Gotta blog while I wait - Scouts, food, garden

So Son1 is at his Scoutmaster conference, the last necessary thing for his Arrow of Light (!!!), and I'm nervous on his behalf. In our Pack/Troop they do this at a monthly Board of Review for the Boy Scouts, apparently because the Arrow of Light helps these Cub Scouts enter Boy Scouts at the rank above Tenderfoot? So I'm nervous, but this afternoon Son1 seemed be well prepared, confident, and excited.

The Cub Scout pack's spring Court of Honor is in about a week, at which badges and other awards will be given out and the rest of the Cub Scouts will advance to the next level. Son2 will receive his Tiger Cub rank, and his den (and dear husband, their den leader) will move on to the Wolf year. Son1 -- I'm not sure. I think he and the other Webelos II boys will receive their remaining badges and awards at the Court of Honor, but maybe that won't happen until their Crossover ceremony in about three weeks. I know the Arrow of Light award will be given at Crossover, and the boys will say goodbye to their Cub Scout pack and become Boy Scouts. This pack normally does Crossover in late February, but this year for a variety of reasons we ended up delayed until late April.

This has been a whirlwind eight months since we joined Cub Scouts in August. When I look ahead to Boy Scouts, more camping, and the activities the Wolf Cubs are encouraged to do, I'm excited about the coming year. But right now I'm a bit nervous, so I'm gonna blog about food and garden stuff...

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Food and Gardening!

Did I mention that I bought four varieties of dry beans at a downtown niche foods store? I'm going to cook up and eat Painted Pony beans, Appaloosa beans (supposed to have an herbal flavor, if I remember right), Rattlesnake beans, and Marrow beans (bacon-y flavor?). I'm thinking about planting some Sonoran Gold tepary beans (lots of protein) and Pawnee Shell beans, as well as some green beans, small winter squash, and zucchini.

I want to see what it's like to grow dry beans... and everything else, actually! I want to be able to grow interesting varieties of dry beans for my cooking. We really like green beans, so I'm trying those as well. I want to try storing winter squash, and chose a variety, Buttercup, to fit our food tastes. Zucchini, well, it'd be fun to grow, I'll send the boys out to pick out flowers when we have too many starting, and I plan to saute and grill zucchini, maybe try a relish, and shred a bunch for the freezer. These are all vining or sprawling plants. I'm thinking up ways to use these vines to create shade for our south-facing ground-floor windows: one son's bedroom window, part of the sunroom windows, and the living room window.

The front garden beds look very different and much more open with the sad little bushes dug up and ready to go to the city's compost facility. I called a halt to garden work when we got FOUR INCHES of rain from Wednesday through Saturday morning! In a few days maybe I can plant some flowers and seeds in the newly renovated part-shade area, move the concrete edging stones a bit, and whatever else of my garden plans must be done next.

The bed near the driveway is full of perennial greenery and daylily greenery. The yellow coreopsis has set some buds, and so has the Indian Paintbrush, yay! There are new coreopsis and Mexican hat plants appearing, as well, yay again.

This is the season of juggling lots of garden plans vs. the weather, and trying to keep the energy up to get everything IN and DONE, because it lays the groundwork for the rest of the growing season. Wish me luck!

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Son1 is home. His report: "Mom, I flunked." "April Fool!" Arrrrrrgggh. I am so proud of him ('cause he did great, as it turns out). A final YAY!!! and I'll close out this blog post.