Like an egg hunt

Saturday

Chris' alarm went off at 6:30. Having woken up often during the night, I did not feel like getting up. But I did. I did a few of the usual things, then took a long, hot shower. For some reason, after having hot flashes all night, I was cold. That left me only a few minutes to get dressed, fill a water bottle, grab a bucket and drive to Michelle's house.

I was late and thought they'd all be waiting on me, but actually I was the first, by seconds, and then Diane and Jenni arrived. Diane had empty buckets from the green house, and the rest of us brought something to put rocks in. We parsed the containers between Diane's car and Michelle's car. Then we headed out in line. Michelle spoke passionately to me about what happened to her this past week. Then, she stopped the car when her GPS told her she had to get out and walk. She and Diane spoke, then we turned onto a bumpy side road. Finally, in the middle of nowhere, Michelle's GPS announced that we had arrived. Yeah, right. We kept going, but eventually the roads on the GPS disappeared. So we let Diane take the lead. After a little backtracking, we found the right road and appeared at the quarry.

It was much smaller than what I envisioned. A family was already there, chipping rock with a … chipper. We each grabbed a bucket and started to pick up rocks. It felt like an egg hunt. When Diane went back for a bucket from the second stack, she discovered a mouse hidden between the two buckets. She exclaimed as it ran off and she threw out the nesting material. She pulled a few more buckets, but found nothing. However, when she got to the last one, there was a family of mice. We all shrieked and stepped back. She kicked the bucket and the mice went flying, one went into her car. We chased it out. Instead of dispersing, the mice hung around, evidently looking for their nest.

When we finished picking up cute red rocks, we drove back to the base, and Michelle's house. Jamie was there working on the flowerbed. She hosed off our buckets of rocks while we told her the story of the mice. We all chatted for a bit, then took our rocks home. Chris was home waiting for me. I watered my plants, getting a faceful of moths when I walked through the front door. Chris banged on the storm door facings, and moths flew out. Have they been pupating there? I thought he got them all, but a few minutes later, I opened the door and got another flock of moths in my face.

After watering the plants, and emptying the leaf mold tea (which was growing larvae of some kind), I went to Colonel's Hill to feed and water the cats. I collected their litter box solids, and tried scrubbing the bottom of the oven. Only a little came off, so I covered the area with a paper towel soaked in vinegar. I let it sit while I played with the cats, then scrubbed some more. I decided it leave it overnight.

I locked the house and came home. Chris gave me a coconut oil massage. He took a shower and then I did. I made breakfast and heard Michelle come over. She told Chris about her experiences this week. She left just as I finished eating breakfast. I opened the coconut we bought at the store. Sadly, it was rotten inside as so many of them are.

I watched gardening videos, then ironed a pillow panel and made an envelop backing for it. It took a lot of time to get the hand-embroidered panel to lay flat. I e-mailed the owner that it was ready. Chris cooked ground beef. I ate supper, and looked up uses for whey: simmer in crock pot for 12-24 hours, boil until ricotta curds form, make a starter culture, fertilize plants, bake in bread, add to compost, feed cats.

I put on a bathing suit and went to the pool. I participated in water aerobics with Jenni and Emily. About 7:50, I got out and went to the garden. I watered here and there and pulled weeds, then went home.

Chris cooked bacon. I used some to make cheese sticks for tomorrow. I made tea and we watched four episodes of Gomer Pyle. We dressed the bed with clean sheets. I read e-mail for an hour or so, then went to bed.