Smokin'

As I find with so much of our life at this stage, things tend to fall into patterns and cycles. Now is the smoking season when I fire up the Yoder and smoke the meat and fowl we will enjoy throughout the year.

I have commented in past posts that the decision to have purchased a smoker that can easily handle enough food to feed a small platoon, a very hungry girl's volleyball team or your family of hungry stoats has influenced how I use it. Initially part of the reluctance to use it was because it was a bit of a pain to clean and set up. But like so much else, I have got that figured out. No, the reason is that we just don't eat that much meat or fowl. And it seems a waste to crank it up for something small....it uses the same effort and fuel whether there is a two pounds being smoked or 30 pounds. It is also something that you can't use in cold weather as it works at a very output of heat and when the cast iron unit itself is ice cold there is no way it can get heated up to temperature

This means I use it maybe four to six times during the summer and when I do, I make a lot of whatever I am making and then freeze small portions or the rest of the year. A couple of weekends ago I made ribs. This weekend was pulled pork (12 pounds of it). Next week I am doing poultry - most likely 6 bone-in whole chicken breasts (we use the meat for salads and sandwiches) and 2 ducks. I experimented with duck last year and was quite pleased. I will use the meat for cooking, will turn all the skin into cracklings and will make a broth from all the bones. I actually have entertainment coming up in October with this in mind.  I am planning to make a smoked duck risotto using both broth and meat with the cracklings sprinkled on top of the finished dish.

Things Progressing But No Major Breakthroughs

I am in one of those frequent periods between trips. Working at my sustainable post-transition level and bringing in the bucks. Thinking about the next adventures. Enjoying the regularity of daily life. The garden is in full harvest. Tomatoes and Green Chile are coming in steadily so each weekend I process some but it is never overwhelming. Daily cooking is an enjoyment still. Not all days are a success but many dishes are. The Ghana projects move along at a steady pace. Obstacles pop up and are dealt with. The ultimate outcome is still very grey but the energy moving it forward continues. I will be going back in September. I have jury duty for the next three weeks so I will be in enforced schedule slow down.

More Of The Same

Not a whole lot has changed since my last post.

The garden is coming into fullness. We have eaten our first peaches. It is a fine year for them. They are large and sweet. The tomatoes are coming in as well with equally good flavor. And the green chile is just starting and will pick up steam through the summer. My basil plants are nice and full promising pesto in the future.

Theodora Project continues to move forward. The first contacts to people for fundraising have been made. This is going to be nervewracking no matter how you cut it. After all the emotional investment and work plus knowing it has such potential the specter of failure to achieve the goal looms large in my consciousness. But as the cliche goes, you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. And all around me seem to feel that it will all turn out fine.

For pay work is really going well. Hard to believe that 30 days ago we were bemoaning the lack of cash, income and clients. I have a number of projects that are very stimulating with plenty of assets and motivation by my clients to stimulate my professional interests.

And we have Granddaughter 1.1 visiting us. She is 14 and going into her Freshman year of high school. I have always had more affinity for children as they grow older and 1.1 is at a perfect age where her mental capabilities are such that conversation is very stimulating. PLUS from a culinary standpoint, she has become pescaterian...she only eats fish among the animal proteins. Well this is fine and dandy with us because we love fish. We cooked salmon steaks one night and then roasted whole Golden Pompano the next. Tomorrow we are going to make a mayonnaise-based salad from the leftover fish. 1.1 is an enthusiastic eater and is a joy to cook for.

So the the great ship transitioned life contines its voyage.

A Gathering Storm With A Garden Interlude

I am reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning book about Lincoln and his 'Cabinet of Rivals' which talks about how he took his rivals and welded them into an effective cabinet for prosecuting the Civil War. It is also a great history of the events leading to and through that conflict. I am just at the point where all the activities of his first election are leading to the secession and the war itself...the gathering storm clouds of the conflict...the feeling that the terrible fate was at hand.

My Ghana project is going full bore toward our own moment of truth...fundraising. Just since my Bastille Day post on July 14 we have:

• Given our project a name - The Theodora Project - named after the famous Byzantine Empress and wife of Emperor Justinian who started off as a sex worker as a teenager
• Completed the business plan
• Complete incorporating our not-for-profit corporation
• Are close to completing our IRS filing to become a 501(c)(3) foundation to have tax deductibility for donations
• Completed two beta tests of one of my escorts in Ghana doing virtual personal assistance projects
• Got such encouragement from my Rotary Mentor that I am going to apply for a Rotary Global Grant and am working on same
• Have lined up my list of initial people to begin the fundraising process scheduled to kick off with a meeting with a key prospect on August 12 
• Have lined up a number of businesses who are interested in being Mentor/Clients for our women once we start training them.

And all the while business continues to move forward (YES, I have the CEO calmed down...for the moment).

Despite what looks like I am working full time, in reality, I still have lots of days when I don't have much on my schedule. When I can take it easy. My 'for pay' work, in particular, is down to such a science that there is rarely a time when I have to put in long hours to meet client expectations.

As one of my advisors puts it, "Those who take the transition seriously and proactively, don't retire. They create new realities that nurture and fulfill them."

A Garden Interlude

I spent mucho dinero on well developed tomato plants this year and bought less of them

It has proven to be a great investment

Not only are the tomatoes coming in much earlier but as I bought three varieties, the timing is syncopated so they are not coming in all at once

The peaches are within just a week or two from ripening

While the good moist weather has meant chile is already being harvested

 

Never Ceased To Be Amazed

If one likes to enjoy life and be filled with wonder, it helps to be easily amused. I am easily amused. What I will write about today has certainly happened before. But it continues to amaze me.

In the post-career,  all-consuming, transitioned state of my life, work has taken on a different role as I have frequently mentioned. It serves to keep me connected to the world that is younger than me. It gives me pleasure when I use my well-honed skills - both for the sheer enjoyment of using them and because of the good it does. AND quite important, it funds our lavish travel lifestyle.

And I have written often how I will drift in and out of the intensity of working based upon what else is going on that has my attention or my energy level. And if money is not a pressing need, I will certainly have a tendency to coast. Inevitably what results from this lack of focus is the dreaded slow period where money stops coming in. That leads to the equally dreaded being called on the carpet by the CEO of de-I Enterprises...WIFE. This will look and sound something like this...

"de-I, we only have $X in the bank account. And we have no accounts receivable to speak of. AND you are running around spending all this time and money in Ghana..."

It usually ends like that...with this unarticulated indication of imminent doom to he who is supposed to be bringing income to support the travel spending addiction. And I must say when I look at it from a management technique standpoint, it is quite effective. Because I will usually get my sorry ass in gear and get out hustling.

Now here is where the easily amused part comes in. I have spent close to 3 decades building a selling system based on networking and referral selling. It takes a long time to build such a network. It's like having a long, long pipeline. It takes a long time to fill it. But once it is filled, anything you put in it on one end produces results on the other end. So it is with my 'pipeline', my 'network'. At this point, the decades of work building a reputation, a ton of contacts, a world of reciprocity based on things I've done for others, I can be away for months but I come back, start calling people, setting up meetings and literally within weeks even days sometimes results start flowing.

I never cease to be amazed.

Coming Back On LIne

Happy Bastille Day!

I know you were kicking back French Wine and Brandy. Well, I was. But of course, I do that all the time.

It has been 9 days since I posted last. Pretty typical actually after any international travel. I post like a maniac when traveling and then go into tortoise mode until I have readjusted to stateside life. So what has been happening?

Work - I had a great sales week and brought in a bunch of moola. Which was good because I'd had a number of lean months.

Garden - The effects of the wet spring, earlier planting and buying tomato plants that were well developed are paying off with earlier produce. I already have been processing tomatoes, roasted the first green chile of the year (New Mexico Chile...not Pueblo Colorado Chili Hah!). The basil and parsley are doing great so looking forward to lots of cooking stuff.

Ghana - Hardly forgotten. Working on finishing the business plan, coordinating with my partners on the other side of the pond and prepping for the big fundraising effort that will start soon. Still coaching and mentoring various businesses back there. AND was referred to THE ONLY African restaurant in Albuquerque (thank you KK!). Yes, folks, this took place right here in Albuquerque NM USA.

Lunch on Friday

Banku with groundnut soup and goat

I had to send these pictures to all my contacts back in Accra

They thought it was a hoot and could not believe you could find this out in the far reaches of the American Southwest

Political Commentary - I have to say maybe it is a sign of the second coming when you have President Trump and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal coming to the defense of Nancy Pelosi when she was called a racist by one of her own party members, the nihilist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I've never been a big Pelosi fan until this session of Congress. When even Peggy Noonan, a conservative opinion writer, writes per praises you have to take your hat off to Nancy. I only hope her solid pragmatism keeps shaving down AOC, her Squad and her emulators among the presidential candidates until they are no longer of outsized relevance.

"Ghana Project - Phase II - The Ghanaian Village

You only visit the main city of any country and you are going to get a distorted view of what life is really like. In my short time working here in Ghana, I have spent all my time in Accra, the capital city and the largest city. But as I mentioned in my last post, we went out into the countryside on behalf of one of my proof-of-concept clients who drills water wells for villages to give them clean water supplies. I brought my camera and had the opportunity to get some photo ops.

Water Is Important!

We take it for granted

This village used to get its water from a stream that was not sanitary and would dry up during the dry season

Then it got a hand pump...a big improvement

 But it got blocked

My client put in not just an electric powered well but a distribution system with multiple distribution points so people did not have to walk so far to get their water

Don't think this is valued?

My client Emmanuel

With another of the people I am mentoring, Mary, who is becoming a personal assistant

Scenes from throughout the village

Registering at 18 to get your government ID card...very important!

And as I have seen throughout my time in Ghana, people love to mug for the camera

The major crop here is cassava and it is processed into a product called Gari, basically, a ground-up toasted grain that gets added to other food