November Begins

 Gosh I hate the time change.  We put 9 Volt batteries on our grocery list so we can change the batteries in our smoke alarms...we do this in the Fall and in the Spring.  I know lots of people just check their batteries...we change ours...our lives are worth more than a couple of freaking batteries. 

Oh yes the time change makes me a little cranky too.  Imagine that.

We attempted to watch the live video of Sunday church services...they have a multitude of problems....with the video stalling every 30 seconds.   Instead I watched the video of my cousin's funeral...21 people were there and that included the Honor Guard....and their video was perfect.  It was a lovely service, he would have been pleased. 

Saturday night I started watching a Limited Series on Netflix called The Queen's Gambit.  All about chess...now I am NOT a chess player so I have no understanding of the game but the movie was great I give it a 9 out of 10.  

Grocery pickup was another nightmare last week...over charges and missing items that we paid for...uffda.  This week no bottled water, oranges or green enchilada sauce...go figure. I believe they may be idiots and allowed to vote. 

Covid 19 Dreams...I am in store and no one is social distancing...or I cannot find my mask...how am I going to explain this to Far Guy?  Good thing it was just a dream...or dreams.  Uffda bad enough I have to live the pandemic but it should stay out of my dreams/nightmares....on the bright side it has replaced the looking for a potty dreams.

AND to top it all off The Sexiest Man Alive in 1989 Sean Connery died...and Big Brother ended and The Bachelorette is in big trouble. 

Far Side

Halloween Report 2020

 Bags of treats were hung on a clothesline strung between two trees.  Yes we still have some snow.

It worked well... the kids (children of our nieces, grands of my other baby brother) still got some treats and we got to see them from the house.

Afternoon visitors...their baby brother was asleep in the vehicle. 

The evening visitors

Our Great Grands showed up on Facebook. 

Hey Mikey!

Cee Cee

 So much for the Socially Distanced Halloween 2020.

Far Side

Blast from the past

Happy Halloween.  Lets go back seven years and revisit Halloween 2013.  The neighborhood was full of little kids...now those little kids are growing up and some have their license to drive!  Many are teenagers now!!   

Chance loved Halloween...he got to see some of his favorite little people.

Going in for a kiss

What fun to see these old photos...

These little girls now have a little brother.

This little monkey now has two new brothers and a sister. It has been fun to watch them all grow up! 

I asked her are you a good witch or a bad witch? 

So many smiles! 

Chance wore the hat and stood still enough for one photo before the hat went flying off! 

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Visitors

 We do have visitors.

Far Guy took a photo out the kitchen window of our deer. 

We have about five regular visitors...squirrels.  Two are black and three are grey.

Our baby Pileated Woodpecker is back.  We moved the suet feeders because the squirrels were emptying them as fast as we could fill them ...he was confused for a few days but finally found the suet.

He is a handsome dude and kept us entertained! 

I will be ready for Trick or Treaters on Saturday.  I plan to hang up a small clothesline between two trees and attach bags of treats for the children...I hope I can get a few photos.  I am expecting that we will have nine special kids stopping by.   The treat bags have been packaged up for a week now so they should be safe! 

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Winter Activities

 While were are waiting for the snow to melt or the weather to warm up a bit we worked on projects.

If you cannot guess what this is... it is the chrome piece that surrounds the headlights on the new old car. 

Sometimes I share the dining table with him...his projects are messy...so I gave him an old towel to protect the table. 

I had a pile of crochet cowls that needed buttons. 

I am using up so much yarn I had to order more!  

These are simple cowls to keep your neck warm.  They will be gifts. 

I am almost done with water coloring the Christmas Cards...I have seven left.  Yeah me! 

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Hunting

 I like to hunt with my camera.  

The little spotted fawns grew up and lost their spots.  They are now sporting heavy winter coats. 

This fawn came into the yard and I took photos through the window.  

The fawn was our fun for the morning! 

*******

I wrote an email complaint to the grocery store headquarters about the refusal of phone orders.  They called me and it seems they still do phone in orders...and they are not sure which employee my Mom talked to.  I told the store manager to call my Mom and to give her his phone number in case it happens again.  Problem solved for now. 

I can see the end in sight with my Christmas cards and my crochet projects are coming along. 

Life is very exciting here in the woods.

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Fourth sNOw

 We had our fourth snow..twice as it snowed Sunday morning and again Sunday afternoon.   Not enough to shovel....it melted off the patio and walk. 

My path for the Juncos to the bird feeders is still open. They peck around in the grass looking for seeds that the Chickadees and Nuthatches might drop. 

I went for a ride in the afternoon.  The snow was real crunchy.

As you can see we have enough snow for the entire winter now...if you ask me. 

Does anyone else enjoy these puzzles that take days to solve?  This one is keeping me busy!

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60 years ago

 My other baby brother was born 60 years ago. ( I became the favorite big sister!) Hardly seems right that he should be 60...but time marches on.  My baby brother and I were so excited to get a new baby brother...as I recall we both wanted a brother!

Since I was nine years old when he was born I spent lots of time with him.  He drank from a cup when he was six months old...cause he refused bottles....and was a pill to put to sleep every night.  It was often my job to rub his back and talk to him as he fell asleep in his crib.  When I thought he was asleep I would sneak out of the room...most times to the sound of him waking up cause I left him alone...and so I had to calm him down yet again.  I am not quite sure why he couldn't just cry himself to sleep...perhaps it was just a way to keep us both out of trouble.

He was a cute kid! 

My Dad and my other baby brother in Washington DC.  My Dad was part of the Honor Flight from Fargo North Dakota and my other baby brother accompanied him in May of 2016.

Happy Birthday other baby brother! 

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Everyone must eat

 My parents have been calling in their grocery order....then the store stopped taking call in orders and according to my Mom "They were nasty about it."  ( I will complain to Corporate Headquarters for her.)

Let me ask you...what are the elderly without computers supposed to do?  Starve or go inside the stores?  How is that helping???   How do you look for the helpers when there are none to be found????

Luckily my Mom does have an I Pad.  She had difficulty finding the website for the store.  I finally emailed her a link to the store.  She was having difficulty creating an account...she couldn't get the emails to match or the password. The program locked her out several times.  I finally created a account for my Dad.  When she finally got signed in and we got her shopping she got a popup that cancelled everything...she was ready to give up. So she read me her grocery list and I ordered everything for her.  She is supposed to pick up her groceries today...as they do not deliver on Sunday.   She really needs to do delivery.. and they deliver free in town bringing everything to the door.   

I tried to get the app for Walmart set up on Moms phone but she cannot recall her apple id.  My baby brother may know what it is as he does all her phone stuff. 

Uffda...frustrating for sure. Trying to help her over the phone was difficult. 

Far Guy and I ordered from Wally World this week...there were no mistakes and pickup was slick as snot on a doorknob. 

Too bad we are not like birds and just visit people who buy and put out food for us.

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Quiet Days

We have quiet days at home.  I worked on Christmas Cards again...I am getting bored with them...but I don't have many left.  The card is complicated and uses three stamps...and then it has to be cut out and pass quality control before it is stuffed into a envelope.  I have not begun the cutting out part...but I made a template. 

Far Guy opened the garage doors and started up his new old car..the antifreeze was only good to ten below zero...so he drained some fluid out and replaced it with fresh antifreeze so he should be good to go into colder weather now.   He said he may have to replace some hoses.  I asked him why he didn't drive it out of the garage...his answer was it would get the tires snowy and then the snow would be carried into the garage.  

I watched a movie...fell asleep after a few minutes and woke up for the ending...I cannot even recall the name of it....oh well I am having two Fridays this week. 

I shoveled off the patio and walk...and created a spot under the bird feeder for the Juncos...hoping if I feed those snow birds well they will leave us alone...as it is they seem to have invited all their friends. 

Just heard that one of my Dad's cousins died of Covid he was 84 years old and a very nice man and Minister. His wife and son also have Covid and so far they are recovering.  The numbers in our area keep increasing. 

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Third sNOw

 Three snows so far this week.  Usually the third snow is the one that stays....sad to say. 

It snowed gently most of the day. 

The snow is hanging in the trees. 

There was no wind to blow this new snow around.  We got maybe two inches of new snow.  There is six inches at the snow stick...snow # two packed down quite a bit as it had lots of moisture in it.

I worked on Christmas Cards and took some summer clothing upstairs..I cleared off a whole bunch of stuff from the top of the stairs...odds and ends tend to accumulate there and it was finally time to put a few things away.  I am making progress on my Christmas Crochet projects.

I did not shovel yesterday...probably today.

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Shoveling etc

Shoveling...  The snow was real heavy and would have made excellent snowmen.  On the second round of shoveling my nephew Josh came by and finished shoveling the patio for me after he cleared the snow from the driveway and in front of the garages....what a sweet guy!!

My other baby brother and she who sees Robins first stopped by to say hi when I was outside shoveling. They were not quite ready for snow either.

In between the first and second shovel exercise sessions Far Guy rescheduled his Infusion appointment so we took off to town and got him all taken care of yesterday vs going today when it will be snowing again.  I even managed to order a few groceries online and picked them up...just a few basics... milk, oranges, bananas, grapes, potatoes and cheese.  We will place a full grocery order someday when the weather is better. 

Success... baking the second loaf of bread...we put it on parchment paper to rise and then in the oven on a regular cookie sheet with a pan of water on the bottom rack. It sure is easy enough to mix the dough in an ice cream pail...I would say it is a winner recipe.  It makes two nice sized round loaves of bread (after mixing them up they can be kept in the ice cream pail in the fridge until you want to bake them...well within a week).  We both agreed that raising it and baking it on parchment paper works well.  The fresh bread was wonderful with my vegetable soup and Far Guy's Gumbo.

I am working on Christmas Cards and a new crochet project...actually I have three or four crochet projects going at once...some will be Christmas Gifts...I am using up some of my stash. 

I hope everyone is staying safe out there...Covid seems to be on the rise all over.  

Far Side

Second sNOw

 I could say it isn't so...but one look out the window tells a different story. 

The Juncos are still here...they bring the snow ya know?

They flit around under the feeders kicking up snow hoping for a seed to become airborne...silly birds.

There were five inches at the snowstick just before dark last night and it was still snowing.

Far Guy and I got the odd left over Fall jobs done yesterday morning as it began to snow.  Far Guy pounded the snow stick into place for me.  The water hose was found under some crusty snow, the patio table was rolled to the garage even though it was covered in ice.  The lawn mower was moved into the Desoto garage along with the three wheeler.  I doubt that I will need the mower anymore but I would like to clean it up before storing it for the winter.  I rescued the rain gauge and the trail cams will have to go on "winter trees vs summer trees"...because neither of us is climbing through a snowbank to get to them.   Snow shovels made there way to the front door and to the garage.  I got out my winter boots and will have to find my parka very soon. I washed up my red mowing boots and put away my sun hat. 

This morning I will shovel. Because more snow is forecast.  Seems like I barely got the leaves done and now I have snow to keep me occupied and out of trouble.

Far Side

Denial

 On a positive note...It didn't snow yesterday... but it didn't melt either.  Two or three snow storms are forecast for this week...one of those storms will probably be a blizzard and one may go South of us. 

I have to get out the snow shovel and the snowblower and my winter boots and a parka.  I have a couple of things to finish up outside...I have been in denial that winter is really really here. Well duh...14 inches plus of sNOw are forecast in two storms ...so I suppose I better try to pound the snow stick into the ground.

I would just like to hibernate. 

Minnesota Snowball in bloom in June

 

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Bread and more

 I got the recipe for the bread at King Arthurs site. 

The only change I made was that I used half white flour and half wheat flour.  

From now on I will bake the bread on my baking stone....and forego the Dutch Oven.  I just baked half the batch...so in a few days I will try the baking adventure again....the dough is supposed to be good in the fridge for up to a week. 

Artisan Crusty Bread

View out the window on Saturday afternoon.

 Sunday  the snow melted a bit.  The ground is still white and we had snowflakes in the air again yesterday...not sure it counts as the second snow. 

I caught up on some housework and laundry and worked on Christmas Cards.  I also have a new crochet project that is really fun! 

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First sNOw

 It snowed on Saturday morning.

We got well over three inches of sNOw. 

My baby brother and his bride came over for a visit...he wiped off the chairs with his gloves and then I gave him a towel to finish drying the chairs.  It was a cool visit.

On Friday Far Guy and I got a few more Fall Projects done...another window washed and the bedroom window well cleaned out...there was a family of frogs under the leaves...I could start a bait business.  I blew some leaves away and did a quick trip through the yard mulching the last of the leaves.   Good thing I did too as the coming days are forecast to be real cool.  I still have the West Wildflower gardens to mow...the East Wildflowers stay until Spring as they are over the septic system/drain field.  So I am not sure I will get that mowing done...or the mower washed up before storing it for the winter.

No snow stick yet.

Far Guy says Winter is here...I was hoping for a warm old fashioned Indian Summer. 

sNOwy day activities involved trying out a new recipe.  No Knead Crusty Bread...lesson learned...you are supposed to make two or three loaves at a time...and store the dough in the fridge...and mix it in a ice cream pail...well the pail I chose "There's a hole in your bucket dear Liza a hole" (you are welcome for that earworm) so I had water and yeast all over the counter....then due to an overestimation of olive oil spray the cast iron dutch oven nearly smoked us out of the house. BUT the bread was really good.  The house probably needed a good airing out anyways.  

Far Guy said "Wouldn't  that frozen bread dough be a lot easier sweetheart." 

Far Side

Town

 Gas Stations and Auto Parts stores...that seems to be the norm for Park Rapids.  There is a new small antique shop in an old flower shop on Hwy 71 South....which I think is more of an Antique Mall where different people have areas. (I wish I dared to go inside.)

There has been talk of this Gas Station for quite some time. There used to be a Gas Station, Beer Joint/Laundromat, Stacy's Pizza Shop, a Tackle Shop/Art Gallery/Auto Parts Store, and another Gas Station on this block...oh and Hazels Beauty Shop behind the Gas Station on the west end...

Now there is a big crane moving huge concrete sections into place.  We have been watching the building site with interest...we wondered if the old alley will still be there...so far it looks like it. 

Grocery Pickup was an adventure.  It took three attempts but they finally got it correct.  The first time I was shorted three items and charged for a large peanut butter but got a small one.  After I disinfected everything right there in the parking lot I gave them a call and left a message for the online shopping department of the problems with my order....I told them I would wait in the parking lot for someone to straighten it out.  After a short wait a fellow came out...he heard my complaint and headed back in the store...he returned with two of my items and Jiff Peanut Butter (not Skippy)... he grabbed all the peanut butter and headed back in the store...a while later he brought out the rest of my order and the correct size Skippy PB.  This all took 30 minutes...so frustrating.  Of course the fellow was apologetic...they really need a detail orientated person to fill orders.   So I give them an F this week for a freaking failure. 

By that time it was time to pick up Far Guy from the clinic.  The onto the bank Drive Through and the Meat Market for some St Louis Style Ribs.  I waited outside the Meat Market for another customer to come out before I went in.  The fellows in the Meat Market are real nice...I can also call in my order and they will bring it out to the vehicle for me. 

 

Main Street was real busy...and the outdoor eating areas looked cold and empty. With the colder weather more people are going inside...not us....we are probably better cooks than they are anyways.   

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Sparkling

 We washed three windows!  It is a good beginning. 

I put up the sunflower valance that my Mom made me for my birthday.   The window is nice and clean...worthy of a new valance! 

I got a package in the mail the other day from Jen.  The card said "I hope your day sparkles!"

I should be set for decorating cards for a long time!  Stickles are lots of glitter in a small amount of glue and perfect for making sparkling cards. 

We are making good progress on our Fall work list...good thing too as the Junco's have been here three days...and some snoooooo flakes were seen in the air yesterday...if the sun had been out they would have sparkled....but it was overcast and dreary...and cold!

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Little Smiles

 The package arrived in Michigan for the Great Grands.   Maddie put photos on facebook.

So serious...

And they fit!  Success! And a smile!  She is sitting on her brothers blankie that I crocheted for him when he was born.

Since I was sending something for Cee Cee I had to send something for Hey Mikey! 

He likes ice cream and his Mom will buy a gallon of ice cream and he can have ice cream many times. 

I wish these Great Grands didn't live so far away.

Far Side

Mom is 91

 My Mom was 91 years old yesterday.  We stopped by and got Blizzards for lunch to celebrate.  Dad and I arranged chairs out in the garage just out of the wind but still in the sunshine. 

Mom said she had a busy morning on the phone with birthday messages...beginning with three year old Ray who is a Great Grandchild singing Happy Birthday! 

A few weeks ago Mom mentioned that she no longer had any flags to put up because her flags were all worn out. So I did some shopping.

This flag for Fall and another that she can put up for December ... it has snow and Cardinals.  Cardinal's visit their bird feeders. 

This is the photo I put on Mom's Birthday card...it is their backyard in the summertime.  The front garden is filled with Lupine and Hollyhocks.  The wagon in back is full of Wave Petunias...purple and rose colored.  Dad still does all the lawn mowing and Mom works in her flower beds.  The Ox Cart is just there for decoration. 

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