Farm Fresh

JWise Photo of the Day

A fresh turnip from Tonopah Rob's farm near Phoenix, Arizona

On Saturdays, when Tonopah Rob is not selling vegetables at the Phoenix Public Market you can find him manning his farm stand out in Tonopah, Arizona. Caroline and I paid him a visit and brought home salad greens, arugula, jalapenos, purple bell peppers, eggs from his chickens, and some Asian eggplant. Rob gave us a thorough tour of the grounds where we eyed some fantastic-looking veggies growing out in the desert. Sometime in the not too distant future, I will be making a very early morning trip to the farm to grab some more photos and see if I can’t pull together a story about Rob’s natural farming techniques to post on my other website – HappyBumbleBee.

Let’s Celebrate

JWise Photo of the Day

Ganesh in the afternoon sunlight

Happy New Year to the Indian state of Gujarat. I have decided that as we outsource jobs, I am going to insource the globes various holidays. Yesterday was Diwali in India. Today is Police Day in Russia, Cry of Independence Day in Palau, and Maputo City Day in Mozambique. Tomorrow I’ll be kicking back to celebrate Concordia Day in St. Martin, Father’s Day in Finland and Sweden, Guru Nanak’s Birthday in India, Lacplesa Day in Latvia, the Prince of Wales Birthday in Tuvalu, but I’ll be pulling out all the stops and throwing a bash for the Cutting of the Goose in Sursee Day celebrated in Switzerland – weeee. Monday is a slow day, think I’ll opt to observe National Memorial Day in Liberia and take it easy.

Worms

JWise Photo of the Day

A handful of worms from our new composter

Caroline has worms! No, don’t pity her, don’t shun her, they are not here by accident; she wanted worms. And so it was that I arranged a late-night meeting with Robert at Canyonland Worms to give my wife worms. Caroline now has the responsibility for caring for a full pound of worms – oh, you did not think I meant she has them in her bowel, did you? Her worms are in a black little house with an HD Flat Screen TV and lounge chairs, just kidding about the TV. These are composting worms who we plan on feeding the remnants of our veggie waste. The composting worm abode fits perfectly in our apartment and besides an occasional tiny worm fart, doesn’t smell in the slightest bit. Caroline has already named almost 80 of them!

Hey, Light a Match!

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise on the toilet

Fine, you want to sit there all morning and not light a match or make a courtesy flush, then take this, let the world see you in all your morning glory! They say us guys take forever, they’ve never met someone like my wife. She can sit here reading more articles from her German news magazine, Spiegel, than you can shake a stick at. And the stench, WOW, I thought vegetarians were immune from this, but hey, she is a "Resident Alien" and I suppose we can’t expect these aliens to be just like those of us who are perfect and whose stuff don’t stink – wink.

Gardening

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise tending her cactus on our balcony

In addition to knitting, crocheting, spinning, Caroline is an avid cactus gardener and has a real green thumb when it comes to the horticultural arts. You may recognize this particular shirt from some of our travel photos, there is a special story regarding it. For Caroline’s 25th birthday, I took her to Euro-Disney in Paris, France, at one of the gift shops we picked up this very shirt. She has worn it the day we were married in Las Vegas, she has worn it on our first trip to Disney World in Florida, it has been worn in Yellowstone, Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Washington, California, and all across this great nation. Most amazingly Caroline has grown all of these cacti from itsy bitsy tiny little thorns!