The big day is here

I told my husband I wasn't going to drive myself crazy cooking this year.  To make matters easier, I did make noodles, but I made them ahead and froze them.  They will be cooked today.  I also chose to use Pioneer Woman's mashed potato recipe yesterday, put it in the refrigerator as she said to do, and will warm it up today.  Those are the only "cooked" things I made.

Watergate salad is easy.  So is layered salad.  They are done and in the refrigerator.  All I have to make today is a fruit salad that we like.  I made the usual Oreo Dessert, which isn't cooked; several people would be very sad if I hadn't.  It's the only dessert I made, hoping someone else brought something too.

Ever since the grandson who bought this place from us met his fiancee, we have had a two-family Thanksgiving in the shop, which thank goodness is heated.  It's a pretty jolly get-together with all of us there.  

Our daughter's arm decided to give her a fit over last weekend.  She won the fight with cancer several years ago, but it was in the lymph glands, so her arm has to be wrapped most of the time, which can't be fun, especially in the heat of summer.  It's dangerous if that arm gets an infection.  The doctor got her in and gave her the meds that help get her back to normal.  If it had not worked, which it did, thank God, she would be in the hospital again.  By the way, she didn't miss work, just like she didn't miss work through radiation therapy for I-don't-know-how-long except for when she actually went to do the radiation.  She doesn't talk much about all this, and I often forget how much she goes through with this "gift" cancer left her with.  I'm pretty sure she will be with us today, but the pills she takes to get rid of the infection messes with her stomach, so she likely won't enjoy what she eats; however, she won't complain about it.  I am reminded of the fact that Rachel could have died, but she didn't.  That is my biggest reason for thanking God today.

So I wish all of you a pleasant and delicious day.  If you have good health, please remember that many folks don't, so realize how blessed you are.  I'm thankful for all the people who come to my blog to read the mostly insignificant things I have to say.  May God give you all a happy thanksgiving.  

Having fun with the goats

 Someone commented on my blog a while back, asking me to get some pictures of me leading my two goats.  Yesterday my husband and I got that done.  You will notice that they are now almost the same size, mother and daughter.  The daughter's horns haven't grown as long as her mother's yet, though.  Yesterday I let them eat grass and weeds for 45 minutes or an hour, and I enjoyed every minute.  Thelma, the mother, doesn't take to being led as well as Louise, but I took them quite a long way yesterday without any real problem.  Toward the end, Louise even tried to lead me!  She was getting downright sassy!  

They can't be out of their pen because the grandson's dogs might chase them, so we buy hay for them.  That's why they act so hungry; they aren't starving, it's just that fresh grass tastes a lot better than dry hay.  So, when I can, I take them out to the pasture.  They are happy to let me hook the leashes to their collars.

Gabe is watching me with the goats

It's a good thing I have midget goats.  They are easy to handle.

When I first started thinking about leading them to grass, I thought I'd have trouble getting them in and out of the pen by myself, but it really hasn't been that hard at all.

Morning person meets night owl

My husband and I are total opposites in several ways.  The first "problem" we had after we married took me forever to deal with, even though it was a simple thing.  

I am an early morning person.  That's why, even now, when others are sleeping, I'm awake at four o'clock and glad to be alive, because morning is the best time of my day.  So the earlier I get out of bed, the more time I have to enjoy the silence, drink coffee uninterrupted, and think.  When we first married, Cliff was working from 3:30 to midnight, so I left him alone to sleep as much as he needed.  Within the first year of marriage, though, he began working daytime hours.  When it was time to wake up, he liked to doze off awhile and wake up again.  Not just once, but several times.  It was my job to wake him up, and I could not understand why I had to go in and wake him four or five times.  I'd been up long enough that I had thought about a lot of things, so I'd tap his shoulder, he'd say "OK, I'm getting up," turn over and start snoring again.  I had things to tell him, but he went to sleep.  I tried to convey my morning happiness by telling him what a wonderful day it was going to be, which only made him grumpier.  

I tried saying "Rise and shine," but I soon learned he hated that saying.

I made the mistake many times of telling him about some problem with the children, or some bill we didn't owe.  He informed me I should wait until later when he was fully awake.

It took me about ten years to figure things out:  I learned to start waking him up earlier, giving him time to wake up several times.  Before long I tried taking a cup of coffee into the bedroom on his side of the bed on his third or forth wake-up call, and that was the frosting on the cake.  He would roll over on his side to drink his first cup of coffee, almost purring like a kitty cat.  I don't know how he kept it in his mouth laying on his side like that, because I couldn't do it.  But from that time on, we had no problem with me waking him.  One weekend his sister dropped by early; I said, "Cliff will be up soon.  He's in bed drinking his coffee."

She said, "I've gotta see that!" and went running in there; she couldn't believe it.

There was never any more problem with waking Cliff up after I learned what worked.  After that I even sometimes took my guitar into the bedroom and sang a song or two.  He has always liked my singing, and was glad to wake up in that manner, the reason probably being that he can't carry a tune.  But I liked singing and he liked listening.  The kids' bedrooms were upstairs.  My daughter, a while back, told me she remembered waking up and hearing me playing and singing "Bobby McGee" downstairs.   

And that's how I managed to stay married to my husband for fifty-eight years.

 

Problems in China

I haven't seen anything about this on ABC World News Tonight, which is my favorite news show because they give me 15 minutes with no ads.  Also, I don't hear as much about politics there, thank goodness; it is mentioned, and then dropped for other news.  But apparently, there are people in China who are killing strangers when they get mad.  And they don't even have guns to do their killing!  This has been happening over and over for three months. 

Dozens of people have been killed in China in the past three months in a series of mass attacks. The latest on Tuesday saw primary school students struck by a car as they arrived for classes.

A small white SUV struck students arriving for class at Yong’an Elementary School in Changde, an inland city in China’s Hunan province.

A knife attack near a school in Beijing injures 5 people, including 3 children

35 killed as driver deliberately rams car into people in China

Knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China leaves 8 dead and 17 injured

Eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a knife attack at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing city, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Shanghai in eastern China.

A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in Zhuhai city in southern China, killing 35 and injuring 43 others.

A knife attack near a prominent primary school in Beijing injured five people, including three children. Police detained a 50-year-old suspect. No motive was given.

A 37-year-old man allegedly killed three people and wounded 15 others with a knife at a supermarket in Shanghai. Police said the man had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”

That's all I have today.

Winter is just around the corner

Last week we had sunny weather in the 60's.  Yesterday (Sunday) was very cloudy, but still unseasonably warm outside.  We had a little rain last night, and the word is that a cold front is coming through today or tomorrow.  We will miss our tomatoes, but it's past time for winter to settle in.

At least Gabe and I had a quiet walk in the pasture yesterday afternoon before the cold.  Normally there are always some sort of man-made noises on our walks. Nothing loud (unless it's a train coming), but motor noises from 224 and 24 highways at a distance, or an airplane overhead.  I stopped to listen and realized all I was hearing was the noises of nature, like the sound of dry leaves under my bare feet, or a bird calling.  On the way back to the house, I heard a barred owl calling and answered her, saying "Who cooks for you?"  We took three or four turns chatting, but I let her get the last word.  It isn't often you hear owls in daylight, especially one who will talk back to me.

I really enjoyed my day yesterday.  My daughter and son-in-law picked me up from church because  Rachel had called the night before saying she was making Lasagna and would bring some to us so we could all eat together.  There was enough for the four of us plus grandson Arick and Alexandria, his fiancee.  Cliff and I also have enough of it left for dinner today.  

The grandson, by the way, hit a huge deer on the way to work Friday and totaled the old car that used to be ours, a 2003 Mercury with many miles on it.  He came home, got the truck, went back to where the deer was, and somebody had already cut off it's head and taken it.  Then he and Alex went looking for a car the rest of the day.  

Our Kansas City Chiefs finally lost a game, first time this season.  They really weren't playing that great, and the Buffalo Bills could do no wrong.  I don't expect the Chiefs will be in the Superbowl this time, but what do I know?

Oh, by the way, I tried putting a leash on the goats, Thelma and Louise.  I tried them one at a time.  As long as I didn't get one too far away from the one in the pen, it worked out pretty well.  Both enjoyed eating green grass, but they want to be within close sight of one another.  I have another leash coming tomorrow from Amazon, so I can take them both around the property together. 

It's almost noon, time to heat-and-eat our lasagna, and I don't have much more to say.  So I bid you farewell.

Oh, to be a kid again

When I was a child, I knew nothing about politics.  My parents didn't even vote.  I think they finally started voting in the 70's.  I was probably five or six years old, though, when I learned they were non-voting Republicans.  There were several jokes going around about at the time that made fun of Democrats.  I got to hear some of the jokes, but there were others that my mom didn't want me to hear, so she would tell me to go outside and play.

Harry Truman became president in 1945 when Franklin Roosevelt died, and was elected for four more years after that.  We were listening to the radio one evening, many years before we had a television,  probably around 1950.  Whatever show we were listening to didn't interest me, but my parents were talking about Harry Truman as they listened.  Actually, they were making fun of him.  And before long they started laughing about what a terrible singer his daughter was.  I wanted to know what she sang, and Mother, still laughing, said, "Oh, I don't know, but it was awful."

I was thinking about that this morning, wondering just how bad it could have been. I went to Youtube and found that yes, she had been recorded.  If you'd like to hear her sing, just click HERE.  Even if Margaret Truman had been amazing, my parents and I wouldn't have liked it; it was a song from an opera, which is about as far from Hank Williams as you could get.  

Margaret was President Truman's only daughter; any book I've ever read about him portrays him as loving his wife and daughter above all else, writing letters to them almost daily when they were apart.  He was very proud of Margaret's singing.

The critics didn't agree.  Here's something I found, with help from Google:

Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry Truman, had dreams of being a singer. She practiced hard and got professional help via operatic vocal training. But when she gave her first radio recital in 1947, reviews were lukewarm. But she soldiered on (it was easy for her to get bookings because of her celebrity status), and she kept getting bad reviews.

In 1950 Washington Post music critic Paul Hume wrote that Truman was “extremely attractive on the stage... [but] cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. And still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish,” President Truman wrote to Hume, "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!"

In 1951, a German newspaper joked that she was going to make a concert tour of West Germany in order to "inspire German approval of rearmament."

The Truman Library is in Independence, about twenty-five miles from where I live.  I've been there several times, and also visited the home he returned to after leaving Washington DC.  What he said to that music critic is how he talked to anyone he didn't like.  He actually reminded me of my father in that sense, although he would roll over in his grave if he heard me say that.  Two men who didn't care if they said exactly what they thought.

Garden surprises

I haven't done anything to my garden for over a month except to go out to see if there are still ripe tomatoes coming on.  But there's more going on than that.  Yesterday I brought in the few beets that hadn't do too well.  I got a quart and a half of beet pickles for my trouble; they won't last long, because both of us love pickled beets.  (Notice the smallish tomatoes in the background.) 

 This morning I went out with a coat on because it was 42 degrees and found other treasures.  I brought in one turnip so big that it filled up a two-quart pan.  

Then I went and got a shovel to see if the carrots I planted in late August that had done very little growing until the recent rains.  

Usually the carrots in my garden are sickly and pale.  Not now!

Yesterday I was surprised to find some nice sweet peppers.

And yes, there are still tomatoes coming on and they are still delicious.    

Our temperatures are not normal at all this year.  Or maybe this is the new normal.  

A lovely week is ahead

 Here we are in November, and I'm still finding a ripe tomato or two in the garden every day.  Last week we even had fried green tomatoes.  There are more beets than we will eat, although I may bring some in and make beet pickles.  Even if I don't can them, they are good for a month in the refrigerator.  There are also turnips out there that never filled out large enough to eat until some autumn rains came in October, and then they were fine.  I didn't plant many, since I'm the only one who likes them. 

Through next Friday, the days' temperatures are supposed to be in the 60's and sunny.  I'll take that. 

I keep reading online that inflation is being curbed; then I go to the store and see prices still rising; who do they think they're kidding?  I watch for any kind of meat to be on sale at Price Chopper in Grain Valley, although lately, about the only meat that is the really affordable on their weekly sales is pork; however, they do feature 80/20 ground beef at $3.50 sometimes... or if I were to buy those 10-pound packages, they are sometimes $3.00 per pound.  I don't get those any more, though: the beef in those long ten-pound rolls are not as good, even if they are 80/20.  Cliff says that's because it's been ground several times.

I am hoping that this week or next there will be decent prices on turkey and ham, just to have in our freezer.  Our grandson is doing the meat for Thanksgiving, so I'll just do some sides and desserts; that makes it easy for me.

It takes me longer to do a blog entry now; I never know what word I'm going to forget.  So far in this entry I forgot the words turnip and inflation.  I finally remembered turnip on my own, but had to look up something on google to recall the word inflation. 

I'm still able to go on my walks in the pasture, which is one of my greatest pleasures, right up there with my morning coffee; if my knees hurt too much I either skip a day or take a shorter walk.

As for my "zoo", all the four-legged creatures are doing fine.  Each of the kittens is showing it's own different personality, but they are definitely bonded with one another.  Gabe tries to get in the middle of their playtimes; he wants to be part of the fun!

That's about all I have.  Let freedom reign!

Thank goodness the election is over

Not that I like how things came out in the voting, but either way, it's over, and life goes on.  I don't intend to let it ruin my life.  As long as I'm out here in the country doing what I want, I don't even have to think about anything else, because my days are all the same.  The only thing that usually bothers me is those people who voted for the other side telling me how wonderful their candidate is and making fun of the other side for four years, letting me know how stupid they think I am.  And it is usually someone I'm related to, even if it's just on Facebook.  

Speaking of my husband, he finally went to the urologist on election day, after having a catheter to contend with for over three weeks.  One night he woke up and couldn't pee.  We went to St. Mary's emergency room where they quickly put a catheter in him for instant relief; they found he had a UTI and blood in his urine; blood clots were the cause of his problem.  They  removed the catheter, gave him an antibiotic, and sent him home.  Two days later, clots had stopped him up again, another trip to the emergency room.  Our regular doctor suggested he just leave the catheter in until his appointment.  (I read this paragraph to him to make sure he didn't mind my sharing his troubles, and he's fine with it.)  

How much fun can a person have?  At Cliff's appointment. the urologist spent quite a bit of time examining him, and really didn't see any problem.  He checked to make sure the prostate cancer hadn't come back, but made him an appointment the day before Christmas, just to be sure everything's all right.  

Speaking of doctors, yesterday we took Butch and Unique to the vet to get shots, de-wormed, mites out of their ears, and appointments to be neutered.  Both of the cats are coming along very well, although Butch could use a psychologist, the way he eats.  But he's getting better.

Cliff has no idea that Butch is laying at his feet

As I look out the window I see we have a foggy day, not like yesterday when Gabe and I walked in the pasture.  It was nothing but blue skies then.

Peace.

Sibling Rivalry

One of the first problems I have had with the cats was that Butch, the larger cat, is larger for a reason:  He eats a voracious amount.  I had bought some cute little cat dishes, one for each of them, with a skid-free free bottom.  Unfortunately, he thought both bowls were for him.  He would eat whole mouthfuls from his dish... until I put down a full dish for Unique.  Then he'd run over, stick his big head in the bowl, pushing her out.  If she went to his bowl, he followed her there.  Meanwhile, most of the food spilled out on the floor in the porch.  Those cat dishes were skid-free, but not turnover-free.  Besides, they don't hold enough food for Butch.  

Here you see the skid-free bottom:

I have a set of five dishes I bought at Costco.  They hold a pint and have straight up sides, as well as some weight to them.  They all came with plastic lids, and I use them a lot for leftovers.  I decided to see if they would work for the cats.

That dish works great.  However, there's no use giving the cats two of them, because they think they have to eat in the same bowl.  However, Unique can now hold her own when they eat, and she gives as good as she gets.  I put another of my bowls there for their water.  I may at some point have to give them each their own bowl, who knows.  I certainly didn't know when I bought those pretty bowls that I'd wind up giving them to cats.