i got sick for a few days, and it was similar to previous times - the dizziness was really my clue that it was coming on, and it was just a quick, non-covid kind of thing. actually i suspect the mayonnaise on a meatloaf sandwich, because our mayo tends to hang around too long waiting for meatloaf, and once it comes out of the refrigerator, it has a hard time going back in.

but one result of that was that i went out, harvested some greenthread, and made tea out of it. under my wife's direction i ground the stalks and leaves in a kind of mortar and pestle, put a whole bunch of them in a single pot, and made a single two-cup pot of navajo tea. it was delicious! i was proud of myself as i had been growing the stuff faithfully for about a year. and i'd let it blossom into flowers and stalks in a little patch that i've fenced in. it's about all i've grown, besides a few fruit trees. but it made me one quiet afternoon of thick healing tea.

now it's back to coffee. my general problem is that because i drink five or six cups a day, i never quite get in the mood for tea, unless i'm sick, or it's raining, or both. yesterday it was both. it was a good break.

it's rainy season here, which makes it harder to burn a good fire. i want to burn the fire, because i have all these piles of pine needles and sticks, and if they sit around for another cycle, they become fuel for a deadly fire. in a household of high anxiety and high covid stress, i don't even want to look out my front window at a pile of sticks and straw. so i've taken to waiting until it dries out, and then burning it, one boxful at a time. no shortage of either, sticks or straw. in fact what i should do, or be doing, is to make a series of manageable fires until i have the brush piles down to a more reasonable height. it's either that or pay someone to haul them away.

not surprisingly the local fire brigade is sensitive about the way it's done. and some people are clearly more prone to the bonfire style, where you just burn it all at once, big huge pile, telling the fire chief or not, as according to their nature. i think you are supposed to tell the sheriff in the case of large bonfires, so that when they spot the smoke from the ridge they don't fire off the alarm and bring all the trucks to put it out. but a lot of these country people are averse to calling authorities of any kind, and will just set their bonfire whenever they're ready.

i also am averse to calling the authorities, but that has led me to a much smaller-scale strategy - make campfires, so i don't have to, make them in the rainy season, so i'm allowed to, and make enough of them so i can keep down the rapidly growing piles of needles and brush that i so desperately want to get rid of.

in my dizzy haze of sickness, i'm back to coffee, and back to noticing the gentle rains on the pine needles and grass that are strewn about the place. the deer have sure noticed, and they are all over the place, keeping the grasses down. the grasses have been having a good time what with the cleared trees, and we also cleared some stumps, so there's really a lot going on out there. the cows and deer poop out there regularly enough that everything has a nice bright sheen, and it serves to attract all the more wildlife.

today a bold deer came right up to the porch. the puppy of course goes bonkers when he sees it. the deer looks like he wants to get at the garbage we've dropped by the front of the porch. from the porch i actually spoke to the deer and asked her what she thought she was doing walking right up to the porch like that. she looked back at me impassively and said nothing, like it was the most normal thing in the world. she even took another step toward the porch. but she could tell i was getting a little agitated. actually i don't mind if she eats the grass from the driveway itself, and i don't mind in general as long as the dogs don't notice and she doesn't get into the garbage, which i really think she was not into. the coyotes, yes, and the cows too, they'd probably get into the garbage, but the deer, they like to stick to the grasses and flowers, some of which pop up right in the middle of the stone driveway.

oh but the greenthread, i think the deer are the main customers for that greenthread, and i think they like to pull it out straight from its roots, and eat the whole thing, leaving me nothing, unless i am a master fencer. i am developing my fencing skills, but i still have a ways to go. i do have enough greenthread for myself, though, and anyone who visits. it will be my first year of having an actual greenthread harvest. and the next step - buy another packet of seeds, and expand the fenced-in area.