For some reason I feel like I’m playing catch up in every area of my life.

I have a lot to do, inside and outside my house, and I’ve taken on a little piece work which takes up between 1 1/2 to 4 hours out of my day. Maybe that’s the thing that has bumped me over into the weird zone.

Then there are the little things that I want to do, that until I actually take the 10 minutes to get to them, haunt me like Casper the ghost.

Today I knocked one of those off the list.

I have a little metal storage shed out by the dog pen. My bike is in there and some garden tools and the lawn mower…. and a highly developed and firmly entrenched [I'm pretty sure there is a mayor and a tax collector] society of spiders. Some of which, are black widows. Seen ‘em with my own eyes I did.

So today I took my little can of bug fogger and set it off inside the shed. I’m going to set off another one tomorrow, just because I’m anal about the entire business. THEN I’m taking a broom to the cobwebs. Hopefully when that is done I will be able to go in there without such a high level of creep factor.

I picked a big bowl of peas this morning, and I intend to freeze some of them for winter sustenance. Then there’s the wood to stack. I made a dent in it yesterday, but it was a small dent. The garden could use some weeding, and I still haven’t had time to wash my windows… and the list goes on and on. What I want to know is… what DID I do with all my time last winter????

(I seem to remember a lot of trips to the woodshed with wheelbarrows and whatnot. And a certain runaway dog.)

Oh Ben…. sigh….

Are you actually DEFENDING me? I think I feel faint.

( I was just stating the fact of the matter.)

Well thank you for pointing that out.

***

In other news…. one day a couple of weeks ago I bought one of these:

It was really good. I really liked it. But I can’t afford to buy this all the time.

So. I looked at the ingredients. And decided to start experimenting.

I made some sun tea with Country Peach tea from Celestial Seasonings and added lemon and sugar.

Not quite right.

I goofed around with different amounts of lemon and sugar. It just wasn’t working.

Then I really looked at the label and saw something.

Hmmmm…

When I was in the grocery the other day standing by the canning supplies looking at pectin, I spied something I have never used.

Citric Acid.

This is what is in that Snapple.

And I wanted to try a different sweetener. A friend mentioned agave syrup that she had tried in a recipe and I thought that might work.

SO:

To about a liter of tea, I add 1/4 level teaspoon [ it's potent] citric acid, and three tablespoons of agave nectar.*

SNAP!

It’s a close cousin to the original. Maybe not as strong of a tea taste, but that can be altered by adding more tea bags if I want.

Totally cool. I love experimenting.

And I don’t mind being the guinea pig.

Not even a little bit.

I love solving puzzles too.

Perhaps THIS kind of time wasting is why you are so behind on the window washing…

Just suggesting a possible reason…

Off the top of my comb….

You may have a point.

Possibly.

But I have peach TEA!

Woot!

*I’ve been reading up on agave… maybe not that great a choice. When this bottle is gone, I may go back to plain old sugar. It DOES have a nice taste though. Sigh. Food fads. Don’t even last as long as a blog post.  :-)

There were some very nice views once we got up high enough…. that’s our little town way down there.

It’s easy to miss it, but on the upper left of this picture, there’s wild lilac peeking out. Very pretty.

The creek is fed by several springs that start all about in the same area. I don’t know what it is about seeing a place where water just comes up out of the ground…

But it’s amazing to me.

Here is the main spring:

It has carved a little cave from the granite. It’s hard to see the water running down with all the wild current plants in the way. These springs run all year round, so that little creek never dries up. There are many creeks in our area that only run in the winter and spring, so, it’s special to know of one that is fed by these springs.

It’s sort of hard for me to understand how water can be coming out of the ground so very high up on a mountain. There is no snow pack above this to melt and create the water. Where does it come from???? I know that sounds silly, but truly, it seems mysterious to me. I understand springs that are lower in elevation. Water tables can be high and have water break to the surface. But at 5 thousand feet? What is UP with that?

Anyway, it was a 4 1/2 mile hike to this spot. We ate lunch and then headed down. I’m not a fast hiker, but I can get there and back. When we were going up the steep parts, I put myself in ‘turtle speed’ and take small strides. Slow and steady. That’s how I roll. Otherwise, 9 miles would kill me outright.

But to be honest, my feet hurt like the dickens by the time I got home. It took two soaks in epsom salts to restore them to functioning appendages.  Today, they can’t even remember what the problem was.

There are muscles however who know exactly what happened and are still complaining about the overwork.

I told them to suck it up. We live in the mountains again. They need to toughen up.

Though I did give them chocolate as an encouragement.

Chocolate. The Universal Language.

Another view. Notice my new rainbird hard at work delivering water to the garden…

I love it here.

I really do.

More strawberries and peas were harvested today. I don’t have any strawberry plants, but was invited to pick a bowl for myself from Mr. P’s garden.

Some of them are resting in the freezer right now preparing to become part of smoothies over the next several days.

I’m hoping to make at least one batch of freezer jam if I can pick a few quarts more.

So far, I’m eating the peas as fast as I pick them. But I hope to get enough to freeze a few pints of those too. I’m thinking I could have planted more. And next year I just might. We’ll see how this crop produces.

It’s all experimental this year.

Edible experiments.

The best kind.

I’m not sure where this compulsion came from, but I’m just rolling with it.

I have experimented with combinations of tea and fruit juices trying to duplicate Snapple’s Peach Tea.

I had a guest at my house today… L. you KNOW who you are… … and gave her a glass of the latest incarnation of fruity tea experiment.

(Beware all you who enter here, the mad scientist is in full residence!)

Anyway, it was far from perfect, but we managed to finish off a glass.

In anticipation of fresh herbs from the garden I have collected a variety of recipes from the website called Foodgawker, for several summer drinks.

This afternoon I tried this one…

http://www.bojongourmet.com/2013/05/mint-and-celery-soda.html

I didn’t make the whole recipe, I cut it in half and since I don’t have a juicer, buzzed four large stalks of celery [cut in one inch pieces with the leafy tops] in the blender just covering  them with water. I strained the liquid through a fine sieve.

I did add more sugar than it mentions too.

It is not only beautiful, but very refreshing. And has a strong celery taste. The mint is a nice compliment. I used spearmint from my flower bed.

I would also consider thinning it with lemonade instead of club soda if you don’t care for fizzy drinks.

It’s worth making just to see this fantastic natural color in a mason jar

(Stuff looks toxic to me. I wouldn’t touch it.)

Good.

More for me.

6:10 AM and the Sun is wide up.

We must be getting close to the summer solstice what what?

I took my Shabbat rest seriously yesterday.

I took a two hour nap in the morning, and a two hour nap in the late afternoon.

Last week sort of kicked my fanny in the ‘keep the Cupcake running’ department, so I caught up on my sleep.

Of course this meant that when it was actually time to go to bed, I was wide awake.

I was forced to play a few rounds of Plants vs Zombies on line to finish off the day, or night more precisely.

I’m thinking of treating myself to my very own copy of the game, as I have won the trial version several times.

Humans need our harmless diversions. We go loony bin if we don’t.

(I’d say wasting your time playing Plants vs Zombies puts you right here in the middle of the loons myself.)

Ah, but you haven’t seen the Little Shop Of Horrors tool in the game that looks like Audrey. It eats zombies. I like Audrey. I can’t wait till I get to the level where I can deploy Audrey.

(Don’t you remember what happened to Seymour when he got involved with Audrey?)

Buzzkill.

(Time waster.)

I don’t see YOU stacking any wood around here. Or pulling any weeds. Or mowing lawns. Or sweltering in 95 degree heat at the farmers’ market…ergo you don’t NEED any down time to recover your energies.

(That’s because I have brains.)

Interesting.

That’s JUST what the zombies are looking for.

I’ll let them know you are available.

(You wouldn’t.)

Oh Zommmmbeeeeees ! Audrey’s on vacaaaaation !

That’s the nicest way to put it too.

We really struggled, as we didn’t have shade and were up against a fence in a corner.

Steps are being taken to do something about that for next week however and we are hopeful that our situation will improve.

We were SO gobsmacked by our dilemma that neither one of us thought to take any pictures of our wares. I did sell two small items to two youngsters who thought long and hard about which money pouches they wanted to buy.

The crowd was thin, and frankly, I don’t blame people for staying indoors yesterday afternoon, it was really hot out there.

But hope springs eternal and we intend to be there next week.

The really great part of the day however came on my way home from the market.

I spied someone parked across from the grocery store with a load of wood for sale.

Oak.

Seasoned.

Split.

Fair price.

To those of us in the country, this is a very exciting event.

I spun Suzie Cube around so fast she had valve palpitations and got out to have a closer look at the wood. I asked the man to follow me, and we drove home with it. I asked Mr. P. to take a look at it and confirm that it was the volume that the man claimed it was, and we struck a deal. He unloaded it and I handed over the money. I am SO jazzed.

Dudes.

I have OAK in my woodshed!

I now have work to do… [as if I didn't have enough already] stacking this in some short rows along one side so I will have access to it all winter, no matter where we are in the deconstructing of the wood pile.

AND the good news is that he is bringing me a load of fir on Sunday!

I’m going to be in country heaven.

…….Oh wait, I already am!

(You’re pathetic, you know that?)

Yeah. Innit great !!??

In my other defense, I spent a lot of time making watercolors and I have quite the collection of greeting cards to sell. Over 40 of them! So I haven’t been a total slacker.

Still, I needed a knitting plan.

So last night I got out all my containers of yarn and sat on my bed and sorted, wound, and tidied up everything. All the while hoping for inspiration to strike. Fondling yarn can have that effect… but alas, last night I came up empty. I sat holding a particularly nice skein of gray yarn given to me by a friend and willed it to tell me what it wanted to be.  It refused to be bullied and remained sheepily enigmatic.

I leaned back against the wall with the wool in my hand and decided I had no business calling myself a knitter if I could sit surrounded by yarn and not be able to muster one little spark of creativity. I declared myself tired and in need of sleep, and put the whole pile of yarn away.

I wish I could say that in the clear light of morning, my knitting muse woke me up with a brilliant idea, but alas, that would be a lie. I’m still all muddled. And here’s the silly thing. At the market, I ALWAYS am knitting something. It’s what I DO there. And I don’t have anything on the needles. There’s only an hour and a half left till time to load up and get down there, and I’m getting worried.

Though, I do have one ray of hope… being around my customers at the market has an energizing effect. In fact, it is entirely possible someone will ask for something specific, which did happen from time to time last year.

I just hope no one asks me to knit them a chain saw cozy or something. We are, after all in the country, where chain saws are common.

Though come to think of it, gray WOULD be a good color for that kind of project…. hmmmm….

I weeded the potato patch and mulched between the rows with some of the moldy hay that S. gave me from her barn. And then spread some more around the crookneck squash hills. I had to stop there though because it was getting very warm. We are going to be in the low 90′s all week according to the weather people. We are all trying to get used to it.

Then I disemboweled my closet and spread my knitted items all over the place and began freshening them up and pricing the new ones in anticipation of the first market of the year this Thursday.  I am waiting for two items to dry that I felted just this morning, then I may take a group shot just for historical reference.

After lunch I washed the Cube. Old Suzie has been accumulating tree sap while resting in the shade of either the oak trees or the flowering plum tree. I couldn’t see out of the windshield and decided something must be done about it. Driving up and down our dirt country lane almost every day doesn’t help either. She’s always got dust on her fanny these days.

If I really get ambitious, I’m going to fire up the lawn mower and mow around the garden. I find that I am indulging in a fair amount of OCD behavior with the garden. I want it to be all weeded and tidy. Though to be sure, the mulch I have to put around should help keep the weeds at bay. I can’t do it all in one day though, as much as I would like to.

Anyhoo.. I leave you with what I did with the lettuce and strawberries and egg I gathered yesterday.

I added some carrot, feta, and avocado and took care of it one forkfull at a time.

He told me I could pick strawberries and gather any eggs from his chickens.

I took him up on his offer.

I

I wish this entry could include the incredible aroma of warm strawberries, but alas, you will have to exercise your imagination.

Trust me.

They are intoxicating.

For some reason, today I am hyper aware of the difference between the above state of being …

and this state of being….

Dudes.

The mind boggles.

There is no better proof of warm weather than the sound of a rainbird. It’s the soundtrack of summer.

The shadows are growing long this late afternoon.

And I?

I am rich.

In the green  stuff that really matters anyway.

The first picking of peas.

The months of hard labor that brought me to this place, fade into the background.

Dudes.

I have food to eat from my own plot of earth.

I am content.

And I’m making a note of it.