The Fields Are White

Whenever the Lord asks me to do something difficult, I start listening to my favorite contemporary Christian song of all time. The Message by 4Him.  I think I played The Message on a continuous loop this past May as I was packing all our stuff into boxes.

But what's fascinating is that until this fall, I had never known what it looked like when "the fields are white," as it says in the song.  And while the white fields referenced in John 4 which inspired the song are obviously wheat, I've never seen cotton or any other white crop grow before.  To my delight, this fall I have discovered that the plants growing in the fields all around my neighborhood are cotton, and that they are absolutely gorgeous when they are ready to be harvested.  For as far as the eye can see, it's nothing but white!

I have to wonder if this is what mankind looks like to Jesus.  

Lord here am I.  I will be the one. 

Durant Nature Park

No matter what that song says, I believe that AUTUMN is the most wonderful time of the year.  So to get our autumn on, we headed to Durant Nature Preserve over in Raleigh today.  We could not have asked for a more pristine fall day!  The weather was just cool enough, while the leaves on the ground sounded just like leaves should when they crunch in the autumn.  Everything smelled Heavenly.

By the way...in case you didn't know...it's always going to be autumn when we get to Heaven.  (Ok.  My husband the summer-lover may not necessarily agree with me.  But it's true.)

 One of the great things about a nature preserve is that there are signs of life everywhere.  

You can look to see where beavers have been:

 You can count turtles sunning themselves on a log:

 The pine trees are ENORMOUS!

And even though it's October, there are still critters to be caught:

The prettiest thing we saw all day, however, was a beautiful doe who kept silently crossing our path.  If I didn't know better, I might have thought she was following us.  She was a big, healthy girl, obviously having fattened-up during the summer. But unfortunately she was a bit camera shy, so I agreed to leave her be and let her enjoy the beautiful autumn day, too.  It is, after all, her nature preserve.

Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown

 

Rocky Mount just hosted the Eastern Carolina BBQ Throwdown, sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS).  And on recommendation of our good friend Robert, our fam headed down there one afternoon for lunch to check it out.  DEFINITELY one of the coolest things I've done in my 4 months as a Tarheel!

The first thing you see is that this BBQ competition is being filmed for a TV show.

These BBQ professionals compete in the following categories: pork, chicken, brisket, and ribs.  We participated in what's called the People's Choice Award.  You buy these BBQ bucks and turn them in at each table to receive a 2-ounce sample of the competitor's pulled pork.  Although there are over 45 teams competing in the different categories, only 14 were running for the People's Choice.  So we tasted all 14.  Then you get to fill-out a ballot and vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite.

Above: the beautiful, fired glass trophy that the People's Choice winner receives.

Most competitors simply hand you a cup of meat, and then have the sauces out on table so you can add them as you like.  They offered many vinegar-based sauces (because this IS Eastern North Carolina), but also had a few sweet sauces.  I prefer vinegar, Tim prefers sweet.  The tastes of the sauces were varied: sweet, spicy, or sour.  One thing that all the competitors had in common, though, was that all the meat was tender enough to melt in your mouth.  You literally did not have to chew some of those porks!

 So besides having great BBQ, how do the competitors coax folks into voting for them???

The most obvious thing was to be very, very sweet to you when you were picking-up your sample.  

 People also decorated their tables in memorable ways, such as carving this jack-o-lantern into a pig.  

 Others dressed in...interesting....costumes.

My personal favorite were the teams that overloaded their sample cups until it was running over!

 But one of the neatest things about the competition was the AMAZING smokers the teams had.  This one was from a team in Georgia.

 

 Many of the teams had trucks and trailers that matched their smokers, and they came-off looking like racing teams.  Some of these teams were very high-end and had big-time sponsorships.

 But big or small, some of the teams had great names!

This team from Chapel Hill (above) was comprised of college students who didn't even have a sign:  they hung one of their t-shirts up as their sign.  But even though they were poor college students, at least I know they aren't starving.

A great lunch was had by all.  I look forward to next year's event!
http://www.bbqthrowdown.net/

Just A Swingin'

So I'm taking a walk through the neighborhood one morning when it's trash pick-up day, and low and behold I see this ABSOLUTELY PERFECT swing sitting on the curb of someone's house.  Who would throw-out a gem like that???  

What do I do?  Well, I run home and sweet-talk my husband into carrying it to our house so the kids and I can restore it.  

I mean, how much work could it be???

 So here's how I restore a porch swing... 

Step 1.  Realize that the swing isn't so perfect after all, and that most all of the slats are old and rotted and need replaced.  Hence why the neighbors were apparently throwing it out.

Step 2.  Since the frame IS in perfectly good shape, go ahead with the project.  Begin ripping-out the old rotted slats and rusty nails.

Step 3.  Try to figure-out the last time we all had tetanus shots.

Step  4.  Head to Lowe's and buy lumber.  In our case, pine.  Very fitting, I think, for a swing that will live in North Carolina.

Step 5.  Measure Twice.

 Step 6.  Cut once.

Step 7.  Say over and over and over and over, "Watch your fingers!" 

Step 8.  Nail the new slats in place.

 Step 9.  Say over and over and over and over, "Watch your fingers!" and "I am NOT nagging!"

 Step 10.  Clean the rust off the old chain with a Brillo pad.

Step 11.  Sand and paint.

Step 12.  Sweet talk your husband one more time into buying some hardware and hanging the swing for you, and...wah-la!  Enjoy your new...ish...swing.

Well, it turned-out to be more work than we expected, but the kids learned a lot about woodwork, and I'm rather proud of how we turned trash into treasure.  In the words of country singer John Anderson, "I can't believe I'm out here on the front porch in this swing..."

Bonus Questions!  WITHOUT GOOGLING the lyrics (No Cheating), answer in the comment section...
1.  Who can be the 1st person to tell me the first and last name of the girl John Anderson was swinging with in that 1982 country song?

2.  Brother was on the sofa, eating a chocolate pie.  Mama was in the kitchen, cutting-up a chicken to fry.  What was Daddy in the backyard doing?
(Answers in next post.) :D