Notes From the Farm (Day 2 Re-think)

Before I left for Missouri, I visited with a friend of mine and asked her if she had any advice for me going into my week-long visit with the fam. Her advice...."don't go." We laughed together.

As many of you know, three years ago, my folks left the house I grew up in and moved to a gorgeous 8 acre spread in the country. It's a bit of a cliche, because it has everything a little house in the woods would have down to the white picket fence! But it's 'home' and its more than they ever imagined owning.

I decided to make this trip my vacation because when you own that much land, there's a lot to be done and quite frankly, I'm the cheapest labor they can find. :) I came to work! In hopes of leaving a huge dent in their 'to-do' list around the property.

This morning was BRUTAL! Five AM kicked me outtah the bed and I was hating life. I kept asking myself why I was getting out of bed so early on my vacation to go drip with the other health-nazis at Alex's (my brother) gym. Then I remembered that whole 13.1 mile race thing I'm running in November. Every other 1/2 marathon I've run, there's been no such thing as a 'vacation' so this one is no different.

Somewhere way south of 8:00 AM, I emerged from the gym, drove back to my folks house, grabbed a shower, ate breakfast, talked to my mom as she got ready for a meeting and then went back to bed. I got up around noon and began my first task, weeding the flower beds (there's five of them and they're endless) and prepping them to lay down landscaper's fabric and new pea gravel. I worked and worked and worked some more. Dude, maybe I should've re-thunk this trip...this is vacation? It's hot, I'm sweaty and for every five weeds I pull, six more pop up in my peripheal vision! It was like a sadistic cartoon.

Here's a little tip for ya: I forgot my sunscreen, but mom told me to use the 'skin so soft' in her bathroom as bug repellant. She told me to rub it on every piece of exposed skin (which was about 90% of my body seeing I had on a pair of shorts and a cut-off shirt) and the bugs would not get me...how this relates to sunscreen I dunno. After she left, I trekked to her bathroom, rummaged under the counter and found the 'skin so soft.' I had no idea it was bath oil. I walked out of her bathroom, held up the bottle and asked my dad if "this is what mom was talking about." He told me 'yeah.' A bit perplexed, because I'd never heard of using bath oil as a bug repellant, I shrugged my shoulders and lubbed up my legs and arms and neck and hands and...well every part of exposed flesh. Now, at 9:30 PM, after four or so hours out in a very heavily wooded yard, I have no bug bites to show for it. Hmph! Who'd thunk it? Bath oil better than OFF! I guess the bugs can't bite you when you're too oily for them to get a foot hold! I'm like a giant slide for them. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

That litte tip's a freebie! The next one'll cost ya!

On to the nature report of the day: it seems that their house is a haven for salamanders of all colors and sizes. They're everywhere! Okay, I exaggerate a bit. I've seen five today all at high sprint in the opposite direction of the big brown girl dripping sweat and pulling weeds out from in front of the rocks that they're hiding beneath. There was one that was light green and gray with a very long tail that was solid blue. I'M NOT KIDDING! It looked like a ghetto car where a door had been replaced that was a whole different color than the car. Maybe I should Wikipedia it and give you a report on what kind of salamander it was yesterday. I would've taken pics to share, but the 'manders (my new nickname for the salamanders) were having none of that, huh-uh!!! It was saturday at the races, and they weren't letting up until they got away from me!

That's about it for the day. When my mom got home from her meeting we took a trip to my favorite place...yup, you guessed it! Lowe's!! And bought stuff to finish the beds with.

It's dark, I'm tired and in need of a shower. Day 2, I rethunk it and I'm glad I decided to come, what don't kill me, sunburn me, bite me or slither away from me can only make me stronger.