Creepy Crawly Critters...

Inspired by a fellow blogger (Bragger - read her blog!)... I took some great photos of a lovely Garden Spider that had made a web in a stand of tall grass and weeds nearby the house. These spiders are often referred to as the Gardeners best friend, and there are websites where you can purchase them to populate your garden. They are harmless to humans, but absolute murder on the insects that otherwise would damage plants and eat fruits and veggies.

Another photograph is an example of why you NEVER stick you hand into a water meter without looking first - or any other dark recess for that matter. The Black Widow is not a spider to trifle with under any circumstance, and I'm sorry to say is the one spider I will not hesitate to kill on sight. I don't hate them by any means, but with two kids and three dogs, it's just not worth taking a chance. The Widow is a common spider around here and I have found them in several places around the house. Not for long, though.

As you might expect from my earlier post concerning my tattoo, I'm pretty fascinated by spiders. The Native Americans belive that the spider is an incarnation of the Earth Mother. She wove the web that created the world.

Hot enough for 'ya?

Well, here we are in mid-September and the mercury persists in rising up into the 90 deg. range on a regular basis. While here in the sticky ol' South that's nothing unusual, this summer really seems to be wearing on me more than usual. June, July and August were all scorchers, and I can think of many days where it felt like working in a sauna. One 54 mile ride we did on a Sunday in July was in 97 deg. temperatures - justifiably dubbed the Dantes Inferno ride. I worked outside in the yard on another day clearing brush to open up the back fence for mending, and it was another high 90's torture fest. I drank 1 1/2 gallons of water and Gatorade that day and still lost 9lbs. I'd have hoped to see that heat finally start to break, but again, at Cyclocross practice this morning it was in the mid-80's at 8:30AM on its way to a 92 high by noon. Not exactly the weather you want for the kind of exertion put out in 'Cross practice. We did two 15 minute race-pace intervals and I quite literally could wring out my jersey by the end of it. Yuck... (the heat, not the jersey - or maybe both!) Last weekend had to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had, though. I drove down to Macon, GA for the Georgia Single Speed Mountain Bike Championships. I'd been looking forward to that race for months but I knew things were just not going to go as I'd hoped practically from the moment I pulled into the parking lot. It was 95 deg. and blazingly sunny. Even worse was when I realized I only had a couple of water bottles - my Camelback was left hanging on the cabinet at home. Oh well, forge ahead! After 15 minutes of being staged and roasting in the sun we finally got the gun, and I had a great start. I was slotted nicely into 5th place with a very strong group of riders and was holding on without much trouble at all. Once into the woods the heat started to take on epic proportions though. The trail was bone dry and dusty and there was not even a hint of a breeze. By the end of the first lap I was about 45 seconds off the pace and was wringing wet. One bottle was empty and the other half gone which did not bode well. By the halfway point in lap 2 I had actually stopped sweating, and that was the point where I decided that it just was not worth it. I bailed and rode back to the parking lot. I hate quitting a race, but it was that or risk heat exhaustion. Besides, it had stopped being fun and that's part of what I ride for. The heat just is not for me, even after living down here for 10 years. It just adds insult to injury that northern Georgia is still in an extreme drought. What little rain we get is mostly in the form of thunder and lightning storms that are not much fun to be out in. I still sometimes sit back and wonder "How did I ever wind up in GA?" If the Farmer's Almanac is to be believed this fall and winter are supposed to be cooler than normal and rainy. That the best weather news I've had all year!

Natural Bounty (shhh, it's a secret)

Kind of an odd tangent to go off on, but I am continually amazed at how sheltered and, unfortunately, ignorant "most" people are about how many wonderful things are available for the picking, growing wild all around us. First off, I say "most" because A) I don't know everyone, and B) I'm only referring to folks I do know. What I mean is, there are fruits and berries all around us waiting to be picked and made into a whole variety of scrumptious things that they have no idea even exist. I work in a building that is right next to a big, protected wetland. Blackberries, wild grapes, wild strawberries and - how I have no idea - a whole stand of Ornamental Plum trees grow in mass profusion there. Every year I pick literally gallons of blackberries, a pint or two of wild strawberries and several quarts of the plums. The grapes are ripening now, and since I have no clue of how to make wine, I just walk the paths during lunch and pick handfuls of them to snack on as I walk back to the office. I have never seen ONE other person out there picking anything. I will sit at my desk after a lunch spent harvesting with a pitcher brimming with succulent berries at my elbow, and the reaction is always the same, even after four years. "Wow - those are incredible! Where did you get them? I love those, can I have one?" And every year, I point out the window and say, there are millions down there, just go pick some! No one ever does... I actually had one person come in the next day after walking and say "I didn't see that many so I left." I picked two pitchers full the following day. Go figure. Maybe it's because I grew up in a family that gardened and went berry picking every year, but to say that I'm a Country Boy is kind of silly. I've lived in the city since the day I left home, but I still see the nature even though it's surrounded by development.

Another example is when I did the Perry Road Race this spring in Perry, GA. The registration tent was right across the road from a whole line of huge, mature pecan trees. The ground was carpeted with nuts, and I found that most of them were good. I gathered up as many as I could stuff into my pockets, then sat there and munched on a bunch more. No one else even seemed to notice... There are lots of other nuts I gather each year - black walnuts, hickory nuts, some others that I can't even remember the name of but are sweet and delicious. Persimmions grow wild down here and are wonderful to eat right off of the trees. There are apple trees here and there, and even dandelion greens (best in spring when they are young and tender). There are probably a lot more things I don't know about, but I'm learning.

Maybe it's just our society, with everything available 24 hours a day, prepared, prepackaged, pre-cooked and preserved. Why spend an hour sweating in 95 degree heat getting scratched up by berry bushes when you can go to the freezer section and get a pie that's ready in 20 minutes (or 5 in the nuke-ro-wave). Well, that's a question I'll happily NOT ponder every summer while cutting a generous slice of fresh and delightfully delicious pie to go sit on the porch and enjoy as I stare at the woods behind the house. Sorry if there are no leftovers.

Bedroom Makeover Edition

As previously reported on, we got Thera's bedroom set up new a few weeks ago, but there were "color issues" with the decor, so Krista sprang into fierce action to find the appropriate bedcovers with approved sage green accents. I'd have to say that her endeavour was successful as the new comforter is much nicer. We (she) did decide to keep the old one as well for extra insulation for those really cold winter nights.

Chase also was in need of a makeover - his sheets and basic decor was Teddy Bears and he's getting past that point, so the Nautical theme is now the order of the day. We didn't have to do quite as much, mostly a new bed set for him, but we're looking at new paint and some other touches here soon.