Bathrobe Farming

Jez woke up at 7:30 this morning and snuggled with me for a few minutes. When she got impatient, we went down to say hi to Brian, who stayed with us last night. He had a job interview yesterday at a new restaurant and is cooking a meal for the owners today. Did most of the prep last night, was stirring panna cotta when I came down.

Made coffee, turned on music; Brian ran to the store for more peas. Glancing up from the stereo, I saw the black and white dog we spotted here a week or two ago. Gabe had managed to catch a look at her collar; tag says Molly. She was sniffing at a few beer bottles we left on the patio table. I opened the sliding door, but she ran off and didn't come back to whistles.

God, the morning was stunning. Only 8:30 and very warm. The air smelled wonderful. I wandered around with my coffee mug, amazed at where we've wound up. Jezebel came outside and I took her down to open up the chickenhouse. We got scratch out to throw for the hens before we let them out, but they were off like a shot to check out the leavings underneath the bird feeders, instead. Not even interested in scratch! No eggs. There was only one yesterday, I wonder whether they're pissed about their new roost situation. I need to get in there and make some adjustments.

Meanwhile Jezebel was thoughtfully soaking their pellets in their water can, so I unhooked that to haul it up the hill. Started the hose running in the -- oh shit, I think it's still running. One sec.

Phew. Thank the gods we're on a well, otherwise our water bill would be out of this world. The wading pool is more than full, thank you very much.

As I was scrubbing out the chickens' water can with a green scratchy, a truck pulled around the corner of the driveway and a guy in a red t-shirt walked down the hill. I pretended that I wasn't standing there in a black terry robe over my satin nightgown, and just said hi. He was from the hardware store, come to pick up the backhoe Gabe had rented.

"Well, you guys have a nice little secluded place down here," he said. "I've lived on the Island my whole life and I didn't even know this street was here." I agreed with him, marveling again that we wound up here, and asked Jezebel how she'd like to grow up her whole life on the Island. She said "uh-huh."