random musings
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Hershey (1995-2010)
Alas, poor Hershey is no more. Her seventeen year old feline companion scampers in the yard, but Hershey now sleeps in it. It was quite clear that John needed to put Hershey down after Hershey experienced a stroke or seizure of some sort yesterday morning which left her blind and unable to walk. She had already lost most of her Continue reading
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Boomerang
‘Tis the day after Christmas and all through the cabin Are boxes of stuff from daughter moving back in… In theory I should be organizing something right now, but I’m not sure which corner to tackle. I already organized the grandkiddo’s room and cleaned it. His book shelves and toy box are full of Continue reading
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Adventures in liverwurst
Pioneer John is making the most of his deer bounty. Not content with mere roasts, he decided to use the organ meats (liver and heart) to make liverwurst. For those of you shaking your heads and laughing while saying “Poor Kathy…,” it’s not really that big of a deal. I know for a fact that some Continue reading
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Christmas is a time…
This morning I had the weirdest tune stuck in my head. It was from Psalty’s Christmas Calamity, a record (yes, record!) that we had when the girls were little. The amazingly creative chorus went like this: Christmas is a time, Christmas is a time, Christmas is a time to love. (repeat) I don’t remember the Continue reading
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Holiday Traditions
Thanksgiving to Christmas is just crazy busy. What makes the busy-ness tolerable is the fun stuff that we do every year. Last Saturday, after hosting 42 people here for Thanksgiving, we girls had our fifth annual Christmas cookie bake. Ok, let me re-phrase that…Kristin and Shelley came over and baked all day. Julie’s sorry excuse Continue reading
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Redneck Gourmet
Monday marks our thirtieth wedding anniversary and I don’t know what better characterizes our life together than John’s recent adventures in cooking. Civet d’écureuil. One of our many cookbooks that we read more often than we cook from is Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France. For a couple of years now John has been eying Continue reading
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Mouse
I don’t have a picture to share for this blog, but you wouldn’t really want one. Shelley and I are in the kitchen talking over a glass of wine when she suddenly starts shrieking. “What? What?” “Mouse! Mouse! Behind you! Under the stove! It was a big fat thing! It kind of looked like Fluffball!” (For those Continue reading
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Schedule shock
A calm thought: Sunset in St. Malo Chika is a 6’8″ 16 year old from Nigeria who just arrived at our school–three weeks into the year– to play basketball. His first language is Igbo. His second language is English. He is in my French I class. Culture shock doesn’t begin to describe his first week here. Continue reading
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Turtles
In a last gasp of summer, we enjoyed a weekend with Harper and the rest of the gang for crabs on Saturday. John found a baby box turtle while mowing the back 40, and it almost went home with Harper as another new pet. He was a cute little guy (we guess it was a guy), probably Continue reading
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Bee watching
People who don’t keep bees think this is weird, but one of the relaxing things we do around here at Maywood is to go down by the bees and just watch them. It’s a nice spot for sitting, down the hill from the house, tucked back in the woods. It’s very secluded ( in spite of Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 