Not how I anticipated spending my evening...

It was an incredibly hot and muggy day today. I got off work at 3:00pm after a full day of mowing, quickly showered, and then headed over to the receptionist desk for my orientation because I will be covering the front desk on Thursday. I promised myself a nap when I got home. At about 3:45pm the skies opened up and we had a massive downpour. When I got back from orientation I received word that the basement was flooded. I headed down - worse that I thought. The window wells had filled with water and there was nowhere for the water to go except in. With all the construction that has taken place on our building this summer, the window wells are really banged up and with heavy equipment driving beside the buildings the ground was sloping towards the building rather than away from it. A few of us from summer crew got straight to business - we figured either we clean it up tonight or we'll be cleaning it tomorrow.

First order of business was to build trenches to help divert water away from the building. We anticipated that we may have more rain later in the evening.

Joe readied himself to rip out carpets.

The classic pose.

One adventure after another--with the two gals of summer crew around there's never a dull moment.

Intense.

Scary.

We used whatever we could find.

Problem solved.

We were both very proud of our ingenuity.

Inside there was a mess, waiting to be cleaned up.

The culprit. During the downpour this window well was 3/4 filled with water which all seeped into the basement. Water also came in through two other window wells.

Carrying out the wet carpet.

Storage area -soaked.

Our water diversions were put to the test with a second downpour. 2 out of 3 of our fix-it jobs worked!

Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming up water.

4 hours later we are tired and wet, but we're all still smiling. Ready for a reward of pizza.

You only turn 25 once...

My wonderful roommate invited a few friends over for a 25th birthday celebration. My birthday isn't until the 30th but Carrie is leaving on Monday for Manitoba so the party happened last night. The theme was in keeping with my summer work - green and yellow were the colours because I often drive a John Deere mower. Carrie had pictures of me printed and hung them up around the room. Here are a few of them:

Wall decor #1

Wall decor #2

Wall decor #3

Wall decor #4

It just so happened that our vegetables were green and yellow. We served up fresh zucchini, beans and corn from our garden. We also had beef and chicken kabobs and cubed baked potatoes.

Chowin' down. Carrie told me that I had to wear my green shirt, overalls, and red bandana.

Carrie drizzled chocolate on the cake plates and had some chocolate left over so she tired to use it up by squirting it into our mouths. As she was squirting chocolate into my mouth the lid came off the bottle!

Ice Cream Cake by Carrie. It was hard to get a knife through it when it first came out of the freezer.

The most amazing ice cream cake I've ever tasted. Chocolate graham cracker crust, vanilla bean ice cream, cheesecake, Nuttella, roasted hazelnuts, chocolate chips, and chocolate ganache drizzle.

Check out those layers of deliciousness.

Another year older. And yes, I did manage to blow out the candle on the first try.

John Deere balloon column.

My friends came dressed up like me! I felt so honoured!

It was a rainy evening and all of a sudden our roof started to leak, right over Carrie's stereo! This looks like a posed shot but it's totally candid. Cara, lady in green to the left, also works on the summer maintenance crew and has torn out two leaky bathroom ceilings in campus housing this summer so she sized up the situation well. We decided to call the on-call maintenance guy anyway because the size of the buldge on the ceiling was growing by the second.

Watching the leaky ceiling, anticipating it's collapse. We felt bad because as soon as the maintenance guy was on his way the buldge stopped growing.

When he showed up he took his keys and poked a hole in the buldge to let the water out faster and then said it would be looked at on Monday. We felt awful that he had to get out of bed and drive over here just for that. We could have poked a hole in the ceiling ourselves. Oh well...

Thinking about the future...

I believe that there is something to learn from every stage of life and I think I'm starting to see the wisdom of summer crew. A number of people have mentioned to me that I look so happy and so relaxed when they see me working outside. And I have to agree with their observation...yes, I do feel at peace...which has started me thinking about the future.

I believe that balance is important in life. So when I think about future career choices I wonder how I may incorporate the wisdom I have happened upon while working on summer crew the past few months with choices I am making about my degree and vocation. Here is one scenario:

Over the past year or so I have had increasing interest in the practice of spiritual direction or spiritual companioning. This past year I have been meeting with a spiritual director and have found our meetings to be incredibly insightful. As part of the spiritual journey I find myself in, I have taken a few trips up to the Hermitage, a retreat centre not to far from here. When I observed the daily routines of the host couple of that retreat centre I thought I could definitely see myself doing something like that someday. They take care of the property, mowing the grass, tending the garden, cleaning guest rooms, etc. They are both trained spiritual directors and will meet with retreatants upon request. They lead morning prayers every morning. They cook meals. They do the administrative work that it takes to keep the paperwork in order. They do a little bit of everything, all with intentionality and an attitude of hospitality.

The future is always unknown, but every once in a while I believe God will give us a glimpse to help us focus in the present.

To my fellow bloggers...

I just discovered a great website: The Cutest Blog on the Block. They have free backgrounds, banners, and more. I looked at a bunch of their backgrounds but just couldn't decide, so for the time being I'll just stick with classic black.

ps. One of the ads on their website looks like buttons to click on and I was tricked. Scroll down to find the website's actual material.

Blueberry picking...

I went blueberry picking with three of my friends yesterday. We had quite the adventure getting there with construction blocking our path, but the hassle of getting there was well worth it. The berries were delicious and at only $1.50/lb, a great deal. That huge bag that I'm holding was $19.98!

The gals of summer crew...

Cara, fellow water girl and co-destructor of the golf carts. I can't even count how many times we've had to push, pull and get the fork lift to get the golf carts back to the shop for repair--we always have a good laugh about it. We are usually soaking wet from moving the sprinklers around all day long and we also tend to find ourselves passing the mulberry trees in our travels--it would just be a shame to let all those mulberries fall to the ground so we do our part to lighten the load on those branches. Cara provided some excitement around here this week by putting a box staple (one of those mega-thick ones) through her tumb. It was moon shaped and went right in and came back out! That was the first ER trip taken by a summer crew member so far this summer.

I live in the building in the background. Two of the apartment blocks on campus are getting new windows and siding this summer.

Me, on the Steiner, mowing the walking path.

Check out my cool new shirt!

Farmer Al

Itemized list...

What to write, what to write. I feel like I'm hardly ever on the computer these days and I can't believe that a week has gone by since my last post. Stuff is happening but is there anything really exciting to write about...hmmm......

Well, this might not be exciting but here are a few thoughts...or items:

Item #1: I feel like summer is flying by much faster than I'd like it to. I had anticipated having my evenings free and clear to do whatever I wanted to... I was going to go for bike rides in the park (what park I'm not even sure since I've yet to go to one), read books while lying on my blanket out on the lawn (I must be in protest since I haven't even managed to read one book since finishing the semester), go for relaxing walks around campus on the walking path (I've tried this but I tend to get caught up in "oh, that needs weeding" or "I missed a patch of grass right there"), catch up on scrapbooking (yeah, right). My evenings are fairly free, but I find that I'm usually too exhausted to think creatively about what to do with them. So instead, I usually do the dishes, work in the garden for a while (which I do love), and then crash infront of the TV. The minute I stop moving I zonk out, which doesn't fair well for the relaxation part.

Item #2: Zucchini is such a satisfying thing to grow. In the last week and a bit I've picked 18 (I'm counting) and I've also been taking care of my friend's garden and been picking her zucchini. My roommate came across a winning zucchini cupcake recipe that I just have to share:
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Chocolate Zucchini Cupcake Recipe

1 1/2 cups (360 mL) brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 mL) melted butter
3/4 cup (180 mL) vegetable oil (hs note: I used unrefined, scented, all-natural coconut oil)
3 eggs
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
1/2 cup (120 mL) buttermilk
2 cups (480 mL) grated zucchini
1 cup (240 mL) chocolate chips
2 cups (480 mL) unbleached flour
1 cup (240 mL) cocoa, sifted
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) salt
2 tsp (10 mL) baking soda
1 tsp (5 mL) allspice
1 1/2 tsp (7.5 mL) cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease large muffin pans and line with muffin cups.

In a medium bowl mix together the sugar, butter and oil. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well Incorporated. Stir in vanilla, buttermilk, zucchini and chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add the liquid ingredients and mix until well combined. Spoon batter into large muffin pans. Bake in the center of the oven for about 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack, while preparing the icing (hs note: I made these without the icing, also - don't overcook them or you will lose all the moist goodness - you want them to look almost done in the oven - they will continue to cook for a few minutes after you pull them from the oven from the residual heat).

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Between Carrie and I, we've already made four batches of them (mostly to share)!

Item #3: Last Saturday Carrie and I went to the Shishewana Flea Market. It's the largest flea market in America's Midwest. We paroused for a few hours and only saw about a third of the booths. Like my friend Nate says, you can buy a lot of junk for not a lot of money! It was really interesting but I think we went on a day when both of us were too tired to be overly enthusiastic. Lunch at the Bluegate with two orders of chicken (the Amish really know how to serve up some amazing chicken--the best I've ever tasted!) helped to restore our energy for a trip to Yoder's department store which yielded me a t-shirt for mowing day (pictures to come at a later post) and a grocery shopping stop at the Amish bulk food store.

Item #4: Random photo of the wildflowers and the bench by the labyrinth.

Item #5: Putting a 2-year-old to bed was easier than I imagined. My roommate and I are babysitting our neighbour's daugher for five nights over the next two weeks. The first night we got her to sleep without protest* and she didn't wake up once! I think I can say that a good time was had by all and I hope all the nights go as smoothly as the first one did!

*The secret was waiting until way past her bedtime and then putting her in her stroller and walking until she fell asleep :-) I think being relaxed about it helped too.

Item #6: I need to make a confession...this summer I've gotten hooked on America's Got Talent. Gotta go...

Getting my fill of gardening...

I've been spending a lot of time digging in the dirt, both at work and on my own time. The flower beds around the school require a lot of tending right now--they are in year 2 of the 3 years it takes to establish them so one of my jobs is to water them every other day. I set up the sprinklers first thing in the morning and then move them every hour-and-a-half and it takes 2 days to get through all the beds so it's constant watering. In between the sprinkler rotation I continue to mow and weed, lots and lots of weeding! I usually head out to my garden plot in the evening. It too requires a lot of watering. I think we've moved into the dry part of summer and the soil is very sandy so it's almost impossible to over-water.

Freshly weeded and watered flower beds in front of the library.

Field of wildflowers. There are huge sections of the yard that are wild grasses and wildflowers so that there is less to mow. You never know what kind of flower is going to bloom next.

I think it speaks for itself.

Another flower bed that I was working in today.

Compare this picture to the one I posted just a little while ago - it's growing so fast! We've already picked 5 zucchini and 2 cucumbers this week with lots more to come. If anyone has any good zucchini recipes, please send them my way.

Apparently the rule of thumb in this area is corn should be knee high by the fourth of July. I think mine is going for shoulder high. On the last row we have pole beans climbing on the corn. We planted peas beside the next row of corn so that we'd have a natural fence but the corn outgrew the peas and there are only a few plants that survived.

Here's me in the garden to provide a little perspective. Tomato "shrubs" up to my waist and huge zucchini plants.

It's been a lot cooler here this week which has made working outside a lot more bearable. Today it was only in the 60s, around 15C, so I was chilly and actually wore a sweater all day. It didn't help either that I'm wet almost all the day from playing in the sprinklers.