Greetings from the Great Northwoods and Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in the great northwoods. Amy, Jason and Cameron were able to make it up. Unfortunately Mom had the flu and they were not able to come.. they were missed at the dinner table for sure.

Enjoy the pictures ..

Happy Thanksgiving

More pictures fom our Southern Style Thanksgiving

Can you believe it, we are all smiling :o)


What a silly family we have (hehe, ok, so maybe I put them up to it)

Well, looks like the dogs even wanted to join in on the fun ...

Thanksgiving Southern Style

We had a great time yesterday at our house. The southern clan all showed up, along with friends of friends who are now our friends.

We had turkey, ham, my awesome spinach salad, Julie's incredible homemade cloverleaf rolls, piles of potatoes, and carrots, sausage stuffing from Mom's secret recipe, cranberry salsa from Melany, pickle tray from MaryAnn. Pies my from Kenzi rice crispy treats from Bethany, sweet potato souffle from Jessica. Andrew brought egg nog and cranberry juice.

Julie's niece, Kelli who is also an artist at the Art Institute in Atlanta made waldorf salad.

Mike and MaryAnn's friend Teri brought a huge can of nuts and played some classical guitar for us after dinner.

We played that Ticket to Ride game.

When it got dark, Robb and I started a huge bonfire in the yard. ( I think you could see it from space) The neighbors from next door came over with their son and we just sat around, talked and stared at the stars.

Chad came before the fire died down, so we talked some more by the fire. The flames turned into coals, we got closer to the heat until we were inside the fireplace ring. Then we drifted back to the house to get ready for bed.

This morning after the sleepy head woke up, all of us went to the Whistling Tree pottery shop to paint and fire some clay works.

After the pottery shop, Robb and Bethany went to his parents for their family Thanksgiving and watch the Alabama vs Auburn matchup.

Jessica and Chad are going to watch the Georgia Tech vs Georgia game and they will take Kelli back to her apartment .

Andrew has to go back work and visit his girlfriend who could not make it up for the holiday.

Then the house is quiet again, with just Julie and I, the dogs and cat.

I love the chaos of a full house.

Thanksgiving Southern Style

We had a great time yesterday at our house. The southern clan all showed up, along with friends of friends who are now our friends.

We had turkey, ham, my awesome spinach salad, Julie's incredible homemade cloverleaf rolls, piles of potatoes, and carrots, sausage stuffing from my Mom's secret recipe, cranberry salsa from my Melany, pickle tray from MaryAnn.

Pies my from Kenzi, rice crispy treats from Bethany, sweet potato souffle from Jessica.

Andrew brought egg nog and cranberry juice.

Julie's niece, Kelli who is also an artist at the Art Institute in Atlanta made waldorf salad.

Mike and MaryAnn's friend Teri brought a huge can of nuts and played some classical guitar for us after dinner.

We played that Ticket to Ride game in the afternoon.

When it got dark, Robb and I started a huge bonfire in the yard.

( I think you could see it from space).

The neighbors from next door came over with their son and we just sat around, talked and stared at the stars.

Chad came before the fire died down, so we talked some more by the fire. The flames turned into coals, we got closer to the heat until we were inside the fireplace ring. Then we drifted back to the house to get ready for bed.

This morning after the sleepy heads woke up, we went to the Whistling Tree pottery shop in Ellliajy to paint and fire some clay works.

After the pottery shop, Robb and Bethany left go to his parents for their family Thanksgiving and watch the Alabama vs Auburn matchup.

Jessica and Chad are going to watch the Georgia Tech vs Georgia game. Jessica took Kelli back to her apartment .

Andrew has to go back work and visit his girlfriend who could not make it up for the holiday.

The house is quiet again, with just Julie and I, the dogs and cat.

I love the chaos of a full house. It makes you appreciate the solitary times.

Thanksgiving time is here.

Hi everyone,
Mom is typing this for me but it's what I want to say. I've been working on getting the generator set up, hope we never have to use it. Up here in the middle north country you never know when the power may go out. Tom, I have your instructions which were great but a bit beyond my expertise. I can't turn the lights on with out blowing fuses or should I say I can't heat my coffee in the microwave without blowing a fuse. Especially if Mom has on the toaster oven or teapot. Oh Well.. guess I'll have to pull the microwave off that line and run another line.
Tonight I am going down to Salvation Army to help fill Thanksgiving boxes for families in need. This year the need is really great. Many more than usual.
Staying pretty busy, working occasionally and still with the Top of the Hill gang at church. Putting a lot of miles on the old truck but keeping them off the Malibu. We have not been driving as much as usual so the days between fills have really stretched out.
guess that is all from me, I will let Mom write for herself now.

Hi everyone,
It has been really cold today. The sun has been pretty bright but it sure doesn't make any difference. Since Dad is going out tonight I guess I had better make this short.
We are looking forward to going to Errol for a Friday Thanksgiving, that is if it isn't snowing. It looks a little iffy as of now but we are hoping for the best. Sunshine and warmish weather.
Jim and Lori and the kids are coming over for dinner on Thanksgiving day so I hope it is good both days.
I will still try to send photos of Mount Baker, it was really beautiful. It already had a lot of snow on it when I was there. There was only a small window of opportunity for getting pictures while I was there. Maybe a few other pictures also. Of Nana and your cousins too. Take care and I will send more later.
Love you all and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Kathy said it. We do have a spectacular family and we all have that special bond of love.
Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Winter has arrived!

Well, the calendar doesn't say it .. we still have a little less than 4 weeks until winter, but the weather sure thinks it is.. Here in the north country we have had both snow and record cold.
Over the weekend, the ground ended up completely covered by snow. The wind chill yesterday afternoon was -10 degrees.. brrrrrr. Its been so cold the past few mornings, that when we walk the dogs in the morning, rocks and pebbles stick to their paws. Imagine a 100 lb dog, sitting on the side of the road with his paws in the air waiting for me to clear the debris..

The animals are moving right now getting ready to den up for the winter. The fox and deer have been pretty active. I came across a deer in the middle of the road the other day. Funny - Mel had been off hunting, never saw a deer - and right on my road there was one...

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Mom, Dad, Amy, Jason and Cameron are coming up Friday for a belated dinner! Yeah! Hopefully we do not get snow for travel day.

Speaking of Cameron - he is growing leaps and bounds. We tend to forget how much a baby can change from time to time. Since we are able to see him once / twice a month - we can clearly see the changes in him. Amy said he is now rolling.

Mel is going in for surgery December 17th for his shoulder. He has a torn bicep and roter cuff and will require the surgery to resolve it. He will have a recovery period of 4-6 months, but figures winter is the best time to do it. The doctor has indicated he will get 100% recovery from the surgery, which is good news.

Well, to all - the blessing of such a wonderful family is the thing we think about the most at Thanksgiving. No matter how far and wide away we are - the thoughts of family is always close.
Mom is right.. we should use this blog to share what's going on with our lives, to keep us all grounded on where we are all at.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy the day - if you are travelling, travel safely.

Love to all - Mel & Kathy

November

I failed to mention in the previous post that we now own a cat, although I don't think it is possible to own a cat. I think their sole purpose in life is to ignore us. We got the cat, who I call "kitty, kitty" from Andrew. The dogs really seem to like the cat, but mostly as a food source. We had her fixed, moved her to the barn, installed cat door and there is peace again in our household.

News from Ellijay

Mom,et al

We're reading your posts, it's entertaining to us. No TV sorts of changes the things we thought were entertaining.

Fall has arrived in North Georgia. The temperature dropped down to the teens last night.

We have gotten frost a lot earlier than I remember when we lived in Cumming.

We have begun to use our new woodstove, even though the stone work is not complete.

The hearth took a lot longer than I ever would have imagined. With the exception of last weekend when we drove to Alabama to visit Bethany and Robb, we have been spending our weekends cementing fake rocks to a wall in our living room.

It took one weekend just to frame the hearth, part of a weekend to put the mesh on the wall and a layer of scratch coat and three weekends so far just sticking the rocks up. I hope our efforts are not in vain. It looks okay so far. We have aload of wood stacked under the deck, but we have been burning a lot more than we anticipated.

Thanksgiving will be here in less than a week. We should probably buy some groceries so we don't wind up passing around a box of Wheaties and a jug of milk for the Thanksgiving dinner.

We wish all of our Yankee family could be with us this year. We hope you have a great holiday.

Hello!! - - Anyone there??

Hello--Is anyone out there???
I thought we were going to keep contact with family on this spot? I know everyone is busy, just a few lines to let everyone know how things are going.
Here in Maine the weather is gorgeous today but the wind is brisk making it feel like it is in the low 20's. With brisk wind the sun doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference. Also with the wind the ocean is pretty rough. The white caps are not as pretty as they are in the summer when the weather is warm. (Okay, so they are still as pretty but they look colder.) I'm going to have to walk Oreo in a little bit, Dad is working today in Portland. I've been fighting a cold or whatever the heck this bug is and I'm not relishing going out in the cold. Thank goodness for L.L.Bean coats and down vests.
We have finally gotten those cold days where if you breathe in through your nose the sides stick together. No, I don't like the cold weather that much since I lost all of the weight, but I do love Maine, especially being able to turn and look out the window to see what the ocean looks like. There isn't a prettier picture to me than that (as far as scenery is concerned).
It's a good thing that we got the Christmas decorations out front already. It just isn't pleasant when you have to do it and the wind is whipping around the house at 40 MPH.
We had oil delivery today and in the last month and 10 days we only used 29.2 gallons. We have been warm and cozy for the most part.
We were suppose to have snow last night but it didn't happen. Buffalo, New York had 2 feet. It looked pretty on the trees, we watched it on TV being very glad that we don't have the kind of weather situations that support lake-effect snow. We saw plenty of that when we lived in Michigan. You couldn't see 2 feet in front of you but if you looked straight up there was a bright sky.
Well, I guess I had better go down and get my lunch and check on the dinner. I have it in the crock pot. Oh what a wonderful invention. Start it and forget it. As long as you have enough liquid so it doesn't burn.
Have a great day and keep warm if it's cold and keep cool if it's warm.
Love to all, and lets hear from you.
Love Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Great-Grandma & Great Grandpa,

November? Really?

Well, here it is November 10th and it looks like this great weather that Maine has been having is starting to turn to REAL November. The last few days has been in the 60's and it has really been great. Got all of the tulips, daffodils, crocuses (or is it croci) and iris planted and the covers over the shrubs at the front of the house covered. The cover is to keep the snow and ice that shoots off the steel roof from decimating the Holly and Lilacs. Moved the little bridge from under the back roof this year so the ice doesn't take the railings off again this winter.
We have 11 bags of leaves piled up in front of the house. The Dept. of Public Works will be picking them up hopefully this week. If not the rain is going to make the bags a little less than easy to pick up and put into the truck. I can see the leaves all over the street.
The pumpkin at the lamp post is beginning to look a little sad. A little squishey on the top. Guess it won't become a pubpkin pie this year. Well really they haven't become pumpkin pies any year since we have put them out at the lamp post. Looks great, a scarecrow, corn stalks, a pumpkin and a bail of hay. Oh yes Dad put up the Christmas lights on the fence and the fir tree in the front yard. I did say it has been warm, didn't I? Why put the lights up when it is freezing and your fingers can't even tell if you have the string of lights in your hands or even if you have fingers at all?
My trip to the west coast was very goos. I only had carry on and was able to borrow clothes from my mother and Aunt Judy. Not an awful lot of wardrobe but did a lot of laundry. The weather was about what it was here in Maine. A good day then 3 or 4 rainy, cloudy, and dark. Three weeks of mostly cloudy days but when it was sunny it was absolutely gorgeous. I got some very good pictures of Mount Baker. Such a beautiful mountain. While I was there Stevens Pass in the Cascades had 8 inches of snow and Snoqualamie had 5 inches. We just had the rain. Got to see Russell and his family and Ronald and his. Russell has built a very nice home and is growning Banana plants. They are unedible but they are really neat plants. One leaf was about as long as I am tall. As is expected we had all of the kids and their kids over for dinner on the middle Sunday. Boy was that noisy!!!!!! Now I can say I've heard BEDLAM. With the kids, grandkids, and dogs barking. My head was spinning like a top. It was fun though.
For athe next few days we will be in the mid to low 40's with lots of rain of Friday and Saturday, so I guess we will start getting real November weather.
I will try to download some pictures that I took of Mount Baker so you can see what a beautiful mountain it really is.
Take care everyone have a good week and hey How about entering some of you stories.
Love to hear from all of you. I finally found out how to get back onto this thing so I could let you know how things are going here in Maine.
Love you all and wish you fair weather and suny skies.
Love, Love, Love Mom and Dad