Take that, you big sandwich chains

This lovely sandwich is one of the meals we had this week using produce from our basket. Roasted eggplant and onions with a balsamic vinegar dressing on a bed of spring greens, topped with feta cheese and fresh basil. Yum yum! Now that is something you can't get at a fast food sandwich place.

Most of the good stuff is gone from that basket, but I go pick up our order from the other CSA today. Not so many veggies though, mostly local, organic meats. I can't wait until we have our own garden.

Hello Gustav

Tropical Depression Gustav is currently stuck over Arkansas, that is, over us. It has been raining since some time on Monday night, and boy is it wet. All the culverts that had been so dry when we arrived are full. All the low places in the parking lots and lawns are under water. Our house is full of wet shoes, socks and coats. I actually drove Ben to work today, so he wouldn't get soaked before starting a day of teaching. If this keeps up, we are going to need an ark!

Episode 251, in which we go hiking, again

Trust me, I am sweating like a cold glass of iced tea

In honor of the spirit of a long weekend vacation, we went hiking on Sunday. This time, we headed to Lake Sylvia, a nice little park on the edges of the Ouachita forest and hiking trail about 45 minutes from Conway. The trail itself was mostly not too difficult, with a side trail up to an overlook that included a little bit of climbing. Apart from that, it was mostly just a ramble through a mixed deciduous/evergreen forest. We started early-ish to avoid the heat and humidity that would come with the afternoon. Even so, I was dripping wet pretty soon after we started. Humidity and I just don't get along. I am pretty well adjusted to the heat here, but if it is humid I sweat. Sigh.

View from Chinquapin Overlook

Anyway, sweating aside, it was a nice trail in a calming forest. Plenty of fresh air and chirping crickets and cicadas. We have nicknamed the sound that they produce the alien death-ray. Seriously, if you have ever been around that sound, the whirring, chirping, buzzing noise, it sounds exactly like the death-ray sort of sound in certain alien movies. It really does get into your brain and make it feel like you could easily go crazy if it went on long enough. But the bugs stop just in time, and instead it is just the sound of hiking in the south in August. Apart from those bugs, the only wildlife we saw were spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. They particularly liked to spin webs across the trail, as if they might catch a careless hiker and eat well all winter (shudder). Since we still don't have a guide to the spiders of Arkansas, we treated them all with caution and ducked under or walked around. A stick comes in very handy on such a trail, for waving in front of the lead hiker to break the webs without having to use your body to do so.

Despite the fact that it was Labor Day weekend, we only saw one other hiker on the entire 5 miles of trail. The camp-ground around the lake had a fair number of campers in it, but no-where as many as I expected. A pleasant surprise really. Maybe it is because it was hot, or because people are camped out by this point in the summer. The lake itself looked like a pleasant place to swim, and there were a number of kids splashing around and jumping off the jumping platform. Next time we go out there for a hike (and I am sure we will return) we will remember to take our bathing suits.