THANKSGIVING 2014

 this year we did something different for thanksgiving...our granddaughter now works as a cook/chef for the salvation army in watertown and we decided in order to have a family holiday together it made sense for us to go to watertown and help out serving dinner there...so we did exactly that...

arrived on wed and of course it was late in the day so all the prep work had already been done but we needed to report at 8 the next morning to get our assignments...arrived on time and was told we had to put on those beautiful hats (next time we will wear baseball caps)..off to the kitchen we went first to help make a fruit salad when that was done lar started doing dishes and i started to help cut up the turkey that had been cooked the day before..between 25 and 30 had beeen cooked...lots of hands making mashed potatoes--gravy---squash--cutting pies and  cakes...lots of stuff needing to be done in time to start serving at 11...

as most of you know when preparing a big dinner the worry is that will it all be ready on time...and of course it always is...not sure how many were served  but last year it was 500...we thought that the ones who came to eat were to go thru a buffet line but no they sat done and were asked by servers what they wanted just like in a restaurant....i think there must have been over 50 or more people who came to help and it worked well...they also do take out dinners and deliver to those who can't get out and at time there were close to 100 of those dinners that were delivered with the phone still ringing so not sure how many were delivered..

the salvation had also gotten alot of donated food that those who wanted could take...bread--produce--pies--etc...so it was a good day..

on friday prisoners from the local jail come to finish the cleaning up mopping floors--taking the tables and chairs down so all in all it is a community event..

we were glad we were part of it..

but guess what NO LEFTOVERS FOR US SO NO TURKEY SANDWICH...oh well that is ok..

life is good..

hope you all had an enjoyable holiday..

OPENING DAY 2014

as some of you know this is the opening day of 2014 deer season with the gun...lar has been out for 2 weeks with his new crossbow and shot on one the last day yesterday but did not connect...

so today he was up bright and early or i should really say it was still dark at 3:30 but he had things to do to get ready not sure what but man things....our friends from the north country are here so it was time to make breakfast and prepare for the morning hunt and discuss where everyone wanted to be in their lucky spots...lar went out back to where there is an old manure spreader..

around 7:20 he shot and got a nice 6 pt...so back to the house he came to get me to take me for a ride in the bulldog to get back to the house....ellie and willis saw several deer but did not get any shots at any...they also saw the big buck that roams around in our mile square...but just watched to old boy..

as  you can tell we have snow on the ground but it isn't gong to last unless we get some more tonight...so tonight  it will be off to the butcher to have it cut up then in a couple of days we will wrap it..

so it appears we won't go hungry this winter and life is good..

24 OUT THIS MORNING

This wa this morning activities at 464..first at 8 nurse eileen arrived then at 9 pt cindy also arrive to put me thru my paces...the first thing to do waas to take out the stitches which wasn't too bad a couple of them might have pulled a wee bit but not unbearable...

all is goi

ng ok...nurse and pt are pleased with my progress so again if they are pleased so am i...lar even got to keep the tool that was used to take them out

SUNDAY MORNING

this morning lar woke up and rolled over to give me my morning kiss and he said just stay put cause i.m going to make you breakfast in bed...of course I didn't want to fight it so I just rolled over for a few more minutes of shut eye...oh I could hear him our in "his" kitchen makes some sort of noise and of course not sure what he was doing I expected just maybe a bowl of cheerios and a cup of coffee...he was taking much longer than I thought he ought to be making cheerios and coffee but I just waited and watch more of the today program...


when the kids were little ne of his most famous breakfasts was an oreo cookie omeette which the girls just loved and ate...I never thought that maybe he was doing that as I KNEW that there were NO  oreo's  in the house but to my surprise this is what he brought me to eat....


now I think he is watching way too much of the food channel mainly chopped...it was very good and he sure did surprise me with breakfast..


now I have graduated to a cane except at night when I get up to go to the bathroom the pt says for safety reason and I must say I agree...now is the swelling would go c=down I'd be much happier...and I do feel/see progress each and every day..


so life is good and getting better

god bless

look close they are decorated different

FIRST ATTEMPT

while we were away this september as at bill and sandy's ---bill did some smoking of fish which got us to thinking about something we had talked about before and that was to buy a smoker....so we did...many many years ago lar made a smoker out of an old fridge which we used for a couple of years but it wasn't all that great..so away that went...we did some looking on line and went into a gander mountian and low and behold there was one just calling us to take it home...so we asked a whole bunch of questions but at the time we were in virginia and it would need to ride in the back of the truck for several hundred miles and who knew what the weather might be like so we knew that there was one outside williamsport , pa and we were going to go that way .so we waited till we got there...of course they had just the one we had been looking at and this one sure was calling take us to take it home

last night was a neighborhood bon-fire which we have often during the summer and that gave us a thought why not try out the smoker and take some smoked vension and wild turkey for  our snack to share..

of course it took a couple of days to pre-plan as the meat had to have a rub and had to sit for at least 24 hrs...so i made one up by dumping this and that in a jar then rubbing it all over the vension and for the wild turkey i marinated it in a secret sauce for 24 hrs....

we figured that it would take at least 2 hrs of smoke and we had planned 2/1/2 hrs and it was perfect...so our first attempt at smoking meat turned out just fine if you ask us...

we sure have  hade some perfect fall days..trees are beginning to turn and some leaves have already fallen...this is my favorite time of the year nice days and cool night for sleeping..all's well here in ithaca and life is still good ..god bless

HOME

arrive home yesterday mon sept 22 around 2 or so after being gone 3 weeks...it was good to get away for a wee bit...visiting frineds --eatingcarbs--fishing--visiting--going to more battlefields--checking lar bucket list  and visiting a battlefield that he has wanted to every time we have gone down I-81 on our way south in jamuary..so now he can say been ther done that when we pass this coming winter..

then we got to meet ot new great grand baby..jeyden who is 2 mths and is cute as a button...had a good visit with the grand kids ..they came to where we were camped and we had a picnic..it worked out fine as carl was off on sunday and john could get the day off...good visit..

so now to get caught up around here befoe the snow flies and the guns come out..

BEEN BUSY

we have been busy since my last blog...we have vsited some habitat friends in lousia, va for a few days and helped to do some catch up work for them as they have been gone for the last 4 mths and made a trip to alaska....had a  great visit with them and good seeing them ..

then we headed to harpers ferry another national park ..we had visited it several yrs ago but we both thought it might be a place we would like to visit again and  this time work on a ranger badge..it was one that was more challenging than some of the other one...we learnt more than before now to remember  it all...sat in on a rangeer presentation which was about the history of the forming of harpers ferry...of course the most famous thing that happened there was the capture of john brown..

trains run thru on a regular schedule ...

then on the pa to visit and meeet grandkids and the new great grand baby..

no pictures included as this is a very slow wi-fi..