Thanksgiving

We're enjoying a few days off together in the increasingly frozen north. Even as we hike through the woods with the dogs our minds wander and we wonder, will there be snow this year.

Just finished Suttree by Cormac.  It was a long rambling tale, not unlike Confederacy of Dunces, but rather than have New Orleans as a back drop, Suttree battled his way through mid century Knoxville, Tennessee.  To say that it is pointless would be to do it a disservice, it has as much point as any great absurdist or existential comedy...

This is a dinner I had last week.  Sarah's potatoes au gratin made with Parmesan cheese (Ian would be in heaven), an awesome veggie burger with Pat's spicy tomato jam, my apple sauce and some of Erik's home-brewed brown ale.   Look for the recipe soon on our new food blog.

 My applesauce.  I'm really happy with it.  The recipe was super simple and easy, and made a great tasting and textured sauce.

 

A former student of mine came back from Colorado where she is attending a private boarding school and brought me these incredible socks.

Sam and I went deer hunting on Wednesday morning.   Again, it's a good thing my survival didn't depend on the acquisition of said quarry.

 

Sam, stalking not the most dangerous game.

My new end table.  I purchased it from a nice old man at the farmers market for fifty bucks!  I still want to make my own rustic wood block table, but I got tired of having my stuff on the floor by my side of the couch.  This is more than adequate and makes me happy to look at.

A student of mine is all about the jungle this year so I told him I'd take another stab at reading it.  I'm regretting that promise already.  It's just as tedious as I remember it.  Sinclair may have changed the world, but that doesn't make the book any less dense.

This is a photo from the hike that Sarah and I took yesterday.  It was a great hike, couple hours, and a beautiful day, as you can see.

 Jonas dog after the hike.  We took all three of them with us. 

 

It was raptor central yesterday.  We saw a red tail and a coopers on our hike and then a bunch more as we drove around town.

Find the hole in the fence...

and sprint away like a delirious zoo animal!

 Stopped at a billabong for some refreshment.

 Went to the Ornithology Lab for a hike... it's safer there than in the killing fields near home ;-)

 Dude found a giant stone egg.  Normally I don't go for this hippy rock stacking crap.  I tend to think the rocks look better where Darwin placed them, that goes for sticks and leaves, too.  I was mumbling something along that line to Sarah and muttering about Andy Goldsworthy wannabes when I spotted a plaque on the ground.  Seems this one was made by... wait for it... Andy Goldsworthy.  Of course since this is Cornell property, they glued the whole thing together so that it would last forever, whereas Goldsworthy usually uses only natural materials and then leaves them to entropy.   Make of that what you will.

 There were lots of cool fungi.  Nobody installed these, they're just doin their thing.

Winter gardening and other stuff

I am taking a moment to add some words to this because I don't feel like grading papers right now.

Erik got a new gun for this hunting season, so we used that as an excuse to go out and shoot at some recycling and other stuff.

 This is the inside of Brookton Market where we go for all of our favorite things.  Just had an idea to take a picture of the inside of Wegmans to put beside this.  Wegmans is my own personal Hell.  Brookton is the ideal grocery shopping experience for me.  I hope they never go out of business.

 

This is Sam's .270.  It's a fun bolt action.  the projectile is only a little larger than a .22, but the amount of powder behind it is awe inspiring.  It holds 4 in the magazine and one in the chamber, so it's a lot of fun to pull the bolt and slam in another round and pick off tin cans like zombies.

 

This is the weeder all curled up and waiting for me to light the wood stove. She's so cute in the afternoons.

 

Sarah and I made a butternut squash salad to take over to Erik and Margaret's for dinner and Archer night.  It was really good.  We made the dressing, too, which I think is really cool.  Gotta run.  Time for another meeting.  Maybe I'll write more later...maybe not.  Cheers.