A friend sent a lovely quote from her 3 year old. . .
“For my valentines birfday, could Santa Claus bring me a bobtaat wif a bucket an a loader, huh Mom?”
And below for all thiings hearty today, there is a wonderful post showing many maps of human hearts. Much to say.
And I thought they were unmappable.
http://streetsofsalem.com/2012/02/14/maps-of-the-human-heart/
I wasn’t going to post this until a package arrived at Kenny and Beth’s. I mailed the package yesterday. Today, I noticed that I LEFT A 4 OUT OF THE MAILING ADDRESS after I had glibly, assuredly refused delivery confirmation and insurance, trusting the Post Office to get it to the address as they always seem to do in the U.S. I failed to recognize the culpability of the sender. Sigh.
Once upon a time, a little girl named Cynthia was born.
Cynthia arrived on a hot August day in Texas, a day so hot that no birds sang and no water ran. In fact, no one did anything.
Two spirits watched as Cynthia was born, a bird spirit named Cheepy and a Water spirit named Burble. Without birds to watch and water to manage, neither one had much to do to keep them amused.
However, in among the rocks of the dry stream where Burble kept her treasures, was a small silver spoon, a tiny bit Cheep and a little bit Burbled.
Cheepy charmed the spoon so that every time it would touch the lips of a little girl, the birds would sing in Texas and the girl with the spoon would know what was happening.
Well, at least she would know who had a new nest and where the owl was, the kind of things that matter to birds.
Burble charmed the spoon so that every time it was held by a little girl’s hand, clear cool water would fill the Texas creeks and wash over the treasures hidden among the rocks.
Cheepy and Burble talked all August about this magical spoon, wondering if it worked. They needed a little girl to try it out on.
August passed, thankfully and in September (because no one does anything in Texas in August), Cheepy and Burble left the spoon on Cynthia’s front doorstep for Cynthia’s mother to find it.
Cynthia grew up to be an amazing woman, with news that no one else ever had. She was a favorite guest at cocktail and dinner parties. And, the full creeks brought her many treasures. Cynthia held swimming parties everywhere she went. But of all her treasures, her little silver spoon was her very favorite.
I found this spoon of Cynthia’s among the rocks of a dry creek bed and a little bird told me the story. Last night as I held the spoon it rained and rained and the rain filled our creek to over flowing.
I wonder what might happen if Olive tested it. Or Cora. Or maybe even you? Sorry, Kenny. It only works in a little girl’s hand and you don’t qualify.
On Sunday, Eric and I went to Ranger Creek Brewstillery to help them label this month’s barrel of small batch bourbon, called Ranger .36. Each month they bottle a barrel which is approximately 70 cases of small bottles and invite 12 people to come help lable it. The lables have the batch number, bottle number, aging season and time hand written on them.
I didn’t number labels. They are very careful not to duplicate a bottle number. I could picture the person who would check the liquor store labels, looking carefully for the right bottle number. Not. But they do go into the cases consecutively, so the stocker would know.
I picked the easiest label to align, the seal label that goes over the cork and extends do the sides of the neck.
Bourbon is any liquor that is at least 51% corn and aged in new charred oak barrels. After the barrels are used once for bourbon, they go on to have other useful lives, aging scotch (or a version of Scotch that doesn’t come from Scotland and so cannot be called Scotch).
Ranger Creek Bourbon is a really well-crafted bourbon, sweet with honey overtones (or that’s what it was like to me). It reminded me of Wild Turkey a bit. It’s worth trying a bottle. And if you want to put your hands on the process, you can sign up at Ranger Creek’s Website. But they don’t pre-announce. you have to be watching the website at the right time to find your chance.
The founders are smart, careful, hardworking, hospitable and unflappable. They kept their day jobs as they build up their market. They have two employees, a brewer and somebody else, while they come in on the weekends and take care of the stuff that can wait. Like this bottling party. They started in 2010 and expect to have their big bourbon out of the aging casks in 2 years. Ranger Creek is a class operation with a few twists, like the grain smoker on the back lot made from a storage container. MMMM. Smells like barbecue.
They’ll feed you pizza and whatever of their beers you care to drink. And you get to take home a bottle from that batch. You can also find their bourbon at Specks, Gabriels and other liquor stores in San Antonio and Austin.
Oh, I forgot to mention that their beers are also well-crafted. It’s a good time for all. Plus, you’l meet some interesting people.
