Son of a Grub

My friend I had a conversation about grubs yesterday. You can read about it here. After I read about it I found myself feeling stupidly silly and replied to her with this bit of nonsense. She suggested I put it on my blog. It also references a fantastic book I just read called The $64 Tomato. This author is hilarious. The book is a compilation of his memories of gardening. In one particular anecdote he discusses how disgusted he was after spending weeks of his time trying to kill off the Japanese Beetles only to realize that they were creating grubs which were decimating his lawn . His response to this was a rightly placed son of a...! Like I said, he's hysterical. He reminds me of Ryan and his crazy gardening antics. If you garden or if your spouse gardens this book is worth a read. Anyway...

Worm Ride, Anyone?

Justin and Tyler have spent a lot of time outdoors lately. Mainly because I need some space. I turn on the hose and try to lock them out. Oh, and the boys love to be outside too. This Saturday was no different. Tyler and Justin played in the mud making mud balls to throw at the wall and building volcanoes. Ryan was busy trying to de-grassify our back bed so I can plant wildflowers. As he did this Justin began collecting potato bugs and worms. Justin came running in the house at one point, to find me eating bon bons and watching survivor reruns, to ask an important question. "Can I use the wagon for worms?" "Sure," was my response. And he ran out the door.

Later in the day Ryan informed me that Justin suggested that the worms were bored. He thought that they would enjoy a ride in the wagon. I had to check it out for myself. Sure enough, Justin had created a mound, filled the wagon with worms and was indeed pushing them down the hill. When I asked him about it he kept saying, "Do you think they're scared? Do you think they like it? I think they're having fun." It was probably one of the cutest dang things that boy has ever done. He was so serious about all of it too. He was genuinely concerned for the boredom of his worms. Oh, man! You gotta' love boys!

Who's Afraid of a Grub?

It’s gardening time at the Sauer home. We’ve been readying our beds, pulling out weeds, and planting seeds and most of all finding grubs. Icky, gross disgusting wriggly grubs. Last week Ryan and Justin were pulling out the compost for our backyard garden. As they were sifting through it they were pulling out the grubs and collecting them in a large bucket. Justin loves to find bugs. He also likes to show me the bugs before he throws them out into the street. I try not to be a sissy mom especially since I have two boys, but come one, who wants to look at a bucket full of wiggly grubs? Not me.

Justin convinced me to look. Then he convinced me to watch as he dumped them in the street. This is the scene that took place...Grubs were strewn about the hot asphalt. They hurried their little bodies and wiggled about inching their way to what they thought was freedom. Tyler, who wanted to be with daddy, made his way out into the street but was so freaked out by the massive crowd of wiggling grubs that he stopped dead still and began shrieking for help. Daddy rescued him, but come on…this is just wrong. Is this how the rest of my life with boys will play out? In the street watching grubs wiggle away for their lives? Ick!

But at least, I’ll have lettuce and broccoli and other such good things to eat from our gardens. The troubles we go through for food. Ay yi yi!

Ryan recently surprised me with a bout of in-home leadership. It was so pleasing to see that I lit up, got giggly and began kissing him. “I knew this day would come!” I beamed as I kissed him on my tip toes. “I knew you would lead our family!” I know it sounds gay, and trust me it was, but I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, Ryan has been feeling like we are near a recession and has been rethinking our finances and future planning of funds. He actually suggested that we increase our food storage, save our vacation money for a surplus, and increase our home food production. I was shocked and humbled and excited and mostly felt inspirited by my leading husband.

Over the next few days we concocted plans and goals as to how we would go about this. We’ve also decided that once we paint our house (because nothing can happen until we paint our house, because I lead too) that we will convert our front yard into a bit of a mini orchard. We are thinking mango, banana, avocado, cherry, and apricot trees will take over the space that is currently being wasted by our beautiful but often dead grass. It all reminds me of a book I’d like to read but never will called Food not Lawns. It’s right up Ryan’s alley. I’m sure if I bought it, he would read it. Maybe Christmas. So, when all is said and done and no one can afford gas we will bike to and from our places of being and eat from our garden and orchard and read from the light produced from our solar panels. I think we’ll be pretty set. Now I wonder how much power it takes to run my DVR and TV simultaneously. Hmmm.