Back to the cabin in Grand Lake for a great week of relaxing mountain life. This time….no moose, just lots and lots of heat. By the way, I just don’t get why public buildings constructed post-1980 don’t have air conditioning. I understand if you don’t want it in the house, and I also appreciate that most of the time it’s probably not needed…but AC is one of those things that when it is required, it’s really necessary….and when the library doesn’t have it, it’s a sad, smelly, sweaty mess. We spent the time up there at the exact same time that the wildfires were blowing up all over Colorado, so we were thankful to be reminded of what beauty exists in the state (without fire) and to be able to enjoy some clean air. Hiking was fun, fishing was successful, and time together was worth it all.

A couple of years in the thought bank and a few months in the making, we finally have our claw foot tub garden doing it’s thing. With the smaller backyard, the potential for rabbits (many, many of them in our old neighborhood, but not too many here yet), and an aging set of backs (I know we are only mid-30s, but that’s super old, right?), we set out in the design process of the backyard to incorporate an elevated garden set up of some sort. We made the space for it, but idea after idea slipped through the cracks of reality, until we kept coming back to one of the first ones we thought of: get a bath tub.

It turns out that finding a claw foot tub isn’t difficult at all – see Craigslist, rather getting it, moving it, and placing it are the challenging components of the operation. Thankfully there is a Dad with a pick-up truck and a few hours of help close by. The tub was found as a leftover piece of a rental remodel in Littleton, and is straight from 1914 – as stamped on the bottom. We brought it home, set it in place, and filled it with rock, then sand, then the most expensive bags of organic potting soil you can find on this side of the rocky mountains. Oh, top that off with a trip to the garden center to get some summer squash, spaghetti squash, red bell pepper, Japanese cucumber, jalapeno, basil, and zucchini. It’s admitingly a shotgun approach to such a small space to plant, but this is a trial year to see what grows in our backyard tub. Next year might be a little more focused based on the successes of this growing season. Now, we dump water and time into the garden, and somewhere between 60-100 days, we get some goods.

Outside of our hopeful dinner plate returns on the project, we are using it as an opportunity to begin to teach Ezra about gardening, growing, sustainability, and local resource (yea, Japanese versions of vegetables make a hard connection to the local component). His buy in has been simple as he is very interested in what is going to happen…just an opportunity to help plant, to help water, and a set of Go, Diego, Go gardening gloves. His concern and interest are currently measured daily, with the once-a-day inquiry about watering. I think that this is also going to be a good lesson in time and patience, as he is already making connections that 100 days isn’t immediate.

Updates including inception, growth, and use will be posted here…stay tuned.

Yea, if you came this far and were expecting something from the clubs of Panama City, Miami, or Key West – that’s a different time in a different life. This spring break story is about a trip to north Florida (aka southern Georgia), a hot and humid place that just happens to have my Grandparent’s living there, the first Firehouse Subs location, and just about nothing else that would make someone want to go there. But, like I mentioned, it does have family and family history – and that far, far outweighs the downsides of the area.

We were fortunate this year to have the time over Ahna’s spring break to head down to Florida to visit with my Grandparents, and to help them celebrate some pretty dang big milestones. My Grandfather (PopPop) turned 90 back in February, and the two of them are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary this month. They continue to amaze us by living, working, and operating on their own – in their own house, with their own car, and their own woodshop/workshop. I mean, PopPop (with the help of two good friends) installed a backyard fence recently….seriously. The two of them serve as the foundation for our amazing family, and they are a space-sized pillar of both physical and mental strength, as well as great role models for what a successful relationship should look like. Needless to say, we were very happy to be able to celebrate with them.

While there, we tripped to the Museum of Science and History, and to the beach; but we mostly enjoyed each others company and watching the two of them interact with Ezra. Ezra took to them as soon as we walked into their house for the first time – which is always a concern for someone that young after not seeing them for about two years (thank goodness for lots of pictures to reference on the home computer). We had the occasion to host a party at their house with some close friends and family to celebrate their milestones, and seeing everyone together was such a treat for all of us. Dad and I also took a day to head down to the Palatka area and go bass fishing (12 caught).

Outside of the party, perhaps the highlight of the trip was watching Ezra and PopPop build something together in his shop. They cut out, sanded, painted, and signed a wooden airplane that Ezra was able to bring home with us. Of course, the camera wasn’t too far away, but it will be a great memory for them to share for a lifetime. The other highlight for us was watching Ezra play at the beach. We went over to Jacksonville Beach (Atlantic side of the state), and Ezra just played and giggled in the slightly-too-chill water while we all made every attempt to stay mostly dry.