The Nursery

Nope.  I’m not pregnant. 

My parents have always been pretty savy business people.  Even after the closing of thier livelihood they are still thinking of ways to rake in some cash, and have a good time while doing so.  The yard here is full of interesting plant life.  If I’m right, I think the people that owned the home before them actually owned a nursery.  My parents bought this house in 1990 and have since added interesting items to the yard as well.  I know that some of you guys from yoga have enjoyed the bionic fruit they’ve brought to Missouri.  They have Ponderosa Lemons and Plumello Grapefruit.  Both trees produce gigantic pieces of fruit.

One of the special trees in the yard is the Calomundin.  That’s the one that bears the tiny orange-like fruit that are a pain in the tail to process but very worth the effort.  My mom has made jars and jars of Calomundin marmalade.  She’s also been mixing strawberries with them and it’s really, really good.  They threw some jars of it in their garage sale and sold it like mad.  So much that my mom puts a sign out front at the end of the drive way (next to the Take Our  Country Back signs) I’m guessing.  Who could miss those?  There’s two of them out there as well as a gigantic flag flapping in the wind.

When you process Calomundins you end up with a lot of seeds.  So they tossed some in a pot and guess what?  They have a bunch of Calomundin trees started.  In the garage sale you can get a jar of marmalade and a tree to bear your own fruit.  Not only do they have Calomundin trees growing out back in their make-shift nursery, they also have a bunch of Lilies, Bromeliads, a wide variety of ferns, some palms and other assorted exotic flowers. 

Here’s my mom showing me around the nursery.  It’s by the pool.  Sorry mom.  I know that’s not a very flattering photo of you.  My dad built that table (and others) that the plants are on.  I think I had a photo of Lauren and Mady painting one posted earlier on in my blog. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are cool plants.  They get these tiny little leaves all over the edges.  Like little droplets.  They actually drop off and reproduce.  She’s brought me two, and both times, I didn’t dig the plant up and bring it in the house before it got too cold.  It basically disentegrated in Missouri.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realize right now that this looks a little pathetic but it’s really hot here right now.  This is my dad’s hydroponic set up.  Tomatoes and peppers, good stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe they should just go for it and open a nursery.  But that would mean filing for a business license, paying rent, a dreaded 941, W-2 forms, payroll and employees.  Ugh!

Three Days

At times I wish my family lived nearby but it’s also a blessing that they don’t. 

This provides the opportunity to take a little (or a big) trip in order to spend some time with them.  My dad lives in Centerview, MO out in the country on 8 acres.  I enjoy going there and doing basically nothing.  This last weekend the kids were out of school on Friday,  so I took my daughter Lauren and headed out.  She’s a great little traveler and I would guess it’s because she’s been doing it since she was born.  She packed her own stuff and was ready to head out while I was still enjoying my morning coffee.

My dad has a giant dog that she loves!  His name is Jack, he’s a Chow and German Shephard mix.

It rained the entire time we were there, so our planned trip to Powell Gardens was out.  What did we do?  We ate, that’s what we did.  I think I gained 10 pounds!  We made BLT’s for lunch on Friday, then headed to Warrensburg to the Copper Coyote for Mexican on Friday night.  Great food it was.  We also stopped at the grocery store on the way home from dinner and bought a small cheesecake and a bunch of candy.

On Saturday, it was still rainy so we slept in and made a huge breakfast that day.  They received a total of around four and a half inches of rain in about four days.  Later in the afternoon we made cashew chicken, Springfield style, for lunch and dinner.  It turned out really great!  Rhonda, my stepmom had a great recipe, she’s an awesome chef. 

On Sunday we ate cashew chicken and I made a Calomundin pie with the juice that I brought.  It turned out really great and it was something new and different for them to taste.  I left a bottle of juice for them so they could make another pie, or two or three.  We also planted a redbud tree that I had Frank dig up from our yard.  We have several wild ones around here, so if you want one, knock on the door.  Be sure to bring a shovel and a bucket to put it in. 

Even though the weather was not great, we had a nice visit and great food.  Thanks guys for a wonderful weekend.

Open Windows

This past Thursday was my first day without teaching a yoga class, or classes in 10 days!  The cold or whatever I’d had was finally on the way out, it took forever.  I really missed swimming, but I made it two days this past week and I didn’t feel like I’d fallen too far behind. 

The weather has been absolutely amazing and Thursday did not disappoint.  I headed out into the yard by 9:00 a.m. and loved every minute of it.  My flower garden on the north side was a disaster of debris.  I ended up using the lawn tractor and trailer most of the day and hauled off 12 loads down back.  I also chucked the 16 milk crates of walnuts that I didn’t get a chance to sell.  Bummer on that deal. 

Jackson, the white cat, is loving this weather as well.  He was outside with me all day and spent a great deal of his time lounging in the pear tree.  That pear tree needs to come down, most of it is dead, but here’s why we can’t cut it down just yet. 

Half of it still blooms and produces pears.  It also smells so good and it’s so pretty.  The pears are small and not really that edible.  The squirrels usually destroy them before they get a chance to do anything.

My hibiscus tree also popped one flower open yesterday!  I think it really enjoyed that steady rain that we received all day on Friday.  I liked the rain as well.  Nothing like a rainy, chill out kind of day after you’ve spent 10 hours in the yard.

The visit with my family went great.  My parents showed up with a ton of grapefruits as they always do.  Mom even attended 3 of my yoga classes and we gave a bunch of grapefruits and jars of calomundin marmalade (that she’d made) away. 

She also brought me 5 gallons of calomundins.  That took us a couple of hours to process.  There were four of us working.  First you have to cut them in half and remove the seeds.  Then after you’ve done that, you can squish them through a collander to juice them.  But we used my juice extractor instead.  We made a calomundin pie before they left to see how it turned out.  It tasted the same, but the filling was a deep orange instead of yellow and it didn’t have that glistening sheen.  But hey, we’re not making it for a a contest on food network so it’s all good.  Plus it saved a LOT of time!

I’ve had the windows open all day and the air has never smelled so good.  I plan to spend some quality time in my swing this week.  Life is good.  Enjoy.