Clutter

Jack Deatherage, Jr.

(11/2018) I've been cooking some of the pounds of rice that's been cluttering my cabinets for years and feeding the stuff to the dogs as their regular kibble is getting ever more expensive. The older, little dog's ability to chew the hard kibble keeps getting weaker. To add some nutrition and flavor to the grains I've been using various broth cubes I haven't found any other use for, pan drippings from fried meats (if I'm not using them in a gravy or stew the DW and I eat) and various meats I discover in the freezers that are way past their edibility (by monkey-man standards- the dogs gobble them with delight).

This morning I was looking for ground pork we brought home from Marty's three years ago. I didn't find any, but I did find a bag of pork skin leftover from a pork belly I cured. The bag is dated April, 2017. Which is fine for the dogs. They care not if the fat has gone a bit rancid.

While looking for rancid pig I noticed various types of flour and grains I'd forgotten I had in the freezers. I suppose I should make porridge or bread with them and feed those to the dogs as well. While I'm at it I can boil down some of the frozen fish and add that to the dog chow. I believe I saw a coupla packs of beef liver no one but the Mad One would eat anyhow, and she ain't visiting again before those become dog food.

Hell. I might as well clean out both refrigerators and make room for the coming baking and curing season some people refer to as winter. It's possible I can cram most everything into one fridge and unplug the other until I actually need it for dough aging and meat curing- if I ever acquire enough meat to bother curing. Or maybe not. I'd still need a fridge for the garden seeds I've been storing for years, or months depending on when I bought, traded, or saved them from my gardens. Not that I'm likely to ever plant them now. Perhaps they should make their way to Florida to Middle Sister's garden?

Emptying the stand alone freezer and turning it off might not be a bad idea either. I don't see us acquiring another side of beef, or a pig, or several lambs once we thaw, cook and consume the couple of turkeys that take up much of the freezer space. (The dogs are going to love us when I get around to boiling off the turkey bones and add that, and the meat scraps to their ration of rice, porridge and kibble!)

While I'm in a "rearranging" state of mind (hopefully it will pass before I actually reach a "do something" state) getting rid of a coupla chairs come bulk trash pickup day would create enough room to begin sorting through the collection of "stuff" that hasn't found a home since we moved back into town after our short stay at Marty's farm. I'm actually astounded by piles of books, board games, archery equipment, fishing tackle, leather crafting tools, scraps of leather, homeschooling materials, jewelry makings, paints, sewing tools, seed trays, seedling pots, and the gods only know what's under all of that! (I'm guessing at least enough dust, dog and cat hair to assemble another rottweiler- if I were of a mind too, which I am not! Though I probably have a book on spinning thread from dog hair.)

"Dad. Get a roll-off dumpster and start cleaning the house out. I don't want to have to come up from Florida to do it when you and Mom are gone." The kidlet was surveying what used to be a large living room when he lived with us. He was wondering where he could sit while here this past spring. (I was wondering if there was room for the air mattress he would have to sleep on. There was, but only if the dogs slept in their room, which they seldom do now.)

The plan (oh, how the gods' laughter rings in my head each time I think of a plan) had been to clean the apartment while we were at Marty's and fix everything in need of fixing before the three of us moved into town after we'd reached a state where we couldn't maintain the farm lifestyle. We'd rent out the apartments until that day came. Of course, that plan blew up in our faces almost as we began to implement it. Neither us, or the apartment has fully recovered.

Because the gods were still in a humorous mood we finally shut down the factory to become semi-caretakers of our Old Ones who began physically and mentally declining- which seems to happen to a lot of people once they approach 70 years of age. In my case, the mental decline began in 1960. The same year I was forced to begin attending school. I guess it's no surprise that was also the year I first heard the gods laughing as I plotted ways to escape the prison adults kept telling me was really a school. (They thought me too stupid to know the difference! Education is where I learned useful things. School is where they sent me to be controlled and punished for not fitting into some twisted, insane utopia they were convinced was for my own good- prison.)

Watching the Old Ones' decline has presented me with a clue. I've never been as robust or determined as any of them, so my own descent into decrepitude at an earlier age is not a total surprise to me. The kidlet may well have to sort through the DW and my collected "stuff" before she and I have to sort through our parents' "left behinds". (A simple task for me, as there is nothing I want from any of the Old Ones that I haven't already gotten from them. But more likely a long, melancholic process of dealing with awoken memories for the DW.)

I suggested to the kidlet he set moneys aside against the day he has to come here and sort out the mess we leave. I'd not want to toss anything that might be of value to him, though he sees that as an excuse not to rid the house of any clutter. (How did he get so smart?) Or he could have someone else empty the house and simply sell it "as is" since his blood has thinned while living in the South and he's no plan to move back here.

Because I occasionally need to laugh, I reminded the offspring that I could live another thirty years. MomD is 94 and Dad's elders often lived to see 90 as well.

"Just think Jack, I could add another thirty years of junk to this house."

Such a delightful shade of pasty pale that boy turned!

Ah well. I cut up some pork skin, fry it, add it to the pot of assorted rice and simmer that for the dogs' breakfasts. I'll not clear out all the clutter, but I will empty the freezers. Ain't nobody needs deal with decades old pork parts.