Timing

The wind is howling, the hollow rattle of winter. Reminds me of Cape Cod. I want to put the soup on the coolest part of the stove overnight, so I stoke up the fire about 10. Put a pound of beans on to soak early in the day, and over the course of 90 minutes, while I read at the island, I caramelize onions, then a pound of ham bits right on top of them; drain the beans, cover with chicken stock, mix everything together, bring to a boil, and pull it off the heat. Sir in a tablespoon of tomato paste and another of anchovy paste, go to bed. The smell finally woke me, three in the morning, the stove was almost dead and the soup was still warm. It's very good. Sweet and earthy, full-bodied. Exactly what I needed, with cornbread, to see me through a couple of days of working up firewood. The wind sounds like a train in Kentucky, the house creaks and groans, I have to think again about why I find myself here. First, and most important, you have to be somewhere, and second is that this place is a magnetic anomaly, GPS doesn't work and there's no cell phone reception. All in all, not a bad place to be. Drones don't do well when there's a lot of tree-cover. I don't like people watching. Later I see a sliver of moon through stick trees. Just a small break in the clouds before more rain moves in, changing over to sleet and snow tonight. I sat at my desk chair reading most of the day, drinking smoked tea and occasionally staring off into the middle-distance. Another, different, hunting season (I think this one is one week rifle, buck only) and I see a couple of blaze orange vests on the opposite ridge. I turned on a couple of lights, to signal my presence. Thank god I made soup last night, it's so good, and should carry me through several days. I'd like to make a pasta dish next, though I'm also thinking about a chowder and codfish cakes. French onion soup would be good. I have another package of ox-tails in the freezer and one of the guys in the fish department at Kroger said that he thought he might be able to get me some dried cod. For the larder, because the seafood section has been vastly expanded (omega 3) and there's usually some remaindered fish I can use for my breakfast cakes, or crabmeat or baby shrimp. Raining hard now, and I'm out of butter. I prefer saltine crackers, smeared with just a small pat of butter, when I'm eating any soup; so in the winter, when I need it, I eat a lot of animal fat. Afraid I'm going to lose power, I'd better go.