they are playing the Beatles so I figured the hard day part fit . Yesterday was a pretty tough day.IT WAS HOT. I made three batches of cement on the ground as well as shoveling rocks and dirt and bucket brigaded concrete to fill in some bond beams.Pastor Ken and Brad led teams to finish the blockwork on the second floor . I had my first real conversation with a national in my ten missions trips.The principal of the school knows less English than I know Spanish but it was a good conversation. We talked about family. Did I mention it was HOT?By the end of the day I looked like I worked hard, I think there was more concrete showing than skin. We got the shower fixed yesterday ,I wasn't really liking the the whole" try taking a shower maybe get a shock" thing .I like a hot shower but not that much. I was talking about cooking with Gladys ( the principal and Mario's wife) and I might get a shot at making tortillas on Monday. should be interesting. We have Church this morning.It's really different from at home ,even though it's not in English you can really feel God's presence it's alive!!!Wondering if my guitar cake made it to the party and if they liked it. Did I mention that it's Hot?

Friday, April 16, 2010

one down

Well we survived the first day. It's really amazing how far the school has come in the last three years. it is already ready fully functional with a computer lab ,kitchen and even snack bar all for a lot less than the seventy four million dollars they are putting up for a new minnechaug high school (Actually around one half of one percent).I'll bet the kids will probably learn more also. Bear with me as far as spelling goes. Spellcheck tries to check my spell in Spanish making every word except "a" incorrect. I know that my spelling may leave a little to be desired but come on every wurd (jk). It wasn't warm today, it was hot. I paced myself and even took a nap in the afternoon. Don't worry everyone is keeping an eye on me,no over doing it this year . If it kills me I promise not to come back. Did I mention it was hot? As we approached the school today we were greeted by most of the student body. They lined both sides of the road as we walked in .It was like the superbowl. The school has grown to over four hundred students .It definately reaffirmed why we keep coming back.The ladies from the school made us a fine lunch as usual . It's difficult remembering that today is Friday. it seems so much like Monday .Did I mention it was hot?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

miss me yet ?

Well we made it . After the last few days it was kind of nice to just let go and have a reasonably sane pace to things. Iwasn't able to plant all of the blueberries .I hope they survive til I get back. The easy guitar cake took almost fourteen hours but it was worth the time. When I delivered it I got lots of "how'd you do that ?" I hope Eric likes it. If not I'll cheerfully refund his purchase price. Oh wait he didn't pay for it since it's a surprise. Arrived in sunny and warm Honduras at about 4:30 which is 6:30 eastern time. Did I mention it's warm? Well it is. Doesn't look like much has changed .It's hard to believe that it's been three years and two heart attacks since my last visit. Did I mention it's warm? The trip was uneventful, two layovers on four hours at Dulles (awesome breakfast burrito at the chipotle grill) .Last leg of the trip was fifty minutes in a prop job over the mountains of El Salvador. I guess that was a test of our faith. Customs in Honduras tried to get me for smuggling ( some of the wonderful cookies ,thanks gifts and good taste) but I was able to escape the federales. Gotta run, time for dinner at Power chicken. If you read this Jackie,I'll be reading my jtrenzul email.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

and they're off

Just sitting here waiting to be picked up to go to the airport. If my thoughts seem disjointed it's probably the ambien that I took at 10:30 last night since it is still last night. So I guess this could actually be me sleep blogging. Probably will make about as much sense as the rest. Looking forward to this trip should be interesting as there are more new faces than veterans. gotta run either my ride is here or I'm just waking up. Why does this water taste like salt?

Monday, April 12, 2010

Tic tic tic

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you may have noticed my obsession with time. It seems as though there just aren't enough hours in the the day to get everything done. I realize that i 'm probably alone in feeling like this and everyone else feels like they have plenty of time for everything so bear with me in my struggle. Less than sixty hours until we leave for Honduras ,plenty of time if I could only not have to sleep ,eat ,shower (ok ,maybe that one's optional from a distance)etc. I went to pick up the blueberry bushes today and my imagination started going wild ," I could get raspberries and asparagus next, then strawberries and......".Luckily my wife has some common sense (one of us has to) and has made me put on the brakes.No more until I get my "short" list of projects caught up.I did take down the sugar shack last Friday.It's funny how it takes four or five days to put up and only one day to take down. Gravity is a wonderful thing sometimes. I start on the guitar in the morning ,it should be a piece of cake. If you check out the slide show at the bottom of the page I've managed to get pix of my work so far. Have to transplant tomato seedlings in the morning and plant the blueberries. I'll be posting from Honduras later in the week if I have enough energy so check back and see how we're doing.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

one week and counting

Has anyone seen my time ? I seem to have lost a bunch of it.It seems like just yesterday I had plenty of time to get everything done before we left for Honduras next Thursday. Someone must have made off with a day or two somewhere. If that's you please return it as it looks like I'll need every minute before we leave. Good news , Becca has her first interview for a modeling job.That will only add about twenty hours into the next week .That's what we do for our kids though . I really hope she gets the job. A funny thing happened last night at her models meeting (seems like a lot of funny things happen in life).I was sitting there minding my own business waiting for Becca and a woman came up and asked"are you a model?" I looked around thinking someone was behind me or something then replied "you talkin to me?" She actually was . Hmmm. It turns out they were doing an open casting call and were looking for a fifty something frumpy looking dad type ,who'd a thunk it? Actually they were looking for all types of people for a sci fi fashion show for movies directors and producers this summer. They liked my scars .Maybe I can recoup some of the hundred thousand dollars they charged for my open heart surgery. Don't know if anything will come of it, but hey you can't win if you don't play.
Got the cake gallery up I think ,waiting for the puggle pix and start on the guitar cake on Monday. Who needs to sleep.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

one down one to go

What do you get when you combine sixteen pounds of icing forty five pounds of chocolate chocolate chip cake and a piece of plywood? No not a life size statue of Obama. Besides a REALLY big mess, you get a puggle cake. after almost ten hours of work yesterday Jackie and I managed to load the puggle cake into the back of the van for delivery. It's funny how you never notice that there are that many bumps in the road until you are delivering nitro- glycerin or a sixty five pound cake that you spent all day putting together. It is really something to hear "Dad that looks like a shoe" transform to "Ohh, now I get it .That's really cool". I think I have unlocked a hidden blessing , I can see the finished product as I go through each step (kind of exciting ) .Now I know how Michael Angelo and the great sculptors felt as they created their masterpieces (OK maybe not but it sounds pretty good).Well I guess it's back to work for today's birthday cake .Now where is that kitchen sink?

Thursday, April 1, 2010

heee'sss baaacckkk

Contrary to popular belief I did not fall off the face of the earth. It was kind of disheartening that the year I decide to give maple sugarin a try just so happens to be the worst season in recent memory.My apologies to all of the other sugarin folks in the area. Next year I'll tell the trees it's for someone else. Due to the fact that there really won't be a heck of a lot of stuff for me to write about pertaining to maple syrup for the next nine to ten months I'll be blabbing on about the many other fascinating things going on in my life. The Ipod cake for Becca turned out really well .As soon as i can figure out a gallery I'll post the pictures.Two more cakes are going out the door this weekend if all goes according to plan.I'm going to make a puggle cake (not puddle cake) and a birthday cake. My passport finally came in ,only two more weeks until Honduras .I hope they believe it's me since I cut my hair and shaved my beard AFTER the picture was taken.So if my posts come from club Guitmo you'll know I should have cut my hair first. Getting ready to take down the sugar shack and move it to a more permanent location . my neighbors are gonna love this .