Elephant Butte L.S.P., New Mexico
When we
woke up on Thursday, Nov. 28th I could hear rain hitting the roof,
lightly. It was 6:45 when we decided to get up and looking out the blind, it
was white snow, not white sand that I saw. Yeuch!
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| No tracks out here, I was the first one, obviously |
I didn’t think it was still
snowing so with a mild, calm 34F outside, I bundled for my walk. As I stepped
out, it was still coming down and very wet and slushy. The slush made it very
slippery for walking so I just went as far as the garbage bins and disposed of
some cardboard boxes and recycle.
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| It was very slushy and slippery |
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| Snow in the desert, it's just weird |
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| Looking down at the lake |
Company
should come more often; we make a good effort at cleaning! Ha ha. Then it was
time for breakfast so I fried up bacon and eggs. Outside, the snow has changed to
rain which means things will melt – we hope. While breakfast was cooking, Bill offered
to walk the kitchen garbage bag down to the bins but as he stepped outside, he
realized it was pouring rain. That would be a later job. We cleaned up dishes and puttered around.
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| Where no man has walked before......... |
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| That's a big deposit from an overnight snowfall |
Bill
fixed a lantern ‘flashlight’ that I bought a few years ago. It had just stopped
working this year but it has been in the closet, untouched, all summer. He took
it apart, replaced batteries, cleaned the connectors (whatever you call them) put
it back together, thinking after a couple of tries that it was garbage, and
voila! It is working again. Great because I love this lantern for camping and
for at home on The Ridge.
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| With 2 settings for brightness, this is a nice lantern I'm so happy he got it working again |
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| Nice and clean, ready for company |
We’ll
need room on our hutch for food dishes, since the table just fits the 4 of us. The
small 4.37 lb. turkey we bought turned out to be just a large turkey breast. So I discovered when I opened it this morning. Woops! No wonder it is so small. It
looks very meaty though so fingers crossed that it will turn out wonderful in
Madame IP. It sure won’t take long, 6 minutes per pound is the rule, we’re
looking at a mere half hour of cooking.
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| Our mistake thinking it was a whole turkey so no wings or legs today |
I Googled
how to cook a turkey breast this time instead of the whole turkey as with
company wouldn’t it be nice if it all turned out? :)😉 Then I relaxed with my book for a while. After doing our dishes
this morning, Bill set 2 mouse traps with peanut butter. Special Kraft peanut butter from Ontario, I might add. How can the little beggars resist?
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| The roads were clear for my afternoon walk |
The last
mouse ‘stole’ our trap so these we’re hoping will outsmart him. Well, that is
the joke anyway. We think he must have got a leg or a tail caught and dragged
it off into the depths of the underbelly. Bill couldn't find it anywhere. No odor so perhaps by now he’s long
gone. I heard quite a few, well 3, snaps as Bill worked at this but no fingers
were harmed during this process. And no film at 11, sorry. If the traps
disappear in the next day or two, it won’t be a joke anymore.
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| This part of the path was walked on |
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| Little doggie prints |
Bill and
I sat with our books for a while, listening to Christmas tunes, and then I got
online window shopping. Other than a few stocking stuffers, we don’t buy for
each other. We buy one thing for our ‘home’ that we need or want. Last year or was it the year before, it
was our Water Pik and Electric toothbrushes. This year, well, we’re working on
it. When we'd flogged that horse to death, I dressed to go for my walk, since I
missed getting out for a good one earlier.
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| And quail prints |
My dear
hubby asks “are you going to take that garbage?” I wasn’t planning on it but “oh,
yah, may as well”. There was a candle jar that needed to go as well, not in the
bag. You know how they sometimes end up, all black around the top edge? I had
my walking stick, a very wet heavy garbage bag in one gloved hand and the fat
jar in the other. The jar had to be kept away from my white vest so it was an
awkward start to the walk. LOL
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| I know they're used to it, but why do we think they are cold? |
After
depositing them in the bins, I could then use my stick and walk on the dry
pavement up to Desert Cove where I cut through onto the trails. Darn! I forgot
my 2 painted rocks! I was again watchful for Wile E. but saw no sign of him as
I walked the full stretch up to the playground on Ridge Rd. and back down to
home. What a lovely day – well, if you can forget about the white stuff still
lingering. It wasn’t cold at 39F/4C mainly because there wasn’t any breeze.
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| Forget the Class A motor home in front, look at the van and trailer This fellow has his life's savings loaded in here He has a pottery wheel, product and a homemade kiln in the back of his van I hope he 'makes it' one day, that is his dream |
Back
home, I cut a Gala apple and spread peanut butter (the good stuff again) on
each piece. A nice snack until supper. It was time for our showers so at 3:00 I
had mine and then Bill had his. I cut up potatoes for supper and pulled the
turkey breast out of the fridge for oiling and spicing. It was around 4:30 when
I heated up Madame IP and seared the breast on all sides. It still wasn’t going
to be 'roasted' on the outside, that’s the nature of the beast but the meat would
be good.
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| Seasoned breast in the pot for sauteeing |
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| And a sealed vented lid that fits perfectly to avoid spattering all over the counter |
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| And after it is seared all over the silicone sling worked great on top of the trivet 28 minutes on pressure cook and 17 minutes NR |
When
Jo-Anne, Bob and Higgy arrived around 4:45, she brought her homemade pickles
and beets, a turnip dish and a homemade pecan pie with pecans from Georgia. I
had planned on 5:30 for eating but it was closer to 6:15, woops! No one seemed
to mind as we sat and chatted while we waited. Well, the guys waited, Jo-Anne and I
prepared the gravy, potatoes etc. Bill got suckered into carving the breast for
me. 😊
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| And we were ready to dig in, only me missing here! We had lots of food |
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| Delicious! |
It was
delicious! The turkey, potatoes, turnip, corn, gravy and then the dessert! Yum,
a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with good friends. I loaded the dishwasher and
Jo-Anne washed up the pots while I dried.
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| No pestering here |
Higgins was so good, not pestering
hardly at all, just doing a ‘Clemmy’ by being at our feet during the prep. Of
course, the smell of the food must drive them crazy too. I set up my big tripod
and got a picture of us before they left around 8:30.
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| This is a wonderful picture |
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| I missed the joke here - something between Bill and Bob |
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| Notice Higgins' eyes are open here Papa Bill just kept rubbing and soon..... |
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| Eyes closed It's too bad Higgins doesn't relax at our place ha ha I'm grateful for Higgins too, he is a sweet warm little puppyGood night y'all! |