Hot Tamale

It is hot here. Hot enough that a step outdoors feels like walking into a wall so thick with humidity you have to push it aside to get around. Hot, hot. August hot without the relief of a dry breeze. So hot that a 6 a.m. jog requires ice packs and life support.

Which is why I found my weekend reading particularly entertaining. I spent Friday through Sunday next to a pool looking at, if we're being honest, old issues of Martha Stewart Living to get some architectural/decorating ideas for the future barndo (I was too lazy to actually leave the pool area and purchase better magazines. Do not judge me.). As luck would have it, the majority of these issues were published during the summers of years past and I ended up reading about truly helpful tips to survive the "warm summer months." For example, did you know that a canape sandwich and individual strawberry tartlette eaten under a weeping willow tree, in a meadow, in August, is rather refreshing? I bet you also weren't aware of the importance of toting around a nifty light sweater for those "unexpectedly brisk July evenings." Hmph. Snort. Oh Martha.

Not that I'm bitter about these impossible temperatures. I knew summer was coming, I just wasn't prepared for how unappealing working at the land would become. Our last significant weekend spent out there was to camp in a new spot and while it was nice enough, it was just. too. hot. We did manage to make another nighttime trip down to the pond. With a full moon and heat lightening in the background, the whole spot took on an eery, ethereal feeling, enhanced by Lu's growling at and pacing around a clump of trees by the water.

More unexplained noises that upset the dogs? No thank you. Two strikes against nighttime pond visits.

Instead of long weekends spent cutting trees and burning brush, we've been honing some other hobbies that might come in handy when the land's cleared and liveable. In fact, we've managed to squeeze some veggies and flowers out of the garden (Note: watering is actually pretty important).

Jeremy also has picked up a new relaxing hobby, involving tubes and bottles and chemistry and...well...it doesn't sound relaxing at all. He's making wine. The goal, apparently, is to perfect this art with a wine kit and then immediately plant a vineyard at the land in order to grow mountains of grapes and make top notch wine. I am almost certain that this is entirely possible.

I am not, NOT, complaining, mind you. I love it here. I love Texas and the sweltering heat, the mind-numbing humidity, constant layer of sweat, and the magnificent mosquitoes. In fact, I love it so much that I'm going to make tiny sandwhiches and tartlettes and eat them in a dusty hayfield underneath a cactus. Martha, you're an inspiration. Happy summer!