Porch Pot

 

Friend Nancy said she was looking for porch pots to put next to her front door for the season.  She explained what they looked like and I thought I'd give it a try.   First watched a YouTube about how to do it.  The lady on the video used evergreen, fir, cedar, and juniper boughs.  She stuck in a couple of sticks that had been sprayed white and one sprig of fake red berries on a stick.  I can do that but on a smaller scale.  Mine would need to fit atop the bench by the front door (which was looking barren since I'd tucked away the flowers that had sat there all summer) to be out of the way of the plow guy.   The video described packing a pot w/ dirt and then pouring water on it so it would freeze in place.  I would sacrifice one of my clay pots.  Was pretty sure freezing water in a clay pot would break it eventually but as Brother Phil pointed out, I have a lot of clay pots.  When I went out to look for one I noticed this metal pail and figured it might make it through the freezing process.   Cedar and juniper don't grow here but I could get evergreen and fir.  I tried for hemlock but found a big tree had blown down across the trail.  Will come out w/ the chainsaw later to fix that. Instead of spraying some twigs white, I found a fallen white birch.  The smallest branches aren't white on a birch but I cut a couple of birch branches to add upward stability for my creation.  Not sure why the YouTube lady only used one sprig of berries.  It was a good year here for winter berries so I put quite a few in the display.   They may fall off the twigs before the end of winter but right now I like their pop of color.  Enjoyed gathering all the parts and putting it together.  It's OK but next year's will be even better.

Milkweed Pods

 I tried out a new church this morning.  My former church sent out a video the Sunday before the election on "the importance of why we should vote" but was a thinly veiled discourse on who to vote for.  It's the second time they have done something like that.  I don't trust a church that pushes their political views as the only viable Christian alternative.  It's an excellent time to look around for a new church anyway - the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are when congregations are vibrant and sparkle.   As a Baptist  I'm used to a service w/ few rituals and very long sermons.  This church had a candle lighting ceremony and some 'call and response'.  Nothing excessive - I can adapt.  The sermon lasted fifteen minutes but it was to the point and Biblically based.  Afterward, the people who knew me (and some who didn't) in the congregation made a point of saying "Hi".  While this church doesn't use the King James version of the Bible (few churches do these days), they do sing songs I know (and not just 7-11's).  It's ultimate selling point is, after I left,  I was kinda looking forward to attending again.

Sunrise

 

I like walking out on the morning constitutionals and saying "Wow".  This morning was another one of those 'wow' moments.  To the west a full crystal moon hung in a clear sky.  To the east  clouds were lit up a red-orange in anticipation of sunrise.  No snow yet but a covering of white frost.   It was beautiful.  I was late in getting up this morning so it was a little after 7 when the dog and I started out.  I heard a now familiar rumble and looked down the road.  A big truck was coming past my neighbor's house and would turn at the corner to come up past mine.  All of yesterday I had heard that sound.  Had gone outside twice before I realized Neighbor Schmitz is spreading his 'black gold'.  (No, not oil - liquid manure.)  He uses an extensive removeable pipeline to pump it to most of his fields but he has a field up past me.  Either that is just too far away to pump, to high an elevation from the source, or, more likely, crosses Devil's Creek and he can't get a permit to do that.    Instead the smelly stuff goes into tankers and is transported to the field where it's deposited.  My house is set well back from the road so I'm a little surprised I can hear these trucks so clearly.  Walked back inside the house and sat down at the computer.  Up pops a news story titled "Matt Gaetz and Caligula's Horse".  I didn't read it but I do know the story of Caligula's Horse so can imagine the gist of the article.  A beautiful sunrise, liquid manure, and ancient Roman politics - what a great start to the day!

Swans

Town Board meeting last night.  I closed up the library at 7 and got over there about 10 minutes after it had begun.  I attended this meeting because they would sign my check for working the election.  Not a princely sum but if I picked it up at the meeting it would save the town the cost of an envelope and postage.  Plus I saw on the agenda that the Road Weight Ordinance would be formalized in a special town meeting immediately before the regular meeting and the board would talk about more security for the building.   It was after the meeting when I was told about a minor glitch in the recent election.  In my state dead people can't vote.  That would seem a self-evident statement.   The morning after the election I had been told one of my neighbors died.  What I didn't realize is he probably had died before the election and not found until after the election.  Technically their absentee ballot shouldn't have been opened and counted.  Of course there was no way for us to know he was already dead when we did that.  On further consideration though I'm not sure if his ballot's status isn't a grey area.   As the County Clerk pointed out in the training, when a person mails their absentee ballot back or votes early in-person, the ballot is treated as being cast.  Even if we haven't received their ballot in the mail, that person can't come in on election day and vote nor can they ask for their unopened ballot back.   I know my neighbor voted early in-person a week before the election so that ballot was already cast, just not yet counted.   Besides, barring a plague or asteroid hit, the number of votes that might be caught in this limbo isn't going to effect the outcome of an election.  I'll smack anyone up side the head that dares to chastise the town on this one.  (Guess I'm getting tired of election nit-picking.)

Fog on the Lake

Frosty this morning.  October used to be the transition month where the nighttime lows went below freezing and the daytime highs didn't go above 50.  By the time hunting season came along the ground was frozen and the snow would stay.  Seems that whole process (except the hunting season of course) as moved down the calendar.    As I've said before, this would be a great time to celebrate the 4th of July.  I'm very thankful for our Freedom.  Maybe we should shoot off fireworks as part of Thanksgiving.   Perfect time of the year.   It gets dark early, no mosquitoes, and you could see fireworks for miles since the trees have dropped their leaves.  We've even had rain so no worries about the dried grasses catching fire from fireworks embers (well, I wouldn't put it to a test).  Thanksgiving dinner could even be held outside over a campfire.  It would take all that stress off people to have a turkey that is cooked to perfection and a beautifully set table.  Nothing is cooked perfectly over an open fire but it always tastes good.  Might have to dress a bit warmer.  Hunters wouldn't be happy.  The noise would send all prey to ground.  I might add making fireworks part of the Thanksgiving celebration to my list of things to lobby for - right after the abolition of Daylight Savings Time and Columbus Day.

Whitetail at Dawn

 

I'm back home again.  Took off a few days to visit Sister Connie and Brother-in-Law Dan.    Mr. Dearhamer looked in on the animals while I was gone.  When I walked in the cats just said "Oh, were you gone?" but Whip follows me from room to room.  After unpacking the car I took her to McD's to pick up a latte for me and an McMuffin for her.  Now that all is right in her world and she had a full stomach, she's content to lay at my feet and take a snooze.  I looked out across the meadow to see if there was anything new.  A deer was feeding in the tall grass.  I couldn't see her until she raised her head.  She seemed to be keeping an eye on something off to the east so I looked too.  A buck was carefully picking his way across the hay field toward her.   Tiz the Season!   I washed clothes and hung them out on the line.  It's overcast and still below freezing so they will freeze before they dry.  Good to get away to see different country.  Also good to come back home.

Tamarack

 

Had lunch yesterday w/ my sister Connie, and nieces Becky, Carolyn, and Shelby.    They picked a place where I could get ethnic food - the one thing I miss from the Big City.   I had Roti bread and a rice, vegi, and steak dish w/ peanut sauce and chopped peanuts on top.  Delicious.   Did some early Christmas shopping and then went to a truly decadent chocolate shop.  Last night Connie got me hooked on some games that are best played on a tablet w/ a stylus.  So off we went to buy one at Walmart.   Got home and started to set it up.  Seemed like parts were missing so off we went back to Walmart who assured us the stuff we 'thought' was missing was already installed in the laptop at the factory.  (Not a wasted trip since I needed an adaptor anyway.)  Back home we attacked setting up the tablet again and seemed to get into an infinite loop because the laptop was not accepting w/ my pin/userid/password combo.  Gave a call to Connie's Son-In-Law Mike who talked us through the issue.  I had wanted to keep my phone completely separate from my laptop and phone ... but that was not to be so synched them up.  Finally everything was working together and we celebrated w/ ice cream cones.  I must give my sister a lot of credit.  Through the most frustrating parts of the setup she never once looked at me accusingly to say "Didn't you used to work w/ computers for a living?"

Autumn Color

Excerpts from the Sheriff's Report:

12:18 a.m. - Caller reports she saw a car door open at a residence when she was going to work at 6 p.m.   When she went by on her way home the car door was still open.  Garage door also open and lights in house are all on.  Caller shut the car door, and then called law enforcement.  Officers saw female laying at top of basement steps, and got permission from her to force entry to house.  She stated she had been there for four hours.  Emergency Medical Service and the Fire Department called.  Female removed from house and transported to hospital.

1:03 a.m. - Campground calling from Tony regarding only other campers at park.  He woke up to screaming and heard a female making comments about wanting to die.  He went to nearby town to get phone service and that's where he was calling from.  When he returned to the campground female was walking around yelling she wants to kill herself.  She walked towards him yelling, wearing only a shirt.  Complainant going home for the night.  Female arrested for disorderly conduct.

11:07 a.m. - Call from property owner stating someone rolled their vehicle off road and into his cornfield.  Six rows of corn damaged.  Pieces of vehicle and glass all over.  Evidence on scene suggests a pickup was westbound on the road, drifted right, entered the right ditch, over corrected, crossed the center line and entered the south ditch rolling over.  A second vehicle likely pulled the rolled vehicle out.

9:09 a.m. - Neighboring county's police asking aid from Sheriff to attempt to locate a person suspected in a hit-and-run crash.  Upon officer arrival, residents shut off lights and refused to open the door.

10:32 a.m. - Call from female stating she has a strong odor that she believes is a dead animal in her house.  She uses a walker and is unable to check things out on her own, wants help.  Officer located a dead mouse in cabinet.

Noon - Caller states while she was gone over the weekend her vehicle was vandalized, trash left in it.  Caller called back.  It was a grandchild.  No need for law enforcement action.

12:24 p.m. - Complainant reports a male and female at her door wanting to steal furniture and have already stolen a necklace.  Caller was frantic and uncooperative with dispatch and ended up hanging up.

8:01 p.m. - Inmate in another county's jail requests officer to check welfare of his mother.  He has been unable to contact her.  Officer contact with female.  Everything OK.

10:34 p.m. - Call from home owner reporting she saw a flash of light outside her house.  She does have outdoor cameras which were previously working and now they are not.  States it could be people flashing deer in her fields.

11:32 p.m. - Caller states her son sent her a video of his house while he was at work today.  It appears a relative of his went up to the door carrying a gun.  He is concerned about why they were there and had a weapon.

Mallards

 

I'm reading "The Greatest Blunders in Military History".   There are common themes emerging as I read episode after episode.  Don't change your plans at the last minute.  Communicate!  Be bold but cautious (have no idea how you do both at the same time).   Be a good leader and don't run back behind the lines and sit under a table and drink yourself silly (that one is pretty self explanatory).  Liked the book but thought there had to be more truly bad battles.  Turns out there are.  I only checked out Volume 1.  There is a Volume II.

Amaryllis

 

Woke up w/ a sentence in my head and started to write a book.  Pretty sure that isn't how real writers do it.  Will make it a winter project to try and rough out characters and plot before continuing too much further along.  Don't we all feel like we have a book in us?  When the GNO group had as part of our Christmas gift to write a short story, mine was pretty boring so don't expect to see my book on a best seller's list.  Will be happy if I actually get through writing one let alone think it's good enough to publish.  

I split up my one amaryllis into five.  One was pretty small so I left it in the pot w/ the original.  It didn't bloom when all of the others did.  Figured it needed more time to grow.   It chose this morning to bloom.

White Birch and Winter Berries

Didn't wake up w/ a start remembering something in the election documentation where I'd forgotten to 'dot an i or cross a t'.  Those little post-it flags worked great!  Once home last night though I realized my whole body hurt (what had I done all day?).   Soaked in bath before going to bed but this morning I was still 'stove up'.   Breakfast was courtesy Town Clerk Chris.  She stuffs the town hall refrigerator w/ goodies for all of the poll workers to snack on during the day.  As we got ready to leave last night she sent me home w/ a baggy of extra chocolate milk and banana muffins.  Bopped downtown w/ items for this weekend's sale of Books, Baked Goods, and Baubles at the library.   Gossiped for a little while w/ the librarian and volunteer on duty.  After I got home a youngish man knocked at my door.  My new snow plow driver!  We both laughed - we had run into each other yesterday at the election (can't remember why - maybe I registered him to vote?).    While I had recognized his last name I hadn't picked up on his first and, of course, he didn't know me yet.    He was there to see where I wanted him to  plow (I said get as much off  in front of my garage but don't do the two out buildings), where he could push snow (I own both sides of the driveway and my definition of lawn is where it's green so I said he could push big banks of snow wherever it worked best), and where obstacles were located  (don't hit the electrical backboard and avoid the garden post at the edge of Mjolnir).   Later I zoomed w/ a friend.  She wasn't happy w/ the election results and I was staying blissfully oblivious by not watching any news.   We might both resort to watching the BBC and NHK Newsline instead of national news for awhile at least.  By tonight my joints were beginning to loosen up.  Still think I'll turn the electric blanket on and go to bed early.

Nannyberry

 

Got to the Town Hall about 6:15 a.m.   I moved the poll books and ballots out of the safe room and walked the "Vote Here" sign down to the road.  Put out the flag and when Chief Inspector Barb got there we started up the tabulator.  It stayed busy for the rest of the day.  Our lines never went out side of the building though I will say my Letter to the Editor imploring people to register to vote BEFORE the November election did no good.  Over 40 people wanted to register today.  Some people messed up their ballots and needed a new one issued.  There were a lot of absentees for our small community but we worked our way through them.  Two absentee ballots had been 'damaged' (ripped/gotten wet and then dried) so we had to remake those.  Everything takes multiple people checking that the intent of the voter is followed.  I realized by 4 p.m. I had neither eaten nor gone to the bathroom since I'd arrived.  By 7 p.m. all of the paperwork was finally done (as much as could be w/o the final numbers).  Early on in the day I'd realized the number on the tabulator was one more than the count in the poll book.  A member of the Town Board can come in and looked through the security camera backups.  We quickly found a girl that had bypassed the sign in area but gotten a ballot.   None of us knew her but through the wonders of social media and her pic snapped off the tapes someone recognized her, contacted her, and she stopped by after work to sign the poll book.   Actually, the day went pretty well and we were out of the Town Hall by 9:30 p.m.  Tonight I'm eating the sandwich I meant to be lunch and supper and watching MeTV.  Tomorrow is soon enough to find out how who won the election.

Sunrise

My prep day for election.  I pick up a latte and a sub sandwich and put them both in the refrigerator.  Tomorrow morning it's just heat up the latte, put it in a thermos cup, and put the sub in an insulated bag (there is a refrigerator at the Town Hall so all that mayo on the sandwich shouldn't go 'viral').    I'll probably run down to the Town Hall during the day sometime.   I'd heard from a village poll worker that the village clerk had a checklist that she goes by to make sure all paperwork is done completely.  I'd stopped by and asked if I could have a copy of the checklist but it was the same basic list the County Clerk provides.  It doesn't include the little things like all of the signatures on the security lock document or circling the last voter's name in red on the poll book (both things I've forgotten to do in the past).  The village clerk did say she uses colorful post-it flags that she puts on the documentation as a reminder.   I'll drop off those plus a manilla envelope labeled EL-125.  EL-125 is a new item included w/ the election materials from the county but no one including the county clerk was able during the meeting to explain it's purpose.   I brought the envelope home and tried searching the Internet - only found a place to order more.   So I e-mailed the state's election commission and asked if an EL-125 was superfluous in my situation.  The guarded response was "It may seem superfluous but is mandated by state law that it be available."  After the election, EL-125 will be returned w/ the rest of the paperwork - unused.   While bopping around will check the gas level in the car.   At home, I'll lay out the clothes for tomorrow. Put up the baby gate between the foyer and the kitchen plus move the dog's water and food dish into the foyer.  Whip will have access to her outside run tomorrow but the cats won't be able to escape via the doggy door into the Great Outdoors.   Won't bring any books to read.  Even w/ all of the early voting, we should have a steady flow of voters.   Then get to bed early.   Nothing like being prepared to steady one's nerves.

Autumn Color

 

Town Clerk Chris put a notice on the town website that she would be at the Town Hall from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today for anyone who wanted to vote early.  Normally there is only a handful, if any, of 'in-person absentee' voters (as they are referred to up here).  They occurred when someone realized that they would be out-of-town/busy on election day and it was too late to request an absentee ballot.  Early voting is being pushed this year (I don't get why) and Chris wanted to make sure people could vote early if that made them feel more comfortable.  I told her I would be at the Town Hall w/ her.  I could check voter's ID, that they were already registered, and help fill out the top part of the absentee envelope for them.   Personally, I wanted to watch her back in case someone let election fervor get the best of them.  When I arrived, Chris told me she had woken in a sweat this morning after a dream that she didn't have enough absentee envelopes for everyone who would show up today.  If this early-voting becomes 'a thing' will have to work on streamlining the process for future elections to take some stress off her.  No one showed up for the first half hour so we kept busy by cleaning the toilets, vacuuming flies up, and checking if some of the last registrations had made it into the poll book.   Then people began to arrive.    Everyone was calm and glad to have this chance to get voting out of the way.  There were a couple who spoke of videos they had seen of election tampering and Chris nicely let them know those videos weren't real.  Funny, her statements to the contrary didn't seem to phase them.  They just kept talking about stuff they had seen on the Internet as if Chris hadn't said anything.    Some of the Town Board members popped in - to check if everything was going OK.  Maybe everyone is stressed out: the doomsday rhetoric of the candidates, the conspiracy theories of a stolen election, the media jumping on every minutia of the election.   I'm going to need a vacation after this one.