A Tale of Veggies

You know guys, my wife is a great women. She takes care of the kids, teaches the kids, washes the clothes and even does most of the cooking. I have always said that there was not much that I would not do for this lovely lady of mine. Well tonight that was put to the test!

Earlier in the day my wife’s granny stopped by and told her that she saw some wild asparagus growing on the side of the highway. Well my darling wife, who is always looking for a bargain, was elated and ready to go and get some. She is thinking that this would also make a great science experiment for the kids. They went together to make sure of what they were looking at and returned with a sample. Tonight around 8:45 I remembered this request from her. I also remembered that the state highway department had recently cut one side of the highway right-of-way and should be returning in the morning to finish the side with the asparagus. So, with the last rays of sunlight quickly fading off into the evening, the wife, three kids and I jump into the geomobile and take off in search of wild asparagus!

Creeping down the highway, my wife who can not see at night is attempting to give directions to where she saw it earlier. She points to a tall fluffy looking plant as we drive by. I make a quick turn around on a side road and swap from driver to a passenger with a shovel. Waiting for all traffic to disappear, she pulls out and drives back to the spot and I jump out with the shovel and begin to look at the base of the plant so I know where to dig. As my wife and kids pull away, I suddenly realize that here I am on the side of the highway wearing a bright orange shirt, at dusk, carrying a shovel and to the appearance of people passing by, I look to be hiding in the weeds. The next thing that flys through my mind is, ” I am going to be arrested if anyone sees me.” This now makes me want to hide in the rather tall asparagus as cars are going by. To make matters worse, my wife keeps slowly driving by this guy hiding in the weeds on the side of the road! Come to find out, she is in somewhat of a panic since she could not see me in the weeds and that was the reason that she is doing the slow drive by.

After digging up a few sections of the wild asparagus, I call her for a quick get away! As I jump out of the ditch with shovel in hand on the side of the highway, she pulls up and I open the back of the van and quickly start throwing in these chunks of wild asparagus. After loading up the van and only being seen by one person we take off and make our way toward home. Pulling up at the house I am on the phone talking to my good friends over at Conversaving about what we are doing. They ask why I don’t have “Department of Corrections” stamped across my shirt and hoping that I have not dug up some hallucinogenic weed on the side of the road. I am laughing as we are getting out of the van and open the back to start getting the payload and I hear a siren from a police car going down the highway! Standing still I wait for a visit, yet they pass on to their destination.

Wild Asparagus Payload

Wild Asparagus Payload

At this point, it is 9:30 and I begin planting in the garden by the light of an iPhone and the stars. My wife is smiling, or so I would like to think so, since I could not see her behind that bright little light on the phone, and I am crawling around on the ground planting wild asparagus. I will keep you posted on our late night road side veggies.

Planting wild asparagus at night

Planting wild asparagus at night

So husbands out there, when your wife asks of the little things, go ahead and do it. When she ask about digging weeds off the side of the highway at night, you can ask her if you are becoming a “husband of a hippy homeschooling mom”!

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