169 - Eh

Today was beautiful. I don't know where the cool weather came from, but I loved it. It was one of those sunny, cool days where having the windows open invigorates me. I don't quite know how to describe it except that it makes me feel more alive. When the air is crisp, I have more energy and ambition.

I spent the greater part of yesterday learning about SEO (search engine optimization) and learning to incorporate the parts I could understand. Admittedly, most of it was over my head, but I made simple changes here and there that should get more traffic to the website. The biggest change will be updating the blog to showcase each job. I decided that instead of cluttering up the pages with picture upon picture upon picture, I could post several pics of each job as a blog post and it would serve two purposes - updating the website more often to keep the webcrawlers happy, and showing more detail about each job without constraining myself to just a couple of pictures. I even sound smarter, huh?

I realize few people will subscribe to the blog, but as a potential customer I think it would help me to understand the process and feel more comfortable if I could see a project from start to finish, and at that, see several projects. At Mike's request I also intend to add a gallery of all the pics on the website.

So today I designed business cards:

The design underwent a minor change after I took this screen shot, separate cards for Jason and Mike, but you get the gist of it. On the back there is an appointment reminder. Vista Print is pretty awesome. I love that I can use Jason's own art piece to promote his business. I think it really stands out.

After that I took a walk to the creek to clear my head.

Didn't almost die this time. I actually made it up the hill without stopping, but it was still a struggle.

Today's haul. (still loving the bag)

I guess I really need to stack the stones on the porch and continue to fill the grassy area with gravel. The stones are for the fireplace after all. The big ones anyway. The mid-sized stones can probably stay where they are as a border. This is Mike's project. I'll let him decide. :)

And then I made dinner. I really thought this would be tastier than it was. I know it looks like shrimp, but it's chicken. I marinated chicken in a puree of cilantro, garlic, sea salt and olive oil, then instead of grilling them I cooked them on the griddle. Just seems like a waste to grill for one person, but I *am* dying to try out the grill. Anyway, after they were a little caramelized I tossed them in chili sauce - which I love... I used about 1/4 bottle of it when we went to the Thai restaurant in Friendswood... not quite so much in this dish. I even sprinkled some sea salt on it... still a little bland. I was expecting a flavor explosion. I added some sriracha and lime juice to it... still didn't pop. It was edible and it looked pretty. I paired it with more buffalo fries. So basically my mouth was on fire at the end of the meal, but that's about all I can say for it.

This evening I have been working on the bid sheet. They are looking at more suppliers so I'm trying to get it all set up and ready to go. Still have a lot of work ahead of me but it's mostly waiting on pricing so it should go pretty quickly.

So I guess tomorrow is Monday... I don't hate Mondays anymore and I even get up earlier most days than I did when I had to be up by a certain time. It's nice keeping my own schedule, I just miss having Mike around at the end of the day. Eventually he'll be working closer to home, but for now... we are doing what we've always done... taking distance out of the equation and making it work. It's not for everyone, and it's not what we want to be doing, but we've been doing it for 3-1/2 years now and we're still happily chugging along. Last week, can't remember what day, I looked through the photos from my past blogs, and even though we had a supremely crappy year, we did make a lot of good memories. I guess that's how we got through it, we still managed to have fun.

168 - An Indoor Day

Lunch. I love salad. It's got the perfect blend of veggies, goodie, and dressing. I will never go back to using packets of ranch, the homemade stuff is so much better. And once I get the herb garden going it will be so easy peasy. With chickens it will be easy peasier because I can make my own mayo from the eggs. And with a cow it would be the easy peasiest because I'd have milk and buttermilk and sour cream. All I'd need to buy is Worchestershire, vinegar, and lemons (for the mayo). But we'll take this in stages - I'd be happy with the herb garden.

So today I went to the kitchen to finish up a few projects I've been putting off. Namely the juicing. I love my juicer, but the pulp means it's a pretty tedious process because I have to clean the reservoir out. It takes quite a few lemons or grapefruit to make enough juice worth celebrating. Not sure it's cost effective either as far as grapefruit go, so we may just buy grapefruit juice from now on. Lemons are fine, we can keep buying those, although I eventually want a lemon tree.

The juicer does a good job though. You can't get much more juice out of a lemon than this.

Last night I finally got around to shelling the peanuts so that I could make homemade peanut butter.

I started it out in the blender. My Blendtec is a powerful machine and I thought it would work. I love it and over the past year I have appreciated its capabilities. So glad I bought it before I quit my job... I miss having money.

Unfortunately, the Blendtec was not cut out for peanut butter. It finally occurred to me that the recipe I found used a food processor, and maybe the extra girth of a food processor helped keep things moving rather than forming a big clump around the edges.

So I decided to give it a try and found that was indeed the case.

Voila! Homemade peanut butter using roasted peanuts, honey and a dash of salt.

I have to say, the taste is far superior to what you get from the store. The texture... in your mouth it's like silk, but it's still a little powdery so I'm not sure how it would hold up to a sandwich. It could be that I didn't let it go long enough, but there was smoke coming from my food processor so I decided enough was enough.

And in today's wildlife encounter... turkeys! In the front yard! Shut the front door! I love this place!

167 - Nature Calls

I didn't go to the creek today. Fridays and Saturdays are busier than weekdays and I don't really want anyone else to get the same idea I have. So I'll resume my walks on Sunday afternoon.

I made my own bleach gel. I read a blog called One Good Thing by Jillee and the woman is amazing. It's where I got my homemade laundry detergent recipe, and it works wonderfully and smells amazing. So I decided this was cheaper and I had water, cornstarch and bleach right here at the house. I needed something that would stick to the grout and not run because there is a lot of mold/mildew and it's gross. We'll see how it goes.

And when I went to check on how it was going I saw something that made me smile.

A fawn.

Wish I could have gotten better pics but it moved just as I snapped.

And then when I went out on the balcony to see if I could find it and get better pics outside the constraints of the windows, I saw its mom. We stared each other down for a bit before she got spooked.

Tried to embed a video but that didn't work, so you'll have to follow the link: http://youtu.be/0PiXL6Y-LRg

I also saw a hummingbird this morning. Saw one in the back yard yesterday. Can't wait to get the hummingbird feeder up and have the money to buy some more bird feeders. They come around anyway, it's just cool to bring them closer.

166 - A Day

Spent all day working on Concrete Angel stuff. First off, I got a bid to compare the new tool to. Found out quickly that a lot of information was lacking and questions needed to be answered. And changes to be made on the fly. Oh well, it's a work in progress and that is how it goes. All in all I think it is working pretty well so far. At least for me.

Then I finished up the website. When I first created it, there were maybe half a dozen pictures and Jason was so happy to have a website that all he wanted me to do was keep adding pictures. Over time the portfolio has expanded several times over and it was becoming a jumbled mess. I think Jason was still happy with it, but I knew I could do better. So, here is the new version, broken into categories:

http://theconcreteangel.weebly.com/

There are still a few changes I would like to make but I have to figure out how to do it without tearing the whole thing down and starting over... which I absolutely don't want to do... The most tedious part is done, which was putting The Concrete Angel on the photos themselves and organizing the files, choosing the best pics. But still, it was a lot of work and took about a day and a half of continuous work. I'm kind of obsessive about finishing something I start. Rather, if I don't hurry up and finish, I risk losing my momentum and not finishing at all...

So guess what else I did today?

It's creek time!

So in today's episode of The Creek Diaries, Kristy got smart and brought a bag.

Made it sooooo much easier to carry the jars and the rocks and the camera and the Kel-Tec, because it's a wine bag so it has six little compartments there, perfect to carry cylindrical objects like jars. Two quart-sized Masons and one little pint for sand. I needed sand for my carrots. Long story, but if you remember an earlier blog about food storage, that's what the sand is for.

I found all the butterflies. They were hanging out in the creek bed. This is about half of them.

Why do butterflies like trash so much??? I'd rather grow flowers but geez Louise they like trash! I'm tempted to bring a garbage bag and clean this shit up, but at the same time... I don't know where my rubber gloves are.

I know. They're probably all moths.

Our neighbor's paddock. Just looks peaceful. If we had a lawnmower I'm sure our lawn would look exactly like this. Cow might help, too.

Today's haul. The bag was AWESOME!

I still almost died.

A petrified donut. Blueberry I think.

Mike found a few of these the first time we went to the creek, but his were totally cylindrical. They're strange. I wonder what they are but haven't figured it out yet. The one I found today was part of a rock so I'm more confused than ever. Maybe they're petrified bumblebees. If they're valuable please let me know.

The space under the stairs is filling up... part of the space under the stairs... there's more directly under the stairs.

P.S. After I empty my cache, I climb the stairs. The punishment never ends.

Dinner. Pioneer Woman's Cheesy Olive Bread. She acts like it's a side, I decided it was pizza. I had french bread that was about to become moldy, and some green onion to use up, so I sacrificed myself for the greater good. I'm a giver. But I had a salad for lunch and no breakfast.

I should really always bring a camera with me. Even on my trip to town yesterday I found a cool thing I'd never seen before. I was just too lazy to hook my phone up to the computer and download the pic.

The moths around here are hella cool!

165 - Homey

So today, you guessed it, another trek to the creek. My life is nothing if not spontaneous and exciting - you just never know what time I might take that walk. I like to switch it up and keep it interesting...

I wish I could get better pics but if I get too close, they fly away and I get bupkis. So here we have... another bird on a fence post. A red one this time, in case you're color blind.

Ah those lazy summer days... Gracie has found a new perch. She likes the back of the couch and her step stool by the window. Last night she cautiously watched the cows graze across the road but most of the time she watches birds and bunnies and bugs. It will be interesting to see what she does when we get a dog. Especially if we get a Great Dane. But... baby steps, we're still looking.

Flowers and a tiny bee-like insect that I didn't want to kill. It's just bumblebees and wasps that I hate.

Bunny!!! I was probably about 10 yards from him and I kept creeping closer and he stood stock still... until a rock crunched underfoot... then he was off to the races.

This is "our" bunny. I call him ours because he lives under our magnolia tree

Today's haul.

You guessed it.

Almost died.

Today's gravel status.

Dandelion babies.

Our apple crop. Somewhat small and deformed, but I think when I can trim the tree and start supplementing whatever nutrients it's lacking, the tree will get healthier. I have to do some research but I am determined to have apples. Baby Boom is one of my favorite movies and I WILL have homemade applesauce! Yeee-ehp.

So my grill came today. In pieces. Loooooots of pieces.

I had me a project.

And I got an A-. Got it all together, there is one screw I need Mike to tackle, and I overtightened a nut, which broke the handle for the ash receptacle. It's not a catastrophe, but it kinda sucks that it happened... it's new ya know. It has a temperature gauge on one side of the lid and a vent on the other. And wheels on the back so I can push it around the balcony to amuse myself.

A pizza stone was included. Oh yes. I'm fancy-schmancy now. And there is a grip for the included charcoal chimney. I already love this grill. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually grill something.

So sad... the handle is not supposed to hang like that. :( Regardless, it's shaping up to the coolest grill EVER.

So after that, I made the trek to town. I needed produce. And I decided I was going to grow some of it myself.

This is not the produce, but when I was on the cusp of the garden section I saw these fellas. They were on clearance for $1.38 each. Little orphan plants that needed a home. And I think plants make a house feel cozy, so I put them in the cart.

And I bought herbs. I figure instead of paying for those little plastic boxes of them, I can snip what I need, and more will grow. More efficient, and pretty.

Kept the bottoms of the green and red leaf lettuce and put the root ends in water. We'll see if it works. Going on the same premise as the celery and green onions, I will change out the water every couple of days, and make sure it doesn't dry out. Fingers crossed.

Flat leaf parsley. It's a little droopy at the moment, but I think a day in the sun will perk it up. It's been in the produce section for a while and will need to adjust.

Ditto for the cilantro. Cilantro is so pretty.

Purple basil. Gosh it's purdy. And it smells so good.

Basil babies! The mini-greenhouse seems to be working. Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to transplant them to before they get to that point.

Lemon Thyme and Mr. Stripey tomatoes. My lady statue's base got broken during the move, one of the few things that seem to have been damaged, and I was going to throw her away... but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so she's a garden decoration now.

I'm not a hoarder, I'm not! I repurpose!

I need more potting soil, but this is another variety of tomato, and yellow bell pepper. I think I'll also start some lettuce, arugula, water cress and mache seeds. Arugula is hands down my favorite, but mache is a close second. They use it as a garnish in Ireland and I love the flavor, in fact, I can eat it on its own.

Me and my shadow. She's like a head rest that purrs.

So that's that. It's 7:30 and I've been awake since 7:30. I thought about a second trek to the creek, but I'm not feelin' it. Maybe tomorrow.

P.S. Whatcha doin' mister?