Life lived OUtside

My girls say I'm a little strange because I like to toast leftover pancakes and waffles. I don't see what the problem is. Pop them in the toaster, and you get a crispy, golden-brown result. Nuke them for 30 seconds in the microwave and they're just steamy and soggy. Strange as they think that it is, it's always how I've warmed up my breakfast leftovers.

And I've never had a problem before. The little, upright 2-slice toaster that we have is probably 20 plus years old, hailing from our college days. It's a workhorse and has always done its job well . . . until a morning last week.

Admittedly, pancakes are a little thin and can sometimes fall off of the basket that cradles your breakfast morsels in the toaster. On this morning, a pancake did slip through the cracks. No problem, unplug the toaster and carefully retrieve with a plastic utensil.

But as I reached in to retrieve my delectably crisped pancake, it slips even further down. Like down beneath the toasting chamber. Hmmm. Then, I think, wait, there's a crumb tray, it's somehow slipped into that. Easy fix. Pull out the crumb tray and retrieve. Nope. Thwarted again. The pancake was under the crumb tray. I still figured I could shake it loose and get breakfast going.

As I tip the toaster this way and that, I can see the pancake. It's on the verge of emerging, when suddenly, taunting me in all its crispy goodness, it gracefully slides around a 90-degree angle into the sidewall of the toaster. Gone forever. Short of fully disassembling the toaster, there was no way of retrieving breakfast.

The silver lining is that now we have a fancy 4-slice toaster, perfect for our family and free of hidden pancakes. The girls looked askance at me when one of the first things I put in the new toaster was a leftover pancake. I like my breakfast the way I like it, what can I say.

Thanks to everyone who came out this past weekend and made our first in-person seminar in far too long a success. I think we got a lot of great veggie gardens up and running for the fall season. This Saturday, we'll turn our attention to that little miracle of nature that everyone loves. One of the only bugs that we willingly let into our yard: The Butterfly. We'll talk all about Butterfly Gardening in Florida and make sure that your garden is the hangout for all the neighborhood butterflies. We can't wait to see you.