Home Skillet

Over the course of our almost ten years of marriage, Trent and I have occasionally accused each other of trickery.  It wasn’t intentional on the part of the trickster, but rather that something that seemed like a good idea in college isn’t necessarily something that still sounds fun ten years later.  If you’re twenty and in love and eating a hamburger, you might say something like, “Wouldn’t it be cool to live in a house that looked like the inside of [the College Station burger joint] Chicken Oil?  Rustic wood walls and a huge stone fireplace!  Then after  you’re married and looking for furniture, your spouse might think you had been a little more serious about the rustic home.  But that was just the youthful love hamburger talking!  And how difficult do you think it is to put up crown molding…?

The one thing (ultimatum?) that I explained to Trent well before we were ever engaged was that I did not want to live in the country.  I mean, if we were starving and that was the only option, I’m not going to let everyone die just to stay within a mile or two of a grocery store.  But I let Trent know that our choices would always need to place us in a city that was, at minimum, big enough for a mall.  It’s not that I need the mall, but I’m happier in a town that is big enough to support one.

Last summer in the Smoky Mountains we were exploring some of the old homes still in the park.  Pregnant, two kids running around my feet, and I was trying to put myself even for a second into the minds of the women who really lived the pioneer life, and I couldn’t even imagine the strength and bravery to be able to THERE ARE BUGS EVERYWHERE FLYING ALL OVER MY FACE I COULD NEVER DO THIS! 

But nothing makes me feel more Caroline Ingalls than actually growing something to eat.  And in the most amazing feat of our yard so far, this happened: 

It’s a potato miracle!  A few months (weeks?) ago I found a few lush green plants growing in the compost pile.  They were growing from potatoes that had been tossed in there.  We didn’t get anything planted in our raised bed this spring because, you know, baby, so I planted the potatoes in the bed primarily for aesthetics, not necessarily expecting potatoes to grow.  We’ve cared for other bonus compost plants before, like onions and pumpkins, but they typically don’t produce much.  But these potatoes- they’re everywhere!  Beautiful, delicious potatoes that taste just like…potatoes!  I only pulled a few once I realized they were there and they went straight from the ground to the skillet in 24 hours.

The compost pile continues to be one of the small joys of my life.