McDonald Family

I know that sounds hokey, but there are times when music makes me incredibly happy.  Listening and moving to it.  Yeah, I know I was supposed to be getting ready for the party.  But then Julia called me to pay for some song downloads on Rhapsody.  One thing lead to another and here I sit, finally grooving to some intravenous Ben Sollee.  By intravenous, of course I mean via earbuds straight to my brain.  Of course.

I also found some Mahlatini and the Mahotella Queens, best of, and some Amy Winehouse ( man that girl can sing, and her songwriting is amazing) as well as one lone song by Johannes Kerkorrel - Halala Afrika.  Wish I could find the recording he did with Dutch ( Belgian?) singer Stef Bos.  One of the best albums ever, in my not so humble opinion, of course.  So, this leads me to feeling homesick, or whatever you would call the craving for the company of ‘my mense’.  And still Ben Sollee sings in my ears, his cello seemingly resonating with some deep emotion.  Yeah, hokey again.   I cannot wax enough about this particular kid ( he’s 23 or something obscene) and his unbelievable creativity. Whatever he does, it has certainly taken the edge off missing my people, my volk, my mense.  Jinne.

Hoo boy, I hope that doesn’t prove to be prophetic.  It’s Thursday evening and quite a few days have passed since I last wrote.  We( well, me, and Bruce agreed) decided to throw a party to celebrate the middle of summer and invite all our nearest and dearest, and some distant, friends and neighbors.  So, it’s set for tomrrow, and here I sit.  Actually I thought it would be amusing to write down our plans, and then I can report on the event afterwards.  Sort of a before and after, if you will.

The Before:  Friends and neighbors arrive from far and wide, and next door, on a not too hot Friday afternoon at 6pm or so.  Bringing their own lawn chairs, picnic blankets, bug spray and flat shoes.  Canoes and kayaks would be a bonus.  ( Maybe someone will accidentally leave one here….).  There will be no white gloves or close examination of any handiwork - think they will miss the kitchen cupboard doors?  Forgot to mention that the weather is perfect, the skies are clear, not a cloud in sight.  George and Bruce will have grill almost ready, tables will be artfully set to receive side dishes etc.  Drinks will be cooling in coolers.  Lamps, lanterns and candles will be ready for firing up after sundown.  Mosquitoes will be keeping a discreet distance.  Children will have a tent to frolic in.  Perhaps a sprinkler if it’s hot enough. Movie and xbox games as back-up.

People will mingle, eat, laugh and have a grand old time.  I will take some pictures.  The hills will ring with great joy.  Parking will go smoothly.  At just the right time people will start to trickle away, clean up will be a breeze and we will collapse happy and tired in our beds.  Having truly warmed our house, this special place.

List:

Shop for food items

Set up tables, lamps, etc

Coolers with ice

Clean basement and patio area

String lights

Canopy in case of rain

Music player for basement - ? speakers attached to pc

Clean house

Make signs

My Goodness!  Theresa has launched forth with great vigor.  I suppose I should counter - purely to bring balance in our dialog.  Things are better at the moment - Jack has completely recovered and the hens are back to a schedule.   Unfortunately we still do not know what happened to the young dog, nor have we recovered the missing 5 avian bodies.   The predator is still out there.  The airgun is leaning against the back door.  We still have no idea about the predator.  Oh, well.

So recently I have joined Facebook and it has been quite a trip.  There are people on my friend list that I have not interacted with for quite some time, at least 18 years, in the case of Mr Tony Berkow.  I am finally understanding some of the power of this “interwebs” the youth keeping talking ’bout.   The next thing I need to do is figure out how to post images to this blog thang (I see no real issue here) and link my FaceBook page to this.   There may be some “extra posts” as I figure this stuff out.

Oh, and on the subject of the weather, it has been raining here like crazy.  This is a good thing as the plants life is on a tear.  So much so that James and I had to stake (in a fashion) the corn.  this entailed putting a 2 meter metal fence post at either end of a row of corn plants and then lashing the whole thing up.  Let see how this works.

Writing about my new-ish friendship with Victoria, not least because we are planning to walk together regularly for exercise, brings me to Cynthia and her move to NYC.  She has been planning this move for at least 6 months.  Finally, she actually leaves tomorrow.  I am quite sad.  I will definitely miss her.  Nice to have a child-free, single friend in town to socialize with and to live vicariously through.  hehe  But besides that, I don’t think I know another person who is quite so generous in spirit, with not a malevolent bone in her body, with such a GOOD HEART. Not to mention her discipline and wonderful work ethic.   Journey well, hamba kahle, Zia Cyn, au revoir.  We will visit you in Manhattan.  I look forward to that.

After dinner we went out en masse ( no pun intended…only speaking for mom here, in her decidedly portly condition).  Dogs, children, mom and dad.  We walked a full mile in the terrible humidity.  James was on his bicycle, so tootled on ahead every now and then.  We ran into one of Bruce’s bus friends sitting on his front porch in the neighboring Carrie Hills.  A welcome stop for a chat.  However, I think the sweat really starts to pour when you stop moving.

I enjoyed the activity so much I  jumped on the trampoline for about 5 minutes when we got back.  Then I took some 2lb hand weights and my mp3 player into the garden and boogied for another 15 minutes or so.  Sweat pored.  Feels good.  I owe it to myself to get back into shape - the last time I was this heavy I was 9 months pregnant!  Scandalous.

I measured the distance around the block - our own block is .75 miles around.  Going to Alpine, Allen Rd South to Allen Rd South back to Lake is a little over a mile.  So quite easy to rack up the miles just going around the block a few times.  To the end of Cheviot and back is a mile, or what we did tonight was down to end of Cheviot, along path connecting to Carrie Hills and back along Tewkesbury home, was a little over a mile.

Tomorrow, I am meeting Victoria and we are planning to walk about 4 miles.  It’s our first walk together, so we will be adjusting to pace/style/endurance etc.  She is tall and slim ( I sure do pick’em…).  She lives 5 minutes away.  We are excited about walking a few times a week together, as well as cycling some.  I have to look into ways to get onto the greenway from our house.  I think there is a way that does not involve too much riding on busy roads.  We are also going to pick a neighborhood to farm and will walk together to deliver our marketing materials.  Great way to combine exercise with work!  We are not talking about this at the office, though.  So mum’s the word!

I am looking forward to getting to know Victoria, she has had an interesting life.  She is a ‘woman of a certain age’ and we have similar tastes - she has traveled a lot, could eat for a living ( loves fine things/ethnic foods).  She was married to a jazz musician for many years,and also worked in investment banking and for Columbia Pictures for many years.  Has lived in NYC and LA.

Well, it looks like another day of improvement for the little pupstick.  He wolfed down almost a whole can of the bland prescription food today.  Sweet little guy.  This evening he actually came up to me, jumped up and tried very hard to communicate something with his intense brown eyes.  ‘Wanna go outside’ got a blank look.  ‘Are you hungry?’ got a wiggle and digging into my leg with his paws.  Ag moedertjie.

He played with BB  today as well.  She is very happy to have her spunky little wrestling partner back.  Not to mention sprinting around the yard partner.

This morning we ( Julia, James and I) had scheduled to bath all the animals and do their flea treatment.  Starting with Ginger - ole Fatstix Mabusa - that girl has some strength, I tell you!  She clung to the side of the basin and made quite primitive yowls in her throat.  Julia then wrapped her in a sling, newborn baby style, and she proceeded to glower at us for a goodly time.

Next was Little Boy, much calmer albeit also traumatized.  And outraged.  He got a brief towel dry and then disappeared.

Snowy, our sensible, unflappable girl was quite the calmest.  By this time we had moved to the bath from the basin.  Better idea.  I am not sure the showing of dead fleas(only about 5) was worth the terrible experience for the cats.  Bless their hearts.  *evil grin*

Of course Jack and BB handled their baths with aplomb, even reveling in the soapy massage.  Then they slyly got their revenge by shaking hair and splashes all over the bathroom.

A quick update on feeding ourselves from this bounteous land.  First the turnips - abundant, indeed.  What to do with them?   Still have not really answered that question.  They are still going strong, and we will yet have more turnips than we can manage.  Almost forgot the radishes.  They were first and quite pungent.  Graced a few salads.

Mesclun - this planting was not very successful.  Probably due to lack of water and high heat.  Still we have had two salads of baby greens fresh from the garden( hey that’s worth about $5 right there!).  Tonight ( July 6) I found 5 ripe cherry tomatoes and added these to a small haul of two different kinds of baby lettuce for a delicious salad topped with thinly sliced purple onion, also from the garden.

Yellow squash is soldiering on.  Have harvested enough to roast of an evening for dinner.

Okra is plentiful.  Left it too late to harvest, so many grew too big to be any use.  They should be picked as they get to 4″ in length.  After that they get too fibrous and woody.   The okra is so well camouflaged on the plant that for days there we did not see any.  Anyway, I got enough young, tender okra today for a fantastic gumbo.  Froze a large porion for another meal. We need to get out every other day and pick okra.

Tomatoes are going to inundate us any day.  All the plants are heavy with green fruit.

We also picked green beans today.  Also going to be a bountiful crop.  Sweet and crunchy!

Corn is coming along nicely.  Asparagus is a work in progress - perennial, hopefully we will get fresh asparagus next season.  Watermelon is just too cute - mini little melons so far.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes coming along well, think this is a fall harvest.  Onions of all sorts, ready to pull.  Hmmm, wonder if one can freeze raw onion?

The tables is resplendent with a bunch of wildflowers from Julia’s row.  Zinnias and cosmos, mainly, I think.

We had a good 4th July. Burnsies came over and we bbq’d hamburgers American style. Nature provided spectacular fireworks with a well timed booming thunderstorm. Not so well timed for the bbq, I might add.  Much dashing back and forth for shelter and plates and implements etc, getting drenched.  For dessert Julia and I put together a peace sign in red white and blue with angel food cake, blueberries, raspberries and whipped cream. Yummy!  Not quite right, I will do things differently next time.  Like make a custard, and use pound cake soaked in brandy.Further joys of this farmer’s life… I have harvested okra and am making a stew with okra and tomato to serve with yellow rice ( sorta African meal) and sauteed shrimp. Friend Cynthia is coming for dinner tonight. She is in process of moving to NYC and is leaving officially on Tuesday. She may well sleep over tonight - she has done this quite often - we have pitched a tent in the back yard on several occasions - and had a ‘big girl’ sleepover. She is like an aunt to the children, they call her Zia Cyn.

Update:  Zia Cyn cancelled.  She is just too tired.  Quite understandable, she has been going non-stop for weeks now.  We enjoyed our dinner.  Absolutely delicious.   Julia made ‘parfaits’ with yogurt and again raspberries and blueberries with cream and a strawberry on top.  I added a wee square of dark chocolate to mine.  Scrumptious.

Now I am headed to sit outside a little in my ’sanctuary’ - have created a lovely sitting area.  A work in progress, but there are candles and lanterns and of course a beautiful view until the sun goes down.  Children and Bruce are watching Shrek the 3rd.

We have actually had a horrible week. Jack was ill, vomiting, no energy or appetite. $500 in vet bills later and we were still none the wiser. Yesterday morning I decided to stop his meds ( anti nausea and antacid) and just feed him a pedialyte solution. I was going to buy some, but Il Bruce suggested we look up a recipe (good ole google).  It paid off, he kept the rehydrating solution down and started to perk up. When he finally showed interest in actual food I could have cried. He is still recovering, but definitely on the mend. There was a time there when even he thought he was dying - he crawled into the bushes and just lay there. :-(  He is quite the drama queen!

Blame the distraction of Jack’s illness for the fact that we did not lock up the chickens on Wednesday night….. some dastardly predator attacked them during the night. We lost 8, but only found 3 bodies. Also a very sad day. I was out taking Jack to the vet again, so missed the trauma of discovering the headless chickens.  Poor children, and Bruce.  Quite a vivid lesson in the brutal reality of life and death.   We suspect fox, coyote or plain old dogs - it’s quite possible there are some wildish dogs living in the many acres of woods in our area.

Thursday night Little Boy ran off and spent the night out. When he was not around and hungry all the next day, we were also convinced he must have been taken by the dastardly predator. Thank goodness he turned up late Friday as a storm was brewing. He looked like he had been trapped in someone’s coal cellar. LOL

So quite a lot of drama. Storm und drang. All better now.

I had a limited amount of time this weekend as we received word that Simon Strauss & Mandy were stopping by on Sunday.   Also Sunday was the Father’s (non) Day, so in theory I was to be relaxing with my feet up.  Alas, it was not to be.  Anyway, Saturday was fairly busy.  At 7:45am I burned off one of the large piles of waste wood (branches and logs up to about 6in in diameter).  The pile was about 5ft high and about 10ft in diameter.  The pile started burning with about a pint of kerosene and proceeded to burn vigorously with flames leaping up to 15ft in the air.  Hot as all get out - I could not stand within 10ft.   Anyway, it quickly burned down to a smoldering pile.  The children then spent about 1hr collecting all the small twigs, branches and vines in the tree area near the chicken coop and dumping on the fire.