A grateful heart

Gearing up for Thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to the importance of gratitude.

I think gratitude is as important to meaningful and joyful living as anything.

Even knowing that, it sometimes is not easy to practice an attitude of gratitude.

This morning in church, we sang a familiar chorus..."We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord."

When we are in a funk, or are just plain irritated or bent out of shape about something, we might not feel like being thankful.

If we are going through hard times--sickness, loss of a loved one, etc., it's hard to feel grateful too.

Choosing to offer up thanksgiving in those times, by a deliberate act of our will, well, that is a sacrifice.

The thing about sacrificing praise is that it turns us inside out in a good way.  It turns us from being preoccupied with ourselves and our often petty grievances to recognizing that we really are fortunate.

Looking up, we can usually see that we are better off than we thought, that we are not alone, that the Good Lord has blessed us beyond measure.

We are richer than we know, regardless of what our bank account might say.

A good rainy day read

This book is also about the WPA pack horse librarian project.  

I highly recommend it! 

There has been some controversy associated with The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and Giver of the Stars by Jojo Moyes because of similarities between the two books.  

Sure, both are about pack horse librarians in Kentucky in the 1930's, but they are very different stories. 

For one thing, the Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is one of the mysterious blue people.  Because she is blue, "Cussy" faces prejudice and ill treatment not only for being a woman, but for being "colored."  

This book is filled with plenty of cultural detail about herbal remedies, superstition, foodways, dialect, etc. 

It's also a stark portrayal of the poverty in the hills during that time period.

We tend to romanticize "the good ol' days," but this book will make you think again about that.  For that reason, and because it's just a captivating story,  I recommend this book.  

No sign of the ears straightening up

But Mom...mahh, ... I can't hold it up! 

Yes, this cute little thing appears to have a permanently bent ear, but I see no sign that she was frostbit.  I'd like to get ahold of her cute littler floppy ears, but she still keeps her distance.
In the meantime, she's doing well, nursing frequently and frisking around.  
I saw her being chased by one of her older sisters today, which got big sis a scolding from me, but no harm was done. 

And besides, her momma was watching closely and was ready to intervene if she was too rough on her!

(I've got to come up with some names. These pronouns are confusing even me!)

Happy weekend, folks!  I'm about to sign off and dive into a good book.  Adios!

Isn't she the cutest thing?  

Heritage farmers and such

Just look at this pearly pink sky! 

Our view this morning, and nearly all mornings, but I'm continually amazed at how the same mountains change their appearance in different seasons, different weather, different times of day.

There's always something new to see and appreciate, if we just keep our eyes open.  

This blogpost will be brief.  After work, I had the annual Kiwanis Farm-City Banquet to cover, so we haven't been home long.

This happens to be a favorite event of mine, because I know how hard farmers work and how deserving they are of recognition, or at least, of being appreciated.  

Sometimes people don't appreciate what they may consider an humble class of people, but I'll be sure and point out yet again, if you ate today, you can thank a farmer.  

And if you are really fortunate, you'll know your farmer, and where your food comes from.  Otherwise, your groceries might very well have been shipped from hundreds or even thousands of miles away.  

Imagine the quality that must be sacrificed when we buy food like that.   Ironically, it may look perfect, but there's something unnatural to me about perfect-looking food that's been transported across the country and setting on a shelf for weeks--or longer.  

Obviously, there aren't enough of us growing local food to keep everyone supplied all year round, or even ourselves, so I'm not necessarily being judgmental.  

I just think it's sad, and it's something that needs to change.  We should be able to source everything we need from within a much smaller radius (with the obvious exception of bananas and citrus, etc.) 

One reason there aren't many people growing local food?  Most other jobs don't depend on the weather.  And many, I daresay, are easier. 

Well, that's my ramble for the night. I probably ought to go to bed soon, before I really start to make sense.  Ha! 

Just piddlin'

So, what do you do on a gray day at home when it's kinda chilly and you are content to be indoors?  

Ya piddle. 

I've been piddling' all day, messin' and gommin' in the kitchen. 

Anyone else know how to "mess and gom"?  My momma taught me these valuable skills.  

But the end results of my mess was a rather tasty meal, if I do say so myself. 

I was inspired by a conversation I had last week with my work buddy Suzi.  We were talking about how good pork is with kraut, even better with mashed potatoes served up alongside. 

So, I pulled out a jar of kraut that we made back in the sweltering days of summer, and I spread it in the bottom of a baking dish.  I layered some pork chops on top of that, then topped them with some onions.   I peeled some of those buttery yukon gold potatoes harvested from our garden, and I mixed up some cornbread from the cornmeal ground from Dad's corn.  

After everything cooked and baked and smelled the house up real good, I  sautéed some brussel sprouts and mashed the potatoes.  I served it all up with a couple of the homegrown tomatoes we are still eating from the garden.   Yum, yum.   

Slow food, indeed.  A lot of trouble, yes. 

But worth it to me, and worthwhile. 

Meals grown and prepared with my own hands seem more meaningful to me. 

That pile of peppers in the background is ground up and ready to make a batch of pepper jelly, by the way. 

 A stroll around the field this afternoon prompted this photo of Haystack Mt.  Some might say it's a dull scene now, and it certainly isn't as green and lush as back in the summer, but I still think it's beautiful in a quiet muted way.

Puttin' up the Maple Leaf

Tonight we drove one more nail in the coffin that is the memories we made last summer.

But wait, you can't really put to death a memory, can you?  Not that you'd want to, if the memories  are good ones. 

There's probably a more fitting analogy, but I can't think of it right now.  We finished issue 47 today, and my brain is tired. 

Anyway, what we actually did this evening, just before dark, was go to the creek bank and load up the grill and the chairs and the fishing pole props and hook up the little ol' Maple Leaf and pulled her to higher ground.  She's been on the creek bank since it finally stopped raining, in what, August?  

While time for camping was limited last summer, what time we spent on the creek bank was still 

chill-axing.  We enjoyed a few weinie roasts, a few fishing sessions, even an overnight stay or two. 

We watched turtles float, and an otter surface and dive outta sight again after it saw us. We saw big carp and narrow gar swim lazily near the top of the water when it was so hot and dry.  

We listened to coyotes yip, yip, yip, all around when darkness fell on warm nights.  We marveled at the stars and the sunrise that we got to view from a different angle on the farm. 

We saw excitement in our grandkids' eyes after Clay caught a fish.  

So, yeah. I felt a bit sad about retrieving the Maple Leaf, but the reality is, if we'd left our camper on the creek bank, we might not have one to use next spring/summer/fall! 

The Maple Leaf.  She's high and dry now. 

I'm amazed at how inky the creek looks right now.  

The light was reflecting off the surface of it, so it was hard to get a photo that showed true colors.  I saturated this one a bit, and it still doesn't accurately show how black the water is!  

Anyone else ready for spring?

This will be a short post.My brain is depleted after a long day followed by a long meeting.

It was dark when I got home, and chilly. Thank goodness I already had chili made so I didn't have to cook!

These long dark evenings have me craving some springtime, hence the photos.

Ahhh, color. How I miss you.