Homemade "Gourmet" Pretzels

Double-dipped decadence!

I'm going to take these to a potluck tomorrow, and I hope they will be a success. Sometimes I have trouble with potlucks.

The white ones were dipped in melted peanut butter chips, then in white almond bark. Their toppings are walnut chips and mini-M&Ms.

The chocolate ones were dipped in melted Kraft caramels (what a mess--next time I'm using butterscotch chips, instead!), then dipped in chocolate almond bark, and then sprinkled with Heath brickle or crushed Chick-o-Stick.

Lists for the Season

In case you're listless...

A lost list
Photo by Jem Yoshioka

I enjoy finding a shopping list that someone has lost or left behind. Yes, I'm snoopy, but I prefer to say that I'm curious because it sounds a little better.  Here are some lists I've found over the past few months.

This list was written on a pink notebook page with a butterfly at the top. Uh oh -- looks like someone has one of the bugs that are going around.

Kleenex
milk
bread
Tylenol
Vicks
Nyquil
Zyrtec
tea
cereal

Here's a well-organized list written by an energetic person. (I know the writer is energetic because everything you buy at a paint store requires energy.) Every word in this list is capitalized.

1. Meds
2. Aldis
        - Yoghurt
        - Pineapple
        - Milk
        - Chicken Salad
        - T/P
        - Clementines
3. K-Mart
4. Sherwin Williams
5. Electric Bill

This list was written on a long narrow sheet of paper with this quotation at the top: "The path to happiness is paved with kind words and loving deed... DON'T FORGET..."

Bread
OJ
lemonade
balogna
cookies
ice cream
chips
fruit
sausage
feta
hummus
cheddar block
triscuits
swiss cheese
cigarettes

* put check in bank

The following list is written in pencil on a scrap of white paper. The writing is very small. Maybe that's so the list will fit into the available space. Maybe the list-maker had some coupons to use for these name-brand products. And I am sure that he or she knew what was needed at WalMart, even if I don't.

Libman short dish brush
Dreamfield lasagna
Colgate toothbrush
Coke Zero
celery
bacon bits
arugula
pine nuts
lemons
prosciutto
cauliflower
______________
Lowes--white plugs
WMart--ret pots

Image from The Graphics Fairy

Usually, the act of writing down what I need helps me remember, even if I forget to take the list with me. I hope that's true for the person who lost this Christmas shopping list. I wouldn't want anyone to be forgotten.

Christmas cards
wooden spoons for April
head set for Harvey
socks for Brian
tricycle
kitchen towels Jason
white towels April
camera case April
heating pad Jason
MP3 Harvey
socks & underwear Brian
Gift cards Brad, Lilly, Ellen, Randy, Janeen

I hope you are getting your shopping done so you can enjoy the season!

Keely's Been Knitting

Link, in yarn

Keely's always working on a craft project. She finished crocheting this little fellow recently. He's Link, a character from a video game, and he'll be a Christmas present to a friend. At far right, you can see part of a grayish-blue ball -- I think that's a body part of the knitted turtle that she was doing next.

White Christmas

Snowy Christmases, past and present

We had a white Christmas in Christian County this year. The snow started about 6:00 pm on Christmas Eve and continued intermittently throughout Christmas Day. This photo was taken in late afternoon on the day after Christmas.

Keely, Taurus, and their friend Adam spent Christmas Day with us. After they left that evening, I swept several inches of snow off my car so it would be ready to drive in the morning. A couple more inches of snow fell during the night, and when I went out to start my car the next morning, I had to sweep it off again.

My kids have a favorite family story about one of the few Christmas snows in their childhood. We went to church on Christmas morning that year. By the time church was over, several inches of snow covered the ground. We were surprised! We didn't know that snow was in the forecast!

I was driving, and I had no problems until I turned off the highway to the little gravel lane that leads uphill to our house.  I made it about halfway up the long,  hill before the car started to slide. When I let up on the gas, I lost momentum and came to a stop.

Dennis got out and pushed the car. That wasn't successful, so he decided to drive while I pushed. I got behind the car and gave it all my muscle while Dennis stepped on the gas aggressively. When he got the car moving, he roared up the hill, leaving me to walk home. The kids didn't know whether to laugh or cry about leaving Mom behind, but I understood. If he had stopped, we'd have gained nothing.

Several days before Christmas in 2004, we had the closest thing to a blizzard that I've seen in Kentucky --  seven or eight inches of snow with strong wind and very cold temperatures. Dennis was in Kuwait that Christmas with AAFES (the PX system, from which he has now retired), so he missed out on that storm.

We always heat with wood, but normally, we have a thermostat-controlled propane heater that turns on when needed. During that storm, we had only wood heat. We had bought a new propane heater a few days earlier. After the installer disconnected the old heater, he realized that he didn't have everything he needed to connect the new heater.

That night, while I was shoving firewood into the stove and listening to the wind howl, I thought about Laura Ingalls Wilder's blizzard story in On the Banks of Plum Creek. Pa and Ma had gone to town, leaving Laura and Mary at home with little Carrie. When the blizzard hit, Laura knew that it was important to have lots of firewood inside. Otherwise, people had to burn their furniture to keep from freezing. With fear-driven energy, Laura and Mary hauled the entire woodpile inside their little cabin, finishing just as their parents arrived home.

Isaac's longtime friend DJ was home from Oregon that Christmas, and he was visiting us on the night of the snowstorm. The next morning, the storm had ended, and it was clear, cold, and still. Isaac and DJ bundled up and went out with the sleds.

I didn't know that they were sledding down the hills on the highway until they got back home! "We'd have heard any cars coming!" they assured me with the wisdom of 15-year-olds. I felt a little better when they told me that there were only two sets of tire tracks on the highway.

A day or two later, the snow was still on the ground and the roads were still bad. Keely got a ride home from Murray on Christmas Eve with her friend Kyla who had a Jeep.  A tall fellow named Taurus crawled out of the Jeep with Keely and spent that Christmas with us. He's been here for every Christmas since then, and in October of 2010, he became our son-in-law.

I hope you've enjoyed your Christmas, white or otherwise. And if it's snowy where you are, stay warm and be careful!

It Begins

The first signs of Thanksgiving

This is Keely, your on-the-scene reporter, interrupting my mother's regularly scheduled blogging to bring you this update on how early preparations Thanksgiving are coming along here in the Netz Family. As you can see, cooking fans, today was the first big push for the big day, as indicated by the commencement of bread baking.

As you can see, the photograph above is of the bread in its rising state. I decided to get an early start on it this year because for some reason completely unknown to me, I have it in my head that baking bread takes 4 hours. I don't know where I got this from at all. This usually means that I start bread the night before Thanksgiving at about 8 PM, and then realize that I'm missing a key ingredient, generally something that can't be faked from the usual kitchen supplies. Year before last, I went to the grocery store the Wednesday before Thanksgiving not just once, but twice. Not my bright shining moment.

The bread (and bread dough) shown is this recipe from King Arthur Flour. I've made it once before and I really like it, but I will say two things about it. First, when I make it, it takes about 2/3 that much flour, for whatever reason. Second, I, at least, have to make the rolls smaller than I think I should.

Well, I guess I actually have one more thing to say, which is that you should make sure you have powdered milk and potato flakes before you start this. This was something I failed miserably at the first time (please, see above about realizing that I don't have everything after it's too late).

Also, also (I seem to have a lot to say about this recipe for only having two things to say), I don't in fact melt the butter and apply it with a pastry brush. I just use a stick of butter and apply it directly. That's just laziness, though, and not actually something that should make any difference whatsoever.

Anyway (apparently I'm a rambling reporter), Thanksgiving preparations are swimming along fairly well here, but I've left out one of the surest signs that Thanksgiving is on it's way.

This is my Christmas cactus. As you can see, the poor dear thing is clearly confused and every year, it blooms at Thanksgiving, instead of at Christmas. Well, it's about to bloom again, clearly signifying that the season is upon us, and also signifying that my plant, unsurprisingly, doesn't know what day of the year it is.

Well, I guess your reporter is signing off. I hope all of you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving, and I hope that your preparations are going at least as well as mine. Hopefully, yours are going without the part where you run out of everything, or the part where you set the oven on fire - twice (I'll tell you all about that one another time. That story is also known as "The Reason that Taurus is in Charge of Cooking the Turkey"). Have a blessed holiday, everyone.

Shopper Talk

Cooking for Thanksgiving, shopping for Christmas

As I straightened merchandise in the store today, two grandmotherly ladies stood in the aisle chatting. They exclaimed about how surprised and happy they were to see each other. They exchanged news -- the son's new job, the grandkids' sports, the mutual friend who has retired and moved to Florida.

Then one silver-haired lady asked the other, "Are you cooking for Thanksgiving?"

"Why, HELL, yes!" the other lady said. I will never know for sure why she was so emphatic, because I was called away at that very moment. I liked her attitude, though. She sounded like a fearless cook.

The stores have been having great sales, and many of our senior citizens have been shopping for Christmas. They know that this warm weather could change at any time, making it much less pleasant to venture out of the house. They've decided to take the bargains that are being offered now, rather than waiting for better sales later.

As I've rung up my customers' purchases at the cash register, I've learned that some are mailing Christmas packages, and they want to get everything in the box and ready to go. Others will be traveling this week to spend Thanksgiving with their families. They won't be making the trip again at Christmas, so they're delivering the Christmas packages now.

Our own Thanksgiving will be celebrated without much travel. Isaac will drive home from college on Tuesday evening. Keely and Taurus live in Hopkinsville. I won't need to have the Christmas packages ready by Thanksgiving Day, but I do hope to put up my Christmas tree and wrap some gifts before Thanksgiving weekend is over.

Closing out 2009

Clean start for a new year

 Burning branches from the 2009 ice storm

Dennis has spent a couple of days burning piles of branches around the yard. Conditions had to be right -- the ground wet, the air still, and Dennis off work for the day. Those conditions were met a few days ago, and again today.

These branch piles were remainders of the major ice storm we had last winter. Most people who live along a highway got rid of their storm debris last spring. They piled it at the edge of the road, and workers, hired by the county, loaded the piles onto trucks and hauled them away.

We don't live along the highway, so we would have had to load and haul our branches in order to pile them for pickup -- an impossible task for us. We thought it was a major achievement when our Mennonite neighbors helped us get the broken limbs gathered and piled, just in our yard!

The pile of limbs in the photo was the biggest of half a dozen piles. Some willow branches and chunks of willow trunk that were in contact with the ground sent down roots and grew new branches up through the pile last summer. Dennis had to chop off the roots to throw the branches on the fire. It was quite a mess.

The only reason that I'm sorry to have the piles of branches gone is that a lot of little wild creatures were probably finding shelter in them. We do still have a big brush pile on the corner of our small property, over the hill where we've pitched branches for years. I imagine that it's pretty crowded this cold night. Dennis is not going to burn it.

While Dennis was burning branches, I took down most of the Christmas decorations. One small Christmas tree will stay in place until sometime in late January, but I packed up the big tree, the Christmas village, and a lot of other doo-dads and knickknacks. I feel a little sad that Christmas is nearly over, but I'm glad to have the bulk of the un-decorating done.

Now the Christmas boxes need to be taken to the shed. I also need to decide what to do with the decorations that I'm not keeping. Should I store them away for the spring garage sale, or should I make a clean sweep and donate them to Goodwill now?

This box is ready to go to the shed.

A Book-ish Christmas

Reading with Dennis

Quite a few books were given at our house this Christmas. I received my own little stack of books, and I'm looking forward to reading and studying them. They include a new encyclopedia of tree information, three books of Great Plains and Kentucky history, and a volume of Willa Cather with several stories I haven't read before.

I worked last weekend, so I haven't had a chance yet to read more than a few pages in any of my books. However, Dennis has dived into his new book about the history of the Natchez Trace and has been sharing all the best parts with me and providing commentary. By the time he finishes a book, I always feel I'm well-educated on its topic.

Today, I heard all about the Horrible Harpes. They were brothers -- a pair of thieves and cruel serial murderers who operated in western Tennessee and Kentucky in the late 1790s. They worked the Natchez Trace at one point in their career of evildoing.

Dennis is not reading the books that he told me he really wanted for Christmas -- the brand new books, reviewed in his history magazines, that I had to order from university presses. No, he's reading the used book that I picked up at a thrift shop because I thought he'd like it. It certainly proves that I know his kind of book when I see one.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

A windy Christmas Eve

The wind is ripping around the corners of our house and roaring through the trees tonight. We have a wind advisory, but our precipitation is going to be liquid, not frozen. We are outside the path of the big winter storm that is moving across the central United States.

My co-worker is on my mind tonight. She and her family are headed home for Christmas. They're in a car, somewhere between here and Texas. Their route included a stop in western Oklahoma to pick up her son who lives with his dad. The weather forecast out there includes a blizzard warning. When the roads are normal, their drive home takes 15 hours. I hope they are able to make the trip safely tonight.

- - - - - - - - - -

It's been a joy this Christmas to have a young friend back in Christian County for a visit. D. J. and our son Isaac went through elementary school and middle school, side by side. In fact, Keely refers to D.J. as her "other little brother."  D.J. now lives on the West Coast with his dad, but his mom still lives here.

We've been worried about D.J. because he learned about a year ago that he has leukemia. He has been taking chemotherapy, and he's doing very well. Please pray for him.

Update, December 5, 2012: 
I am so happy to add this note. In September of this year, D.J. was declared 100% cancer free!  This brings tears of joy to my eyes. 

- - - - - - - - - -

In 2006, I wrote about some Christmas memories in a series I titled, "Ghosts of Christmas Past." I hope you'll enjoy reading (or re-reading) these articles.

1. Arriving in Germany at Christmas

2. A Christmas angel my daughter made years ago

3. Grandma Netz's recipe for Cherry Bonbons

4. Our Christmas wedding

5. Christmas at Grandma Barb's house in the 1950s

6. Christmas in Berlin, Germany, remembered

7. Childhood memories of Christmas lights

8. The Christmas we got our new ice skates

9. A Christmas wreath that kids can make

10. Christmas programs in rural schools

11. The school Christmas program from a teacher's viewpoint

12. Visitors on Three Kings Day in Germany

Decking the Halls in Christian County

A sure sign of Christmas

Are there houses you watch at Christmas, to see if their traditional decorations will be on display again? The house in the photo above is such a place for me. I pass it frequently; it's along my usual route to Hopkinsville.

I've never met the people who live there. I think their name is Oatts, and I think they own the nice farmland that surrounds the house. But these ideas of mine aren't verified facts; they are merely my deductions from reading the local newspaper, hearing people talk, and so on.

Every Christmas for the past decade or so, a big John Deere tractor has been parked in the front yard of this house. Santa is in the driver's seat, and a Christmas tree and gift-wrapped boxes are lifted high in the loader bucket. It's fun to see this scene in the daytime, and it's even cooler to see it at night.

The Christmas tree is always a red-cedar. Red-cedars grow abundantly around here. I've always imagined that sometime each year, they spot a red-cedar on their farm that is just the right size and shape to be the next uplifted Christmas tree.

When I saw their Christmas tractor for the first time this year, I called Keely. "All's well in Christian County," I told her. "The tractor with the Christmas tree is in its rightful place." She knew exactly what I meant.

Update:
I had a nice e-mail today from Rose Tooley-Oatts. She is the wife of Malcolm Oatts, and they live in the house in the photo above. Their farm is called the "Four Mile Farm".

Miss Rose said that they have been doing their Christmas tractor since 1993. Sometimes they talk about scaling back on their outdoor decorations, but they hear so many nice comments every year that it's hard to quit.

When they first started decorating the tractor, the packages under the uplifted Christmas tree were cardboard boxes. They filled the boxes with rocks (to keep the wind from blowing them away), wrapped them with white butcher paper (for moisture resistance), and tied them with big red ribbons. Eventually, Miss Rose happened to find some lighted Christmas boxes, intended for outdoor display, to put under the tree.

Red-cedars have been harder to find around the farm in recent years, so they now use an artificial tree. (My eyes expected to see a red-cedar -- and saw one!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Counting my blessings

Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving. My family and I, like many Americans, will be gathering around a table loaded with food today. I thank God for another year of life, for family and friends, and for the plenty and freedoms we enjoy.

Remember our soldiers in your prayers today. My internet friend Fred sent a link to a photo essay of an Air Force Pararescue in Afghanistan. It's interesting and informative, well worth a visit.

And now, I must head for the kitchen. I have things to do there, and I'm also still cleaning house. I've been looking on the Reynolds cooking bag site to see just how long our turkey needs to be in the oven.

1870s Fourth of July

Twisting the tail of the English lion

On the Library of Congress website, I found a 1938 interview with Miss Nettie Spencer of Portland, Oregon, in which she remembered her childhood during the 1870s. The interviewer and writer was Walker Winchell of the Federal Writers Project.

Miss Spencer talked about the annual Fourth of July celebration held in her rural community. It was the one event of the year that everyone in the entire area attended.

Early in the morning, the family and great quantities of food were loaded into the wagon for the trip to town. When everyone had gathered, the celebration began with a parade.

The first float always carried that year's "Goddess of Liberty," a pretty local girl who had won the contest. She was surrounded by little girls who represented the states of the Union. Cadets from the local agricultural college and a band followed, and there might be floats with political effigies behind them.

Now for the interesting part:

Just before lunch - and we'd always hold lunch up for an hour - some Senator or lawyer would speak. These speeches always had one pattern. First the speaker would challenge England to a fight and berate the King and say that he was a skunk. This was known as twisting the lion's tail.

Then the next theme was that any one could find freedom and liberty on our shores. The speaker would invite those who were heavy laden in other lands to come to us and find peace. The speeches were pretty fiery and by that time the men who drank got into fights and called each other Englishmen.

In the afternoon we had what we called the 'plug uglies' -- funny floats and clowns who took off on the political subjects of the day. There would be some music and then the families would start gathering together to go home. There were cows waiting to be milked and the stock to be fed and so there was no night life.

The Fourth was the day of the year that really counted then. Christmas wasn't much; a Church tree or something, but no one twisted the lion's tail.

Source: Life History of Miss Nettie Spencer, Portland, Oregon

Fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers of many Americans of the 1870s had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. This community's formal "twisting of the lion's tail" each year honored the sacrifices made for independence and took pride in winning a hard fight.

(Right: UK coat of arms, 1837-present. Image from Wikipedia)

New Year's Eve

I spent a safe and sober New Year's Eve with our daughter Keely and her friend Taurus. Here we are at Shoneys, enjoying the breakfast buffet, after an exciting game of Scrabble.

Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas

And a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Dear friends,

It's Christmas, whether or not the preparations are complete. What a relief!

For me, it's been a very busy season. I'm tired and a little frazzled, but I'm looking forward to attending a Christmas church service, exchanging gifts, cooking a nice family dinner, and then a quiet Christmas afternoon of conversation, movies, and games.

And there will be sweet memories of dear family members and friends and the Christmas celebrations of other years. How could we ever forget them?

When I look back at the last year, one of the highlights for me has been Prairie Bluestem and its readers. I've enjoyed your comments and e-mails.

I've known some of you for many years, and I've only recently met some of you through the blog. Old friend or new, I appreciate your company as we go down the road.

May God bless you this Christmas. As Tiny Tim put it, "God bless us every one!"

Genevieve

You might enjoy the Christmas series I wrote a few years ago: Ghosts of Christmas Past.

Conflicted about Christmas Candy

With the temptation, a way to escape

I'm looking forward to Christmas, except for the Christmas candy.

The last few years, I've made a big box of homemade candy and sent it to my mother-in-law before Christmas.

Mama Netz used to enjoy making lots of candy and giving it away at Christmas. Now she is 93, and she lives in an assisted-living home.

It's hard to think of gifts for her, but she does enjoy having the candy to share. Part of the gift is that I use her recipes to make some candies that she used to make.

It's only about 2-1/2 weeks until Christmas now, so I need to get the box in the mail.

However, I'm reluctant to start because I like candy too much. It's hard for me to resist sampling the dipped chocolates and fudges and mints and so on.

I don't want to gain any weight or elevate my cholesterol or triglycerides, because I'm at the end of my prescriptions. I have to go back to the doctor within the next 30 days, and I hate it when he lectures me.

Yes, the doctor worries me more than the actual state of my health does. His nagging has affected me. I used to enjoy making candy instead of feeling guilty and worried about it!

Here is my plan. I'll make as much candy as possible on the next three days and send the box by UPS on Friday. Then I'll make all the candy plates for friends and neighbors, and I'll deliver those right away, too.

I'll save some candy for the family on Christmas Day, but I'm going to keep it in the shed until then. Anyone who wants to sneak a piece in advance will have to put on a coat, get the key, and go for a little excursion.

Deck the Halls

Unpacking the ornaments of the season

The Christmas tree is decorated. (Thanks, Keely, Taurus, and Isaac!) It's a new, smaller tree, and the old, larger tree has gone to Keely's house.

At the stores, I've been seeing themed trees -- woodland, gingerbread, jewels and sparkles, etc. If our cheery little tree has any theme at all, it must be "nostalgia."

The Christmas village is on the mantle, and the Santa Clauses have rendezvoused on the old steamer trunk in the hallway. The nativity scene is in its place of honor, atop the china cabinet.

One Christmas curiosity I always enjoy getting out is a very gaudy Peruvian nativity retablo that we were given when we lived in Bolivia. It was made for tourists, and it isn't valuable, but I like it.

The little box is white, outlined with red, on the outside. Under a triangular peak, giant purple flowers adorn the doors. The doors open to reveal a nativity scene, with a Peruvian point of view.

Mary and Joseph kneel, watching over Baby Jesus in the manger. In the foreground, a little boy and girl in Andean costume play the flute and drum. Below the manger, two dogs rest. (Or maybe it's a cow and a donkey -- it's hard to tell!)

 On the back wall of the box, golden clouds and stars dance across a black sky, and above all, the brilliant  star of Bethlehem shines.

The little retablo is a good reminder that the Christ Child and Christmas belong to all the world, not just to people who look and talk like me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you a wonderful holiday

It is a cool, bright morning in Kentucky. The sky is a cloudless blue. When I opened the kitchen door to let the cats out, I heard birds singing and the wind chimes moving gently.

I thank God for the peace and normalcy in my immediate world today. I am blessed in countless ways. I hope that you can look at your life today and say the same.

The Days Are Just Packed

And the nights are a little chilly.

My 82-year-old neighbor lady and her daughter have returned today from ten days in the Holy Land. Their arrival home releases me from the responsibility of caring for their seven dogs, twice a day. (The son did come out from town for dog duty on the nights that I worked late.)

I feel a great sense of relief! If I didn't think it would hurt my back, I might leap up and click my heels.

The last few days of November

November has turned cold while the ladies have been gone . I've knocked ice out of the dogs' water bowls on several mornings. This morning, I found a miniature drift of snow on my windshield.

November has only eight more days and Christmas is just a month away. People are beginning to shop earnestly. We've been busy at the store where I work.

Shoppers and shoplifters

I try to serve the customers as quickly as possible with a cheerful attitude, and to treat them as I like to be treated. Simultaneously, I try to fulfill my employer's expectations and guidelines. When things go well, these two sets of interests intersect or, sometimes, even converge, and everyone is very pleased.

We also have some people in the store who are shoplifters, not shoppers. Shoplifting is a perpetual problem, but there is an increase during this time of the year. A few steal because of true need, but most are motivated by vanity or greed. Sometimes they steal to resell.

I'm better than I used to be at sensing bad intent, and I alert the security people if I am suspicious. Our store prosecutes shoplifters and requests maximum penalties. I'm glad we do.

Many sides

Like so many things in life, the Christmas shopping scene has its seamy underside. I understand the metaphor well because I sew. I know how imperfections can sometimes be gathered and hidden in seams that don't show.

Related figures of speech come to mind. Most people have good sides, bad sides, and sensitive sides. Some have wild sides, and they could cross over to the dark side. On the lighter side, people enjoy laughter. Optimists look at the bright side and don't worry about the flip side.

And then there's the sunny side. This morning, when I was doing the dog chores, I paused for a moment on the south side of the shed. A stout wind was blowing and the temperatures were below freezing, but the shed blocked the wind and the sunshine was warm.

Keep on the sunny side,
always on the sunny side.
Keep on the sunny side of life.
It will help us every day,
it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life.
- Ada Blenkhorn (1899)

Music, lyrics, and info

Winter Rears Its Hoary Head

And other news from our house

I haven't had enough of autumn's golden days, but winter is at hand. We had our first hard freeze last night, and early this morning, the windshields were frosted over for the first time. I need to remember the possibility of windshield-scraping when I think about my departure time for work!

Tomorrow, I'm going to get out the rakes and leaf blower and clear away the leaves around the house. Out here in the country, we don't worry about bagging them up. Mother Nature either blows them away or rots them.

Firewood

Dennis usually helps the leaves decompose a little faster by running them over with the lawn mower.This year, I guess I'll mow the leaves because Dennis is devoting all his spare time to cutting firewood. He has already hauled home enough wood to last us all winter, and he says he has a lot more waiting. He is cutting up branches from some oak and hickory trees a co-worker removed around her house.

Now someone else has offered three oak and hickory trees that fell in his pasture. We are thinking about buying a log splitter. Does anyone have comments about the brand we should get?

Books, computers, and sewing machines

In other news around the homestead, I've been working toward my goal of setting up my office and sewing center in the back bedroom, aka Keely's room. My two sewing machines have been back there for a while already.

After analysis (hauling my books back there and realizing that they greatly exceed available bookshelf space) I'm planning a large floor-to-ceiling bookshelf on each side of the south window. (Yes, Keely, when I get the shelves built, I will give you the long bookcase that has always been in your room.)

Last Saturday, I bought a used computer for my new office. It has a Pentium 2.8 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 2 hard drives with a little over 200 GB total, 128 MB video card, and Windows XP. The previous owner reformatted the hard drives and reinstalled XP the day before I picked up the computer.

I will upgrade to 2 GB RAM and get a new monitor, and a "roll-y chair" when my discretionary budget permits (sometime after Christmas.) All in all, I'm pleased with my latest slightly-outmoded computer. We are now a 3-computer house, but we'll probably get rid of the little Linux machine in the hallway, which is really outmoded.

Holidays

And so we go, full speed ahead, into winter and the holidays. The holiday shopping season has begun. My store has been doing fairly well despite the nation's economic problems, and I certainly hope that continues. I've been training a holiday-hire employee for the last week. She is in her early 20s, and she's the mother of two little children. This is her first job.

Isaac, who works part-time at a grocery store, is dreading the season. He remembers how busy they were last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's hard to predict what this year will be like.

Keely says she is going to cook Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I'm glad to let her do it, to tell the truth. I'll contribute the pumpkin cheesecake and anything else she tells me to bring.

Happy 4th of July

Celebrate!

I wish you a happy (and safe!) celebration of freedom and democracy. I hope your day includes a slightly blackened hot dog and a slice of watermelon -- or whatever food you enjoy on this holiday. (Hmm. I wonder if it's too late to start a 4th of July cheesecake tradition in my family?)

This fun fireworks page is perfect for celebrating the 4th of July or any other day. The sparks won't set any fires, and you control the show. (Thanks for sending the link, Gloria.)

My cousin Elaine sent an interesting link that's also appropriate for the holiday. It's the homepage of an Ames, Iowa artist whose ongoing project is Freedom Rock. At Memorial Day each year, he paints a new patriotic mural on the rock. It's quite impressive. To see ten years of murals, visit the link that's titled "The Rock."

My mother's cookouts

My mother loved to cook out on the 4th of July. When I was little we didn't have a barbecue grill, so Mama prevailed upon my dad every year to create a cooker with cement blocks and oven racks. Later on, I remember Mama cooking on an iron grill that my dad welded for her in his shop.

One 4th of July evening, I stepped on a hot rack that had been taken off one of Mama's outside cookers. It was twilight, and I was running around barefoot with my sparkler -- probably not a wise thing to do, all in all.

My mom coated the sole of my foot with slightly-beaten egg white. She had read that egg white was a good home remedy for burns.

The egg white must have worked because I honestly don't remember my foot hurting at all. It's likely that it was just a minor burn. I didn't like to wear shoes in the summer time, so my foot leather was pretty tough.

Love of country

Don't forget what we're celebrating on the 4th. It's a day to remember our national history and to show gratitude and respect for those who've worked and fought to keep our country free.

I don't express my love for the United States as often as I should. I remember the times I returned to the U.S. after many months of living elsewhere. I had a lump in my throat and tears of joy in my eyes when my feet touched American soil again. I do understand why people kiss the soil of their homeland when they return from their wanderings.