STONE SOUP SUPPER

We are up to bat, its our Thursday to make Stone Soup Supper at United Community Church, I started out Wednesday with a nice sharp knife and 50 pounds of Chicken, I have gotten pretty good if the knife is sharp an I can cut up a chicken with 4 slices for the wings and legs, and then 2 slices and have all the breast meat off in about 8 minutes, while cutting up the chicken Wednesday Anna Mae was out sitting up the tables and chairs in dining room where we can seat about 85 people.

Danny and Ginny our team mates arrived and Dan and I cut up the rest of the chicken, had it boiling in Chicken Broth, onion powder, dash of garlic powder, butter, salt and pepper and and Ginny helped anna mae finish up the dining room.

After the chicken boiled for 3 hours we let it sit and cool and then took all the meat off and put it in the frig so Thursday would be easier.

In the picture below is Virginia, she was a cook at the hospital and recently lost her husband and I talked her into joining us and helping cook the Chicken help me make the gravy, we had 14 gallons of Chicken broth stock and we made it ALL into gravy and naturally we had to sample it to see if it was OK and it sure did turn out OK!! Then we mixed the Chicken and Gravy together and let it slow cook from noon until 4PM and it came out great EXCEPT it had to have just a little more Onion Salt!!!.

Dan and I had to watch the 5 kettles of Chicken and Gravy cook and every now and then would have to sample a piece of chicken to make sure it was cooking OK!!!!!

Anna Mae and Ginny had to sample some of the Fresh Home made Biscuits that our ladies from the church made, we had our neighbor ruth make 8 dozen soft, delicious light biscuits which tasted great with jam and the picture below shows!!!!! Pam made 6 dozen, Donna made some, Virginia, Marlene, and we ended up with about 25 dozen delicious biscuits, some of which tasted delicious with apiece of chicken jammed in between them!!!,, *(TASTE TESTED), OK!!

Our new helper Virginia made some great Chicken GRAVY !!!!!!!!!

Ginny, Virginia and our new helper Doris and Anna Mae set the dinning room, made coffee, punch, and then cut up home made Pies, Cakes and cookies, brownies and other delicious goodies the ladies from church made.!!!!

Dan and I let them sit down for a few minutes to rest!!!

We set up the serving table, with everything ready we opened the doors early as it was raining, litterly pouring outside and we let people come in early and sit in the church and at 4:45PM it was a steady stream of HUNGRY, WET people streaming in thru the door for Chicken and Biscuits, Corn and Green Beans and desert.

At 5Pm some of our church members showed up and jumped into the kitchen to start washing dishes, We fed the first 85 people and then the girls cleared and reset the tables that were empty and we invited another group waiting in church to come in and enjoy dinner, We ended up serving until 7PM and fed 154 people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got many compliments and atta-boys and atta-girls for the meal, finally at 7:30 The help sit down and got to sample our 2 days worth of work and I must say it was delicious.

We got every thing cleaned up finally, everything was put away, we both came home dragging, BUT the first thing we did was offer a prayer that the *(Man Upstairs) gave us the strength, fortitude and patience and keep us pretty much pain free to get thru these 2 days, I did have to put on a Nitro Patch before it was all done and said!!!

We refrigerated all the left overs BECAUSE Saturday we are turning right around and feeding 25 to 30 of our church members who are going out on a Work Day in the community and guess what, we are going to feed them Chicken and Biscuits!!!!!!!!!

Lets not forget our Men and Women serving their country for us!!!!!

JOYFUL NOISE

Well, we have been busy, we have gone to a couple of Praise services, and I have been playing on church every sunday doing 3 "Praise Songs" at the beginning of the service, also trying to play with the guys & gals whereever we can bring a little enjoyment to people. The "Good Book" says; "Make A Joyful Noise unto The Lord"!! Well I sure can make "NOISE", there is nothing in this quote that says "Make a Joyful Harmony" or Make a Sweet Tone", SO I have gotten over the shyness and I make my joyful noise!!!! I enjoy it, the others seem to enjoy doing it and believe it or not the people we play for also enjoyed it!!

We had a storm blow in SOUTH of us, we were lucky, it all landed below us and was a mess, this picture of these Ole Snow Clouds didn't drop us any snow, just some rain and cold weather, the cold weather is hanging on and staying cool.

Fall is a beautiful time of season here, cold but beautiful, the colors of the changing season are nice to look at and there is nothing like a nice walk thru the leaves kicking your feel and making lots of noise!!

We are lucky as we have some good musicians in church and it makes it easier to play because I can not read music and my left ear drum is shot due to too much scar tissue from drainage tubes over the years!!

Friday night we went to Watertown and went to the Urban Mission, it was a nice night and the music was great, it was from 7 to 9PM and drew a nice crowd, we had a young lad and his wife, *(The Taners) play and they were very good, I wish I had a voice like his then I could change from making a Joyful Noise to maybe some sweet harmony!!!!

There is some good news from Fort Drum, the 1st Combat Brigade IS NOT beng deployed January 1st for Iraq, that means 3,500 men and women will not have to go, hopefully soon there will be a draw down of those there and we can start pulling out!!!

Keep our troops there in your prayers!!!

Happy Birthday Navy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAVY !!!

THE ONLY TRUE "EASY DAY" WAS REALLY "YESTERDAY"!!!

WATCH STANDING AND THE "LOG"!!!









dEAR mOTHER,
I AM lEARNIN MANY GREATE THINGS HERE IN THE nAVIE.
WiLL RItE mORE LATeR WheN i Am NOT SO Bu$Y!!
LOve ;
yUR sON

yes, there really is an NCIS !!!










WHITE SHOE, BLACK SHOE, BROWN SHOE!!!!

dEAR mOTHER,

tHe fOOD is GooD Here buT a Lot of The Guys spend a lot of time leaning
over those rails looking for FiSh. I am doIng good!! Right after this leTTEr

I hAve to fininsh looKing for the Pail OF bLUE sTEAM AND right handed Monkey wRench.

Love you.

ur Son

SOME PEOPLE GO THRU LIFE LOOKING FOR FRIENDS, OTHERS DO IT BY BECOMING FRIENDS!!

dEAR mOTHER;

mY 4 YEARS ARE ALMOST UP AND WILL BE HOME SOOn. I have been awarded the "PaiNT ChIPper" of the qUArtEr and HAvE finaLLy realIzEd what "Sweepers, SWEEpeRs, MAn Your BroomS" means!!!

LoVE yOU

YOUR sON

Dear Mother,

I aM now a "Master at Arms" E-6, I like it but wish they would at least give me a bullet if i HaVe to carry this pIstol around!!!

Love,

Your sON

Dear Mother, I jusT got promoted and will be gone another 4 years.

I am going to bE A BoXer!!
Love yOu
Yuor Son



FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS

Still Here

Hope you enjoy the song playing, "Come, Now is the time to Worship!! I like it, I spent a week trying to learn how to play it, it's a wonderful "Praise Song" but some strange chords in it hard for this "Old Blockhead" to learn but I did and I played it last Sunday in Church and will do it again this sunday!!

Fall is here, the leaves are beautiful, most high peaks in the Adirondack Mountains are past peak, here theres lots of trees that have shed most of their leaves and we are now getting a lot of rain, My Dad and Grampa used to saw winter couldn't set in until the swamps were full of water and with the rain we are getting they are surely filling up now. We have had some pretty heavy rians and winds lately!!

This picture is what most of the trees look like around here now, pretty but son to be bare and dormant, last fall it snowed on October 28th and IT STAYED until March which gave us a good 6 MONTHS OF WINTER!!!

We have already had "SNOW", not a lot but a scattering in the higher elevations and it was enough to cover the ground.

The Canadian Geese are still flying "SOUTH" and everyone has their Bird feeders filled and their Suet Feeders out, we are getting a couple of large Downy woodpeckers at ours !! The Farmers are hustling to get the Corn Silage in before the meadows get too much rain and they can't get in to cut the corn.

Deer Hunting has began, there are lots of deer and turkey around!! Right now it's Bow Season, then Black Powder, then regular rifle season!!

Tomorrow we are having "Venison Stew" here for lunch for everyone!

Would love to get me a few of these "Ringneck Phesents", like the one in the picture below, they are not native to New York and our Conservation Department raises them and releases them all over the state, a few survive but most don't make it thru the winter!!

Today was my Trip to Syracuse to have my yearly check-up for my Carotid Arteries, one side fairly good, one side developing more scar tissue from prior surgery which is not good, instead of yearly appointments I have to go back in 6 months for re-check or sooner if problems develop.

Anna's Back is still flaring up now and then and causing her some pain but she is getting used to it she says!!! Ya know how tough these women are!!!

I had the stitches taken out of my left eye lid after surgery and I whimpered and whined like a whipped dog!!!! LOL!!! who said men are the stronger sex!?????

Glad to see Jack and Sher on "Shipslog are safe and sound and back up!!

I'm glad Shirl is keeping an eye on Jack so he stays out of trouble!!! AND Lucy is also keeping tabs on him!!!

I was glad to see Jimmy's Journal give the "TAC" award to My Brain is in Pain, nice job!!!

My retired "Police Buddy" "Mark" has had a little set back out in Texas, his Cancer is back, BUT he's a scrapper and will surely lick it again so please say a little prayer for Mark and Marie out in Dallas!!!

My other retired "Police Buddy" "Nick" went to the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Philly and him and Joann could also use a few good words to the "Man Upstairs" !!!

Our Neighbor "Pat" who is about my age went to the local Carthage hospital Tuesday the 6th, they shipped her out to Syracuse, she was light headed and dizzy, they found that she had "End Stage Cancer" and before they could start treatments she passed away in her sleep on the 8th, WOW!!! So quick!!!! 3 days!!!! She will be sadly missed, that is one problem living in senior citizen housing!!!!!

We have lost some more Troops from Fort Drum, hard to believe we have been in this mess for 8 years, I remember when we went into this $h1t because it was on the "Navy Birthday" Party at the American Legion 8 years ago when we started!!!! (and we are still there)!!!!!!!

I have been trying to stay UP, I have been playing the guitar and doing "Praise Songs" every Sunday at church, on the 22nd of October I am doing Chicken and Biscuits, (Home-made biscuits) and cooking enuff for 175 people as these "Stone Soup Suppers" are really feeding a lot of people every Thursday here in our little village!!!!!!! It gives those who need it a great meal and those who don't like to eat alone a chance to have some social time!!

Well, it's been a long day, started off at 6AM for the trip to syracuse so am heading for bed.

DON"T FORGET OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN IN YOUR PRAYERS!!