Cutting and Hacking

Sometimes you need to do cutting and hacking.  Actually, every time I'm here, I put on my gardener hat, which is why I pay for a gardener at the other place.  It's a dangerous occupation here.  See all those agaves down my front walkway?  I still have spines in my hand from accidentally hitting one.  It's rather irritating that I can STILL see it under my skin.  

Anyway, aren't they beautiful??  It only takes a chainsaw to carve off the branches leaning over the walkway.  Then there is the evil weevil.  It's some flying thing that lays eggs at the base of an agave.  They bore in and eat until the plant dies.  

Sadly this time I lost FOUR plants.  They are such magnificent things that it's a shame.  This is not the Weber Azul agave that can magically turn into tequila, or at least I don't THINK it is.  When they die, these things are like pieces of wood ... heavy and stiff as a board.  It's pretty hard to drag them outside without getting stuck five or six times.

The good news is they put out rhizomes like crazy (see the little green one?) that grow up in about three years.  The dirt spot is where the above one came from.  They cannot be dug out, you have to wait until they are rotten enough to be PULLED out.

I've started a new pile for the cleanup crew.

Then I went about cleaning up all the other stuff that needed pruning.  It was a long morning, but at least there was not a lot of blood this time.

Lucky for me, I was able to answer the phone when Patty called.  She and Dan were heading out to Costco.  YES PLEASE!!  I don't know why, but I always get lost in that store ... and boy was it crowded!! The first thing that went in the cart was the $4.99 chicken.  Cooper was happy.

Followed up by some pork loin and pork loin back ribs.  It's time for the smoker to be lugged out of the garage.  We barely made it back, since we both bought so much stuff it hardly fit in the car.  Next trip, take the BAT truck.  You remember what that means, yes?

I bet you are wondering what THIS picture is.  Back home, I threw the potato casserole in the oven while I played a bit with Cooper.  When my phone rang, I sat on the couch and talked for awhile with my best photographer friend Cris.  The Elks lodge is requesting more pictures.

That's when it caught my eye.  Something was on the floor.  It moved ... I said CRAP and pulled my bare feet up on the couch.  What the heck?  Okay, it's only a lizard.  A very small three inch lizard, which I think is supposed to be good luck, but he's going to starve in MY house.

I got a container to slam over him ... not to kill him since they are good guys ... but he slipped behind the fireplace before I could get close enough.  Oh good ... lizard poop all over the house.  I have no idea how he got in and there's no way to catch him.  He will probably die in the wall.  It's always some kind of critter, right???

Dinner was pretty simple.  I suppose I should have added something more nutritious, like meat, but that would require MORE cooking (or worse yet more cleaning up), so I settled for casserole.  

Here's my Tip of the Day!!  When purchasing ingredients for things like casseroles, be sure and read the label twice before putting it in your basket.  Even if the sign says Cream of CHICKEN soup, and you take a can from under that sign, READ the can.  

Yeah, I ended up with cream of MUSHROOM soup because SOMEBODY put it back in the wrong spot!  It was okay, but not quite as tasty as if the ingredients were the correct ones.  Lesson learned.