Jude Discovers a Waterfall

"Whoooaaa...."

Read this over and over:

"The big lesson in life baby, never be scared of anyone or anything."
- Frank Sinatra

We Heart Washington

The River Took My Pants Off

We went up to Cadillac for the weekend recently. Jono's parents are Boat People, in a paddleboat/canoe/kayak sort of way, and we get to enjoy their little water crafts whenever we go up there. Perks!

I used to work at an outdoor sporting store, and besides getting to hear Gear Heads talk about all their camping and hiking doo-dads, I also got to take some of the rental kayaks out on the river for free. Our river of choice - The Grand - is about as wide and tame as a four-lane highway, so I basically learned how to paddle a kayak forward, but would've had no idea what to do if I'd actually been required to paddle around a stationery object. My main memory of the old Grand involves chilling with some river people on a sand bar sipping some very bad beer with one of my co-workers.

So anyway... the other day Jono's step-mom offered to watch Jude while Jono, Dad K. and I kayaked down the Little Manistee River. For the first few minutes things seemed peaceful, but then the river got a little fast. I usually had a half-second to think about what to do before being propelled into every other mess of branches we came across. By the end I had flipped my boat three times. I had a cloud of smoke over my head like in the comics. (See "me on the slip n' slide at age 10" -- physical challenges tend to tick me off).

One of those times was because four guys with a canoe were blocking a three-foot area that was the only route around a fallen tree. I fell out (of course) and got dragged under the tree trunk by the current. I grabbed a branch and kept my head above water, but meanwhile the river was pulling my pants off. The four guys were standing on the shore watching. Jono had to come over and pull me out. My pants were still on about halfway, so at least my dignity was preserved. Ha.


There were also spiders in my boat with me. This was not okay. I tried to multi-task by keeping track of where each one of them was while also avoiding the fallen trees and such, but I'm not really so good at multi-tasking, especially when I'm terrified.

I wish I was more of a hard-ass with eight-legged creatures, but no. I flip out. It goes back to watching Kingdom of the Spiders at my grandma's house when I was five, which was a made-for-TV movie about thousands of tarantulas overtaking a small midwest town and killing everyone in it with their poison. After that I was never afraid of monsters under the bed. Just spiders. I ended up going aground early on and made Jono get them out for me. Wimp. (I don't care. Just get them away from me.)

But... finally, about halfway through I started feeling like I knew what I was doing. Kind of. I learned to "reverse paddle" when I needed to, and to predict what a certain kind of current would do to my kayak, and how I should paddle accordingly. I started the trip out annoyed at my lack of skill, but then it got fun. I noticed how pretty it was out there, and I could take a deep breath and admire the huge salmon the fishermen were catching as we passed. It was great. And I felt rather accomplished when we reached the take-out point. And also soggy.

Thanks Dad and Jan. I look forward to many more rivers to come. But maybe once in awhile we can just do a peaceful one. Right?

We're about to leave on vacation to Washington, and this includes a hiatus from the bloggy. See you on the other side :)

Tiny Yellow Pool

Jude has a tiny yellow pool. We put him in it for the first time yesterday. Now he's obsessed.

This quickly turned into a photo series. Daddy was running back and forth across the yard to make him smile. In some of them you can see the lint that got trapped in his neck roll and then became damp while splashing. We do bathe him, I swear, but that neck is like a Venus Fly Trap. You wouldn't believe the stuff I find in there.

I'm hoping those of you who aren't related to Jude can forgive me posting 30 photos of him sitting around in a pool, but there are others (read: grandparents and Tyler) who will be rotating them as screen savers for about three months. Tee hee.

A Wise Old Man

"Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received ... but only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage."

St. Francis of Assisi

MAJOR bedhead

Remember this post? It was Jude's first incidence of bedhead when he was just a couple of months old. I realize now he had about three hairs to work with back then.

Now get a load of this:

[*me snickering*]

Best baby mohawk ever. And I didn't even have to style it...

Firstfruits...

...of my tiny, kind-of-pathetic garden. But mmmm, it's so delicious. Even if we will have to ration the ten or so pea pods we'll get out of it this year. (As you can see I jumped the gun a bit on the straggly carrot. We got them in the ground a little late.)

We've been popping cherry tomatoes into our mouths as they come ripe for the past few days. I'm always shocked by the flavor of a freshly-picked tomato. Every time.

Want Some Pesticides with that Peach?

I'm getting on my soap box. You've been warned.

Yahoo News recently posted an article about how organic food has no real nutritional benefits over conventionally-grown produce. An old acquaintance of mine posted the link on Facebook with the words "I knew it... SUCKERS!"

I sensed she posted this out of a disgust for yuppies who shop at Whole Foods (which is overpriced) and who think eating organic is equivalent to having the latest Gucci purse. In other words, a trend they're indulging in, but one that will soon be on its way. I thought her response to the article was kind of funny, and also understandable. It got me thinking about the potential effect one online article can have on the masses if there's already a backlash brewing.

If you think about it, there is no real benefit to organic produce nutrients-wise. An orange is an orange, whether it's grown with pesticides or without - right? The advantage to buying organic doesn't have anything to do with nutrients though, in my mind. Organic farming methods are better for the earth, so in the long-run they're better for us. And it's not just that. A guy who posted a comment to the link after me wrote this: "...the fact is that conventional produce contain fertilizers and pesticides that have been shown to absolutely have a negative impact in some people- especially pregnant women and young children."

If you eat a peach, you'll get its nutrients alright. The question is, do you want pesticides with that? It seems a lot of the nutritional benefit would be canceled out by the chemicals you're ingesting. So really, organic food is more nutritious.

I don't always buy organic because I can't always afford it. I just get kind of mad when people write articles just to a get clicks - and in the end, money from advertisers - but ignore the whole point behind the real issue. I'm sure lots of people will read that article, feel smug toward the yuppies, and never consider buying an organic product again. This will make zero impact on the uppity folks, who are going to do their thing no matter what the rest of us commoners say, but the unfortunate by-product of an article like this is that it could hurt organic farmers, the planet, and possibly a few of the rest of us in the process.

It seems like organic farming is just doing things the old way. What's really "uppity" is all those fancy-pants pesticides they have to mix together to get a bumper crop of uniform-looking veggies. Which we demand now that we're used to our perfectly round tomatoes. When I'm digging through a veggie pile, I naturally avoid anything weird-looking even though it doesn't make a difference taste or health-wise. I just can't help myself. Organic food is already at a disadvantage because it doesn't always look giant and round. It doesn't need people dissing it in online articles to put it over the edge. What it needs is LOVE. And a bit of understanding ;)

Dear Article Writer,

I hope the gazillion clicks on your article and the possible resulting promotion you got at work make up for the dive in demand for organic stuff, which will drive up prices even more and put some good old-timey family farms out of business. Congrats. Sucker.

xoxo,
me

Maybe I'm giving this person too much credit. But if you see an article on Yahoo News soon entitled "Organic Farmers Go Bankrupt in Droves"... I'm blaming that guy.

K. I'm done ranting. For now ;)