Smokey Saturday

I slept lousy Friday night, so when I woke up at 5:30 AM on Saturday, I just turned over and went back to sleep for another hour. I think the problem was it got so cold (for July, anyway) last night. I got up and shut the windows around 2:00 AM, BTW.

I ground up some coffee beans and put a pot on after posting the Blog. I went out on the patio, intending to water the front grass and, to my surprise, I found 1/4 inch of rain in the gauge! So, I went back inside. It must have fallen early last night as the patio wasn't wet. The bummer is that it means my grille got wet, too. But, by the time I got out there to put it away, the sun had dried it out.

I had showered (no shave, today) and dressed and headed out for my errands around 10:15 AM. I would describe this as a perfect fall day, BTW (except its mid-July, LOL).

I only went to Westborn for some stuff I'll need. As I seemingly keep pointing out its unseasonably cool (poor Mom and Cora!) and I decided to make some Italian Wedding soup this weekend. So, I got some ground chicken, two chicken Italian sausages, some Pecorino Romano (a hard Italian cheese, mom), a little fresh dill, 10 ounces of baby spinach, celery (which I needed anyway) and fresh parsley (ditto). What I didn't need was carrots, but they had some beautiful, leaf-on baby ones, so I got those, too (see photos).

I was back at home just after 11:00 AM. I treated the cats and then got to work cleaning the house. I swept all the wood floors and then washed them with the Wet-Jet. I finally took the old monitor out of the office and put it in the garage. The two speakers and monitor stand went into the attic (it's only been, what, two months or so, lol).

I rearranged my linen closet (it was getting out of control) and put some of the things I never seem to need either in the trash or up in the attic, to get a little more room. I am on my third load of laundry, BTW, and have all the windows open with the kitchen ceiling fan on. It's a breezy 65 degrees, according to my thermometer.

I swept the kitchen floor and then vacuumed the two walk-off rugs downstairs. I was folding clothes as they came out of the drier. I checked and it was almost 1:00 PM, and there were people outside.

It was my neighbor and the tree guy. I went outside and chatted a bit. The tree guy asked, "You don't have a gun today, do you?" and laughed. I said "No, not this time. It's in the rack." I asked them if they minded my taking some photos (they said no) and then left them to their work.

I was hungry! So, I warmed up another catfish fillet and the rest of the wild rice for my breakfast/lunch. I ate it watching a taped TV show (it felt good to put my feet up). Afterwards I took about a 20 minute cat nap (the sounds of chainsaws coming through the open windows woke me up).

I took a LOT of pictures as I was interested in his technique. Basically, he had spiked shoes that he climbed up the tree with, tied himself in with a rope to the climbing harness he wore, tied another rope to the branches he wanted to cut and then cut them. After they fell a little, the rope would stop them and my neighbor would lower them to the ground.

Once he got to the trunk of the tree (BTW, he estimated from the rings this tree was over 90 years old), he started cutting off three foot sections and dropping them onto my lawn. The noise shook the house every time. And when he cut the last 20 foot section of the truck, it felt like an earthquake inside the house.

My neighbor kept loading up the wood on his trailer and taking it next door. The smaller branches and leaves were fed into a chipper and blown into his truck (see photos). I went outside about 4:30 PM to pay the guy. I chatted with my neighbor and his wife, Tammy.

He said he found two day-laborers to move those wood chips (with my wrecked shoulder, I no longer can do it this year). I asked him for a quote to remove the pavers in Jake's patio and put down a concrete patio with a six-foot fence surrounding it. He said he would get back to me. I gave the tree guy my $400.00 bucks.

I went back inside and it was almost 6:00 PM. The soup sounds too ambitious tonight, so I went with leftover sweet corn and some button mushrooms I needed to use up. I sliced the mushrooms thick and sauteed them in butter. The sweet corn I just wrapped in a paper towel (or kitchen towel, as they say in England - BTW, I love how they pronounce "marshmallows" in England). I wet the paper towels and then put them in the microwave for two minutes.

I ate this watching a couple of favorite movies. Then, before I went to bed, I carried out what I thought was a brilliant plan. I took the four cast iron grates off my grille and put them on the oven racks. Then I locked the oven down and turned on the oven cleaning feature.

I did open the kitchen window (it was like 57 degrees F. then) and turned on the vent fan (on low). I figured when I woke up in the morning, both the grates and the oven would be clean.

Imagine my surprise when, at about 2:00 AM, all three fire detectors went off, screaming "Fire, fire, fire!" The whole house was filled with an acrid smoke! I turned the vent fan on high, turned on the kitchen ceiling fan and the oscillating fan in the bedroom. I turned the oven off and then I opened every window in the house (security concerns be damned). Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a breeze.

The cats fled to the window sills. I made myself a drink and fled to the patio. I stayed outside, sitting in my bathrobe, until the smoke seemed to have dissipated (I watched through the kitchen window).

When I judged it safe, I went back inside. I tried to open the oven but found it would not release the door lock. I realized you must complete the oven cleaning cycle. So, I girded my loins (trust me, sitting outside in your bathrobe in 55 degrees will definitely loosen your loins) and turned the oven back on at 3:00 AM.

I waited a bit, but the overpowering smoke didn't come back. So, I went back to bed (with the windows still all open) at about 4:30 AM.