Another fairly hot and very humid day. No rain forecast though.
Monday was so humid I was sweating just standing outside talking with the roofing contractor. It got up into the low nineties too. Hotter in the sun, I’m sure. Roofing is one of those jobs that I would do just about anything to avoid. Septic pumping is another.
I did my pickups. Got my roof vents and the rest of my household stuff. Not much for resale in these two auctions.
The roofers got the back side of the house and some of the garage done. Today they’ll finish with the garage and do all of the front side. The new color shingle looks great. It really freshens up the look and I can’t wait to see it on the front from the street. House will look good for the riots at least.
I really don’t like having the crew in my driveway and around the house in the back where all the good stuff is. The generators and water tanks are pretty hard to miss if you are in the yard. The food is a bit more undercover. @paul would probably recognize what I’ve got going on. I’ve used night shields (aluminized fabric set up like an old school movie screen) horizontally to cover my three sets of shelves where my canned goods are stored. The night shields are normally used in a grocery store to cover the open face of reach in coolers and freezers at night. I picked up three at some point. They work great as retractable ‘doors’ in front of the metal shelves.
Hard to maintain OPSEC when you’ve got people crawling all over your house.
Once the roofers are done and gone, I’ll be able to get more Halloween decor out. That gives me a sense of normality that I kind of need right now to counter my sense of dread for what I see coming. Every one of these milestones I want to make as normal as possible for the kids, so if things do go pear shaped, they have that to remember. And if they DON’T go pear shaped, all the better to have celebrated the small events, instead of skipping them. On the other hand, I can be pretty sure we won’t be doing 4 Trunk or Treats this year. As long as we get one Trick or Treat night I’ll be happy.
Ate one orange from my tree today. A bit sour and woody. Very disappointing. I hope the others are better. Daughter 2 wanted to make cookies, and used a box of mix Best By 2018. It was pretty bad. There is something bitter in there. For everything that lasts well past its BB, there is something else that doesn’t.
On the other hand, I used a skillet flavor mix from 2018 to make chicken tacos last night and they were REALLY good. Chicken from the freezer, ‘street truck’ one skillet flavor packet, and I made the tortillas from the big bucket o mix. Just add water! I’m getting the hang of it. They aren’t round, but I’m getting them cooked more consistently and rolled out to a more consistent and thin thickness. The dough really needs to be kneaded, and it really needs to rest. After that it rolls out nicely. The tortilla press was a failure again. Operator error or just not needed, the press is going to Goodwill. I don’t have a comal but the western rolling pin works just fine and I’ll keep trying. Sometimes the simplest things are much harder than they might look. That’s why we need to practice the skills.
And keep stacking. So you have the resources to use with those skills…
nick