Happy Thanksgiving

I was awakened at 2:25 A.M. (CST) by a telephone call from my youngest son, Craig.  When I answered he told me he was calling to wish me a happy Thanksgiving.  I asked if there was something else he wished to tell me, and there was.  He informed me that I had a new granddaughter, Sammi Elizabeth Pifer, born at 12:03 A.M. (PST).  So, we have another grandchild to be very thankful for.  We now have eleven grandchildren, seven granddaughters and four grandsons.

 

As I was carrying in firewood this morning I noticed that one of our strawberry plants has it’s seasons confused!

  Our fall has been quite mild with a low temperature of about 30 degrees only once or twice.  I still have several items in the garden.  I went out and gathered greens for today’s salad.  I had radish leaves, beet leaves, turnip leaves, two kinds of lettuce and two kinds of chard.  With a little oil and vinegar dressing it will be yummy.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

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Cedar Candlesticks

On our visit to Connie’s mom and her sister in South Texas three years ago I saw some candlesticks that my brother-in-law, Roger, had made on a new piece of equipment in his woodworking shop.

This photo is a bit dark but hopefully you can see the beautiful spiral candlesticks. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) The one set is made of pecan wood and the other from mesquite. When I first saw these I told Roger I’d like to have a set made out of our Kentucky cedar.

It was while we were there visiting that Connie’s mom suffered a stroke and Connie felt she needed to stay for a few weeks. I came on home and went back a few weeks later to get Connie. When I got ready to return I went out to our woodpile and pulled out a few pieces of cedar that had been cut up for firewood and took with me.

When we went for our visit this Fall Roger told me that I needed to make my candlesticks. He pulled out the cedar pieces (and got wasp stung doing it), designed my candlesticks, set up his Legacy Ornamental Mill to make them. As he got each step started he instructed me in the operation and let me run the machine. After getting them made he showed me how to sand them. After I had the sanding done he sprayed shellac on them (several coats). After letting that cure for a couple of days he showed me how to go over them with steel wool to take away the shine and then put a wax finish on them.

Here are some photos of the end result.



































Even if I did part of the work I think they turned out pretty nice.

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South Padre Island and Red Tide

One of the things Connie wanted to do while we were in Texas visiting her sister was to go over to South Padre Island and spend a bit of time on the Gulf of Mexico.  However, when we got to Tami’s we found out that they were experiencing a red tide on the island.  A “red tide” is the term used to describe a particular type of algae bloom in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as other areas.  According to material I read the density of these organisms  during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per liter of seawater and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue.  The most noticeable effects of the red tides are the numbers of fish, birds and marine mammals that are killed.  And, in many cases it causes respiratory irritation to people that visit the beaches.

We were in Corpus Christi, Texas in October 1986 during a very severe red tide, stated later to be “the worst experienced along the Texas coast with effects stretching from its inception near Galveston Island to Mexico.”  We drove over to Padre Island to see the Gulf of Mexico.  We were able to drive right out onto a beach but when we opened the car doors and got out the irritation was immediate.  We began coughing and decided to get back into the car and leave the area.

Having had this experience we quickly decided a visit during this trip to South Padre Island was out.  However, about mid-way of our visit Roger, my brother-in-law, informed me that he had a bit of work to do over on the island and asked if I’d like to go along.  I agreed to go.  I found out later that he didn’t really know what the red tide was like.

We got to the house where he had some work to do, got out of the truck and we were immediately assailed by the effects of this red tide.  We began coughing and our noses were running.  Roger hurried through the work he needed to do and we left the island as soon as we could.  I did take a few pictures of the Gulf of Mexico for Connie’s benefit since she didn’t get to see it in person.

This photo is of the house Roger was doing some work on.  It is still being finished and the owners have yet to move in.  It sits right on the Gulf.  The following pictures were taken from the patio and a back stairway, as well as from the dunes that are between the house and the water.

 

 

 

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I’m Back

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I haven’t posted anything for the last three weeks.  For two of those three weeks we were away from home.  The last week I have just not taken the time to write anything.

Connie and I left for a trip to Texas on Sunday, October 18th and arrived back home on Friday afternoon, October 30th.  We went down to the Rio Grande valley to visit Connie’s youngest sister and her family.  We had originally planned this trip for last Spring but it didn’t work out.  That was before Connie’s mom died and our main reason for  planning to go  had been to visit her mom.  Her sister still wanted us to come for a visit so we decided to go ahead and make the trip this Fall.

We had a good visit but are happy to be back home.

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What A Difference!

Connie bakes our bread, a good whole wheat bread.  She has made it the “old fashioned way” but has used a bread machine much of the time in recent years.  However, she has been somewhat distressed that her loaves of bread do not turn out as they have in the past.  It seems they just don’t raise as they should and sometimes the tops are not nice and rounded.  Recently she baked a loaf that looked nice but was quite “squatty,”  much shorter than it should have been.  She decided to try an experiment.  She had from time to time found that potato water seemed to help.  So, upon removing the first short loaf she started another loaf of bread.  But this time she cooked a small potato, mashed it up in the water which it had been cooked in and used that as her liquid.  Here is a photo of her results.

What a difference a little potato water made!

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Visit To The Nashville Zoo

Darryl and Anne had taken their children to the Nashville zoo some few years ago and had wanted to go back.  On Wednesday, October 7th we all made the trip.  The zoo may not have as many animals as some but the exhibit areas seem to be more spacious, allowing the animals more space in which to move around.  Here are a few pictures taken during our visit.

We stood and watched for quite awhile as this elephant played with the log.

Naomi was quite insistent that we go and see the giraffes.  We all enjoyed watching these long necked animals.

  The children were able to go through a tunnel and look into the meerkat enclosure.  Below is a photo of one of the little critters.

We also enjoyed viewing the exhibits of fish, snakes, etc.  Here is one photo taken in that area.

All in all it was a very good day!  There were some things we missed seeing so we will have to go back another time.

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Recent Excursions

Last week we took a number of excursions with Darryl and family (and Danny on a couple).  We visited and toured Diamond Caverns near Park City, Kentucky.  Connie and I had taken our grandchildren from Wisconsin, Beth and Cory, as well as Jessica, during the summer of 2004.  Darryl and Anne had been there even previous to our visit.  The younger children had not been there or were too young to remember.  Below are a few photos taken during our visit.

Leaving the caverns we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky and visited the Historic Rail Park and Train Museum.  The museum was quite interesting but the real highlight was being given a guided tour of several restored rail cars.  Again, a few photos.

Here we are preparing to enter the caboose that is on display.







In this picture we are standing in the dining area of the personal car of the president of the L & N Railroad.  This was used not only for dining but also as a conference room.

         In the picture on the left we are in the dining car.  On the right is a photo of a post office car, one of two in existence.

The next day’s excursion will be covered in the next post.

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