I woke this morning just before the alarm with an unmistakable case of Purple Flu. I could not go to work. It’s not that I was worried about spreading the infection. Everyone at work has Purple Flu today, everyone in the building has it. Everyone at the grocery store has it, the gas station, the post office. I couldn’t go to work because that would only exacerbate the condition. Flashbacks of Lee Evans dropping the winning touchdown in the end zone, Billy Cundiff missing a game tying field goal from 34 yards because Harbaugh failed to call a time out with 11 seconds left. I knew I could not handle the constant retelling and analysis. So I stayed home.
I downloaded a gardening book from Amazon and read it instead, looking for inspiration. Time to stop thinking about football and start thinking about the garden and starting seeds. Seed starting under lights in the basement is an activity that happens at my house every year around the same time as the Super Bowl — which the Ravens will not be playing in.
Back to the book, which isn’t really about gardening, it’s about mini-farming. And it’s called Mini Farming by Brett L. Markham. Markham lays out the economics of small scale agriculture, the science and the math. It is definitely a let’s get started book, but the vast amount of data makes it a keeper as a reference book. Mini Farming is methodical, practical, and useful — but not particularly inspirational. Until you get to the chicken chapters. The first chicken chapter tells you how much fun it is to raise chickens and the second chicken chapter tells you how much fun it is to kill them. The first chapter made me smile with stories of the antics of Markham’s feathered friends. The butchering chapter perfectly reflects the mood that comes with Purple Flu.
I feel slightly better now and my flu symptoms are easing away.