Routine

When doing anything on a daily basis, routine is your friend. Figuring out a new routine is a kind of puzzle. Tasks must be completed. Figuring how to complete those tasks with efficiency is my challenge.

I start around 0430 aka 0-Dark-Thirty to get breakfast going. The planters start trickling in at 0600. Breakfast is a two-fer here. They eat their morning meal and also pack a lunch for the day from a spread I put out.

Mornings are still quite cold, so today I initiated morning soup. It’s a vegetarian version of my mother’s beef shank soup, hot savory liquid warmth.

After the planters leave I clean up breakfast and start working on the next day’s morning meal. I pre-cook bacon and potatoes and make energy bars.

At 9:00 I take an hour break. Rebecca joins me in the truck bed for a quick snooze. She has finally come to see the truck as home for now. I’m not sure if she understands we’re going back, but she has at least learned to make herself comfortable.

After the morning break, I continue my prep, until around 2:30, P.M. Then another break. When I come back from the afternoon break, it’s go time.

Everything for dinner has to be finished and ready to serve by 7:00. The planters return some time after 6:00, and I have a hot pot of soup waiting for them as a welcome. Dinner winds up around 8:00, and then I gotta clean and shut the kitchen down. I finish close to 10:00 PM.

It’s a lot, but the surroundings are nice and the planters appreciative of food made with their well being in mind.