We Bought a Boat

Kathleen and I bought a 15 foot boat three days ago.  It was a bit of an adventure.  We drove to the Bass Pro Shop in Manteca to buy it but when we got there it had already been sold.  It was the last one they had in stock.  From there we drove to Sacramento to buy one Kathleen found on Craigslist.  When we go there we saw that it was not water worthy.  So we decided to head home without a boat.  As we were passing by Davis, Kathleen, using Craigslist again, found one in Stockton.  We pulled off the freeway in Davis so the dog could take a little walk. (It was my first time in Davis since 2011.  It was full of memories for me.)  After the dog did what it needed to do we drove to Stockton (Like all the towns in California's central valley it has a beautiful downtown area that is neglected as the suburban tract house developments expand n to the surrounding farmland.  It is very sad.) and bought the boat.  Then we had to strap it to the top of the Subaru.  Driving it over the Altamont Pass was a little scary; boats on car roofs are kind of like big sails. We got home just before midnight.

Yesterday I went and bought a 55 lb thrust Minn Kota trolling motor, battery charger, and marine battery.  Also, yesterday (but she is still working on it today) Kathleen has been trying to get it registered and pay all the taxes.  It is a headache because officially, the boat never entered California.  She has found records of it leaving  Canada but not entering California.  And the state offices are closed because of the Wuhan Bat Virus.

In other news...

Today was a day of repairs in the garden.  I had to rip out a row of radishes an throw them in the compost pile.  They should have been ready to pick last week but too much N in the soil caused big beautiful plants above the ground but at the expense of developing big yummy roots.  Thankfully it isn't even June yet so I can still plant something else.  Kathleen took out some volunteer potatoes that came up among the tomatoes.  We compost potato scraps from the kitchen so, it seems, the compost isn't getting hot enough.  Now I'm a little bit worried about other seeds that might be surviving the composting process.  I'll have to figure out what to do about that. The harvest today was a handful of small radishes, 3 zucchini, and a yellow straight-necked squash. And the boys came over last night and we played Risk!

Seed Companies I like

Yesterday was Mid-Pentecost, the halfway point between Pascha and Pentecost.  I didn't know this until a few days ago (I'm always learning new things about our Faith.), but Mid-Pentecost is the day the Orthodox Church blesses fields and gardens.  So, I sent a message to my priest and asked him for a big jar of holy water (The archbishop won't let him do any services during the Wuhan.) so I could bless the garden myself.  He left the jar and a cross outside the church for me to pick up.  Then Kathleen and I went in to the garden where we said the prayers.  Then she sang the Paschal troparion while I splashed holy water all over the place.

I buy some plants already sprouted at local nurseries but I also do some planting of seeds.  I get really good service from the following companies.

I love Wild Boar Farms for their crazy beautiful tomatoes.  Very fast delivery.

Victory Seeds is my go to for carrots, turnips, herbs, tobacco, and beets.  They also have cool stickers you can buy.

I get flower seeds and paste tomatoes from Fruition Seeds.  They include a handy planting guide with your order for free.

Oh, two days ago I shot the rabbit that was laying waste to our garden. It ruined eight zucchini and all the verbena in one day. 

The rabbit is dead.

The First Radish

Yesterday after the garden blessing we harvested the first radish from the garden.  It's red globe variety, but we have several other varieties growing, too.

Oh, I should also mention two other companies I like very much.  The first is Gardeners Supply Company.  I very much like their stackable tomato towers.  The other company is Arbico Organics.  They are my go to for ladybugs and nematodes. 

Back on Zero Carbs

Pascha was strange this year.  No services.  Still,  I decorated eggs, made a big dinner, and  the boys brought over paskha and  kulich, 

After bright week I went back on my zero carb diet.  I had gained probably 10 or 15 pounds since Christmas.   It's not very easy.   I call it zero carb really that is impossible unless one only eats meat and butter.  Nevertheless, I can get close to it by only eating meat, bell peppers, cucumbers and cabbage.  I can get my carb content down to 1% of total calories.  My goal is to lose 5 pounds per week until I am below 200 pounds. 

The garden is doing pretty well.  Because of not having any work due to the over-reaction to the bat virus I have lots of time to work in the garden.  Because I have so much time it has grown since my last update.  Currently we have:

Food Plants
Cherokee purple tomatoes: 6 vines
Sungold tomatoes: 7 vines (rom seeds)
Celebrity tomatoes: 2 vines
Early girl tomatoes: 1 vine
Beef steak tomatoes: 1 vine
Bonnie Original tomatoes: 4 vines
Black cherry tomatoes: 1 vine
Sweet Millions tomatoes: 1 vine (We've already harvested some of these.)
Pickling cucumbers: 4 vines (from seeds)
Eating cucumbers: 5 vines (from seeds)
Bell peppers: 4 plants
Straight necked squash: 1 vine (from seeds)
Black Beauty zucchini: 3 vines
Golden Zebra zucchini: 3 vines
Spaghetti squash: 1 vine
Cantaloupe: 10 vines (from seeds)
Pumpkin: 2 vines (seeds saved from last years garden)
Green onions: dozens and dozens in a 18" x 10" box.  I harvest them by cutting off the tops and letting them re-grow.
Grapes:  3 vines (Too early for grapes but we ate some of the leaves in a salad a couple of days ago.)
Hundreds of radishes, beets, carrots, and turnips of many varieties planted among the tomatoes and bell peppers.
Dozens of lemon basil plants, sweet basil plants, licorice basil plants, and red basil plants planted around the tomatoes.
Lemons: two trees (One is old enough to produce fruit this year).
Rosemary (planted three years ago.)
Oregano (new this year)
Thyme (Planted two years ago)

Flowers (hundreds and hundreds located all over the garden)
5 varieties of sunflowers
Zinnia
Poppy
Daffodil
Echinacea
Black Eyed Susan
Candytuft
Wallflower
Lupine
Verbena
Bee Balm
Gladiola
Iris
Crocus
Calendula
Smap Dragons
Allium
Assorted California wildflowers

I used to dream about disappearing into the wilderness and starting a farm.  It looks like I've achieved the farm without leaving Silicon Valley. I even have a farmer's tan!

I broke the Bat Disease lockdown rules a couple of times.  Kathleen and I went to Nevada for a night. I bought .380 ACP ammo and pipe tobacco while we were there.  She and Basil and I went fishing at Stevens Creek Reservoir during Bright Week. We didn't catch anything.  Last week we drove up to Donner Lake to fish.  It was beautiful.  Snow on all around us and the lake was like a mirror.  But, again, we caught no fish.









 

Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday

Lazarus Saturday I made a big dinner.  The menu was 4 kinds of caviar (I ordered it from Marky's.  They always provide good service.), humous with celery, green onions, and carrots for dipping, kalamata olives, a three-been salad, a beet salad, pita, baklava from Greece, rose, mint and lemon  loukoumi from occupied Constantinople, and halva with nuts from Lebanon.  We prayed the troparion before eating and read a sermon on the resurrection of Lazarus while eating. 

On Palm Sunday I fried three big wild tilapia and a whole big bag full of okra.  Basil made hushpuppies.  Again before the eating we prayed the troparion.  It was the first time I had fried a fish since 1989 when I lived in Tennessee with my first wife.  Wow.  That seems like so long ago.

After dinner on Saturday we watched the first half of the BBC The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  We watched the second half on Sunday night.

Today is Holy Monday.  I watched a recording of last nights Bridegroom Matins service while I cleaned the guns.  (I know. I know.  I should have done it days ago.  I've been busy taking naps.)  I think I'll go work in the garden now.  I'm thinking about planting radishes and beets around the tomatoes.

Things I'm doing during the pesitlence.

Today is Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt.  All I've done today is make a quiche (eggs, heavy cream, shredded gruyere, sauteed mushroom & onions in a pie crust), and restock the first aid kit.  Because we want to avoid going to the ER for anything during this Bat Disease plague we want to be able to treat as much as possible at home.  I still need to get sutures and inflatable splints but I have everything else I might need..   

It has been raining heavily, even some hail, since about sunset last night.  This is not the expected weather for April, and I'm a little bit worried about the garden.  The forecasters say to expect weather like this through tomorrow.  

Kathleen is still teaching remotely.  I've been grading some of her students work for the past three days.

I'm still kind of hobbled by that foot injury.  Trying not to walk or stand too much.

I still need to clean the guns after going shooting with Anselm a few days ago.   But first I'll take a nap.

A Little Shooting

Yesterday, Anselm Samuel and I loaded all the guns into the car and drove over the Pacheco Pass to go to the Panoche Hills near Mercy Hot Springs.  It was weird.  Almost no one is on the road.  When we got to the BLM land we set up a some targets on one side of a canyon and shot at them from the other side; about 150 yards.  He's a pretty good shot.  He wasn't prepared for the kick from the Mauser and shotgun and got bruised up pretty bad. 

From the tops of the hills we could see clear across the San Juaquin Valley to the snow-topped Sierra Nevada.  While we were there I got an alert on my phone saying they were going to close the county because of the disease.  I was a little bit worried about getting home but there were no roadblocks at the county line yet.  So, now I am at home, I guess for a month.  But that's okay.  I seem to have injured my left foot pretty seriously yesterday (sprained or broken.  I don't know.) and am not able to walk.

Rice, the Chinese Bat Disease, and the Garden

Last night I made three different rice dishes for Kathleen and her kids.  Her kids are constantly complaining about the lack of meat in the dinners since the start of Lent and they sat down to the table saying they weren't going to like it.  Oh, they were so wrong!  They loved it.  Dish one was a very spicy dish flavored with onions, cayenne pepper, garlic, casltlevetrano olives, shallots, basil, fresno chiles, and tomatoes.  The second dish was a Persian dish flavored with almonds, ginger, cumin, and anise.  And for desert I made rice pudding topped with my homemade caramel.  That last made me especially happy for Kathleen was amazed that I know how to make caramel.  I keep thinking I've shown her all my tricks but then I do something that surprises her.  I hope I can keep it up.  The kids ate everything I cooked and asked for more.

The National Guard converted the Santa Clara Convention Center into a hospital for CBD patients.  A woman just three blocks from where my sons lived died.

Squirrels ate all the rubdeckia bulbs and all but one of the echinecea bulbs Basil planted.  I do not like squirrels.

Now the boys and I are going to visit my parents' grave to pray for them.

Annunciation Sing-A-Long

An Editorial for Annunciation:What I love about this Annunciation Sing-Along (Link to video posted below):

1. Every word is pronounced clearly so that the ideas are understandable. Clarity of the words is the the most important thing in the singing of Christian music; even more important than the music. If every member of the choir is tone deaf and just reads the lyrics in a spoken voice that is preferable to singing perfect music but not pronouncing every vowel and consonant clearly. Thankfully, these are good singers and the music is beautiful, but it is their diction that is most beautiful.

2. WOW! Giant chunks of theology. CONTENT! CONTENT! CONTENT! This is my favorite thing about Orthodox Christian hymnody. (Actually, I like this about most pre-1900 hymnody. Even if written by heterodox there is enough to content in pre-1900 hymns to grapple with, and to see if it is true or false.)

3. Please, small choirs, your use of reverb or whatever that electronic effect you are using that you think makes you sound as though you are singing in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or Christ the Savior in Moscow doesn’t. At best it makes you sound like you are being recorded by a an engineer who doesn’t know what he is doing. At worst it makes you seem deceptive. Recordings of liturgy should be true because the liturgy is in service of the Truth.

4. The speed is perfect. It’s not so slow as to be somnolent. It isn’t so fast that it is like the report of an M-60 machine gun. The words are distinct, not blended together. The ear has time to hear every word before it has to hear the next word. The brain has time to understand every word before it has to understand the next word. This is an important help in learning the theology of the lyrics. This choir nails it!

5. The words are right there in front of me. Something I know and utilize as a teacher is this: “Every time I read something, say something, hear something, or write something I make another copy of it in my brain.” Having an idea in my brain is the first step toward knowing it. From a pedagogical standpoint, having the lyrics before my eyes while hearing and singing along makes perfect sense. I love it!

6. The icons. They are like the perfect cream cheese frosting on a perfect carrot cake. What I can not comprehend with words and music is presented in images. Oh, the joy of seeing Mary put down her spindle for there will be no need to make vestments for the temple in Jerusalem, for God is coming to dwell among us and and not it temples made of stone.

Anselm is 18, a shopping list, other stuff

Today is Anselm Samuel's eighteenth birthday.  He has turned out okay; a better son than I deserve. He seems to be ready for adulthood.  He's better prepared than I was. We can't have a party for him since we are not allowed to do anything in groups per the Health Department's order.

It is the case, as I discovered a couple of days ago, that Anselm did not miss the deadline for Eagle Scout.  He has all the requirements met, and all the forms signed.  Only one thing is lacking: The final Eagle Project in which he leads a bunch of Scouts in a big public service project.  It was supposed to be finished yesterday but because of the Health Department's order he couldn't assemble the Scouts to do the work.  The BSA is giving him an extension on the time.

I wasn't too worried about the Covid-19, or the Chinese Bat Disease  as I am calling it just to annoy Chairman XI and the Chicoms, but since yesterday I've been trying to file and claim for unemployment insurance and have been able to get through to their office.  (The census bureau has delayed my start time until late April.)  Their website is down and they don't answer their phones.  They seem to be overwhelmed.  Also, I read that the Javits Center, a VERY BIG convention center in Manhattan is being turned into a hospital, and the Navy is sending its hospital ships to New York and Seattle.

The California Health Department is planning on 50% of the people in the state getting CBD by the end of April.  But they are not all going to die from CBD.  Depending on age group the death rate from known cases ranges from 0% (19 and younger) to 27% (85 and older), so lets just go with a 2% death rate to keep things simple.  The population of California is about 40 million people.  That means, if the California Health Department is right and the CDC is right, that 20 million Californians will catch CBD, and 400,000 Californians will die from CBD before the start of summer.

So, because the chances of getting the CBD seems to be about 50/50, I'm going out today to buy the stuff needed to take care of Kathleen and I.  This is made more difficult for me because yesterday something happened to my left foot. 

My foot has been hurting for a few weeks but the pain was tolerable, but yesterday, while I was walking there was a loud, audible pop right in the middle of my foot and now I can barely walk.  The various websites I went to say I probably have arthritis in my foot.  I don't know.  I sent an email to my doctor yesterday but haven't heard back from her.  She's probably busy treating people for CBD.

So, what will I have on hand to deal with CBD?  I think a couple of gallons of Gatorade, about 20 cans of Ensure, beef bullion, lots of kleenex tissues, aspirin, Tylenol, a thermometer, laundry soap, a big bottle of chlorine bleach.

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was the first day of the state ordered "Shelter-in-Place" and "Social Distancing".  I spent the day working in the garden with Kathleen and Basil.  Then I cooked corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes in the pressure cooker/canner Kathleen gave me a couple of years ago.  Anselm Samuel made Irish soda bread.  I made two pies.  I gave everyone little icons of St. Patrick with his "Lorica" printed on the reverse.   I told the story of St. Patrick doing spiritual combat with the wizards at Tara. We prayed the "Lorica", ate dinner and desert, then watched a movie set in Ireland, "Waking Ned Devine."  All in all, it wasn't a bad first day of the pestilence restrictions, and it was a very good St. Patrick's Day.

The Pestilence: Covid-19

We've been watching as the disease spreads.  Three days ago the school district I work for sent everyone home and said not to come back until April 13.  The last three days at my other job were nuts.  We sold out of 9mm, .40, .38, and ..44 snd .45 pistol  ammo.  We ran out of buck shot.  We ran out of 5.56mm and 7.62mm rifle ammo.  A co-worker in the camping department said they ran out of freeze-dried food and generators.  A friend who works at the county hospital's ER said they are already overwhelmed. A friend who works for Cal-Fire was told last night to prepare for riots in case of quarantine.  The Governor is expected to make an announcement in eleven hours.

Kathleen and I have stocked up on beans and rice.  We have water.  We have chlorine.  We have cash.  We have gasoline.  I took a rifle and ammo over to my sons' house.  They have a fall back plan.

In other news, I was offered and accepted a job with the U.S. Census Bureau.  I won't start for a couple of weeks.  It will exempt me from the quarantine and give me an opportunity to earn money while I can't work at my other jobs.

This is the prayer the bishops have told us to pray:

"O God Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth, and of all creation visible and invisible, in thine ineffable goodness, look down upon us, thy people gathered in thy Holy Name. Be our helper and defender in this day of affliction. Thou knowest our weakness. Thou hearest our cry in repentance and contrition of heart. O Lord who lovest mankind, deliver us from the impending threat of the Corona Virus. Send thine angel to watch over us and protect us. Preserve the healthy in good health. Grant healing and a quick recovery to those suffering from this pernicious disease. Guide the hands of physicians, nurses, and all health care workers who are laboring on behalf of all of our people, and protect them from infection. Enable us to continue to serve our suffering brothers and sisters in peace that together we may glorify thy most honorable and majestic name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages."

Dinner Last Night, the Garden this Morning, and a Recipe

Preserving Lemons and Oranges

Last night Son #3 came over and we made dinner together.  When Kathleen and her kids got home we served hummus, homemade pita chips, halved pita for stuffing, thin sliced red cabbage, three kinds of olives, greek peppers, my homemade hot sauce, minced radishes, Morrocan rice (flavored with some of the lemons Son #4 and I preserved in salt a back in January 2019.  We also preserved some seville oranges that day.), sardines, and sliced onions, and Son #3's banana bread.  It was a good meal.

I didn't have a sub assignment today so I worked in the garden this morning.  The good news:  Everything seems to be growing, even some of the bulbs are coming up.  We bought some little coconut fiber pots to start more plants in.  Mostly cucumber and tomato; both doing well.  None of the marigolds have sprouted yet but I have hope. 
The bad news: Squirrels.  They keep eating leaves and shoots and digging things up.  Maybe it was a mistake to trap and kill cats.  I don't know.


My Hummus Recipe

Three cans garbanzo beans
One van tahini.
6 clovers garlic finely minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

In a large bowel use a potato masher to mash and mix together the beans and tahini.

Add the salt, garlic, and pepper. Mix well.

The Garden, my knee, and Lent

Red snap dragons growing near tomato plants.

The garden is looking okay for March.  My Indian neighbor, the one who taught me how to grow garlic, planted marigold seeds with me today along the eastern edge of the eastern most planter box.  We got the seeds from the marigold flowers we planted last year.  Two little boys came out and watched, they are the ones who gave us the little lemon tree we planted out by the garden.  I gave them each a snap dragon and taught them how to open it's saws.  Mammy, my Dad's mom taught me how to do it when I was about these boys' age.  A squirrel ate all the the squash plants that we started from seed.  Oh well.  What are you going to do?

It seems that I am getting old.  I thought I broke or, at least, sprained my knee but it turns out that I have arthritis.  It hurts pretty bad.  Walking is very difficult. The doctor said they don't want to give me shots at this age, 51 because if they do there won't be any tendons left when I am 60. So, I just have to take large amounts of tylenol and ibuprofen and use some some kind of gel on my knee twice a day.  Oh, and she said I have to lose another 50 pounds; like I haven't already lost 80.  I guess Lent is a good time to lose more weight.

This is Kathleen's first attempt at Orthodox Lent.  I am easing her into it.  So far, we are just going meatless.  It is a big change for her.  She has never been a vegetarian before and she is kind of aghast at the idea of no meat at all for 47 days.  Tonight I made indian food: Garbanzos cooked in ginger, garlic, turmeric, and coconut milk together with a roasted savory squash and sweet potato dusted with salt and allspice.

Anselm and I were able to to to Great Compline at St. Nicholas Church last night.  I think, given my work schedule that I should be able to go every Monday and Tuesday night during Lent.  I can't do prostrations because of my knee but, at least, I can be there.

Christmas, Birthday, the Boys, and the Garden

Christmas was pretty busy.  I did manage to find the time to go up the mountain to get Christmas trees.  It was, probably, the last time Anselm Samuel will do it.  I expect next Christmas he will be off in Alaska or Texas or South Dakota working as a welder.  I didn't find the time to make the Christmas sausage or go to any services at the Cathedral, but I was able to go to the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas on Christmas morning and the boys went to vespers at St. Stephen with their mother on Christmas Eve.  I was surprised by that.  I didn't know she still went to church.  About the only things I remember from Christmas this year are the party at my sisters house, going to church, and going for a walk along Fulton Street in Palo Alto with Kathleen and her kids.  Unlike the crazy, crowded, loud, over-the-top decorations in Willow Glen or some other parts of the bay area, Fulton Street is quiet and quaint.  You just walk along in the cold, looking at the houses.  It kind of evokes the feeling Rat and Mole had experienced when they were walking through a human village on Christmas Eve.

January is kind of a blur.  All I did was work.  Everyday.

In February I began taking a class on wastewater management.  It is something I have always been interested in but I never knew how to get into it.  I tried to get into it about 10 years ago but the nearest school for it was in Los Angeles.  In January of this year one of my co-workers at Bass Pro Shops told me that her other job is for the City of Palo Alto and that she works in drinking water but knows all the people in waste water.  I mentioned to her that I was always interested in that but didn't know how to get into it.  So she told me.  Then I told Kathleen about the conversation and the next day she emailed me a flyer from the school where she teaches.  The flyer said that at the request of several local governments they were offering a course that meets the legal requirements for someone to take the waste water treatment plant operator test.  So, I signed up for the class and the test.   I am very excited about this opportunity.

My 51st birthday was on the 4th.  Kathleen and the boys threw a little party for me.  I had Rocky Road and Jamocha Almond Fudge ice cream from Baskin-Robins.  Those have been my favorites since I was a little boy.

Basil and I went fishing at Lake Amador a couple of days ago.  We had fun but caught no fish.  He is still doing high school and college concurrently.  He got straight As in high school last semester and a B in his college class.  This semester he is taking another class at Evergreen Valley College: intro to philosophy.  So far, he is enjoying it.  I love that he is spending two nights a week with me.

Anselm missed a dead line for Eagle Scout so he won't be getting it.  I don't think it matters to him.  He just likes going on the camp outs.  Him getting Eagle was always more important to me than it was to him.  Besides, he is more involved with his Venturing crew and Order of the Arrow  lodge than he is with his Boy Scout troop.  He has finished his welding training but is still to young to get a job as a welder so he is working full-time at Starbuck's and trying to get into the apprenticeship programs at either the pipe-fitter union or the sheet metal union.

The garden.  Not to scale.

The garden is doing okay.  The garlic we planted in the fall is ready to ready to harvest.  It isn't the typical big-bulbed garlic you see in stores.  It is tender flavorful spring garlic.  I've been cooking with it for a week.  On Monday (today is Thursday) we built a new planter box.  So now we have four 4'x8' boxes and a bunch of pots.  We planted a lot of tomatoes, some bell peppers, pumpkin (from seeds we saved from our favorite pumpkin last year), some early squash, and a lot of flowers.  As soon as all the garlic is harvested we'll plant cucumbers and zucchini.  The garden always makes me happy.  Yes, we still have grubs, but not as many as last year.  And more nematodes are being delivered today.

Advent So Far

Cranberry-Nut Bread:  One large, three small.

It has been a trying Advent.  Kathleen's one job takes about 60 hours per week.  My three jobs (Only two now.  I resigned my rental housing job last week.  Now I only work at Bass Pro Shops and and as a substitute teacher.) have kept me super busy, too.  Nevertheless, I have been able to get the boys and Kathleen to read through the Gospel of Luke with me; a chapter a day for 24 days, then the next morning is Christmas. 

I've managed to do some baking.  I donated three of my fruitcakes to the parish bake sale.  Tonight when I came home from work I baked four loaves of cranberry-nut bread.  (I'll probably give them to the people I work with at Bass Pro Shops.) It reminded me of when Cyndi and I used to bake a loaf for every family at Holy Trinity Cathedral.  It was so hard.  We both worked (I for AT&T. She for BAVC) but would be up all night long on Christmas Eve to get all the loaves baked and wrapped.  But it was so much fun to give them away after the Divine Liturgy on Nativity.
Somehow, I have to find time to take the boys to get a Christmas tree and we still have to grind and stuff the Christmas sausage.  Gosh.  There is so much to do.  I'm glad I don't have to do Christmas shopping. Presents bought at shops are the worst part of Christmas.

So, if I don't want boughten presents what do I want for Christmas?  To see my children wiping away tears at Confession.  To marry Kathleen so I can approach the chalice again. To cook for lots of people and make them happy.  To see Alastair Sims as Scrooge again. 

A Mouse in the Garden

I took out the last tomato vine and composted it.  Actually, I took the opportunity to turn the compost, something I haven't done in a couple of months.  In one bin I found a giant ant colony.  In the other was a mouse nest.  The mouse was little brown and afraid.  I didn't kill it.  I don't think it's hurting anything. All that is growing in the garden now is garlic and onions.

It seems that St. Nicholas visited my boys and Kathleen's kids early this morning for there were chocolate coins found in shoes.

A Christmas Gift List for Women Who Buy Presents for Men

One of my more popular posts (Like the Fall of Constantinople and Egg Nog it gets millions and millions of page views.) is the Christmas list for the man who has everything.  So, I'm going to make another Christmas list. If it is popular as last year's I'll probably make it an annual event.

10.  What is that sound, you ask?  It's the sound of majesty!  When your man wakes you up in the morning by playing these beautiful bagpipes you'll feel like Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle. 

9. Remember that time you and your man got lost while taking the tour at MGM Studios, and how you walked in the wrong door and got to see George Cukor berating Angela Landsbury for stealing every scene she was in?  Well, did you notice the chair?  Your man did, and he wants a director's chair just like that one, but made of leather.

8. Your man looks Irish but he is very in-touch with his Native American ancestors. His mother's mother's mother was a Cherokee so you just know he would cherish these Trail of Tears bookends.

7.  He's never ridden a bull.   He's never been on a cattle drive.  He's never worked on a ranch.  But he has a cowboy hat and he likes to eat at Harris's and Alexander's.  So get him what he really needs:  A steer horn chair. Just think of the hours of enjoyment!

6. When he joined the church you thought it was just another phase, like fly fishing or pasta making.  But now, decades after they let him in he's been elected to be parish warden.  He has the broom for sweeping up after services.  He has a plunger and a wrench for fixing the toilets.  Now all he needs is this gorgeous churchwarden pipe.

5.  His tools were given to him by his dad and he can tell you all about the many things he's built or maintained with those tools.  But they are all in a pillow case in the corner of the garage.  Give him a worthy home for those tools.  Give him a leather tool roll.

4. He was Colonel Potter's favorite author and he'll be your man's favorite author, too. Just as soon as you give him a a copy of one of Zane Grey's books.

3. He hunts. He cooks.  He camps.  He likes to play with fire.  Bring all his hobbies together with this wonderful memory-making dutch oven and tri-pod.

2.  He's wanted them ever since he saw Grease when he was a kid.  Get him what he always wanted but was too practical to buy for himself:  Fuzzy dice!!!

1.  The Leg Lamp. 

An Advent Wreath Service for the Domestic Church

We Orthodox (I still call myself Orthodox even though I am unable to commune for the past few years; a situation that will be rectified before this time next year) don't do as much during the Nativity Fast (In the west it is called Advent) as we do during Great Lent.  Pretty much, all we do is,  beginning on November 15, abstain from wine, oil, meat, fish, dairy, and sex.  Positively we give more secret alms and there are the two services on the two Sundays preceding the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ According to the Flesh. (In the west it is called Christmas).  Oh, there is also the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple but other than that there isn't much that is different about this time of year; very unlike Great Lent in the Spring which is totally jam packed with stuff.

So, what can a person do to get the most out this time of year.  Well, if you have little children there are many books you can read to them.  My children are not little anymore so

Two Good Bakers

Today I taught two little girls how to make the Cranberry-Walnut Pie.  The little bakers did  a very good job on them.

Toms

I took the morning off from work ( I am working later tonight though) to go turkey hunting.  I got my limit so the season is over for me.  I got two toms with one shot of Federal #5 steel shot. I was only aiming at the big one but at 40 yards the shot pattern is pretty wide and I got the smaller one by mistake.  They are, after plucking and gutting, 14 and 17 pounds.  The gun is a Stevens Side-by-Side 12 ga. made in1943.  It looks like I am all set for Thanksgiving and Christmas.