The cheesecake is a keeper. It is three layers of chocolate. A cheesecake layer, a brownie layer and a ganache layer. Two of them I laced with Irish Potcheen.

Bobbie and I ate the venison liver. Wow was it good and we each got two pieces for later. The guys turned their noses up at it as usual. But they enjoyed their hamburgers and we all liked the raw fried potatoes.

The Packers lost - again. They seem to have no defense this year. The offence was scoring but they couldn't keep the Colts from scoring and were just outplayed. Ick!!

Tomorrow will be busy as we need to shop, pack and then I have two evening meetings at church. We must get up by 4:30AM on Tuesday morning to catch the bus for our Mystery Tour at 6:15AM.

Someday I plan on publishing a volume of my own poems. I read something today that I must keep in mind when that occurs. A quote from Don Marquis. "Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."

Puts it all in perspective.

Love

Mary

Today was beautiful AGAIN. It is supposed to dip down into the low 50s, maybe the 40s tonight. I should check the forcast to see if I need to bring any of the deck plants in. I kind of doubt it but one never knows.

I make scones and bread today. I had to make two loaves of bread. The wheat did not rise, so I put in a loaf of English Muffin bread too.

Bobbie and Bill are coming for dinner tomorrow. I am fixing liver and onions. At least for Bobbie and me. Dick, Bill, Jim and Dick will have hamburgers. I decided that raw fried potatoes would go well with both entrees.

For dessert, I made a cheesecake that sounded good. It is my first experiment for the Home and Hearth Contest next year. This one is a Double Chocolate Whiskey Upside down Cheesecake. Wow.

I used the Potchen I picked up in Ireland instead of the Jack Daniels that was called for. It sure smells good.

Have a nice Sunday. I am going to the 8:00 Mass so I will be getting up early.

Love

Mary

As mornings get darker, I clip on a flashing red light
so that the neighbors can see me
When they in their cars leave
for work.

Chelsea likes the colder days, I just
hope that the chill winds and rain
and snow hold off for just a little while.

I worked for Jim at the Rhine Plymouth Field and Stream Club. It was a rather quiet night, only 19 squads, but we really sold the beer. I shared the poem in the Poets Calendar and the guys liked it. I reek of cigarette smoke and am again grateful that I quit so many years ago. I enjoy being a member of the club. They are such warm and generous people.

Have a great night.

Mary

The trip was super nice. We had perfect weather. The Peshtigo Museum is one of those real treasures you find in small communities. Well kept, volunteer helpers and full of nice little treasures.

Our tour of the Amish Community around Bonduel was very informative. We got to tour a farm, a harness shop and two grocery stores. I bought some bulk flour, cocoa and a few other small things that I will enjoy.

Lunch was fantastic. If you are ever in Shawano - go the the Farm Inn on Main Street. We had a family style pork and chicken dinner with real mashed potatoes and apple crisp for dessert. The owner and cook said she always has pork as a special on Tuesday. it was spectacular.

Have a nice Friday.

Mary

Another beautiful day and it is the first day of Autumn. I finished edging the trees today and just kept busy the rest of the day puttering around.

We leave early for our tour to Peshtigo. I found the information about my great grandfather, who survived the fire there. This is the paragraph in the family history.

Peter Uelmen was working for the Stevenson Lumber Company at the time of the Peshtigo Fire on October 18, 1871. The whole city was destroyed, with a loss of over 1500 lives. Some of the people tried to escape the fire by huddling in hollow tree stumps, but they died. Others jumped into the river but the flames swept over them and caused them to drown. This fire occured the same time as the Cicago fire, which is told was caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over the lantern. There was a loss of 250 lives, but Peshtigo was a small northen city so there wasn't much publicity until later. Peter Uelmen was in Kewaskum on the anniversary of the fire, and a reporter heard him tell about it and printed a detailed description in the local newspaper, the Kewaskum Statesman. This forest fire was the greatest loss of life in peace time in the United States.

Later

Mary

I am really looking forward to Thursday. A day AWAY is just what the doctor ordered.

Today was beautiful again. We are having summer now and I am trying to take advantage of it. Today, the temperatures were in the high 70s. I weeded around three of the trees in our yard and will try to do the other four free standing ones tomorrow. Chelsea really likes it. I take her out and let her just enjoy the fresh air with me.

The new television season has started, such as it is. I do not watch reality shows and most of the new shows are reality. Thank heavens for the history and discovery channels. Even they will get old after a bit. A person can only watch things over once or twice. At least there are some good music channels now, both classical and country. Dick and I like both of them.

I made chili today. Now it can sit and ripen til Friday. I have to work at Rhine on Friday evening. With chili prepared, we can all eat when we want to. Jim and I have switched Friday work nights because Dick and I will be just arriving home from our Mystery tour next Friday when I am scheduled.

Tomorrow is a day at home. Isn't it wonderful to have a home to be in.

Love

Mary

It is beginning to get darker in the mornings when Chelsea and I go out for our walk. It is light by the time we get home. Cooler too. Chelsea likes that. I don't mind walking in the cool and the dark as long as it isn't raining or windy. We have a busy street. This morning we passed the lady with the three dogs, Roger and Pepper and the lady that jogs. Lana wasn't out and Sherry and her friend go much earlier. Sometimes the neighbor on the left jogs and a man up the street too. I always stay in Hunters Glen. I drove it out once and if you go completely around, including the cul de sacs, you have walked almost two miles. A nice start to the day.

I always tell Chelsea that this is how we will keep our girlish figures.

Today I got all caught up on the computer and started getting my hand sewing projects ready for the trips we will be making in the next week and a half. Since I finished the big quilt, I am also coordinating fabric and UFOs (Unfinished objects) so I always have something to be working on.

I found the greatest recipe to use when you have a lot of fresh tomatoes. It is a definate keeper

Tomato Sausage Tart

* 1 (9 inch) refrigerated pie crust
* 1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup light cream
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
* 2 pounds tomatoes, sliced
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano, or to taste
* 1 teaspoon dried basil, or to taste
*
* 2 cups chopped fresh basil
* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Press the pie crust into the bottom and up the sides of a pie plate.
2. Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook stirring occasionally until sausage is browned, and onions are translucent. Drain and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, 1 egg and light cream until well blended. Stir into the sausage mixture.
3. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese over the bottom of the pie crust. Place the sausage mixture over the cheese. Arrange tomato slices over the sausage layer, then top with the remaining cheese. Sprinkle dried basil and oregano over the cheese.
4. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until heated through and bubbly. Let stand for 20 minutes before slicing. Serve with Basil Mayonnaise.
5. To make Basil Mayonnaise, combine the fresh basil, 1 egg, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor. Blend to mix, then gradually drizzle in oil while blending. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Have a good Tuesday.

Mary

This was a very mixed day with ups and downs. I got up at 5:30AM, walked Chelsea and went over to Maywood to help with the pheasant release. Every year, the Sheboygan County Conservation Group, buys about 2700 pheasant chicks and raises them until this time of year then we release them all over the county. Many, of course, are harvested immediately at the hunting season. Many die over the winter, but many are surviving and valiantly replenishing the wild pheasant population in the county. We see many more in the fields and by the roadsides.


It is really fun to do this. We herd the birds into the runs, then clip the blinders, put them in boxes and take them out.

Then I went to church. The choir sang today and that is always an enjoyable worship.

Then I came home and Woe is Us. The Packers lost to the Bears. What a bummer!!!

It will be a quiet week in the Kunert household. Jim is released to go back to work tomorrow. You probably remember that he had surgery on his foot and has been recuperating.

Thursday Dick and I go the Peshtigo on a tour and the rest of the week is quiet with very little need to leave the house. I am really looking forward to the respite.

Here is a little paragraph from a book called The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup. I like his interpretation of the Beatitudes. He implies that we should replace Blessed with Walk Forth. Here is one of them.

"Walk forth, peacemakers! Yes, you shall be acclaimed sons of Elohim! Peace is the fruit of an artisan's work. It is the slowest and most patient way of walking. Peace cannot be commanded by throwing money at a problem, nor by overthrowing a government. It is nothing less than the Son of Man and the son of God being born within ourselves."

Have a good week

Mary

This morning I helped set up for the quilt show. I picked up a "quilt" Sy Regan carved. I will add the little blurb that I printed to put with the items that he carved. He is really quite talented and has self published an instruction book for the beginning wood carver. Here is the short piece I wrote.

Sylvester (Salty) Regan is a local woodcarver and author. He is also a retired Catholic deacon. He has self published a book for the beginning woodcarver and recently a poem of his was accepted in the 2005 Wisconsin Poets' Calendar.

He got the idea to carve a quilt using the Trinity as the theme.. The result is this “quilt” composed of various Celtic triangular knots.

He enjoyed “quilting”. Thus the two additional “quilt” squares - one approximately 11” X 11” and the other about 3 ½” x 3 ½“.

Have a good Saturday.

Love

Mary

I finished the quilt that is going in the Sheboygan County Quilt Guild Show. I put the label and the sleeve this afternoon at about 4:00PM. Boy, talk about getting down to the wire. Tomorrow is the set up day.

I took the quilt and the Crane wall hanging, with me to choir practice so Mother could see them. I would like to take her but we decided that there would be too much walking and she would get too tired.

After this weekend, things will settle down a bit and then we will be going on a vacation. Sunday, we are releasing the pheasants. I will be able to go over on Sunday for a couple of hours to help round them up and remove the blinders. I can stay until 8:30AM then will have to get home, shower and get to church at 9:45 to warm up for the Mass. Then delicious - NOTHING else.

Have a good Friday.

Mary

It rained this evening just as Dick and I headed off to Bobbie's house to pick up her mail. The paper finally has stopped coming. She sent them a note cancelling the Sheboygan Press a while ago, but the paper was still being delivered as of yesterday. Today there was no paper, so she has apparantly gotten through to them. Every year, Dick and I debate whether we will renew and so far the vote has been to continue. However, maybe next time will be the end.

We do like to keep track of the obituaries and I like the crossword puzzle. But we can get the obits on the net and I have crossword puzzles on the net too.

The quote from Cadfael's Book of Days today said. "Beauty is a very healing thing."

Seems an interesting thought, as I am sure we all have been soothed by beauty in one form or another. A sunset, a song, a person.

Love

Mary

We had so much rain in the spring and most of the early summer that we really felt that we would never need any more. But - the lawn is dry and becoming brown. So I have started watering. I am also trying to remember to keep the birdbath full as I am sure our little feathered friends will be appreciative of an easy drink. There are berries on several of my bushes so they will also be well fed - they should last through the winter. It really is a great year for berries.

Bobbie and Bill are on vacation so Dick and I are taking in the mail and papers and watering plants. Our reward is to be able to pick the produce that ripens while they are gone. I already have tomatoes. The little teeny weeny cherry tomatoes are especially sweet and good this year. We call them one of natures candies along with raisins and figs. We will eat tomatoes til we can't eat more and then I will freeze the rest.

Have a nice Wednesday.

Mary

Yippee - i - a The Packers won. It is very late and I have been at meetings ALL day. Bible study at 9:30AM Writers Club at 1:00PM and Rhine Plymouth Field and Stream at 7:00PM. It is definately time to GO TO BED.

In case you haven't read it. Here is the poem that is in the Wisconsin Poets' 2005 Calendar. I promised.

CALL OF THE KETTLES


The graveyards are filled with the Irish.
They farmed the hard land formed by the glacier
Building their fences of rocks from the fields.

I hunt and hike now public lands
And find a tumbled down old rock fence
That my great great grandfather built.

My grandfather used to say that the Irish came,
Up from the fertile fields below,
To the glacier’s rocky eskers, drumlins and kettles
Because they figured that no one
Would come and take the land away.

I think the Irish came,
Up from the flat fertile fields below,
To the glacier’s rocky eskers, drumlins and kettles
Because it looked like home
And made them feel that they were there.




Enjoy your nice week.

Mary

I didn't cook today. We ate brats and hamburgers and scones from the Celtic Faire. The Celtic Mass and Faire went very well. The Mass was beautiful and everybody seemed to enjoy the Faire. We sold all the food, lots of beer, enjoyed the music and the weather was spectacular.

Yesterday, I went to Menasha to the Aestival Festival Writer's Conference. I went with Jane Kocmoud and Ann Pirrung, the co presidents of the Sheboygan Writers Club. On the way to Cleveland (Wisconsin that is) with Jane she congradulated me for getting on the inside cover of the Poet's Calendar. I said something like "What?" and she proceeded to tell me that my poem the Call of the Kettles was accepted for publication in the 2005 Wisconsin Poets' Calendar. I was totally delighted. It is quite an honor to be selected. Our local club had six member's work published this year so we are really proud and planning on letting the Sheboygan Press know. I know I am in good company as the above mentioned Jane Kocmoud, who has made it 5 times, and Ellen Kort, the recently retired Wisconsin Poet Laureate. are also included in this year's book. Wow- I have something else to list on my accomplishments.

The featured speaker was Michael Perry who wrote Population 485. I recommend it. It is a book of his experiences as a volunteer fireman in his community of New Auburn, (population 485). I recommend him as a speaker also. We have been trying to get him to come to Sheboygan in partnership with Mead Public Library. So far we have not been able to get him to commit.

This week will be much easier. I need to finish a quilt by Thursday night.

Hope you have a good Monday. I will post tomorrow night. Would you like to read the Call of the Kettles?

Mary

This busy week is almost at an end. Tonight Bobbie and I started pistol league and lo and behold my first three league targets were pretty good. I got a 66, 62 and 57. Last year I was running down in the 30s and 40s so I feel pretty good about now. If I could find someone to join Rosalie and me, we could shoot the fall trap league too. Doesn't look to promising.

Tomorrow I will be going to a writer's conference in Menasha with two fellow members of the Sheboygan County Writers Club.

Sunday is Celtic Mass and Faire. If you go on the Sheboygan Press site www.sheboygan-press.com you can read the article about the Faire that appeared in the Beliefs Section tonight. I am quite pleased and hope it will bring in a lot of worshipers and revelers.

Here is a great soup recipe that is REALLY easy.

BLT Soup

6 slices bacon cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 medium onion sliced
2 (13 3/4 oz) cans chicken or beef broth
1 (14 1/2 oz) can of chopped tomatoes, undrained
2 tblsp steak sauce
2 cups chredded iceburg lettuce

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Remove and crumble bacon. Pour off most of the drippings. Cook onion in reserved drippings for 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes and steak sauce. Heat to a boil - reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add lettuce and simmer for 2 more minutes. Stir in bacon and serve.

Enjoy.

Love

Mary

I just want to share a quote. A friend sent me a story about an HBO movie calles Iron Jawed Women. I probably would not have watched it without the story she sent. It is about a group of women who were fighting for the right to vote and were imprisoned and terrible abused in the prison. A high ranking person wanted a psychiatrist to commit the leader of the women but he refused.

The quote he spoke was "Courage in women is often mistaken as insanity."

I really liked the quote.

Have a nice day.

Mary

I got an email from a friend today. It mentioned an HBO movie called Iron Jawed Women. I probably wouldn't have watched it otherwise. It is about a group of women who were jailed and abused for fighting and marching for the right of women to vote.

Someone wanted the ringleader committed to an insane asylum. But the psychiatist refused saying. "Courage in woment is often mistaken for insanity."

Wow

Mary

I received a message on e mail about a movie called Iron Jawed Women about a group of women imprisoned and beaten and abused because they fought for the right for women to vote.

Apparently a very important person wanted the leader committed to a mental institution. The doctor refused saying, "Courage in women is often mistaken as insanity."


I was impressed

Mary

I guess I just got in to the "holiday" mode the past couple of days. I would intend to post and then wake up in the morning realizing that I had not.

I spent two very quiet days at home. Everything is ready for Celtic Mass and Faire. I finished up the details in the two quiet days and I actually fininshed the quilting on the big quilt that is supposed to be hanging in the Sheboygan County Quilt Guild show on September 18. All that is left is the edge, label and some fine tuning. I don't know why I do this to myself. This committing on a deadline is goofy when a person is supposed to be a retired person.

My sister Nora's daughter, Britt and her husband Bryan, visited Mother yesterday. She is an assistant curator at the Milwaukee Art Museum and has just accepted the head curator position at the museum of the University of Arizona in Tucson. They will be leaving in about a month and came because it will probably be a LONG time before they come back to this area again. Sounds like a great move for them. Bryan is excited because he is an artist and that is a great area for developing art. I know Arizona and New Mexico have really strong artist communities. Such a lovely couple. Another niece that we are so very proud of.

I also finished a couple of little booklets for the Sheboygan County Historical Research booth at our Celtic Faire. One on Grandpa Deeley. The other on the Lady Elgin Connection to the Bowser Family (Bowser being my Mother's maiden name.) I explained this on my 8/30 post.

Jim is healing well, we believe. He goes for his first checkup today. Dick is taking him at 10:00.

Have a great day.

Love

Mary

Bret called today, before I had a chance to call him. SO - I got to wish him a happy birthday and hear his voice. He is out at his place on the Colorado River for the weekend with friends. He got the package of PGA articles and souveniers I sent and was very pleased with it. I like to send things to him because he has fun with them.

While talking to him about the PGA - he mentioned that he would really like to see that course. I told him that when he comes again, we will have to REALLY dig deep and see if he can play it or at least tour it. I mentioned that there used to be a military training base out in that area of Haven. I remember as a young child that it was still open on when we would go to movies or shopping in Sheboygan on weekends there would be soldiers on leave all over Sheboygan. Flash Backs.

I was getting a bit worried, I couldn't find some of you old pictures of Grandpa Deeley, but they showed up tonight. I am doing a bit of a history of him for the Research Center's booth at the Celtic Faire. I even found an article that appeared in the Press's Do You Remember column in 1975 indicated that he was in charge of the St. Patrick's Day banquet in 1925.

Wow.

Have a nice day.

Mary