Sometimes you eat the garden... sometimes the garden eats you.

I grew Popcorn this year... it's a bit of a different beast than regular corn... which I haven't really grown before either... so lets just say I'm kind of swinging at wild pitches.  But anytime you can garden and use sports analogies, well that's a Man Garden.

I think it is ruby red popcorn... of course I would know that for sure if I had made proper notes, but that is something we can't change now, so lets not let the things we can't change get in the way of progress... that sounds very corporation like, but I digress... Popcorn is kind of like a cob oven... when is it dry enough to use?  Apparently you want to let it dry on the stalk and then bring it in for some more drying, or you can sun dry it, some even talk about oven drying it.  I tried some test pops the other day and they just cracked open a bit yielding tasty little oil soaked snackers.   Apparently you want to dry it but leave a bit of moisture in there to pop.  That of course is the physics in the popcorn... the moisture in the kernel heats up to a point where it creates pressure and "pops" the corn. It's all about the right level of moisture...  drying times can be confusing... drying something in a desert in Arizona will be faster than drying something in the Pacific Northwest rain forest region.  It's all about the eyeball technique mixed with common sense, and of course some vigorous scientific tests (remember the control).    What is a control?  It's a little thing in an experiment... this would be a known batch of working popcorn to throw in with the test popcorn to observe for proper popping conditions.   OK I'm stalling here... this is why.

My other corn went well...  I had to pollinate it by hand as corn is best grown in a field in rows so that the corn tassels (top of the plant), will drop pollen onto the silky hairs of the corncob and thus pollinate.  When corn is planted scattered in spots where a gardener might have been in a "savage attack planting frenzy", it is good policy to grab some pollen from the tassel and manually rub in into the silky hairs of the cob ensuring full kernel production.

That I did all right on... my main corn problem happened today when I went out to cull the garden of plants that have finished their cycle.  The corn is done so I was getting it out of there.  First I tore out the cucumber plant that supplied me with the last batch of pickles I put in the crock the other day, and then I moved on to the corn... I was in a spirited and invincible mood and so I just grabbed a plant by the stalk and ripped it out... you know... a little man strength, some brute force... what could possibly go wrong.  Well one thing that could go wrong is that the plant doesn't want to give and your hand slides up the stalk and the hard plant material slices your hand  up leaving deep cuts on your fingers causing insane bleeding.  I'm not going to lie to you people... sometimes the Man "use brute force and attack first, and then think" mindset, can occasionally backfire... and sometimes those backfires are like sonic booms... It's OK you just have to own it and come back another day.

Unfortunately we were out of useful band-aids  (this happens when you live in a house with 3 children who more often then not need a band-aid).  I rigged something together with toilet paper and since I figured my gardening day was done I set off to the fencing store to buy some brackets to hold a roof over my newly constructed Cob Oven.

It's all about not letting little setbacks become bigger setbacks... unfortunately when signing for the brackets I moved my fingers and split open the wounds again causing an awkward blooding of the service desk at the fencing supply store.

What to do, what to do! Well better go to the studio and check out this new Tabor song mix... and in the process I run into a nurse doing some gardening (indeed we are still on gardening techniques).  It's always interesting running into a pro when you have Macgyver'ed a solution to the problem.  Suddenly the toilet paper held on by kids blue duct tape over my wound looked less genius and more crude... so that got sorted out next thing you know I have a proper wound dressing.... but then I hear what our nurse is up to.  You see she had a bad gardening year, and she is a bit disappointed with this so now is in the process of physically changing the appearance of her garden area.  No point having bad memories flow into next season... get on the change now and be ready for a "fresh new vibe".  Anytime you can do something to dial in the gardening area and help make it more of a "happy place" the better for gardening yield, and the happier our gardener will be.  We do garden for serenity right people... clearly nothing begets serenity like a dominating yield... some may argue that serenity and dominating don't belong in the same statement... those are the people you don't want to listen to... they operate in the technical blind spots of "yield orientated" gardening.  You know, you don't want to let down your guard when mixing spirituality with gardening.  Next thing you know you will be accepting mind-boggling errors as things that were fun anyways.  Instead of cursing yourself for not wearing gloves and swinging a machete, you will have thoughts like... well at least I got out in the sun today.   Basically that is the same as saying that "I risked UV exposure and injured myself and I'm OK with that because I love myself"... sure you should always love yourself, so it kind of sounds good but sometimes a little hate can be a good motivator.  Now if you can't love and hate yourself at the same time then go for love.  But if you can see the hate with love and the hate can help bring a positive change, then this is a good thing... am I wrong? It's like "waking up" a hockey player with a big hit... you know he is out there kind of sleeping through the game and then he gets hit hard, and gets angry and feels a little hate... next thing you know that guy is dominating the game and changing the outcome.

If it's too hard to understand that, then don't try... it might not be the right answer for you... every problem has many different solutions and our job is to find the one that best suits ourselves. Just because I happen to be inspired by disorganization, brute force, irregular cackling, anger and competition doesn't mean everybody is... (hint it's kind of fun)

Namaste