I went “live” at the farm yesterday hoping you could hear the birds. They were going crazy out there! For some reason, the case I have on my phone interferes with the audio so I may end up getting a different one. It was very difficult to hear the birds on the recording, but…you got to see the lush, lush green that I love so much.
I went out to mow while Mr. FixIt took his truck to the muffler shop. It is always cooler at the farm than it is here at Marshmallow Ranch. That’s because there is a hollow…or as Grandma always said, a holler…up behind the barn that reaches way back up on the hill. It is shady and cool with a creek bed in the bottom of the “V”. Grandma would open the back door, then the front door, and that cool air would just run down the holler clear through house. It was so refreshing. And so it was yesterday. When the thermometer was 96° in town, I was enjoying a lovely breezy 81° on Grandma’s porch.
When I got home, it was SO hot. We’ve really tried to keep from using the air conditioning in the house, but we couldn’t get by without it yesterday. We gave in about 5:00 or so. I went out to turn on the grill. It lit, but only burned for a few minutes and went out. The tank was empty. I bought some marked down New York Strip steaks at Sam’s on Tuesday. I’ll bet it’s been over a year since I’ve had a steak. This package had four beautiful steaks for $25 so at $6 a steak, I was all over that deal!
I was disappointed the grill didn’t work, but there’s nothing wrong with an iron skillet for cooking up an awesome steak. I heated it up on the stovetop, sprayed with a bit of olive oil, seasoned the steaks with salt and fresh ground pepper and garlic powder. I seared them on both sides to seal in the juices, then added a good dollop of butter in the pan and finished them to a nice medium rare. A couple of ears of sweet corn, a sliced heirloom tomato, some cucumbers and onions in vinegar from the other night, and some sweet pickled baby beets made for a meal fit for royalty. We topped it off with the last of the pineapple sorbet that I made over the weekend. What a delightful meal. Mr. FixIt was a happy guy!
Once the dishes were done and a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory were over, I headed out the the pollinator gardens to see what was shakin’ out there. The deer were milling about. I realize now why all the trees and shrub along the hedgerow are cut off at one height all the way along. That’s as high as the deer can reach to nibble at the salad bar. lol I saw a young bunny darting in and out of the hedges, nibbling grass and watching me carefully.
On my way back up to the camper, there was a young buck and a doe grazing not far from the door. They weren’t much afraid of me. It’s not rutting season so they weren’t being territorial. They’ve just become accustomed to our presence and I don’t want to encourage that. Mr. FixIt went across the hill to town the other night and there were two deer up on their hind legs fighting. I didn’t want to walk in on anything like that, so I made the same sound they do when they’re alarmed. That got their attention and they jumped through the underbrush to the safety of the creek.
We leave on our trip a week from today! I still have so much to do, but I’m not stressed about it. It’ll get done…or it won’t. That’s what charge cards are for!
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“My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”
Isaiah 32:18 ESV