Things should get back to normal

Yeah, with one thing and another, I haven't stopped to think about a blog entry.  I've spent a lot of time getting used to my new computer.  Saturday we had our tractor club's weinie roast at the local peach orchard.  I took my guitar and sang.  Honestly, Cliff seemed more nervous about this than I was.  As for myself, I wasn't nervous, thanks to the church folks at Journey of Faith wanting me to sing there.  That got me used to singing in front of folks again.  

I sang three songs songs I wrote myself.  And I read one poem.  Now, here's the thing:  I already knew that when you sing at an outdoor event with food involved, most people are eating and chatting (especially when you're on your own to introduce yourself).  I knew most wouldn't be listening, and it it seemed as though NOBODY was listening, I had decided beforehand to stop at one song.  However, as I sang and looked around, I noticed a few people really paying attention.  So after the first song, I just sang to the ones paying attention.  Some went on talking, which bothered Cliff, but not me.  I had warned him of this!  He was just on pins and needles, scared somebody wouldn't like my singing, I guess.  Obviously he's never looked around when there's a music act at our town fair, because it's the same thing.  Maybe half the crowd listens, if that.  If everybody had seemed interested, I would have done another couple things, but I decided to quit while I was ahead.  There weren't as many people as usual in attendance, probably because it was 32 degrees that morning with frost on the ground.  

We did a tractor ride to Lexington, probably 7 or so miles from the orchard, to Anderson House.  There are lots of Civil War bullet holes in the walls of the place, inside and out!  On the way back to the orchard we went through the Macphelah cemetery to remember one of the club's founding members who passed away last winter. 

I thought I'd lost a cat.  Jake, Mama Kitty's son, didn't show up at chow time for a few days.  When I mentioned this to the guys, Arick said a yellow cat had gotten run over nearby and thought it was probably him.  But yesterday old Jake showed up, looking no worse for the wear.  He seemed really hungry, though.  

Cliff had a problem with the Oliver 1855 tractor, our biggest tractor.  He said he was really afraid it would be some expensive, hard-to-fix problem; turns out he and Arick found the problem and fixed it without any expense at all, and very little trouble.  They've also been working on Arick's John Deere lawn mower, and found whatever it was that had caused long-term problems with it.  So that's fixed too.

Today Cliff saw a tractor on Craigslist that may be worth the money.  It's in Payola, Kansas, over 80 miles away, but that's not so far to go look at a tractor; we've gone a lot further in the past!  Arick thinks he and Cliff need a new project to do together.  

There are lots of turnips growing with the other stuff in Arick's wildlife plot, so I've been helping myself to some.  Cliff never liked turnips; he'd try them, but one bite was enough to make him "turn-up" his nose in disgust.  There are only about half a dozen foods that he doesn't like.  He is not very picky.  But he's never liked turnips.  I looked on Allrecipes.com and found 150 recipes that contain turnips!  I wanted to see if there was anything I could do with them that Cliff would like.  I also wanted to look for a recipe that would taste like my mom's turnips, and I actually found one.  I passed over it a few times because of the silly name of the dish:  "Thanksgiving Day Creamed turnips" (who cooks turnips for Thanksgiving?).  When I finally noticed the word "creamed", I checked the ingredients and thought it might be what I was looking for.  Mother served many vegetables "creamed"... carrots, peas, and sometimes creamed potatoes. I cut the ingredients for the sauce in half, though, because I just wanted enough to coat each slice, not enough so the turnips are floating in it like soup.  Also, the recipe said boil the sliced turnips for 5 minutes, pour off the water, cover them with fresh water, and cook another five minutes.  I didn't do that, because I was sure my mom didn't.   

I told Cliff I finally found a way to make Mother's creamed turnips, and he took a small bite.  Then he took another BIG bite, and about four more.  "Yeah, I'd eat that," he said.  Now that amazed me.  

We've had three lovely autumn days, counting today, with highs around 60.  Tomorrow sounds like the same sort of day.  Nice days to hang all the clothes out on the line.  There's just the right amount of breeze, and the sun is shining.

Enjoy this lovely time of year, won't you?  I will get back to a regular blogging schedule eventually, I'm sure.

Your friend,
Donna