A Pretty Tree

Real trees are so nice to have...


Here is the Christmas Tree with its decorations. We managed to get it trimmed out the same night that we got it. It turned out very nice, and we made it fit quite well in the available space.


Doesn't it look pretty all lit up in the window?

The Christmas Tree Farm

Today, Nate and I went to get our first Christmas Tree. Both of us love to have a real tree, even with all of the work that it entails. We did our homework, and looked up several farms in the area and investigated prices. Our backup was the local youth hockey tree lot just a few miles down the highway. The farm we chose was quite a ways out in the countryside. Even by Small Town standards it was way out in the country. It was cold, and snowing, which are, of course, the perfect conditions to hunt for a tree. Here, in pictures, is the Hunt for the Perfect Tree.

Where, oh where, is the Perfect Tree?

Yay! We found one. Look how nice it looks among all the rest.

Now to shake the snow off, so that it doesn't blow while we are driving.

Next, the saw. This is a job for Nate - it was too prickly for me. My job is to hold it steady.

My job is also not to drag the tree to the car. Nate is much better at this than I.

Heave Ho! Up on to the car it goes!

OK! Hold it. Hold it. I'm trying hard, but I'm not really tall enough. Luckily, the tree diameter is almost bigger than the car! We were down the road a piece from the main farm, so we had to drive back to the barn with the tree all bushy like this on top of the car. It made for Very Interesting corners while driving. We did get it bundled down for the trip back home, which made it much less interesting, but safer driving.

After we got it inside and unbundled, we began to think that maybe we should've paid attention to the warning of the diameter of the tree being larger than the car... It did take some minor rearrangement of the furniture to actually be able to view the TV while sitting in the living room. Now, on to decorating!

A Day of Thanks

Today was Thanksgiving Day. A day for giving thanks. Thanks for family, shelter, and good food. This Thanksgiving was the first time I actually cooked the entire dinner myself. I did try to plan ahead so that all I had to do on the actual day was stuff and cook the turkey, and reheat/cook the side dishes. Of course, I can't do anything the easy way. Dinner had to be served between 11:00-11:30am so that Nate could eat and still leave for work on-time.

Here's the menu that I had planned:


I did manage to get everything but the turkey and whipped cream done ahead of time. But, it was not without adventure. Of course, nothing I do can be done easily...

I put in the turkey to thaw out starting on Monday. By Wednesday morning, it was hardly thawed at all. How then, was I supposed to get the giblets, etc out of the turkey to make the stuffing??? The answer: thaw the turkey in the kitchen sink. In addition, I had to split the giblets, as Nate had requested his mother make her sausage dressing as well as my wild rice stuffing. After 8hr of thawing in the sink - almost thawed. I decided to run warm water into the cavity so that I could get the giblets out in time to get ready for work, drop them at my in-laws, and make it to work on time.

Lo and behold, what did I find when the turkey finally thawed?? NO GIBLETS!!! At ALL!! How could this be? Didn't all turkeys come with giblets? It had never occurred to me that this could even be an issue. So now what? I dug thru the trash for the turkey wrapper. No giblets in there. No info on the bag saying this turkey lacked vital parts. No time, also, so I had to think quickly. Grabbed some leftover frozen chicken giblets that I was going to use for stock. Head out the door.

Whew! I did make it to work on time. But, then after work, I stayed up until past midnight to get my stuffing done in time to stuff the turkey in the morning. Once the turkey was done, we let it rest for a bit. It smelled wonderful.


After all the rest of the side dishes were ready, it was time to set the food on the table.

First I brought in the turkey, to make sure there was enough space for it in the center. Then all of the rest of the dishes came in. Luckily we have a rather sizeable table, as we needed plenty of room for all of the food.




Once we finished up with the main course, it was time to clear the table for dessert. Seeing as there were only 6 of us, I only made one pie - of the pumpkin variety. I actually used a pie pumpkin, and cooked it down to make the pie. It was delicious. I also made cinnamon ice cream and bourbon-flavored whipped cream to top it. Everyone agreed that it was just right to finish off the meal.


And, even better, 90% of the dishes fit into the dishwasher! I love having a dishwasher.


This is even more amazing, when I realized just how much silverware I had left in the drawer...


Here's to a successfully cooked, first major family holiday, quite edible Turkey Dinner. It truly was a Day of Thanks!

It's Snowing!

Today was the first day of actual snow that we have had here in the Small Town. At least the first day that the snow actually stuck to the ground for more than a few seconds. It was beautiful. The entire neighborhood was transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The kids were out playing, and I even saw a few snowmen appear.

Here is a view from our backyard. The neighbor's tree looked quite nice against the fence and our back garden.


It stayed covered on the grass for a few days wherever there was shade. It was quite nice whilst it lasted, but, it is still too early and the ground too warm for the snow to stay put. Soon!

Final Harvest

Now that it is truly fall, and the weather is getting cooler, the final harvest from the garden has been done. Many tomatoes, jalapenos, habaneros, and ground cherries have been obtained. Some of the tomatoes are green, as they were rescued from the early frosts.


Additionally, a trip to the apple orchard was made to obtain apples for sauce, and apples for eating. This year I got Empires for eating and McIntosh for sauce. I got an excellent deal on the sauce apples - $12 for 20lb of apples! I generally do not put sugar in my applesauce, as I figure most of the recipes I use it in call for sugar anyway. And the people who eat it direct can have it tangy, as I like it, or add a bit of sugar to taste. Making applesauce is surprisingly easy - if you have a food mill, that is. Just wash the apples, chunk them into pieces (I like eighths.), put in a pot and boil with a little water until they are very soft. Run them thru the food mill, skins and seeds and all, and presto! you have applesauce. Yum!!

So, here is what the final harvest looked like.


It includes the above-mentioned tomatoes and peppers. We also harvested, and I canned, a ton of green beans. I am sure my mother is still wondering how she ended up with a child that LOVES green beans, particularly the canned variety, when she has abhorred them since Day One.

A Hike in the Woods

Today we took a short drive from our Small Town to one of the county parks. It is about a 15min drive on a Very Windy Road and has a lake to see. It is also has available trails for cross-country skiing with snow. We decided to hike some of the trails, so that I could see what they would be like for skiing on in a few months.


Off we started on the hike. It was lightly raining, but we were dressed well, so it was not too cold. And the overcast skies made for nice picture taking. The leaves were all kinds of colors - which was part of my reason for going on a hike. The changing of the leaves is amazing anew every year.











It is so interesting to see the different colors, textures, and shapes of the leaves that fall.

Near the end of the trails (we took trails 1, 4, and 3) you could go up some man-made steps to a tiny chapel in the woods. The chapel was built in the mid-1800s by German immigrants. It is a tiny room, only about 4x10, with a ceiling maybe only 6ft high. Even I had to stoop to get into the door. There is also a great view of the lake that the park is named for:


Of course, we could not have such an easy day of hiking... On the way out of the chapel, we discover that someone has no idea where their cell phone is. In the car? Nope. So off we go again on the trails to play detective and find the cell phone. Which is a dark grey. Not much darker than a wet trail with leaf cover.

And, we have to be somewhere for dinner, and are meant to bring a dessert. Steps are retraced for about 1/4 of the hike, then we decide to try the parking lot as much donning and doffing of attire was done here prior to the hike. Phone is not in the car, nor near the place we stopped to look at the map. It is also not by the lake, or on the path up to the top of the ridge. No, the phone was found (Yay!) after rehiking 2/3 of our original path.

In short, we did a 2hr hike twice in 3hrs. Definitely got good exercise for the day.

And we got to dinner on time, having made No-crust Apple Pie for our dessert. Yum. It was determined by all who ate, that a repeat of the dessert shall be had at some point.

Stocking Up!

So far this season, I have produced in my kitchen:

Jelly, grape variety - 15 jars

Juice, also grape variety - 3.5 quarts (mostly because I was getting sick of jelly)

Salsa - 8 pints (with more coming as tomatoes/jalapenos ripen)

Venison chili - 5.5 quarts

Pasta Sauce, red variety - 12 pints

Crushed tomatoes, yellow variety - 5 pints (or so, as I had to use jelly jars for some of it)

Pesto Sauce - 15 cubes (ice cube-sized), not in picture, as they are frozen


Doesn't it all look beautiful all stacked together? Along with a few items not yet put up - namely more beans! and also tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, and a lone habanero.