And so it goes...

or begins, or something!

I got most of my schoolbooks in the mail the other day. That must mean that the semester is about to begin.



I decided this semester to take an easy course load... NOT! So I have Anatomy & Physiology II (must get an A to get into my program!), Chemistry, Math, and Psychology. Anyone want to help me?? No?

The Psychology is a funny thing. You see, I already have an entire degree in Psych, but the powers that be can't agree that somewhere in my 18 or so Psych classes, I have taken the equivalent to their General Psychology II. Rather than hunt for 30 year old course descriptions of every class I have taken, and try to get the Dean of Students to see my point of view, I am just going to take their stinkin' class and call it done! Having said that, I will either breeze through this particular course, or they will kill me with papers and reports!!

In other news, this has been the week of garden tool repair. I mentioned last time that I replaced the chain on the chain saw. I have neither the talent or the tools to actually sharpen the old, beat-up chain, so I opted for replacement. Someday, in my spare time, I will learn to sharpen it myself. The saw works great now!!



I have also been wrestling with the zero-turn lawn mower. The deck seems out of balance, or maybe we bent one of the cutting blades, so that the grass gets scalped on one side. I have adjusted the deck from front to back, and tried to adjust it from side-to-side. But that particular maneuver requires that I be able to see the blades while the machine is sitting on the level concrete, and I have yet to be able to peer under the mower from a 3 inch space on the ground.

But! I did find out that the mower is still under warrantee, so tomorrow the fix-it man will come out and do it all for me! He, of course, has a hoist to haul the entire gazillion pound machine into the air and reach all the inaccessible spots!

Stud Muffin is working on adjusting the idle on the weed whacker so it will keep running smoothly. He's the whacker expert, if you pardon the term, since my arms get very tired using the thing. Oh, never mind, this explanation isn't going well at all! My mind is going down a rabbit hole that has absolutely nothing to do with garden tools!! We'll just leave it, okay?

The overflow of tomatoes has been turned into two batches of soup. An online search turned up a recipe that was quite simple, and yet had a delicious addition of 4 whole cloves to the mix. That really imparted some wonderful, yet not identifiable flavor to the whole thing.

As mentioned in a previous post, I have also dried some of the tomatoes, and some home-grown red onions.



I set the dehydrator on the back porch because the onions were pretty strong! Soon, it smelled like a hamburger stand out there! And speaking of hamburgers, I put together a BBQ for Studly earlier in the season, and now he's been grilling burgers for me! Tonight, we are going to grill marinated steak outside...yum!

So, that is what is happening around here. I have gotten over my blue funk, but chocolate is always happily accepted. If you were planning on sending some. I'm just saying, is all!