Christmas Around The Fire Pit

We're pretty lucky here in Arizona. Our winter weather never REALLY gets that bad. We may complain when the nights dip ALL the way down to 45 degrees but we know how lucky we are.

One of the best additions we've made to our house is the stamped concrete bbq pit. It has two benches about three feet long to sit on. A large circular fire pit which easily stops the wind from blowing out a fledgling kindling fire.

We decorated it with lit candy canes and homemade "glowballs". Add some comfy chairs and a nice, toasty fire and it doesn't get much better on a chilly December evening.

The Dad-blog-dom...or lack thereof.

I just checked with my friend google for a blog related to dads. Blog posts that were updated regularly and offered relate-able content that average dads can use in their day to day lives. Like how to fix stuff when it breaks, how to grow food for the family, fix cars and install wall niches. Stuff that, as dads, we come across every week in our lives and wonder "How am I going to do that?"

By the time I got to the second result, I noticed the last two entries were 2011 and 2009. Not much activity out there! I went through link after link to dad blogs listed in the top ten results on my google search. If it was updated regularly, most of the time there were enough curse words in the posts that I wouldn't let MY kid read it. If I had a dad blog, I would want it clean enough that my kids could read it.

So here I am. Let's see if I can add something worthwhile to the anals of Dad-dom. Wait, that didn't sound right...

Grow Corn Grow!

The joy we get from watching our first REAL attempt at a garden is growing every week. Our transplanted tomatoes and peppers are growing nicely and producing regularly. The corn, seen in the middle of my picture, sure seems to be taking its sweet time though.

I'm not sure about the whole "cross pollinating" theory but we planted two rows of corn and hopefully they can pollinate each other. The stalks sure look handsome as they climb toward the sun and the vibrant green color is encouraging.

I've routinely tossed in some diatomaceous earth to stave off the little critters (only because they were nibbling away at the leaves.) Sure, they might be healthy for a garden but I just don't feel like sharing yet.

Our peas are growing slowly but steady and I've rigged up a little rope trellace for them to climb. I read that they need to get up off the ground and spread out so I intertwined them between zigzags of rope stretching back and forth across the width of the garden.

The cabbage, by far, is the biggest producer and I'm not sure what all we will do with it. Salads and quiches are about all I've heard about using them for so suggestions are gladly accepted.