Christmas Past

 The dates on the calendar seem to be flying by while Jon and I are slowly moving toward Christmas.  We still don't have our tree cut down, but we're thinking about it.  That's not unusual for us and I think it's okay.  I did venture out into the field a few days ago to cut some boughs for wreath making.  I "may" have found our tree.  

So far this year we have about an inch of snow on the ground although today the weatherman predicts 1-3 inches.  Nothing new yet.  

I decided it's time to just browse through my thousands of photos and post some from years past.  I have made this decision after reading about my friend Marianne's problem with almost losing all of the photos she has taken over the years.  I'm kind of in the same boat.  There's so many...

One of our first parades at the top of the sled run.

I used to make Swedish Christmas Bread every year.  I love the cardamon spice in them.  The first time I made them was in 1980 when I was a teacher's aide at Hope Elementary in Sue Storasli's third grade classroom.   It was Sue's recipe.  Since I've had to change to a gluten-free diet I've not tried to make this recipe.  Yeast breads do not turn out well with gluten-free flour.   

2015 wreath.

A Sunday at the Kally's cafe in downtown Hope. 

There was Beth and Bruce music.

Those were the days when I used to make wine with our grapes.  The wine in the carboys with blankies, aging away.  

I am not missing the snow that needs to be shoveled in this picture.  

Sheesh!  Nine days to go.  

Wits, Wagers, Craziness and Good Times

 Thanksgiving is a wrap and some of us have moved on to Christmas now.   It has been cloudy and raining here almost every day but this morning we are getting a dusting of the white stuff.  

We enjoyed an action-packed holiday.  First, there was a lot of measuring going on.  Ben is now 15 and we had a cousin height comparison.  It seems that he may soon be taller than Collin who is 6'2".  

There was a "slice of pie" hat this year and everyone had to try it on.  I should also mention that there was a lot of pie.  Pumpkin, banana cream and an apple crisp.  Dessert was a happy time.

Miss Lady ate up all of the attention she could get. 

There was the usual general goofiness from this group.  We welcomed Abby to the mix.  We played the usual card games including some poker and I was the big money winner.  $4.20 in all.  

We then decided that the game we wanted to play was Wits and Wagers.  The only problem was that I couldn't find it in our collection.  The search was on and we all looked everywhere and I have no idea what happened to it.  I have stored it away and who knows where?

That didn't stop us.  We found a web site where we could download the questions, we had poker chips and we made a betting board for the table.  The questions are in the gray bowl on the table in the photo below.  

A sample question, "How many cases of human spontaneous combustion appeared in medical journals between the years of 1600 and 1900?"  Everyone writes down their answer and submits it.  The answers are spread out from lowest to highest.  Place your bet on the answer you think is correct.  10?  25? 100?  50?  (The answer is:  97).  

We enjoyed meeting Abby. She was pretty quiet and Jon kept telling her, "shh!"  She fit right in though took home our flamingo Santa with lights. 

Flamingo Santa in her new home.  Her name is Priscilla.

We missed Dylan and little Jason as Dylan caught a nasty cold virus and opted to stay home.  We hope to see them at Christmas time.

I bought a tripod for my camera and we used it for the first time to get a group photo.  

The "slice of pie" hat makes it's rounds.

The Kalispell and Missoula Burkhart's already have their trees up and decorated.  

All of our Thanksgiving photos were taken by Julie and the Christmas tree photos were sent via text.  Thanks everyone! 

Jon and I have kind of looked for our tree but no decision has been made.  We have plenty of time.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Sunrise and fall hunting memories.

 What a beautiful sunrise this morning.  At about 7:20 a.m. as the sun was rising, I could hear the duck hunters down in Denton Slough.  There must be more ducks in as this is the first time I've heard them shooting at daylight this year. 

Jon, JP and David have had many duck hunting adventures beginning with the one when they had a blind at Pack River.  In their first hunt JP must have been about 12 and David was about 6 years old.  JP had received a .410 shotgun as a gift and it was his first hunting trip.  David wasn't old enough to hunt but he didn't want to be left behind. He did get to take his BB gun on the trip.

I'm sure that part of the enjoyment of hunting is in the planning.  All of the hunting gear and apparel had to be planned and everything laid out the night before.  Trust me, there were many hours of planning the whole trip.  They would need a thermos of hot coffee and another with hot chocolate, plus some sandwiches for breakfast.  Duck hunters in a blind for several hours get hungry! 

I doubt that either JP or David slept much the night before and they got up at 3:00 a.m. to get ready to drive to Pack River.  They put in the canoe in the dark and had flashlights to light the way as they paddled to the blind.  

The blind was built up in some jack pine trees about 10 feet off of the ground.  Jon and cousin Marty Kiebert had built the blind the weekend before. There was a ladder to climb up into it.  They needed to get everything up into the blind before daylight.  There were plenty of ducks that year and geese but the most exciting part was that JP got his first duck that morning. It was a teal that was reportedly flying about a hundred miles and hour and everyone was surprised that he got it.  The trip was a success and they came home with their limit of ducks and one goose.  Somewhere in my collection of 10,000 photos. there's a photo of them with the ducks and the goose, and I spent the better part of an hour searching for it, but I can't find it. 

In later years they would take the canoe from Johnson creek to an island at the mouth of the river and hunt from there.  Sometimes they filled their limit and sometimes not, but they always seemed to enjoy it. 

I could not understand wanting to get up at 3:00 a.m. and go out in the dark, cold morning to hunt, but I will admit that a roast duck dinner is a delicious treat and I have baked a lot of ducks.   I will not say the same for geese.  Over many years I tried every method to roast them and the meat was always tough and disappointing.  It takes a long time to pick all those goose feathers off and eventually it didn't seem worth it.

I hope those duck and goose hunters down at the slough are having fun and staying warm. 

Here's a few photos of the sunrise.  The hunters must have enjoyed it as well.

Sunday is football day.  Have a good one!

Fall 2024 - time's up.

 The last days of the flowers and the garden.  I've been busy getting everything ready for winter.

The flowers on the deck were stunning this year, including all of my volunteer sunflowers. They just kept on bloomin'.

The begonias were beautiful both on the deck and from the view through my window. 

This year our Honeycrisp apple tree finally produced apples.  It was a big surprise.  They're huge and taste really good.  Honeycrisp apple are "keepers" since they will keep almost until spring in the refrigerator in the basement.   

Jon's dahlias had a couple of new varieties.  A stunning red and another one that's a pink blush.   They're our last project in the garden since we wait for a frost before cutting them off.  Then they stay in the ground for about a week before we dig them up to then divide and store for the winter. 

We have a new addition to our house - a robot vacuum.  We're using it to try to keep up with the dog hair on the carpet.  We have a Shark vacuum which is a really great one, but I only use it once a week.  

It took us old folks quite a few tries to figure out how the robot works, but we now have it down.  They say we're supposed to give the robot a name, but we haven't come up with one yet.  Did I mention that it talks to us all the time?  Lady was very suspicious of the thing, but now she's getting used to it.

This little begonia was on our front porch and is still blooming.  It probably only has a couple more days left since we're going to have a hard freeze every night this week.  I might bring it indoors to enjoy the blossoms as long as I can. 

Speaking of robots, this is a robot busboy that son David ran into on a trip to Hong Kong.  I had no idea there was such a thing.  

I've started getting rid of the leaves, but it's a never ending process, at least for the next few weeks.

The deck is empty except for pots stored underneath the picnic table. 

Our rain gauge collected 2 inches of rain yesterday.  Impressive.  

 

Jon and I have sent in our ballots and we're all in for Open Primaries - Prop 1.  We both believe in voting for the best candidate - not the party.  We also don't like the fact that the republican primary is a closed primary and very few voters vote in the primary.  This means that whoever gets elected in the primary on the republican ticket, is sure to win in the general election.   The result is that a very small percentage of voters are deciding who represents us.  It's time to open it all up and let the voters decide and not the party.

We also want elected representatives who support women's health.  Idaho's new laws against that have caused our ob/gyn doctors to leave our area and that is not good news for women who live in Bonner County.