ON THE ROAD

WE ARE ON THE ROAD !

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Sunday Morning at 5AM we are on our way to Florida!

Still Alive

Well, It has been a rough December, I went into the Hospital on December 3rd for heavy anti biotics for my Diverticulitis. While there my Honey Anna Mae went into Watertown and had her first shot into the spine for pain relief.
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Then on December 7th I was rushed by Ambulance to Crouse Hospital in Syracuse for emergency surgery, the day was windy, snowing and Interstate 81 was 1 lane traffic, the normal 1 1/2 hour ride took almost 2 hours. The roads were so bad my wife had to stay in Carthage and drive down the next day.
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They had to thicken my blood so I was taken off blood thinners for a couple days then I was prepped, and my surgery took place at 10 PM on December 9th. Surgery took 2 1/2 hours, I was in recovery for 2 hours and back in my room at 3AM and was I ever in PAIN.
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They removed over a foot of my large colon and reconnected it, I spent some time in bed hoooked to a cathater and finally was let up still in agony but unhooked and started to try to walk which was a trip!!!
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Released from Hospital, made it home, lots of bed rest, sore and tired. Take short walks inside in the Halls, doing better, Hope everyone is having a great Christmas Holiday.

WINTER

Thanksgiving was good, this is me and the Grandson in his "Man Cave"!

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Well it's been a while since I posted. Today is our first major SNOW STORM, we are going to get some snow, but let it come.

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Other than some major medical problems for me and some serious back problems for my Honey we are doing great. We really have no complaints, life is good as it can be, we are lucky, we have each other and yes, God is Good!!

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Thanksgiving was good, we spent it with the Daughter and Grandson and ate well and enjoyed the afternoon, we came home and settled in and relaxed, problem is there is no snacks but that is OK for me as I am on a tight balance of what I can and cannot eat.

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I am doing OK and waiting for surgery to correct this problem and it will happen either by being planned or emergency surgery. One way or the other it will get done.

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My Honey, anna mae has to have shots in the lower back to relieve her pain, hopefully they will have these 2 shots will be done first part of December.

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We are waiting to see where Florida comes into the picture this year but plans call for leaving in January.

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Hope everyone is doing OK, and hope you all had a great thanksgiving and that you had a lot to be thankful for.

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It's WET

Well, it has been wet, lots of rain and the leaves have almost all changed colors to dull reds and yellows, We are both doing somewhat better and so it was time for a "ROAD TRIP"!!! We went up onto Tug Hill Plateau to the Wind Turbine Farm, we were there when the first started installing these huge turbines, right now there are 225 up there.
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It was a Beautiful day, cool and crisp, clouds mixed with sunshine and a nice day for a ride which we buth needed,

*(click on any photo to enlarge)

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This picture above is of a few of the many Wind Turbines up here These wind mills were turning but they are slow enuff to be able to get a picture of them as they turn slow..
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Of the 225 + Wind Mills we drove around there were only 3 that were not turning, above picture shows a Crew from UTAH setting up one of the bigest Cranes I have ever seen to access the turbine blades, they would not let us drive down near where they were working, they were nice about it as they didn't want anyone to get hurt.

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* click on any photo to enlarge

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Above shows how big these wind turbines are compared to the houses and barns they are near, each land owner or farmer who is lucky enough to get a wind turbine on his property get from what I have been told about $9,000.00 a year, One farmer has 9 of these on his property!

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We took coffee and crackers with us and drove past this apple tree loaded with apples and the ground was covered, the deer will have a feast on these.

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*click to enlarge

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Standing in front of one of these Turbines the Blades are about 20 feet over my head, when the blades make their circle they make a swoosh sound, it was cold and spitting snow when this picture was taked.

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We were able to get close to the turbines as most of the chains across the roads are down for the corn harvest, the first towere had an 8 foot high fence, with razor wire on top and a padlocked gate, but they found out that most people left them alone or got killed, the doors to gain entry are heavy steel, have double locking systems, they are pretty secure and there is not way yo reach the props unless you had a ladder.

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We went into the low lands and most of the leaves are gone from the trees, here it was spitting snow and it was cold.

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As you can see there is a lot of standing water, the "Old Saying" is.. When the Swamps fill up with water it can snow anytime! It was snowing of and all day but it was a nice 4 hours spent driving thru meadows and back roads looking at the towers.

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Another apple tree full of some delicious apples!!!

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This picture is of a young Amish Girl and a team of horses, she is towing a manure spreader, Out of respect I did not take a close up as they do not like their pictures taken, right behind her came 6 or more young boys in black suits, white shirts. carring white plastic lunch pails, all walking home from the old one room school house, We waved and went on our way.

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Above is a picture of a small buck out cleaning up some corn left in the corn field
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In the circle in the above picture is a heron, he is fishing in a Meadow runoff due to so much water and the ground being saturated.

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This is what the corn fields look like with all the standing water in them, some farmers were lucky and got some of their silage and also some corn in before it got too wet.

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We have a severe storm posted for high winds, power outages and rain for next couple of days, they are getting it out in the mid west.

Oh yes, we have a new "Grandson", Zach Ferris married our Granddaughter Shannon Marie Wood, she is now in South Dakota at Minot Air Forse base learning how to be a Miliotary Wife.

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Hoping this finds you all well and settled in, it looks like winter is coming, hunting season has started, I am trying to get Doctoring done so can get out of here for the winter.

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Don't forget our Veterans!!!

Waiting for Rain

1,960 People a day have a "Stroke"!!!!!

GUESS WHAT THESE ARE???

GIVE UP???

We have been enjoying some beautiful weather, warm, a couple days of cooler temps, today we wore pants instead of shorts as it is cooling down, Deer Season is open now for Bow-Hunters, We have been watching the Weather Channel and watching this storm that is in Florida and heading our way, we have a severe "FLOOD WARNING" posted for tomorrow *(Thursday) and expecting heavy rains and wind, Florida is getting pounded with rain and its working its way up the coast.

Remember the old saying" Red Sky at Night, Sailors Delight, Red Sky in Morning, Sailor Take Warning, well tonight we had the sky looking like it was on FIRE!!!!

What a spectacular sunset, we were sitting inside and when we looked outside it looked eerie outside, so we grabbed the camera and out we went to check it out before supper!!

*(Click on any picture for larger image)

We went outside to catch these pictures of what looks like the sky being on fire!

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The Flag looked awesome in the Spectacular Colorful Sunset!!
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We sat on a garden and used time lapse to catch a picture of us in such a beautiful sunset!
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Well I cooked us a nice dinner tonight, started with a can of Alaskan Salmon, milk, eggs, bay seasoning, butter, garlic, onions, and crackers.

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Mix everything in a big bowl and use Olive Oil and Salt heated up in large skillet.

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Make small and large patties out of the Salmon Mixture and place them in very hot Oil so they sear fast on each side, this keeps the salmon moist.

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5 nice Salmon Patties cooking fast so now I turn down the Heat and flip them!

The Salmon is almost done, I removed from the heat and placed some green Onions on top, replaced the cover and put them back on the stove to simmer for a while, I put fresh fruit cups on the table with bread and Butter.

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Dinner is served and if I say so myself, they were delicious and there was enough for a lunch the next day!!!

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Above is our American Legion Honor Guard and Firing Squad marching in a Local Home Town event, Our Color Guard is very active and it is 2 Husband and Wives who go all over to represent our Legion Post.


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Don't forget our service men and women serving our Country!

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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!