8/7/07

* * * Did I mention that with the first three eggs that were laid (lain?) by our chickens, I made Fred an egg sandwich? He declared that the eggs were not, in fact, “too eggy”. Actually, he said they were the best eggs he’d ever had. Sunday morning he found an egg and told me I could have it. (I know the days are coming when we’ll be saying “You need to eat more eggs! We’ve got too damn many of them!” to each other, but those days aren’t here yet.) I scrambled it with a little salt and pepper, and I have to agree with him – that was one damn fine egg. I’m looking forward to eating more of them!

* * *
I’ve made so many goddamn pickles lately that I’m not sure I need to see another cucumber for two years. And yet Fred keeps on bringing those bastards in. Not only does he bring them in, he put forth the idea that since they grow so quickly he could plant a second batch (since the current cucumber plants are infested with vine borers), and apparently my brain was on vacation, because I was all “Okay!” NOT OKAY. After making yet another batch of dill pickles over the weekend, I said to him “Did you actually plant another row of cucumbers yet?” and he said “Yeah, I did. Why?” and I said “Except for pickles, I do not even LIKE cucumbers, why the fuck are we even growing them?” and he said some bullshit about “learning to like” cucumbers, but I bet if I convinced him that cucumbers give me horrid gas, he’d be out there ripping those fuckers up in a heartbeat. Just because we CAN grow something doesn’t mean we SHOULD. I’m going to cross-stitch that and hang it in the (not yet built) garden shed to remind us of that little fact next year. (I still haven’t given the order to rip up the cucumbers, though. It seems so WASTEFUL.)
* * *
I am sad to report that Gilligan and Spanky were still at the pet store yesterday morning. Not only that, as soon as I walked through the door, they both zipped into the litter box and hid there. I sweet-talked them, I let them sniff my fingers, I tried petting them, and nothin’. They don’t remember me and they don’t want anything to do with me. The only time they showed any sign of anything other than abject fear was when Jack Frost (who still hasn’t been adopted) wandered by their cage. Spanky ran over to the bars and looked lovingly at Jack Frost (these kittens, I’m tellin’ ya, they really love the grown-up cats), but when I went over to open the door to the cage, Spanky zipped back into the litter box. Probably a good thing; Jack Frost has no use for little kittens. Or any other cats at all, really. I’m going back to the pet store on Wednesday, covering for the Wednesday evening cleaners (who are on vacation); I’m hoping that they’ve been adopted before then by some soft-hearted sucker cat lover. Maryanne – or “Little Miss”, as Fred calls her – pretty much has the run of the house these days. We put her in the foster kitten room at night, then Fred lets her out when he gets up at the crack of dawn, and she stays out all day. She’s a quiet thing, and every once in a while I have to go looking for her just to make sure she wasn’t “accidentally” killed by one of the big cats. She prefers to spend her time upstairs, sometimes on the cat tree in the foster room, sometimes on Fred’s bed, sometimes just hanging out on the stairs.
* * *
It always starts out sweetly with these two, usually a grooming love session in the kitchen. ::licka::licka::licka:: (It totally looks like Sugarbutt is nursing, here. He’s not. I swear it! It’s all innocent grooming. Apparently Tommy is a dirty, dirty boy.) And it always degenerates into kicking and biting and yowling in about ten seconds flat. Brudderly love. Nothin’ like it. ]]>

26 thoughts on “8/7/07”

  1. So Maryanne is staying forever, huh? Remember the last time one of those kittens got the run of the house… 😉

  2. And doesn’t she just fit right in with the house? It’s like it was MEANT to be!!! 😉

  4. My next-door neighbor, when I was a kid, put his extra garden produce in boxes on his front porch, next to a money jar, a scale, and a box of plastic bags. He put a sign up by the road (“Tomatoes – $1” or some such), and he let it man itself. As far as I know, nobody ever ripped him off, but I’m not sure it would have bugged him much if they had 🙂

  5. Robyn – since you have a plethora of cucumbers, I thought I’d offer an old family recipe for Red Cinnamon Pickles. The taste is similar to a cinnamon Jolly Rancher. Very yummy! I usually give jars for Christmas presents. Someone that I gave a jar to a couple of years ago, just dropped off a 5 gallon bucket of cucumbers on my door step last night. Do you think that was a hint?!?

  6. My to boys, who are also brothers, do the same thing. It’s the cutest thing to see them cleaning each other but then, wham, that’s all over and their duking it out.
    I hate pickles but if one tasted like a cinnamon Jolly Rancher I would probably at least try it.

  7. ChristineQ & Jennifer: Uh, no. She’s not staying. 🙂 (And strictly speaking, the last kitten who got the run of the house was Maddy!)
    Christy: I TOTALLY want that recipe, please!!!!

  8. I just read a new list ranking Huntsville Alabama as one of the best places to live based on cost of living, job growth and quality of life. I guess other people like it a lot better than you did.

  11. Robyn, I worry that you and Fred are going to do yourselves in working so hard on the farm. I can just see the headlines now in the Smallville Daily News, LOCAL COUPLE FOUND ON FARM DONE IN BY THEIR ON EFFORTS. The wife was found in the kitchen slumped in a chair with a pan full of cucumbers in her lap. Police theorized it was a heart attack possibly brought on by stress from excess canning. Her husband was found face down in the chicken pen, an egg clutched tightly in each hand. Police theorize he suffered a heatstroke and possibly stress from a compulsive disorder. The couple had lived on the farm less than a year. Left to mourn their passing are 8 cats, a coop full of chickens, numerous snakes and spiders, and their faithful farm companions, Bertha, the mighty farm tractor and Jezebel the handy farm truck. They will be sorley missed.

  13. I’ve eaten eggs laid by chickens allowed to scratch for their food in addition to a regular diet and there really is a difference. They just taste . . . right, somehow. Maybe because chickens are omnivores, not vegetarians,and a hen diet that includes insects makes for a better tasting egg.

  15. Robyn, I’ve been searching your site looking for info about the electric fence to share with a friend. I specifically wanted the entry about Mister Boogers getting out and getting zapped until he drooled, but I couldn’t find it.
    As you may know, I do medical transcription, and I have a text expander program so that I can type just a few letters and they *POOF* expand out to a whole bunch of words.
    So, after a few other search terms proved fruitless, I remembered that there was a brief chase scene with both you and Fred in that entry. I tried “fred chasing” but that still didn’t work. I backspaced the “ing” and replaced it with “ed” to get “fred chased.” Except I forgot about the text expander.
    So when you look at your stats and see that someone did a search on your page for “fred chaserectile dysfunction” you’ll know that was me, and why.
    Whew.

  16. Shirley: I promise you, we know when to take it easy. It’s just not as interesting to write about the time we spend on our butts in front of the computer or TV. 🙂
    Elayne: You made me laugh out loud – check your email!

  17. When you start accumulating too many eggs, it’s time to make angel food cake. 🙂 That will use at least a dozen.

  18. Jenn: Indeed. You can pay your way by shelling the GODDAMN black-eyed peas for me! 🙂
    Thea: I also have a frittata recipe that uses a dozen eggs!

  19. I’ve never shelled BEPs before! Um, I am a city mouse so you may not want me…but it would be worth the trip to Maryanne!

  20. Jenn: I’d never shelled them before, either – they’re easy enough to do, but by the 10 millionth pod, you will want to go on a shooting spree. Guaranteed!

  21. Hey Robyn, I know you guys know how to rest,I was just messing with you. Actually, I admire you for all your hard work and dedication. I love you guys no matter what you write about, your journal is the first one I check everyday.

  23. have you heard of the new craze in the canning community? once your pickles are pickled, pour off the juice and replace it with an equivalent amount of liquid sweetened kool-aid, like cherry or whatever flavor then let them sit in the fridge for a week. the thought kinda makes my stomach turn, but you might want to surprise fred with a batch of purple, grape-flavored sweet-n-sour pickles.

  25. The Chinese Cucumber salad is a big hit at one of our local Chinese restaurants. Last time we were there with friends, we kept requesting that plate after plate be brought out. (It was served before the meal – sort of a bread substitute.) I looked the recipe up online, and this is the closest thing I could find. http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/china/cucsalad.html
    The restaurant used hot peppers instead of Tabasco sauce, ginger rather than garlic, and instead of the cukes being cut into pieces, they were cut in paper thin slices (round). Also, our waitress said a longer marinating time (4 hours or overnight) is key.

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