Good Golly Miss

Molly!

Meet the newest addition to my Baby Bro and S.I.L.’s household.  Molly is 3 months old and is the new dog in the cathouse.  Fortunately she was brought up around cats and leaves the cats alone except for trying to get one of the three of them to play with her.

And just what is it about a dog’s paw that is so fascinating?  Perhaps the Frito smell that they all seem to have or it could be just the wonderful mixture of textures.  I don’t have a clue, I just think they are wonderful mixture of  utility and beauty.  Oh, well… You all know I’m a little strange by now and this is one of the odd things I find very appealing.

I’m in Fort Worth at Ben and Diane’s.  My youngest sib and his wife.  Ben traditionally works on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day to give other doctors who might have family to visit that require travel an extra day off.  Since both of our parents and both of Diane’s parents are gone Ben and Diane do Thanksgiving usually on the Saturday after.  That way their kids can feel comfortable about visiting their spouse’s family and be able to give thanks for all of our blessings and share a meal with whomever can get here to visit.   In other words, we are blessed with more than one Thanksgiving repast.

Speaking of which…

The cooks did a wonderful job at our house…

Jeff is practicing and loosening up his jaw muscles for the feast.  No, actually he was getting the dressing out of the stove for his mom and touched his finger to something hot and I just happened to be taking pictures at the time and I got this photo.  He will probably kill me for it but if he gives me grief I’ll tell him I’m going to post it on FaceBook if he messes with me, the ‘Other Mother’, too much.

. Carol and our friend Datha… both are wonderful cooks.  I asked Datha to come and play at our house for Thanksgiving and then to pup sit my girls so I can make the quick run to Ft. Worth for the weekend.

Carol’s sister baked the turkey and a turkey breast because the turkey Carol got was smaller than usual and she wanted to make sure that all of us white meat eaters had plenty to eat.

Now that’s a beautiful bird and it was so moist.  I have to give credit where credit is due. 

Dressing… I’m not a big fan of dressing but thought I’d share what was on the menu with you all.

  Soul sweet potatoes.  This is probably my second favorite of the holiday dishes that Carol makes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Oh, boy, this stuff is good and I don’t even care for sweet potatoes except for this and sweet potato pie.

Spanish green beans…  Tomatoes, onion, bacon, green beans and a bit of cayenne to give it some ‘hello mama’ kick. We also had mashed potatoes and my favorite, giblet gravy but I didn’t take pictures of that.  I swear I could put it in a cup and drink it if I had the chance.  Our friend Scotty also brought over 2 pecan pies, a pumpkin pie and a black walnut pie.

Jeff and the girls.  One for each hand.  I love this young man. He is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a child and he is delightful.  Grumpy, very talented, dry wit with a hint (or more) of sarcasm but he is a good guy and very helpful to his mom and his ‘other mother’.  This is the bunch of us that shared in our wonderful dinner. L-R-Yours truly, Carol, Jeff, Datha and Carol’s sister Nancy behind her and Scotty and the four-legged one is SueSue making sure there was no turkeys other than us on the floor.

I’ll try to get photos to share with you all on my second Thanksgiving, tomorrow… well, actually today since it is four in the morning and I’m having trouble sleeping but that’s another story for another day.  I’m going to turn off the light and try to get a little sleep before helping get the food going for one o’clock lunch.

The Finished Job…

My baby brother sent me these photos… He came in from his shift at Fast Track at the hospital where he works about 11 p.m. on last Wednesday night, heard the ruckus and knew what was happening.   He managed to snap a shot of yours truly doing one of the things I most love to do… DEMOLITION.   I had my hammer drill with the chisel bit and I was gettin’ it done.  He knows how much I love my power tools.  And while a lot of times when I’m really concentrating on what I’m doing I might stick my tongue out of the corner of my mouth,  ala Michael Jordan, I do NOT do it when using my hammer drill because the dust is gritty and tastes nasty.  Anyway, after he did the caulking around the firebox he was kind enough to send me a photo of the finished project.

By the way… that is mostly my t-shirt hanging down, not my belly… 

But here is the finished project and it was done and dry for them to entertain probably about 30 family members for Thanksgiving today.

And they were thankful for so very many things, but one of them I know for sure is that I ran down and helped bust out the old tile that they had been wanting to change out for several years and then helping get it all back together in time for Thanksgiving.

And it’s good to know that there are folks in this world that are thankful for me… at least once in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with many blessings.  I know that despite everything else in my life I have many more blessings than woes and all of you that stop by and visit and have become my friends through this blogging world are right up there after my family, and once in a while, before them…

It's All About The Bird Today

What better day to talk turkey than today. No fowl is more famous than the turkey. They are known for their big breasts and their stupidity despite the fact that they are not blonde. They, if raised properly, can also be very sweet.

Henny Penny is such a bird. She lives in a turkey pen at my niece's place with 15 0r 18 other turkeys. When I did my baby-sitting job, or rather chicken and turkey sitting stint, for my niece and her hubs last March is when I became acquainted with Henny Penny

When I was doing the walk-through with Laura about who to feed what and how and where to clean and fill the water containers for the chickens and the turkeys, Laura told me about Henny. A lot of times when you go into the turkey enclosure, Henny will decide that it's time for some loving and will fly up on your shoulder. If you aren't aware of this possibility, it can be disconcerting when a 20 pound turkey is coming at you.


As if on cue, not a minute after we entered the pen, here came H.P. She will sit on your shoulder and likes for you to stroke her breast feathers and she will go to sleep, cuddled up to your cheek.

Another thing you will want to know if you ever go in a turkey pen is they like gold shiny things... did I mention blonde earlier? The reason I'm holding onto my head is another turkey was on the roosting bar behind me that had pecked out my earring (thankfully she dropped it and I was able to recover it) and was pecking at the gold adjustment buckle on the back of my hat. And they can deliver a thump like a second grade teacher used to be able to deliver, back in the olden days before child abuse suits.

The other thing about H.P. ... if she's not had enough lovin' by the time you off-load her onto the roosting bar, she will come back for more. I just managed to catch this shot on the fly (as it were) and I knew I was in for another round of a 20 pound bird landing on my shoulder. (Better than 20 lbs. of turkey poop landing on my shoulder.)

Needless to say, Henny Penny is nobody's dinner today. My niece and I both love her and she's a good layer and cuddler. What more could you ask for out of a turkey. A "blonde" turkey at that.

I hope all of you out here in our blog-sphere have a wonderful and thankful day today. Thanksgiving is all about doing just that, giving thanks for our blessings, no matter how small, and one of the many things I'm thankful for is my experience with Henny Penny. Another blessing is being able to share it with all of you.

So all you good cooks out there, go ahead... Strutt your stuffing. Those of us who love good cooks will count our blessings and, hopefully, remember to thank those good cooks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good morning.