Monday, December 7, 2015

A Slow Sunday

My Sunday.... Typical dull day for a retiree, guess...

I woke up early, to the sound of our roosters, got up to take care of the necessary, and jumped back into bed. Dozed a little. Then I heard our tenant in the kitchen, and I went out and helped her prepare the chicken feed. We talk a little about the day, and plan what we're doing (I was pleased to have negotiated her into cleaning the fish our friends gave us, . a1-lb Ono.) 

When she left, I was still feeling the morning cold, So jumped back in bed.

Next thing you know, blink! It's 10:30! I feel a momentary pang of guilt, having wasted the morning (well, the first quarter of the typical workday) by sleeping. Then I gratefully remembered I am retired. I don't have a schedule. What doesn't get done today can be done tomorrow!

But I did want to get going. I had a long list..

I got up, made coffee and started. I planned to process some of the pig we butchered yesterday. There are several cuts that I would like to process some before storing (hams, ground pork, sausage, liverwurst, dog food cuts, stir fry). They are now piled in the outdoor fridge in freezer bags awaiting their fate. 

I looked at the kitchen and sighed. The first job changed to cleaning the kitchen and reclaiming the full working counter space. I can get by for most things with a clean section of the counter, mail and do-dads pushed to the side. But when I'm doing something potentially messy, yes, like grinding 10 lbs of pork (!), I like to have plenty of space.

Digging in, I hand-washed three large rice cookers (daily job), three large lidded casseroles and a slow-cooker (I had cleaned out our fridge for the chickens earlier), filled and ran the dishwasher. At any rate, it was after noon before that was done.

Meanwhile, I made breakfast for two and ate half (ham, farm fresh eggs from that chicken right there, half grapefruit from a friend's tree sprinkled with date sugar gifted by another friend and fresh ground and brewed coffee from this year's freshly roasted crop of another friend's coffee farm. We are truly blessed to live in a place where there is so much bounty and so much Aloha to share it. 

I baked a pie, froze the stir fry hunks into entree sizes to be chopped frozen if necessary and made half the airline reservations I need to (hey, it's a start).

By then my my fish was miraculously cleaned, and my tenant was just in time to cash in on some pie for her trouble! And it was great pie! From Holy's. Buttered Pear Pie. Warm. With vanilla bean ice cream. Yum.

Then the most delicious Ono, sprinkled with Hawaiian sea salt, rolled in flour, and sauteed in lots of butter. Pat takes hers with a dollop of my homemade tartar sauce. I prefer to dip my bites in a local sauce (shoyu, vinegar, and a chopped Hawaiian red chili). Delicate, sweet, and flaky. Caught yesterday.

Finally, I got the meat grinder out. Washed the pieces, laid them out on a towel to dry. Looked at the clock. It was already 9:30 pm.  Hmm.... I will start making sausage first thing tomorrow morning. And it's ok. We ate well today. I am ready to grind pig tomorrow morning, oh yes, and attack all those other things on my list. I'm just glad glad that none of them are mandatory or have much of of a due date 😁.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

I'm a sub-par caregiver

A poor excuse for a caregiver....

I am not a very sympathetic caregiver. I admit it. I do my best. But I always have the feeling that it's sub-par on the caregiver quality scale. My wife has been having severe arthritic back pain combined with fibromyalgia for the last few years; currently she's going through a pretty bad stretch. 

Well, some days I manage okay. (Notice how this is immediately all about me?) I'll watch a movie with her, bring her healthy food to munch on, and be generally encouraging.

Other days, however, I may get grouchy, or go somewhere so she can sleep in peace.

Here's an example. The other day, she was bedridden, icing her back, and I was leaving with a friend to drive the hour and a half to Costco. My friend was waiting, I was in a hurry. I took a pee, and used the last little bit of tp. The new rolls were in the shed in the carport. No, I am not so evil that I left her with no tp, and forced her to hobble out to the shed! But, I really did the minimum. I grabbed a big pack of tp from the shed, threw it across the hall into the bathroom and sailed out the door! She had what she needed while I was gone, but no frills. Hehe. 

When I got home, she even thanked me for bringing it in from the shed.