Friday bullets, Aug. 10, 18

We are heading towards fall far too quickly for my taste. I still have summer things I want to get done, and then there is that pesky school planning that needs to happen, but the tomatoes, all 3000 of them, are going to ripen at the same time... Gah! Where is the pause button?

• I never showed you this.

This is a tea cake, and I am so excited to have it. A good friend saw that I had read The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, and gave it to me so I could see what a tea cake was, since they are so pivotal to the story. Cool, huh? Here is what it looks like on the inside.

I was instructed to break off a little bit of it, and steep it as you would loose tea. I haven't tried it, yet, but will soon. I kind of just like looking at it for the moment.

• You know you have to subjected to at least one chicken story in these weekly round-ups. We had a chicken who almost had her name changed to Houdini. Her real name is Ramona. She is one of the hens who has an actual name, as we can tell her apart from the other chickens. Earlier this week, a couple of times each day, while the rest of the chickens were safely tucked into their pen, Ramona would be spotted out roaming around. The first or second time it happened, we thought perhaps she hadn't been shut in the pen with the rest, so people become dutiful about checking for her. There she was, busily roaming around with the rest. The door would be latched, and the next thing we knew, there was Ramona wandering about again. We decided that what must have been happening was that there was a slight gap in the chicken wire where the wire ended and the metal roof overhang began. It seems the chicken was flying up, going through that opening, and then flying back down to the ground. J. added more chicken wire, and ever since, Ramona has been staying put. 
• We have been getting nearly a dozen eggs a day now. Enough that I have been starting to sell some. 
• We received the news today that it was our turn to pick a husky puppy out of the most recent litter. TM has made his decision, and soon we will be bringing home an adorable grey and white husky. We would hate for life to get too calm, wouldn't we?
• I have joined a local book group which will have its first meeting in mid-September. I have belonged to book groups before, but it has been a long time. I'm doing it mainly to meet more people, as I don't seem to have any trouble getting myself to read books.
• For those who might have missed it in my post earlier this week, J. has a new job which he will be starting at the end of the month. We are all relieved and happy, but sad our summer long vacation together will be coming to an end.
• My garden is going a little crazy, and I've been harvesting lots of things.

What all was in that basket? Well, aside from the beets on top, there were these cool black carrots,

Anaheim peppers which are finally starting to turn red,

plus, some tomatoes. There are sooo many green tomatoes, I was thrilled that some are ripening. Those in the back, are a little bigger than cherry tomato sized, and have cool green stripes. The whole garden is all heirloom varieties.

Of course, there were also the ever producing squash and cucumbers.

• Those beets I pickled. Some of them had some cook stripes on the inside.

The initial amount of beets seemed pretty large, they really only made one pint of pickles. I hate just getting one pint; it's a lot of work for such a little amount. I also made 3 pints of pickle relish today as well.

• As the seasons is starting to wind down a bit, I'm looking at my pantry and thinking that I need to do more canning. My goal is always to be able to get through the year with the things I do can... enough jam, enough pickles, enough relish, etc. I don't think I'm near enough, nor do I think I have the actual time to meet that goal. I hate that I can get so disappointed by not meeting my own unrealistic expectations.
• Remember those cardboard cat houses I showed you earlier that smaller people were creating? The house is overrun. We have far more cardboard cat houses than we have cats to use them. I'm also getting a wee bit tired of seeing cardboard boxes kicking around everywhere I look. I am seeing the end to the cardboard cat house phase coming to an end rather soon.
• Have you ever bought the protection policy for something on Amazon, because you just knew the small electronic item was not going to survive? And did you also sort of vaguely wonder if it was really going to work if you did need to replace something? Well, something of H.'s ended up self-destructing tonight, and it was VERY upsetting to her. I managed to find the email with the policy information (not a small accomplishment, that), and went through the whole process. If I understand it correctly, after talking to the very nice customer service rep, we will be issued a gift certificate for the original amount with which we can purchase a new toy if we like. What does it say that I'm kind of surprised the whole thing actually worked?
• Finally, read this bit from that brain book I've been reading.

"One noteworthy example of how interoception [bodily self-awareness] affects our thoughts comes from the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, in which the Argentinian neuroscientist Agustin Ibáñes describes 'the man with two hearts.' The gentleman in question had heart disease, and so Ibáñes replaced his failing heart with a mechanical pump. Unfortunately, his patient disliked the sensation of his second heart, which was implanted just above his belly button. The mechanical throbbing sensation made it feel as if his chest has fallen into his abdomen, he said. But, interestingly, the sensation of his second heart also affected his original heart. Before his operation he had no problems empathizing with others. Now that his mechanical heart ruled, he had problems reading other's motives, he lacked empathy when looking at painful images and even had difficulty making decisions." (p. 182) Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson

Weird, huh? And cool. Cool and weird. Brains are cool and weird. And that's where I'll end. Enjoy your weekend!