Plain Sailing

The wonderful thing about problems is that you get to solve them. Something goes wrong. You worry on it.  You find a pathway to the solution. You fix it or you live with it. But it becomes familiar. The next time it goes wrong, you panic less because you have already found the pathway to the solution. Each problem becomes a challenge. Less of a disaster. 

So when TonTon got skunked AGAIN at 4 am yesterday morning, I just put the pillow over my nose and thought. Fine. I know how to clean him now. No worries.  And from now on he is not allowed outside until it is light. 

Then when I got to the barn with my clean dog by 6am and the milking machine pump did not work again. I did not panic, I had encountered this one before too.  I practiced my hand milking then I put Daisy back out into the yards with some extra placatory hay,  reached for the phone and called the nice man with the blue pump,  then milked her fully when he came. Then I called John to bring home the stuff he needed to clean my pump out again.  And hoped that he would fix one of the trucks soon so that I could pick up the emergency pump myself next time. 

When the wind hit gale force and the temperatures were over the expected high of 103, I thought fine I have closed all the windows already, the fans are on, I have done the best I can.  The Old Codger and I ate a good brunch to fortify ourselves for the day, finishing with icecream. Then with him calling orders from his porch I found an old tin rubbish bin lid which we turned upside down under a tree and filled with water for  his ‘critters’. Should have done that weeks ago he said, then  back to his chair he went to watch the Olympics.

Back home I worked outside in small hits. Drunk lots of water. Wore my hat which Ton practiced retrieving when the wind blew it off my head. And slowly achieved what I could.

A bucket of freshly picked  tomatoes was peeled, chopped, cooked, blended with the stick blender that I love, then put into the crockpot to cook down. 

I did not get to the pickles but that was OK.  Then the Tall Teenager called,  he was staying over with his grandmother for the night so dinner could be simple. And the clean up fast. I hung the evenings load of washing on the line. Got the sprinkler in place for the early morning watering, spent an hour struggling with the internet then hit the sack with my book.

But I had forgotton something. I had forgotton to turn off the crock pot.  After a while, sometime in the night, it must have switched itself to the lowest setting and look!

Beautiful thick sauce. Almost a paste. Overnight it reduced by half in the crock pot with the lid off.  So you see? Even my mistakes were good ones yesterday.

Good morning. It is still dark so TonTon is sat on the floor next to me, clean, but with his legs crossed waiting patiently for the skunk visitors to be Far Away!  We have put water plates on the outskirts of the property and I have begun to slowly move the usual garden water containers into gardens further from the house. I will move them further away from the bedroom steps each day and retrain the skunks away from my windows. This is my naive plan anyway.

It is thundering outside and as the light rises, a dark cloudy sky is being revealed. So at the very least it will be a cooler day. With any luck and a strong string we may be able to pull a little rain over here!

Have a lovely day.

celi

On this day a year ago.. I shared my bread non-recipe and was working on weaning lambs. I am enjoying these glimpses a year ago too.