Which means we had a little less than six months until we could go home.Did a ride along with Bravo Company, which was clearing a route in front of a ...upply convoy heading up MSR Tampa. Rode in a Buffalo along side my Command Sergeant Major (CSM) – the senior NCO in the battalion. This was the first time both of us had been outside the wire at the same time. I didn’t really know him all that well, as he had joined the battalion a week ago after my last CSM was medevac’d back to the states after. It's a feeling I'll never forget. It was like being in the shower and suddenly the water goes from hot to ice cold. Not the gradual change as the hot water runs out, more like they suddenly switched the water line and the new one came straight from the refrigerator.You know how if someone flushes the toilet when you're in the shower and the water suddenly changes temperature? How your heart kind of jumps and you catch your breath at that first rush of cold? This was like that only a thousand. Rhi’ll be pissed if you’re not.’ ‘Of course I’m pleased! How could I not be?’ ‘I’ll let you get back to sleep,’ Joe said. ‘I just thought you should know. Will you tell Nate the good news for me?’ I smiled into the phone. ‘Sure,’ I replied. ‘Good night, Joe.’ ”Night, Adele.’ It wasn’t until after I set down the phone that Joe’s words sunk in. Tell Nate the good news for me… I’d always known Joe was smart but I didn’t think he was psychic. Obviously he was much more observant than I had given. “Man, Lily, your garden is amazing! With the dry season we’ve had, most gardens are barely hanging on and yours is flourishing! How do you do it?”“Pig shit!” Lily said.“What?” Jeremy said, laughing. It was funny hearing her curse.“Pig shit. That’s the secret. That plus weeding and watering. Most people spend small fortunes on fancy fertilizers and sacks of cow manure and miracle this and that. Me, I call this old farmer friend of mine and he brings over a big truckload of pig manure—he loves.