Today we are thankful for shelter from the cold, enough food to eat, reasonably good health and our family.
We had lunch with my parents yesterday... Mom made Sloppy Joes and we brought Sour Cream and Raisin Pie for three of us and Far Guy had Oregon Berry Pie. The pie was delicious!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Far Side
We will have a quiet day reflecting on thoses things we are thankful for; each other, family, friends, a home that is warm and comfortable and food on our table. I wish all those blessings for you as well.
This monsterous Pileated Woodpecker had quite a feast at our feeders…his feast came one day before our Thanksgiving.
I heard that 46 million turkeys would be cooked this Thanksgiving! That is a lot of turkeys!
Today I am thankful that I don’t have to cook the turkey and I am thankful that we will be able to spend part of the day with our daughters and their families.
We are about half done with the carved Christmas ornament this year. The design works..several have been painted and sealed and delivered! I never really know how a design will look until one is ready to hang on a tree.
How about that and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet. We are moving right along. Of course there is the never ending supply of wood chips that ends up under the table..those little suckers sure can fly. We sit at the kitchen/dining table in the afternoon and evening and carve away.
When I get the ornaments all done and ready to package I will take some photos..and some in process photos too..and then I will give a few away. Yahoo!!
Thanksgiving seems early this year…or is it just me?
I had a piece of pumpkin pie at a friends house the other day..it sure tasted good! It kinda put me in a Thanksgiving mood…or maybe it was just a momentary sugar high.
Today I am thankful for a little sunshine to warm my old bones:)
Someone has more faith in me than they should. I am in charge of pies for Thanksgiving. Perhaps they just assumed I would bale out and buy some pies at the store..and that was an option I thought about..but dismissed.
I sent out an email and took votes. Some family members responded and some did not. I warned them in the email..if you don’t vote don’t complain.
I considered the votes and made the decision to make Pumpkin ( one of my favorites) and Apple. I will try to lure in the No Pie votes that were made by two young men by making a Brownie Caramel Pie with no nuts. I have the recipes out and the items I need entered on the grocery list..I am prepared to bake!
I am also in charge of the Pumpkin Bread..there are no fussy eaters when it comes to pumpkin bread..all of the grands like it. I use a very old recipe that was shared by Joyce a long time ago. I always think of her when I bake it and smile..Joyce would have liked that..she was all about food and family and good times shared.
Joyce’s Pumpkin Bread
4 Eggs
3 Cups Sugar
2/3 cup H2O
3 1/3 Cups Flour
1 Cup Oil
2 Cups Pumpkin ( Yellow sticky note says 15 oz can of Pumpkins works fine and it does. All Pumpkin is not created equal either..I always try to use Libby’s)
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon ( I use about two)
Bake 350 degrees for an hour
( I put all the liquids in a large bowl..mix well and then add the flour..etc.. I usually make a number of small loaves and bake them about 30 minutes. If you use a bread pan it will take 60 minutes to bake. This recipe will fill two bread pans.)
I had a heck of a time hanging onto this recipe..I would have to call Nellie and say “give me your Mom’s Recipe again”..and she would. The last time I got this recipe about 35 years ago..I wrote it in my Betty Crocker Cookbook. Since then I know exactly where to find it:)
It has been a week, especially for Far Guy.
One day the kitchen sink clogged, just like that. It has been slow for years and we have fiddle farted around with it. It was slower this winter. We have both been trying to fix it. I had been running hot water down it, Far Guy had been running hot water down it mixed with Automatic Dish Washing Soap..we don’t have a Dishwasher but we have the soap to clean out the whirlpool tub. Far Guy boiled water..he went and got Drano..he got a plumbers snake..he got a bigger plumbers snake. We managed to plug the bathroom sink too..I am thinking I will have to close the kitchen forever. I will have to carry the dishes upstairs to wash them or use the tub downstairs( different sewer lines.) Six hours into the unclogging it finally gives up the clog ..and water disappears down the drain just like it is supposed too! I swear this plumbing nightmare was just like giving birth, when I saw the water disappearing and heard the gurgling noises coming from the bathroom..we both cheered.
Then we were short of hot water..we heat the water with wood..it is a complicated system..but we also have a hot water heater that is mostly shut off..well we turned it on and there was still not much hot water..Far Guy replaced the elements in the Hot Water Heater..what a guy ..he can fix most anything. It took him the better part of a day to do it, the fittings were stuck real good and he had to find a special wrench..but having hot water that goes down the drain is a good thing.
I am thankful for a husband that is a fixer. I am thankful for hot water that goes down the drain.
Did I ever write about my vehicle and how it fixed itself? It had a check engine light that was on, we took it in, the mechanic said “It is just a sensor in your fuel tank and it will cost 400 dollars to replace it.” HUH? Don’t think so. We had the oil changed at this place for years, and the light was continually on…then I had no 4 wheel drive ( That is an important feature here in Minnesota) took it in and they said nothing was wrong with it. We finally put it in 4 wheel drive and left it there..and sitting in the garage it would mysteriously go back into 2 wheel drive. We must have garage ghosts. Four wheel drive was hit and miss..working only on days above zero. THEN we had our oil changed at a different place..our check engine light went off and our 4 wheel drive goes in and out slicker than snot even if it is 20 below zero..it must have fixed itself. Should I ask why..or should I just be thankful that it is fixed?
I am thankful for a vehicle that has 4 wheel drive because some days the road looks like this.
When I write Wistful Wednesdays I look back through my many files of old photos until a photo strikes my fancy. A photo that begs to be written about.
My first thought about this photo was “ Someone quick grab that baby, that old lady is going to drop it.” My second thought was “Who are these people?”
To the best of my Aunt Anna’s recollection these are people from Finland. It seems my Grandmother sent a box of clothing to Finland after their wars..because the Finnish people had nothing. The Finns being in such close proximity to the Soviet Union fought them during the Winter War and the Continuation War, they also fought Germany during the Lapland War. The Finns survived, but their economy was a mess…some of the Finns lost all of their possessions from being burned out during the wars.
This is a photo that these Finnish people sent back to my Grandparents to thank them for the clothing. This photo was probably taken in the late 1940’s.
So on this eve of Thanksgiving..if you have clothing be thankful.
You should be thankful for clothing in another way to..IF I were in charge of the TSA you would all be flying NAKED. That would put an end to all the protests and complaints and mamby pamby whining about full body scans and “pat downs”:)
