The Kohlmans

...mud. And, when it's accompanied by a good storm and some hail, it makes for a rather bedraggled garden. My tomatoes are tattered.... My cucumbers got clobbered.... This zucchini got zapped, but the rest of the plant seems to be doing okay... We didn't plant much this year because of the continued watering restrictions, so I'm hoping that what little I have bounces back from the evening of hail and wind. Other than one board blown down from the fence, we don't have any real damage, thankfully.

When we were growing up, my dad always planted a few rows of sweet corn (and by a few rows, I mean a couple acres). The field that he devoted a corner of migrated from year to year, but we almost always had a great crop. We would pick it, shuck it, and sell it by the baker's dozen to neighbors, family, mom's coworkers, and anyone who happened to drive by when we set up the card table by the road (and, as you can imagine, we didn't have many drive-bys, out in the boondocks). I clearly remember (dreading) the wake-up call, the hot, dusty field, the sticky kernels, the fat worms, the fights over which radio station to listen to. I won't try to glamorize this; I disliked every moment - until we devoured the corn at dinner each night... and mostly until the end of the season came and we sat down to add up and divide the profits. This past several years have been hit or miss with the sweet corn. Too hot, too dry, didn't plant it, etc... But this year my dad chose a ...

It's slice of life Tuesday! So the city of Atown, as of the city council meeting last night, is on mandatory water restriction. Outdoor watering is limited to two days a week (which days depend on your house number - we get Tuesday and Friday), from 6-9 a.m. or 7-10 p.m. *Side note: last night on the news, the weatherman told us that the average number of 100*+ days in Wichita is 11. The record is 21 100*+ days. So far this year, we've had 19 100*+ days, and there are at least four more, just in the 10-day forecast. Yikes. Add in the fact that we've kind of been in an on-again, off-again drought for the past couple of years, more on than off... And you get a severe water shortage in a place that gets its water from two rather dried-up, man-made lakes.* Anyway, this is not a HUGE deal to us, mainly because we're not huge lawn water-ers, especially since our dog chewed on the wiring for the sprinkler system and we haven't had it fixed yet... (We just ...

i thank You God for most this amazing  day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky:and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes -e.e. cummings

I've never liked geraniums. After all, flowers are supposed to smell good. But these don't. They kind of stink, to tell you the truth. I may have even given my mother strict instructions not to plant geraniums in pots to decorate at our wedding. So it was completely confusing when, a couple of weeks ago, I started to feel an intense desire to plant geraniums - but not just anywhere. In the milk can and the pot on my front porch. Every time I glanced at one, on the way into Dillon's or driving past a neighbor's house, I wanted to reach out and grab one. Um... but... I don't even like geraniums. Why would I want to plant them? Then it hit me. Both of my grandmas have always had geraniums... Grandma Lu in pots on her patio, Grandma Donna in planters and pots on her front porch. And when things change, in big ways, I tend to long for the comfort I find in what's familiar, in the traditions and habits entrenched in who we are. Nostalgia always wins.

Waste not, want not. We're on a mission: City Composting 101. Growing up, we composted just about everything that was biodegradable, but I never knew it would be so easy to do in town, without making the neighbors mad and all. This summer I started becoming frustrated with the amount of avoidable/food trash the two of us have (yes, we definitely do recycle), so I started looking at compost bins online. Mostly, they're super expensive. But not ours... I found directions here, and I've been wanting to try for a while. However, with the ( now former! ) state of our posterior exterior there was no place to put it. Since our backyard was dredged out, filled in, graded, and seeded this past week, it was finally time. So this afternoon, in about five minutes flat, we created our own little composting spot. Get a big plastic storage tub. Check. We bypassed the lime green and electric blue versions in favor of something a little more subtle. To my chagrin, there was no beige (accor...