iron valley: a very long day
winter 10
i woke up early today, ready to really get things rolling. and boy howdy, what a day it was. i started off by grabbing some quick breakfast, then i headed straight outside to tend to the yams. there were a few weeds growing around, so i got those out of the way, then made sure everything was well-watered. stuff grows so quickly here, i was surprised to see how tall they'd grown just since last night!
with that out of the way, i sent myself back into the house to really focus on cleaning up. i picked up several items, stashing them away as i went and somehow managed not to get distracted along the way. i swept up some cobwebs (make sure they were unoccupied first, of course), made the bed, and i even organized the kitchen a bit more. it was still pretty early, and i suppose i could have kept working on the house, but instead i decided to list out what needed to be done next:
- defrost the freezer
- fix the front screen door (screen needs to be stapled back on in one corner)
- add some wd-40 to the bedroom door
- fix the leaky faucet
- add a wooden wedge under the kitchen table so it doesn't wobble
i'm sure there's more beyond that, but it seems like that will keep me busy for a good, long while. feeling satisfied with my plan, i headed to town next, hoping i might be able to find some books on the town's history. while at the library, i met arcade, a lovely tyke who really did seem too young to be doing any kind of work, but who am i to judge? it's a freelancer who tends to use the library as a work spot when it needs to focus on its work. it did help me find an appropriate book, which i sat down to read for a little while before properly checking it out and heading back home.
knowing that the yams were coming up, i figured i might as well head out into the forest and poke around for a chicken. i do love eggs, and having fresh ones daily would be a real boon. now let me tell you, i am not the most graceful creature on earth, so the chicken chase was probably quite hilarious from an outsider's view, watching me trip over myself no less than four times before i finally managed to convince it to come toward me. with enough treats, livestock will do just about anything for you!
i got the chicken settled into the coop outside the farmhouse, and she seemed happy there. so happy, in fact, that she followed me around for the rest of the day. i don't think she'll end up staying in the coop after all, considering she's already made herself quite at home in the laundry basket. at least it'll make the trip from “farm” to table a lot shorter!
with chicken in tow, i went to check on the yams again, and wouldn't you know it—i swear they had grown another couple of inches just in the time that i was gone. i had another go at weeding, plucking out anything in a two-foot radius around them. once that hard work was done, i meandered over to the bench that overlooks the farm, wherein the hen promptly sat herself on my lap. i was hoping to do a bit of meditation, but i just couldn't get my mind to settle. maybe it was the chicken in my lap, or maybe it was the rumbling of my stomach. whatever it was, i gave up after a good long while and headed inside to make some thai curry. i've never been a particularly strong cook, so it's one of the things i've been trying to get better at.
and you know what? i nailed it! the curry was full of flavor, rich, and wouldn't you know it—absolutely satisfying in every way i could imagine. i felt like i was back in the city, fine dining at one of those upscale restaurants... but without the price tag. my stomach now at ease, i cleaned up and headed to the living room, making sure the hen had a nice spot on the couch, and settled in for a reading session on the book i'd gotten at the library.
it was primarily about the town's start. the iron mine, the group who had founded it, and so on. it seems that it was actually a group of opossums of all things that started mining for iron all those years ago. looking at those old faded black and white photos in the book really was something. they were all wearing smudged up clothes, but they really did look happy with what they were doing. they discovered the iron deposits shortly after coming to the valley for farming, and the iron mine had made the town boom shortly thereafter. all this happened so long ago, i'll be curious to see what the last section of the book holds.
i managed to get a little bit of cleaning done after my reading session, though i felt a bit like a zombie toward the end of it, so i decided to call it a day to sit down and write this. fingers crossed tomorrow will be just as productive!