Waiting On The Rain

The weather forecaster from WSB-TV in Atlanta said it would rain today in North Georgia. We are still waiting. As I write this blog, the temperature is 95F with 46% humidity. Yep, you guessed correctly. We are waiting with the A/C on. The closest rain clouds I can see on Weather Bug are in Huntsville, AL (180+ miles to our west). I would say we are not going to get wet today.

Now that is not a bad thing. Think about it. Let’s take a vote!

This morning, after chores and a hearty farmer’s breakfast, I hit the yard for “raking duty”.  The other day I mowed the grass around the farm-house and along the street front. If you recall from a previous blog, my choice of mower is this Kuboto 7510. It comes with a 61 c.i.d., 21 HP Diesel engine, 4-wheel drive, 60″ twin blade mower deck, and liquid filled tires (for stability and lower center of gravity).

It took about 4 hours to mow all the grass. The grass was pretty tall so we had a few spots that required raking. For that task, I used a 30″ wide Home Depot rake and the ChuckWagon. While most folks may rake into a wheel borrow, it would not be very practical to use a wheel borrow on this property considering the size of it.

On the left is an example of the load in the back of ChuckWagon. Actually this load is smaller than the other 3 loads. Once the grace is raked and loaded into the back of the ChuckWagon, it has to be dumped somewhere. We are fortunate to have a farmer very close by who loves llama poo and yard clippings.  So off I go to the farmer down at the end of Windy Valley Lane. Back behind his house is the poo field. Since it is on a hill-side, they can’t see the poo from their back deck. Also, llama poo does not smell like other poo so it is not odoriferous or unpleasant.

So what does 4 loads of grass clippings on top of llama poo look like? Well there it is on the right spread out to a depth of about 12″ and covering about 600 sq. ft. (15’x40′) The dung beetles are going to love that. Their dining hall now has a thatch roof. I am sure they appreciate all the work I do for them. (PS – you really have to click that link on dung beetles. It is a very interesting article based on a university study.)

While all that has been going on, Carol was busy doing what she likes best – quilting. I cannot show you any photos of her projects because the recipient(s) are not supposed to see the projects just yet.  Remember, yesterday we took her prized sewing machine to Chattanooga for repair under factory warranty. The dealer gave Carol a sewing machine to use while her’s was inoperable. It be cool if you could do that with a car being repaired under warranty. Fat chance!

Around 1:30ish, we decided to fix an early supper. I grilled a couple of burgers while Carol fixed Fat-Free Fried Okra. Now you want to know how to get the fat out of frying.  The trick is to use Pam (or equivalent) in a skillet. Prepare the Okra by slicing into 1/2″ chunks. After a quick water rinse toss the okra in a flour/corn meal/salt/pepper mix. (I would add a pinch of cayenne pepper if I were cooking.) Then spray up a skillet with Pam and fry them until done. So there you have it – Fat-Free Fried Okra. Or at least as close to fat-free as possible.

Other than that, I’ve been tinkering with the blog a bit. Trying to figure how to had a widget to this theme that will allow you, the reader, to select the font size.  Until I solve that, I have increased the font size one step and removed one of the two side bars on the right side of the page.  I also migrated the posts and comments from Blogger to WordPress so you can easily go back and read some of the earlier posts. Feel free to send me feedback about the look and feel of the blog. I am open to any suggestions. Whether I incorporate any of them is another matter. Seriously, I would love to hear back from you. One easy way to do that is by using the LIKE button below. This works just like the LIKE button on FB.

Well, it has gotten 3 degrees cooler outside since I started this entry, still no sight of rain, and it is now beer:30. Time to open a cold Blue Moon. Life is good. Y’all come back now.