Bears, Edible Plants, Sewer Gas and from Winter to Summer in One Week

Glasses and other things that remind me that I'm old

Green and Brown Thumbs, and Writing

Best. Turkey. Ever.
Okay, so I wasn't sure about this "brining" thing.  It took me trying to figure out how to brine the damn bird without a giganic bucket, which required me lining the stock pot with an over bag. stuffing the 24 lb bird into the bag and crockpot and pouring 2 quarts of apple cider, 1 cup of orange juice, 10 cloves of garlic, 8 bay leaves 4 branches of rosemary, a cup and a half of salt and 1 cup of brown sugar, plus extra water all over it. Somehow I didn't have a flooded kitchen in the process, although I did have to clean out two shelves in the refrigerator and lower the top shelf twice to get the bird in.It was worth it.  I'll repeat:  Best. Turkey. Ever.

Thanksgiving Thoughts
I've been planning Thanksgiving dinner and pulled out my issues of Bon Appetit.  Now, honestly, this isn't a magazine I would buy, but either one of my sisters got it for me or I got it as a freebie from Amazon or an airline or something.  So, I have the November and December issues.One of the amazing things to me is how they seem to think that odd ingredients add cache to the meal.  I don't know about you, but carrots and potatoes are ok, but carrots, potatoes and parsnips aren't.  I mean, parsnips?  I can't even find them in the farmer's market, which carries odd things like kohlrabi, icicle radishes and kale.  Does anyone really eat parsnips

Haegl and Working
Poor Haegl.  He's going under the knife this Monday because of prostate problems.  Evidently, he has an enlarged prostate which has enlarged other parts of his anatomy painfully, which means he needs to be neutered.  (Funny, I've never heard human doctors recommend that for their patients ;-)  Anyway, if his prostate gets smaller after the neuter, we know he had an enlarged prostate and the neuter did the trick.  Otherwise, it might be cancer, and we don't want to think about that.Calvin has been a PITA (Pain In The Ass).  He's doing the typical things that dogs do, thinking he'll wiggle his way into Alpha.  Ha!  Not with Malamutes. 

Awesome!

Calvin and the Last of His Kind
Have you ever felt that the Universe, God, or Whatever was playing a terrible joke on you?Take Calvin.  PLEASE.  I beg of you.Calvin is a big Alaskan Husky that was purported to be a lead dog, although I suspect he was too stupid to be the actual brains.  I made the mistake of trading a perfectly good rig (a three wheeled cart) for Calvin and his late partner, Rigel.  The former owner failed to tell me of Calvin's propensity to bark.  And bark.  And bark. I should've guessed something was up by the fact he was debarked.Calvin, bless his pin head, made a lousy distance lead dog because both he and Rigel were t