Friday Favorite: Mr Chiots
This coming week Mr Chiots and I will be celebrating 13 years of wedded bliss. I figured it was the perfect time for an ode to Mr Chiots as part of my Friday Favorite series (of course he’s my all time favorite thing coming above every other thing that’s been listed as a Friday Favorite).
Mr Chiots and I met 17 years ago in Cincinnati our freshman year of college. We were acquaintances for 2 years before he got up the courage to ask me out. After many trips to the local ice cream stand we were married two years later a few weeks after we both graduated. The few years we lived in different places before finally ending up in Northeastern Ohio at Chiot’s Run in 2002.
Even though he doesn’t write articles, he’s a large part of this blog. I take photos and write, he takes care of all the coding, domain name and hosting issues for me – he’s the geek behind this blog. Whenever something’s not working properly he gets to work trying to figure out the problem. When I decided it would be great to be able to have slideshows of photos of our most recent vacation to share with you, he researches and comes back with the best option. He’s also always ready to come out and take a photo when I need him to.
Mr Chiots is very supportive and goes along with all my crazy ideas. He’s the resident handyman and day laborer, ready and willing to jump in whenever I have something that needs done. When I brought home maple spiles and decided to tap our maple trees, he grabbed the drill and got to work. When I decided that hoop houses would be perfect on the raised beds for winter gardening, he borrowed a pipe bender and got to work. When I found 55 gallon drums and wanted to collect rain water he designed and installed a fabulous system complete with pump.
Mr Chiots is also the resident barista a Chiot’s Run. Every morning and afternoon he hands me a cup of perfectly brewed espresso mixed with some steamed raw milk, a truly wonderful gift when you love coffee as much as I do!
Life certainly wouldn’t be the same at Chiot’s Run without Mr Chiots. He’s my better half, the love of my life, my best friend and a wonderful husband (the world’s best I think). The last thirteen years have been truly great – here’s to many more.
Who are you thankful for today?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: Homemade Pizza
There’s nothing quite like pulling a fresh homemade pizza out of the oven. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like pizza from a shop, that’s good in it’s own way. But a pizza made at home just the way you like it is hard to beat. And you don’t have to drive 20 min to pick it up, or pay the $25 either (one of the few bad things about living in a rural area)!
Until earlier this week it had been way too long since I’d made a pizza, many months. We’ve been missing the tangy sourdough crust, spicy tomato sauce, mushrooms, olives, caramelized onions, sun dried tomatoes and some delicious flavorful cheese. The drought is over and we enjoyed a PERFECTLY delicious homemade pizza with leftovers for a few days.
It’s not like we don’t ever eat pizza if we don’t make it at home, we have a standing dinner date every other week with friends for pizza. We spent months purchasing from all the different local shops and critiquing them. Yes we even had a scoring system and when we arrived at our favorite we’ve eaten it ever since.
If I had to choose my favorite pizza topping it would be mushrooms. Not the kind from the can, but real mushrooms, sliced thinly and tossed on top of the cheese. A good Hawaiian pizza comes in close behind made with caramelized pineapple and thinly sliced ham.
What’s your favorite pizza topping?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: Rubber Boots
This spring I finally broke down and bought a pair of rubber boots and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been considering buying some for a few years, but just never did it until a few months ago. Now that I have a pair I can’t imagine ever not having them, so I’m picking them for my Friday Favorite this week!
They’ve come in so handy during our super wet spring. I can slip them on and off easily for a quick trip out to the compost pile or to harvest greens for dinner. They’re also great for trekking around in the snow with some knee-high wool socks underneath. I’m looking forward to having them for my winter gardening efforts. I’d highly recommend getting some rubber boots if you don’t have a pair!
Do you wear wellies around the garden?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: Old School Games
Growing up we had an Atari gaming system. We never got beyond that, my parents didn’t buy us tons of toys. We didn’t mind though, we enjoyed playing atari for years and years. My parents still have the old Atari and the games we loved as kids. Every now and then we get it out and have some old school fun! Mr Chiots had an Atari as well when he was a kid, but he moved on to other gaming systems as they came out.
Earlier this week Mr Chiots and I went to my parent’s house and he taught our nieces & nephew how to play all our favorite games like Pacman, Barnstorming and Bowling. They had been excited about this day for a long time as we had to postpone it once already.
They certainly seemed to have a great time playing the same games that my sister and I played as a kids. No doubt they’ll be playing a lot with my dad when he arrives home later next week. He always loved playing Atari with us.
Did you ever own an Atari? What was your favorite game?
Share this:
Friday Favorite: Galvanized Goodies
You may have noticed a few old galvanized items I use throughout the garden. There’s something I really love about galvanized things, especially olds pieces. I love that they have a history behind them, who knows what they’ve been used for throughout their lives. I have a few pieces that were my parents, two old buckets, an old trash can, and an old watering can and a few other pieces I’ve collected along the way.
I have fond memories of this watering can as a girl. I don’t use it for watering, simply for decor. I’m hoping to add more watering cans to my collection as well when I can find them.
I don’t find ‘new’ items all that often since I don’t get to go to auctions as we work often on Saturdays. I do have Mr Chiot’s grandpa on the lookout, hopefully he’ll find me some big old washtubs, maybe a double sink, perhaps more watering cans and hopefully a few nice old oscar the grouch trash cans to store all of my potting soil and vermiculite in.
Do you have anything that you collect for you garden or for gardening?
