Of Trees and a Crazy Wife...

  Once upon a time there was a country girl, married to the most patient, if somewhat confused country man. She was a crafty kind of girl and on any given day, you just might find Pinterest on the "recent history" of her stubborn, patience building, laptop. 

 On the lower 40 of the country homestead stood an humongous, old, hollow, tree. Country Man began to fear the old tree would blow over one blustery, winter, day and cause all manner of disaster and distress to the 18 wheeler parked under it's leaning branches. As good country men do, he took matters into his hands and with the help of his trusty chainsaw, he dropped that tree a fine, safe, distance from the unsuspecting truck. All was well.

  Meanwhile back at the country house, Country Girl was busy organizing a Bake Goods fundraiser...two cakes from here...a dozen whoopie pies from them...who else could make some shoo fly pie? Now, of course everybody knows that if it looks good, people will buy it with far more enthusiasm. But how to add some pizazz to that table of baked goodies without adding expense to the Country Girl's pockets, that was the question at hand.

 And then a moment of inspiration (possibly birthed by Pinterest or some other web-y place) struck. Followed directly by a moment of Country Girl bravery. "Just listen to me," she said, "don't try to understand, I know it sounds crazy but..." You see, Country Girl had made similar request of Country Man in the past. Most of them were met with eye rolling excitement and a clear declaration of Country Man's confusion on all things salvaged. But he patiently obliged one more time with only minimal mutterings and questions.


  And so, a few days later Country Girl found herself quietly contemplating behind her loaded down mini van outside the school gymnasium.  "Maybe this was a really dumb idea." "What if the real life version  didn't really look like she imagined it would?" "What if Mrs. Fundraiser Coordinator was not impressed with the hauling of large, somewhat dirty, objects into the food prep areas?" And she almost, a.l.m.o.s.t.  talked herself right out of the plan. But she carried on, prepared to face whatever opinions came her way, the good, the bad, the ugly.

  And sure enough, there were opinions! Lots of opinions...gushy ones...flattering ones..."oh my word, that's beautiful" ones, but not one discouraging word. A couple of inquiries about the possibility of purchasing said large and somewhat dirty objects. Some talk of catalogs and styles and hefty price tags, but not one mention of craziness. 

 

 Country Man is still somewhat confused (he is not a Pinterest user) but even he admitted that it looked pretty cool in the pictures. And that big ol' tree out back, it's still waiting to be cut up and cleaned up. Maybe I, er I mean, Country Girl, should consider making a catalog. =)