Latest breaking news..,.,Baby-Gram

Gannon was born at 12:44 AM on the day of the Winter Solstice, just about 9 hours before the onset of winter. He weighed in at 7 lb 8 oz, and is either 19 or 21 inches long -- Maureen can't remember which yet. He has a head of dark hair (unlike me) and his eyes are either dark blue or brown, depending on the light.

Delivery was relatively easy, with only a few issues which were resolved well, and mother and baby are both doing fine. While I was on the phone with Maureen, I heard him crying -- he's got a good set of lungs on him!

When I have pics, I'll post them. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to flying up to Maine to see the little critter, and will write more about then.

Breaking News (you WON'T find on CNN)

Gannon Chandler Patrick arrived shortly before 1:00 AM on the first day of winter, 21 December 2008. Mother and son are doing fine, after a brief anxious period late Saturday afternoon. According to our source (mother), Gannon yawned, and has a tongue and apparently all the other parts he's supposed to have! More details to follow as they become available from our reporters on the scene at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Anticipation

'Tis the season for anticipation. Little kids are anxiously awaiting Santa. Nervous parents are anticipating lay-offs, plant closings and credit-card bills. GM and Chrysler are anticipating $Billions in loans.

My major anticipation right now is waiting to hear from Maureen. It appears that Gannon Chandler Patrick is going to make his appearance in Maine today, so I anticipated flying up today or Sunday. I checked, and the usual fare of $307 has jumped to over $800! OUCH! So I'll have to wait until after the new year when prices come down into my budget range. Besides the weather in Maine over the next few days would probably result in flight delays and cancellations (anticipitating a foot tonight with all sorts of cancelled flights), so it's best to wait.

In any event, I just thought I'd share a few of our anticipations...

We've been trying to find places in Kentucky that sell lobster rather than having the shipped here from Maine at $50+. Well, we were up in Lexington on Friday the 19th, and Meijer's (major local grocery chain) actually had Canadian lobsters for $9.99 a pound. ANTICIPATION - Barry getting ready to dig in. All we needed was a can of Glade "Clam Flats" room freshener to make it seem like Maine!


We've done a load of baking this year as well. I made 3 large and 2 small tourtières -- traditional French-Canadian pork pie -- and we've already eaten the small ones. Two of the large ones will be going to Paducah for Christmas -- we'll share one with the crowd there, along with some MOXIE, and Rick will take one up to Carbondale when he goes back to law school. That way he won't have to survive on Ramen noodles!



I also baked some Polish filled-cookies. They're made with cream cheese and flour, rolled and wrapped around fruit filling. We tried a can of apricots, some minced dates, strawberry jam, and (just for Barry) prunes! We both agreed the strawberry jam ones ran too much (but were delicious), and the prune ones were ok, but not our favorites. I for one could eat the date ones 'til the cows come home! The cookies themselves are quite different from "American" style cookies, in that they are not really sweet, just a hint of sweetness, and boy do they go well with a cup of hot tea!

Finally, seems we may have been adopted by another cat. We can't let her in because Ramses would have the hissy-fit from hell, but we're feeding her daily now, and she's going after the moles which have taken over the lawn. Hey, if she earns her keep by attacking and devouring moles, she's welcome! She hissed at Ramses and he backed off, so maybe he's determined that she's a strong "Kentucky Woman" -- we'll see.

I just called Maureen, and it looks like it won't be too many more hours.

ANTICIPATION!

Season's Greetings!

To ALL our friends and relatives in Maine and elsewhere...

I have SO wanted to have a holly bush for SO long. Now I have one. This photo was taken today of our holly (Foster Holly - self-fruitful, no "mate" needed) on the back porch. It's SO beautiful, I decided to make it into a Christmas (or Hanukkah, Eid, Winter Solstice, or Season's Greetings for those who aren't Christian) card.

I'm also thrilled that I can share this photo with so many friends and relatives all over the US. Please, everyone, for this season in particular but all the rest of the year, too, be kind to each other, do good works, be healthy, and stay in touch.

Not much happening now, but ...

Things will be getting busier shortly. After a great Thanksgiving weekend in Paducah with Rick, Laura and Elizabeth Rose, we got back home and started getting ready for Christmas. The outside lights went up Wednesday when the temps were in the mid-50s, so it was perfect weather for that job. We strung lights on the two tall cedar trees at the ends of the house, put up the lighted wreath on the front door, and lit candles in the five front windows. The lights on the ground are permanent -- makes the lawn look like the landing strip at the Louisville Airport...

In mid-January, we're headed to San Antonio, TX, for Barry's son's wife's brother's wedding. We'll stay a few days extra so we can explore a very small part of Texas, where I've never been before. We had planned to drive down so we could go through Arkansas on the way down and Louisiana and Mississippi on the way back, but that's not the plan this time. Anyway, we'll get to see the Alamo, Riverwalk, and other sights and sounds of San Antonio.

Either before we go to Texas, or after we return, I'll be flying back up to Maine to see my new grandson. Can't get plane tickets yet, because I don't know whether Gannon will decide to show up before Christmas or after, so I'll just have to wait and get the best tickets I can get when I go. He's due on December 23, but I don't want to be flying over Christmas, so if he's early, great; if he's late, great. On time, not great. Of course, Maureen would like him to arrive months ago -- she's more than ready now -- but she'll just have to take her clues from him as he's the one in charge of this whole thing now.

OK, got to go to the post office, mail Christmas cards and presents, and have another cup of coffee. It's COLD here - down to 16 this morning -- but if the sun comes out, the house will warm up nicely.

Official "Mainers May Now Gloat" announcement!

Well, all last winter we harangued you all up in Maine about how much warmer it was and how much less snow we had here. Well, here's your official chance to gloat now.

We're getting snow. Yup, about half an inch, the ground and the porch and the petunias and the back deck are all snow-covered.




The interesting news though, is that inside, one of our lemon trees we grew from seeds we brought back from Florida 4-1/2 years ago is blossoming. We're hoping it's self-fruitful and we will actually get some lemons one of these days.


OK, got to go see where the snow shovel is...


Nah, just kidding. It'll melt tomorrow morning.

Gloomy Fall Day...but

It's drizzling, with an occasional larger drop here and there. Much like November in Maine except it's warmer and there are still quite a few leaves left on the trees. It's the kind of day where, if the temperature were about 20 degrees lower, we'd love to sit in front of a glowing fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate.

But there IS one bright spot on the horizon...

Ayuh. Last winter we fed the birds loads of sunflower seeds. Some ended up in the garden and grew, flowered, went to seed and died. This is a SECOND generation sunflower, bravely poking it's bright face up through the clouds toward where the sun SHOULD be. I hope the little fellow can make it all the way through the seed cycle before a killing freeze takes him.

Berries and Swiss Chard, etc...

It's hard to believe but I just picked some more raspberries -- they're everbearing, so they have a crop in the spring and in the fall. There's even a new blossom, but I doubt it will make it before we have the first real killing frost. Temps got down to about 32 a couple of times so far, but not a hard freeze yet.

We're still picking Swiss Chard, in fact it looks better than it has since May. It really likes the cool weather, and it looks as though we'll have that until at least Christmas!

I tried cracking open one of the first black walnuts. They weren't completely dry, so the meat came out with great difficulty. But with another couple of weeks of drying, we should have all the walnut meat we can use. It's a different taste from the traditional English or Carpathian walnut, and it takes getting used to -- sort of like Moxie does. But they should be great in brownies or cookies...and selling for over $9.00 a pound locally, we have a good investment going here.

Barry and I have been hot on the trail of Thomas H Carrier, who was lynched about a mile down the road from us in 1867. We started with only his name, no dates, no places, no background. Now we have found his two wives, a story about his hanging, three of his brothers and his parents, and we have 4 or 5 deeds with his name. Doing genealogy research is really helping Barry's stress level, and he has become a very good, diligent researcher.

Genealogy is incurable, but it is not fatal!

Voting.

Voted today. No lines, no waiting, just like Wal-Mart. Of course our whole precinct only has about 400 people in it and many of them will be voting this afternoon after work.

Now, we'll see what the results are. I've turned into a full CNN news junkie!

Processing walnuts...

We have a huge black walnut tree just over the back property line. This is the time of year when the nuts begin to fall, and in when we mow, we hear the blade klanking its way through the fallen orbs, shredding them and making one awful noise.

Well, I decided to get smart. Pick them up, at least the ones that are good (if they've already turned black, the nut inside will degrade), and process them. Now black walnuts have a soft yellow-green husk that must be removed. However, it contains a chemical that will stain black anything it touches, so impervious gloves are a must (latex would work fine). There are a dozen ways to process them, but I decided to take a paring knife to them.

It's like peeling peaches, but all the way down to the pit. That's the part that actually contains the nut. It's messy, but maybe the results will be worth it. Once peeled and washed, they need to set in a cool dry place away from the sun for about two weeks.

We'll see how they turn out.