Tillie Two Too

Last week John & I signed up to help with more Habitat projects - one in Thibodaux, LA in Feb. and we're on the wait list for another in Mason, TX in March. Even though we haven't seen much yet, winter will surely be in upstate NY by then. A project down south seemed like a good idea!

Then I got to thinking...(always trouble as far as John is concerned). Tillie, the VW, is not much in the heat category and there's a LOT of cold country to travel in between NY and LA in February. And then there was the bathroom situation. It's one thing to get up in the middle of the night to trudge across the parking lot to the public restrooms. But doesn't Louisiana have alligators? And what about those rattlesnakes just coming out of hibernation in Texas?

I looked up rentals. John looked on EBay. We ended up with a "winning" bid on a 1990 Roadtrek located in Maine (where else?). This is NOT the time of year to sell an RV in Maine so perhaps that's why we got a good deal on it. We'll see. If the paperwork comes tomorrow we're off to pick it up so we'll be on the road again. To celebrate, I'm going to take a vacation from this blog for a few days. It's almost Christmas after all and we wish each of you a very MERRY one. Talk with you in the new year!

Noah

December is the month for gift-giving. All over the country deliveries of toys and shirts and games and popcorn are being made, then wrapped for family and friends. Our family no longer exchanges gifts, using our gift money instead to make contributions to charities. Deliveries, however, still seem to be making their way to our house but with strange contents – resin, screws, glue, canvas…

For those of you who don’t live in upstate New York, we have had a LOT of rain this December not to mention this year as a whole. Roads have regularly flooded and some folks have had their basements pumped more than once. John a.k.a. Noah (although with his apron he looks more like Santa’s helper) seems to be on a mission to get an old sailboat he was given floatable again. (Perhaps he’s getting worried about all this rain even though we live at the top of a hill.) As much as I like to kid him, he is doing a GREAT job. About the only original part of the boat are the sides so you can see how much he’s done already. A present for me? No way! Slippery sports including sailing are definitely NOT my thing. Perhaps when he finishes with it he’ll give it away (that’s present enough for me) so he can start another one (a present for him).

It's a Wonderful Life

What fun! A radio drama of "It's a Wonderful Life" + a cloudy Sunday afternoon before Christmas + free + donations accepted for scholarship fund + something other to do than shop + seeing friends & neighbors + great homemade cookies.

John (on the left) grew up participating in community theater. His bit parts this time were Ernie, Horace & the Sheriff (I think he is Ernie at the moment but he could have been Horace). My favorites characters were the Lux Ladies (Is Lux soap still out there? Is any bar soap still called "toilet" soap?)

Even with a radio show, I still got as sappy as ever. Some things never change.

Grouse

Let me share with you a couple of things about this photograph taken today, the 16th of December, 2006 in upstate NY. See that green stuff in front of the barn? That's grass - green grass. It is NOT covered with snow - unusual for this time of year. We Democrats tend to think it might be related to global warning but of course if you're a Republican you know this is just a figment of our imagination. The lack of sunshine is bipartisan.

Just barely visible is the road through the field that starts in front of the house and comes up to the right through a beautiful stand of sumac and a dense assortment of brush. It's on this road I like to take my daily walk, weather permitting (meaning no snow). No ipod or podcast for me. I like to listen to nature and plan the rest of the days activities. Eight times out of 10 - just about the time I'm even with the sumac and in the "thick of thinkin'", a grouse spooks causing me to jump a mile. If you know anything about grouse you know they're almost impossible to spot in brush like this and they don't fly until you almost step on them and they're too fast to get a photo. You would think that as many times as I've been startled by them in this particular spot I would be on the alert. But, no. Guess my body thinks I need at least one good jolt a day to keep me moving.

Bread

A few weeks ago the New York times had an article on making peasant bread without kneading. It was touted as being an honest to goodness chewy loaf instead one of those quick mix type of breads loaded with sugar. You could use any type or combination of flour - the trick was to mix it up at least 20 hours before you needed (not kneaded) it and let the yeast do the work. I tried it once that week and it worked great. So... needing bread yesterday I tried it again.

The only difference in my technique was the rising bowl was a size smaller than I'd used before since my larger one was "occupied". What I'd forgot to take into account was that, when left to their own devices, those little yeast beasties multiple like crazy especially when they're nice and cozy by the fire and no one's watching. Look closely at the bowl and you can see how some of them made their escape. Unfortunately, I wasn't think fast enough or you would have also gotten a picture of the mess those guys made on the hearth. Oh well. After resorting to a knife to break the dried "overrun" to get the lid off, everything went smoothly and you can see the end product didn't suffer from losing part of its whole. Another lesson learned.

Movin' South - Part 2

Remember yesterday's blog of moving our bedroom south for the winter? Made pretty good sense didn't it?

The wood stove heats that room nicely so there's no going through a deep freeze to get to the bedroom. Once you turn out the lights you can lie in bed and look through the slanted windows at the stars. That's pretty nice too and you fall asleep with a smile on your face.

Suddenly it's 4:03 AM (don't you love digital clocks? - you always know the EXACT time) and the moon is suddenly shining directly in your eyes. And it's not even a full moon (can't wait for that). Reposition the pillows, roll over and drift back off to sleep. 4:24 AM. With all this tossing and turning the cat decides he's hungry and of course we forgot to fill his bowl last night which this time requires getting out of bed. (Our cat can be VERY vocal when he feels the urge.) Back to bed drifting not so quickly back to sleep. 4:56 AM. Our cat vocalizes his need to go outside - why not? The moon makes it bright enough that it looks like daybreak. Back to bed - sleep of course is out of the question at this point. Perhaps John has the right idea when it comes to afternoon naps. Can't wait for tonight when the Northern Lights are supposed to wreck havoc with everything...

Movin' South

Late summer and fall seem to have a southward bent. Suddenly you notice the hummingbirds are gone and you haven't seen the robins in a while. Monarchs are spotted going south. Geese noisily take to the skies by the thousands. Snowbirds (people who go to places like Florida or Arizona for the winter) pack up their things and head for warmer weather.

With the price of heating fuel we decided to head south too except, for us, it means moving south in our house. We're lucky to have a beautiful 1819 farmhouse in the country. At least we think we're lucky until the first cold snap and we're reminded that our bedroom faces north and that part of the house tends to be COLD. Admittedly, it's not as cold as it used to be before we put heat up there. At that time in our lives when we were MUCH younger (why do we always blame it on youth?) we wore our wool hats to bed to keep warm. Now we do have heat with its own thermostat, but the price of oil is so high we don't like to heat it more than necessary which makes it feel even colder compared to the part of the house that enjoys the warmth of the wood stove. This year it FINALLY occurred to us there was nothing to stop us from moving a bed down to the sunspace (southern facing) for the winter and just close off the north facing front of the house. Of course it hasn't been very cold yet AND the sun (when it chooses to show itself) doesn't come up until 7:30 (it shines right on the bed) but so far so good. We'll keep you posted.

Yesterday was our friend Jen's 34th birthday. Her daughter, not having had any birthdays of her own yet, chose to sleep through it all.

Jen and I have similar likes and dislikes in birthday cakes. NO frosting is the big one. Don't ask us why - it's just too much sweet stuff. The cake on the other hand we have no problem with. Betty (Jen's mother) made a chocolate cake from a recipe Jen & Dan had won second prize with at the county fair. (DE-licious!) Sprinkled a little powdered sugar on in lew of frosting and added sugar cookies at the corners. Mother's do learn to improvise.

The most amazing thing about this birthday was the photo I took of Jen blowing out the candles. It wasn't cold in there but it looks like you can actually see Jen's breath. That gal has a set of lungs. Meghan better watch out when her mom gets to the part in the nursery tale when Jen says "I'll huff & I'll puff & I'll blow your house down..."

Geese

See those little black things on the water? Those are geese on the small lake at Colgate University. Some of them are floating around, some of them are standing on the frozen part of the lake, and some of them may even be frozen into the ice. These are probably dumb geese - the smarter ones having already gone south for the winter.

At first glance you think what a neat sight. Then you glance down where you're walking and the geese have definitely been there too. No one has yet to invent a goose port-o-potty that works. If they did, they'd probably make a fortune.

In addition to being an excellent school for higher learning, Colgate is also a much sought after venue for weddings complete with wedding photos by the lake. Colgate has tried many things to "dis-invite" the geese. My favorite is the creation of the position of "goose harasser". All summer a person and his dog are hired to harass the geese. The man rides around and around and around and around the lake on a golf cart and the dog runs around chasing the geese into the water. The theory is - if the geese can't make a nest on shore, they won't stay. This time of year is not nesting season. The goose harasser has gone south for the winter. Why haven't the geese?

Oh Christmas Tree

We usually have an unconventional Christmas tree at our house. Perhaps it was my Grandmother's influence. She spent much of her life in a part of Kansas that didn't even have the scrub cedar that grows there now. Even when my grandparents moved to Arkansas she would often have a bare branched tree for Christmas.

It may sound to you like a Charlie Brown type of tree but let me give you the advantages. First of all, it's incentive to prune at least one of the apple trees (if you know anything about fruit trees, you can see the one in the photo is waaaaaaaaaay overdue for pruning). And no, we don't use the whole tree, just one of the branches we prune off.

A Christmas tree branch fits perfectly in our bay window. We can hang a few ornaments on it and actually see them. We can see through the bare branches so we don't loose the view. When we have sun, the sun can shine through.

John hangs lots of lights so at night it sparkles just like an evergreen would, perhaps even better as we can see ALL the lights, not just the ones on the side of the tree at which you're looking.

And for the practical side, it's free, we don't have needles dropping, and we can leave it up well into the winter if want to brighten our January days. Of course it's not green and it doesn't smell like a balsam but it works for us. Merry Christmas everyone and raise your glasses in a toast to old-fashioned Kansas Christmas trees.

Odds and Ends

First of all, taking a lesson from my uncles that it's never too late to learn something new, I think I finally have comments working on this log. You can enter one, then when I sign on I can accept or reject it for publication on the blog. (What power I'll have!!!) Hope you'll feel free to add your thoughts to mine.

Secondly, I just got an email from Austin regarding my feature of them a couple of days ago. Austin writes... "Now I am getting ready for some `fan` mail......
Gardening = I picked the last lettuce & green onions on December 1. They were good."

And lastly, our Auxiliary published a cookbook this year with recipe contributions from the community. It's proving to be a great success as a fundraiser. The first day it went on sale over $3,000 worth were sold (of course the price was $15 the first day and $20 now which probably encouraged a lot of us to buy then). Two recipes are worth noting - One is a recipe for a Six-Cheese Lasagna that won first place at the NY State Fair this year. It was submitted by one of the male nurses at the hospital and looks delicious - can't wait to try it. The other which seems to be self-explanatory is for "Boom Boom Beans".......

Christmas Studio

Have you noticed that over the past few years everyone seems to have a "studio"? It used to be that most of us who played around with something crafty or artsy just used a table. If you were like me it was probably the kitchen table. If you were really lucky you might have had something like a sewing room (in reality the spare bedroom).

Well, this is my "winter studio". I usually keep the table in our sunspace but in the winter the sun (when it actually decides to shine) comes directly in those windows making it too bright to "work". My solution is to move my table to the "back room" where our easy chairs reside. Of course the next task is to ignore the draw those chairs have and actually do some "work".

So why do I need a studio? Well, sometimes I'm inspired to paint small folk art renditions of various scenes in the community. Plus I always "do" our Christmas card. Since our VW played so heavily in this year's adventures, it seemed this year's card should reflect that. Painting a card is the easy part... now, like you, it's finding the time to address and mail them. Don't hold your breath until you find one in the mail.

Uncles

On the news tonight there was a blurb about an 86 year old Kenyan who now has the opportunity to attend school and is in the third grade setting an example for all of us that it's never too late to continue learning.

I have two uncles who also serve as good examples. They were born in the early 1900's (Austin is 97 & Edwin is 88) and are both computer nuts. They are always sending me their latest joke or web site find. In fact, the two pictures in this blog they took a few days ago on one of their digital cameras and sent them to me via email along with photos of great great grandkids.
And when it comes to gardening, Austin is always light years ahead of me - even tried out hydroponics last year. Before long I'll probably get an email asking if I've started my tomatoes yet?

I almost forgot to mention who is who. Edwin is the "free spirit" of the two, preferring to let nature take its course in terms of hair style. Most of the men my age would LOVE to have even a fraction of the amount of hair Edwin still has. Austin? - well, how on earth does Austin continue to look 30 years younger than he is? And how come neither of them have hardly any wrinkles? Perhaps it's their sunny dispositions... Or all the apples they ate as kids (they grew up on a farm with an apple orchard planted by Johnny Appleseed)... Or their desire to keep on learning... If nothing else the rest of us should remember to learn from our elders.

Road Excitement

Not much exciting happens on our road (or rather where our road meets the main road). When it does, it usually involves signs. First it was the road name signs. (Someone has turned them just enough so it's not at all clear if you're on Smith Road or Vosburg Road). Then there was the < sign to indicate the big curve in the road (duh!). Last year we got a STOP sign that no one (including myself) stops at unless someone is coming. This spring a 45 mph speed limit sign appeared (although I can tell you NO one is around to enforce it.)

Two weeks ago something more exciting than signs happened... The electric line that crosses the road came down. The top of the pole rotted off and down it came. John & Bruce went up to stop traffic in the pouring rain until the fire department could get there. Our fire department is strictly volunteer and they do a GREAT job serving our community. I think they had to sit up there most of the night until the electric company showed up to make the line airborne again. This morning the electric company came and put in a new post next to the old one. Unfortunately I didn't hear them and it was in and they were leaving before I could get excited. My question is - How on earth did they get it in the ground without disturbing anything? It is down a slight bank and even the weeds were left intact. The only evidence that they'd been there were those curious red marks on the side of the road. Some days there just isn't enough to think about?!

Technical Difficulties

Most people I know have this love hate relationship with their computer. Day after day everything works smoothly until suddenly, something goes amiss for no good reason (at least to my way of thinking). For the past day or so I’ve tried to post to my blog but no matter what I did, the little icons that let me do such neat things as upload pictures and spell check (when I happen to remember to do it) weren’t there (or at least not where I could find them). I finally gave up in frustration resolving to try again another day. But then, what happens? I go away for the day, come back, and those pesky icons have found their way back home again. Who knows why? I certainly don’t!

This week we went to hear a music historian speak. He pointed out that songs for hundreds of years have reflected important things in the world. Love, death, patriotism, even inventions like the phone and automobile… “I wanna go for a ride in the car, car”. Yet how many songs do you know that even mention a computer? Verrrrrry strange!

Now an update from past blog entries… Dillon did NOT win the all-terrain vehicle even with all those raffle tickets. (I’m secretly singing my thanks!) Item 2 – the Hospital Auxiliary made around $11,000 at the four hour sale on Saturday. Not bad for a small community.

Christmas Parade

Like many villages, Earlville has a Christmas parade to open the holiday season. The fire department decorates ALL four (or is it five?) fire trucks with lights and Santa rides on the biggest one with the siren going. The other "floats" vary, some from churches, some from businesses or clubs in town (not too many, but perhaps enough to make a dozen). The parade starts at the convenience store on the edge of town and zigzags across Main Street until they've gone down EVERY street in Earlville (trust me, it doesn't take that long) ending up in the center of town where Santa talks to the kids at the fire station. This year someone brought a donkey. The kids LOVED it especially since they were allowed to pet him... let's just say Santa has probably not seen that much competition in years. Meanwhile, there's the lighting of Earlville's enormous LIVING Christmas tree and free punch and homemade cookies at the library.

Unlike some parades, Earlville also has a Ms. Earlville, a Jr. Miss Earlville and a Mr. Earlville who is posing with the first Miss Earlville from 1976. (It looks like Mr. Earlville is already having dreams of sugarplums.)

Cookies

It's that time of year when I (along with others) am asked to donate cookies. For years I hated being asked because there never seemed to be enough time. By the time I got them mixed up I had already lost interest and energy for baking them. Finally it dawned on me (I won't tell you how many years this actually took), refrigerator cookies were the answer. Mix them up one day, bake the dough another. Yeah!!!

Now I have my own little repertoire. Bubba cookies for our godson; napoleons (technically they aren't really napoleons but who cares?) for the auxiliary; chocolate peppermint for the library; oatmeal dried fruit for the seniors; etc. John & I get to keep one of each kind but other than that, they're out the door. We don't want to end up the shape of those chocolate cookies - nice and round!