November 9, 2012
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Sitting by my wood fire; roaring in the woodstove, smelling my chicken soup bubbling on the stove and seeing a rainbow in the cloudy, windy November day makes me feel more than satisfied. To make it even nicer, Lucy came this morning and we worked on getting the back two bedrooms cleaned and ready for our new house guest who is due to arrive on Sunday. I hope the huge winter storm they are predicting doesn’t cause her any problems as she will be driving down from Denver. (Our other two house guests who have been here since August moved out this week). Pete, Heather and boys are also flying home on Sunday from Richmond, VA via Chicago and Denver to Durango, so I hope and pray the storm won’t delay them. Traveling with three children under the age of five isn’t easy, and weather complications could be awful. But back to cleaning and having Lucy come help. Initially when I asked her to come on Friday’s it was of course to help her, as she is back in school working on getting her G.E.D. and can’t hold down a fulltime job. Of course as so often happens, she is helping me in more ways than I counted on. She is a Navajo woman who I probably met when I was four or five years old, (she would have been two or so), as I am a few years older than her. When someone has been in and out of your life for almost 55 years, a lot of history has been covered! We knew each other back when……
Yesterday I cleaned out two large freezers and two refrigerator freezers and of course in the throwing out dated food, I ran across some old bananas. I throw over-ripe bananas in my freezer when I have them and then make banana bread when I have time. After Lucy left I made a loaf of banana/walnut bread Instead of one cup of banana pulp, I used two, since I had so much and I didn’t want to put them back in the freezer. I’m having a hard time resisting the wonderful aroma of the banana bread cooling on my counter. (Resisting eating it I mean!).
After getting home from Virginia on Monday evening, going grocery shopping, cleaning house, doing laundry and cleaning out freezers this week I feel quite satisfied and self-righteous. Next week we will pick up the beef at the butchers and my freezers will be full. Half a beef raised on our own pasture, vegetables raised in our (almost) organic garden, fresh milk and eggs picked up weekly from two local farms….we are living the life we always wanted!
Just don’t ask me yet about next summer’s garden plans (or harvest and canning/freezing!). The above picture of my adorable, charming, intelligent and fun-loving grandchildren (but not always quiet or still….) was taken over last weekend in Williamsburg, VA.
