Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving feasts traditionally take place in the early afternoon, but Griffin was going to work that day so I planned to have our turkey meal in the evening. Gregg, Sarah, and Ursula arrived at 11 AM and Griff came home early, so we were really glad to see food on the table when 6 o'clock rolled around.

Meanwhile, it was a balmy day and I mentioned to Gregg that I hadn't been able to get the spade into the earth to dig up the last bed of carrots. Chunks of cold earth stuck to the carrots, but he was able to get the best of the crop out of the ground!

He brought the carrots up the hill to my garden shed and set up one of the hoses so he could wash most of the dirt away before the carrots came indoors.

Ursula helped him at first, but then got busy clearing the lawn of small branches hurricane Sandy had knocked down.She filled the toboggan and then tossed the branches into the underbrush where Mother Nature can take care of them.

Griffin came home a little early and decided it was the perfect day to get rid of the small tree that had fallen across the field during that same storm.

                                                                                                                                                                        

Since he had Gregg to help, the next job Griff tackled was to put the solar panels into their winter position...

The winter position is almost completely vertical to catch the low sun, as well as let snow easily slide off.

One of my goals is to get green plants to hide the concrete bases. I don't mind looking at the panels, but the concrete isn't aesthetically pleasing!

There are actually a few sprigs of a small bush next to Gregg's right foot. It was just planted this past summer and it'll take a few years before that bush helps. Obviously, since it loses its leaves, even then it isn't going to help much during the cold months. 

Ursula read about what she would need in order to find some fairies. She needed salt...not a problem. Metal was on the list, but it was in the binoculars and in the toy bugle she borrowed. (I'm not sure why she wanted the bugle...it wasn't on the list in her book.) She also needed some greens and flower petals. I could locate those easily. Everything went into her over-the-shoulder sack.

By then the turkey was in the oven so I was free to keep her company...

I almost forgot...she also needed to be wearing green! That's Grandma's green sweatshirt completing her fairy search outfit.

Her first observation post was on the upper deck where she could look down on the bird feeders outside my nook windows. She had a small notebook in which she carefully drew what she was hoping to see.

Eventually we walked over to the neighbors' deck where there were dense evergreens that enabled birds and other small creatures to hide inside.

No fairies sighted so we headed for the tree house that Griffin had built across the road in hopes of spotting coyotes some day.

The next day the green sweatshirt got left behind as we checked out that tree house again.

I made it up the ladder, but didn't try to actually climb into the box, much less straddle the tree branch while standing on the edges of the box.

If you look closely, you can see the salt shaker sitting on the canning jar. The latter still holds some salad greens and red flower petals from one of my house plants.

Since fairies apparently like bright colors, Ursula had William wearing all of my Mardi Gras beads.

William cooperated by keeping us company, but his decorations didn't attract any fairies that we could see. 

Meanwhile, the fellows took over the upper deck. It's a great place to shoot from. The squirrels disappeared so they were enjoying target practice.

I wasn't about to join the crowds on Black Friday (the name for the day after Thanksgiving when big stores offer limited bargains to create a shopping madness). Instead, I suggested a trip to a local bookstore, Misty Valley Books, owned by Bill and Lynne Reed. (Bill taught for a year in France before being the French teacher at Black River HS during many of the years I taught there as well.)

Ursula jumped at the chance to go to a book store. She had $5 to spend and found a book for that amount of money. Then she found a small catnip pillow for $3. I told her I'd buy the book so she could buy the catnip. 

The catnip pillow was for Jennie who immediately became drunk with pleasure. She definitely was funny to watch until she was totally worn out and fell asleep. I had left out some books about Shakespeare and the Globe. Ursula noticed them and settled down to satisfy her curiosity...(that's Bob in the background.)

The pumpkin pie was made with pumpkins I grew in 2011. I still have more in the freezer, but figure it will be safe to grow more pumpkins next summer.

Over the years I have kept the Legos that my two boys played with when they were young. Out they came for Ursula. Sarah enjoyed her knitting while keeping an eye on her daughter.

The other weekend "guests" were the big bears! They often become floor pillows or dance partners.

When Ursula and her parents left, the bears went back to their off-duty resting places...the smallest one to the child's rocker in the attic bedroom and the largest to Griff's parlor on the loft where it fills one of the overstuffed chairs.

They will all be back to celebrate Christmas...

Jean-Marie

 Students from Saint Gaudens, France visited Black River High School and one of their chaperones stayed at my home. Jean-Marie was a delightful guest! His English was much better than my French. Still, we kept the dictionary nearby since his conversations went well beyond everyday needs.

Since he was a math teacher, I introduced him to the tile game of Rummykub. For his first weekend we visited Jack and Linda Weltner in Marblehead, Massachusetts. They have a beautiful home close to the Atlantic Ocean. We visited the Salem Witch Museum and the Peabody Museum and played a few games of Rummykub before heading home.

The next day Mary joined us and we headed for Fort Ticonderoga. It was closed, of course. Pas de problème. We parked my car and hiked in. (My muscles felt that for days!)

The next weekend we had lunch at Café Provence in Brandon, Vermont and then continued north. Norton's Gallery (see an earlier post for pictures of his carvings) was closed so we went on to the Morgan Horse Farm and then to the Morgan Museum in Middlebury.

Above is the statue of Justin Morgan's horse that started this Vermont breed. And to the right is Jean-Marie in a typical pose because he took pictures of everything. One day he actually left his camera at home. Fortunately, I had brought mine along and later he downloaded the pictures he had taken with my little, uncomplicated, camera so he could transfer them to his computer. After that experience, he always had his camera with him.

This is what we saw the next day...

We were heading for Howe Caverns in New York State. This store is actually in New York! Jean-Marie said the one figure on the roof was Napoleon Bonaparte. I suggested that it might be Samuel de Champlain. We didn't stick around to ask, but we both took a picture!

At Howe Caverns we first listened to a "talking" mannequin that was supposed to be the farmer who discovered the cave when his cows would always hang out by a few bushes in the middle of his field on hot days instead of staying in the shade under some trees. Cold air from the small cave opening kept the cows cool. It's always 50 degrees Fahrenheit down there.

Now-a-days there is an elevator and walkways with railings...and boats.

  That's a stream running alongside of the walkway. It eventually gets deep and wide enough for a boat ride!

Our group filled up the two boats that are docked here. The seats are padded, but they flip over the one section when people are getting on and off so that they don't step on the padding.

There was one area where the water was wide enough so that three boats could have been side by side. The river continues on into a quarry, but the boat ride ends long before reaching the quarry. Bats live in that section, away from the lights and noise.

Another section of the cavern is narrow and so winding that the person in front and behind tends to be out of sight around a bend. I called Jean-Marie so that he would come back around the corner. That's how I was able to get this picture.

On his last day, after school I took him to a local artist's gallery and then to the Vermont Country Store which is the most famous store in Vermont. He managed to find all sorts of things to take back to France. 

He had made a goal of beating me at Rummykub before leaving Vermont...and on his last night he succeeded handsomely with some really impressive moves! I didn't help him and I didn't see it coming. Well done!

Given a few years and a little luck, maybe I'll get a rematch with Jean-Marie in France...

Halloween

I try to leave some sort of decoration behind when I run out of flowers and pick up the vases at school for the last time. this year every teacher got a black cat with whiskers. I was able to buy sticky pumpkins which hid the paper clip I used to hold up my cat. I also bought leaves of different colors as a base so if the gourd from my garden happened to rot, it wouldn't make a mess on anyone's desk.

People decorate their yards for Halloween almost as much as they do for Christmas. This year, as there were expectations of Sandy's high winds, people were asked to put away those Halloween decorations before the storm and before the holiday itself.

The wind and rain arrived, but on my road we only lost a few tree limbs, one tree and one power pole. Our electricity was out for about 20 hours. We were delighted to see this fellow and the rest of his crew...  

Later that week I noticed that some people had gone to the trouble of getting their Halloween decorations out again...

or this witch managed to stay on her broom throughout the storm.


Another family decided that they would look ahead to Thanksgiving with the silliest turkey I've ever seen.

Here the biggest pumpkins turned moldy, maybe as a protest to having sat outdoors during Sandy's wet weather, but what a great collection of carved pumpkins!


And then there are people who don't bother carving their small pumpkins, but do handle them with a sense of humor! This old fellow is held up by his cane as he hangs out (pun intended) on the main street in Rutland, Vermont...

Mary and I circled around the block and even pulled into the driveway to get this picture! And she can't wait to see how he looks in this blog...























Strange creatures seem to show up for Halloween...

And Halloween is a harbinger of snow. Here's Terrible Mountain just across the valley from my house...

And a beaver has found my pond. This dinghy is resting on a wooden trailer which was on dry land.

The beaver has raised the water level in the pond and now the back of the dinghy is under water! There is water all around it!

I now must ponder how to rescue my dinghy!

Margery's RV Adventure

Gary was off for a week of hunting with some of his buddies. Margery had purchased an RV and it was ready. She left for the dealership.

The salesman spent 2 hours with her, explaining how to work all the gadgets. After the RV was finally hitched to her truck, she headed home.

She had to back it up a steep and bumpy driveway. That was a bit of a challenge, but she managed and parked her new baby in front of the house.

That's the RV bedroom in the back

She was a bit surprised to find the front door unlocked, but figured she had forgotten in her excitement. Before heading upstairs she decided to toss a load of laundry into the washing machine.

Mother Nature called so she climbed the stairs to use the bathroom. When she stepped out of the bathroom, the door to her bedroom was directly in front of her. She immediately knew something was wrong because she could see a small cabinet in the middle of the room that belonged in her closet.


The safe that was bolted to the floor of her closet had been bashed in. Robbers had tried to get it open. They had smashed it so badly that Margery was also unable to open it. Apparently they had heard her arrival with the RV, had gone out the rear door, looked around the corner of the house, saw her backing up the driveway, dropped the monster maul they had been using, and raced off through the woods.

They need to teach one of their cats to bark like a big, ferocious dog.

Years ago Margery had convinced me that I needed a safe. I bought the same one she had purchased, but I never used mine. It was taking up space I wanted for other things.

A few days later I happily delivered my safe to its new home with Margery and Gary. They have put it to good use and I'm loving the space I've gained!

An Outing with Bob

Bob's sister, Verna, and her husband, Tom, invited Bob and me to join them for a slow train ride to see the fall colors. Since it was nearing the end of October and the best colors had faded, we decided to add to the trip by making a stop at Vermont's Montshire Museum.

It was a sunny day. We met at White River Junction and climbed aboard an old Green Mountain Railroad dining car which meant we had a table to sit at...

I found out that while Verna was in the Army she had earned a train engineer's license! She and her brother share an affinity for trains.

This is a scenic train. It doesn't go very fast. Thank goodness, because it gently rocked from side to side as it traveled forward.

Most of the time we followed beside the Connecticut River...

The engine car was never moved so for the return trip it was pushing the train. We got off at the Montshire Museum and had a few hours before the train would be coming by again to pick us up.

It was after noon. Snacks were sold on the train, but I assumed a museum would have a cafeteria where we could get lunch. I should never make assumptions! There were only a couple of vending machines!

The fish tank was interesting. These were fish that actually live in the rivers and lakes of Vermont.

There was an explanation for why turtle shells are built differently. Both snapping and painted turtles live in slow moving water, but the bottom shells of the painted turtles are streamlined because they swim after their prey. Snapping turtles have relatively small bottom shells to give them better mobility for snatching prey that swims past them. 

The directions say to set up 12 matchsticks to look like this and then to move 4 of the sticks to create 3 squares instead of the 4 squares. Give it a try. I haven't figured it out yet...but I will.

These metal bars and the rubber hammer were for making music outdoors. Little kids were having a great time with this...and I just had to try it out as well!

The pipes in the picture below had several small hammers so real musicians could create harmony. The rest of us would just have fun with weird melodies.

There was a huge enclosed environment for leaf cutter ants and a magnifier that could be moved to keep track of the queen...the monster in the middle...and project what was happening onto the overhead screen.


There was another machine that showed happenings in slow motion. It was really neat to see the splash of a dropped glass of milk.



A Vermont museum would not be complete without a moose... 

Back on the train we ended up on the same side of the car so there really weren't different pictures to take.

The banjo player was still entertaining our crowd.


And then we were back where we started from. Bob climbed onto the platform to get a better look at this old-timer!