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a country girl's weekend

Listening to:	Blossom, James Taylor, in my head
Reading:	various
Weather:	66, perfect and sunny!

This hot humid summer finally took a major turn, and it was 42 on my porch this morning! Sweet. Spring and Joe stayed in Bruceton last night and they said their car told them it was 39 when they woke up out there this morning. Down in the 30's! Yeah, baby, come on fall! Summer's nice for lots of reasons, but fall freakin rocks the casbah, you know it does.

So you may have already deduced that Spring and the babies came up for the weekend. Actually Spring, Summer, Joe, and Alan and Jurni. It was marvelous. They came in Thursday morning. We all went to the Barbour County Fair that night. The weather was perfect, we ate funnel cake, bought local honey, the kids rode rides till they closed'em down.

On the way down we saw a little bearcub amble across 119 near Pleasant Creek. So cute! I was looking for her mama as I slowed down, but didn't see her. Just last weekend Larry and I were at the drive-in standing in line for some popcorn and cheeseburgers when the dude next to us said he just saw a mama and 4 cubs on 119 at Pleasant Creek. The road is curvy in there so slow down as you approach, you might get lucky and see something that looks like a big black dog till ya get close enough to figure it out. Awesome, for real.

We feasted on food from Larry's garden at various points in the weekend, including yesterday's breakfast. I wished I had potatoes, but didn't feel like driving to town, so instead along with scrambled eggs I fried up sliced cabbage, banana peppers, and corn cut from the cob all from the garden, plus some onions from the co-op, add salt, pepper, cumin, and a dash of pickled hot pepper brine from last year's garden. Garnished with sliced tomatoes from the garden and sliced avocado. Toast with asian pear jam we made the day before. Strong coffee. Good livin.

Larry brought about 10 gallons of asian pears from his neighbor's tree. The neighbor said she's got all she can use, take whatever we want. We tried a some jam. The jars we canned seemed a little runny, but the stuff I didn't can but just put in the fridge turned out perfectly gelled and tasty. So we tried again today with more pectin, see if that gels up better in the jar. We also canned 7 quarts of just plain pears in water with a little lemon juice. They turned out a bit mushy, but still delicious. Tomorrow we plan to try 7 more quarts with a little sugar added, and 10 or 12 more jelly jars of jam. My friend Spud suggests we pickle some, which we might try, as well. Maybe a spiced pickled pear, mmm.

We also cooked up spaghetti with a pound of ground cow from down the road and the tomato sauce we canned last weekend. Hell yes, it was delicious. That sauce endeavor was not so fun, since it was frickin hot and sticky and you have to stand over a stove for hours to make and another hour to can. I'm saying let's just can the tomatoes. Then some cold winter weekend open some jars and make sauce, when it's more pleasant to be stirring over a steaming pot for a few hours.

We also took the little ones to Grafton 123 last night to see Kevin Ford. I've been a fan of his for years. We used to play some of the same clubs around the area back in the 90's and I got to see him occasionally at festivals and poker runs when my band was playing the same venue. We all had a good time last night and Kevin sounded great. Grafton 123 is a great place to see live music, especially acoustic solo or duo, my favorite flavor.

Today Randy and Daria stopped by and we tasted a couple of beers Mike Sharley gave me. First was a brown ale called Moose Drool from Montana brewery Big Sky Brewing. Delicious! Rich and malty smell and taste, dark brown color, a little spice in the carbonation on the way down, I loved this beer. Then we tried Dragon's Milk, a oak-aged ale from Michigan. 10% alcohol, and you can tell as soon as you swallow. It burns like liquor and the alcohol taste really overwhelms the beer, imho. Nice very dark color with a hint of red, smelled like oak, and there was a malty taste in there but you don't get it for long before you're knocked over by a whiskey finish. Not my cup of tea, but fun to try and cool label.

I missed out on my friend Joe's awesome shindig in Barboursville. I'm sure those cats had a splendid time playing music and enjoying food, drink, and comradery. Wish I could have been 2 places at once! It's hard for me to choose to be elsewhere when the little ones they come up, even though I am fortunate to get to see them ever few months, I hate to miss a minute, they won't be little for long.

Ahh, tomorrow, Labor Day, a day to get paid not to labor. Or at least to labor to for one's own desires rather than for a paycheck. Extra sweet.

permalink posted by cat 6:06 PM

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