Dinner party season

I decided I should post before things get really crazy here.  I have scheduled my (our) first dinner party of the season for Saturday with 12 guests.  The next one is a week later for 14 and then I am hoping to have one the Monday after Christmas for which RM has agreed to cook. The first is the craziest because I am putting up all the decorations, which includes three trees, cleaning  the house and of course doing all the cooking for the dinner.

Yesterday I discovered I have a holiday dinner tomorrow where I am to bring a dish to share.   It is to be one from my ethnicity.  That is German and we did not do a lot of formal entertaining so I was at a loss.  Finally I chose a German chocolate cake.  If it is a hit,I will make another for the dinner here on Saturday.  In looking up the background of the German chocolate cake I found that it is not even from Germany (is from Austria).  But I am not telling anyone that.  I will try to get a few pictures of the dinners at our house to share.

Great Coffee

Living "in the sticks" as I do, I am very excited that a new coffee roasting enterprise is located about 10 miles from my house. Yesterday when I went to pick up the two pounds of beans I had ordered, he had not roasted them yet.  So I hung around the 20 minutes it took to roast them.  The owner does not sell any beans that were roasted more than 24 hours ago. He has a state of the art roaster which is connected to a laptop which monitors the process and controls the temp at which it is roasting.  The temp actually varies with the type of bean.  My Panama beans were roasted at about 415 degrees (F). He told me French Roast are actually about 25% char(burnt).  So I will have wonderful coffee with the pies I am baking today:  peach, pumpkin, and pecan.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Furniture "Musical Chairs"

G and I spent several hours on Friday moving furniture:  computer desk out of my office (will go to FreeCycle), desk from his room to my office, twin bed out of one room (to FreeCycle), reg size bed from one room to another, queen bed from one room to another, king bed to last bed room. It makes me tired just writing about it.  We both were bushed.  Today I posted items on FreeCycle so hope they will be out of my house quickly.

On Saturday we spent most of the day loading a "junk" car unto a trailer.  G has heard that the price of steel is high, so he decided it was time to get rid of a car that has been setting in our yard for 5 years.  The problem was that he could not get it into neutral, so the wheels would not turn.  So he jacked it up a bit at a time and used a "come along" (chain and wench) to pull it unto the trailer.  It was quite an adventure since it fell off the jacks a couple of times and by the end it was completely dark so we had a light with a long extension cord to the yard. I would have taken pictures, but was too busy moving away from the falling car. It wasn't as dangerous as it sounds.  I just kept my distance and gave him moral support.

Weekend report

On Saturday Shawn, Stacey and  their two children spent the day at our house.  This was the monthly "work day" that G and Shawn schedule. The project this time was to seal the back door of the shop.  This is a door large enough for a semi truck to drive through.  So Shawn had the opportunity to climb high on the ladder, which he loves doing.  The door had fit so loosely that snow would actually make banks inside the shop.  Well, no more.  While they were working Stacey was trying to finish a Christmas stocking for B. Since the weather was cool and sunny I took both grandchildren for a ride through the woods on my four-wheeler.  Shawn took B later.  He said, "Grandma G drives slow, Daddy drives fast." And he is quite right. I did have both children on with me and I emphasize different things than his dad does.  We stop and listen for birds, talk about how most of the leaves have fallen, find where the deer have eaten corn from the standing corn stalks in the field and look for bones of animals that were near the woods.  K has a little four-wheeler (battery powered) that she rides so she and her dad rode together.  He thought that was neat.

On Sunday, G and I spent several hours cutting wood.  We are prepared for the Winter now.  If the electricity should go out we should be toasty and we can just enjoy the wood burning stove too. Since we do not have a fire place, we got one with a window to see the fire.

Moving the tree

I decided this tree is much too close to the house.  We either needed to cut it down or try to move it.

Gerry is happy that he is going to get lots of exercise by digging out this tree.

That thought was short lived - let's borrow a tractor and backhoe from a neighbor.

A new hole is dug much further away from the house.
We still got our exercise by shoveling the dirt around the tree once it was in place.

It was dark by the time we were finished and had returned the tractor.

Printer "fixed"

I have been having the most difficult time getting my printer to work.  We rebooted the router, I completely shut down the computer and printer. I ran the trouble shooting program on the printer and it said it was working - but it was not.  Hubby is not much help with this so I kept working on it. He did hook to printer up with USB instead of wireless, but still no go. Then I noticed that the "destination" was on another printer.  One clink and fixed.  There always is an answer to computer problems, the trick is finding it.  Well, a pat on my back, or maybe a slap on the side of the head would be more appropriate.  I am sure my computer guru (son) is just shaking his head.

Deja vu

I recall once years ago that I had to spend time talking with the IRS and having a root canal done in the same day.  Well today I am experiencing  deja vu. I am getting a crown put on (no root canal this time thankfully) and not talking with the IRS, but I have started filling out a 19 page application for tax exempt status for the women's club.  As President this task has fallen to me.    Actually I think I am just less intimidated by it than others.  The funny part is that they ask about activities for the last three years.  That is about how long I have been a member.  They ask for budgets, statements of revenue and expenses and a balance sheet.  All we have is the check register.  We do have a budget  of sorts, but I will be putting the rest together myself.  The  "one size fits all" form is a pain.  Enough complaining - Tomorrow I will write a positive post.