Hey, you were warned.
At Willey’s, I buy a 50 cent fudgesicle and a stopper for the drain of the old clawfoot tub I’ve dragged out to pasture to serve as a watering vessel for the cows. In the store everyone is masked, and I realize it’s the first time I’ve worn a mask in nearly 2 weeks. How quickly things are reverting to normal. How quickly we seem to have forgotten all the ways the pandemic was going to change us.
Back in the car, I sit for a minute and eat my fudgesicle in fewer bites than strictly necessary, wishing I’d bought a second. I mean, I don’t even like them all that much, but I know a bargain when I see one. The summer people flow in and out of the store. You can spot ’em a mile distant, they carry their awayness with them like one of those regretful tattoos that can’t quite be erased. I like the summer folk. They’re relaxed, friendly. They smile a lot. They grease this little town, and lord knows we need all the greasing we can get.
At home, I fit the stopper to the tub and run water. The cows watch from their patch of shade, their big eyes blinking against gathered flies, the ground beneath them worn grassless and dusty from their lingering.The tub flows over, the water spilling over its side in a curtain, wetting the thirsty soil below. God we need rain bad. I shut off the hydrant, pull the hose from the tub. The cows are still watching, still blinking, still lingering. As if there were nothing to do but sit and wait for the rain to fall.
Haven’t shared any music in a while. Here’s a nice one from Morgan Wade.
Ben Hewitt 
Hi Ben….Pretty much the whole country needs rain. The southwest is bone dry. I guess we’re a little better off here in the northeast. Water restrictions are in effect here in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
I had a Good Humor Strawberry Eclair the other day. Man, was it good!
Thanks for the link to Morgan Wade. Just listened to 2 of her songs. Filled with strong emotion. She’s really good!. Potent.
Thanks for this post and the photo with it.
Thanks for reading, Tom. Also thanks for the reminder about those Strawberry Eclair bars! I’m going to seek one (or two) out.
This is so goddamn good Ben.
On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 2:00 PM Lazy Mill Hill Farm wrote:
> Ben Hewitt posted: ” Hey, you were warned. At Willey’s, I buy a 50 cent > fudgesicle and a stopper for the drain of the old clawfoot tub I’ve dragged > out to pasture to serve as a watering vessel for the cows. In the store > everyone is masked, and I realize it’s the fir” >
Thanks, Erica. Hope you’re doing good. Let’s catch up in person one of these days.
Love the sign. Looks like something my 9 year old would draw. He loves to draw sinister looking creatures like one-eyed bunnies with fangs. He has an imagination, that one.
Would gladly send you some rain, if I could. We have had rain every day this week here in the NC mountains and I can see the grass growing before my eyes (which is a good thing, mostly.) My boys and I have picked up a couple of mowing/string-trimming jobs this summer so it’s good for business that way, too.
I am eating cookies and cream ice cream while I read this. Yeah, summer! Thought of your writing in the past about your traditional homemade eggnog refreshment during haying the other day. Hope those days are upon you before too long.
Our square baling days are over, at least for now. The women we hayed with have retired from milking. It’s a little bittersweet… part of me really misses it, part of me appreciates the (slightly) more relaxed approach to summer.
That would be Martha and her partner?
yes, Martha and her sister
I can understand that. The neighbors we hayed with moved away last summer and the new folks are having someone else do it so our summers are different now, too. But, I have enjoyed seeing everyone in our area haying this week and sniffing the sweetness in the air. I suppose you can still have the homemade eggnog even without the haying? 🙂
She’s pretty good….
This whole inflation thing, not going anywhere pleasant. I would have bought two, unfortunately I do like the taste…fucking corn syrup!
What’s wrong with corn syrup? Other than HFCS being in a liquid form while sugar is granular or powdered, HFCS and sugar are chemically the same, both highly processed unless you make your own.
I like to use Mexican Piloncillo unrefined sugar cones to sweeten my Plantation Mint tea. Bigelow recently changed the name to Perfectly Mint, since “Plantation” is a racially insensitive word. I didn’t recognize it immediately and took several minutes of looking before I found what I was looking for. Odd times that we live in.
It’s full of glyphosate! Screw that….I like having a digestive system:} I’ve been using brown coconut sugar for things and find it doesn’t make me nauseous after eating it.
Glyphosate is probably found in all high volume commercially refined sugar to one degree or another. You must have an unusually sensitive digestive system if refined sugar makes you nauseous. You’re lucky that we live during a time andin a place where we have options that are only a few key strokes away, courtesy of the ‘net and Amazon.