Some tea, some new moccasins and some babbling about food

My new moccasins are done, and I think they are very pretty, despite what my not so bright pictures say. You can't really tell but the pink beads are shockingly hot pink with a chrome like finish on them. The hide is as black as black as be and the fur is so shiny and soft...and so black. They are pretty but they do not smell like a warm comforting fire, it seems to be a constant reminder that they are "fake" in some way. I like them though and because they are so pretty they will be my indoor moccasins....maybe I can smoke them in my BBQ or something.
I only had one injury making these,  I sewed the 3 sided hide needle right through my thumb nail, yup, had to get a nail clipper and clip off my fingernail and yes I was a geek about it and took a picture.

Just barely missed my finger

ok, once the picture of my moccasins was up here and enlarged, the color just looked so off, so I took it off, (is that too many offs in one sentence?) I will try to take a better picture in the morning with better light and insert it here.

I have just concluded that black is difficult to photograph, but here they are

So, I don't have anything interesting to write about so I will just give you the recipe for my favorite healing tea.  In the morning I usually peel an orange or two for my lunch, If I just have one orange I put the peel in a 500 ml canning jar, if two oranges in 1L jar, I fill the jar up with boiling water and put in a cinnamon stick and sometimes a clove or even a piece of ginger....whatever I have on hand. When you pour the hot water in the jar place it in the sink, once the jar shattered on me from the sudden temperature change....what a mess first thing in the morning so now I take extra precaution and put it in the sink. Let it stand there all day (or night if doing in the evening) When you are ready to have tea, pour the water only into a little pot and heat up....add some honey and you have a very nice tea that your body will thank you for by not catching any nasty cold viruses. Spice it with either ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and honey or with all of it. Find your favorite combination. You get double use out of your orange this way....and all the vitamin C it has to offer.

Speaking of my lunch,  a long time ago I wrote a post about my New Years plan to better eating and I have been sticking to it for the most part, although I still snarf down a bag of potato chips once in a while. (and we will not talk about all the tacos I ate in Mexico) I find the easiest way for me to eat healthy is when I am working because I always take a packed lunch to work with me. I pack my lunch in the evenings, sometimes I will even pack a whole bunch of lunches on the weekend. By pre-packing them I put more thought into what to pack instead of being stuck with whats in the fridge at the last minute and I am also avoiding packing what I am hungry for at the time, when time is limited I tend to pack unhealthier stuff. A fairly common lunch for me these days is a baggie with a cut up orange and two cut up apples, I always cut up my fruit because it's easier to eat with one hand when you're driving a tractor, I squeeze a lime in the bag and spice it up with my favorite spice that I bring from Mexico called "Tajin Clasico" which according to the ingredient list is just Chili, salt and lime...so good, the best part is drinking the juice that is left on the bottom of the bag. I also pack a baggie of cut up vegetables, which is a bit sad tasting right now but soon I will have garden produce, the baggie gets bigger then. We are only working 8 hours days right now so my lunches don't need to be that big, once I start working 12 hour days my lunch is so big I have to make two trips to carry it to the car in the morning, just kidding...but seriously I pack a lot of food then. Working outside seems to make me so much hungrier plus I love snacking when I am mundaneisly (I know that is not a word) driving a tractor all day so I make sure I pack plenty of fruit and vegetables to munch on all day. My favorite last year was a big bread bag full of my home grown cherry tomatoes tossed with a wee bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt....could munch on them all day long. I can't wait for garden produce, the organic produce in our local grocery store is very limited so I can't be too choosy right now.

My lunch today

Yesterday we had an overcast day, although it threatened to it didn't rain or (heaven forbid) snow. I still love my job even when the weather is bad, I always find something to make me smile when I am out there.

The robins are out and about

One of my favorite trees....so tall and slim.....and green

I challenge you to find this guy out there when you are golfing, I hung him up the other day....just because

No residents yet in house #5

A little disclaimer here about all my plastic lunch baggies, after writing a post about trying to get the plastic out of my life or at least away from my food. When I pack a big lunch I do put my fruit in a big glass Pyrex bowl but I take so many vegetables that a big plastic glass bowl is too bulky to take on a tractor and just doesn't fit on there and I can't have it rolling around on the floor or it would break. I did try cloth bags but that makes them dry out too much in the heat. I have tried a few thing but keep coming back to a plastic bag......It's a bit of a problem, I do wash and reuse them though.