Thanksgiving at our house.

This year Thanksgiving dinner was held at our house. We cleaned, dusted and vacuumed. We cleaned out the "new family room" (Will calls it the sun porch). We had it already to set up with the tables and chairs and then family arrived. I was in the kitchen cooking when my Aunt walked through the door. She sat down on a chair to talk to me while I cooked. Then my 2 sisters and brother in law walked in and they all pulled up a chair. We all ate muchies and talked while I cooked dinner. When it came time to go out to the other room, none of us went. We all were having such a good time right there that we all just stayed. It was kind of funny. Most of you know how I cook. I cook tons of food and try to make sure that there is enough. Here we all were sitting at this table covered with tons of food, making a little area for our plate to set while we ate and talked some more. It was a great time with lots of laughing.

Work is really picking up and I'm glad. I love the holiday season. The hours are long, but delivery Christmas joy to everyone is a pleasure and in some ways an honor. Every Christmas card brings a smile and a little happiness. It's great!

I have been working on getting Will's 2010 vacation calendar figured out. He has to turn in his requests on January 4th. Knowing now what we will do next year is not easy. I can pretty much decide a couple of weeks ahead, but he has to really plan it out. Well, I have to really plan it out and then run it past him. It isn't easy.

Well, time to get people off to school and me off to work.
Have a great day.
dea

Black Squirrels

On my route I have a few black squirrels. It's really interesting that in Florida you see white squirrels and in Wisconsin we have black ones. This one is very friendly (as far as squirrels go). He sits there and looks at me and doesn't run away when I am very near. I guess he doesn't see me as a threat since I come and mess around there every day and then I leave. He sure can get himself into funny situations. He tries to carry these huge walnuts and hickory nuts that are twice as big as his head and then get them up the tree. Usually he gives up and comes back down the tree and goes to bury them somewhere else. I can't help but waste a few minutes watching him. I call it my lunch break and then I head out and he goes on with his life. I think he's pretty neat. Just some more of that useless information that I head rolling around in my head. Have a great day.
dea

Black Squirrels...

Fall color

View from the top of the ridge down through the trees

Fall color...

The fall color around here was very strange this year due to the lack of rain during the summer and the cooler temperatures. The corn took forever to ripen and the tomatoes didn't really start ripening until late August. Weird. Suddenly mid October things started to really color up (must have something to do with the almost 5 inches of rain in October). The reds were pretty much done, but the yellows and oranges started.

On my route there is one ridge that I drive over that I have a great view on both sides clear down to the bottom of the valley on both sides. Both of those hillsides turned completely yellow. There were no other colored trees for the most part for almost 1/2 mile. It was beautiful when the sun would shine. It seemed to glow.

Right when the color peaked...disaster! We got 35-40 mph winds. There are no leaves left on any of the trees for the most part. Naked! Here I was looking forward to my drive during the day enjoying the fall colors. Not any more. Now I get to enjoy the unobstructed views.

The funny thing is that many of the people in town had their lawns all raked and out in the street ready for the city vacuum thinger ma jiggy thing to come and suck them up.....right. That wind hit and now they are all out raking the neighbors leaves that blew into their yard. Not only did they get to rake their leaves they got to rake someone elses. It just goes to show you that people like me that don't rake very often are smart. Why rake twice when you can put it off until spring?

Have a great day.
dea

About Honor and Blessing...

I have been following a pair of eagles this year since starting my new route. I named them Honor and Glory (Glory is the girl). I had named them Honor and Regal, but Will said I could not name the bird Regal Eagle. I agreed. Well, Honor and Glory had a daughter this year. I watched her grow, learn to fly by flapping from branch to branch and finally take full flight. It has been a dream come true for someone who loves eagles.

I know that the offspring is a girl because she already outweighs her father by quite a bit. Male eagles are smaller than their mates. For some reason, the girl spends more time with her father than her mother. I don't know if he is the better teacher or what. I'll have to study on that one. It took me a long time to name her, but her name is now Blessing.

The other day I was out on the route and they were in a tree right above the road. I stopped and spoke to them and enjoyed a lunch break while watching them. I took pictures, but because of the overcast day, they didn't turn out too well. You can see the outline though. The bird on the right is Blessing. She is brown with white patches. She does not have a full white head yet, like her parents, but when the wind blows her feathers show white underneath on her head (like she had a bad dye job done). She is beautiful. On the left is Honor. You can see the size difference. On his left is a squirrel's nest so that is not another bird.

Just wanted to share.
dea

Honor and Blessing...

I'm So Sorry...

....I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Oh well. This time it's for going so long between posts. It isn't that we haven't anything to say or show but just not the time and energy to do it. Deanna has been going nuts with her camera phone and I was hoping that by now she would be able to post some of them but she works so hard that it just hasn't happened. My excuse? Well, I was kinda hoping to blame it all on her but I can't. I haven't worked the last two days; so, no excuses there. We installed a new front door to replace the old ugly one that has been there since this house was a convenience store. It was pretty rusted and hanging from it's hinges. A great big Thank You to Deanna's Dad Dave. I tore out the old one (the easy job) and he installed the new one (the hard job). Another thank you to Dave because he gave us the new door. He used to have it in his house for a little while but decided to do something else. So, he had to reinstall a door that had been installed before. If you've ever done that, you realize it's a lot harder to do (right) than to put in a new one. It's beautiful and waiting for me to finish trimming out. I should have that done by spring....maybe. Hopefully, I can get Deanna to post a picture of it.

She also has a couple of pics of some of the Bald Eagles on her route. There's a story that goes with them, so maybe you can get it all together.

Well, Jacob has a choir concert tonight and we're on our way but I couldn't put this (and you) off any longer; I couldn't stand the guilt!

God Bless!

Will.