Olympic risk and reward

I read with amazement a story of a 57 year-old Chinese farmer who traveled for two years by rickshaw to attend the Olympic games in London (Chinese farmer makes an Olympian trek to Games).  What an amazing feat and adventure.  He has relied heavily on the kindness of strangers along the way, having a personal budget of only about $1,000.  He boldly set out to both see what he could achieve and to share in the Olympic spirit.

Despite numerous hardships along the way, including floods and freezing temperatures, this farmer has had a great experience, and now is planning to make his way to the 2016 Olympic games in Rio De Janeiro.

One of my biggest adventures came when I decided to study in Nottingham, England during my junior year of college.  What a great experience it turned out to be; learning about another culture and traveling around much of Britain and Europe. At the time one of the largest risks I had taken, but it also provided the largest return.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What great adventure might you envision for yourself in the days and years ahead?

What do you do?

I got a kick out of watching a truck commercial that is airing during the Olympics.  It starts off with a man in a busy neighborhood inquiring of what appears to be a new neighbor... "The Johnson's right... what do you do?".

The new guy really never answers, as he thinks for a moment while various scenes are played of him having fun with his family, playing chess with an older man, swimming, throwing a bale of hay in the back of his truck, splitting wood, a candlelight pizza dinner with a significant other, loading lumber, etc.

When asked what he does, it was nice to see a more reflective response than simply what he did to make money. That said, I don't think that he needed to buy a large pick-up truck to enjoy a full rich life.

During the next Olympics I'd love to see a commercial with a bike parked in the driveway and the comment will be "The Johnson's right... way to conserve energy and stay fit!" Video clips will then be provided of the new neighbor biking to work, the grocery store, a family outing to the library, and cycling to a park.  I'm just not sure of who the sponsor of this ad might be...

Pond art

Car washing tip

Our daughter recently asked why I wash the car on our lawn... so I thought it might make a good blog entry!

This practice not only helps to water the grass below, it also filters the soapy water through the lawn, rather than having it run down the driveway, into the storm drain, and then into a creek or pond.

Watering tips for the heat

Following are a few tips from Deb Brown's StarTribune article "A guide to watering in extreme heat".

Maturing cucumber

1. Water early in the day when it is less likely to be windy and quite as hot. The heat and wind dramatically increases evaporation, thus not getting the water to the plant's roots.
2. Avoid watering directly onto the plants later in the day, as this can cause fungal and bacterial diseases if they're wet all night.
3. Water more thoroughly about once a week to maintain and develop a strong root system. Infrequent sprinkling develops shallow roots which are then not able to withstand heat and drought.

Another means of conserving water is to utilize a drip irrigation system. This system feeds water directly to the roots through pipes.  

Minnesota's Brule River

Minnesota's Brule river

Fast flowing water

Campanula rotundifolia (harebell)

Dandelion

While helping to build the cabin porch in northern Minnesota we took time out to clean up at the nearby Brule river.  Recent rains had the water flowing rather quickly.  I chuckled to see a dandelion growing amongst the beautiful native ferns and other plants.  Seems these opportunistic invaders grow in places other than lawns!

Porch raising and apprenticeships

North woods cabin

 A friend from church invited me to join him and a few others at his north woods cabin to build a new porch.  This immediately interested me, as I had long heard about barn raising, and still had fond memories of helping to build our family cabin some 40 years ago.  I also love time in the woods.

The cabin site was located far enough into the woods that there was no electricity, running water or even cell phone service. We did however benefit from the use of a generator and power tools.  

Work crew

We had a crew of seven guys with an age span of 50 years.  Our dietary interests ranged from sour gummy worms and Mountain Dew to strong black coffee and Apple Streusel.  The previous building experience of our crew was also wide ranging.

Porch addition

It was fun to see how much we were able to accomplish just within a couple of days.  However our accomplishment pales in comparison to the old cabin/barn raising of years ago, when no power tools were involved.  On of the guys in our group told the history of a neighboring cabin that was built years ago out of logs, by a group of five men just within a matter of a few days, all by hand.  

Shimmed up corner

I marveled to think of much of the fine craftsmanship was involved in building years ago, even without the aid of power tools.  By having a school system that does't allow for apprenticeships we've lost, and continue to lose, considerable knowledge of craftsmanship. As I discovered, working alongside others is a great way to learn!