Today, we butchered the venison. Jason Karls got another one yesterday so we had four. Big ones too. We worked from 8:30 to 4:00 but we got it all done. It is fun too because the company is so good.

I got to visit a bit with my nieces Sara, Erin and Denise too. Haven't seen them since February at the Wild Game Dinner. Sara has been accepted at a college for design in NEW YORK CITY. She will start there next August. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Denise's children Samantha and Jack are growing like weeds. Jack is 5 already.

I am sure that I told you this old Irish Proverb before, but Kathy and Sara had not heard it before today. I was rather surprised. So I decided to share it on my blog.

May those who love us, love us.
And those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles
So we'll know them by their limping.

Happy Sunday. We will be "wining". There is Bougolais to stir and Gewertziminer to rack.

Mary

I helped decorate the church this morning. I had to leave before Dick and Brenda, but that always gives my Dick a chance to have a more one on one with his son. We had Racine Kringles, juice and coffee for breakfast. Easy but special. I ordered two kinds, pecan and almond. I love pecans but Jim is allergic and CAN eat almonds.

Made fruit salad for dinner tonight. It is really easy. 1 can drained manderine oranges, 1 can drained pineapple, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup miniature marshmellows and 1 cup sour cream. (I was out of sour cream so I mixed about 1/2 cup salad dressing and some raspberry vinigarette and used that instead. It is great. A bit zippier.)

Enjoy your Saturday. We will be butchering the deer tomorrow morning.

Love

Mary

Happy Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful meal at Bobbie and Bill's.

Mass was very nice. Father Gene gave a nice sermon. He is supposed to go in for surgery on Monday.

Mother is fine and we had a nice visit.

Jeff called. While they were in Sheboygan Falls for Thanksgiving dinner and hunting this morning, their dog was either let loose or got loose. He is quite worried. I hope they find her. She is a nice doggie.

I have an Irish proverb for you.

"When I count my blessings, I count you twice."

A sweet Thanksgiving thought.

Til Tomorrow

Mary

Well Bobbie and I spent the morning in the woods again. Neither one of us saw anything at all. I spent most of the morning at Shane's spot because that was where he got the successful shot off on Saturday and then went over to Jessica's spot. Nothing. What a disappointment. We felt we just had to try anyway.

Just maybe we can try one more time. We will see.

Below is a picture of Dick and I on the Minnesota Zephr Train Ride that we took on our Mystery Tour in August. That sure was fun. We had the GREATEST meal and wonderful entertainment. Four people who sang songs from WWII. We loved it.

Have a nice evening

Mary

Thanksgiving is upon us. Only two more days. It will be good to see Dick and Brenda and spend the day with all of the local kids. Too bad Bret, Bart and Leslie and their families can't be here too.

Bobbie and I are going out to the Kettles to hunt again tomorrow. We hope we get one or two. I have printed instructions for gutting a deer so we know what to do if we do get one. The two of us can get it out I know but the gutting will be the trick.

We decided we will hunt til about noon and then leave if we have no luck. Then, unless we are covered in blood and stuff, we will go out for lunch and have people wonder about our orange and us just ladies and all.

Thats all the news from here. Hope all is well with you. I will tell you all about our adventure tomorrow.

Love

Mary

Last night I was just too tired to post. Bobbie and I got home from our day of deer hunting at about 8:30PM. The hunt was successful. Shane got a BIG buck, Jeff got a spike and Jason got a nice doe. But Bobbie and I have still not succeeded in bagging a deer. I am really getting rather discouraged. As Randy says, a lot is luck and just being in the right place.

The only deer I saw yesterday, was the one Shane got. It was too far away when I saw it and I knew if I fired, I would turn it away from Shane who was much closer.

I really think that my stand was just not a good place to be this year. It is the swamp and for some reason, there was LOTS of standing water. Poor Shane made the mistake of trying to cut accross to me to see if I had a knife and stepped into chest deep water. I am sure the deer are aware of this and have been avoiding the area. This does not make me feel better, but is a reason why I did not see anything.

I am planning to go up to Jeff's and hunt one more time with Jeff and Shane. If they go out Friday, I may do that too. We will be butchering on either Friday or Saturday.

Today, the choir sang and I had to give a little talk at church. It was OK. I know it is odd, but I really don't mind giving talks. I guess all those years as a mortgage banker were good for something.

Have a nice evening

Go Packers!!!!!

Mary

It drizzled most of the day and was quite dreary.

Went to Plymouth for lunch with the bank people. Two of our ladies are on a bus tour of Branson but there were five of us still there. So we had a nice lunch and visit. Then I stopped at Walmart and got some Christmas presents and some MSM Glucosomine. That stuff sure has helped relieve my arthritis pains. As rainy as it has been, I have had very little discomfort. I am trying to get Bret to go to get some. He has developed pains in his joints and I know it would help him too.

Tomorrow is the big opening day of Deer Hunting Season. I am all set. The clothes are laid out and I checked my gun and ammo. I still have to get up at 3:30 AM to be ready on time. No shower, I don't want those deer to smell me, if possible. But I have to get dressed, have some coffee and pack a lunch and the car. Wish me luck and pray that it is a safe hunt.

I hope it will be my year. I have gotten a couple of shots off but never bagged one.

I love the dawn out there. It is usually very dark, then shapes start to form out of the dark. Soon a person hears sounds of birds and rustling of little animals in the leaves. Then I usually hear a farm dog start to bark and soon there is a flurry of shooting in the first half hour of the day.

It is so peaceful. It will be warm enough tomorrow. I just hope the showers stay away.

I found out that a St. Hubert is the patron saint of huntsmen. Apparantly while hunting, he saw a cross in the antlers of a stag he was chasing and it made him change his worldly ways and eventually he became a bishop and all that stuff. His feast day is November 3rd so we are in the right month. I took a poetry class from Susan Firer. She writes a lot about the saints and their extremes and does write of Hubert briefly. Here is the segment. I hope she doesn't mind my sharing.

A BOARDING HOUSE OF SAINTS

St. Hubert, patron saint of hunters &trapers,
peppery, sacerdotal Hugh of Lincoln (emblem the swan).
Michael patron saint of grocers,
Martin De Porres patron saint of hairdressers,
Teresa of Avila patron saint of hedache sufferers.

And she goes on to list tons of other saints and what they are the patrons of. We have one for almost everything.

Next week Tuesday, our Plymouth soldier, Cpl. Brian Prening, will be buried. I ran into Jim and Alice Wilsing at Walmart today. Jim is playing his bagpipes at the funeral. A fitting tribute for a brave young man. I pray for his young wife and children, one yet unborn. Please keep them in your heart too.

Love

Mary

Today was cloudy and comparatively warm. It was up in the 50s again which is a marvel for November. The forecast is showing 50% chance of rain on Saturday. I hope that lessens as time passes. It isn't nice sitting out in the woods in the rain.

I fixed chili and soup today. That should keep the guys fed on Saturday. I used some of the venison for the chili and it really tastes good.

Cadfael Book of Days today said "I heard many words. But even the silences between them were not altogether inarticulate."

Just something to share.

Have a nice Friday.

Mary

Bret called tonight. He is keeping himself busy and looking forward to going out to Glamas for Thanksgiving. The Orange County Four Wheelers, the jeep club we belonged to, no longer exists but many of the members and members of other clubs that we befriended over the years still go out to the desert whenever they can and Thanksgiving is still a big deal.

This year they will have a rather sad task that weekend. Bobbie Iwinski, a dear friend, died in the past few months and he requested that his ashes be scattered at Glamas. He has three spots that he wants them scattered over. I guess he wanted everybody to have a good run while they did it.

My fondest memory of Bobbie is the run that Bret, Bart and I went on without Dick because he said he "had to work." (I think we really surprised him when we said we wanted to go anyway.) Bobbie was one of the guys who really kept an eye on us because he knew we were rookies and he drove me out of a tight spot or two because I was a bit nervious. God bless his soul and I hope he likes jeeping in the clouds. They have to be as good as sand dunes.

Love

Mary

The war has struck close to home again. A young soldier from Plymouth, Marine Cpl. Brian Prening was killed this week. This is the second from Sheboygan county. It is so sad to hear of all these lives cut short and to know that there are, in addition to our brave soldiers, the civilians in these war torn cities who die and lose their homes and families in all this violence. I pray that it will be over soon and that Iraq will be peaceful and our people can come home.

We had a full day, shopping, a hair cut, racking wine and wrapping Christmas presents. I am trying to wrap and sort them as they come in so that it isn't a CHORE. Christmas, after all, should be fun. I need to make buckeyes pretty soon, so I can get packages off in a couple of weeks after all the packages come.

CRANBERRY-LEMON SCONES



Recipe By     :

Serving Size  : 8    Preparation Time :0:00

Categories    : Breads                           Scones



  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method

--------  ------------  --------------------------------

   2       c            Flour

     1/4   c            Sugar

   2       ts           Baking powder

     1/2   ts           Salt

   6       tb           Chilled butter

     1/2   c            Dried cranberries

   2       ts           Grated lemon peel

     2/3   c            Buttermilk

   1       t            Sugar



  1. Combine the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and

  salt.  Cut in the butter until crumbly.  Stir in the

  dried cranberries and lemon peel.

 

  2. Pour in the buttermilk and stir with a fork until

  the mixture holds together.  Gather the dough into a

  ball and gently knead a few times on a floured

  surface.  Pat out dough to an 8-inch circle and cut

  into 8 wedges. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking

  sheet and brush the tops with the milk.  Sprinkle with

  1 teaspoon sugar.

 

  3. Bake in a preheated 425-degree oven 15-20 minutes,

  until golden.  Serve warm.



I love scones.  Hope you enjoy these.



Mary

It rained most of the day. A very light rain and it is not going to freeze. Things are looking showery for Saturday, but temperatures in the 50s. What a pain. If they are scattered showers, we may luck out. It is no fun to sit out all day in a drizzle.

Went to Bible Study today. We always have a lot to discuss. I must remember to e-mail my friend Mark Hanna. I know that there was a segment of Jewish society that did not believe in individual salvation but believed that immortality was attained by having children and the continuation of the family line. We wondered if this is still true. Mark has a good friend who is Jewish and might be able to answer that question.

Here is the easiest recipe for bread in the world.

Beer Bread

3 Cups self - rising Flour
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 can Beer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour and sugar and then add beer and blend. Pour into greased loaf pan and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Bake for 1 hour until browned and it sounds hollow.

Great warm with stew or chili and toasts nicely.

Love

Mary

A beautiful day in the woods and Bobbie and I found our deer stands. Now if we can find them in the dark next Saturday, we have it made. It was 45 t0 47 degrees out today, there was no wind and it was dry.

Below is a picture of a wall hanging that I designed last year. I have figured out how to resize the pictures and how to get them on the site. Yea for me.

Have a nice week

Mary

The Sheboygan Symphony tonight featured Big Band Music and was quite wonderful. Most of the featured artist were local, including a young man, Luke Talen, a senior at Plymouth who got to play the piano with the orchestra.

We filtered the White Zinfandal today and for the first time we experienced what happens if you put the filters in backwards. I did it and it plugs up. All that gets through is air and bubbles. What a mess. I managed to spray wine all over the floor and the bench and had to do quite a bit of scrubbing. I will be EXTRA careful from now on.

I hope it will be pleasant tomorrow and not windy or wet, as Bobbie and I are going out to check out our deer stands. We know how to get there but it has been a year and a trip in the daylight will make us feel more secure. Jeff's Shane will be here again to hunt with us. It is nice that he can do that.

Have a nice Sunday.

Mary

This was a full day. It was sad to go to the visitation for John Walsh. I am glad I went as Dorothy, his mother, was glad that I came. I stopped this afternoon after lunch with the girls inPlymouth.

It is cold - Again the temperatures have dropped to below 30 degrees. It was below 30 this morning when Chelsea and I walked. She loves it. I am sharing a picture of our Chelsea today. Another of my experiments with transmitting adding pictures to the Blog.

Isn't she a pretty girl?

Have a nice weekend.

Love

Mary

Well, Jeff brought the venison to Mother's over the weekend, so I picked it up tonight. Now, even if we don't fill out, I have some. There are about 10 packages of steaks, chops and ground venison. I believe I will make chili sometime in the next week or two. Nothing better in the world than good old Venison Chili.

Tomorrow is the bust up party for the pistol league that Bobbie, Jim and I shoot in. I did much better this time. My average was 47 point something, which is up about 10 points from last time.

It is getting colder by the day. Chelsea and I walked in 33 degrees this morning, but it was still and not wet. She loves that kind of weather and was quite frisky.

Jim is not feeling well again. I hope he can make the bust up. It would be too bad to go through the whole thing and then not be able to celebrate the end.


I made Cranberry Relish today for Thanksgiving. It needs to blend and mature and lasts "forever." I use the recipe Mother always used and the Kunert's have come to love it too.

Here it is.

Cranberry Relish

4 cups whole cranberries
1 apple
2 oranges
1/2 of the peeling of one of the oranges
2 cups sugar

Grind all the fruit and the orange peel and mix together with the sugar and let it mature.

I love it.

Have a good Friday

Mary

Here it is Wednesday already. As I said yesterday, I got to stay home all day.

We mixed up a batch of wine. I did a bit of writing. I am trying to finish a short story for a contest. It is due by December 1 and there is another one due by December 6 if I can get two done. I wrote the premise and I did a spellcheck so far.

I also sewed a bit tonight. I am ready to put the last edge on the table runner that Liz Roehl taught me how to do and I am making spiders. I will explain that later. I hope I am making you curious.

It was quite warm today and is raining tonight. I brought in some more plants for the winter. This nice weather can't last forever. All I have left are covering the roses, checking and covering the herb garden and pulling the marigolds out of the front planter. Only two weeks til Thanksgiving. We will be going to Bobbie's for dinner and Dick and Brenda will be here. It will be good to see them as it has been a while again.

Right after Thanksgiving we will start decorating for Christmas. I need to do some baking too. I found a cranberry pumpkin bread that I want to try. If it doesn't turn out, I will go back to my old cranberry bread. I have decided to make Scripture Cake this year. Must check for the ingredients.

Have a nice Thursday.

Love

Mary

One of the people on the prayer chain called me last night. She was calling in reverse because she needed to talk to someone. Her son had been taken to St. Luke in Milwaukee because he had an infection in his heart. She couldn't go because she has an infection herself and could not be near him in his condition. Today his name came to me through the regular prayer chain progression. I called her back as she is my contact and I needed to give her the other names and tell her that John's name was out there.

She told me that he passed on early this morning, with his siblings there with him. He went to heaven fifteen minutes after they disconnected the respirator. She is grateful that he is no longer suffering. Such a faith. Please pray for John and his mother, Dorothy and the other children.

We finally finished the last of the food that I brought home from the turkey dinner tonight. It was still good. Had one little "incident". I prepared the plates for the microwave and then left the room for about 10 minutes. When I returned to finish heating everything, a big slice of the turkey was MISSING. I searched around the livingroom and kitchen and found ROXIE - the thief with the evidence right there in front of her. That cat is a real opportunist. I must be more aware.

Have a nice Wednesday. I don't have to go anywhere.

Love

Mary

We had an animated discussion this morning at Bible Study about the purpose of Baptism, the truth of the Old Testament and Noah. Quite diverse - Right, but we were following threads. Veronica said that she took a bible study on the Old Testament a bit ago and the teacher started out by saying that everything in the Bible is true and some of it even really happened.

Tomorrow the only errand we have is shopping. That is good because the past four days have been WAY too busy.

Have a nice Tuesday. I am going to add a picture as I am practicing. This is a new feature on Blogger. The picture is of a lighthouse up in Door County that I took this summer.

Mary

What a remarkably full day.

Beth Hoegger, Bill Berg, Fran Woodke and I went to the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (as I found out it is properly called) for a MiArchdiocesan Choral Festival.

We spent two to three hours under the direction of Dr. John Ramori, choral director from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, St. Louis. MO. to prepare for a performance and prayer service that lasted from 7:30 to 8:45. Bishop Sklba was the officiant and blessed the musicians as part of the ceremony. There were choir directors, musicians and choir members from all over the southeastern part of Wisconsin. We had received the music pieces earlier. Some of them were very difficult and we were so proud to be able to pull them off as well as we did. The choir did pull together very well and sounded great especially in the Cathedral which has great accustics.

Bilhop Sklba had some very special statements in his homily. He said that it is such a wonderful miricle that people can breathe in silence and then let it out, producing such beautiful music. Then he said that (this is almost a quote, so I will italicize it) It is not that wonders have ceased to exist in our world, but that we have ceased to wonder.

We must bring wonder back into this world. Music is such a good way to do it.

Have a good week.

Mary

It's bedtime. As the old expression goes, I ran out of day before I ran out of things to do. I worked on the quilting, sent out several letters, baked four pies for the turkey dinner and went to the 5:00 PM mass to sing in the choir.

Now I don't have to get up early tomorrow, as I will go get the dinners and take the pies at about 10:30AM. Then at 1:30 will leave with the other members of the choir for St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Milwaukee for the Archdiocesan Choral Festival. I hope my voice holds out. We will be practicing for a couple of hours then have a break for supper, then practice some more, then do the performance. Bishop Sklba is the officiant. I always liked them.

I have not seen the cathedral since the remodel.

Cathedral - the word reminds me of a story that was told by a student who conducted a tour of Dublin that started at Trinity College and ended at Christ Church. Dublin has two cathedral clas churches, both are run by the Church of Ireland. Several years ago, the Roman Catholic church in Ireland asked for permission to build a cathedral in Dublin. Permission was denied. The Church in Rome said that there is already a Catholic Cathedral in Dublin.

They never said which one was considerd Catholic. But apparantly, have never admitted losing one (or maybe even both) of them.

Haven't heard from any of the away kids. Hope all is OK. I will call them on Monday if I don't hear tomorrow. I worry - a lot, but don't like to be a nag or pester people.

Have a nice Sunday.

Mary