Fall is Here

Well, it is almost Fall, September 23rd is the first day of Autumn and fast approachoing. We got up early this morning and headed out about 8AM for the Maple Syrup Museum in Croghan for an all you can eat Pancake and Sausage, apple sause, orange juise and coffee breakfast, we got there and were seated right away and treated to stacks of pancakes, bowls of sausage, and was it ever good!!

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The ride up was nice, the farmers are cutting their corn fields, lots of tractors and trucks out on the road hauling corn silage.

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On the way home we did see some turkey in the fields and lots of canadian geese in the harvested corn fields.

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The wild Grapes are very abundent this year, we used to pick them as kids and can remember how they used to turn your hands purple and nothing would wash it off except time.

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The Berries above are plentiful and I cannot remember their name, all I know is you cannot eat them, AND the Birds do'nt eat them!
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We walked the fence line here and cleaned out the Blue Bird Boxes for winter and My Honey helped!

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The Grapes were abundent, these are the Grape Leaves you pick when they are young and green to use to make Mishi.

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Fall is coming, up the street you can see the leaves turning color.

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It was a beautiful day for a walk!! I am a very lucky man, I seldom have to use the walker or cane anymore when walking on uneven ground, but I use it when I have to, it beats falling!

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This is Monument Park in Carthage, this area is where the leaves on the soft maples and the Red Maple change adn is always a popular spot for pictures when fall starts coming in.

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For a better idea click on the above picture to see this process of cutting and splitting and handling fire wood, up here a "Face Cord" of fire wood is 4 feet high, 8 feet long and 12 to 14 inches long, right now a cord of hardwood fire wood sells for about $50.00 and that is not delivered. The tow motor puts the log on the saw and splitter where its cut, split, goes to a conveyor and to a wood pile, most firewood is delivered in dump trucks. The above picture is one pile, there was also 2 more piles of logs bigger than the one shown aboev.

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Above is just one of the many, many corn fields here being cut for either silage for feed or corn for ethanol.

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Don't forget our Veterans!!!

Making Progress

We're Cooking today!!!

It is raining "Cats and Dogs" out right now and it is cool, both inside and outside, SO, it's a good day to do a little cooking to warm up the house!!

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. I went to the Barbershop today and finally got my hair cut as it was a little shabby, I was going to try to drive today but let my honey get us there and back.

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This morning we filled the bird feeders, then went for a ride, the farmers are cutting corn, the corn fields are full of big "Canadian Geese" heading south already.

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Well for supper we decided to make some Lebanese Mishie.

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I started out putting a kettle of nwater on the stove while Anna Mae cut the core on a big cabbage, the cabbage goes in the boiling water and you peel each leaf off so it can cool, I got out the knife and carefully cut up the lamb and separated it off the bones and trimmed the fat, the smaller the pieces of lamb the better the Mishie!

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After the cabbage boils off and you have the leaves cooling, the lamb, uncooked rice, tomatoe sause, tomatoe paste, some Onion, Garlic, all spice and some Na-Na go in the bowl and are mixed up and then you take a cabbage leaf and put a lump of meat/rice on it and roll it up into a roll, the bones from the lamb are put in the bottom of the pot and as you roll a leaf with stuffing you place them in the pot on top of the bones.

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before you use the cabbage leaf you cut the thick spine off from it so it rolls easy and makes a better mishie roll, you are supposed to use wild "Grape Leaves" when you make the Mishie but these can get pretty bitter if you don't pick them early, so we use cabbage.

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The rolls are stacked in a pot ontop of the lamb bones, then you take a can of Tomatoes, crush them and cover all the rolls and put them on to boil for the afternoon, the house warms up and smells delicious as the Mishie cooks.

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Finally, Dinner is ready, Stuffed Cabbage leaves which is an old Lebanese dish, Marook or flat bread and tossed salad with sweet vadalia onion sause. DELICIOUS!!!

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As always let us not forget our past and current veterans!!!

Vacation Time

We made it "On the Road " and headed out for Old Orchard Beach Maine on Friday September 3 to catch "Hurricane Earl" come in, we couldn't make it to North Carolina and this was our first road trip to see how I would do following the stroke, We started off at 5AM Friday, I drove thru till daylight and started to get dizzy and had a bad headache SO Anna Mae took over the driving, It was hot Friday, almost 90 and the car was Hot and we have found out that the Humidity really bothers my breathing and causes some devastating headaches weird feelings.
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Well we drove and stopped and drove and stopped and we finally made it to Maine at 4PM, 11 hours on the road, I drove off and on as much as I could but "My Honey did the most of it on the way over. We got to Maine an it was about 90 degrees, hot, humid and sunny, we checked into the Sandpiper Motel where we have stayed many times before and it was time for me to lay down for much needed rest and my honey was tired also.
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We stopped for a Break and rest as often as we could!
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The Mountains were beautiful and we could see a lon, long ways!
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There were many places I wished I had brought the Fish Pole!!!!!



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The rest areas were nice and well maintained and we stopped a lot!
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We rested above after arriving in Old Orchard Beach Maine and I was beat and almost sick. We did check out where the Hospital was in case I needed it.

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Above there was almost noone on the Beach before Hurricane Earl came in, it was beautiful but there was no one around.

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This picture is out of order as this shows how much beach there was after the Hurricane.

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Coffee on the Beach watching the high rolling surf come in after Earl went by.

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Anna Mae on the Beach, as you can see there was noone there but us waiting for the Hurricane!

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.The Motel has a nice Patio and grilling area and seating overlooking the Beach.

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This was the Beach after the Hurricane the next morning, I don't know where all these eople came from all at once.

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COFFEE TIME!!!!!!!

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Dinner Time above, Flounder, Shrimp, Scallops, Oysters, Crab and it was fantastic, as a matter of fact we got a free desert as it was out 21st wedding anniversary on September 2nd and our waitress was a sweet heart, I took a lot of my dinner home as I could not eat it all!!

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.I was relaxing so much I went to sleep, the tylenol and codene I took for the headache and shaking also helped.

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Anna Mae on the Pier down town in Old Orchard Beach, it was hot, humid and breezy and the surf was high from the Hurricane.

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AND FINALLY!!!!

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LOBSTA, We went for Lobsta and it was great, everyone was running a special with 2 -1 1/4 pound "Lobsters" from anywhere from $15.95 to $19.95 for 2 beauties!!!

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I had to eat him or he would have pinched me, I also ate his brother, his cousin, his nephew and uncle and brother in law and let me tell you they were good.

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.If you notice, there is Only Lobster's and Butter on the table!!!! We don't get all that other stuff when we go out for lobster except some sweet tea to wash it down.

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The trip was fun BUT the ride home was rough for me, I had to stop driving several times, couldn't adjust to the movement around those winding hills and curves and we were safer letting Anna Mae drive. The trip home was thru Ft. Ticondoroga coming out of Vermont so my Honey could stop and visit her sister and we could spent the night at the "Green Acers" Motel, we could not make the trip back home in one day like we made it over.

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Don't Forget our Service Men and Women or our past Veterans and Remember 911!

On the Road

Well, Thursday the 2nd is our 21st Wedding Annv. We started out with having a huge dinner at our friends, Marty & Penny Grau's, we sat around the pool, talked, Man it was hot, everyone got into the pool but me, after this stroke cold water is very hard to adjust too among other things.
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Marty and I have been friends for over 20 years, he is one of the few remaining close friends I have. We played cards and Penny and I won 2 out of 3!!! Then it was time to cook!!
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We had Bratworst & steak on the grill, potatoes and salad and oven bread for dinner and it was delicious.
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We look a little different than we did 21 years ago!

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Would you look at that head of hair!!

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Well, tomorrow we will pack the car and Friday morning we are "On the Road" and headed for Maine, we want to see Huricane Earl come up the coast line of maine, an we want to be there, Maines coast line is not like the south, it's not flat sandy beaches, Maine has ROCK LEDGES that waves like to crash and explode on!!

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We were in Maine for Hurricane Juan a few years back and enjoyed the storm. We are also going to hit a few Lobster Shacks while there and enjoy ourselves.

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I am feeling pretty good except for the headaches and my balance is not all that good, my teeth bother me and my left side sometimes has a mind of it's own but I am a very lucky man, God was good and is good!!
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I think I might even drive the car after we get started on the trip!!!
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. Don't forget our service men and women serving their country!!!!!!
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On the Road

We took our trip to Syracuse to the Stroke Center to do my first follow up visit after my stroke. I was not impressed with the Doctor, he was more concerned with my cholesterol than my questions of why I had a headache every day, why my left side always felt like it was asleep, why my left eye hurt, why I was having trouble with swollowing, WELL, after listening to him I do not think I will be traveling back down there to see him again, I will be going to a different Neuroligist, and I am going to start getting out and doing things I want to do!!
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Monday I go back to Syracuse to see the Surgeon to see if I can have surgery for my Diverticulitus.

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Well, we made it back out on the road again, we took our weekly "Fishing Trip". We drove up into Lewis County, took an old back dirt road and drove up to the head waters of Whetstone Gulf, nice ride, road a little rough as it is dirt and crushed stone.

We arrived in the morning and fished above the dam, the dam holds back water to an elevation of about 25 feet, and covers a large area of the Tug Hill Plateau, We enjoyed the morning sunshine and saw lots of wildlife.

I did fairly well walking about and even managed to move around without my cane for a while.

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Below is the backed up flow behind the dam and it was a picture perfect day.

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We enjoyed the morning sunshine and each others company, too bad the fish did not like us this morning as they were hiding!!
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Honey had to put on another night crawler after getting a bite.
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I am just sitting, fishing is a Jerk on one end of a string waiting for a Jerk on the other end of the string to jerk, nothing wanted to take the bait on my hook today!
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I hope Jack does not forget Toto when he leaves Kansas!!!!!!!.

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Well, with the "Draw Down" of troops in Iraq it is important we keep the 50,000 men and women left there in our prayers until they also can get out of there.

Picnic

As I am starting to feel better we went to a "Cook-Out" up in the Adirondack Mountains, it was a 1 & 1/2 hour ride but we stoipped so I could strech my legs and My Honey could also take some pressure off her back, The Cook-Out was being put on by my Cousin and her Husband, Barry and Linda Payment from Rochester, New York, they have a camp on Little Wolf Lake in the Adironcacks. All we had to bring was our selves.
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The above picture is the Pig being cooked, there was also Snacks, Hot Dogs, Hamburgs, Chicken, Baked Beans, Salt Potatoes and Sweet Corn and all the sodas, coffe and drinks wanted!
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When the Pig was done the chef made a nice chopped pulled pork with Bar B Q Sause which was very good but nothing like the pulled pork you get down in North Carolina!!!
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I had to be careful with my diet so I picked at some nice pork and a few potatoes, NO CORN as I didn't want to screw up the Diverticulitus which has stayed calm.
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The above picture is Barry, we went to school togeather and had not seen each other in a long long time and we figured it up it was a very long, long time Barry travels a lot and has flown all over the world the lucky bugger.
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The Pavillion was brand new and nice and we filled it, I only knew a few people but all were friendly and we enjoyed ourselves.

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The above picture is my Cousin Nancy on the left, and Linda on my right, I have seen Nancy at Funerals and family wakes but had not seen Linda in *43 Years. We had a lot of catching up to do.

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Above is Barry and my 1st cousin Linda, we had a great time right up until I had to take a header when my cane went down in the soft sand and I took a header. It was nice to get out of the house and go some where, this Stroke really sucks!!!

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Let us not forget our Service men and Women!

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