Shallow Thoughts
I have no idea what this bush/tree is, but it grows well in North Texas and I'm lucky that one of the prior owners of my house had the foresight to plant it:
The flowers are gorgeous, and they remind me of the many hibiscus I enjoyed in my garden in Hawaii. It's nice to have a little bit of "home" in my front yard.
Deep Barrels (but not deep enough)
We had an unexpected thunderstorm this morning so my newly installed rain barrel was put through its paces. It performed perfectly, except that it was full after about 1 hour and the overflow was still enough to flood my yard:
Fortunately this type of rain barrel can be daisy chained, so I'll be looking to install a second barrel soon to make the most of my rainwater harvesting. I put that water to use when I planted some sweet basil, thai basil, and okra today. The garden is coming along so well that my model got lost between the tomatoes and sunflowers:
The next addition will be 3 of these bad boys:
That would be the frost hardy Windmill Palm, which looks tropical enough to adorn the pool in summer but can survive a deep freeze in the winter. I'm bringing as much of "Da Islands" here as I can!
Deep Thoughts
I've been giving a lot of thought lately to "the Mondays". I enjoy my work and I'm good at it, but there are so many other things that I enjoy so much more. Gardening. Grilling. Landscaping. Writing. Trading. Now that the entire family's sleep apnea has been mitigated (kids by tonsillectomy, and myself by oral appliance therapy), I've found myself with the energy to pursue other endeavors, but not necessarily the motivation to go all-in. Work takes a lot out of me, and I feel compelled to chillax instead of challenge myself. In the end I know the challenge will leave me more energized and more engaged with my family. . . just need to get over that hump.
Where to start...
Bonus Thoughts
I've started experimenting a bit more with my diet and with the grill. Potatoes are my new best friend since they're starchy and filling but still technically a vegetable. I also learned that smoking sausages for 2 hours is WAAAAY better than grilling them for 20 minutes. Now my signature pulled beef spread on the Big Green Egg looks like this:
Which I then assemble into this masterpiece:
Not sure what to call this. . . potachos? I'll go with potachos, but it doesn't really matter what it call it. . . it's GOOOOD :)
Daily Stats
Cash: 12.7%
Core: 81.2%
Explore: 6.2%
Workout: None
Alcohol: None
Sugar: None
Sleep: 11:30pm to 6:15am, unbroken, rested
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