I’ve been back at Haven for just over a month now and today was the first day that I was able to just focus on home. Now is the time to confess that I wondered what it would like to return to teeny tiny Miranda after a winter of rattling around in my huge Mexican casita. Well, it’s been wonderful, so cozy and comfortable. I’m in no hurry to move!

Before beginning the domestic stuff this morning, I started some updates for my computer since I wouldn’t need it today. Unfortunately, I had to cancel them a few minutes ago after trying all day to get them downloaded and my connection repeatedly timing out. I called SaskTel yesterday and we determined that there actually is something going on with my account, but they can’t figure out what until my billing cycle resets in two weeks. *sighs*

While the computer was busy, I set to work in the kitchen. It’s been feeling very chaotic since I got back, mostly because of the under sink leak and not being able to put things away under there. So I spent some time cleaning the area well, making sure that there were no other leaks, and put things away.

Then, I decided to empty out and clean my pot cupboard since I found some weevils in my soup pot the other day. I’ll spare you a picture, but let’s just say I’m glad I’m not squeamish because I found weevil central. And by weevil, I mean little critters that look like tiny worms, not necessarily actual weevils.

Since I had to wash everything in that cupboard, I decided to do some much needed scrubbing of my pots and pans with Barkeepers Friend and some steel wool.

I’ve been using the same set of Meyer pots and pans since I moved out on my own in 1998 and I have made thousands of meals with them. Needless to say, they get pretty crusty and covered with grease and scorch marks, no matter how hard I scrub them after making a meal. So a couple of times a year, I do a big scrub and restore them to a mirror shine with the Barkeepers Friend and steel wool. It’s a process that’s really hard on my hands, even when wearing gloves (!), hence why I don’t pull out the BF after every meal.

I did this to the lid of my soup pot in just the last couple of weeks after using it as a lid for my cast iron pan:

That black stuff is all under the lid, along the rim, and it goes right to the top of the lid:

And after a few minutes of scrubbing:

Once my pots were all shiny, I put everything away again and took the time to reorganize the cupboard a bit as well as some of my overhead cabinets. Then, I washed all the cabinet doors.

By this time, I was beyond ready for lunch, so I finished up the zucchini and chicken I had for dinner last night. I still can’t believe that I have found a use for zucchini outside of chocolate cake. It is such a wonderful replacement for pasta.

After lunch, I started the dishwasher, collapsed in my chair, put my feet up for a bit, and read for a couple of hours!

Speaking of the dishwasher, it is amazing. 🙂 It is exactly the right size for my kitchen. It lives between the bookcase and the canned good cabinet, leaving me ample room to access both, and it’s not in the way to climb the ladder to the loft. I can pull it out, turn it, and bring it to the sink without having to move anything. I haven’t had any use for that space since I lost my cats, because that was where I stored their litter box, so the dishwasher doesn’t feel like it’s taking up any precious space.

It also gives me the little bit of extra counter space I needed for my food processor and tortilla press. I use both too often for it to be worth storing them between uses.

I am really happy I bought the dishwasher. It is a huge improvement to my quality of life.

Late afternoon, after cleaning the dressing room, I went for a walk. It is very smoky and hazy out there. Saskatchewan is having a record breaking dry June and we are having tons of wildfires. I’m not sure where this smoke is coming from, but I know that the northern part of the province is burning, so I imagine that the smoke from there is drifting south. The conditions remind me of my first Klondike summer, when Yukon was plagued by wildfires.

When I came in, I made a giant pitcher of lemonade. All the recipes I found had the proportions as being 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water to 1 cup of lemon juice, and then dilute as needed. Since I don’t do much sugar anymore, I only used a half cup of sugar and it was still way too much. Next time, I’ll do just a quarter cup. I really like lemonade when it’s very hot out as it seems to quench thirst better than just plain water and I haven’t had it in eons. For some reason, there are no lemons in Mexico, so I do ‘limonada’ there, which is limeade. Tasty, but not the same!

And then, it was time for dinner and I didn’t feel like cooking. So I went to the grainery to get a quarter of Co-Op’s amazing frozen ‘deluxe’ pizza (peppers, pepperoni, sausage, onion, black olives), quite simply the best frozen pizza I’ve ever had (they also do a yummy chicken and pineapple over BBQ sauce pizza!). I buy the pizzas on sale (3 for $9.99). They are a little soft by the time I get home, so open them up and use scissors to cut them into quarters, rewrap, and toss in the freezer. Then, when I have a day when I’ve been active and my kitchen is perfect and I don’t want to mess it up, it’s easy to pull out just as much pizza as I should be eating at one time.

While the pizza was baking, I went outside and dug a hole for my antenna pole. I might actually get that project done one day. It’s just that I have service now and every time I play with the antenna it takes ages to find service again. So I really need a full day for this project. Maybe this coming Friday will be the day…

I’m so glad I got this day off before starting the new job tomorrow. I feel like I managed to reboot my brain. I’ve had a lot of technological frustration in the last few weeks, so having a day away from the computer did me a world of good!