Monday, October 28, 2013

Back Ache

This was one of those "git 'er done" weekends.  Chuck and I are like bears.  Like muskrats.  We can sense the aging of the season and it makes us feel compelled to prepare and stock up.  The forecast tomorrow is for rain and the following day for snow.  I have an uneasy feeling that our Indian Summer is over.
Cook-stove wood needs to be cut to a length that can be easily and quickly shoved into the burner hole.  I like a lot of different widths, but nothing bigger around than my forearm.  Chuck set up the chop-saw on the driveway for me so I could cut limbs to the length I wanted, then haul them to their storage area under the deck.  This is about a third of what I have put up, but I need a bit more.
Firewood is piling up at a factory-like rate.  Chuck and I took down a friend's dead birch tree last weekend; and this weekend, he hauled away a bunch of dead aspens from another friend's vacant lot.  It all needs to be cut, split and stacked.  Annnnd.... we'll probably need to buy another cord.
 Chuck built me these boxes a few weeks ago, and I spent a lot of time this weekend leveling them.  This was the back-achy work.  The area where I want to put them is steeply sloped.  So, I had to clamber down into the dry creek-bed and haul rocks up here.  Some of them were heavy (what I call "two-hand rocks") and had to be positioned and re-positioned as I placed them and then examined the effect with a spirit-level.  Now, I just have to get some dirt in there and amend the soil and we will be all set for spring:  asparagus and rhubarb.  So worth the effort!

I took my creaky, achy self into the house at the end of the day, where my crock pot had been making a delicious Brazilian stew.  Nate surprised me with "Mom!  I need to make tortillas!  It's a school project!  Due tomorrow!"  Add more exclamation points if you like.  There were plenty.  [Deep sigh].  "OK, Nate.  Look up a recipe and hope that we have the ingredients we need, because I DO NOT want to run out to the store.  I'm pooped".  Luckily, this is an EASY recipe!  No big deal to make tortillas.  You can see by the pictures Nate took that we all joined in and experimented with patting and rolling them flat.

A bit blurry - Nate has a hard time holding the camera steady.  They were very yummy!  Our compliments to the chef.

And then, it was off to the hot-tub to soak my aching back.

No comments:

Post a Comment