(DF) LATE FALL RAMBLINGS AND UPDATE

The past couple of weeks has been very busy.  There has been little time for the computer, only enough for checking mail and such.

Work has taken up most of the time.  Of course, with cooler weather (and really bad weather coming), days off have been filled with cutting and hauling wood and buying and hauling hay for the goats.  Throw in a few appointments, flat tires and dead batteries and you can start to see why I haven't been writing.  It is amazing that I have been able to spend even a little time (not nearly enough) with Anna.  Somehow, I have also managed to squeeze in some tilling of the garden, though only a little at a time and not quite finished.

Also, the Thanksgiving holiday fell within this time frame.  No, I didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with Anna, or my (now grown up) children.  There was no time for smoking the turkey and brisket or making pies.  I didn't get to spend the day hunting either, though I did end up wasting part of one day off searching my property for a deer that was wounded by a careless hunter on adjoining property.

I spent thanksgiving day and the day after with co-workers, preparing for the "black Friday" sale (in this case called the "blitz" because it actually starts on Thanksgiving day).  In all fairness, my employer DID supply a nice meal for us on Thanksgiving and the two days following, but it just wasn't the same as having it with family.

Now, Thanksgiving and black Friday are over and work has shifted to the Christmas commercialization season.  It is a shame people can't focus on what these holidays realty represent instead of just making and spending money.

Here on the farm, l the focus has shifted toward preparing for winter weather.  With the forecast calling for single digit temperatures and a good accumulation of ice, sleet and/or snow, there are plants and small trees to protect and animals to provide extra hay and windbreaks for.  This is also part of the reason I have been pushing to finish tilling the garden before the snow and freezing weather.

We will soon see if the forecast is correct or not.  Either way, like it or not, it is now winter.



UPDATE:   I drafted this post last night (Wednesday) but didn't get it posted.  Now it is Thursday night and the garden (and everything else) is covered with a mix of ice, sleet and snot (sorry, that was supposed to be snow), with a current temperature of 20F and a nice Northeast wind.  Yes, it IS now winter, but as much as we dislike the ice and low temperatures, we need the hard freeze and winter precipitation mess, both for the farm and to help us appreciate the warm gentle breeze of the coming spring.

(AF) A Thanksgiving Circus - part 5 (finale)

Every checkout appeared to be open... I think.... you couldn't get close enough to the checkouts to see them. I did take pics with my rinky dink cell phone (digital camera was in the shopping cart) and when I figure how to get them out of my phone, I will post them here. CHECKOUT LINES?? At first glance it just looked like a mass mob of people, no distinguishable lines. But as you visually scanned the mob at the front of the store, and followed it further and further back through the store, you eventually were able to see the end of the lines. The shortest line? Ha, ha, yea, right.

I worked myself through the crowd of shoppers, finally found what appeared to be the end of a line, and parked myself there.... 12:27pm, standing in the center of the shoe department! Front of the store - Checkouts - walkway end to end of the store - clothing department - walkway - shoe department.  Yep, this was going to take awhile. But it was okay, I got the main things I came for. I killed a little time talking to Dave a few minutes (via cell phone) but it was so loud, and reception was so bad, it was difficult to hear. But we still got to say our 'good-nites'. As you looked out across the ocean of people slowly flowing in the direction of the checkouts, hundreds of people were standing, cell phone-to-ear. And throughout the store full of shoppers, people were standing, phone to ear, keeping in contact with people back at home discussing purchase options, and/or, using them as walkie talkies to keep in touch with others in the store in their group, or stationed at other stores (same town, different town, different states even). It was a major overload on the cell phone system and reception was the pits!!! But it was Thanksgiving, and I was so very thankful that, at that moment, there was reception at all so that I could say my nightly good-nites to Dave.

A drone of voices hummed across the store. Those that weren't on cell phones engaged in idle conversation to keep down the boredom of standing in slow moving lines for hours on end. Perfect strangers struck up conversations and made new 'friends.' It was better than Facebook, everyone had a physical body! The woman in front of me was also shopping by herself and we had a great conversation as we patiently waited in line. She owned a camera like the one I was purchasing and was able to, first-handedly, answer my questions about it (If you are reading this, thanks again!). We exchanged crockpot cooking tips, natural living ideas, sustainable living ideas, and several other interesting topics. Our conversation was so enjoyable that the wait in line didn't seem long at all. (Thanks for putting up with my nervous chatter. You unknowingly kept me from a claustrophobia attack, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!)

Before I knew it we were at the checkout. The woman in front of me spied a couple of crockpots in the returns area and jumped over to grab me one, bless her heart, but they were the 7-quart ones, darn it! They were tricky on packaging this year. The packaging looked just like the 6-quart ones, except it said 7 instead of 6 and were nearly triple the price. Oh, well.... I paid for my stuff (including a cheap gallon of water for the car) and headed out to find my car. Fortunately, I had made mental note of the Row Number as I went into the store.  I got to my car (so glad it was fairly warm and not freezing, raining or snowing this year), loaded my stuff, popped the hood and added water. I got in, started it up, and it still sounded HORRIBLE. Rummaged around and found my last quart of oil (I was NOT going back in there for a quart of oil!), popped the hood again, and poured it in (I had added power steering fluid before I left home, poor old car.)  So here I am, woman alone at 1:49am, hood up on my car propped up with my walking cane, masses of people everywhere, and NOT ONE PERSON stopped to see if I needed help!!! I didn't need any, I had it under control, but no one knew that. It spoke volumes for what our world has come to.

Poor old car had had her rest, had her fluids replenished, and drove like she was eager to get out of that mess and get home. We stopped back at Host's house to pick up the Fur Ball. Oh, he was sooo excited to see me! That was the longest I had been away from him since I had taken him home with me. We had a snack of Thanksgiving left-overs and headed HOME.  Thanksgiving Day had finally come to an end. What a day!

It was Thanksgiving, the day to give thanks for all of our innumerable blessings we have received throughout the year. Although, financially, I am so far down I am nearly in a pit with no visible way out, I still have so very many things to be thankful for, so many rich blessings. I am thankful for so many things I couldn't possibly name them all, but I will name a few. I am, of course, extremely thankful for all the things people generally give thanks for. But I am also thankful for things that we so often over look. First, I am extremely thankful (I can't possibly give enough thanks here) for all of my friends and family, both in the physical and cyber world. I couldn't imagine life without them. I am thankful for everyone that has read my posts around the net all year long, and for all of the advice, tips, constructive criticisms and comfort they have given me. I am thankful for taste buds, because without them, we wouldn't be able to enjoy such great holiday meals, and, believe it or not, not everyone has working taste buds. I can't imagine how horrible that would be. And I was thankful for the wonderful Thanksgiving meal that I was able to taste with my taste buds, as not everyone in this world was so blessed to be able to eat such a feast. I am thankful for my sense of smell, with which I was able to smell all of the wonderful aromas throughout the day, and all year long. Not everyone has that sense (I personally know people that don't) and we take if for granted far too much. Although I have to wear glasses now to read, I am so very thankful for my eye sight, with which I can see all of God's beautiful blessings. And, though not so good as it once was, I am extremely thankful for my sense of hearing, which allowed me to enjoy the giggles of my grand kids. I am thankful for the trees that clean our air, give us oxygen, and provide us with many of our day to day, constantly used products. I am thankful for my home and the land that gives me food. I am thankful for the plants and animals that clothe me. I am thankful for the rains and sunshine that makes things grow. I am thankful for the fire that heats my home (It took the rain and sunshine to grow the trees that Dave cut, that is now in my wood stove heating my home.) I am thankful for the ability to breathe and a beating heart. I am thankful that, even riddled with arthritis throughout my entire body, I am still able to move about on my own. I am thankful for a sharp mind. I am thankful for every blessing that has been graciously and undeservingly bestowed upon me, large and minute (all blessings are huge), seen and unseen (all are seen, if we just look closely enough). Regardless of how far down that, on the surface it appears that I am, I can feel a blanket of warm blessings thickly and snuggly wrapped around me, I feel so very loved by my Lord!
And the three best blessing of all this year . . . . After a life full of extra bad relationships, I was graciously blessed last Fall with a most loving and caring relationship with Jonathan before tragically, cancer took him from me and our visual world in March. He was a loving, generous man, a rare find in today's world, so wonderful to me, and I miss him dearly.
I had finally had my wonderful, loving relationship and didn't think I could possibly ever be blessed with another, but, very unexpectedly, a man that I had grown up with in my old neighborhood came back into my life and, once again, I was graciously blessed with another very caring, loving, heart-warming relationship with Joe, who was also taken from this visual world this summer by our extreme, record-breaking heat. Losing him not only left yet another emptiness in me, but an empty hole in the world, as he was such a remarkable, loving, giving person in everything he did. I have no doubt, though, but that Jonathan's and Joe's loving blessings continue on in our world and will forever. The blessings of their love will continue on in my heart forever. I give immeasurable thanks for having been the one to have been blessed with their closest, sincerest love.
Broken hearted and lonely, I didn't think it ever possible to be so fortunate as to be so blessed again with such a wonderful, loving relationship and had resigned myself to settle into and live a single's life, planning out my new life accordingly. Then, very unexpectedly, Dave came into my life.... and, although I don't know what I could have ever possibly done that the Good Lord feels that I deserve it, He has again, graciously blessed me with, not only a wonderful, loving relationship, but a generously, loving man that I hope to have a wonderfully long life with! Thank you Lord, for a year of beautiful blessings far beyond my imagination!!!!

(AF) A Thanksgiving Circus - part 4

I get out of the car, take a deep breath, and head for the door, grabbing an abandoned shopping cart as I passed it. I figured that may be the only chance I had to get one (and I was right). All the way to the door my instinct kept telling me to turn around and run, just go back home, but I just kept repeating to myself, "You can do this, you can do this..." Because, you see, I am claustrophobic. But when I did look back, I was reminded that I couldn't leave because my car was still spewing smoke.

Back up just a little... Years ago, when I first began Black Friday shopping, I got as far at Walmart as pulling into the parking lot and my teenage kids went in with  my list. And I had a hard time even just being in the crowded parking lot. Then after we left there, I would go in with my kids to the not-quite-so-packed stores. After a couple of years of this, my kids made me start going in with them at Walmart. We would still split up with our lists and meet back at the front, but one or two would always stay with me, ready to distract me if a claustrophobia attack hit (actually, it was when). But I could never go into the Electronics Department. I would panic just looking at the crowd in that department! Then, they finally made me go in at Walmart by myself as they went to other stores, but kept phone contact with me. Then last year, I was completely on my own. The kids had finally weaned mom. I am still claustrophobic, sometimes worse than others, but this process we ended up going through over the years has greatly helped. Thanks kids!!!

And now, I was on my own..... and the one item I needed the most was in .... ELECTRONICS!!  Last year I couldn't even make it as far as the DVDs without feeling the panic coming on. But I was going to do this!  But first, the 6-quart Crockpot. The small appliance sale began at 10pm, Electronics at midnight. I have pretty much worn my 4-quart out making so many consecutive batches of Pear Butter. I began to move through the store, elbow-to-elbow with the masses of people (more than I had EVER seen in Walmart all at once), trying to drift my mind into another peaceful place, far, far away. I made it to the area where I thought the small appliances would be (I was also suppose to pick up an electric mini chopper for someone) ... nothing.  I swam through to the next area... lots of nearly bare pallets, but not what I was looking for. I found a clerk and asked him, he assuredly pointed me to the other side of the store! (we are talking, the largest Walmart in Oklahoma, last I checked) Okay, I really could use that Crockpot and it is only 1/3 of its usual cost, so I head over that way ... very, very slowly, each aisle a one-way flow. On my way past Electronics, I noticed that the lines for the midnight sale were already formed and long! It was only 10:15pm! My heart sank, a panic wave began to cross, and I quickly took my mind back to my dreamy place as I moved to the other side of the store. Once there I found lots of pallets, some with a few items left, many completely empty. I was also looking for the $1.28 Bath Towels in that area but quickly found out that they never got them in..... bummer. Found another clerk, asked for the Crockpots and choppers, was pointed in yet another direction.... back on the original side of the store I started on!  Six different places I was sent to! Sheesh!!! I finally found where they had been, but no more Crockpots nor mini choppers. The choppers .... I was told that they only got a few of them in and were gone in about a minute. In years past, even last year, they had several appliances available for this big sale, and LOTS of them in stock. Not this year. All throughout the store there seemed to be only a few items of each thing. But I did get kind of lucky. They had just set out some unadvertised, single cup coffee makers... you know, the kind you just set your coffee cup under. These were really nice, too. They made a really large cup (or small if you wanted), had a permanent filter, and you could use your own grounds or the pods. I had been wanting one of those, but too many necessities were way above it on my list. They weren't in the ad and they had just set them out for $4! Yep, I have one, now. So, on to the Electronics to  gulp  get in line.

I took a deep breath and plunged into the ocean of smelly people. Let me tell you, whoever had the bright idea of starting the sale-of-the-year immediately after masses of people had just stuffed themselves to overflowing with rich, gaseous foods, with no time to shower after the days events and before the sale, needs to be tossed into the Bog of Eternal Stench and left there for a few hours!  There was a loooong stretch of shrink-wrapped pallets and I couldn't see far enough ahead to see where what I was needing was. As long as the lines were, I figured I was out of luck by that point (remember, the lines had started long before 10pm for this stuff), but I was here, so I may as well try. I was there to get a camcorder and a better digital camera (I had been saving gift money and both items were for jaw-dropping prices). I couldn't get close enough to see the plastic wrapped pallets, so I began asking around. I finally found out that the camera I had come for was at the pallet a few feet down (two or three lines down), but the camcorder was over at the other end of electronics! Noooooooooooooo..............  And a clerk said that there were only a few of the camcorders (It, too, was well under half price). I figured that there was now no way I was going to land one, but I was going to try. So I kissed the idea of a better digital camera good-bye and went for the camcorder. Once again, I couldn't figure out which line to get into so I found a clerk and asked, yelling over the people between us. She asked which one I wanted, said there were only a couple left unaccounted for, and told me whom to stand behind in line. She even politely suggested that a few people shift over a little and let me through (I could have hugged her!). It is 11pm, and I am finally in line, surrounded by masses of smelly people, and the excitement of probably finally getting the camcorder that I have been trying to get for 2 years, is far overriding my claustrophobia.     A small child not far behind me was wailing in pure terror at the sight and chaos of the crowd. This was NO PLACE FOR A SMALL CHILD! And those parents were trying to corral about 4 of them!

So we are all anxiously waiting in our lines, an hour to go. We converse some amongst ourselves, while focusing on watching out for pushy people trying to get ahead of us. And they did try! A couple of people were, as I use to be, with a group. So one or two would stay in the line with the cart (we had made a barricade with the carts to keep people from cutting into our line) while the rest of the group went to hunt down other things on their list. Around 11:30 they rolled out the tall, shrink-wrapped cart of electronics. Our line immediately looks for the camcorders, counts them, and recounts the number in the line. Good! There's enough! Other people try harder to move in for the 'kill',. we stop chatting and guard our position. 11:45 comes and they decide to go ahead and pass the stuff out. Oh, the anticipation! We had to wait until they got down to ours... but ... I GOT IT!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!  I did it! All by myself! Now, to get back out of this mob.

I figured there wasn't a chance in the world that there would be one of the digital cameras left (Kodak 14 megapixels with all kinds of bells and whistles for $49), nor the Memory cards, but I was going to swim back through to the other side of Electronics and check anyway. Unbelievable!!! There were just a few of what I needed left! At last, it was time to head for the check-out....

  to be continued (one more) . . . . . . . .

(AF) A Thanksgiving Circus - part 3

The evening is winding down and everyone is saying their good-byes, well, to those they are speaking to, anyway. Overall, it was a pretty nice, enjoyable Thanksgiving and, in the end, I was glad I went: however, I do wish that I could figure out how to get a few of them to give proper Thanks and Honor to the day. All the food was wonderful! The turkey and the pheasant ended up being pretty dry, but they tasted really good. But oh, that ham Son 1 smoked! That ham was absolutely perfect! It had just the right amount of smokey flavor to it, not too much, yet it was still so tender and moist. It is still tender and moist even 4 days later, though there isn't much left, now.  Host had special made me a pumpkin pie with unrefined sugar and a pecan pie where she had ground up the nuts finely so that I could still enjoy one, God love her! (most of my bottom teeth, and several of my upper molars are all gone, so chewing nuts is almost impossible)  We were blessed with such an array of food that it just wasn't possible to try it all.

Now for the wild part ... early 'Black Friday' shopping, eek! When my kids were all a little younger, we all gathered and went shopping together, then when they were all driving, we divided up amongst stores with our lists in hand, keeping in touch via cell phone. But once again, just as last year, I was on my own. There really wasn't too much this year that I thought was worth going for. Usually I pick up what ever new little appliances I have been needing (I try to keep a list going all year and wait for this sale), but there weren't even very many of those in the ads like there usually are, and of the couple listed, I didn't need. Of course, I am broker than broke this year and can't just shop for the fun of it, but the few things I had been needing, I had been waiting for Black Friday to get so that I could hopefully get a really good price on.

This year was different. It should have been called "Stuffed Thursday" shopping. That main sale that I always go to, the one that had the majority of the things I was needing (Walmart), started at 10pm on Thanksgiving this year, instead of 5am on Friday. Usually, I absolutely refuse to go shopping on Thanksgiving. It just doesn't seem right, but I just couldn't let go of the savings this year on the items I needed. So after the last few guests left, I hung around at Host's house a bit longer, ate some more dessert, made a couple more "Happy Thanksgiving" calls, got the Fur Ball settled in on a blanket (this time, he just wasn't going with me), then left a little after 9:00 for the madness at Walmart. (It was too much driving to drive back home, then back into town for the brief period between everyone leaving and going shopping).

I headed out and my car was acting up from the start. The windows were all foggy, inside and out to the point of dripping on the inside, my poor old car doesn't idle without trying to die, I was having a hard time getting my windows to clear so I could see, and time was ticking. I tried wiping them with a towel, but there was this odd, thin film plastered to the inside of my windshield that just seemed to smear everywhere. I am so afraid my heater core may be going out, but that is another story. I ended up having to pull over, crank up my defrosters and idle the car, which finally mostly cleared the windows, but that car really protested! Poor thing just doesn't have enough power to run so many things all at once (engine, lights, defrosters).

Me and my car chug-a-lugged, coughed and lurched all the way to Walmart, foot on break and gas to keep it running every time we hit a stop sign or stop light, and finally made it right at 10pm. Oh, my gosh!!! I had never seen so many cars at Walmart, including all of my Black Friday shopping days! There was a very slow stream of traffic, bumper to bumper, winding up and down all of the parking rows. People were parked EVERYWHERE! Every single parking spot on the lot was filled. Cars were snugly parked, bumper to bumper, up against every inch of curb on the site (I am including the gas station area, too), and, get this, every inch of grass on the property had cars tightly parked on it! People had even jumped the curbs to park in the medians. I never saw anything like it!  And I have been to a lot of BIG sales over the years, ha, ha. But I was determined I was going to find me a spot to park. I followed along with the flow of traffic, riding my break and gas (ouch!), my car loudly protesting the idling speed. At one point it died, but I managed to veer off a little so cars could get around me. I had to let it set a little (people were not happy with me) so I could start it again. I got it started, went a few feet, spied a parking space on my side (someone had just pulled out), but before I could inch a little further, someone from the other lane whipped in front of me and swiped it ... darn it!

I was giving thought to just going on home but there were a couple of items that I really, REALLY needed to get for business purposes, they just hadn't been affordable any other way, I had been waiting for 2 years for a price I could handle while at the same time I had a few dollars in my pocket (a hard combination to come by), and now was THE time to get them. So I continued on, car badly coughing, choking and protesting, finally spied a parking space just as I passed it, and I quickly backed up into it before someone else spied it. I stopped, turned the engine off, and large clouds of smoke billowed out from under the hood (no, it wasn't registering that it was hot). I thought, "Well, looks like I'm here for awhile, now."

to be continued . . . . . . . . . .