After work last night, I was determined to peel, core and cut 6 Granny Smith apples and get them into the dehydrator. It started raining so I grabbed my laundry off the line and tossed it in the dryer. I got the apples on the racks and then watched a little TV. I ended up staying up until 3 am for no good reason other than I was wide awake.

Mrs. woke me at around 7 am. I had that shaky "I can't really be awake already" feeling. I patted and stroked Logan's head, ears and wrinkly dog lips and we played a lazy game of fetch while I contemplated getting up and all that I wanted to do today. I took his tennis ball, put him on a down stay (Logan's version of it anyway), and rolled it down the hall. From this very spot I can roll the ball the entire length of the house right to the front door. Logan was somewhat half-hearted in his efforts to retrieve the ball. I assume he wanted to eat and go out.

So, I got up fired up the coffee pot and tended to the animals. Really, this is a quick job in the morning. Feed the horse, feed & water the chicks and let them out, feed the dog, take him out, water the dog, check the cats' food and then take care of myself.

The apples were perfectly dehydrated by now. They don't take long at all. So I packed them away and decided I wanted to do at least two more pineapples. So, off to Shaw's with my list. Pineapples and milk. Sounds rather disgusting when spoken together. By the time I arrived at Shaw's, my list had grown to include apricots, peaches and mangoes. I seem to be obsessed with dehydrating fruit now. I grabbed four peaches, four apricots and two mangoes. I'm limited on time (really?) so I have been buying the pre-cored pineapples. I made my way to the pineapple section and there in front of me was this three foot wide empty space where the pineapples should have been. A minor defeat. I'll try Stop & Shop. I went to the organic section to grab a box of Stevia sweetener to try (more on that on a later post) then through the checkout.

At Stop & Shop I found only one pre-cored pineapple. I guess that will do and I now have a lot more fruit to process than I had planned. At home I discovered that I neglected to remember the milk. Nice.

By 11 o'clock I had all the fruit cut and on the racks. I had a quick bite of cereal and then headed out to tackle the grass and weeds. I spent 20 or so minutes hand clipping the grass around the raised beds, fire pit, rock wall and along a portion of the driveway. I have not fired up the string trimmer this year and somehow this seems more therapeutic. I whipped around on the tractor for a couple hours and did a couple small areas with the push mower with a break somewhere in there to sit with Mrs. during lunch. I had apparently eaten too much of the white American deli cheese (see "About Me" under my profile) so I decided I would go get some more for Mrs. and get the milk as well. Milk and cheese. Now that sounds more appetizing!

While dumping the grass (read "weeds") clippings at the compost heap I stopped to look at the cukes and squash. I seem to have a critter sampling the goods. This is probably a chipmunk and, so far, the damage is minimal amounting to a few chomp marks. Enough damage to ruin the fruit though.