Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is the big day! I can smell my pumpkin pie baking in the oven, a request from my dear hubby. It's such an easy pie to make, really, and the Libby version has been a staple of ours for years. I cheated on the pie crust though. I can make my own and it's better than the store-bought, but was in a hurry, I guess. I will make up a batch before Christmas and store it in the freezer, so I can do some more baking.
It will be just the two of us tomorrow. We aren't even having turkey this year, even though there is one in the freezer. Wish they sold smaller turkeys, just for 2 people. Unless you have plans for the leftovers. I find it doesn't freeze all that well, especially the white meat. I've started freezing it in broth or gravy so it doesn't dry out so much. It would also store well in soup. But that means I have to plan on making that soup right away and getting it into the freezer. Hmmm....
We are planning on a big breakfast, though. Blueberry pancakes made with my own frozen blueberries, a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Scrambled eggs. Jimmy Dean sausage. Or maybe fry up some of that nice thick ham slice we bought from Costco last weekend! Homemade bread for toast. Fresh ground coffee. Sounds like a good start, don't you think?
I picked up a little treat for me yesterday - a small container of Seagold crab and seafood dip. That's pretty good stuff. The lobster version is also good. Costco was doing samples last Sunday, and had a smoked salmon version. That was also pretty good, if you like smoked salmon. Always nice with club crackers.
I used to do big Thanksgiving dinners times past, when we lived near enough family to have them over. My parents would even drive down for the long weekend, until they switched it to Christmas. Too far to make two 18 hour round trip within a month of each other. So we choose Christmas. That's ok, the turkey will keep until then. :0)
I spend the past 3 days this week raking the last of the leaves in the yard into big piles. We live on a sloped yard, and fortunately it slopes to the back, so hauling the 15 x 20 tarp down back wasn't too hard loaded with leaves. Of course, just when my lawn was beautiful and leafless, a big wind comes up today and drives all the neighbors leaves into our lawn. Sigh....
Well, gotta run. A house to clean and more food to fix so we can really relax tomorrow and enjoy the day, even though it's going to be turkeyless. (is that even a word?!)
I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving day surrounded by tasty food and an attitude of gratitude. God bless!

Damp, cool and misty...

It's a cool damp misty foggy New England kind of day today. I have been out with my camera taking pictures. Not sure how they will turn out, but I think I wore my knees out trying to get different angles. I love taking pictures, as the 5000 plus photos in 'My Pictures' file will attest. I'm sure there are more, but that was at last count some months ago. Time to weed out the bad ones and save the good ones on disk, don't you think? Uh, yeah....
I have so many flower pictures I have them catagorized by year and month - for the last 4 years, since I got my digital camera. I also have many pictures of Max, my big spoiled cat. (He's 13, but thinks he's still a kitten, you know)
He tolerates my picture taking, but I try not to use the flash too often. He does eventually get up and leave. Plus our trips, decorating ideas, landscaping ideas, family photo files, fishing trips, bugs and critters, pretty much anything that takes my eye or something I want to have memories of, like the recent 50th anniversary party for my parents.
The big problem is, since I went digital, I take several photos of one thing, so I get the right shot, but neglect to erase the bad ones! So, I might have a dozen of this one flower blossom. And that is just one flower! Multiply that times dozens, maybe hundreds! I think I need therapy...
I made apple chutney yesterday. I have some photos of it on my camera I will post in the next few days. I have a big 25# bag of beets to process yet into pickled beets. My honey adores them. He would eat them every day. Loves them on his salad. I didn't get any made last year, so he was feeling deprived. It will take me all day to do these, but I will probably get about 30 pints out of it, so they will last a long time, if I don't give too many away.
The last thing on my list is apple butter, my favorite. It is so good on warm homemade biscuits with butter. Yum! I fell in love with apple butter at the Brown County Fair in Indiana over 30 years ago. WOW, was it really that long ago??! Yup, before I was married, and we will celebrate our 29th this Christmas, so it has to have been that long ago.
I still remember in the town square of this small quaint town, a tiny booth set up with these tiny sample size biscuits with a bit of apple butter on top. I think I had apple cider with it. Sigh...such a great memory.
So if I get those two things accomplished, I will be happy with myself that I attained those goals this year. Next year, I would love to try dilled green beans, and perhaps another kind of chutney or two, like plum and squash. They are such a wonderful accompaniment with pork and chicken. It is also lovely with a soft cheese, like brie, and homemade crusty bread, or on a sandwich with sliced chicken or ham, and vermont cheddar cheese.
Are you hungry yet?
I'm getting there, LoL.
Well, I need to run into town and pick up 3 bags of brown sugar to do the beets before I can start on them. I'll keep you posted on how they turn out. Have a great autumn day!

What wonderful fall weather. It was such a joy to take my morning walk. Although at first, it seems a bit of a struggle to get myself to go, I always end up glad I did. (And my body thanks me too, lol) The air was crisp, about 50F, with so many delicious scents. Newly mown grass, sun warmed hay, fallen leaves, a faint scent of apple orchard, with a touch of cow manure. Yup. Cow manure. Not so thrilled with that, but in very faint wafts, not so bad. Always reminds me of when I lived on the farm growing up, so really it's a good thing. Would have much preferred horse manure, but, oh well. :0) Mostly it was just a crisp clean scent. The weather was just perfect for getting yard work done. We trimmed the front evergreens, mowed the lawn, even cleaned out part of the garage. Went out for breakfast at our favorite place - this has turned into a weekly event. When I suggested we go somewhere else, my husband got this 'what???!' and then disappointed look on his face. I started to chuckle. I couldn't help it, I could just see what he was thinking. He had been thinking about this breakfast since dawn likely, and couldn't fathom going anywhere else. We always have the same thing: #4 on the menu. 2 eggs over medium, 1 sausage patty, deep fried homefries, with raisin toast. Except I did try their pumpkin pancakes this time. Good flavor, but not cooked quite enough. Pumpkin definitely needs to be cooked well. It is so reasonable too. Our bill always come out to just under $14 for the two of us, and it's plenty of food. Oh, and that includes coffee. :0) We then drove up to Ray's Farm Stand and picked up a 25# bag of beets for making pickled beets - my honey's favorite. He puts them on his chef salad he makes every night for supper. Also picked out some pumpkins, large and small, and a large bag of Cortland's for apple butter and chutney. They are my favorite apple and so versatile. Dropped by Tractor Supply Center for bird seed (quite reasonable compared to our local hardware store) and stopped at Cowards' Farm, and visited their new barn. They sell pumpkins and cut-your-own Christmas trees, and some gift items. It's a great barn, with a wide covered porch. We would LOVE to have a covered porch like that. On the way home, we dropped into Cupola Hollow Farms to browse their selection of homemade jam, jellies, and relishes, and decided on a 1/2 lb. of homemade peanut butter chocolate fudge. It is so smooth and creamy! Yum! I also got a couple of chocolate covered pretzels, one dark chocolate for me. They were really good! I'm thinking of making these for Christmas gifts. I know I'd enjoy a gift bag of these. A quick stop at the CVS and our local grocery store for bananas and milk, and we were done for the day. We had planned to go to Olive Garden for my birthday, but decided to try to get there sometime this week for supper instead. Sunday's are always so busy there. We had a great weekend. But Monday always comes after. But that's ok, because it's laundry day. Clean clothes are a good thing, right?

Tramp the Turkey Tamer

I so wish I could have gotten a picture of this. While on the back deck looking out towards the woods, I happened to see Tramp, the neighbors black and white cat, heading down the path into the back clearing. He had his tail up, which is unusual for a cat on the prowl, and I thought I saw something dark disappear ahead of him.
I ran to get my nocs, and lo and behold, here's Tramp, rolling on the grass not 6 feet from a group of turkeys. They were standing around watching him, while he entertained! They weren't afraid, rather seemed to be trying to figure out if he was a funny looking turkey or what.
He rolled around happily for a few minutes, like he was delighted with his find, then wandered off towards his home next door, seemingly unconcerned about leaving the turkeys behind.
It was so cute! Where is that pricey zoom lens camera when you need one?!

Weather, prayer and gratitude...

The rain has finally moved on. It was wonderful - we needed it so much after such a dry summer. You know, it's kind of sad hearing people complain some about the rain, when we've been SO desperate for it. The crops have suffered, the farmers have been anxious and stressed, we've probably stressed our local water supply by all the sprinkler systems that watered every week regardless of the drought. Where is the gratitude? I have wondered if the Lord allows these weather deviations to remind us to be thankful, to have hearts of gratitude, to remind us to pray. It has certainly worked in my own life. It has also taught me to be more aware of waste in my every day life. Like water running down the rain while I brush my teeth. Amazing. We are so blessed here to have ample running water, but we waste so much of it. While we were visiting our families up north,we were out for breakfast one day, and on the way back home, my folks drove us up into a small meadow behind an abandoned house. The view was awesome. There was also an artesian well, running continuously into an old trough. It runs night and day, soaking back into the ground. I could see trails through the long grass where the deer and perhaps bear had made regular trips to drink. It was neat, but I also thought about all that wasted water. I'm sure at some point the land will sell, and someone will take advantage of all that water. During the drought this summer, while conserving water and thinking of creative ways to save it, I also pondered the future. I have had the increasing feeling that life as we know it may not always keep on the way it has. We haven't had a war on our own soil for many years, at least not in my lifetime. Many countries seem to never be free of it. Their lives are in a constant state of flux, of stress and despair. Their main concern is survival. We have been blessed. But will we always? In my opinion, no matter how much we would like to think that life will always be this way, I don't believe it will. Perhaps we even live on borrowed time. Well, I could go on about this, but I'm beginning to think this needs to be another post, so I will leave off with this thought. Do you think that the Lord uses these things, like droughts, floods, etc., to remind us that life can change in a flash, that we need to be vigilant? That perhaps we need to brush up on our prayer life. To take stock of our daily habits. Prioritize, consider our way of life, our daily needs and necessities, where we live and what impact a disaster, large or small, man-made or natural, would have on our daily lives, and what we should do to prepare for such an event, both naturally and spiritually? I'm sure some of you have. For me, I am taking a hard look at my life, my purpose, my habits. I can see a definite need for change. How about you?