The Mountain Thymes

 Sunday  January 25 Slept like a lazy cat all night.  Woke at 4 am, turned up the heat a few degrees, crawled back under the soft comfy covers and went into a light sleep until 6:30.  About 10 I went out for 80 more pounds of ice, hauled all the coolers onto the porch to empty the water, dragged them back in and put a new bag of ice in each cooler.  This allowed me to sort and place the foods in some sort of better order.  Extra bags of ice were placed in the warm "freezer" until I go to bed.     Bags and coolers can be placed out on the back porch before I go to bed. It looks like by midnight the temperature will drop into the 20's.  I'll see if the raccoon and bears have a party in the night.  I am so pleased that I built up muscle mass at the gym since Cliff's passing to allow me to lift properly without injuring my back or joints.  After all that lifting and tugging I made myself a nice pasta dish with fresh spinach from my...

 Sometime between going to bed Thursday night and making breakfast Friday morning my refrigerator gave up and died.  The milk started getting warm, water dripped from the ice-maker onto the floor, the ice-cream was soft.  Back up to Sunday when I pulled a 5.5 pound free-range chicken from the freezer with plans to cook it in the slow cooker Thursday to supply me with plenty of chicken for the predicted deep freeze coming this way.  Thursday I made my rub, rubbed it all over the chicken, cut fresh rosemary from outside to stuff inside the cavity and placed it in the cooker.  I had to borrow Janice's cooker because mine is a 6-quart which is too small for the hefty bird.  Plugged it in and set it on High for 6 hours at 9:30. Then noticed an hour later the pot wasn't even warm.  Moved the cooker to a different plug and check 45 minutes later.  Still no heat.  Stuck the whole ceramic vessel back in the fridge because now it was too late to cook i...

 If you look really closely..... you'll see the small covey of plump round quail camouflaged in the dead leaves and one near the green power cord.  Since November at least seven show up every morning for breakfast and again around three in the afternoon feasting  on little sprouts and bugs that they scratch up from under the rotting leaves.  They are the cutest little creatures, talking and peeping as they walk around.  When at the kitchen window in the morning I watch how busy they are scratching like chickens, flipping the leaves and turning them over to expose bugs and plant sprouts.  The blend in so well that unless one moves, you'd never know there were quail in front of you.  I've watched them dig and gyrate those round plump bodies into the leafy clay so that only half of their brown feathered bodies are exposed.  Mark got to see them walk around the driveway and scratch the for dinner while he was he.     This one posed for ...

 A few days before Christmas the weather drastically changed from frigid to unseasonably comfortable and my favorite temperature....anything where I didn't need to wear, thick coats, scarves, and shiver.  Mark arrived from Melbourne early Monday evening to spend Christmas with me.  Tuesday morning we had coffee, bacon and eggs at Waffle King, a wonderful treat for me, then headed to Walmart for Mark to pick out his Christmas gifts for me to wrap and place under the tree.  He needed a new toaster, some new sheets and pillow cases, a large bag of pistachios and Andes Mints.  On the way home he shopped for me at Tractor Supply.  I love that place. He bought me a two bags of bird seed and a couple woodpecker suet squares.  When we got home he went into his bedroom and wrapped the gifts so I wouldn't know what I was getting.  He also changed the filter and all the smoke alarm batteries, did some outside chores.  Tuesday evening we made meatballs w...

 While chicken soup simmers for another 30 minutes, I can either vacuum all the floors or sit and blog.   Yesterday the Kia went for its maintenance checkup plus a few things I threw in. Brakes were squeaking, the three wipers needed replacing, and I requested a good washing.  I wash it about once a week when the weather allows but the gravel road dust gets into everything.  I vacuumed the inside and wiped down the dashboard and doors, etc.  At 11 I met two neighborhood ladies at the gym yoga class which ends at noon.  I hadn't eaten since early morning and had been awake since 4:40.  Couldn't fall back asleep.  On the way to Kia Service, I stopped at So's Good Chinese for Miso soup to eat on the Kia porch while the car was being serviced.  First I sat in the TV waiting room for a few minutes until a small male child about 4 years old started talking in a high-pitched ear-piercing voice to each customer.  He talked nonstop barely ta...

 Another sign of autumn is saying "good-bye" until next spring to the farmers markets in the area.  I visited the Blairsville market this morning, much later than my summer runs.  It's colder in the mornings and I chose not to rush out.  In the summer I was at the markets by nine to be sure I got the fresh greens before the vendors ran out and the summertime I have more energy.  Now I linger longer under my warm cozy covers, stretch and wiggle before putting my feet on the cold floor.      Japanese turnips and whatever the other bunch is.  I can't remember what she said.  Maybe a variety of a kale? Anyway, it's something for me to saute or throw in a soup.  A few days I did a slow-cook whole chicken, picked all the meat of the carcass, and froze the chicken in four bags.  Then added water to the carcass and onions, carrots, celery, a couple of bay leaves to boil for stock.  I got four containers of stock in the freezer for...