We picked cherries and cherries in Klincaid yesterday, collected 40kg, we really hit them hard. The last half an hour, the first cherry by the driveway, needed no looking. Just stretch a hand, when you feel hand full, tear them off the stems, drop them in the bucket, repeat. It bore insanely.
The right side airconditioning in Joda croaked, i.e. it cools on the left, heats on the right. Either the flap unhooked, or the wee motor did (or the gears connecting them), or there's an air pocket in the freon, so quoth Firefox's AI. To Optima on monday, then...
In the evening we started a tad earlier, and didn't stay too long, three and a half shots (for the and-a-half we already have an established phrase, may it be [known] that I invented something in hungarian - „megfelel... még egy fél?“ (does it suit [you]... one more half?)). Then to bed, fell asleep like pigeon sucklings.
This morning, we popped them all and laid in barrels. I trimmed [my] beard, it's been two months and change. After lunch we meant to go out on the street and chop off few more unpickable branches of the narrower cherry, but didn't feel like doing it, expecting a downpour. While I write this, what was in Romania, at 70km from here, left for Carpati, but instead another heap is approaching, from Délkút... We'll see, any rain would be welcome now. At the garden the rainwater barrel tipped over, it's light and the wind has overturned it, so not a drop there. Hope it fills now.
In the afternoon I kept an eye on weahter websites, looking at that storm approaching. It did arrive, finally, around 18, a strong wind first, then a real deluge with a bit of hail, rice sized at first then up to marble size (judging solely by the sound, didn't go out to look). That was finished in three minutes. Then it paused until after midnight, then went on as normal rain, just like any other rain. When Borče called about the next day, we told him that no can do, because it's nice to socialize and consume, but production is a priority.
Three or four more videos arrived from Crete - Tanja going down a waterslide into a pool, into dad's hands, climbing back again for another go; dancing at the kindergarten party; running over the stage from one speakerbox to the other when everyone already left; jumping from a toy car from about 60cm height, lands less than perfectly, climbs up, jumps again, much better this time. A real sweetie.
Looked at what next to read by Mieville, because I gave up on „Iron council“ once I read how one of the main characters ogles another main guy from behind and then goes to jerk it off... Well you may be a leftie and a marxist all you like, buddy, but using my reader's time to push whichever agendas you like, well, find some other readers. It's not that I don't understand what men find on other men, I don't understand what women do (but I wisely keep mum, let them keep looking for it). I skimmed the plots of his other works on wikipedia, and managed to find one which is no fantasy with combined beings, magic and other fantasy greenery, it's the „The city and the city“ about two cities sharing the same space but have a common taboo to not notice the other one - the people, buildings etc. And then a detective solves a murder there. That I can read.
Talked with our Seattleians in the evening. Anita appeared briefly then fluttered away. Neša appeared a bit later, even shorter. Go has problems with rabbits or whatever it is that's munching on her artichokes, tomatoes and peppers, so started looking for a solution to that problem - there are some fences, but those would come at 5$ per plant, for that money she can just get in the car and buy good plants from a grocery. And then Amazon offered her an ultrasound gadget which senses their presence, charges solarly, arrives on tuesday. Stanley is selling cars almost wholesale, says one white station wagon (caravan here), which cost him 600$ plus 400$ for a tranny, went for some seven grand, and a 300$ add-on went for 1500. Two more dashboards went, which cost him some pocket money and half an hour at the junkyard, for a few hundred each. I asked whether that means that the folks got cash again, did the business at Žolt's lift as well? Žolt is finished, he said, not budging a dick, at two thirty he opens a beer, sits and stares into nothing, doesn't even put his tools back. Seems to drink a lot, can't find a way to dig himself out from a tax pit (but still manages a three week vacation in Europe), he's unpleasant to his customers, very few of them come again, and all in all he's a candidate for bust. Three oil changes a week won't make you rich, buddy.
Monday, still some rain. We gave up on making more rakija, everything's wet, and the magical hand (her right, with which she stirs the mush and by feeling where it's cold and where it's still heating she decides whether it's time to distill - so I finally know the inner meaning of the song „Magična ruka“ by Korni) said it's not ready yet. Had the weather stayed so warm, maybe it would have been, but as it stands, it's tomorrow. We literally feel like doing nothing. I kept writing here, she crocheted, after lunch I napped and she went on souring the eggs, as over eighty already cropped up. This time she'll put half a bolivian pepper per jar, so we'll see how the cool the eggs warm the eggs works. The bolivians are good this year as well, in the last fish čorba she put one, and it just fit the bill for eight plates.
Tuesday, heroic work. One still before lunch, then another, not quite full, five and a half liters more. Then to garden - she hit the first cherry, fourth time, I on the third cherry (we had three more elsewhere in the back garden, but they withered). I picked a whole bucket, then took the ladder, taking a break halfway, out to the street to join her on that cherry, and got more than half a bucket, and there'll be more. We were somewhat dead, but the hunt was good, even half a kilo of apricots that the wind shook down - excellent, we feared there may be much more and that the low outstanding branch may break, but didn't. In the evening we ran it until the fifth shot, being in a good mood after a working day.
And that's where I was somewhat forgetful. I said I'd scrub the still after dinner while it's all still wet and coming down easily, as per the hungarian „jobb esten örömmel, mint regellen körömmel“ (better in evening with joy than in the morning with fingernails), but forgot, so in the morning had to even apply a spatula. Forgot to blow out the candle before sleeping, we keep it for ambience, she noticed and blew it.
Wensday, I scrubbed the still, she popped the cherries and cherries, pitted the few apricots. auntie Janja calls, again about some land for which the state owes us some money. That is, it's two years of passing the buck back and forth - who is the entity owing us, is it the municipality, state or city (Belgrade), and that's solved now, and the day in court was a few days ago, and they decided that I didn't receive the invitation. Which I did, the postman didn't send the return sheet, fuckit.
After lunch drove the Joda to Optime. Turns out it did leak the freon somewhere else too, fine, it's not the electronics or the motor or the flap, not fine that the guy fixing it couldn't find the leak. The method is to inject some oil in the freon, which contains something that shines green when lit by ultraviolet light and becomes obvious. If the leak is not up front, then it must be somewhere in the cabin, which is forfucked to find. See you in a few days if it leaks again. And both the repair guy and some Bosančeros customer there, and Stanley from afar, are joined in bitching on newer cars, what shit is produced nowadays. There even Folksvagen (Volkswagen) came out with a touchie and got such chiding from the audience that they put back the buttons. The buttons have the nice property of always being in the same place and you don't need to look for them, you memorize the position and then you know, don't take [your] eyes off the road. Could it be another hose this time, I asked, they are all the same age, when one roars and gets replaced, any other one may be next. That would rather be the case with newer cars, the guy said, when one roars, better replace them all, it's more plastic and less rubber nowadays.
On the other side, the rasejani are scheduling another meeting, didn't do it in a while. That is there was a kačamak (something with corn meal and young cheese) breakfast last year, but that was Belgraders only, there was no big convocation since 2023. And it was sort of done deal, Škrba offered transportation, he renewed himself (as the phrase goes, i.e. got something new for himself, usually said when wardrobe increases by some special item, or any larger purchase is in), he bragged a little in a side email, got a new Suzika (aka Šubaru [fur hat], i.e. a Subaru), but then it turned out to be on 28th, which is when we'll go see Tanja. We did see her twice during the afternoon, it just crossed her mind to ask to see us. Eh, once she grows up and understands what a miracle it is when you travel two countries and half a sea away, and still can see baba, deda, dedica and Nina on mom's phone... well, she may not be amazed at all. I was thinking of a variant of perhaps lunching with the rasejani and then go to Lena, but then Stinge explained that this was imagined as a boys' company, for the language that they use, so no missuses nor kids, so okay then, have a nice one.
Thursday, 18th. Even though I hit the hay as early as one - finished Mieville, read some reviews and accompanying greenery, specially on the 2018 miniseries, where for televisional reasons they made a complete mess with fake imitation (not a pleonasm) if cyrillic in one city and overload of diacriticals in the other (which they call accents, though I'd really love to hear an unaccented and accented c, to learn to spot the difference), and they even invented a wife for Borlú and removed the two chicks with whom he laid... So, scheduled for never. What to read now... True, I packed Herbert and his weakling heirs, enough years have passed, may do again. ... where was I, yup, laid around one and got up after ten. She was up as early as at seven (or would „at seven already“ be better? I asked on burundi how best to translate „već u 7“) and fired up the still. When I took over as dežurni, the average was at 53%. I cut it off, we lunched... spaghetti. If once in the crossword the „necessary spice“ was salt, now it's „desirable spice“ - dough. All 150g of dough and at least 300g of ground meat, and the dough is, by my calculation, barely half startch, considering how many eggs she uses to make it. On the scale I'm at 82,5kg now, about halfway between where I arrived in january of 2025 and where I want to be. And I feel well, nothing [wrong] with me, even the winter's slime receded respectably, what remaine is a poor token of it.
Friday, slept our share, lunched (yesterday's spaghetti), then the news arrived that Tanja got stomach trouble - the orderly which regularly hits at least half of us here when going to sea, with puking out everything they got, even water when trying to drink it. We gave instructions as far as we remembered, we all went through that once, and then went straight to the garden. Swung by the local [community centre], to pay the bills and get groceries (vegetables, a bone for the soup), and when we got to Klincaid there was a funeral, just leaving the romanian church and turning into main street. One does not pass a column, it's not proper [to do], so I stopped, we'll just wait for them to finish turning the corner, and we'll take the church street they left and thus arrive at our place from behind. We lit our cigs, but then they stopped. Well, then, get in first gear and crawl at pedestrian speed by them, respectfully. Because who knows how long they would be staying there, what's the rite, and which path would they take. Not the shortest one for sure, whey'd walk past our gate then.
And then we picked, picked, picked. Sixth day I pick the same cherry [tree], and now I'll by an imperial executive order pronounce it finished, 80kg off it is enough. Though, could pick 30kg more, under the condition of having a levitator. The funeral we didn't see anymore, just heard the church bells three times. On the way back I poured čorba into Joda at the new pump, comes really handy when going to garden, all new clean and neat, though she noticed that someone already managed to dent the sheet metal above the carwash entrance. And the price was right, 217 dinars, was 222 then 220, and now it may rebound when Vučić decides that he was pampering the folks enough and returns the excise tax to previous level.
Arriving home we learned more news about Tanja. They took her to a hospital, she's receiving infusion to replenish the liquids and electrolites, and managed to catch some sleep as well („She fell asleep with eyes open, just like Milan does. The doctors came to see how was she and were very confused why is she lying so still“). Thats where they were all three quite tired, their batteries were running out. For the phones they managed, he went down and bought a charger.
She was already better on saturday, released from the hospital. Threw another little iron along the way, but that was rather due to the curvy road. And then photos started arriving - first Nina sent a few floral arrangements with the fresh crop of what she grew in [her] yard, then the two in a [swimming] pool at one from her homebirthers' club, where they seems to have gone for a little companying. Then Go sent hers, how Anita and Neša waddle in an assembled pool (which she also got for free, just to write a review). Summer has begun.
We popped yesterday's cherries, lunched, then made a paused during the worst heat. Later after lunch Vera's mom came, had a coffee, bought 50 eggs, and didn't stay long because we said we'll go cherrypicking. This time we didn't even bring out the big ladder, but I took out the stool, there were low branches by the road, and in two hours we collected some 28 kilos. The veterinary who bought the lot next to the Leskovčanin had a party at the pool, luckily without music. All such parties sound the same, there's always some father who is very loud with his child, with the same text every time. Not that I hope, I know that I wasn't like that.
Sunday, 21st. The solstice (which I insist writing the old way, as dugodnevNica [longdayness] and not dugodnevica [longdayess], which is newspeak, wrote about that as early as in the early nineties). Around noon, Lena again - „she puked last evening after drink again, we spent the night in the hospital. She was on infusion eight hours, livened up a lot. She got the runs now but seems not to pukw anymore. The fever is also no more 🤞“. Later a shot of Tanja sleeping on the terrace arrived. She's suffered a lot, but it seems it's all over now.
She started the still to make more rakija even before I got up. There was enough of it for three stills - the last two of the cherry, and one of cherry (v. Cherries). Not rather bad (i.e. not bad enough), as much as 25l of cherry - in twonytwo it was nine, in twonyfour sixteen. The cherry, on the other hand, smells like apricot, because we added the couple of handfulls of early fallen. There'll be more of that in the following batches - three vats are currently occupied - and starting tomorrow we'll collect apricots separately.
We spoke with all of them in turn. First Lena called, then we saw Tanja (she was pleased to hear me, „deda!“) and Milan, then Nina called in the afternoon, from her new bench by the chicken coop. Her terrace aka deck is mostly in the shade from her big west side pines, so she parked the bench to be in the sun. She can even put down the coffee on it, excellent. Sanda also came so I brought Zelena's new kitten to show her, and it got bapticized on the spit, will be called Cherry Pie (where I immediately remembered that y should not be read as cyrillic у, so it's not čerupaj [imperative of čerupati, to pluck (feathers)]). Then Borče called to check about tomorrow. Could do as far as I'm concerned, because showers are forecast for monday and tuesday, but that's where I don't have a say, she already decided we won't, so I brought the phone to her to explain.
Go called a bit later than usual. Of news, she finally made Stanley go to benew himself, shits trousers etc, 400$ altoghether, and he wears them all well, „the best diet out there is chronical malnourishment“. He sold yet another vehicle for 7000 which cost him less than two, and another dashboard, and has a prospective customer for one more vehicle. Neša was a bit more talkative than he usually is, and Anita we saw only briefly, her friend came and they just jumped into the pool. Go is now in the dilemma, whether to calculate how much sodium chlorite to put in, or to just use that water to water her garden and just refill the pool. If there's some biomass in it, the better.
Monday. Nice morning, rode bicycle to detelina to get cigarette paper, and to pay the electricity bill - now they aren't ten days behind the other utilities, maybe half of that, and still managed to get it delivered just when we paid the rest. Had we delayed that for a couple of hours, we'd have met the postman. Lena and hers returned from the sea, Tanja vomited once more upon arrival, but no fever, eats normally... this was more from fatigue. One large dose of her own bed and everything will fit into its proper place. And we saw them, she was in really good mood. Even better on thursday.
The visits on sGradlj.com surpassed 100.000 for this month. Once it would collect that much for a whole year.
The rest of the week... one day making rakija, one day go pick more (even managed to get rained on a little), one day's rest. The cherry got its turn to distill on tuesday, and did start insanely strong - methanol at 73%, ethanol at 69... We got more than six liters from two stills. On wensday, after that bit of a rain, we decided that not enough cherries have properly ripened, but the apricots did. In a bit more than an hour we collected 50kg. The next day she even made pekmez. As soon as we finish this keto diet (I'm still at 82,5kg), pancakes (i.e. crepes, not american pancakes).
14-VI-2026 - 5-VII-2026