Where's the beef? It's here!

Thursday

I got up at 7:30, hearing my alarm go off in the bathroom. I had slept well. I brushed and swished. I checked e-mail and listened to podcasts. Then I got dressed and emptied the dirt from the vacuum. I took the vacuum to the dirty house and used it in the kitchen. Still lots of flies, dead and alive. My mind spent the time going over what happened yesterday and wondering if I should report it. Then I got a call that our half a cow would be delivered this afternoon. So instead of cleaning for 2 hours, I only did 1 ½ , then went home for breakfast.

When I got home, Chris was already having lunch. I told him about the meat coming. I washed the freezer out with baking soda water, which Randy had suggested. Then I made breakfast and ate it while watching The Highwire. It wasn't a great episode because Del was talking to some interviewer about things that happened this past year. They weren't saying anything new. So I went on to listen to other audios. I talked to Diane about what happened yesterday.

I kept expecting the meat guy to call on his way. But it got later and later. I plugged in the freezer. No one was available to walk, so I skipped that. Then Chris came home an hour early. Still no call. I ate turkey from out on the back porch and salad for supper. I listened to Christmas music and watched sewing videos for ideas for future classes.

Then the call came. We opened the garage and pushed the riding mower out. I moved my car from the driveway. I put frozen whey in a double boiler to melt. I assembled the rest of the ingredients in the bread machine. I needed to open another bag of flour. So then I had to distribute the rest into various lidded containers so bugs can't get at it.

Chris saw the truck come up the road. We opened the garage and turned on the lights. They backed the truck up to the garage. A young man jumped out and unloaded boxes of meat. Chris helped him. Then he was going to leave, but the older man got out and that's when I remembered that I owed him a check. So I ran inside to write it, then handed it to him. There were a few more boxes that the young man forgot. After unloading those, we thanked them and they headed out. Chris opened the boxes and took the packages of meat out. Then

we rolled the riding mower back inside and closed the door.

I finished containing the flour. The whey had melted so I added it and the proofed yeast to the machine and started it on 'dough'. I went back to reading e-mail until the cycle was complete. I pulled the dough out and divided it, then let it rest. Then I rolled it into ropes and braided them, put the whole thing on a cookie sheet and warmed the oven. I let it bake for 20 minutes or so while I worked on my blog.

After the bread came out, I heated tea and we watched several episodes of Jeannie. Then I spent an hour or so on my laptop before going to bed.