Sunday Evening, 101.

 Sunday Evening, 101.

 

Yep, that is the temperature on my front porch. A steady breeze blows from whichever direction a person might face—meaning it is as changeable as the heat. It’s just there, wherever one might be. Texas.

 

The dogs must be getting as spoiled as the old woman who lives here. They don’t seem to appreciate the heat either. They watch me check the nests and the water bowls and then hop up on the deck as soon as it is obvious that staying outside is not in the forecast. Sylvia made sure to roll around in the grass so she could do her part of decorating the house with dead grass stems. Thompson just comes in snorting and blowing the dust out of his nose. He walked over to the fridge a bit ago to let me know he needed a snack. He refused to eat any dog food this morning even with milk on it. But he has had the equivalent of six sticks of string cheese. These have to be doled out one little piece at a time—and the pieces have to be small or he won’t eat them. Not sure what that is all about, but there you have it. Just put a roast on to cook that had been put on reduced markdown. It will probably be as tough as boot leather, but maybe they will eat most of it. Just have to cook a couple of sweet potatoes to go with it. Cutting up tiny pieces of roast beef with mashed sweet potatoes sounds decent to me, but we will see what the dogs say.

 

Maggie Sewell brought a couple of bags of very small apples that should make decent applesauce. Just have not got the patience to make slices for apple pie. Just have to cut the seeds out and cook the whole apple before mashing them through a colander. It has been a long time since watching my mother-in-law make apple sauce and apple butter. Her apple butter was the best in the west! She used so much cinnamon that it was almost as brown as a boot. But it was great with her biscuits and fresh butter right out of the churn. She reminded me sometimes of Grandmother Pollard, but it seems to me we never spent that much time with Grandmother. But we were down on the farm nearly every weekend before Lewis’ dad died. Even my daughter-in-law got to go to the farm a few times. The blackberry picking pretty well did her a number. She got chiggers in all the right places, don’t ya see. Poor girl!

 

Mother-in-law loved a good bargain better than anyone. In Montague County, some fruit farmers would allow folks to pick up the fallen fruit—as long as it was on the ground. Now to be truthful, it was on the ground when she picked it up, but sometimes the trees were a little shaky when she “bumped” into them. One time she just kept telling us to “pick up that fruit!” When it was time to go—according to Lewis—he would tell her that we were leaving. She would remind him that he really enjoyed that apple butter or pear preserves or peach jam or whatever she had that would cook up into a good homemade jar of goodness. But the one time that made me just about revolt was the black-eyed peas. We took grocery sacks as we already had other things in the baskets for their farm garden that Garland planned to take to the market in WF. She had an entire STACK of grocery sacks. The man who owned the pea patch saw her coming and told her how much he charged per bag. She was not thrilled at his price, but we were the pickers. She told us to “Mash those peas in there as far down as they will go!” Those were some heavy sacks. But the bad part was the wasps and the snakes. Montague County has copperhead snakes by the yard and mile! For me, it was hard to pick peas while watching for snakes. But that year we made many a meal on black-eyed peas and cornbread. The funniest time—for me, at least—was picking poke salad down on the old railroad tracks. Joy knew the snakes were there, but she was watching without saying a word. Lewis was watching her, picked up a rock, threw it into an area semi-close to her back. She squawked and said, “It’s time to leave!” As good as poke salad is to eat, it never bothered me to get away from plum thickets and deep weeds and grass. But Joy at least taught me how to cook the greens so that they would not kill someone. Three changes of cooking water made the stuff decent to eat, but it would still peel the hide off your insides! Since that time, someone had an article on how to cook tumbleweeds like okra. Have yet to try that one.

 

Someone around this house has spent entirely too much time looking at the computer screen and reading “Bored Panda” messages. It is so easy to just waste an entire day, but it beats walking outside and cooking one’s hide. The hens have started running to me every time they notice something in my hands. Snacks, ya know. Clean out the excess rice in a dog bowl or eat the seeds and stuff from a pepper plant. They are not the least bit particular. Even stood out by the grapevine and gave them the ones that are turning into raisins. The grapes may be larger next year, but for now they were all very small. Years ago, it would have been hard not to make them into wine just for the fun of it, but yours truly is not much of a wine drinker. Coffee, tea, some juices, and lots of water are the main drinks consumed around here. Once in a while the Dr Pepper or Ginger Ale come in handy. The grands all seem to want to drink the stuff from one of those fast-food places. Not sure what the attraction is, but maybe it is the ice pieces. Whatever. My neighbor thinks that Sonic ice is the very best. It really is nice and easy to enjoy. We can even buy it by the bag!

 

My daughter just made a quick call to ask me the name of the company that Lewis used to bad mouth. She remembered it before her mom did, but it made me sit here and smile. She has been driving on Oklahoma roads. Bad roads and that one company just go together. Won’t tell you the name of the company as it has changed hands at least once since Lewis had to work on their equipment. But it just made me smile to think that she remembered.

 

Then Lance sent me a text to tell me that he was watching Key Largo with “Humpty” Bogart. He and his dad watched that one together. Again, good memories. Sometimes we miss folks so much that just little reminders make us have the sad-happies. Guess this is just one of those times.

 

Know that they discovered an oak tree here in Texas that they thought was extinct. ONLY ONE! They noted that it is in bad shape and are looking for any acorns to propagate. It is sad that an entire species has been wiped out whether it is plant, animal, or other species like algae or the ocean grasses (sea weed). Carla was asking me what comes out the other end when one of these little bionic beasties eats up the plastic in the ocean. Now there’s a question for ya!

 

It hurts to read about the mess in the Koreas, the Ukraine, and the horrible drought in Kenya. What man can’t mess up one way, he will wipe off the map in another way. God forgive us and let us have peace. With Christ’s return in mind, let us give thanks for His love.

 

Stay cool and hydrated, my friends. You are loved.