Inside The Perimeter

I did a lot of farmer cosplay over the weekend, including sitting in a session about paw paw, even though I can’t seem to grow the trees in Wee Little Farm and have probably given up trying. In addition to all my farmer learning I heard about a couple of events later this year that I may attend.

Mars Hill University is a pretty, and slightly hilly small campus. Mars Hill is a tiny town which (currently?) can’t handle events; there is only one functioning restaurant, a coffee shop, a bakery, a bagel shop, and a brewery within walking distance of my AirBnB (I admit that I was in the 1% trying to be only on foot). If I remember correctly there were at least two additional restaurants this time last year.

I went to Mars Hill Brewing, located in the old Mars Hill theater, on Friday night. At that time they were unfortunately sold out of my first choice, but did have an ESB along with eight other selections. After sessions on Saturday there was a social held at the brewery from 6-9pm. When I arrived at 6:10pm I stood in line for a while since there one bartender entertaining two people with samples. While waiting I noticed that four more taps had been kicked since I left the day before, including all of the beers which sounded tasty to me. So I left, walked back to my AirBnB, made dinner, ate it with a beer, and then went to bed to read.

This weekend I also discovered why you rarely see pimento cheese made using smoked Gouda cheese.

Wordle: five, my starter was PRIME. After a good run, may Wordle mojo has been very poor lately.

I had so much to do yesterday while I was down in Griffin, but the symposium and early dinner at a BBQ restaurant took up all of the day. I did stop at Kroger yesterday to refill the M6, saving 70¢/gallon off of the currently high gas prices.

Speaking of high prices, my roofing/guttering quote came in $3k more than my upper limit, and $8k more than what I was hoping it would cost. I think a lot of the roofing cost is materials, including putting on OSB decking which my roof doesn’t currently have (not the way houses were built in the 1950s). Unfortunately time is not on my side. I procrastinated and only got one quote, so this may be the option I must choose…

Wordle: six, my starter was COUPE

I am trying to cobble together a pizza oven for the back patio of Wee Little Farm so that I can bake pizzas outside this year. When I committed to doing this project I never realized how hard it would be for me to find solid clay bricks. The Big Box stores sell solid concrete bricks, or clay bricks which have holes in them. And to think that there wasn’t once a huge brickyard right here in Atlanta…

I’m starting to wonder if I will receive a roofing quote from the company who came to the house on Monday. Seems that it is increasingly difficult to get contractors/workers to follow their commitments. I will have to reach out later if I don’t hear anything this morning.

Wordle: three, my starter was NITRO

I’ve been building a DVD and Blu-Ray collection over the past few years. Here are the discs I am still seeking every time I enter a thrift store:

• Stop Making Sense
• Avengers: End Game (Blu-Ray)
• Glengarry Glen Ross (Blu-Ray)
• Elf (Blu-Ray)
• The Larry Sanders Show [complete series]
• Detectorists [complete series]
• Alias [season 5]

Alias may seem like a weird desire. A month or so ago I found and bought seasons 1, 3, and 4; yesterday I found and bought season 2. And why would I buy any of them? Jennifer Garner…

At my Trees Atlanta volunteering last Saturday I briefly chatted with someone who said she ran with Atlanta Snack Club. This surprised me since I thought that it had disbanded. Pity I can’t run any longer, it could’ve been an alternative to hashing.

Wordle: five, my starter was RISKY

The roofer arrived yesterday later than expected. He is tasked with providing me with a quote for the work we talked about. Hopefully this won’t be crazy high. I need this to happen soon as I was informed by the insurance broker that no company will provide a policy for a house with a roof older than fifteen years old. The inmates now run the asylum…

Sometimes timing works for me, sometimes it works against me. Last Friday I found out about a conference called Spore to Store, which is all about mushroom growing, a subject in which I have much interest. This conference is being held in Griffin, GA this week on Thursday and Friday. On Friday I will be farmer cosplaying at the Organic Growers Schools Spring Conference in Mars Hill, NC. Dangen. If I hadn’t invested 600 non-refundable dollars I’d consider switching conferences. I looked into registration for the mushroom conference to see if I can attend Thursday’s sessions. It turns out that ticket sales have already ended, but I may drive down to Griffin on Thursday and take my chances. I’ve bookmarked their website and hopefully if they have the conference again next year I can attend.

Wordle: three, my starter was ROAST

As we’ve moved into March I realize that I somehow missed the boat on collecting a lot of leaves this winter. Perhaps this is because I was away around Thanksgiving when a lot of people raked their leaves, or perhaps more people decided to “leave the leaves” so there was less inventory for me to collect.

I think I will be eating a good Wee Little Farm salad this week since it appears that it will get so warm this week that my lettuce plants will begin to flower and go to seed.

Two games in and I’m worried about Atlanta United; they have lost both games and have yet to score a single goal.

I decided that rather than cook a recipe from one of my cookbooks tonight, I’d rather eat pizza. I made a dough yesterday and will be baking one later.

Wordle: three, my starter was PRIME

It will come as no surprise to read that admittedly, I am cheap. Sure, I can say that I am a spendthrift due to lack of income for nearly 4.5 years, but truth be told I like a bargain — it comes from my father.

That being said, these days the one item on which I find myself spending more money than most people is peanut butter. I have come to enjoy peanut butters that contain only peanuts and salt, no palm oils or sugar additives for me thankyouverymuch, and I am willing to pay more for it.

Don’t forget, 4x Kroger Fuel Points today!

Wordle: four, my starter was COUPE

I’ve previously mentioned that I am starting a project to be called “In Others’ Words” which will consist of words found in books/letters/postcards and photos of the items which contains the words. The other day I picked a book from my shelving and discovered it contained an index card with the following:

6/19 Winter Park
20 Universal
21 Gaylord
22 Mt. Dora
23 get to Tampa
24 Tampa
25 Tampa
26 leave Tampa

This tickled me given that it referenced areas of Florida through which I recently driven.

Wordle: three, my starter was ENTRY

I knew the bitter cold would drive up my natural gas bill, and I was unfortunately correct. Even with all of my miserly tendencies — dropping the setting on the thermostat, and wearing sweaters indoors — my upcoming bill is high. I’d hate to see what it would be had I not done these things.

Scana Energy, or more specifically their billing processor BillMatrix, says that I can pay using ApplePay, but I really can’t. Every time I attempt to make my natural gas payment using ApplePay it fails saying that they are unable to process my payment at this time.

Many more expenses ahead!

For dinner last night I made “Andouille and Chicken Jambalaya” from “Louisiana Real & Rustic” by Emeril Lagasse. It is a recipe I’ve made many times before, and it was predictably delicious.

Wordle: three, my starter was SPADE

Brr…

No recipe made last night. Even though it ended last Tuesday, I’m still in a Fat Tuesday mood, so I’m making jambalaya tonight.

Wordle: three, my starter was CURVE