This is the best thing on television: Behold, FOOD JAMMERS.
It almost makes me wish I lived in Toronto. I would hang around the 'warehouse' wherever it is and wait for the delicious treats. Maybe they need a girl in the cast. It's right up my alley.
In fact, we're chewing on ideas for how to make cider at home, and last night I was thrilled to turn on the tv and see an episode called "I'm So Ex-Cidered". Their elaborate rig was much more than what I'll be doing at home (which basically involves old countertop and C-clamps) but still, it was inspiring, and hubby took notes.
I heart the Food Jammers. They're my new best friends and they don't even know it.
That show follows "Ace of Cakes" which is pretty cool as well, but somehow makes me never want to eat cake again.
8/22/07
The Pollination Association
The other day a work colleague of mine told me all about her new adventures in bee-keeping. She knew I'd be interested; anything vaguely animal-or-nature-related is right up my alley, and especially when they intersect with food production and Do-It-Yourselfism. I just made that up. Did I just make that up?
Anyway, it got me to thinking. I don't think I'm quite prepared, time-wise or financially, to devote myself to bee-keeping, though I do believe it's in my future somewhere. I started to think about the ecology of my yard, and about who's doing all the work in it. I have a lot of bumblebees. Since my entire perennial garden is overtaken by oregano each year, and it blooms at about this time, the garden is currently one giant buzzing engine of pollination and productivity. Incidentally, I'll bet that oregano honey is marvellous. In the spring, when the apple trees are in bloom, the buzzing comes from overhead and I used to find it disconcerting but not anymore. Those bees are too busy to notice me.
Though I don't really think I need to encourage the bees any further, since they actually seem to have colonized my yard without any effort, I came across designs on the internet for bee houses. It came about through my research into where exactly bumblebees nest, what the nests look like and whether or not they produce honey. I didn't get any great answers to the first questions -- though the nests do tend to look gross, like bubbling wax or lava, on the inside -- I did learn that bumblebees don't produce much honey, only enough to feed their young.
At any rate, I looked up the designs for bee houses, so I can observe their lifecycle sometime in the future. I'm not inclined to buy bumblebees, since I have so many already, but they say that if you put the houses out in the spring, they'll find them themselves, since they spend a good chunk of time searching for an appropriate nest at the beginning of the season. I doodled this design in PaintBrush: 
I read that bumblebees seem to prefer mauve and yellow, so I will paint the area around the entry pipe in a mauve and yellow flower-pattern. This also gets a hinged lid/roof, which will overhang a bit. The pink stuff is fibreglass insulation. And how civilized are they? The first room is a 'vestibule', which they use as a washroom so they don't have to poo in the nest. I know humans dirtier than that.
I read that bumblebees seem to prefer mauve and yellow, so I will paint the area around the entry pipe in a mauve and yellow flower-pattern. This also gets a hinged lid/roof, which will overhang a bit. The pink stuff is fibreglass insulation. And how civilized are they? The first room is a 'vestibule', which they use as a washroom so they don't have to poo in the nest. I know humans dirtier than that.
So over the winter I'm going to make a few of these and stick them all around the property. I'll see what happens - I'm almost happy with whatever decides to use them, unless they're earwigs.
On the more complex side, Lee Valley tools has a pattern for making bat houses. Bats are such terrific little creatures: they pollinate certain plants, but mostly they're an awesome form of mosquito control. If we sit out on the deck at night we can feel/see/hear them flapping by overhead, protecting us from our buggy scourge. Bat houses aren't simple to make - they are governed by some strict rules - and they have to be placed in tricky spots away from busy areas. I'm thinking mine would have to be up in a tree somewhere. Bats are shy. But I think it would be neat to provide homes for them and encourage them to stick around. Maybe if the winter's really long and dull I'll get to that.
My colleague has promised me a field trip to her friend's hives. She's got two, apparently, and produces a LOT of honey out of them. It seems that one could become overwhelmed by the quantity of honey produced, especially if you're not inclined to eat it often. But honey is a great, natural, organic and ecologically-sound sugar substitute - I even read that it can be used to sweeten cider - so it might be worth it to anyone interested in the 100 mile diet-type food sourcing ethos, as I am. How great would it be to get all your sugar from the back yard? Pair that with maple syrup, which my brother's friends make, for a bit of variety and all your sweetening needs can be covered within 10 miles.
I look forward to seeing what's involved in the hives, and whether or not it would be do-able to have just one in my back yard. We're trying to create a small orchard area in the back, as I planted a cherry tree this past spring which looks nice and healthy, and next year I think it'll be a plum tree, to replace the sickly one in the front yard. Stick a bee hive under those and away we go. She told me that it needs attention every two weeks, and that sounds like a maintenance plan that even I could stick with, especially since it's only for half the year.
Back to cider: I think we're going to try to tackle cider this year. We have two varieties of apple growing in the yard, and more scattered around the neighborhood (the area used to be an orchard, many many years ago). The ones in the yard are pretty cultivated, not crab-appley or wormy at all. I have MacIntoshes but also another kind, which are huge and juicy but oh-so-tart. I figure a mix of these two will suffice, with maybe some sour wild ones thrown in, but my big question is whether or not I can extract the juice using an electric juicer. I don't really feel like building a press, especially since I don't have all that much time this fall. The apples are almost ready to pick so it's going to become an issue soon, and I need an answer. Then I need to go to the wine making place and get a carboy, and an airlock, and then I need to source some old Grolsch bottles that I can clean up and use for bottling. I think there's a closet in the basement with "Cider-Factory" written all over it. We're going to make hard cider (duh) and carbonate it so it'll be nice and fizzy and ready to drink by Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can't think of what else to do with my apples, I really have too many each year, and I never have the energy to make more than one or two pies. I think I still have apple juice in the freezer from last year. God it's such a mess.
So stay tuned for food-production tales. In the meantime, here's a story I wrote a few years ago for YouGrowGirl on my home-canning adventures.
8/16/07
Evaluation (with photos!)
I decided that today would be the day that I finally got around to using the nifty little USB drive thingie that I got for free from the Quebec City Tourism people to put my photos onto this here blog. I've been saving up.
And now some of these photos are making me sad. I went into the garden last night and realized that I might have some more problems again this year - on close inspection, I do believe that once again, the earwigs have gotten into my peppers. Also, they are selling sweet corn everywhere along the highways of this province and others, and yet my corn has tufts but nothing else. No hint of a cob anywhere. I have one pumpkin, and that's all I think I'm going to get from my 5 vines. I have one cayenne pepper, because the beans overtook the little wee homegrown plants, and the beans are dunzo. The romaine lettuce went bitter so I've let it go to seed, and the cilantro's finally completely done and gone to seed as well. I ripped out all the potatoes I could find, which weren't many because I didn't plant them correctly this year. The garlic's done, and I don't have a bumper crop of tomatoes - of the ones I've got, none of them have started to ripen yet.
Anyway, it's not all doom and gloom, behold the photographs:
I am so proud of this garlic it's sick. And I can't wait to plant three times as much in fall, for next year. What a satisfying thing to grow! And here I thought I wasn't able - this year turned everything around, perhaps because I bought good quality seed garlic from Vesey's.
And now some of these photos are making me sad. I went into the garden last night and realized that I might have some more problems again this year - on close inspection, I do believe that once again, the earwigs have gotten into my peppers. Also, they are selling sweet corn everywhere along the highways of this province and others, and yet my corn has tufts but nothing else. No hint of a cob anywhere. I have one pumpkin, and that's all I think I'm going to get from my 5 vines. I have one cayenne pepper, because the beans overtook the little wee homegrown plants, and the beans are dunzo. The romaine lettuce went bitter so I've let it go to seed, and the cilantro's finally completely done and gone to seed as well. I ripped out all the potatoes I could find, which weren't many because I didn't plant them correctly this year. The garlic's done, and I don't have a bumper crop of tomatoes - of the ones I've got, none of them have started to ripen yet.
Anyway, it's not all doom and gloom, behold the photographs:
I am so proud of this garlic it's sick. And I can't wait to plant three times as much in fall, for next year. What a satisfying thing to grow! And here I thought I wasn't able - this year turned everything around, perhaps because I bought good quality seed garlic from Vesey's.
This is one side of the garden about a month ago. The big dirty bare patch is where the garlic and cilantro used to live, but have since been ripped out. I'm taking suggestions as to what to plant there for fall: spinach? Definitely more garlic, for next year.
My darling peppers, pre-earwig. How on earth can I (naturally) repel these disgusting little terrors? Do you want to know the grossest thing? I eat the peppers anyway. I wash them all out first and cut off the bad bits, but I don't waste a thing dammit.
I think this was actually last year. Yeah, looks too tidy to have been this year. Anyway, this was obviously early June, because of the peonies, but it's my front hill garden in its full messy glory.
I took this one the other morning. I had ONE mutant giant blue morning glory. That's no miracle of perspective - the other ones in the photo are normal size.
Aside from all the rotten garden news, I do have a few successes to report. My turnips are adorable and yummy, though I do have to pull them all out soon. My kale is doing well, despite the slugs on the lower leaves, which I just remove anyway. I did get a hell of a lot of cilantro and garlic and basil, and there's still a good lot of basil that I grew from seed. My one pumpkin is lovely, and I will still get some good tomatoes. I've been eating cherry tomatoes, 2 a day, every day for a few weeks now, so I guess I can count that a success too. I may still get corn, some decent peppers, and one eggplant. I may also get a couple of cucumbers, despite the cucumber beetles I keep finding.
At this rate, I won't be self-sufficient for a very long time.
So here's what I have to do differently next year:
- Fertilize with more compost. I didn't turn anything into my dirt this year and it shows.
- Try rows, instead of this over-abundant free-flowing design which only seems to encourage bugs and slugs. Since the stick ornament may be on its last legs this year (it falls apart if I so much as breathe on it), I can gut the garden in fall and re-design it.
- Mulch with straw.
- Grow more than one ground cherry, eggplant, cherry tomato, and thai basil plant.
- Plant my potatoes properly, and use real seed potatoes.
- Use floating row covers or something right off the bat to protect against cucumber beetles.
- Pay more attention to why my pumpkins are falling off at 1 inch big, and remedy it.
- Harvest beans more regularly. Move back to the purple bush beans.
- Contain the mint.
- Contain the cilantro.
- Grow more spinach.
- Don't let the lettuce get bitter. Why did I do that? I like salads.
- Let the strawberries flourish and spread.
- Put more bug-repelling ornamentals in the garden.
- Pay attention to what's going to shade what when it all grows up.
- Don't try to grow so many weird and exotic things that I don't know what to do with.
- Plant in mounds/raised rows.
- Use landscape fabric to keep the weeds out.
- Put flagstones in the entrance.
Every year is a learning experience. One of these years I'm going to get it right.
8/13/07
The Lumber Yard and Wilderness Tails
Well, didn't I have to go and perform more minor surgery on my arm this weekend.
The splinter I got a week ago was still greenish and festering in my arm, and I figured it had gone on just a bit too long. Finally, I cleaned it all out, sterilized a pin, and pulled out the cause of the problem. And didn't I have a 2 x 4 in my arm. OK maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was definitely kindling-worthy chunk of wood. Now that it's gone, I'm healing nicely.
On Saturday we had one of those idyllic summer days at the beach with friends. We got there on the late side of the proposed meeting time, and were the first ones there. A half hour later, up paddles another friend, one that we in error hadn't thought to invite, with his two kids. Then the others started to trickle in, and the entire day was spent as follows: heat up on the sand, then cool down in the water (repeat as needed). We ate, we drank, we floated, we tanned, and at the end of it all, as the sun went down, we all retired back to our place and ordered delicious local gourmet-type pizza and watched for meteors (we saw a spectacular one). By 11:30 everyone was gone home and the house was cleaner than it had been that morning. A perfect day.
Yesterday was hot. We did small around-the-house things. Then last night we had mouse adventures: I heard one chewing at the wall in the kitchen, behind an electrical outlet. We have mice in that spot constantly, and only in that spot, and they all seem to have the same goal in mind: chew through the drywall and get onto the counter. Did they all read the same memo? How many mice are in the house anyway? I don't have a problem with it because I've got to re-tile the kitchen anyway, and then the problem will be solved, but it's a bit irritating and gross if they eventually make it out onto the counter. I called hubby, because he is the mouse whisperer, and enjoys catching them by the tail and putting them outside alive. One night last summer he caught two after I went to bed, and dashed upstairs for show and tell. I had no idea what he was doing, so when he showed up in the bedroom with a wriggling paper bag and said "WANNA SEE WHAT I'VE GOT????" I wasn't really prepared for the two-mouse midnight experience.
This particular one, however, must have snuck some grounds out of the coffee maker, because not only was he chewing so voraciously that I heard it in the living room, but he made a speedy break for it, running under the fridge, the microwave cart, the counters, and eluded hubby. All of a sudden the cat had a mouse in the living room. We got it away from her, but it took off to the back of the house. Behind the computer it went. Then into the bathroom. Then up into the bathroom vanity. Then into the inner bathroom. Then out and into the t.v. room. I got wise and stood in the door of the t.v. room shaking a blanket so it wouldn't get out, and hubby chased it around and around the room, like, six times. It was seriously adorable, like a little wind-up toy, and hubby broke a sweat. It had the upper hand for sure. Finally it got onto the window frame, where it was trapped, and hubby picked it up by the tail, all wriggly and cute, and put it outside near the shed.
But this morning when we got up, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. The same one? Were there two? I think there was a kitchen mouse and a living room mouse, and the kitchen mouse bit the biscuit. Neither of the cats claimed responsibility, but they both looked pretty self-satisfied this morning.
In other news, on Friday night I finally went to investigate the tree from which we heard intense screaming nearly a week before. I had been looking for the cat late at night, and apparently set this creature off, scaring it pretty bad. I located the sound just across the street from us and up a tree. When hubby went crashing through the forest with his flashlight to investigate and see if any of our cats were in trouble (Sasha was still out) it got hysterical and screamed and screamed. When we all went back onto our deck, it continued to whimper for about an hour (Sasha had, in the meantime, wandered innocently onto the deck and been put inside). Shining the flashlight upwards produced no glowing eyes, and it had pretty strong vocal cords, so when my cousin went "it almost sounds like a scared baby bear, calling for its mother", I hollered at my dear husband to exit the woods, stat. It did indeed sound like a scared baby animal crying, with good solid vocal cords, from up a tree. While on the deck we listened for momma's rescue, and we did hear crunching gravel on the road between us and the tree. Anyway, Friday evening in the daylight I went to check it out, and sure enough, among the stand of hardwood from whence the crying came, there was one tree with little climbing claw marks all up it, about one week old. Sharp claw marks. With an apple tree at its base. When we looked in the nature book we learned that bears are born in January/February, but perhaps this one was still small enough to be up a tree of about 8-9 inches in diametre. Anyway, it was sobering. So now I have new worries: momma bears in my yard, and eastern cougars in the 'hood. Do big cats eat little cats? I'm sure a bear would freak a little cat out. Add that to my list of menacing wildlife in my immediate vicinity (wolves, coyotes, fishers, bears, cougars, oh my).
Sometimes living in the country puts you face to face with just a bit too much life. At least it's never dull.
The splinter I got a week ago was still greenish and festering in my arm, and I figured it had gone on just a bit too long. Finally, I cleaned it all out, sterilized a pin, and pulled out the cause of the problem. And didn't I have a 2 x 4 in my arm. OK maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was definitely kindling-worthy chunk of wood. Now that it's gone, I'm healing nicely.
On Saturday we had one of those idyllic summer days at the beach with friends. We got there on the late side of the proposed meeting time, and were the first ones there. A half hour later, up paddles another friend, one that we in error hadn't thought to invite, with his two kids. Then the others started to trickle in, and the entire day was spent as follows: heat up on the sand, then cool down in the water (repeat as needed). We ate, we drank, we floated, we tanned, and at the end of it all, as the sun went down, we all retired back to our place and ordered delicious local gourmet-type pizza and watched for meteors (we saw a spectacular one). By 11:30 everyone was gone home and the house was cleaner than it had been that morning. A perfect day.
Yesterday was hot. We did small around-the-house things. Then last night we had mouse adventures: I heard one chewing at the wall in the kitchen, behind an electrical outlet. We have mice in that spot constantly, and only in that spot, and they all seem to have the same goal in mind: chew through the drywall and get onto the counter. Did they all read the same memo? How many mice are in the house anyway? I don't have a problem with it because I've got to re-tile the kitchen anyway, and then the problem will be solved, but it's a bit irritating and gross if they eventually make it out onto the counter. I called hubby, because he is the mouse whisperer, and enjoys catching them by the tail and putting them outside alive. One night last summer he caught two after I went to bed, and dashed upstairs for show and tell. I had no idea what he was doing, so when he showed up in the bedroom with a wriggling paper bag and said "WANNA SEE WHAT I'VE GOT????" I wasn't really prepared for the two-mouse midnight experience.
This particular one, however, must have snuck some grounds out of the coffee maker, because not only was he chewing so voraciously that I heard it in the living room, but he made a speedy break for it, running under the fridge, the microwave cart, the counters, and eluded hubby. All of a sudden the cat had a mouse in the living room. We got it away from her, but it took off to the back of the house. Behind the computer it went. Then into the bathroom. Then up into the bathroom vanity. Then into the inner bathroom. Then out and into the t.v. room. I got wise and stood in the door of the t.v. room shaking a blanket so it wouldn't get out, and hubby chased it around and around the room, like, six times. It was seriously adorable, like a little wind-up toy, and hubby broke a sweat. It had the upper hand for sure. Finally it got onto the window frame, where it was trapped, and hubby picked it up by the tail, all wriggly and cute, and put it outside near the shed.
But this morning when we got up, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. The same one? Were there two? I think there was a kitchen mouse and a living room mouse, and the kitchen mouse bit the biscuit. Neither of the cats claimed responsibility, but they both looked pretty self-satisfied this morning.
In other news, on Friday night I finally went to investigate the tree from which we heard intense screaming nearly a week before. I had been looking for the cat late at night, and apparently set this creature off, scaring it pretty bad. I located the sound just across the street from us and up a tree. When hubby went crashing through the forest with his flashlight to investigate and see if any of our cats were in trouble (Sasha was still out) it got hysterical and screamed and screamed. When we all went back onto our deck, it continued to whimper for about an hour (Sasha had, in the meantime, wandered innocently onto the deck and been put inside). Shining the flashlight upwards produced no glowing eyes, and it had pretty strong vocal cords, so when my cousin went "it almost sounds like a scared baby bear, calling for its mother", I hollered at my dear husband to exit the woods, stat. It did indeed sound like a scared baby animal crying, with good solid vocal cords, from up a tree. While on the deck we listened for momma's rescue, and we did hear crunching gravel on the road between us and the tree. Anyway, Friday evening in the daylight I went to check it out, and sure enough, among the stand of hardwood from whence the crying came, there was one tree with little climbing claw marks all up it, about one week old. Sharp claw marks. With an apple tree at its base. When we looked in the nature book we learned that bears are born in January/February, but perhaps this one was still small enough to be up a tree of about 8-9 inches in diametre. Anyway, it was sobering. So now I have new worries: momma bears in my yard, and eastern cougars in the 'hood. Do big cats eat little cats? I'm sure a bear would freak a little cat out. Add that to my list of menacing wildlife in my immediate vicinity (wolves, coyotes, fishers, bears, cougars, oh my).
Sometimes living in the country puts you face to face with just a bit too much life. At least it's never dull.
8/10/07
Batting a Thousand
I had the weirdest, most injurious week last week. I was off, on my last bit of vacation of the summer, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. One would think that all of that would add up to a great little holiday.
However, at the beginning of the week I was dealing with the effects of a strange medical thing. Somehow, I super-reacted to my low dose of Clomid, and developed many giant follicles/cysts on my ovaries, which led to visible bloating, pain and discomfort. Also I was thirsty and spin-heady. None of my clothes fit properly and I was grouchy, and also worried that any sexy time would lead to, like, quintuplets (ack!) so I was keeping my distance from hubby.
Monday and Tuesday, I was starting to ramp up the weirdness with a few crazy mis-haps. We were dog-sitting for my boss, whose 17-year-old terrier mutt came to live with us for the week. She was very sweet, a great houseguest. However, I guess we didn't hear her urgent little barks early Tuesday morning, because we woke up to little liquid and solid treats on our tile floor. No problem. With a sigh and some bleachy cleaner I rectified that as soon as I woke up. I believe she was apologetic, and I held no bad feelings.
But then as the week progressed I started doing really spazzy things. I went to make an espresso and didn't replace the espresso grounds, so ran it through with old grounds. Yuck.
I watered the garden with the sprinkler, left it on too long, and ran out of water for the rest of the day(we're on a well).
I stepped, barefoot, into one of the dog's little gifts in the long grass of our lawn. With my brother as witness. Har har.
My dad yanked a section of old chimney out of our concrete wall, and I was sitting on the ground and it fell squarely onto my leg. I now have a lovely large green bruise on my calf.
Then my mom came over and I made coffee, and forgot to pour the water into the coffee maker. The machine was not happy about that.
On Friday I was expecting my cousin's long-weekend visit, and was cleaning the bathroom. For some reason, I flushed a sock down the toilet. The toilet was not happy about that. I guess the sock probably isn't either, wherever it is.
I got a barn-board splinter inside my house, which is still greenish and festering in my arm, even after the minor surgery I performed to remove the largest piece.
On Saturday morning, as we were working on the siding, and right after I'd astutely proclaimed that stepping on a certain part of the deck was unsafe because of the way the boards had been replaced after a repair, I proceeded to step on that very spot and fall through the deck. Luckily I also fell backwards, so most of my body actually fell down a couple of stairs, and only my legs went through the deck. I thought for sure something was broken, but alas, only bruised and slightly scratched.
And then the coup de grâce - on Sunday we went boating on 31-mile Lake, north of our place, and as I went to spread gooey sunscreen on my arms I absent-mindedly pulled off my wedding rings. Stupid move. I tossed my engagement ring right overboard, off of a moving boat, into 100 feet of water. Gone. What a totally sick feeling. It wasn't enormously valuable in terms of money but had tremendous sentimental value to me, and I miss it a lot. I feel naked. I loved that ring, it was so me. Hopefully I can have a friend re-create it, thereby instilling the new one with its own meaning. (sniff)
Then we left my husband's glasses on my parents' boat, which stays up at the lake. Which is an hour away from our house.
Monday was a chilled-out day. Nothing went very wrong, except that my mom and I had to take 3 hours and a significant amount of gasoline to drive up and get the glasses (hubby could hardly see through his old ones), and almost didn't make it back in time for my boss to pick up her dog.
I tell you, I was almost happy to come back to work. Knock on wood, nothing has been overly weird since. My husband said "yeah I wasn't going to say anything but I wasn't so crazy about you driving last week." He was right to be worried; I was truly a danger unto myself.
We're getting ready for another weekend. Tomorrow is a beach day with a bunch of friends, and I am leaving my wedding ring at home and bringing band-aids.
However, at the beginning of the week I was dealing with the effects of a strange medical thing. Somehow, I super-reacted to my low dose of Clomid, and developed many giant follicles/cysts on my ovaries, which led to visible bloating, pain and discomfort. Also I was thirsty and spin-heady. None of my clothes fit properly and I was grouchy, and also worried that any sexy time would lead to, like, quintuplets (ack!) so I was keeping my distance from hubby.
Monday and Tuesday, I was starting to ramp up the weirdness with a few crazy mis-haps. We were dog-sitting for my boss, whose 17-year-old terrier mutt came to live with us for the week. She was very sweet, a great houseguest. However, I guess we didn't hear her urgent little barks early Tuesday morning, because we woke up to little liquid and solid treats on our tile floor. No problem. With a sigh and some bleachy cleaner I rectified that as soon as I woke up. I believe she was apologetic, and I held no bad feelings.
But then as the week progressed I started doing really spazzy things. I went to make an espresso and didn't replace the espresso grounds, so ran it through with old grounds. Yuck.
I watered the garden with the sprinkler, left it on too long, and ran out of water for the rest of the day(we're on a well).
I stepped, barefoot, into one of the dog's little gifts in the long grass of our lawn. With my brother as witness. Har har.
My dad yanked a section of old chimney out of our concrete wall, and I was sitting on the ground and it fell squarely onto my leg. I now have a lovely large green bruise on my calf.
Then my mom came over and I made coffee, and forgot to pour the water into the coffee maker. The machine was not happy about that.
On Friday I was expecting my cousin's long-weekend visit, and was cleaning the bathroom. For some reason, I flushed a sock down the toilet. The toilet was not happy about that. I guess the sock probably isn't either, wherever it is.
I got a barn-board splinter inside my house, which is still greenish and festering in my arm, even after the minor surgery I performed to remove the largest piece.
On Saturday morning, as we were working on the siding, and right after I'd astutely proclaimed that stepping on a certain part of the deck was unsafe because of the way the boards had been replaced after a repair, I proceeded to step on that very spot and fall through the deck. Luckily I also fell backwards, so most of my body actually fell down a couple of stairs, and only my legs went through the deck. I thought for sure something was broken, but alas, only bruised and slightly scratched.
And then the coup de grâce - on Sunday we went boating on 31-mile Lake, north of our place, and as I went to spread gooey sunscreen on my arms I absent-mindedly pulled off my wedding rings. Stupid move. I tossed my engagement ring right overboard, off of a moving boat, into 100 feet of water. Gone. What a totally sick feeling. It wasn't enormously valuable in terms of money but had tremendous sentimental value to me, and I miss it a lot. I feel naked. I loved that ring, it was so me. Hopefully I can have a friend re-create it, thereby instilling the new one with its own meaning. (sniff)
Then we left my husband's glasses on my parents' boat, which stays up at the lake. Which is an hour away from our house.
Monday was a chilled-out day. Nothing went very wrong, except that my mom and I had to take 3 hours and a significant amount of gasoline to drive up and get the glasses (hubby could hardly see through his old ones), and almost didn't make it back in time for my boss to pick up her dog.
I tell you, I was almost happy to come back to work. Knock on wood, nothing has been overly weird since. My husband said "yeah I wasn't going to say anything but I wasn't so crazy about you driving last week." He was right to be worried; I was truly a danger unto myself.
We're getting ready for another weekend. Tomorrow is a beach day with a bunch of friends, and I am leaving my wedding ring at home and bringing band-aids.
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