2014: Year of the Trellis:

What a long week it has been.  Every American that I have been in communication with has been affected by the winter weather - or, as those spicy weather people prefer to advertise it: the Polar Vortex.  I wonder, is NOAA now hiring marketing grads to sell their weather reports?   Heck, yeah, it's cold.  It always is, in December, January, and February.  Some Januarys are cold and windy, or cold and snowy.  A few, back a couple of years, were cold and really, really icy (and this was bad.).  Not too many winters ago, Cousin Kent flew his plane in and ended up getting "iced in" for the four days before Christmas.   Some Januarys are just plain old cold, with no precipitation, liquid or solid, and that must make the weatherfolk crazy.  What in the world do they have to spread panic about?

I have friends thither and yon about the country who have experienced frozen/broken pipes.  That's bad. But really, that's not the end of the world.  It is very inconvenient.  Maybe expensive, and bad. Last week when all this VORTEX talk came about, I hearkened back to my dear old (and geriatric, too) friend, Mrs. Robinson, who lived on her own rural property by herself well into her nineties. We rented her pasture and pecan grove (~40 acres?) for our kids' horses and ponies.  Mrs. Robinson, of a certain winter afternoon, would go out and wrap her faucets with rags and then cover them with old buckets. 

I don't know what reminded me of Mrs. Robinson's practice, this decade later. But this week, there I was, out there in the single-digit snow, wrapping old rags and covering with feed buckets, the faucets and well pumps. Thanks, Mrs. Robinson.  We still smile at your memory, and the life lessons which we learned from you.

It has been a fair amount of really, REALLY cold days here in rural Kansas.  I renewed our Rec Passes, that Spouse o' Mine's and my own, to the university rec center.  We both needed it. Oh, so much.. Maybe him  (YES! YES!) more than me, but it has benefitted both of us this week, in the single-digit temps of early January.

This morning I awoke dark and early, as is the habit (DANG! the time change every year!!!!), and I announced nearly sixty minutes later to that Spouse o' Mine, after coffee had been brewed and after I had taken my morning shower, teeth brushing, and Google-News perusing...) that I might head out to the Kansas capital city (Topeka) for some winter fun & games. (READ: go to Barnes & Noble, SAM'S, and the local farm place for all-things-animal).

Such a rich life.

But I did not. I called a friend, and invited her to go to lunch. She was up for the 15-minute come-now-and-enjoy-my-company-because I-have-cabin-fever-and-am-wackos-invitation.

Thank you, Heidi.  Not only did I truly appreciate your ability to drop everything and join me, but our lunch was:
A)  Delicious
B) Mentally fun & games


And so, that's why I have the great friends that I have!!


Oh! Oh!!


The trellises?

Yes!  I am so on the trellis hunt this week! Tonight I spent way too much time on Pinterest, of which I am NOT a member, but I have really been enjoying the "TRELLIS" photos I have been finding on there.  So, just be prepared...2014 at the Armstrongs is WAY going to be the year of the Trellis. 


Yep. Come on and help us. We welcome the company and the horticulture.