As Our Life Goes On

The snow brightened the sides of the trees and branches this morning and the weeds along the roadsides had toppings of the cold white stuff. It actually was quite pretty. Those dark clouds to the North finally disappeared and only blue skies with puffy white clouds remained. Cool breezes are still present and the brightness is deceptive. We need to enjoy the fact that we can still see the ground. 

The precipitation has broken the all time record this year for our area by many inches. As I walked around the mushy yard the drizzly air and strong wind made me feel cool even though it is almost 60 degrees.  I was struck with the thought that the rain over the last day could have amounted to at least 10" of the white stuff.  I'm glad that it is too warm for that to happen today. My boots did not protect me from the very watery mud that splashed up as I walked. The bottoms of my jeans are damp with specks of mud.

There are several old tree stumps behind our barn. We think of them as wildlife habitat. The stump grinder man has not been around here for quite a while.  Most of the old wild cherries around the yard seem to be dying off so every once in a while one falls down or dies. We cut up the wood for firewood. Chipmunks, insects and other small animals find these stumps to be great homes. 

May this dark dreary day find you less than dark and dreary!

We stopped what we were doing to visit with an old friend yesterday. He is the proud owner of a 1937 Buick that was previously owned by his dad. Both the car and the friend are survivors. We were very happy to see him. The car is a very dark green color and it is low mileage. The interior is almost perfect.  Our vintage cars are not quite this nice. We use them everyday for our transportation. 

The top picture shows one of the two yellow daisy type flowers remaining in my little garden behind the house. The second and third flowers show late blooming dandelion plants. They are my flowers too. There has been no really heavy freeze yet so these slightly warmer and sunny days has caused these pretty flowers to brighten my yard. I think they are much like me. I was a late bloomer and I am very persistent.  On another note I saw a good size coyote trotting through the pine trees in my front yard late in the day on Thanksgiving. The cars were slowing in front of my house to look and that is what caused me to peer out and see this large canine. There are quite a few of these animals in our area. There was no time to fetch the camera before it passed through the yard. 

It is a day to be thankful for friends and family but that should be everyday.  Happy Thanksgiving!

 I hope your preparations for the big turkey day are well on the way so that you have lots of time to spend with your family!

We did not do anything special to celebrate our 52nd wedding anniversary yesterday. We received some well wishes over the phone and by email. That was enough for us. We don't believe that there has to be an extravaganza for every event and milestone. We are happy to just still be together. 

At the request of my daughter in law I am rerunning this post that contains my favorite pumpkin pie recipe. Makes me hungry just to look at it.  I have never been accused of making pretty pies but they taste good. Pumpkin pie has always been one of my favorites. It it not something that I make often but around the holidays it is always the thing to have. Some nice dollops of whipped cream on top will make this a super ending to a meal. This recipe makes 2 pies. HONEY PUMPKIN PIE 1     29 oz can pumpkin (large can) 2/3 cup honey  2/3 cup brown sugar (dark brown is good) 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon cloves 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 4 eggs 1     12 oz can evaporated milk (not the sweetened kind) Mix together in order listed until well blended. Put into 2 pie crusts (purchased or your favorite crust) Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then turn oven down to 350 degrees and cook until set. Baking time will vary slightly because  of

I noticed something flash across my visual field as I was working at my computer this afternoon. It was a small deer. It wandered over to the shrubs at the edge of our little flower patch and nibbled on the buds. It was probably born last Spring as she seemed quite small and it had a short nose. The deer wandered around browsing on other things in the immediate area and then quickly disappeared. Russ saw a majestic buck in the front yard yesterday but it traveled through too quickly and no pictures were taken. 

My husband has worked on his own cars since he was 16 and bought his first car. The mechanical work is getting more trying and sometimes he leaves that to someone else. Body work is something that he took up long ago. Here he is fixing the area on a door that was under some body trim. The old Chevy Suburban still runs along pretty good so we are keeping it. He likes the old cars to look good. 

I was on call for jury duty for the Stow Municipal Court all this week. It might have been interesting to serve but no persons that got the green slip for service at the location were called up this week. That is really OK with me though. It is a civic duty but every time I get a summons for jury duty I resist the thought of actually going and serving as a jurist. I am a fair minded person in most ways but there are some things that I am highly opinionated about. I guess I won't find out this time whether they would have picked me for a jury after questioning me.  I suspect that some time in the future I will be summoned again. 

It was a dark dreary day yesterday until just before sundown. Then it cleared and the late day sun imparted many colors to those clouds that had darkened the rest of the day. There are puffy white clouds drifting over the area today but the sunshine has won out most of the day making it seem better than it feels. The wind is blowing and it is quite cool. Rain and snow are expected later. It was nice to get a walk around the yard today without being rained on. 

Thanksgiving is drawing closer. By now we usually would have asked my brother to come and have the holiday meal with us. This year will feel quite different and we have no special plans for a meal at all. My brother Larry was always quite eager to visit and eat turkey or ham and all the fixings. An hour or so after the meal  he would start to get restless then he would announce that he was leaving. He was somewhat of a loner and it was his way not to visit for very long. He will be missed.

We do have a red Japanese Maple tree but that yellow leaf blew in from somewhere else. There were plenty of small downed branches to be picked up from the yard when I took my afternoon walk. The thunderstorm passed through our area quite quickly last evening and though over an inch of rain fell there seemed to be no damage to our property. We are very happy that this precipitation did not fall as snow. 

There is a line of storms very close at this moment. The sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning make me think it is time to sign off and look for the flashlight and maybe some candles. 

Hike and Bike Trail Littered by Environmental Slobs I feel that throwing plastic milk jugs, plastic bags and drink bottles off the edges of the bike trail is negligent and should be a considered a littering violation by the law. What were the people who did this thinking?  Do they have maids at home that follow them around and pick up after them? The Metro parks workers do blow leaves from the pavement on the trail. They also cut up trees that fall across the path. I have yet to see them picking up the trash that is along the way.  Remnants of a plastic bag flop in the breeze high in a tree.  See second picture.  It would be difficult to reach that one but the remaining trash is unsightly and environmentally unfriendly. We pick up everything that is blown into or thrown on our property. I often wonder if the people who do this have spotless homes or if they are real slobs.  Most of the leaves have fallen now and the woods are drab looking but the little late blooming daisy s

It was such a busy day that a detailed blog is not happening. 

We got just a light dusting of snow last night or early this morning. The moon lit up the yard so brightly last night that I could see clear to the woodpile so those clouds must have come along more towards morning.  As I shopped in the Target store this morning a boy that was probably around 9 or 10 years of age came through aisle alone and as he passed by he said excuse me in a very courteous manner. There was plenty of room to get by me as I am pretty careful to not hog the aisle space. How refreshing it was to encounter a young person with manners. That's not all though. As I checked out I accidentally dropped a quarter. Another young man of about 13 or 14 reached down and retrieved it and handed it to me in kindly way.  Was I in LA LA land or what. Usually the young people tear around the stores knocking into carts and people without more than saying WHOOPS. Older people can be even worse. They stand clear across the aisle and act annoyed if you want by them.  Obviously

The old granary next door is still standing but I wonder how much of it is held up by the vegetation around it. We were hoping that it would be restored at one time but it may be beyond help. There has been intermittent drizzle with sleet or snow this afternoon. It is November and we are fortunate to have gotten this far without snow. A coating of the white stuff may hit this area tomorrow.   

We have a neighbor just around the corner that does some car repairs. Yesterday Russ took the 1981 Suburban to his house for some needed work and walked home. It was such a nice sunny day so he really enjoyed the walk which was less than a mile. He took the pictures above as he passed a pond that is next to the trail. 

Jason Zucchero from JAYZ Construction Co. showed up early this morning to get a start on fixing the leaky roof on the old chicken coop shed. This roof leak showed up during one of the very rainy periods that we had during the last few weeks. A tarp and a bucket were just not what we had in mind to preserve this nice building. Jason had re-roofed our house and did a super job. The day is unusually warm for November and the temperatures are supposed to reach the high 60s. That is just right for this type of work. 

The mud in the yard has made it easy for the bucks to make a scrape with their antlers. It looks almost like a small plowed field in this scrape. The deer have also helped prune the trees by breaking off branches and scraping their antlers against the bark to announce that they have been there.  Sap oozes from the trunk of this tree. A buck did quite a job on it.  The deer have somewhat of a haven within the city limits of our town and there are a lot of them. They can be destructive as they tear up trees and eat ornamental shrubs. I really never thought that we would see deer, wild turkeys and coyotes in my suburban  neighborhood. 

All the rest of the flowers in my garden are long gone. This tiny little daisy just unfolded its petals yesterday. It puts me in a happy mood on this sunny somewhat warm day. 

THUD! The ground is shaking as Russ splits some seasoned wood into sections that will be burned in our wood stove. The late day sun is casting long shadows. The time will be set back one hour tonight so the darkness will be arriving earlier in the afternoon. I don't adjust well to the twice a year time change. It may take a couple of weeks before my brain understands what time it really is. 

I thought nothing of the large boom that I heard early this afternoon. The people that live on the other side of the bike trail behind our house often shoot at targets and the large noise did not seem too much out of the ordinary.  When I went out for a walk around the yard Russ showed me this shattered battery. It had been an old battery that he had just taken off the charger in the garage. He placed it in the mower and turned the ignition key on the mower. BOOM! Pieces of the battery flew up to 15 feet away. Thank goodness none of this plastic shrapnel hit him. Acid oozes from the battery. It will have to be disposed of very carefully. Next time I hear a large explosion I think will go investigate.  It could have been much worse that it was. 

Even though the day seem quite ordinary I did find pleasure in looking the the shrubs along our driveway. They are quite plain and actually not too pretty the rest of the year. 

Today we took the cremains of our brother Larry to the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman, Ohio. His ashes have been in my sister's china cabinet since March. It could not have been a more beautiful November day for this occasion. The warmth of the sun made the somber ceremony seem to be more bearable.  He had a military service and an honor guard. The  gunshots  and the folding and presentation of the flag to my niece was very moving. My nephew placed the ashes into an above ground vault. The grounds workers then applied the granite cover to which an inscription with his name, dates and a cross will be added. The grounds workers were all neatly and uniformly dressed in blue shirts and dark pants. They were straightening gravestones when we arrived at the cemetery.  The carefully manicured grounds of this national facility are a sharp contrast to the farm fields and deep woods that surround the area.  The service was held inside of this pavilion.