November, 2020

The month started off with the presidential election. The lockdown continues with Placer County tightening up again. We had a visit with our friends, the Zauchas, and caught up on news. The grandkids came by for the craft project of the month. For the first time I can remember, it was a total flop. I had bought a kit to make your own Mozarella. It involved a lot of stirring on the stove followed by kneading and pulling the cheese. But we never got curds. We had a nice visit but never got cheese. Michelle read the directions and thought maybe it was because I used pasteurized milk. I didn’t know you could buy unpasteurized milk...still learning at my age:)

For Max’s special day, we used one of our Yaymaker vouchers and he painted a great tree scene with a red cardinal. For dinner, we had to search for a restaurant that was open and ended up at Buck and Sadie’s. Pretty good hamburger and great fries. We drove out to the alpaca farm with Karissa and Max to pick up her new scarf. Max got to see the alpacas. Then both kids came back the next week to make chocolate chip cookies and place settings for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was smaller this year...just the 8 of us. Rog tried a new smoker technique with the deboned turkey after I put it in the brine. It was exceptionally moist and we have some ideas for making the smoking work better for Christmas. Still searching for the perfect turkey!! Ryan and Beth brought smoked cheeses for an appetizer as well as mashed potatoes. Michelle made a delicious dessert..Pumpkin Delight. Luckily, no calories in it. (I wish!!) Max made Hawaiian rolls from scratch and I filled in with 2 different stuffings, cold green beans, jello salad, and gravy. We took our annual family picture with Max as the new official photographer and had a great afternoon.

Project-wise, Rog finished the second bench for our new dinette set. He has even found some time to get back to work on the train layout. I finished putting together a memory photobook of our Tahoe trip and have the solar water heater working with the hydroponic system. I am finally getting nitrates which means the plants can get some nutrients so I put in some new plants. I don’t expect much until the weather warms up, but we shall see. I had to remodel my water intake system after one of the tilapia got stuck on the end, sucked in quite firmly. I now have a wiffle ball on the end, wrapped in nylon. The house is all decorated for Christmas and we are back to daily walks in the park since the gym is closed again.