Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. As a kid, it was the day we ate to excess of whatever we shot. The table would be loaded with geese, ducks and rabbits along with all the fixings. Usually, we had the Toledo end of the family out and had a great time. Mornings were given over to hunting and sometimes the afternoons as well.
It's different now. Instead of hunting, it's now days of cleaning the house. The morning is given over to last minute cleaning and cooking. The main course is turkey from the store. Much of the fixings are from the store and some not even home cooked. It's a different Toledo end of the family now but still a pretty good time.
When one is a fan of Thanksgiving, it's depressing to watch the stores skip over Thanksgiving. They all go directly from Halloween to Christmas. Yes, I know that it's all about money and Thanksgiving doesn't bring enough in to maintain their attention but I don't find it proper.
Maybe people are too well fed. Maybe food is too cheap and available to be thankful for having enough to get through to the next harvest season. Maybe that will change.

The Road Home

Saturday, we boarded the bus and headed back. We rode for hours, playing games and listening to clean jokes. We stopped for the night a a good motel in New Jersey. We marveled at the sheets that stayed on the bed and the toilet paper that didn't need folding. It even had an Internet connection so I could get back in touch with the world.
After a good nights sleep, we had a good breakfast and boarded the bus to the casino. The Foxwood Casino complex is supposed to be the largest stand-alone casino in the world. It's pretty cheesy. The slots were screwed down tight and it lacked the class of a Vegas theft pit. We did have excellent grouper sandwiches at one of the eateries.
After donating the last of our money to the natives, we boarded the bus for home. After many hours of bingo and religious movie, we arrived back in Oak Harbor. Finally reaching home, we found ourselves involved in heavy petting of cats. It's good to be home.

Miscellaneous notes on Cape Cod

On Food
Generally, the meals were better than diner fare but not by much. They bore the sameness of of food service companies everywhere. Don't mention strawberry shortcake to the tour group members. Every night, it was stale sheet cake with strawberry syrup on top and a spurt of whipped cream. We reached the point where the rumor that the last nights dessert would be chocolate mousse excited us. It wasn't chocolate mousse, it was chocolate cake but only for some. We got stale white sheet cake with chocolate frosting and were thankful even then. It wasn't strawberries.
Stacey enjoyed her lobster dinner. I had chicken.

On Swamps
“ On your left, you will see another fine example of a salt marsh.” I seemed like we heard that every few minutes. They're swamps, ok. I grew up in a swamp. I've hunted swamps and spent a good part of my life trying to keep the farms from going back to swamps. I know swamps. Yes, I know these are an important part of the ecosystem and are important to fisheries but it's still a swamp. It's going to be filled with biting bugs in the summer and dangerous to traverse in the winter. It's a swamp. Move on.

On Sites of Historical Significance
We were taken to the site of the first glass factory. It consists of a mis-shaped piece of concrete in some poor souls back yard. This house was an important tavern, that bar used to be someones famous house. The whole area has been lived in so long that its historical background has been churned like ice cream. I guess it's why I like Living History events. I like trying to live in a historical period for a little while. It gives a better perspective. We did get to a museum to the area. Not bad. I thought it covered the early history well with some fair exhibits.

Boston

Back on the bus and off to Boston after breakfast. We drove through cityscapes until ending up in Boston. We drove around looking at parks and buildings for a while and ended up near the shopping district downtown. I should take the time to note that we were able to get a good look at the statue of the Civil War General Hooker. It was good to see the statue to the man who lent his name to an entire class of entertainers.Since it was close to lunchtime, we hunted up a restaurant with a cheap lobster dinner for Stacey. I had chicken livers as I don't care for lobster. As much as I like chicken livers, 4 people couldn't eat that much liver.
We headed back to where the bus dropped us off to an outdoor market. We bought seckel pears, a coconut and some kind of brown thing that Stacey is threatening to cook. We found a magnificent cheese shop and bought several cheeses that we had never seen before. I can highly recommend Fromager D'Affinois . Buy it in small amounts. If you ate as much as you really wanted, I'm pretty sure it would kill you. It's a Brie-like cheese but with a Much higher fat content. The Moursin and Old Goat Gouda were great, too.
With time to kill, we went to the regular shopping area but it was all pretty normal stuff. There was a bar that was a replica of Cheers! but Norm wasn't there.
Back on the bus to the Boston Navy Yard, home of the U.S.S.Constitution. We took a walk through the museum which was ok but the ship is under reconstruction again and the security to enter it is airport level now so there wasn't time for a tour. They were rebuilding the gundeck and all the cannons were lined up on the wharf. That was cool but no firing allowed.
Back on the bus and out of Boston via The Big Dig, the overcost, long delayed and generally unsafe tunnel under the river to our motel.

Plymouth

Plymouth is where the pilgrims finally settled down. Somewhere nearby, they walked off the Mayflower stepping on a rock that was inconveniently placed for tourism and subsequently moved here. Someone carved a 1620 on it and then a nice enclosure was built around it. In time, a complex of souvenir shops and moderately priced seafood restaurants grew around it. All this is under the view of a statue of Chief Massasoit who helped the Pilgrims survive.
We ate in the native guide suggested restaurant and then escaped. Climb the hill one block and you find modern Plymouth. It's a nice little town. We wandered through a pawn shop, a Brazilian convenience store, a tea shop and a good chocolate shop. We ran out of time but it was a lot better than all the cheap souvenir stores. There did seem to be quite a few idle individuals of the drunk and homeless sort. It's not a place that I'd choose to winter over.

Provincetown

Provincetown was the first place the Pilgrims landed in the New World. They promptly got back on the boat and headed to Plymouth since there was no fresh water to be had there. Modern Provincetown has its water piped in and is a thriving tourist destination. According to our guide, Provincetown is 50% homosexual. I believe his estimate to be low. There are some nice stores offering a wide variety of clothes, jewelry and leather goods. The ice cream was excellent and the Portuguese bakery was good. I found the public library and they had a BOOK SALE going on. We bought yet another cookbook.
There's a nice wharf in the harbor where Stacey found some sea turtle earrings. She put them on immediately but refused the little rubber keepers for the back. By evening, she'd lost one.
In the center of Provincetown, there is a tall shaft commemorating the Pilgrims landing. I'm going to stop now.

Hyannis

No trip to Cape Cod is complete ( as far as the guides are concerned) without a pilgrimage to the Holiest of Holies, the home of the Kennedys. We drove past the road that would take you to the lane that would take you to the cluster of Kennedy homes on our way to JFK Park. There they have a wall with a large bas relief of the face of JFK that is the same as the one on the Kennedy Dollar. It is tastefully placed in front of a nice inoperative fountain. The plaza is surrounded by some fine flower beds and offers a good view of the bay. More importantly, the public restrooms were first rate with no need to fold the toilet paper.
Our next stop was the St. Francis Xavier Church. This is the church for the Kennedys when at Cape Cod. It was smaller before they came but is now pretty good size. It is an unconfirmed rumor that the angels on each side of the altar represent dead Kennedys.
Off to a stop at a windmill. Nicely maintained but since you can't go in and see the mechanism, who really cares?
On yet another day, we took a harbor tour. They took us to the middle of the harbor and pointed off in the distance to the trees that the Kennedy houses were behind. Also in view was a 640 acre private island owned by a family of textile manufacturers but there are no known Kennedys on the island. We came back in to be shown the gift shop. I shall expound more on gift shops at a later time.
Hyannis is a corruption of a native chief's name. He sold the place for 20 pounds Sterling and 2 pair of pants. Personally, I think he got a deal.

Cape Cod

First a pic of Stacey at the loom. She looks like she fits well there, doesn't she?
I believe I mentioned Cape Cod. Monday after the Apple Festival, we boarded a charter bus with a mixed bag of church folks and headed out. They call these the Buses of Death. We weren't the youngest ones on board but we were close. The number of extreme oldsters means that a successful trip is one that brings back all the folks that go. We ride for 3 hours at a time taxing the kidneys and bladders of all. There is an onboard toilet but it's for emergency use only. One cultivates the ability to sleep sitting up. Opportunities to sleep are limited, however, as one must play games and watch dvds of music non stars of the 1950's. When one does stop, it's to partake of the rich cuisine of the service plazas. Your choices are normally limited to McDonalds or worse. There is worse, much worse.
We rode the interstates across Ohio and Pennsylvania between walls of rock and trees. It's remarkably like being in a tunnel. Once in a while, we would glimpse the occasional farm. We ended our days trip in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Wilkes-Barre must go out heavily for Halloween. All the houses on the drive in were really creepy. I admit I didn't see any decorations but it must take a lot of time to get that look right so decorations must come at the last minute. Our motel was plush, complete with internet access and cable. Our meal was a buffet , not a great buffet but edible. We had a good nights sleep.
The hotel served a good breakfast the next morning and it was back on the bus. We finished crossing PA, then New York and Massachusetts ending at our motel. This one was not plush. The sheets would spring off the bed and try to strangle you like a snake. It was necessary to fold the toilet tissue 4 times to attempt to use it. The only saving grace was a refrigerator and a 7-11 next door.
The next morning we had breakfast at Mollys. The pancakes were good but small. Bacon is bacon where ever you go. Our tour guide managed to look older than our fellow tourists and it's hard to do that without carrying full life support along. I don't remember where we went day by day but I'll give you the highlights.

Catch up

I have a lot of catching up to do. I think it's been years since I sent out a letter. Postage has become too expensive and I just lost the urge to write. Now that I have a netbook (asus EEE Surf), I have access to the Net at work or where ever I can leach the wifi. I've been reading other blogs so I thought this might work. Please feel free to pass the net address to anyone you think might find this interesting. It's ok. If you comment and I don't respond, it's probably because I didn't figure out how to do so.
Let's start with the picture that I finally managed to post. I've become interested in animal power thanks to a science fiction book call Dies The Fire by S.M.Sterling. In it, most of the world dies when technology is reduced to muscle power by an unknown force. Since I try to farm, I decided to see how bad that would be. Stacey and I attended Horse Progress Days in Lebanon, PA in 2007. It was generally a nice vacation although pretty hot. I found that modern animal power users can do pretty much anything the tractor users can do, just slower. The picture is from HPD 2008 in Mt. Hope, Ohio. I just couldn't pass up going when it was so close. There seems to be a lot of new equipment being designed and built now. I'll try to include more pictures
The farm has done well. We put about 25 chickens in the freezer along with about 7 ducks. There are lambs to eat and a couple of Jersey steers fattening up in the barn. The garden was marginal do to insufficient weeding but still gave us plenty of tomatoes and cabbage. I didn't mulch this year and it cost me badly. The summer was cool and slowed the development of many crops but the hay did well. I actually got a second cutting which has been selling well putting me dangerously close to making a profit.
One surprise winner in the garden was Afghan Black Chickpeas. I planted an ounce and gathered about 10-15lbs. The plants don't look like any bean or pea I've seen. I think I can grow these in a field and harvest with the combine. I'll be a one stop shop for the Arabs who come here. Lamb, honey and chickpeas.
The bees did well. We only lost one hive and that from the queen dying of old age. We added 3 new hives at $110 each in the form of nucs. Purchased from a beekeeper in central Ohio, they consist of a medium super with a complete functioning hive in it. Since a 2lb. package of bees is about $70 and a new super is about $40, it's not too bad a deal. We have found out we have small hive beetle now. This means I'll probably have to extract a hive at a time to keep them from tearing the hive up. Honey sales are good.
Thanks to the cool weather and luck, Stacey managed to avoid any MS attacks this year. We hope that continues.
Stacey was a triple threat at the Ottawa County Fair this year. She got Grand Champion Best Of Show in canning, baking and oil painting. She also took a number of 1st prizes but who cares about such minor things.
We put on our old re-enactor clothes and wove cloth at the Oak Harbor Apple Festival. It was cold but kind of fun. We took turns on the loom set up in a log cabin in the park. If time permits, I may try to refit the old spinning wheel the historical society has and give spinning demos next year. The church wants us to teach the seniors to weave but that's pretty much a case of the blind leading the blind.
After the Apple Festival, we boarded a bus for a trip to Cape Cod but that will have to wait until next time.

There it is.

At the Mt. Hope Horse Progress Days 2008

Where is my picture? I posted a picture. Obviously, this is a learning experience.

First Steps

I hope to renew my contacts with our friends through this blog. The cost of sending printed copies was too high and I lost my taste for writing anyway. With this I should be able to add some pictures as well. I'll do the best I can.