Pay close attention to the times I note. On Wednesday, Husband and I went to Sioux Falls to do some grocery shopping and to drop some packages off at the UPS store there. I had five packages of treats and presents going to Ohio, St. Paul, Dickinson, Tacoma, WA, and another Minnesota town. I was very anxious about the packages getting to their destinations before Christmas. I was a little late with my baking this year.
We arrived at the UPS store at 1:30 pm CST. We went through the regular rigamorale of how to ship the fastest, and I chose regular ground delivery for all the boxes except the one to Tacoma, for our daughter. For that one I paid more to get there guaranteed by Monday the 22nd. The other packages might make it by Christmas Eve, but no guarantee.
Daughter phoned me yesterday to tell me that a package had arrived at her apartment st 12:25 pm PST. It was the box I had taken to UPS on Wednesday! Despite the awful weather conditions, that package was delivered in about 24 hours. Then, I heard from my St. Paul friend that her package had also arrived! I have never had such quick delivery of things.
Earlier this week, Daughter stated that an Uber Eats delivery person had dropped off six entrees at her door from a Thai restaurant. She hadn’t ordered them, and wasn’t at home when they were delivered. She had no way of contacting the restaurant or the people who had ordered the food. It is a good thing she likes Thai food. Sometimes deliveries work. Sometimes they don’t.
Tell about some delivery experiences you have had. Have you shipped you holiday packages?
We made a quick trip to Sioux Falls yesterday to stock up on groceries before the horrible winds hit. I don’t think we will need to go back until the New Year. Before we went, though, Husband had a guitar lesson at the local music school that is housed in the former Carnegie Library building. He is very excited about this.
He has had a Taylor guitar for several years, and took guitar lessons as a child. He tried to teach himself over the years, but decided he needed more help. He really likes his teacher, and is relieved to find that he didn’t acquire any bad habits over the years. His teacher is a young man in his 30’s who also teaches ukulele and mandolin and directs two ukulele choirs. The music school is open to all ages, and provides lessons in voice, strings, piano, brass, and woodwinds. His next lesson is in two weeks, and he is working on a French folksong Au Claire de la Lune. It is a duet he will play with his teacher.
My first piano teacher was one of the Holy Sisters who taught out of the local nunnery. I then had a teacher who taught out of her home and was married to the high-school shop teacher. She played piano at our wedding. I haven’t played much over the past several years. Once all the Christmas baking is done and the holidays are over I intend to go back to playing piano again. Husband has some intriguing minimalist Bartok piano pieces I want to try.
Our daughter became quite close to her Bismarck violin teacher who taught her for seven years. Daughter and another Suzuki friend went to visit their old teacher in New Mexico where she and her husband retired. Music lessons have kept them together even after the lessons are over.
What lessons, music or otherwise, did you have as a child? Taking any lessons now?Tell about some memorable teachers.
Husband and our 7 year old grandson spent most of Thanksgiving Day in the basement messing around with various string instruments. Grandson brought the three-quarter size guitar we got him in the summer. He and his Opa (Husband’s German name. I am Oma.) practiced tuning the guitar and his cello to eachother, and Opa taught him the difference between bass and treble clef, and that you could play the same tune in both clefs. Grandson also noodled around on the piano upstsirs using the sustain pedal until it got too annoying and we had to have him stop. He actually asked Opa if they could “jam” next time.
During the afternoon, grandson came upstairs and excitedly announced “Opa is teaching me finger picking”. He is to start piano and guitar lessons in the spring. At home he likes to just strum his guitar once a day and practice trying to play chords. He also thought Opa’s cello was pretty cool.
I learned cooking, gardening, and that History was a most interesting subject from my grandparents. Grandson wants me to make tirimisu with him one of these days, and loves to cook with his parents. I am so glad we can help foster these interests, as they really make for a satisfying life.
What skills did your older relatives and grandparents teach you?What names did you use to address your grandparents?
On apple picking day, as we put our peck and a half on the scale at the paying shed, it just didn’t look like enough apples. It’s the amount we’ve gotten for the last couple of years; we looked at each other and had the same thought – we need more. Since I was already hobbling around with the big brace on my knee, we bought a pre-picked bag and added it to the scale. Three quarters were Connell Red (my favorites) and the last quarter were Honeycrisp (YA’s favorite). I do like the Honeycrisp and I wish it were my favorite since it’s a home-grown Minnesota apple. But the Connell Red was introduced in Wisconsin and is said to be the “offspring” of the Fireside which IS a Minnesota apple. Close enough for me.
Apple crisp is a staple for us during the fall. My recipe is based one I found in the Apple Cookbook that I bought decades ago from the Afton Apple Orchard. We add cinnamon to the apples and we use two times the topping that the recipe calls for. In fact, I usually make several batches of the topping all at once and put the extra in the fridge. That way making an apple crisp is really just a matter of cutting up the apples.
Our other favorite is an Apple Manchego Salad. I had this at the Loring Café years ago and chef was gracious enough to give me the recipe. (I’ve since found the exact same recipe online so I don’t think I’m as special as the chef made me feel at the time!) It’s pretty simple. 3-4 apples (depending on size) cut into matchsticks. Then 4-5 ounces of manchego cheese, also cut into matchsticks. I use the mandoline for this, making it quite a fast salad but you can certainly chop by hand if you need. About ¼ cup of chives, chopped fairly finely. A splash of lemon juice (no more than a teaspoon), about three tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Done. I made this salad at least three times this fall and despite it saying “8 servings”, YA and I have made it disappear in less than 24 hours each time. Then there are the hand pies, which I think I promised I wouldn’t talk about too much. Made them twice this year.
Yesterday I decided it was time to use up the last 7 apples that have been stored on the back porch. Since I had some crisp topping left, I made an apple crisp and then with the very last two apples, I made a teeny French apple cake, using my 6” springform pan (which I never get to use enough). This is the first time I’ve tried the cake recipes – we’ll see if YA likes it – she gets back later today from her latest trip.
Of course, crisp apples with peanut butter slathered on them are the premiere snack at this time of year!
Any fall favorites that you’ll miss until next year?
My schedule has been a little crazy lately. Next week will be better. 🙂
I hear there are places in the country where the weather on the evening news doesn’t take ten minutes. I don’t need the full ten minutes, I just want to know the 12-48 hour forecast, and the 7 or 10 day forecast, Which I know is just a guideline. Especially this time of year, when the forecast has some pretty drastic changes coming.
No, the corn still isn’t out and I don’t want to talk about it. The grain elevators are closed on the weekends now, because 99.8% of the harvest is complete. So I don’t expect anything this weekend unless they finish everything at their place and they just come in and fill up the trucks on Sunday.
I wrote a long story about the thermostat in my shop and I threw all that away and tried to make this a shorter story. A red herring was involved and suffice it to say human error played a part. Because of course it did.
I use a wifi thermostat so I can monitor it from the house. It worked last year. This year, it worked while I’m out there, but it didn’t work when I came to the house.
One day it died completely so I bought a new one. Installing that and I blew a fuse up in the heater itself. Another trip to town for an ‘E’ fuse. An E fuse? Never heard of an E fuse. Oh, it’s a ‘3’ not an ‘E’. Thank goodness I figured that out on my own and didn’t say that to the guy at the auto parts store. Then of course there was a new app and all of that rigamarole. And that night in the house and it wouldn’t connect again.
The day we poured the concrete, including the slab outside the front door, I used a side door, and a different light switch. Turns out, the outlet I have the heater plugged in to is tied into the 3 way switch for the lights. And I hooked that up myself, this wasn’t the electricians fault. Other than they didn’t know I wanted an outlet for the heater, which is why I did it myself. But how come it worked last year?? Because the heater was plugged into a wall outlet and because the electricians weren’t here until March, and I didn’t get the heater outlet installed until April. So now, when I come into the shop and turn the lights on, the thermostat works. When I leave and turn off the lights, the thermostat turns off. Well, don’t I feel like a dunce. How could I tell the thermostat was off once I left the shop?? I thought the problem was the wifi. Nope, that was the red herring. The problem was the thermostat wasn’t even ON.
I have it plugged into a regular outlet again and I can tell you, by the app, it’s 46 degree’s out there at 56% humidity.
We did get the concrete done on Tuesday. Yay! Check that off the list! A big job, and I had the easy job in the tractor hauling the cement from the truck outside, to the pad inside.
(Two reasons; the truck wouldn’t fit inside the shed, and I didn’t want him backing onto the existing concrete slab). When they poured the inside slab a couple years ago, they used a little “buggy” to haul the concrete. This was the same thing, only different.) The truck driver was great! Randy. 65 yrs old, been driving a concrete truck for 38 years. We joked before he got there, would he know we were amateurs? I told him right up front, feel to offer advice. He just picked up the bull float and got right in there helping.
Took about 2 hours to get it all dumped and leveled. I was a little bit short of product and left a bit of a gap on one end of the walkway pad. I expect to finish that with 10 bags of concrete mix I picked up.
About 6:00 PM I was able to start smoothing off the concrete with the hand trowels. (I Learned the difference between magnesium floats and steel floats. You use magnesium when you’re first leveling, and steel to do the final finish.)
It was about 8PM when I was trying to finish the big slab and smooth around the drain. The concrete was getting too firm by that point and it was a little too late to be working it. All in all, it’s not bad for the first time for a bunch of newbies. It will look better when it gets some dirt on it to cover the imperfections.
I spread out tarps and covered the outside ones with straw.
A few days later I pulled off the tarp and moved the dumpster over there. This right here was the original point of all this.
I wonder how much snow will blow in here?
My brother using the bull float on the first piece.
Working on the big slab inside the shed.
Our son helped, my brother helped, Padawan’s girlfriend helped, (Padawan was at work) and Kelly helped. They all admitted this was harder work than they imagined. And we all learned a lot. Next summer’s plan is to do another slab inside. My brother isn’t sure he’ll help again next summer. Son says he will find more younger helpers.
I’m just glad it’s done. I had a beer that night. I’ve been waiting to finish the concrete to have that beer.
We thought for sure we’d have a dog footprints in it somewhere. Or Luna was gonna drop a ball into it. We locked them in the shop at one point.
Inside slab done. Won’t drive on it for a week yet, and will get it backfilled shortly.
You haven’t seen the chickens lately. Here’s the chickens eating some left overs.
I have a new appreciation for the people doing concrete work and making it look easy.
There has been a karate school a few blocks from my house all the time I have lived here (think going on 3+ decades). I’ve really never paid attention to it at all.
Well, I got invited there to watch Marie (little girl who used to next door to me) take part in her karate class. If I had any assumptions before going, they were almost all wrong.
The karate school is woman-owned (not Japanese karate master-owned) with primarily women instructors (not Japanese karate masters). I saw a bit of three classes – the one before Marie’s, then Marie’s and then the very beginning of the class after. It was approximately 2/3 girls (not a bunch of Asian little boys). I actually only saw one Asian kid the whole night. So much for all my assumptions. To be fair, all I knew about karate before this was what I learned from watching James Bond movies.
Marie’s class is about 40 minutes long and the very first class was half instruction about when and when NOT to use their karate skills. Marie is the smallest in her class but pretty feisty. Another little girl had the karate yell down pat and one of the little boys could hardly wait for the instructor to give the go-ahead for the next move. They were all very cute.
I did a little searching on the internet and the history/etymology of karate is WAY too extensive for me to even try to parse it. You’ll thank me for that!
Have you ever learned any karate / judo / taekwondo / sumo??
Once, when YA was about five, she didn’t want to turn off the light in her bedroom – her reasoning being that she didn’t want her stuffed animals (a prodigious crowd) to be worried in the dark.
I couldn’t really give her grief about it. After all, she comes by this stuffy empathy honestly – she gets it from me. I was quite active in the naming of all her stuffed critters and gave in to her desire to anthropomorphize them big time. Heck I once carried my stuffed javelina Henrietta in my carry-on bag because it didn’t feel right to close into the suitcase!
It shouldn’t surprise you then to know that I am having a little trouble dumping my flowering baskets this fall. I usually plant the baskets on Mother’s Day – sometimes a few days before or after depending on the weather. Then when the blooms fall, I stack up the deceased baskets alongside the garage in the back of the yard.
Here’s the problem; it’s been a full six months and five of the fifteen baskets still have flowers on them! I’ve been moving the baskets around, taking the empty shepherds pole away and storing them in the garage. With the temperature below zero more than a few nights now, I was worried about being able to wrench the poles out of frozen ground. But I just couldn’t bring myself to stack the baskets with flowers in the back.
So I set the baskets on the back steps (see the photo above). The last basket is on the front steps, which is where its shepherds pole stood all summer. Since it won’t be above freezing even during the day for a few days, I’m guessing the flowers are making their last hurrah but at least they will be making that hurrah on the back steps, being appreciated whenever I open the back door!
This time of year I do actually work at not having too much leftover Halloween candy in the house. Luckily the number of kids that stop at the house has been remarkably consistent the last few years — even during Covid when I packed candy into little bags three weeks before and wore a mask while welcoming kids. This year, based on the number of pieces per bag, I figured I had enough to give each kid two pieces.
I always do relatively high-value candy – this year little Snickers and Reeses PB Cups. I heard a few ads on the radio the week before talking about non-candy ideas that you could implement and I just laughed. It might make adults feel virtuous but what kid ever wants some plastic bauble or deck of cards instead of candy. And while Smartees and Jolly Ranchers are infinitely cheaper, they aren’t as valued when kids are sorting out their bags of goodies at the end of the night.
In past years, I have taken any excess candy to the office – it never lasted long. The force was with me this year; I gave out the last four pieces of candy at 9 p.m. when I was getting ready to turn out the lights and bring in the luminaries. I congratulated myself on giving out all the candies.
YA has foiled my plans. She brought candy HOME – some she had found on sale and some that she picked up at the office. It is good candy – Ghiradelli caramel pumkins and Halloween-colored M&Ms. And she also bought Reeses pumpkins for herself awhile back. Turns out she bought more than one bag, so that is sitting out as well. I’m trying not to walk through the dining room too often. Out of sight, somewhat out of mind.
I have purposely chosen to not write about Halloween today, as it seems to me we have enough horror and fear around us. Instead, I wanted to let Baboons know what I am thankful for right now.
First, I am thankful to all the Baboons for putting up with all the posts I have written over the past several months about moving. I am sure they were getting pretty tedious to read. Moving is over, and now we are getting settled and organized. Not much more needs to be said about it.
I am also thankful for the increased time with our son and his family. We saw them yesterday in Sioux Falls and I got the best smiles from our 3 month old granddaughter.
Thanksgiving is four weeks away, and our son has requested a particular brined turkey ala Alton Brown, homemade French bread, and various other side dishes. Son and family, along with my best friend, will spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. I am so excited to cook in our new kitchen.
Finally, I am thankful that the court hearing Husband was to testify remotely at yesterday was settled on Wednesday afternoon. He had done a parental capacity evaluation on the parent in hot water with a central ND county. Now he is officially done working.
What are you thankful for these days. What are your Thanksgiving plans?
Our son and daughter loved listening to Rabbit Ears productions of children’s stories narrated by famous actors accompanied by wonderful musicians. One of their favorites was a story about Paul Bunyon narrated by Jonathan Winters with music by Leo Kottke. It was funny to hear Paul Bunyan talk about the assignment he got from the president to clear off all the trees from North Dakota. We could certainly relate, as we had a dearth of trees in our region.
Husband has really enjoyed walking the dog and seeing all the crimson and scarlet maple leaves in the neighborhood. We didn’t have these kind of maples in ND. He said the last time he lived in a place that had maples like this was 46 years ago in Madison, WI. The trees in Dickinson were mainly Green Ash and Cottonwoods. Their leaves were pretty blah in the fall.
We have a maple and an oak in the our front boulevard. We also have a Birch in the backyard, along with a Blue Spruce and a Flowering Crab. There are also all sorts of Arbor Vitae. We are well set for trees and bushes. The header photo is a tree across the street from us
What trees do you have in your yard? Any favorite Jonathan Winter or Leo Kottke creations?
Trail Baboon 