An Outside Smile

Almond Choc Chip scones

I awoke thinking I'd better sneak out with buckets of water just before dawn and water the trees.  

To take my mind off the not gardening choice, I've been in the kitchen.

The word came down from the Gov yesterday that we are in a bonafide drought and there's been a call for a 20% cut back. We've already been doing our share, and I'll gladly give up an additional load of wash or not use the dishwasher if I can repurpose it. I gave up the winter garden, but I won't give back the trees.

Corned beef for morning hash

Being on a well will be different in a drought. Other than the sulfur smell as the water table drops and less pressure, we are hearing there may be times we don't have water to the house. So for a while now we've been active with shorter showers, wearing our jeans more than a couple of days, and making sure wash loads are extra full.


Repurposed the pot rack

I'm finding things to do, like organizing my closet and decorating the pot rack above the kitchen sink.  There's decorating work to do in the guest rooms.

We are watching to see what will happen with our farmer friends with it just about planting season. We hear there are state and federal programs to help divert water to the fields. Several have 200+ acres of first-year fruit and nut trees.



Crème Brulee

An arborist is coming Monday. We've lost an Italian Cypress and there's a very sick pine, both of which have been dying since long before we arrived. There's also some sort of weedy invasive plant behind the shop that is in the way of a storage area we need to put up. 

Sparrows took up in the corner of the porch roof and they need to be shoo-ed out before repairing and closing that area that has been long neglected. We've got a gutter goal for 2014, and it is time to rebuild the narrow entry stairs which are a bit treacherous.


Artisan Bread

We invited a couple of gutter guys out for quotes - one with an after-market leaf guard product and the real LeafGuard fellas. We'll be getting one more quote and then deciding on the get-the-job-done-reasonably, but I'll tell you right now it won't be the LG guys. They were double the price. Good thing we didn't have the LG guys first - we might have signed up with other guy on the spot.

It is another beautiful day in Northern California, one that promises to be upwards of 70 degrees. I have decided that feeling guilty about it isn't going to make it rain any sooner. So today I will hang with the dogs, a chuck it and ball, a book, and just soak in the sun.