We packed a lot into the shortest month of the year. Bob was on the road for 22 out of 28 days, spending two weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area, training with the SCS Global admin team and visiting friends, before flying off to Arizona and Tennessee to conduct sustainability audits. Camille spent much of her home alone time poking around the woods in search of interesting stuff. And during one of Bob’s pit stops, we got our spring garden seeds started.
BOB’S CALIFORNIA TRIP
Work and play in the bay area, although when it comes to Bob, who can tell the difference? Read the whole story and find out more about the handsome couple above at: Bob’s California Trip
SUNNY FACES
It was a mild February and Camille took full advantage. She basked in Linda’s company at Hemlock Bluffs, and walked up to Abeyance to document the first sign of spring: sunny daffodil faces. See In the Woods for more.
BEEHIVE BURNER
A mysterious piece of Chatham County history that turned out to be a sawdust burner, also known as Teepee Burner, Wigwam Burner, or Beehive Burner.
Piping and railroad ties litter the area around the burner.
HOME ALONE
While Bob was in California sipping from the fire hose of SCS knowledge, Camille received this year’s Hawaiian ginger and turmeric, and made lonely little laundry piles on the bed. Bob and Camille spent the sweetheart holiday on different sides of the continent.
VALENTINE’S COOKIES
Special edition Lonely Heart’s Club Valentine’s Day chocolate chocolate chip walnut cookies. Bob was home for six days in February. The sweetheart holiday was not one of those days. Camille wrote about their separation here: Blue Valentine.
ARIZONA, LONGMIRE STYLE
Before flying home from California, Bob squeezed in an Arizona audit. He drove for miles across barren country hoping to see a road runner (no luck) and stayed at Harrah’s Ak-Chin, a casino hotel that looked a lot like the one in the Walt Longmire TV series.
THE PROJECT
An anaerobic digester producing methane, and the interconnect to the pipeline. Most of Bob’s audits take him to sites like this, usually surrounded by farms. He was surprised to find out that Arizona produces more milk than many states. The digester is turning the manure from local farms into pipeline quality methane.
HEADING HOME
Bob spots a DMT Services truck on his way back to the Phoenix airport and put himself to work at home, rigging up the lights for this year’s garden seedlings.
SEEDS AND STARTS
Bob draws out the seed plan and Camille packs ginger into a sprouting flat. We cover the rhizomes with seed starting mix, water them in, cover the flat and set it on racks above the lights for warmth. This year we are sprouting four flats of seeds and thirteen flats of ginger and turmeric.
FINAL FLIGHT
Three days after returning from Phoenix, Bob found himself on a plane to Atlanta staring at a box containing an individual about to take what he guessed would be their final flight.
BASS PRO SHOPS, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
Of all the things to see in Memphis, Bob kept hearing he should stop in at Bass Pro Shops. So he did. He did not, however, take the elevator to the top of the pyramid.
BEALE STREET
A famous street with many famous names, including BB King and Johnny Cash. Bob happened to be on Beale Street on Johnny Cash’s birthday.
MILLINGTON CONFERENCE ROOM ART
Three spectacular ponies, a nice surprise on any wall.
STUTTGART, ARKANSAS
Bob drove across the Mississippi into Arkansas for his last audit of the month.
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THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:
“We’re living with the excesses of 60 years of hyper-individualism. There’s a lot of emphasis in our culture on personal freedom, self-interest, self-expression, the idea that life is an individual journey toward personal fulfillment…We are born into relationships, and the measure of our life is in the quality of our relationships. We precedes me.” – David Brooks, The New York Times
“Lots of people have died trying to get to that magic place of contentment and inner peace, that thing called ‘happiness.'” Robert H. Lustig in “The Hacking of the American Mind”
“We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return; prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only, as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again; if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man; then you are ready for a walk.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walking
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