November 27, 2011

Our Friday afternoon walk

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  The almost identical dinner Friday evening.  The cranberry and turkey sandwiches.  The turkey casseroles.  The cranberry and turkey sandwiches.  You can have all that any other time of the year, but it just doesn't taste the same.  I stripped the carcass of most of the meat Thursday evening and put it in a pot for soup.  Cooked the broth, then made the soup on Friday adding just seasonings, onion, carrots and rice.  We had some for dinner last night and the rest went into the freezer, along with several packages of meat.  All vacuum sealed.  As I was pulling the wish bone off and cleaning it, I remembered that last year I had set it up on the kitchen windowsill to dry.  The next morning it was gone!  I eventually found it on the kitchen floor where a mouse must have pulled it.  Won't do that again.  (That makes it sound like we have mice all over the place, but we really don't.)

With just the two of us Up Here, I don't make Thanksgiving dinner the grand buffet I would if we have guests.  But one tradition I always keep, wherever we are, is using my maternal grandmother's Wedgwood gravy boat and my paternal grandmother's cranberry glass dish for the cranberries.  Small but very meaningful, bringing back many cherished memories.

JB drove Down There on Friday to buy the kit he needed to reskore the bolts on MAX's axle extender.  I made him drive around Rose Camp first to be sure the ice underneath the snow wouldn't be a problem for his Jeep.  Didn't seem to be, so off he went.  Turns out it was much easier than either of us had anticipated.  Perhaps we have been more timid than need be in going Down There in the snow.  JB has attended two Jeep Jamborees with his Jeep Wrangler, so he has learned just what his vehicle is capable of.  Now we really know what it can do.

While he was gone, I made the soup and cleaned the house a bit.  Then I chipped away the ridge of ice that had formed in front of the garbage/recycle shed door so I could put the garbage in.  I'm thinking that maybe we should have put the door on the side of the shed, instead of on the end where the snow and water run off the edge of the roof.  I also had to clean the snow off the deck, but the wind had helped with that, so it wasn't too bad.

When JB went out to fix MAX on Saturday afternoon, he realized that the one die he needed was not in the kit he purchased.  So he came in and asked me if I wanted to make a "quick" trip Down There with him.  Oh, why not.  I threw on my coat and boots.  Grabbed some extra outerwear and our emergency backpack.  Called the dogs, and we were off.  Just like he described his trip of the day before, it was actually easier than driving down in the mud.  Even with the ice.  But it was one of those times that he should have called beforehand, as Lowes and Home Depot do not sell the dies separately.  And the store that does is closed on the weekend.  It is amazing how many stores are closed on the weekend in Wenatchee.  We picked up the mail, some newspapers and an eggnog latte, then headed back home.  Even though we didn't get what we went for, it was an adventure and a beautiful ride, well worth the latte alone.  

In the winter, and often during the rest of the year, we always take at least one of our two emergency backpacks with us when we go Down There.  RJ gave them to us for our first Christmas Up Here.  They contain basic survival and medical supplies should something happen on the way up or down our road.

JB was going to call Larry today and ask if he has the die we need.  Larry has every tool known to man, and has insisted many times that we borrow his rather than spend our money on buying tools.  But he and Elsie actually came up to visit last night, and Larry suggested an alternative to reskoring the bolts.  Seems you can hammer them out and replace them.  We kept the several axles we have had to replace and they all have good bolts in them.  So that will be our project for today - after our Sunday breakfast which will include scrambled eggs with crumbled bacon we saved from the top of the turkey.  Yummm!

Thought for the day: The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.