The tale of the missing phone

Okay, now I feel dumb. Don went to make a phone call from the hand set today and could not find the phone. I could hear the agitation in his voice, so I started looking and I could not find it, so I am scratching my head. Where could the phone be? Did I pack it? Oh no, if I packed it, I knew it would never be found as we have many boxes already packed and stacked on top of each other. So then I thought out loud, why not call the phone. So that is what we did and we heard the phone ring and scratched our heads, from what room are we hearing it as it sounded muffled. Then began the search of rooms, the continual calling of the number and erasing of many messages that did not get made but filled up our phone. Finally I unplugged one phone that we have that is not electric but battery run, and we could hear the phone. Where in the world was the ring coming from? Again a search and finally the sound of the battery coming to the end of its life began to beep out among the many boxes. We searched those boxes not closed, and scratched our heads, where is it? Finally I looked at a lawn chair that we had been using in the office, it is one of those 2 seaters that when you sit down you don't want to get up. Well I had folded it up in the office and taken it out to the living room. The beep got louder as we started to open up the chair, and there in the middle of it was our phone, beeping at us loudly and getting softer as the battery's life was ending, and that is the end of the missing phone saga, except that we gingerly and lovingly put the phone on the crook so once again the battery would have life and we would have a phone.
Blogged by Anna

Victory (for us) and a country tradition

I count it as a victory that Anna and I have been able to harvest and eat some of each of the things we planted. We have enjoyed fresh spinach, beets, peas, beans, asparagus, rhubarb and lately sweet corn and tomatoes. Since we are first time gardeners this has been a valuable learning experience for us. In general we need to leave more room for growth for all of our plants next time. There isn't a part of the garden that doesn't look crowded, but chalk that up to our novice status. Next time we plant a garden look out! It will be even more productive.

What I also learned, in growing this garden, is that it is a country tradition to share what you grow. Other people have brought us their fresh vegetables as well, so we have enjoyed fresh broccoli, cucumbers and potatoes from our neighbors. They have also brought us sweet corn, which is good because ours didn't turn out so well, and beans. We have a plethora of beans now because I only planted two rows of beans, but apparently this was a good year for string beans because we have eaten so many that when I picked some this afternoon Anna's reaction was, "Gee, I wonder if our neighbor Kathy could use some beans." This exchange netted some more potatoes, which is good because we were out of those having served the last of them last Saturday for a meal shared with some other friends. You see how this works now, don't you? I give you what I have plenty of and you take it whether you need it or not. You pass along some of your extra stuff, either giving it to me or taking your extra, or even what I just gave you and you don't really want but took anyway to be polite, to someone else, and if they are a gardener, the process repeats until someone gets stuff who either isn't a gardener or whose stuff isn't ready yet. It's the country way; share your extra because you can't use it and perhaps someone else can. It is a nice way to stimulate the small-town economy. Blogged by Don