Thursday, April 22, 2010

An Early Spring at Brimstone Manor

Two days ago I planted organic vegetable and fruit seeds in little starter pods, in keeping with the strong desire to eat from the garden as much as possible this summer - and beyond, if I can master the art of canning!  I started beets, cucumbers, lettuce, lettuce mix, onions, peppers, radishes, two types of beefsteak tomatoes, watermelon, and zucchini.  They are all in a miniature plastic-y greenhouse thing on the "green" table in the kitchen.  By this morning, the radish and lettuce mix seeds have poked tiny tender sprouts up.

At lunch time today, David Holmes arrived bringing with him supplies to "finish" the upstairs bathroom ceiling, that is, sheet rock, tools, and joint compound (because a "simple" joint won't do!). The finishing of the upstairs bathroom ceiling has long been a goal of mine, and as David can certainly attest, when I have a goal I can be a real Nagasaurus* about getting it accomplished! One of his first projects upon emerging from his winter torpor is to do our bathroom ceiling, and for a small price at that: free but for materials, a couple organic rib eye steaks, all the coffee he can drink, and whatever cash I can cram in his pocket without his knowledge (because he will hedge and dissemble about how much we should pay) before he leaves.

I have helped! I pulled out nails left over from the previous ceiling with a hammer and when that failed me, a most useful crow bar/pry tool.  This was a very dirty project; each time a nail was removed a small shower of dirt, grit, coal dust, wood smoke, rodent poop, and the dust of the ages rained down upon our heads and into our eyes and hair.  N.A.S.T.Y.  I stopped twice in the process to wash my face, overcome by dust & dirt & etc. on my face and in my eyes. David is very skilled and efficient however, and though it was a nasty job in some ways, he did not complain, and maintained his generally cheerful and optimistic self throughout the various obstacles Brimstone Manor (aka The Vortex) threw in his way.**  I downloaded Vivaldi's Four Seasons and we listened to it as we (that is, mostly David) worked.

When he finishes, we will cook and eat the steaks, and that will be a very lovely thing. After David departs for his home on the shores of Lake Wyola, I will take a shower, savoring the certainty that dirt, grit, coal dust, wood smoke, rodent poop, and the dust of the ages will no longer be part of the experience.  RAPTURE!!


* Nagasaurus: A Very Persistent Dinosaur renowned for repeatedly nagging others in Her Environment in order to get Her Needs met.

** David Holmes is why God invented Friends.