Punch List

A little stir crazy, I go down and visit B. Coffee and conversation. One of the only people I know who truly understands the winter punch list. He's at 50% and I allow that I'm about the same. Still plenty of time. I'm planning a full-scale food trip next week, which actually should be great fun, hit Big Lots (where you really must check the dates) then Kroger for the bulk of the list. Jesse got me a case of whiskey. I hope to get sardines, and roasted red peppers in oil at Big Lots. I've experimented with making cornbread using powdered eggs and milk, and have an acceptable product. If I have to walk in, I can carry some greens, or some young beets with their greens. Lay the heavy stuff in before the snow flies, drinking water, juice, whiskey; a very good meal, maybe two servings, might only weigh two pounds, you can carry that in, but water is heavy. In preparation, I go through the cupboard, throwing away a few things, cleaning out mouse droppings. Soup and cornbread is the staple of winter diet, so I want to be able to make six or eight different soups. Canned and dried beans and vegetables. Even canned potatoes and carrots, so I can make a stew with jerky. I get the seafood guy at Kroger to order me some dried cod. I'd collected quite a few black walnuts, they're all over the roads now, an actual traffic hazard. I husk and dry them, then smash them with the great meat tenderizing mallet Kim gave me. I manage to make about two tablespoons of oil in a day. Not exactly a production run, but I do make enough to fry some potatoes and they're very good. A niche market, Wild Black Walnut oil. I need a gallon of peanut oil and bacon fat for the winter. My needs are legion, I prefer toilet paper to corn cobs. Wanted to go to town but it was supposed to rain, so I read instead. Then listened to Science Friday. Great report on The Center For Post-Natural History. Some very funny stuff. I spent most of the day reading about Lucy (the fossil), then some other things about dating primates. My books are all 25 years old so I make a note to pick up some newer information at the library. I'm hopelessly out of date, I can't imagine why one would carry a phone, texting, instead of looking for money in the gutters. I found $137 dollars last year, up from $116 the year before. Very tight jeans, because the back pockets are so molded, tend to squirt out bills. I like to park at the outside when I go to Kroger and walk between the cars. The other day I found $37, spent $42, and felt like a robber baron. I topped up the gas tank and bought some onion rings on the way home. Having to drive around Mackletree, I went down the creek. The woodbine and poison ivy are beautiful. I drive back and forth at the ford, to clean the undercarriage. There's a pool below the sandstone ford, where a shelf of slate has broken off, a waterfall of some 18 inches, and I take a quick cold bath. The footing was terrible, slick as goose shit, but I got back to the Jeep, which I had parked in the middle of the ford. I have this one huge Martha Stewart towel someone left at the house, stolen, no doubt, and I drape it like a toga. Rough rub myself. TR called from town and I agree to meet him. Tomorrow I work on the larder. I have a list. Going out the other way is shorter, but there are all those switchbacks, they make me sick at my stomach. Too much movement. Listen to Miles, almost nothing.