Oh, Man, I'm Tired

You know, this lot doesn't look very wide when you're just looking at it, but when you're sidestepping down it yanking out weeds like you're in the Olympics, it's wide.  The mature part of me thought I would weed a section or two every day for a week and get it done without exhausting myself.  The stronger part of me, the stubborn part, figured that since I was already hot and sweaty and filthy I might as well keep going until I finished, then tomorrow I can gather up all of the branches (I trimmed the tree too because it kept trying to poke me in the face when I mowed the other day) and weeds and either stuff them into my compost corner or borrow LJ and his truck for a quick trip to the yard waste place.

 


Oh, and these ants bite you when you yank weeds out of their house.  See them on the orange handles?




 

Last week OJ found an empty suet feeder that I left lying on the patio and he wanted to put some bird food in it so we dug out some small cobs of corn and unhooked a little wind chime so he could hang it.  It took a couple days but I noticed yesterday that one of the chipmunks found it.






 
I paged through my WW recipe binder this morning and found a few recipes to make.  I did some grocery shopping after my haircut and picked up a rotisserie chicken so I could make Cauliflower Puree with BBQ Rotisserie Chicken for supper.  It's so good and so easy.  You rice 12 oz. of raw cauliflower in the food processor in two batches, dump it into a saucepan with 1/2 cup of cornmeal, and 1 1/3 cups of chicken broth.  


You bring it to a boil, stirring constantly, then simmer it for 10 minutes until it's thickened and the cauliflower's cooked.  Take it off the heat and stir in 3/4 c. of shredded cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.


 


Keep that warm while you stir up some BBQ sauce with tomato sauce, yellow mustard, catsup, chili powder, onion and garlic powders.  Cook that for a few minutes to thicken a bit, then stir in 12 oz. of cut up rotisserie chicken and heat through.  3/4 cup of the puree into a bowl, 3/4 cup of the chicken mixture, top with sliced scallions.  Devour.  (3 WW Freestyle points/serving)



 

Since I finished the cardi back and it's still drying (actually it's still soaking) I needed something to knit so I cast on another one of those big yarn/big needles slipper socks.  This one I'll make look less scrappy and more like I planned it, which I kind of did.  I'll knit an inch of the charcoal between color changes.  It'll look nice.  Plus it goes fast.  And it won't match the first one.



When I poked the camera out the patio doors to take "before" pictures of the weeds a hummingbird zoomed up to investigate the honeysuckle and I managed to take its picture.  I got a very short video too, very short.  I feel like I should get a prize.  I wish I could print it and show Durwood.



September 5--Frederic Remington, The Smoke Signal.  Two men knelt by the small smoky fire while the third sat on his horse holding the reins of their horses.  News needed to be sent.  From their position atop the hill the smoke rose high enough to be seen by the bands of people on the plains below them.  It was a hot day with hardly any wind so the smoke wasn't snatched and spread out too soon.  The men by the fire were careful not burn the blanket they used to control the smoke.  They had all heard of battles lost because of burned blankets.  None of them wanted to become the name in a cautionary tale, snickered over around a storytelling fire.

I was sure today wouldn't be a weeding day.  Look at how hard it rained this morning but it cleared off so I had plenty of time to inch and sweat my way from one end of the retaining wall to the other wielding my snips and lopping shears when weeds didn't cooperate.  I'm relentless like that.  I plan to take it easy tomorrow.  (and if you believe that, I've got a bridge I can let you have cheap...)
--Barbara