Well Wednesday was another beautiful day with cool temps in the early morning to a really warm almost hot afternoon with high humidity. Needless to say the a/c is back on which is just about right for this time of the year. The sunshine was plentiful as well as I played nearly 2 1/2 hours of pickle ball outside as we had so many B players in the gym. There were 4 of us A players and we played 6 sets of regular scoring outside and when we left we all were soaked with sweat as the morning really started to heat up outside in the bright sunshine. I think the 4 of us will make this our venue as we had great games with lots of action and we all are fairly well matched despite me being the oldest of the 4; but I was on the winning team 5 out of the 6 sets. Age is just a number when it comes to pickle ball.
I started the day with a well before 6 roll out as Nancy had her chain saw running, so I headed into the spare bedroom for a couple hours of rest. Not much sleeping but I did rest in the strange bed which I have to visit occasionally when she just will not respond to quit snoring. I think the added weight is the culprit which came as a result of menopause, oh well. I did my usual routines that start with the hot green tea laced with turmeric while I posted this ramble then spent some quiet time with my Creator and Lord while lifting up several by name. All seem as well as can be expected. I got ready and headed out to the Rec. on my bike and got in a couple games inside the gym when the flood gates opened with B and C players so as I mentioned above, the four of us took our game outside and once there we can play as long as we want as there is no time limit on the outside court.
I stopped off at the library for a couple new reads before heading home to hand water the new seedlings and then work in the garden until lunch time. I set out three tomato seedlings which finally got large enough for the garden. These were also volunteers but I knew where these came from and it was a large tomato that turned rotten in the mountains that Kay had given me. I should have brought more of them back as small seedlings but at least I got three that lived. I also sowed some old tomato seeds as well as some marigold seeds. For some reason all of the marigold heads I saved from last years crop here in Florida never germinated. Maybe it was just too hot in the shed over the summer.
It got so hot after lunch that I had to sit in the shade of the back yard oak and read for a couple hours until the air cooled down with a nice breeze. I started again around 4 'ish hand watering the gardens and then pulling weeds again in the front yards where I had been watering. I stayed out until 5:30 when Nancy mentioned lets eat some spaghetti squash which was so much better than the last one we prepared at the cabin; most of which went into the compost pile but his one last night was delicious with ginger and honey that accompanied a really nice salmon filet she baked in the oven since it was already hot from the squash.
I did give away a couple messes of Swiss chard and kale to aunt Betsy and neighbor Carol as these two veggies are exploding with growth. Tyler is supposed to come this morning and get some extra Swiss chards for his garden as well as some herbs and whatever else he has room for. The kale, collards and lettuces from seeds have given me so many seedlings I have no space left in the garden to plant them. I'm hoping Bobby will take some home with him when he leaves after supper tonight.
Well after the cleanup we tuned into the Fox Cable News and once more see where the failing liberal dems are sinking with their hoax impeachment plans. Americans are wising up to their bias against this potus and its showing in the polls. I headed in to watch the Lightning lose to St.Louis 4-3 at home, oh well. Today Thanksgiving there will be plenty of football on the TV which will help with digesting the awesome meal Nancy is preparing for the family. along with dishes from Amy and Betsy. It will be just the immediate family for a change and 13 places will be set using the kitchen table for the kiddos. We as a nation have so much to be thankful for and I can never understand why the libs want to change our culture to a failed socialist ideology and economy. It just blows me away when there are so many who enjoy this lifestyle but want to change it in a power grab to reduce others to a failed way of life. Power corrupts absolutely and the dems are trying their best to achieve that with this agenda of destroying our duly elected Trump. We ALL must show up at the voting booths next November to reassure this nation will never become like Venezuela and Cuba just to mention a few. God Bless this nation and those who want whats best for ALL, LATER
I'll reminisce a little as this day growing up we always butchered our hogs on Thanksgiving day. It was always very cold and sometimes even a lite snow on the ground. I would gather barrels of water from a local small creek the night before as a lot of water was used for this process. The sloshed water would freeze in the bed of the truck as I use a bucket and rope to bring the water up from the bridge into the barrels. The fires were started around 5 in the morning with kettles of water boiling as well as a fire under the scalding tank which was to loosen the hair and dirt from the hogs which had been shot and killed. There were triangle poles which had hooks to hang the scalded hogs of their hair and dirt and which allowed the head butcher to open the stomach cavity and let the intestines fall into a washing tub. We did this usually to at least 4 and mostly 5 hogs through out the early morning hours until all were cleaned of their hair and dirt.
Several other neighbors were splitting the hogs in half as they cut the meat into hams and shoulders for curing and tubs were being filled with red meat parts for grinding later into sausage. Kettles were heating for the fat parts as well other black iron kettles were cooking some meats that would be used for another process called pudding meat and then scrapple was made which was a process where cornmeal and herbs were added to the broth from these pudding meats later in the day. We always had plenty of cracklins which were the skin portion of the belly fat that were rendered into lard and poured into 5 gallon cans. This was our shortening for the year. This was an all day job that saw as many as a dozen folks preparing the various steps in this butchering process. Lots of the meat was distributed to these helpers. We always had fresh pork liver for the thanksgiving day dinner and what we did not eat went into the pudding meat kettle along with the hearts and other lean meats. That in a nutshell was butchering day that started around 5 and lasted well unto the night by the time the process for curing the hams and shoulders were completed with brown sugar, red and black pepper wrapped in brown paper and placed into cloth sacks and hung in the smoke house. We never smoked anything but the building was called the smoke house any how. I do miss that day some what as it was exciting to have fresh meat and this event allowed me to know how to butcher large animals for our food, LATER
