Staying Busy

 

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Well it has been busy and I have had the chance to do a lot of playing, picking grinning and singing this past week, and I have enjoyed myself.
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Karl and I had to cover the Carthage Area Hospital Skilled Nursing Unit by ourselves, Mark had Military Duty and Travis had to work, this is Mark's Mnistry and he has been doing it over 20 years and it is a pleasure to cover for him or join him.
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We went to Angels Inn and played for the adult residents there and was joined by Dennis and Karl.   Karl recently lost his wife due to Brain Cancer, he came up for the services and we had him come join us as he has played with either Mark or Friends of God before and it did him good to get out and relax.
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Peggy joined us in singing a few songs.
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Roger and I were trying to have the residents vote on who had the most hair.
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We closed out the evening with Peggy singing "On My Mothers Side".
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The cartoon above describes me.
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Karl, Mark and I back at Skilled Nursing unit at Carthage Area Hospital.
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Peggy was able to join us.
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We had a "Great" turn out when we went to play at Meadowbrook Assisted Living, above is Karl, Mark, his son Travis, Roger, John Baldwin who is a Music Teacher and has been in many bands and myself, the reason we don't all have instruments is too many guitars make it sound terrible when all are played.
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I did a solo of "Mercy" which is one of my favorites and the residents enjoyed it also.
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We closed out with Mark and Karl doing "Amazing Grace".
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Hope everyone has a great weekend.
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Finally Trout Season 2013

What a Beautiful day it was,  we sat around this morning and after coffee and after Anna Mae had Physical Therapy for her back we went "Trout Fishing", finally warm enough, the "black flies" were not bad and we got our fishing gear out for the first this year.
     We packed water, worms and gear and went up into the Dunbar State Forest to a little stream we have fished before and we hit a "bonanza" of a fishing day, almost as good as "Spec" or "Bass"  fishing on Lake Okeechobee!!!!!  
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My Honey nailed the first one, it was a nice scrappy "Brook Trout" about 8 inches, it was great to watch it do it's little tail dance across the water as it tries to spit the hook and get away but My Honey dragged it in !!!
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We fished our "secret spot" and had about our limit of 5 Brook Trout each, we had some smaller ones I threw back, as we reached our limit a vehicle came down the dirt road, pulled over and out came a "Game Warden", we chatted a while, he was a LT. and was real nice, he checked our trout for firmness, looked at their gills for fungus and then offered to take our picture for us, he never did ask us for our license which we had.
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I held up our limit of 10 Trout, 5 of them I caught'
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.Anna Mae held up her 5 trout;
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I got out the knife and got ready to clean our catch which is easy on trout as it is only a slice, a twist and done !!
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My Honey helping clean our trophy trout, we had trout over a pound and some almost a foot long!!!
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It is slit the belly, pull, twist and done!
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Trout can be cooked with the heads on or off, it's the old fashioned way to cook them with their heads on as you waste less meat that way. These were ready for My Honey to season and bake, you can also fry them in a pan in butter or wrap them in foil and cook them on the grill.  We only cooked 4 of the big ones and froze the others in a gallon bag in water.
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Anna Mae and I seasoned the trout with Bay, onion powder, put sliced butter inside the gut, and laid them on sliced onion and baked 4 of them 20 minutes on each side.
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The proof is in the pudding so they say!  YUM!!!
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These were delicious with a Tossed Salad, little pickle relish and sourdough bread!!!!!
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Let us not forget our Veterans !!!!
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Still Around

Well, we are still around and kicking,  Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise we will continue doing what we want.

First I want to thank Jimmy from http://jimsulliv3.blogspot.com/ for the TAC AWARD.  I must explain that what I do I do for others and not so much for me but I do get great enjoyment from being a part of a great bunch of guys and gals traveling to Hospitals, nursing homes, cafe's and other places.
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.Thank's Jimmy !!
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I also want to make sure that I take the time to thank Jack and Cher at http://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/ for his posts and all the others that blog regular as it keeps me occupied reading. 
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We are still playing, I played with Marks Group and we had the Nursing Home Cat entertained for most of the performance, Old Cat just sat there and watched us!!!
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The above 2 pictures were taken at the Christian Café Coffee House, this young lady did an awesome puppet show and a beautiful Chalk Drawing, she really didn't want her picture taken but relented as long as we didn't put up her name, we were lucky to get her as she is booked till fall.
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Above I played with the "Friends Of God" for the Opening of the new Assisted Living Facility which was desperately needed here, it is a beautiful facility.
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We attended the Marriage of Figaro Opera at the Syracuse Opera House, Anna Mae's brother, Marcus Astafan is the Director and we had awesome seats, Marc travels around the country putting on Opera's, New York to Colorado to Alaska. 
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We celebrated my Brother Jim's 80th Birthday, Above is Jim, Janice, Bev, me, Roland,  Missing is our brother Donnie who passed away last fall,  Brother John who is in Virginia battling cancer and Brother Ronnie who was away.  It is John, Jim, Janice, Donnie, Beverly, Gary, Roland and Ronnie.
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We traveled up into the back woods to Belfort and Opened us a Church Service at Camp Oswegatchie, the FFA Camp.
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This is the back of us  playing Hymns and Praise music in Getman Building.
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Above group is the " Hay Seed Bandits" from Utica New York who traveled up here to preform for free for this fun day for the FFA or "Future Farmers of America Event.
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The FFA sells small Rubber Ducks for $5.00 a piece and raises about $35,000.00 on this event.
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Some of the little Yellow Ducks, after the Race the ducks were sold to anyone who wanted one.


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We were asked to play and enjoyed the beautiful day.
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Nice Crowd.

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We joined the Bandits and kicked out some nice Tunes to the crowd of about 2,000 people.
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It was a God Awsome Day and I am so thankful I am able to do what I do.
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Still Around !!

Well, I am still here, have not been on much but have been following everyone on their blogs and entries.
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We made it out of here and had a couple weeks away from the snow and cold and got to Myrtle Beach, SC for a nice break.
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I saved a Starfish from a tourist and threw it back into the Ocean.
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We enjoyed the time out and about and really liked the sinshine and warm weather.
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The road home back into New York State was paved with "Ice and Snow" !

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We got together at Church and did some Hymns and enjoyed ourselves.
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We played in Watertown for a Coffee House Café night and were joined by some fellow "Friends Of God" players to entertain !
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Anna Mae filling up the Bird Feeders, it was cold and bitter outside!
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We played for a Group and one of the people there dragged out his "fiddle" and joined us for some foot stomping, hand clapping tunes for the folks.
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We are as you can see still in the grips of winter!!
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Above we played for the Home for the Aged and had a great time !
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Well, its time to get settled in and relax and get ready for "Sunrise Service at 6:30 tomorrow Morning at the River then Church Service at 10AM and then dinner with the daughter.

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We colored Easter Eggs with the Grandson today and had a good time and didn't make too much of a mess,

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Don't forget our Veterans !!!