DadsNews
Volume 1, No. 1 November 10,2004
In issue 1:
1. Greetings!
2. Stick Season
3. A Couple of Questions to Chew On
4. Quote of the Month
5. More Stuff
Greetings!
Welcome to the first issue of DadsNews!
A brief intro: DadsNews is a monthly newsletter – sometimes “museletter” – about Fatherhood, Family, Creativity and all the experiences associated with living a good, expressive life out here in the upper reaches of the food chain…
What you, good reader, can expect is a monthly infusion of stories, wisdom, irreverence, opinion, and a healthy dose of wacky humor.
Of course, there will be occasional guest writers on DadsNews - mostly fellow Fathers who work with Fathers, plus a healthy smattering of other folks who just happen to be up to cool stuff.
Since I’m a bit of a garden hack, expect many gardening references… And let’s not forget skiing, art, skating and that all-too-rare activity, sitting still…
Don’t be surprised to find loads of references to food and goings-on in the kitchen. Our kitchen is, shall we say, a rather magical place where Danielle and I go to muck about in our “Alchemical Mojo…” Stay tuned - and keep your eyes peeled for the occasional recipe...
As we move along the road together, I’d very much like to hear your feedback. Let me know what chords DadsNews is striking with you.
Oh… and there’s one huge request I have: Will you send DadsNews on to all the Fathers you know out there?
‘Nuf said… I think that’s gives you just a small taste of what’s in store.
Welcome aboard…
Onward!
Stick Season
A good friend refers to this time of year up here in the Northcountry as “Stick Season.”
Most of the leaves are off the trees, mornings are cold, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to see winter’s leading edge coming over the hills just west of our home. The trees have become leggy, naked sticks that only a month or so ago were full and green, with just a hint of fall color starting.
Stick Season…
Danielle, Cai and I spent the early half of this past Sunday cleaning and straightening out the house. The afternoon was dedicated to outdoor work. Danielle pressure-washed our front entrance while Cai was either raking leaves or chopping up the remains of frost-damaged Canna and Taro plants that I was yanking out of my “tropical” garden.
Gotta get those tubers out of the garden and stored before the ground freezes.
Here’s the thing with Canna and Taro tubers: most of them are fairly inexpensive. You can buy some mighty attractive plants on-line or at a local garden center. Sometimes even supermarkets. For instance, once I realized that “Elephant Ears” were Taro, I discovered that “Taro Root” is regularly available at the local grocery store for $1.99 a pound. Exact same root that’s sold by specialty garden stores, and they grow just as well…
Now, it takes some significant grunting and cleaning to prep those tuberous little devils for winter storage. It’s time consuming. I could just tug the plants out and condemn the whole mess to the compost heap. That would certainly be efficient…
I think about it every year – calculate the gardening ROI on the time/money scale… We do have to make good use of our time, don’t we?
Thing is, once I get outside and start digging, something happens – some odd gardening transmogrification changes me into a passionate guardian of tubers, seeds, bulbs and every other manner of herbaceous substance.
Hard to nail down, but if feels like becoming a combination of protector, proud papa, steward, dirt-bound visionary madman…
All those things that I’m cleaning and tending do, after all, become beautiful flowers again…
There’s some real pride and joy in harvesting and saving those roots through the winter.
It just plain feels good. Tuber retrieval and storage is a deeply satisfying annual ritual.
Well, at least for me…
Here’s the thing: I know how much time I could save if I just let the plants die with the frosts, then plant new ones next year. Even figuring in the time for my trips to local suppliers in the spring, I’d still save many hours by starting over each year. I’d have more space around the house if it weren’t for the dozens of temporary pots fighting for square footage below every sunny window in the joint.
Then the satisfaction component seeps into the equation, and it wins the day…
There is something about taking the easy garden route that feels like giving something away - a twisted form of unnecessary outsourcing. Sure, I’d be giving up a job that’s time consuming, pays me zippo, gets me filthy, and chaps my hands… And it’s a job that feels really good…
That messy annual chore just happens to give me huge fulfillment and joy.
Those ugly little roots are fat with the vision of next year’s garden.
I can already see, as those tubers come out of the ground, how parts of the yard are going to look come next spring and summer. I’m setting my intention for the garden as I’m cleaning and organizing and putting the plants to bed.
There’s something else going on here for Cai as well. There’s a concept having to do with sustainability and the connectedness of things that he has a pretty good grasp on: What we do today lays the groundwork for what happens tomorrow.
When he wasn’t hacking away at the discarded stems and huge, frost-bitten Taro leaves, he was coming over to check on the “babies,” the already bulging eyes that will become next year’s colorful main attraction. He even found ripe seed pods on a couple of the Cannas, collected the seeds, and proudly showed them off to Danielle and me.
“I saved them so we can plant them next year!” He reported excitedly.
Cai also took several divided tubers in his hands and, in stark contrast to his banging away at the pile destined for the compost, shuttled them over to a pair of five-gallon buckets I had set aside for later cleaning, and gently lowered them into place. He was careful not to break off any fragile sprouts.
Kind of exciting to watch a six year-old cradle the future in his hands…
Why would I give up such a labor of love?
Efficiency? No way…
I’ll soon put the tubers in dry potting soil for the winter, and by the middle of February, they’ll be growing new roots and sprouting all over the place. I’ll pot them in late March. If last year is any indicator, Cai will want to help me out - down in the basement with all those pots and bags of soil.
Then we’ll take over half of the kitchen floor – our starter home for all those newly potted plants.
We’ll talk about where those plants came from and where they’ll go once the weather warms up.
With dirt on our pants and under our fingernails, we’ll draw another circle around the seasons up here in the Northcountry.
How deliciously inefficient of us…
A Couple of Questions to Chew On:
Where might "efficiency" be costing me more than its giving me?
What do my children - or others around me - know about sustainability?
Quote o' the Month:
"My friend, you must find the artichokes in your life!" Henri Mattisse, to a harried friend visiting his garden
More Stuff
I’ve been in the process of re-designing my website, www.cirruscoaching.com and have run into a few technical glitches. I ask your indulgence whilst my team of experts sweat into the wee hours to clean up the mess I’ve made! I’m hoping that all will be well by the time you read this, and all your visits will be user-friendly…
In the projects department, there's some cool stuff happening with my pals Sam House, Debra Wilton-Kinney and Susan Vitale. We're holed-up in the "Mobius Skunkworks" prepping a weekend-workshop on Masculine and Feminine Essence, which we'll be previewing in Portmouth, NH in late January, '05. Stay Tuned...
"Bitten By the Muse," a Creativity Teleclass, will be offered in January as well.
Drop me an email for information on upcoming classes!
Drop me an email to set up a coaching test-drive (no charge, of course...) with Ken!
Winter is a-comin' Sharpen your skis!
Do Good Work. Be a Great Father.
Copyright, 2004, Cirrus Leadership, Kenneth Mossman. Use and distribution permitted and encouraged, providing attribution is... well, attributed!