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SECRET TALENT: Horticulture Baby!!! (Coach Beard, Ted Lasso) I’m admittedly still a novice when it comes to those finnicky Latin plant names, but gardening has gone from a strong interest of mine to a genuine passion since we started working on our hobby farm. Whether it’s encouraging soil biology in our garden, starting plants in our greenhouse (over 1,000 each year now), or pulling out invasive plants (Buckthorn Beware!) and replacing them with natives, I’m coming into work on Mondays with dirty fingernails 9 months out of the year.
CLAIM TO FAME: In my heyday as a long-distance runner, 100-mile training weeks was my Mt. Everest. Cross country as a sport was really eye opening for me to the fact that success in competition is not earned during competition. It has to be earned well before that day comes. Planning for and committing to that type of training led to some trophies and medals that I may or may not still have, but the specific accomplishment I do remember when looking back didn’t come from a single event or in front of any crowds. And as fish stories go, I’m proud to say I actually peaked closer to 110 miles.
RANDOM CONSTRUCTION FACTOID: Shou Sugi Ban – I was aware of the process but only recently learned of its traditional name and origins, it involves burning to a char the outer face of a wood plank, most commonly using cedar or cypress. When used as a siding material, the charring provides a unique appearance as well as a resistance to moisture/rotting and future fire damage. This also commonly has me thinking about the counterintuitive nature of mass timber structures having better inherent fire-resistive characteristics than concrete and steel.
CONTEMPLATIVE THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
“Frugality includes all the other virtues” is quoted to Marcus Cicero. As a Millennial, I’m compelled to think of ancient Rome. Often. Almost daily. Cicero has a ton of nifty quotes but this one stuck with me and frugality has become a filter for a lot of my decision making.
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