Inside The Perimeter

Well, I found out how the sausage is made… by making sausage. I’ve added another “trad” skill to my arsenal.

On Friday I drove down to Americus, GA to stay overnight in order to shorten my morning drive to White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA on Saturday. In Americus I tried to eat dinner at a dive bar called “Pat’s Place” but couldn’t score one of the seven parking spaces it has. Instead I spent too much money for a burger, fries, and two beers at Icehouse Beer Garden. Since the hotel in which I spent specialized in mediocrity, I didn’t trust their $3.98 breakfast and ate breakfast at the Waffle House which was next door. While paying for my meal I saw an overhead security video of someone who looked a lot like me except for the balding patch on the top of the head. I asked the cashier what sort of filter their camera was using, but she didn’t seem to understand my question.

At the farm we eleven watched videos about how they slaughter their cows, prior to making some pork sausages by hand. The process is so straightforward that I think the YouTube videos I’ve watched previously would have been sufficient training. We were served lunch, which honestly was the most disappointing part of my day; I ordered the day’s special of brisket with macaroni and cheese. Whoever cooked the brisket did a real disservice to the cow whose life was ended to supply the beef because it was dry and tough. The workshop concluded an hour early, at 1pm, so I put my handmade sausages into the cooler I had brought with me and headed up the road, stopping only to buy some ice since the hotel room had no freezer and the its ice machine dispensed no ice.

While I wouldn’t want to move to south Georgia, I drove through some lovely countryside over the weekend.

Wordle: four, my starter was SHACK

I almost forgot that I had signed up to volunteer at Trees Atlanta yesterday. Fortunately I remembered, and the rain held off so that I could ride the Barcycle on the Beltline.

To Ted Lasso, or not to Ted Lasso, that is the question! The fourth season of Ted Lasso has come to AppleTV. I was such a fan of the show, and thought that it wrapped so brilliantly, that I am conflicted about whether or not I will watch this season that we were told would never be created.

Wordle: five, my starter was CLAIM

There are productive days, and unproductive days. Yesterday was the latter…

I made a pretty incredible, and incredibly sloppy, pizza last night. I made the dough on Tuesday, keeping it in the refrigerator until about an hour before baking. The pie was sloppy because I used “real” mozzarella, ham, and pepperoni.

Wordle: four, my starter was STRUM

I’ve been watching a lot of videos from this year’s Rush tour, and it got me to consider buying a ticket for one of the Charlotte shows in November; the Atlanta shows are Thanksgiving week and I won’t be here. My desire to buy a ticket waned when I saw that the cheapest ticket I could purchase was $237. I will just have dig deep into my memory banks to remember when I saw them on the Signals tour in 1982.

Wordle: four, my starter was COUGH

One of the benefits of having time is cooking dishes which take time. Case in point, red beans and rice. Following the recipe in Emeril Lagasse’s book “Louisiana Real & Rustic” my dinner took a little more than four hours to make. Was it worth it? To me, yes. I used some of the vegetables and meat that I had in the refrigerator, and also decided to toss in some frozen okra from last year’s harvest.

In addition to dinner, yesterday I baked a pan of bacon, baked a breakfast casserole, and, made a large jar of bread and butter pickles with cucumbers I harvested in the morning. I also dirtied a lot of cookware in the process…

I was going to attempt my first bike ride since Saturday this morning, before heading up to get some education at Schoolhouse. Instead, I have decided to do some much needed cleanup in the basement and in Wee Little Farm.

Wordle: three, my starter was TREAD

When you are old, fat, and untrained, perhaps riding a 69-mile route that contains about 6000 feet of climbing is a bad idea? It was for me. But I did it…

If that wasn’t a big enough gaff for Saturday, I also forgot to take a screenshot of my Wordle board so I don’t know which four words I played between my starter (USAGE) and the solution (SLUSH). Yes, to me it matters.

I was glad it appeared as if it would rain in Brevard, NC yesterday, as I don’t think my legs could have taken another day of riding, even for a 28-mile flat route. Instead we ate breakfast in Brevard, broke down camp, and then some of us drove to Walhalla, SC to visit Freehouse Brewery.

Wordle: two, my starter was BRUTE

This is my reminder to you, as well as myself, to never click on links in email if possible. Stupid me clicked on one, even though I KNOW BETTER, and wound up getting redirected to some weird site. I realized my stupidity quickly and closed the browser tab before anything really bad occurred.

Have a great weekend, all. I’ll be doing an anti-rain dance all weekend.

Wordle: four, my starter was WAGER

Apparently Irish folk musician Glen Hansard died in a motorcycle accident the yesterday. While I am not a huge fan of his work, I did enjoy what I heard, and was moved by his death at 56.

Yesterday I watched a short interview about woodworking with actor Nick Offerman on YouTube. The channel posting the video was called “Highland Woodworking”, so I thought it was from the (one time?) furniture capital of the world, Highlands, North Carolina. Nope, it was from the Highland Hardware store next door to George’s Bar in Virginia-Highland.

Wordle: four, my starter was CABIN (it was going to be CRASH, and then I found out about Hansard)

Not feeling it.

Wordle: four, my starter was YODEL

I have nothing.

Wordle: six, my starter was CRASH