Two out of three ain't bad.

Well, it certainly wasn't a boring weekend.   I'd give it an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 - one being *snore* and ten being *AAAIIIIIRRRGH!*  I will admit to having a V&T for medicinal reasons last night.  My nerves, you know.

I tried three new recipes - two were amazing and one was downright awful.   Friday night, I made a pizza.  With a sweet potato crust.  What the..? you say?  It was m.a.r.v.e.l.o.u.s.  And the half inch of melted cheese on top was totally offset by the nutritious crust.  Really.  I'm sure that's written down somewhere.  I would be sharing a pic of this marvelous invention, but I et it all up.  In my defense, it was not a large pizza. 

Next out of the kitchen - while I was on the sweet potato kick - were healthy creamsicles.  The "healthy" should have flashed red warning lights but I chose to ignore the alarm bells in my head and carried on.  They were, in a word, gawdawful.  Three ingredients - whole coconut milk, sweet potato, oranges.  Pateeeuwwwi.  I'm not even going to link to the recipe so that I can protect your taste buds.  You're welcome.

Lastly, as my weekend ran down into Sunday evening, I made a fresh corn and zucchini pie.  OMG.  Even with an 'oops' (as in when will I learn that I NEED to wear my glasses), it was awesome-sauce.

It took a great deal of willpower
to stop eating this.

Mine was sort of a rectangular pie, as I was too tired to dig out my pie plate from the back of the bottom cupboard.  Easy clean-up when you line it with parchment paper!

Lots of berries at the top!

Saturday morning, it poured rain.  This did not bode well for my planned birthday blueberry picking with my sister.  However, the clouds parted and the day progressed into a bright, sunny day.  It was so bright and sunny that my sister and I took to hiding from it in the bushes.  I picked under my all-time best of 15#, but did get an admirable 11#.  Then, Sunday morning, I was up at the top of our plateau picking more!  Another beautiful morning with only birdsong, breezes and the occasional car.  It was a beautiful way to start the day.  Had I known what lay ahead, I would have hidden in the bushes until the snow fell.

A nice way to spend a morning

I made up for (and exceeded) my personal best.  Total for two days:  20#.  I am set for winter.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

Not being satisfied with having to freeze 20# of blueberries, I picked up a bag of (supposedly) 55 ears of sweet corn.  Sunday was filled with shucking and de-cobbing, bagging and freezing.  I was disappointed in the corn, though.  It was from a farm stand known for their wonderful corn - however, there were only 53 ears in the bag and there was a LOT of worm damage.  A message to the farm did not bring satisfactory answers.  Still, I am set for a couple of years.  I only do corn every other year.

Heaps o' corn!

There was also work in the garden - garlic, shallots and a few onions were pulled and put in the barn to cure.  The garlic was fair-to-good.  The only disappointing heads were due to the lack of rain and idiocy of the gardener.  She neglected to cut off all the scapes.  Shallots and onions were also small, due to the dry weather.  A lot of weeding was done.  Floors were washed.  And washed again.

 

Because Scrappy (Mr. Pee Me A River) seems to be struggling with some incontinence.  This is a dog that doesn't just pee a puddle - OH no.  He must move through ROOMs peeing.  Given his age - 16, and the fact that he rarely commits this faux pas, I started thinking diabetes.  He has been drinking a lot of water.  Of course, it's also summer and a hot, dry one at that, so it's hard to tell.  Then, this morning, as I velcroed on the Cummerbund of Shame, a dim light bulb flickered.  I had been feeding them a raw diet, but it was too expensive to continue with three dogs.  I had switched them back to kibble and I think that might be the culprit.  It's a high-end ($$$) food and I supplement it with eggs and broth, but it might be affecting my old boy.  I'm going to ease him back into a raw diet and see if that makes a difference.

 

Just so I could start my Monday off in style, there was Duck Drama.  I have, as you may know, if you're following the lunacy, sixteen ducks in three different age groups.  The Anconas (large, white with black markings, rare breed) are the oldest; the Cayugas (black from head to flappy foot) are the middles; and the Cayuga/Blue Swedish Crosses (or KY Babes) are the youngest.  The KY Babes include a little fellow with a club foot.  I did not, as Good Goose Mama Pea did, catch the deformity and put a little brace on when it was young.  It gets along okay, but it is obviously challenged.  One of the others seems to have 'Angel Wings' - a deformity wherein the wings stick out at a 45-degree angle.  Trying to make a long story short (ha), today I decided that they have all seen each other and everything seems to be copacetic, so I would let the Babes out to enjoy the yard and the little pool.  I am on the other side of the fence doing something or other, when I hear frantic peeping and lots of noise.  I hot-footed it through the gate and found all four of the Anconas on top of little Hopalong, pecking it~!  It seems the Anconas will continue to be a rare breed, as the four I have are now moved to the top of the processing list.  The Cayugas do not bother them at all and have intermixed with the Babes with no signs of violence or aggression.  The Babes got the safety and room of both runs today and I will have to come up with a Plan X to make sure they get space and get it safely.

 

I was glad to get to the office where the only violence occurs over the last cup of Dark Magic coffee.