When You Can’t Smell a Thing

My Dearly Beloveds,

I’m….sorry.  I am Just So Danged Sorry, Dagnabit!  But…..omg.  You wouldn’t believe how stuffed-up I am!   Between the ragweed and the weedweed (not that kind of ‘weed’ – just weeding and chopping out ‘stuff’ in my little acreage)…my upper sinuses (the ones right next to the eyebrow – owww!    I can clear them, for a minute (though it hurts like the dickens) but no matter what I do, I can’t smell anything.  Acupressure works to clear but, again, no smell.  Nada.  I sort of smell dog poop before I step in it, so there is that blessing.  But..really?  It’s come to Dog Poop?  Aiiiyy!

However, there is an upside to this – tomorrow we have to look at a bearing in the clarifier pit of a Wastewater plant.  That should be more than enough information for you, right there.

So let’s move on, shall we?  I will yark for a hot minute about The Homestead because…well, this is still gardening season and I’m ripping out old plants and prepping beds for Autumn planting.  I always say I’m going to do this but I rarely do – usually by September I’m heartily sick of the garden but I figure that must be some form of ADHD – Autumn is actually a great time for a lot of the chow I like to grow and eat, like spinach, collards, broccoli and root veg.    And I’m still harvesting from the Spring/Summer plantings.  Since I can’t smell much, most of what I am eating is HOT!HOT!HOT!  Tons of curry, which has manifold properties.  I made Catfish curry tonight, with my own basil (Thai and Italian pesto basil) and my own jalaps and tomatoes and garlic and onions. It’s fun eating what I grow.   Which brings me, again, to the subject of ‘choice’ – awhile back a friend mentioned how bemused our ancestors would’ve been at the notion of us buying dirt.  My first instinct was to envision them snarking – then I thought about it.  Folks who came here to farm were called ‘sodbusters’.  I don’t know if any of you have busted sod – I have.  I busted 26 fence panels ,ea 5′ long x 3′ wide border.  Each.   I would rather eat 1000 bugs than do that again and I’ll bet you that those forebears would’ve dropped to their knees in ecstasy at the sight of trucks and trucks of topsoil.  So..I’m Buying  Dirt.   That ‘clacking’ sound you hear is the Forebears, throwing their hand bones together in praise.  Cardboard, then dirt.  Next year I’ll have a whole new  NO DIG garden!  Busting sod is thankless work.   I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like, on some hostile prairie, with no rototiller and no lemonade…and Winter bearing down on you like a Dowager Who Wants a Word.

But what am I putting in that Dirt?  Well, since I can’t smell a blessed thing and it’s too late for flowers  (trying not to swear so much – how’mIdoin’?) I am focused on growing foods I love and I admit it:  like so many Americans, I Love CRUNCH!    When I can’t smell, I go for heat and crunch.  So the curry also had fresh green beans and lightly sauteed collards and chopped turnip (along with some turnip greens – I do love a bitter root!) The jalapenos were just ‘looked at’ with a touch of fire, in order to keep that ‘snap!’.  Bonus:  I can breathe again.  Can’t smell worth a damn – but at least I can breathe.

aren’t they adorable?

Wait to Slaughter.  Seriously.  I’m sooo glad I didn’t rush to the processor or the Sale Barn.  Chickens are a pain to sex; they all look pretty much alike, until way later (mine are just 5 mos old today – Happy Birthday, you Fiends!).  One of the Eggers we thought was a rooster blessed us with an egg today!  And we got our first White egg which means that noisy-assed Leg may be a hen after all!   Yet another lesson in patience.

I suck.  I’m sorry.  But I got nuthin’ else right now.  I can’t even smell Carnal Flower!  Serious.  I opened the jar of Body Butter and thought at first it had gone off – because it was totally devoid of scent.  Now…just try to imagine that for a minute.  Carnal. Flower.  = No Smell.  Yah.  Like that is gonna happen.  I sprayed the edp and I might as well have sprayed water.  Except – hey, guess what?  Everybody at City Hall now knows about Carnal Flower.  Alas, in my desperate attempt to get any – any at all!? – scent, I spritzed SIX times.  SIX!  This is a small town.  All 1,386 souls now know alllll about Carnal Flower.  Heck, their forebears  know about it, up in the cemetery!  Wonder if they’re laughing about me Buying Dirt?! LOL!

Thanks for sticking with me, here.  I know I stink at getting to actual perfume and I keep coming up with excuses (the dog ate my sample!) – I can’t wait for my nose to get back in order so I can talk to you about some extraits!