In the morning the weather still felt like it would stay gray forever, as it was indeed forecast to do.
I was, however, determined to get started on building my oven, intimidated by how much it seemed like there was to it and how little time we have left on the island.
Emily and I moved Mark’s pallet to a good flat spot near the garden and found some plywood to nail to it so our mud wouldn’t go through the slats (on Mark’s sage advice).
We then spent the rest of the morning trudging back and forth from East Beach to our building spot with shopping baskets (and in Emily’s case a computer bag from IT) full of rocks.
Later in the morning Aidan and Christine chipped in to aid with the rock carrying as well.
Many hands make the burden light, we found, and we soon had as many rocks as we thought we would need for the foundation.
Sara was my sous chef for the day.
We prepared a classic Sunday-dinner sort of meal, despite it being only Thursday.
I coated chicken with a mixture of Panko, parmesan, garlic, and herbs and baked it in tinfoil-covered pans to keep the meat moist, removing the foil in the last few minutes of cooking to brown the Panko. Perfect! Try this with the seasonings you would put in pasta sauce or Italian dressing.
The tofu was marinated in a simple balsamic vinaigrette.
Our side dishes were quite simple: mashed potatoes and a blend of steamed baby peas and green beans.
Since we had a lot of extra time in the kitchen, when Sara was done with her triple-batch of snickerdoodles (delicious at any time of year!) I made granola to replenish the supply in the canister. Janet has been urging everyone to eat the overabundant yogurt in the refrigerator so the granola has been disappearing fast this week.
I also fed my sourdough starter so I would be able to bake bread on Friday.
There was still more time built into our schedule, so I prepared a double-batch of honey-wheat bagel dough and set it aside to rise while we finished cooking and everyone ate.
At dinner we discussed the imminent arrival of several high school students to the island.
On Sunday, three Upward Bound students will come to join us for the week. They have expressed interest in field biology and will be spending time with each of us on our projects. We were encouraged to think of areas where it might be helpful to have a couple of extra hands or opportunities for us to mentor the younger students, who will be living in the dorm with us.
When the meal was over, several students threw a Frisbee around the yard while Emily and I boiled bagels and we danced to Afro-Cuban tunes.
Damon and Janet joined us for a bagel snack before our second movie night, which featured a showing of Little Miss Sunshine.
The feel-good movie met a receptive audience of Emily, Sara, Haley, Kathryn, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and myself.
Exhausted from hauling rocks, I slept the whole night through.
I was, however, determined to get started on building my oven, intimidated by how much it seemed like there was to it and how little time we have left on the island.
Emily and I moved Mark’s pallet to a good flat spot near the garden and found some plywood to nail to it so our mud wouldn’t go through the slats (on Mark’s sage advice).
We then spent the rest of the morning trudging back and forth from East Beach to our building spot with shopping baskets (and in Emily’s case a computer bag from IT) full of rocks.
Later in the morning Aidan and Christine chipped in to aid with the rock carrying as well.
Many hands make the burden light, we found, and we soon had as many rocks as we thought we would need for the foundation.
Sara was my sous chef for the day.
We prepared a classic Sunday-dinner sort of meal, despite it being only Thursday.
I coated chicken with a mixture of Panko, parmesan, garlic, and herbs and baked it in tinfoil-covered pans to keep the meat moist, removing the foil in the last few minutes of cooking to brown the Panko. Perfect! Try this with the seasonings you would put in pasta sauce or Italian dressing.
The tofu was marinated in a simple balsamic vinaigrette.
Our side dishes were quite simple: mashed potatoes and a blend of steamed baby peas and green beans.
Since we had a lot of extra time in the kitchen, when Sara was done with her triple-batch of snickerdoodles (delicious at any time of year!) I made granola to replenish the supply in the canister. Janet has been urging everyone to eat the overabundant yogurt in the refrigerator so the granola has been disappearing fast this week.
I also fed my sourdough starter so I would be able to bake bread on Friday.
There was still more time built into our schedule, so I prepared a double-batch of honey-wheat bagel dough and set it aside to rise while we finished cooking and everyone ate.
At dinner we discussed the imminent arrival of several high school students to the island.
On Sunday, three Upward Bound students will come to join us for the week. They have expressed interest in field biology and will be spending time with each of us on our projects. We were encouraged to think of areas where it might be helpful to have a couple of extra hands or opportunities for us to mentor the younger students, who will be living in the dorm with us.
When the meal was over, several students threw a Frisbee around the yard while Emily and I boiled bagels and we danced to Afro-Cuban tunes.
Damon and Janet joined us for a bagel snack before our second movie night, which featured a showing of Little Miss Sunshine.
The feel-good movie met a receptive audience of Emily, Sara, Haley, Kathryn, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and myself.
Exhausted from hauling rocks, I slept the whole night through.
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