Sweet (corn) Saturday

Woke up around 6:30 AM. Watched the weather (still supposed to be good this weekend) and then slowly addressed the day. Took a shower, but did not shave (I am such a rebel), got dressed and left to go to the nursery for this year's plants. My brother Carl, who lives about an hour north of here in Mt. Clemens, drove all the way out here and beyond to get his plants at Block's Nursery (on Eureka and Middle Belt - southeast corner of Metro Airport). He said the selection was huge and you pay about half what you would normally pay anywhere else. So, I'm headed there this morning. First, I stopped to get my car washed. Some birds at work apparently thought "Volvo" meant "toilet" in Swedish, because they left me ten or so "deposits" on my car. Now, off to the nursery!

Got there at 9:01 AM. Apparently, they open at 9:00 AM. There was a HUGE line up of people waiting to go in, and all the parking spaces were gone except for three, way out in bum-f*ck Egypt. There also were NO wagon's left, so I armed myself with a shopping cart and went to fill my list.

On-site report? Friendly, knowledgeable staff (with two-way radios, so if they didn't know something , they could ask), huge variety of plants and, while I missed about three items I needed (not enough room in the shopping cart), I got most of what I wanted for $67 instead of the usual $100 - $120 I normally spend. And I was there less than � an hour. And, (I timed it) it took me 20 minutes to get there. Now onto the Secretary of State's "Super" facility in Livonia.

I thought it would be smart to go to the "Super" SOS office because I wouldn't have to take off work (the "Super" means this particular facility is open 9 - 12 on Saturday). Weird setup. You have to get in a long line and wait to get your number, so you can wait. Want me to say that again? I'm not kidding. I stood in line for over 20 minutes, finally got to the front, they asked what I was here for and I told them to get a title transferred and a license plate for a trailer I bought. She handed me a number (09) and told me to go wait until they called it (they were on number 73, so I figured I had 36 people in front of me. Found a chair, and sat and wondered why in the hell I hadn't thought to bring a book (me, of all people!).

Finally, it's my turn, and there's a problem. I had the title, but needed the bill of sale to prove I paid the State sales tax on the trailer. I explained that I bought it from Harbor Freight (as shown on the title) which is a store, not a person, so, of course I paid sales tax on it. And, that I had already waited for over an hour and I was NOT going to leave now to go home, try and find my receipt and come back again, okay? She fussed about it but then said she had processed another on of these Harbor Freight titles the other day, and the guy did bring his receipt, so she would process mine "THIS TIME" but, next time, bring the sales receipt.

Got out of there at 11:30 or so, and drove down Farmington a mile to O'Malley's Bar and Grille (I was starving by this time). None of their lunch specials looked that appealing, so I had a cup of split pea soup and a Rueben sandwich. After eating, I walked across the parking lot to the hardware store to get the lock washers I needed for the trailer.

Headed back home, but stopped at Westborn first. I had a tip they had some bi-color sweet corn come in from Florida (Farmer Jack is out and Meijer's will have it on sale Sunday - 10 ears for $2.00). Sure enough, I got 7 beautiful ears of corn for $1.99. I also grabbed two valadia onions, since I was there.

Now back home and unloaded the plants. Put the sweet corn in a tub of water, changed clothes and went out to work. Went out way in the back and put three shovelfuls of dirt from the bottom of my compost heap in the wheelbarrow (cleaned out the sticks, roots, stones, etc., on the spot). Took it to the garage and emptied all my containers into it as well (I pull out the roots each fall, but leave last year's dirt in them). Used a hoe to break everything up, then added about a half a bag of good potting soil. Mixed that all in and I'm ready to go. Set up a "table" with two saw horses and a piece of plywood, got a bucket of water and got started.

Here's this year's lineup:

Mail Box Garden: 6 multi-colored pansies

Tree Box: a spike, two asparagus ferns and two sweet potato vines (not too thrilled with the sweet potato vines this year. The one's I used to get in St. Clair were pale green, shot through with pink and blue lines. These are just a bright light green/yellow and not that interesting).

Four hanging pots: four Impatiens each, with an asparagus fern in the middle.

Chair pots: A geranium, and asparagus fern and a sweet potato vine in each.

Standing Flower Urn (or, whatever) Two asparagus fern in back, two geraniums and two sweet potato vines

Metal Planter (new this year, it's a metal container I rescued from a Christmas fruit basket at work. I drilled holes for drainage and now it sits on the porch rail): Two asparagus ferns and four Impatiens.

Re-reading this, it doesn't sound like a lot. But, this took me from about 1:00 PM until 5:30 PM to accomplish. I did take a break at 2:00 to get a load of laundry in and dinner started.

Dinner will be my famous Sweet Bourbon Baby Back Ribs and roasted sweet corn. I know, I know, it's a lot of food and usually involves me inviting Jake and Carla over to help me eat it. But, they are dining on gourmet food in Seattle, so why should I starve here in Redford? So, it's a cup each of bourbon and apple cider on top of baby back ribs, then seasoning rubbed in and popped in the oven at 250 degrees F. for 3 1/2 hours.

I had the container gardens done at 5:00 PM, so I dragged out the hose and re-watered everything. Then I put charcoal in the grille and fired it up. Cleaned up all the mess from today's planting (seedling trays, plastic flats, etc.) while the coals got hot.

Put the corn on the grill and mixed another 1/4 cup of bourbon to a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's original BBQ sauce. Okay, so Jake and/or Carla are always making their own BBQ sauce. It's always different, always good and ALWAYS hot and spicy. But, this is one area of cooking I haven't gone into. I like Sweet Baby Ray's original BBQ sauce. It tastes like it should to me. So, why try to reinvent the wheel? Maybe someday, but not today.

Corn came off the grill. Put it in the oven on "warm" while I grilled the ribs. 15 minutes on the grill, basting with the sauce over and over while it carmelized and made a nice thick crust. Then pulled those off to rest and got washed up.

Ate the ribs, the roasted sweet corn and some of yesterday's potato salad. Ate like a King (some might say, like a pig, lol!) Fantastic!

Cleaned up most of the mess, it was almost 8:00 PM and my back was killing me. Stupidly, I thought that laying down on the couch for a bit might fix my back and let me get back to work on the trailer. Woke up at 2:45 AM, and decided that Saturday was all done.