The Sea of Possibility

Summer.

Those first few glorious days when there's all this time on the calendar, although ours still is somewhat patchworked with ballgames and meetings and camps, the possibility of sweet, sweet summer is right here.

My kids were out of school last Thursday, and HOW is that, you ask, thanks to our crazy weather? Well, our calendar committee is genius. Rather than a spring break, we took a little time off during Easter, and built in those "emergency days" into our May calendar. Every Friday in May would have been a day off, but as snow days were had, those Fridays were added back in, and once we reached the magic number of 5 days, the rest became "Act of God" days, and didn't have to be made up, so we always knew that we'd get out on the 22nd of May.

Genius, right?

Anyway, we have been enjoying time. We had a great weekend, complete with friends and parties and a podcast and swimming, and we even had a shower that you could just feel the corn growing. Our north field looks like a sea of possibility. Hope in the form of corn.

My hope this summer, in all its glorious sea of possibility, is to form a more reasonable, less smarty, eye rolling opinion on the GMO debate. I have to take a step back when I see all the "We hate Monsanto" posts. I have to quit being so darned smarty when I read yet another label on MINI cucumbers that claim to be non-GMO. Is this possible? Please, vegetable experts, weigh in? Are cucumbers naturally mini?

I have become jaded to this debate, and it's because crazies will be crazies. Zealous about everything that is supposedly evil, crazily wary of "big Ag," as they punch out their feelings on FACEBOOK (ahem, a HUGELY successful business) on their MacBooks (HELLO?? Apple is a MEGA BIZILLION DOLLAR SUCCESS STORY!). Isn't this hypocritical? That's why I need to bow out of the argument and read and research a bit, because I could go on and on about these hippies…and most of them are just nice people who need to understand our operation and how we're not all evil pawns of some bigger company, just people doing a job their passionate about. I even had a thought as I drove to town last night and watched a sprayer in the field. I considered what a non-ag person may think. I may be wary, too, not knowing why or what. But when your rebuttal (read: my rebuttal) is, "Well, I don't have a third eye or cancer, so the spray must be okay," one needs to step back and do some more research.

My standards are low, and I have too many kids to have a truly poignant response. I'm just trying to figure out how to survive this summer, in all its possibility…of craziness.

So, the sea of possibility around here is three sided: wide open days of fun, fields of lovely grain waving in the summer breeze (please let it rain, but not too much and be breezy, but not knock-down crazy windy), and research on issues I need to form a less simpleton opinion.

Sounds like a great summer, huh? You add in some pool time, incubating twins and a home remodel, and you have yourself a PARTY!

Happy summer, friends.