Journal: August 25. Rain, taxes and boeuf bourguignon.

Another very rainy day.  No work.  I took my mysterious tax forms to the Township Office.  All things were clarified (though I certainly cannot repeat the explanations) and I paid the property taxes for this quarter.

Lentini's farm stand, where I'd thought I might by a thing or two,  was closed--so straight to Weiss's.

I'd bought stew  meat at Ideal Farms last week.  Ideal Farms was the name of the dairy --consisting of many barns, many cows, many milkers, owned by Jacob Tanis, when I was growing up.  We used to play in the barn closest to us on Route 206.  Sometimes the milkers would let us milk the cows.  I think I remember when they began to introduce milking machines.

The barns and dairy cows are long gone, replaced by car dealers and gas stations.  But, one of the Tanis children runs a vegetable and food stand at Ross's Corner where they sell organic meat.  There was some switching, I think, from dairy to cattle raising--though comparatively, it is very small scale.  In any case, I couldn't resist buying meat there and given the first stew-ish weather of the summer, today was the perfect day to make it. I just needed a quick visit to Weiss's to buy vegetables and milk and other staples as Sam and Carrie will be coming tomorrow.

I'd thought I'd make a very simple stew, but inspired by my new Le Creuset, the bottle of good wine given by an appreciative fisherman,  and a little internet browsing, I'd switched gears, going so far as to buy pearl onions for a more or less proper boeuf bourguignon. I had a fine time chopping and sauteeing this gray afternoon.  It gets to rest tonight--- I'll finish it tomorrow.

The meat simmered, the rains stopped, and I walked around the lake.  Just before dusk, the sun appeared and the water reflected both swans and house.