Not Always

Children are taught, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."  However, persistence does not always pay off, particularly in my goat barn.  A paper wasp had started building a nest under a rafter almost over my head.  Nope, sorry, that's not gonna happen.  After switching out goats on the stand, I knocked down the nest with a broom handle I keep for just such purposes.  Mama wasp came back and hunted the area.  She knew where she'd left it and couldn't believe it was gone.  I actually felt bad for her.  Son of a gun, she started building a new one right where the first one had been.  When I'd finished with the girls and Mama was away getting more materials, I took down the nest.  They really are marvels of engineering and construction, considering they're made of spit wads, but I don't want to share my space with wasps.

Percy, and this time it was Percy, showed up yesterday.  Again and again he'd pop up on either side of the room, determined to horn in on the mice's meal.  My head was on a swivel checking for that persistent dude, either yelling or squirting to keep him away.  He probably came back after I'd left the barn and cleaned up the leftovers, but at least the littlest kids had their breakfast in peace.

Love was in the air for a pair of lizards.  She was playing coquette and he was getting desperate.  Neither of them paid me any attention as he chased her through the milking room and into the big room and back again.  She stayed just a few inches in front, but he wouldn't give up.  I glanced down as I was letting Tessie out.  Oh, no!  There he was, lying flat on his back.  Had he had a heart attack?  I picked him up thinking to dispose of the body, but some impulse told me to put him back down.  He'd either fainted from exhaustion or passed out in ecstasy because he revived and went on about whatever it is lizards do.  Maybe persistence did pay off for them.

Friends from Fiddletown called and invited me to meet them at The Pub.  Of course, I said of course.  It's been a couple of years since I've seen them and I do enjoy their company.  I'd recently watched a cooking show that featured different ways to prepare zucchini, so the beer-battered strips appealed to me.  They came with a couple of dipping sauces and were very good.  The chef came out later (it's that kind of place) and stopped by our table.  I said I'd really enjoyed the zucchini and asked if he put corn starch in the batter.  He said no, but he'd recently heard about that and planned to try it.  He asked if we were going to be there a little while longer because he'd go back in the kitchen and play with the recipe.  When he came back with a piping hot basket of strips, he sat down and we all compared the two preparations.  The consensus was that the addition of corn starch gave an even better crunch.  How often does a home cook get a kudo from a chef?

It was a good day.