Sunflower Harvest!

Rained lightly off and on last night during the Celina 7th grade game with visiting Kenton...the locals pulled out a 12-8 win in one of the better contests this season I have done...regardless of level of play. Off tonight, too bad, it would be a great night for football, sunshine and the high 50s...not many Wednesday games in this area, it is the one night they leave open for religion classes, especially given the strong Catholic make-up of the west central Ohio area Tomorrow afternoon a Junior High double header at St. Henry.

I got a call this morning from a crew chief located in the Toledo area, they need a varsity replacement for a Green Meadows Conference game at Fairview in Sherwood Friday night....I on occasion do a varsity baseball game up that way, this will be my first time doing varsity football there however. Seems the crew's umpire{the guy who stands behind the defense and checks for holding and other violations}, is out with a case of the swine flu, so I said "what the hey", I'll do it. The forecast is for thunder and possible heavy rain. Saturday, Sam will be home from Ohio State, we have a JV contest together at Paulding, and a double header Rec League get together in Celina on Sunday, before he heads back to Columbus.

Harvesting the Sunflowers and "Topping" the Jeep___

Since I retired from Environmental Health work back in 2002 at the age of 53, the one thing I have noticed, especially since I no longer deliver RVs either, it that the simple things in life are pretty satisfying.

Take today for example....after dropping Anissa off at Adult Day Care, I headed out, with coffee in hand, to the western part of Mercer County, towards the Indiana State Line....just wanted to see how the leaves were changing. They appear to be a week or so away in this part of Ohio. Meaning that the old Houseworth family hometown of Waldo, north of Columbus, will be another week or so after that...I always try to time my yearly genealogy visit to coincide with the leaf color change, that makes the day that much more enjoyable. With camera in hand, and the stop at G&R Tavern on my mind...

I also checked on the Internet to see if my Mammoth Sunflowers should be Harvested...going by the color of the backs and the middle of the flowers, it was a good time to gather most of them in, before the birds and squirrels took care of them for me....no doubt I will feed the critters these seeds{I really have no interest in salting or eating them myself}, but first I want to see how my harvesting and drying process goes...then I'll parcel them out over the winter months.

As you can see from the photos, the ones I have picked so far are pretty large, with the biggest being about 16 inches across and the same in height....others are close, and the smaller ones are those that were shaded out by the faster growing large ones....I claim a "Successful Harvest" for 2009, and plan on growing more of these 14 footers next May.

Taking a look at the weather forecast for the next 10 days, cooler, as in 20 or more degrees below average, and plenty of needed rain...I figured this October would not be the warm one like 2008, so I decided to put the top back on the old Jeep...took about 25 minutes, and went much smoother than I thought it would, which is always a plus....

Like I said, simple things, are more enjoyable when you have the time....Which I would be remiss if I didn't mention that youngest son Hal's Masters in Education came in the mail today...Gotta admit, that he struggled in his first couple of years at WSU in Dayton, the party life suited him. But when it came down to crunch time, he breezed through his bachelors program, and then scored a perfect 4.0 in his Masters program. He is now working with Autistic youth, and still looking forward to teaching High School History down the road.

Meanwhile, oldest son, Sam seems to be adjusting to life in Columbus. The grades will tell the tale, but he seems to be continuing his success from OSU-Lima at the main campus, while working with the OSU Athletic Department and the Big Ten Network, and still officiating football, with basketball coming up over the Christmas break. Gotta admit I am pretty proud of both...it's not easy having to listen to the predominate left wing Bull crap that is spewed out in colleges these days, especially when you are raised Christian and Conservative....my thumbs up to both of the boys.

back later>>>>

Photos-The old picnic table is full of the first harvest....will now put them in the garage to dry out for the critter food. One of the largest, 16" x 16"...I did have to battle the Bees to get these guys harvested, they were not too happy that I was taking their pollen producing goodies. Western Mercer County, the trees are beginning to change, but the colors need another week or 2....The Jeep with top back on, and Hal's Masters is now ready for his wall, to go with his BA in High School History Education.