Stone Soup Supper

Well, we were up early and off to chruch, our crew has dwindled down to 4 due to people working, being out of town or unavailable, so we had to hustle a little more than usual. Dan and I started cooking about 8AM, we made a nice strong pot of "Navy Coffee", started cooking hamburger, onions, peppers, sausage, garlic, and Dans wife Ginny came out to check on us to see if we were working, AND we were working in between coffee breaks and "Sea Stories"!!!

After the meat and ingredients were cooked we put on 15 gallons of salted water to boil so we could get the Macaroni cooked, we boiled and boiled macaroni, got it cooked and drained, AND then these 2 old Navy Vets started making "Hungarian Goulosh!!

We mixed a little meat, some sause, some macaroni, taste tested it and made some more, tasted it again and had the girls come in and taste it and when the 4 of us all agreed it was delicious we finally got enough made for 125 people, thank goodness for those old ARMY COOKING KETTLES !!!!!

Anna Mae and Ginny helped cut up the Onions, peppers, and we cut up, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, for enuff Tossed Salad for 125 people.

Anna Mae and Ginny set up the tables and chairs, and set the room up, we can seat 85 people at one time in the dining room, Bread Butter, grated Cheese, were put on the tables and we always use our best church china for these meals.

The ladies of our church out done them selves again cooking deserts, Being short of help I had to cut home made pies, cakes, check out the cookies, cupcakes, and other deserts that came in to make sure they were fit for Human consumption. They were OK but several I had to have Dan come help me taste again to make sure they were OK!!!!!

We had everything ready, fresh coffee, punch, hot tea, 4 five gallon kettles of Hungarian Goulosh, Home Made Bread, real butter and fresh tossed salad and at 4:30 PM we opened the doors, anna mae served drinks, Ginny waited tables, Dan served salads and I served goulosh, it was pretty much a steady stream of people thru the doors, we filled the tables, hustled about and after people finished eating we hustled and reset the tables and kept serving. I guessed about 125 people and was off by 5, we served 119 people and 1 take out meal.

Several of our regulars were in the hospital, a couple had been placed in Nursing Homes and those regulars who showed up got a nice meal, AND we got lots of compliments on how delicious the food and deserts were!!!!

We had an extra gift for those who came to dinner tonight as we had 3 to 400 ears of "Fresh Sweet Corn" donated and we sent people home with bags of corn who wanted it and it all went out the door!!!!

Well everyone got their fill of food and desert, it quited down so the 4 of us got a chance to sit down, relax a few minutes and enjoy some of the fruits of our labors and I must admit, the Goulosh was good.

Then it was clean up, we were lucky as several ladies stayed and started whalloping pots and pans, we filled the dish washer, sereral ladies washed dishes, pots and pans, hauled out the garbage and cleaned and swept up.

Right after our break it was back to work finishing up and getting things put away the ladies so kindly washed!!!

BACK TO NORMAL

To all those who have taken the "Walk to Emmaus" WE send this song out to you and wish you "DE COLORES"!!!!! Gary WTE # 89 and Anna Mae WTE # 90!!!

Well it's nice to have my Honey home, it took a day or 2 to get her rested up from her 4 day adventure at Emmaus, Today we went shopping for ingredients for Hungarian Goulosh, bought supplies for church and tomorrow we will spend the day cooking, setting up tables, and getting ready for our "Stone Soup Supper"!!!

I plan of cooking for 125 people, it has cooled down and you now go from shorts durning the day to pants at night as it is cooling down.

After thursdays "Stone Soup" we are having our Sunday Church service "In the Woods", we did it last year also, we end the summer this way, we will have guitars, music, a cook-out and "smores" and bon fire saturday night and sunday's service will be guitar music, hymns and a nice short service and then picnic lunch in the woods at a church couples place in the country,!!! Last years was really enjoyable!!

Then we have a September 9th "Gospel Sing" planned for all 3 Housing Units here and will be playing for that.

September 2nd "My Honey" and "I" will have been married 20 years!!!

It doesn't seem that long, but we have traveled many miles, wandered many places, played hard and prayed hard. I can't wait to start the next 20 years with here and maybe hopefully many more, if not here then in eternity.

Hope everyones week is going great and the rest of your short summer is filled with excitement!!!!!!!!!

We can not forget our "Veterans"!!!!!

Honeys Walk to Emmaus!!

Well, its 12;01AM, just got settled in, we just got back from Ilion, NY, what a "RAIN STORM" we came thru to get home!!!

Anna Mae has been there since thursday, they are staying in the Methodist Church, It was Hot, muggy and humid!!!,

We went down this afternoon about 3PM for a Church and Prayer Service, Karl and I took the Guitars and we got there just in time for the Pot Luck Supper, about 50 of us joined in prayer and some mighty fine vittles!!!, We then went upstairs to the Church for a prayer service for all the women making walk number 90 to Emmaus!!! We started off with some tunes, but first our Musicians, Karl and I played Guitar, Dave who's wife is on the walk brought his Mandolin, Jeff who's wife is also walking the walk and talking the Talk brought his fiddle, and Drew's Daughter Sarah brought her guitar...

We did a couple of the Old Standard Hymns to open the service, Slow and smooth with some good harmony.

THEN it must of been the heat and humidity because, first while waiting to do the next set I started picking a few notes of some "Bluegrass" to limber up my fingers, Dave jumped in with the Mandolin, then Jeff started sawing on his fiddle and then next thing there was, foot stomping, hand clapping, and we did a fine rendition of "Soldiers Joy"!!!... Well the Lay Minister in this fine and proper Methodist Church was grinning from ear to ear and calmly said, "Thank-You!, and asked us to play "Let us break bread together" and we then had communion!!

We were not allowed to see the candidates as they did not know we were there as they were in another church across the street having prayers and a late dinner, so we had to wait a while, WELL, someone in the back shouted "FIRE THEM THINGS UP"!!!! so we did, we did Hank William's, "I Saw The Light" followed by "Do-Lord", followed by some fine picking and grinning, and sawing on the fiddle and strumming on the Mandolin, we played and sang, then "Sarah" let loose with a fine beautifully sung rendition of "Because He Lives" ...and we sang back-up, OH IT WAS HOT & MUGGY!!

I couldn't see as my glasses were all fogged up, We paused and offered prayers for all the women at Emmaus, all the cooking staff, the servants, the helpers, and the Musicians, then we all 50 or so very quietly left the church, crossed the street to another church, and entered a very dark section of the cafeteria which had a huge black tarp hung across it, we were very quiet, on the other side of the tarp were the Women, leaders, helpers and musicians doing "Walk # 90"!!

They were singing "Do-Lord" and had their musicians on the other side of the tarp with them, we could not see them and they didn't know we were there, we were not expected there until Sunday at 5PM.

As they sang a song we joined in, they stopped singing, we stopped singing, this went on for about an hour, finally they started singing "I saw the Light" and I led us off with "I saw the Light" and played and sang along with them, they had no idea who was behind the tarp!!!!! BUT they will find out tomorrow as we go back down Sunday about 2PM and do it all over again except this time there is a surprise and I can't tell you in case you ever get the chance to do an "Emmamus Walk".

Then the women and staff left the cafeteria for their rooms, people started drifting off for their long rides home and well, we decided to have a "JAM SESSION", so we stayed, did some bluegrass, country, gospel and a few hymns and closed with Amazing Grace and we hit the road for the 2 hour ride home in a blinding rain storm!!!......

The Mandolin Player was a Vietnam Vet, the fiddle player was Korean War Vet, most of the men who had women there for the long weekend were Vets!!!!!!! SO, to end the night we closed with "My Country Tis of Thee" and we hit the Road!!!!!!!!

Never forget our Veterans, I just saw on the news a few minutes ago our local Fort Drum 10th Mountain Division lost another 2 brave souls today from "IED"!!!!!! Thats 60 from our Base here in Carthage we have lost so far this year!!!!!! That's 60 too many!!!

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!!!!!!!!!

QUIET TIME:

Its almost midnight, I just got home, I am gonna rough it till Sunday, My Honey is now down state in Ilion, New York doing her "Walk to Emmaus" , Walk number # 90. I did my walk # 89 in March and what a Life Changing event!!!! On the Walk to Emmaus the men and women go separate, it starts on a thursday after noon and ends late Sunday.

This is a picture of my honey giving me my instructions for the next 4 days so I will survive!!!!!!!!!

My Honey has me and also a lot of other people praying for her on this "walk"!!!!

Let also not forger to pray for our service men and women in harms way!

OH THE MEMORIES!!!!!!!

IN 1969 THERE WAS GOING TO BE A "PARTY" !!!!!

IT WAS CALLED A "WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY" , AND WAS GOING TO BE AT MAX YASGURS PIG FARM, IN BETHEL, NEW YORK, A FEW PEOPLE WERE COMING, MAYBE ABOUT 50,000, ALL WAS GOING TO BE IN ORDER, NEW YORK STATE PUT ON A COUPLE OF HUNDRED TROOPERS FOR CROWD CONTROL TO HANDLE A FEW THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO WERE GOING TO LISTEN TO A FEW BANDS, SOME FOLK MUSIC AND IT WAS IN AUGUST WHERE IT WOULD BE WARM, SUNNY AND DRY.

THE MUSIC BEGAN AT 5PM ON FRIDAY AUGUST 15 AND CONTINUED UNTIL MONDAY AUGUST 18, THE PROBLEM, 450,000 SHOWED UP, THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY AND ALL LOCAL ROADS WAS PLUGGED WITH CARS, IN CHARGE OF THE SECURITY WAS "WAVY GRAVY" AND 85 "PIG-FARMERS"...THE 5 GATES TO LET THE CROWD IN WERE MERLY CRASHED DOWN ALONG WITH THE SECURITY FENCES, AND TICKETS DIDN'T MATTER AS THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS SHOWED UP, MANY BEFORE THE EVENT EVEN STARTED. WELL THE REST JUST TURNED INTO HISTORY!!!!

NEEDLES TO SAY, "I MISSED IT" AT THE TIME I WAS MARRIED TO MY FIRST WIFE, LIVING IN ROCHESTER, NY, , 2 KIDS, WORKING 3 JOBS, VIETNAM WAS IN FULL BLOOM, THE NATION WAS IN TURMOIL, ABBIE HOFFMAN WAS IN CHARGE OF THE "YIPPIES", GOV. NELSON ROCKAFELLER WAS IN CHARGE OF THE STATE AND NOBODY WAS IN CHARGE OF WOODSTOCK.

IT WAS FREE LOVE, FREE DRUGS, FREE SEX, AND FREEDOM, BOTTLED WATER WAS $5.00 A BOTTLE, AND DRUGS WERE FREE!!! NOT ENOUGH FOOD, NOT ENOUGH MEDICAL CARE, 2 PEOPLE DIED, 2 BABIES WERE BORN, THE RAINS CAME, AND IT RAINED SOME MORE AND MUD WAS THE PLAYING FIELD AND A SMALL POND ON THE FARM FOR WATERING CATTLE WAS THE PLACE FOR SKINNY DIPPING TO CLEAN OFF THE MUD AND PICTURE TAKING.

WELL I DIDN'T GET TO GO TO WOODSTOCK, I HAD A FEW FRIENDS WHO DID GO, THEY SAID IT WAS THE "TRIP" OF A LIFETIME!!!

ALL WAS NOT LOST AS I STILL HAVE ALL MY OLD RECORDS OF "WOODSTOCK" !!!!!

HARD TO BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN 40 YEARS SINCE WOODSTOCK!!!

HERE IT WAS, THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF "BABY BOOMERS" ALL AT THE "PIG FARM" FOR A "MUSICAL FEST CALLED "WOODSTOCK", BETHEL, NEW YORK!!!!

THE STAGE WAS SET, AND THE CROWDS WERE ON THEIR WAY OR ALREADY THERE!

THE ROADS WERE PACKED, THE NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY WAS BLOCKED, THE ONLY WAY IN TO THE PIG FARM FOR "WOODSTOCK" WAS HOOF IT IN!!!

WHEN WATER WAS SELLING FOR $5.00 DOLLARS A BOTTLE YOU GOT IT WHERE EVER YOU COULD!!!

LOOK AT ME IS WHAT I THINK SHE WAS SAYING!!!!!!!

THEY DROVE, WALKED, HITCH-HIKED AND TRECKED TO GET TO THE PIG FARM!!!

SHOWING IT ALL FOR A LITTLE ATTENTION SO AS NOT TO BE 1 OF THE FEW 450,000 WHO WERE THERE!!!!!

JIMMI DID HIS BEST BUT I DIDN'T LIKE THE WAY HE DID A COUPLE OF SONGS!!

LIKE THE SONG SAID, WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN"!!! *(ccr)

THEY CAME WITH EVERYTHING OR WITH JUST A KID ON THE HIP!!!

THE "AFRO" BEADS, BANGLES AND WHOOPEE!!!!

"PEARL" *(JANIS JOPLIN) GAVE SOME OF HER BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAD, MOM AND THE KIDS ALL SHOWED UP FOR THE "EVENT"!!!

ARLO GUTHRIE SAYING A FEW WORDS ABOUT "LOVE AND PEACE"!!!
AND ALICES RESTAURANT!!

LIKE THE SIDE OF HIS CAR SAID, "WAR IS NOT HEALTHY" I BET HE WAS A #$3@4-%&#%@ "DRAFT-DODGER"!!!

FROM MAINE TO FLORIDA AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN THEY CAME AND STAYED!!!

AND IT RAINED SOME MORE!!!!!

THE RAIN NEVER STOPPED!!!! AND THE PARTIES OVER!!!!!!!

NEVER FORGET-REMEMBER THE VETS WHO WERE FIGHTING IN 1969 SO THEY COULD HAVE THEIR"WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY"!!!!

Catching up!

We woke to a beautiful day, sunny and a little humid, it was off to church, a nice coffee hour after church and next week the Minister is on vacation so this week will be spent with my doing a sermon, practicing on the guitar as our organist fell and broke his shoulder, and we have no music for next Sunday, I have lots of sermons packed away but like to write a new one as it makes the old brain cells work harder!!!


Well, lets see, We have been busy, Today we cut fresh Parsley from the garden, pulled some Onions, Anna soaked some Burgle Wheat, I chopped up the parsley so it was in small pieces, chopped onions, then she mixed the burgle, onion, parsley, fresh tomato, added lemon juice, olive oil, *(Na-na) which is Lebanese for spearmint leaves, and Lebanese spices and we made "TABOULI"!! It is a fantastic salad, works great on cutting down on cholesterol!!!!! To go with it for dinner we have 2 Pork Steaks sitting in Garlic and Onion Powder which will go on the grill hopefully when it quits raining!!!!!!



Our weather has been HOT!! finally summer arrived, we only had to wait until august for it to get here, Today started out nice but we got some rain and it had dropped the humidity some.

Yesterday we took our weekly fishing trip, we drove up to Cranberry Lake and fished there a while, then we drove back in 3/ 1/2 miles on a dirt road into the 5 ponds wilderness area in the Adirondack Park and fished there and then our last stop we went to Greenwood falls, anna is standing in front of part of the falls, it was a beautiful day, we had a nice lunch outside and enjoyed the day. Anna is doing better but after awhile she has to go to the cane to help with the back pain and uneven ground really causes some problems!!

*(NOTE TO JACK & SHER) I don't think we will be walking any of the Appalachian Trail soon!!

August 7th was spent with my son in Sackets Harbor, we went to lunch to Celebrate his big 40th birthday!!! After lunch and conversation we walked around the 1812 Battlefield and enjoyed the day!! Seated at the table is Anna Mae, me, Jonathan, His mother Donna and our Grand-daughter Shannon.






The past week we helped set up and cook and serve at our "Summer Picnic" held for the 3 Senior Citizen Buildings. We live in West Side Terrace, above us is Dalton Estates and Grandview Courts, Our building has 50 units, Dalton and Grandview each have 24 units.

This is a shot of a few of the 100 plus tenants who live here, my honey is in the pink shirt on the left side.





The West Carthage Housing Authority provided Salads, Salt Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, Baked Beans, and Chicken, we just didn't have a piece of chicken but we enjoyed a half a chicken which a lot of our residents took home. For desert we had Ice Creme Sundaes with any kind of topping you wanted plus Root Beer Floats and Orange Soda Floats. The Meal was fantastic and we had a DJ for music from 5 to 8PM.

Pictured below are the 3 "Chicken Cookers" we cooked 120 chicken halves, we started cooking at 1PM and cooked the halves from 1PM until 4:00PM, They were marinated for a couple of days in a special sauce and were they ever delicious and also moist!!!! Once the chickens were done they were placed in coolers double lined with aluminum foil and let sit which also steamed them!!!!!!!!!

The picture below is the "Chicken Cooker", it belongs to the Knights of Columbus and they let us borrow it, we cooked 120 chicken halves all at one time, it is propane powered, inside is a rack with another rack hinged to it, you put on the chicken, pull down the top rack and connect them together, after cooking for 20 minutes on one side you simply open the 2 covers, insert a bar into each end of the rack and turn the chicken over, every 20 minutes you turn all the chicken at once and baste it, the white pail with mop in it is used to baste the chicken each time it is turned. Somebody had a bright idea when they made this thing cuz it works great!!

This cooker will also cook a full pig, it has an electric motor on the front of it and a chain driven drive to constantly turn the pig.

Well it seems we are gearing up here at Fort Drum for another group of 10th Mountain Division soldiers to head overseas, It seems our flags here on Government buildings are constantly being flown at half mast, Our Governor requires all flags to be flown at half staff in New York State when we lose a service man or woman in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Hope every ones week is a great one!!!!!

NEVER FORGET OUR VETERANS !!!!!