Black Concrete and Zucchini Bread

Yesterday was one of those days when everything went sideways, starting with the 20% chance of rain that turned into a 100% chance of rain and took with it my plan to cut the grass. A conference call scheduled for late morning happened an hour later than it was supposed to. I had to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down e-mails, including the one for payroll. One of the general contractors sent us a payment, but it was for another sub’s invoice, not ours, so I had to get that fixed. The whole day ended up being a wash, productivity-wise, and I was pretty cranky by the time dinner rolled around.

The husband, at least, had a good day. He and one of our employees poured our neighbor’s porch. I got some shots at the beginning and the end.

Here we are, waiting for the festivities to begin. The husband is talking with the mixer driver.

This is the husband and our employee, Matt, getting ready for the concrete to drop.

Matt’s wife is a hobby winemaker. She took some of our grapes last year and made the most amazing wine from them, and they aren’t even wine grapes—they’re a table grape variety.

The concrete is definitely black!

Mike, our neighbor, helped out, and even I got pressed into service at one point to hold some foam in place.

By midafternoon, the job was all done and looking great! It really ties the house together nicely. Mike’s porch faces east and doesn’t get a lot of direct sun during the day, because of the mountains, so the concrete won’t get too hot.

When the sun finally came out in the afternoon, I tried out my new weed whacker. I noticed our renter using a little DeWalt battery-powered one a few weeks ago. She said she had borrowed it from her father-in-law. I mentioned it to the husband during one of our porch sessions. We have a weed whacker—it’s gas powered, temperamental, and too heavy and unbalanced for me to use efficiently. The husband thought I should get the Milwaukee battery-powered string trimmer because he has a whole bunch of Milwaukee tools and extra batteries, but when I compared the two at Home Depot, the Milwaukee one was longer and about 10 pounds heavier. I bought the DeWalt. I like it very much. It’s nice to have something sized for me. Even Elysian complains about being frustrated by tools that are designed for men to use, and she was a Navy diver and electrician so she’s no lightweight.

[I think tool companies are missing a huge demographic by not making more tools that are sized for women. Maybe DeWalt has a clue and will take advantage of that underserved market.]

I am going to try to get the grass cut this morning before it heats up here. I need to check the pea patch again today, and more of this might happen:

I brought in two zucchinis the other day and made a batch of six loaves of zucchini bread. Two got eaten fresh and the other four went into the freezer. I usually make and freeze about three dozen loaves every summer. I am not the world’s best baker—when DD#2 was still living at home, I would subcontract the zucchini bread production to her—but I’ve used this recipe for years and it’s hard to mess it up.