Sunday’s Story

I woke up at 6:30 a.m.  Sunday morning. I half-expected that my back would hurt from yesterday’s work schedule. But, it didn’t! Instead, my legs and neck were killing me, probably from standing and looking up while washing the house.

Unfortunately, I had yet another busy day planned. However, I learned yesterday I must make a cut-off time if I want to grill! So, I only have until 4:00 p.m. for work.

I ate more soft boiled eggs for breakfast (quicker than the pancakes I thought I’d make this weekend, and I love them anyway). I stripped the bedding and started the second load of the weekend wash. Then came the Sunday morning chores. I was just about to shave and shower when my friend B____ called to check in. So, we chatted instead.

Then I took a shower. I got dressed and went out to hook up the soaker hose in the vegetable garden. I set the timer for an hour and finished the rest of the morning chores. I noticed while watering the indoor plants that the bay leaf tree is doing worse. It hadn’t really thrived since I planted it, so I tried more water, less water and so on. But, now I was getting alarmed. So, I tried a trick my Mother used to do. I moved all (four, lol) of my indoor plants out onto the front porch. She used to put them out all summer, but maybe even this short time will help them.

I thought the bay leaf tree would be heavier (its in a big planter with a lot of dirt – hey, it’s a tree, right?) But, I managed to muscle it out through the front door.

Finally, I watered all the container gardens, and then I got my woodshop set up. I rolled the compound miter saw over (love that! works like a charm!!), locked the wheels and cut the only boards I can on this project with it: the 2 x 4’s. I got the four long ones cut and then the three little ones. I blew the sawdust off it, unlocked the wheels and rolled it back. From here on out, it would be the table saw and circular saw only.

So, I set up the sawhorses and cut the rest of the boards to length. Then I got out the table saw and ripped down the ones that needed it.

Finally, it was time for the fun part, cutting the back boards into funky shapes. Then an even more fun time, distressing the boards to make them look old. I beat them like they owed me money! I used a length of chain, a hammer and a big screw pounded sideways on the thread. Then I used a 1/8-inch drill bit and drilled holes here and there (but always in groups) as though wood worms had eaten into them.

Chain Marks

Hammer Marks

Thread Indentations

"Worm" Holes

I won’t be able to really tell if I was successful until the end, but I know I’d be distressed if somebody did that to me!!!

Unfortunately, by the time I finished it was already 4:30 p.m., so much for deadlines. I put away the tools, blew out the sawdust and pulled the car back in. I shut the garage door and went inside to take a quick shower. I made up the bed and started the last load of clothes.

Then I started on my Sunday supper. I quartered about two pounds of baby redskins, skin on, and put them in a pot of cold water to boil. In a medium bowl, I diced a red bell pepper, half a Vidalia onion and about the same amount of celery. To that I added three hardboiled eggs, rough cut (I like big chunks of eggs in my potato salad) I wanted to add dill pickle relish, but didn’t have any, so I diced up two McClures pickles (expensive relish!) I put a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (I just eyeballed it) in a little glass bowl and added a splash of pickle juice to that.

I went out and harvested some thyme, flat leaf parsley and chives. I snipped the chives, stripped the thyme leaves off their stems and chopped the parsley. Everybody into the pool!

I took about a cup of mayonnaise, thinned it with a bit of apple cider vinegar and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I kept tasting it until I had it just right.

When the potatoes were fork tender, I drained them and put them in the big bowl. I sprinkled them with the vinegar/pickle juice, tossed the bowl and let the hot potatoes soak that up. Then I added the contents of the medium bowl, mixed that together and dressed it with the mayonnaise. I covered the bowl with cling wrap and stuck it in the fridge to chill.

I made my hamburger patties and let them sit out to come to room temperature.

I went outside and fired up the charcoal starter. While that was burning, I retrieved the garden hose from the vegetable garden and watered the new grass around the shed. I picked a bowl of cherry tomatoes and gave them to the neighbor for his salad (He has Roma tomatoes, but no cherry ones).

I dumped the hot coals, heated the grate and then cleaned it. I oiled it and added on the four ears of corn.  They took longer than usual to roast, as I had dumped the coals too early and about half hadn’t caught on fire.

But they were finally done and the coal bed looked right for grilling. I shucked the corn and stuck them into the oven set to 170 degrees F. to keep warm. I oiled the grate again and put on my six burgers. Since they were made from the two pounds of ground chuck, they were pretty thick. I took them just to rare, since they are not for eating tonight. I’ll warm them up in the microwave for lunches or dinners next week and they will cook more when I do.

Next, I grilled some hot dogs. I had seen some pretzel buns at Westborn and bought them just for tonight. I liked the hamburger pretzel bun at Wendy’s, so I thought, “why not?”

So, when the hot dogs were done, I warmed up one of the buns in the microwave for 15 seconds, as recommended on the package. I saw that they were not cut, so I used the bread knife to open it up.

I plated some potato salad, an ear of corn and a hot dog and sat down to a very satisfying meal!

Since the sun was setting as I finished grilling, it wasn’t long before Breaking Bad came on. After that, I watched Mountain Man, which taped while I was watching Breaking Bad. I went to bed when it finished.