Cleaning Game

You dress a squirrel the way you take off a sock. Like a rabbit. It's easy. I'd picked it up off the road, head dead, and dressed it out. I had a smoked jowl, so I minced a couple of slices and browned the squirrel in that, then added some wine and cooked it for an hour, thickened the gravy, left-over beans and rice. A smallish squirrel, I eat the whole thing, holding out just enough to make an omelet. A small squirrel makes a very nice hash. Almost anything makes a good hash. I made a duck hash a few years ago that was so good all three of the guests at dinner proposed marriage. Jerky was finally on sale and I bought a couple of packages because I want to develop a stew I can make from all dried ingredients. I want some more tinned fruits, pears especially, and grapefruit; and dried fruit, I love dried bananas, mangos, and raisins. I'll make a holiday pot of grits. A fruitcake polenta, with brown sugar and cream. What is this, the seventh of December, 2015, I just caught the fattest mouse I've ever seen. It's like the Sumo wrestler of mice. I'm used to skinny country mice, and it's a real shock to see one so fat. I cut open its stomach, to see what its been eating, same as, grass, grass seed, seeds, nothing from my shelves, I checked everything in the pantry and nothing had been broken into, though I do want to double-protect some beans and rice. The cheapest way I've found to do this is to buy those old stamped-metal kid's lunch boxes and double bag the beans inside. I ate some black beans recently, an heirloom, that were five years old, cooked them for an extra hour and they were excellent, with fried salt-pork and cornbread. The sauce was divine, pot liquor, Dad always called it, kicked in the ass by cayenne peppers, and emulsified with pork fat. A specific against any disease. I was a little unsettled, when I woke this morning, by the sight of so many cobwebs in the slanted early light, so after coffee and breakfast, I do some house cleaning. Then put away a few books, which brings back to mind why a particular book was out and what I had been reading. It's a wide range, and I just graze. Reading one thing side-trips me onto something else. Mac, who fact-checks me, said that I was correct, that 'set' was the longest entry in the OED. I pick up a lot of facts, but I'm seldom all that sure of my sources. I can't stay current because my connection with the outside world is so tenuous. Literally, a land-line that is so weak I can't download anything, nor search for information. Sometimes I have to make things up, to account for an almost impossible coincidence, and the explanation might well be based on faulty communication. Harbor Patois can only get you so far. At some point, you have to learn the language. I tend toward pointing at things and indicate chewing. I'd thought hunting season was over, and rifle season is, except for December 27-28 (a bonus season), but bow season is open until February 7. Ran upon a bow hunter today, who set me straight on the various dates. He was a little pissed that I'd ruined his afternoon hunt, but I explained that I was on my property, and, in fact, so was he. We had a nip from my flask and I told him there were a couple of strong rubs out to the south and west. Good will, and don't block the driveway. If someone blocks me in, when I'm parked at the bottom of the driveway, I get quite upset. IT'S MY FUCKING DRIVEWAY. Or words to that effect. I've been known to push vehicles out of the way. Glenn sent me an inflatable globe beach ball and I've been playing world geography. This is a great item (five-year old and up) because you can recline on the sofa and study it and it weighs almost nothing. The best toy I'm gotten in years. I can look at migration patterns in three-space. God bless football season because the nacho cheese was on sale, buy one get one free. I normally don't buy this stuff, but I got a bag of vegetable chips and a jar of olives. It was a delight. Sweet potato chips are a wonderful thing. Just got in an afternoon walk before it started raining again, which is why I'd gone to town, so I could mail my couple of bills and resupply in case the weather turned off bad. I didn't need anything, other than some library books, but I bought a few things, some tortillas, a couple of very hard avocados, another dozen eggs, a back-up for the back-up coffee and creamer. Potatoes, and thou, beside me in the wilderness.