27-VI-2026.
Another double day yesterday, roasted the rakija in the morning (6,1 l more of cherry), went to garden in the afternoon to pick more cherries, and there were some apricots, and there'll be more. One of the new apricot[ tree]s, only that one, bore nicely, fifteen eaches, nice large and tasty, those we packed separately to take to Lena on sunday.
The windshield on the Joda is motley now, it's parked under a cherry, and these are already overripe and dropping off. Too bad I didn't bring the shooter, there were interesting angles, when a sunray hits a smeared cherry.
We picked again a lot, three buckets of cherries, two of apricots, in three hours. And the breeze was no help at all, [my] shirt stuck and I breathed with some difficulty, she even took the big ladder to the street for me and we brought it back together. Did that myself so far.
There seemed to be one more still due to roast, but not quite; tomorrow we surely won't because we'll be going to Belgrade, so on monday. The temperature reached 36 in the afternoon (the thermometer is on the terrace, shows more when the tin roof heats up), so text charge on cherries and appricots we'll [do] even a bit later, before dusk, when the cherries on the street will be in the shade.
One evening we went on about booze in taverns, and how I regret not bringing my alcoholome[te]r to the last parastos, who knows what I'd have measured... if that had any alcohol. And we arrived at our rakijas being unicates. Beacuse we don't have recipes, we simply learned. First time that we produced something that we liked (and dad said „this you don't advertise, this is for us“) eventually in 2013 and when we bought, in 2018, in the Vrnjačka, the textbook for making rakija, we saw that initially made some seven out of ten typical errors, fixed four the next season, and then all by ourselves we polished it into a method. We never make an exactly same rakija twice, they are all different and all good. Furthermore, we arrived at a point where the most beautiful unes, quince and apricot, we actually avoid, there's too much taste, stays in your nose even after next day's lunch. This season's story is „we had a technological setback, some apricots fell while we were still picking cherries, and we just added them to the mush, not to go to waste... and now the cherry smells of apricot, don't know if it'll be any good...“. To which Stanley said „this is the scam of the century“.
Sunday. The airconditioning in the Joda is not working, so open the windows and do 80. Temperature outside was 39, above Danube icy 37, but I felt fine. She was sweating, though, but didn't complain much. For parking, pick a slot at will. I chose my favorite, it has the shade the longest.
At the same time, the rasejani gathered in the „Dren“ tavern, so pLazić, M.A., Zlotvor, Magi, ajVar, Stinge, Škrba, Kunta. Judging by the latter images, with somewhat smaller bellies and more beards than there were before. I was invited to drop by, but... if it's „no wives no children“, then you don't need me, there. And we were only 3km away, we could have dropped by, if we, say, came two hours earlier.
Tanja we somehow talked into not going out, because we brought her enough new toys (jigsaw puzzles, doll stroller, one the two from 07-II-2020., two Pepa pigs), and altogether had good fun with her, sitting in airconditioning all the time. We also brought 50 eggs, a jar of fresh apricot pekmez, fresh apricots („why did we ever bother with all the yoga, exercises and meditation, when nirvana grows on a tree?“), and a kilo of apricot [rakija] for a programmers' meeting, i.e. only their gang of four, aka task group, is meeting. Should have been in Italy or wherever, but what with Lena being so pregnant (the kid is in lots of motion, plainly observable), the meeting was moved to Belgrade, so this is something to have after they finish. The temporary office space they'll get from a pal from one of her previous jobs, for free, which them westerners didn't quite get, but goes [somewhere] to show what* we are. The kid inside does kick in unsuitable directions at times, and she ouches a bit. Milan was at the gym and supply run and met us accidentally outside as we were leaving and he returning, carrying a big pack of toilet paper. Talked some right there, and I was momentarily distracted by an incongruous colorful young couple, he a twometer pole and she up to his shoulders, with bright neon purple long hair, not a bad one at all. They asked for a lighter, gave of course, the smokers are the world's largest mafia, nobody ever refused a light to another (though I did run into a couple of odd exceptions among Amers, there were weird situations). So we said our g'byes to our son-in-law, and the couple walked ahead of us, towards the car... and the smell of good vutra** emanates. „Why didn't you ask if they have some disposable?“.
I called Borče to announce that we (i.e. she) count on us being in mobile condition for next monday. Though, she really could ask me what I thought, but nope, she first tells me the decision and then defends it by replying to questions I may have asked.
In the evening anoteher talk with Seattleians, mostly about garden and accompanying tricks. Given that they were here two years ago when cherries and cherries were in fruit, and were positively shocked to hear how much we picked and distilled so far. Our optimistic guesstimate is that we are past the midpoint of the crop. Go's vermin deterrent gadget is no help at all, she asked Stanley to show us the shots of the bunny he made. We talked with them until one, then had three each (i.e. 1,2 dl), just the measure for smooth sleep and to wake up bright and light, not to be mildly good for nothing until lunch. Not that we get hung over; if there's a little headache in the morning, it evaporates by half of first coffee, we don't drink the warrior shit the likes of Klingons and Banks's Affront in Culture, whete they drink in order to heroically suffer the waking up.
Monday, got up really early, had some coffee (without milk, at first, the fridays' was somewhat squeaked, and the new one arrived eventually around nine), then filled the still, got 6,3 liters, at insane strength, haven't seen a cherry yield like this. And we pitted the rest of the friday's cherries. And then went on strike, it was no less than 39 outside and not a wee breath of wind, we won't go picking today. In the afternoon drove the Joda to Optima,, measured 40 outside. There, the kid found where it leaked. Good news, it's another frontside gut, it's not in the cabin, nobody likes to do AC in the cabin. You fuck with it for three hours just to reach the spot, have to take everything down, even the steering, there's a hundred small cunts and dicks in there, and then you put it back together and there's a jingling sound somewhere... what now, take it apart again and fit back together. Can't charge twice the 20000. Which is exactly why nobody likes dashboards. Well, if it ever develops a fault which would take 1000€ to fix, I'd sell it as is and buy another exactly the same as this, less trouble. And these wee guts are no joke, they have to withstand 22 bar at least. Luckily, the cab came fast, and the cabbie ran his AC fiercely, not one of those guys who keep their windows open.
Tueday afternoon, slightly overcast. Somewhere in the end they even got a whole liter of rain, sporadically. We'll see. The visits on the website was hiccoughing somewhat over the weekend, I even thought they fucked something up again, tried to poke it myself, and finally found how to automatically redirect all of it to https. At least for those whose browsers aren't set to try for it themselves won't be getting fuckoffs from the site. I tried it myself, saw it wasn't working, it was still giving me http connections.
Them a couple of hours later I noticed the http counters stopped, and the https barely budged. The visits for 27th was 851 (http) and 900 (https); for 28th 163+205, and then http stopped completely (except bots). Well what did they fuck up this time... It turns the automatic redirection took the whole day to begin working, and now for 29th and 30th I have zero (except bots), and the https literally burst unseen, since 10:00 it whips at a speed of some 16000 a day, completely bananas. Here by 16:00 it reached 130000 for the month.
Added *** нема ги падеж _увод08 овди *** to the english version, trying to explain trešnje and višnje and why I stopped translating them in english text. Just won't even try to explain anymore. Read that instead.
It cooled in the afternoon, even a random cloud passed, it fell to 34 by supper. In the yard it's all dry, no matter how much she waters it. Took out the potatoes out of the sacks, a kilo and a half from (each of?) the three, nice young excellent but can't, when boiled, be peeled like classic young potato, the rind is adhering too strongly. Draught. For supper, sausages from the frajer, and salad of that young potato, sour eggs, onion, sour cream.
After that Carp called, does so every six months, talked half an hour with him, I see the screen savior shut down the monitors. While we were at it some drizzle sort of started, so like real peasants we went on about weather... says he put up a rain meter, no matter that he's merely a weekend peasant (lives in a village but doesn't start a tractor except on saturday), may that be with measure. Says he got fourteen liters in two goes. I know, there's such a place when I go to the garden, by the hunters' home, the kilometer before and after that spot gets rain when it falls nowhere else. Many times I started dry, went through a downpour there, came home dry. He knows the place, one of his plows is near it, the nearest tree to it is in Klincaid, that one never lacks water. The rest, awful or worse. Must be because the land is meter and a half above the rest, could be that high plane effect...
By the end I remembered to ask about Milka, she's from the same village, eh, he said, she got into rough shape for a while. Was it her back, she always had trouble with it. More like so-so, nothing wrong with her now, she suffered a lot with that guy of hers, he was bedridden last couple of years, big trouble, and now since he died she butterflied out. Well pass my number to her, so if she's willing to speak with me...
In the morning, drawing the line under the month at sGradlj.com - 140971. The morning, first of the month, even crazier - speed of 28000 visits a day, the monthly forecast hit 800000... I had to add space for extra digits in statcounter.prg, as it was showing asterisks in the upper part of vertical axis labels. The forecast for bots went over a million, error was mine, I typed the last month's total of 8000 as if it tallied this morning's 180. By half ten the speed came down to 1000 then back to 11000, 9000, 9200... Insanity.
Now that we got up earlier, we fired up the still as early as half nine, to make first apricot for this year. Got six and a half liters, and it smells „as if you bit an apricot... no, a pancake with apricot pekmez“. The second still I mostly slept through, and then called Optima around half three, to see if Joda was done. Vanja said she'd call me back in ten minutes. Twenty minutes later I called, „will be finished by five“. Okay then, I'll get it in the morning. Fired up the van on first try, and even the rear door opened just like that, and it was stuck since january. No airconditioning, has one but it's no use fixing, what for the little we use it. But it starts every time and goes nicely, we just had to wash the windshield, because the overripe cherries fell on it, smear and dry there... Which is looking almost nice, but still obstructs the view.
We picked five more buckets, some cherries some apricots, and will go on so for a few more days, for as far as we have the will. It was a tad difficult today because there was some bit of rain last evening. The soil is still dry (except around that curve by hunters' home, as we said yesterday), but it's dank, my breathing was more work than usual. At home we suppered nicely, then she pitted the apricots, and we'll pop the cherries tomorrow. I scrubbed the still (would be better had I done that right away, but pillow got priority). We found the other kitten, by Suši. Suši doesn't fuck it five percent, neither nurses it, nor goes to fetch it when it stumbles down into the basement. I took a few pictures of it, just to show to grandchildren, expecting some original name (probably another dish, as is their custom).
Thursday, 3rd. Before nine Vanja from Optima called, Joda was finished. The cabbie the same one as overlast time, the guy with a citroen cee four but with manual shift. He got completely confused despite my giving them the theoretical house number, knowing that 611 use the maps where the future house numbers are listed. But nope, he looked at the numbers on the houses, and they go 5, 7, 33, 11... In Optima, the bill was just 5000, they replaced two hoses and two rubber gaskets, didn't charge the labor as this was, as it were, within their warranty. They left it parked in the middle of the backyard, behind the lift, so to get out it has to reverse through the lift first... I did once maneuver 100m backwards with a trailer, and still have the geometry in my head, but Joda still feels too large to maneuver like that, not in tight [space]. The guy offered to drive it out, and did that nicely, much better than last time. For testing they dialed the airconditioning to 17, froze my ass of while leaving their parking lot, dialed it back to our standard 21 before driving away. Dropped by detelina to get hen fodder, and parked backwards just perfectly, there, I still know a few tricks. The shop generates its own congestions, such is the merchandise, every now and then there's sack to load, there even I bought so.
Then we popped the rest of yesterday's cherries, then fired up the still, apricot (with two buckets of cherry, won't do damage). It started insanely again, 69% methanol, 66% the firstborn, and oozed aplenty. The second still, after lunch (cauliflower čorba and squash musaka, third day, excellent). Got a bit of rain while we were at it, nothing much, just a bit of refreshment and it became muggy. The total, in the end, was 59,9 liters. And it's just as early as beginning of july.
In the evening, without any special premeditation, we sat with the 21.2 tutifruti, the oldest we have. Two decisions, one is that I'll buy the sound system again, same as I once had, those jaybiell's boxes and štajnberg card, and the other is that I should learn how to cook. The first one we'll surely do, because the old genius's speakers are good but are too close to me so I mostly don't hear her when she speaks to me, and when I silence them enough to understand her, then I barely hear the music. These we mean to spread two-three meters left and right of the monitors, hang them on the walls, she'll make me little shelves... We'll lick it up. And about my cooking... I seriously doubt it, enthusiasm evaporated even before I fully woke up.
Friday... [I was] somewhat all like nothing all morning, even though we didn't go much overboard the previous evening. It just took me too long to make myself get up and mow what bit of lawn we have, so in the end she did it. It fell on me to roll back the cable, for which I have a well honed trick, I lay it in circles into a fruit crate, so it doesn't tangle when rolling out.
In the afternoon we drove off, in the freshly cooled Joda, eh the joy, to the garden, picked more cherries (to round it up to 250kg for the season) and apricots. Apricots bore everywhere, same as cherries, here across [the street] at Leskovčanin's there's nobody to pick them. His next neigbor, who plowed once for us (v. 25-III-2011.), also came with his sons to pick some. The oldster is holding up quite well, despite being 86, tanned as if he were at the sea. They didn't leave too many branches empty, may be it was for the jars. We decided to go once more, on sunday, to pick from the big old apricot what we can, those are great. I ate one, in two bytes, and that was a mistake, should have divided into four. Almost suffocated, it was huge, and juicy... just missing a jar, it was pekmez already.
Afternoon, Lena reports that Tanja successfully left her bed. Eh, mom's child... Back in june 1993. you did the same, and were two months older than she is now... Before evening, Nina called, rebaking the pancakes in the oven and doesn't know which temperature and how long to keep them in... Turned out great, with a minimum of mom's instruction („just watch it and take it out when you like the color“). She got a few dragonflies (in serbian, „vilin konjic“ - fairy's pony) on the terrace aka deck, so all the girls ran to the terrace door to watch them. The day before a hummingbird aka colibri came to feed on her flowers, so she called the kids to come watch, and Sanda was late, the bird has flown. She made a show of crying and moaning for half an hour for missing it. „Won't even call you next time, I just get noise from you“.
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* not 'what' as in 'give me a definition', nor 'how' as in 'give me your iternal status', nor 'what... like' as in 'give me the similarity category'. It's 'kakav', 'kakvi', qv in dictionaries. Wish I knew kakav translation do they have for it.
** the common permutational slang puts the last syllable to first position or vice versa, except it rarely uses the nominatie case; so 'trava' (grass) is not the base, it's 'travu' (accusative case), from which it's a vutra; likewise for glava (head), it's 'vugla'. This would never work in english (lisheng) because in that language you can't have a ssportpa, no tterma how much you be tingswea. In serbian, however, the shift in position doesn't change the pronounciation, so blok can became kblo, it's easy to pronounce and there's no ambiguity (tyambigui?) on how to read it. Um... would it be nouncepro, or cepronoun? Is 'ce' a syllable here at all?
Mentions: june 1993., 25-III-2011., Grandparents, 07-II-2020., čorba, detelina, Dragojlo Kuntić (Kunta), frajer, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Klincaid, Mališa Borkovski (Borče), maturski parastos (parastos), Milan Nastić, Milka Petrov, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pekmez, pLazić, rakija, rasejani, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sGradlj.com, Stanley Berger, statcounter.prg, Stinge, Tanja Nastić, Tasa Radenkov (Carp), tutifruti, in serbian
27-VI-2026 - 13-VII-2026