We had a two-week respite from pouring cement, laying bricks, and otherwise working on the oven last weekend. Instead, we performed our day jobs: Tim saw patients, I met deadlines, and Andy worked a weekend shift. Without him to supervise, we took a break from advancing The Project. Instead, we harvested cucumbers, tomatoes and chickens. We’ve already put up more pickles than we can eat in a year, so we gave the cukes away, canned our first tomato sauce of the season, and shrink-wrapped the chickens for the freezer. Additionally, I put this year’s shallot crop in the greenhouse to dry, where I thinned the kale and picked arugula, and I planted fall beets in the garden where the shallots had been.
(photo by Deborah Lee Luskin)
Even though it’s been a rainy summer, we welcomed Sunday’s inclement weather as an excuse to sit in a dark room for a few hours and watch a local production of Steel Magnolias. Instead of falling asleep, I laughed, wept, and enjoyed being transported to another place and time where I had no chores.
Busy Time of Year
This is a busy time of year, when the fruits of our labor require yet more labor—and that’s okay. We’ll be laying bricks again this coming weekend, and every other weekend until the bake oven is complete. And then—when it’s finished, when the mortar is dry and the oven cured—we’ll start baking outside.