It doesn’t seem possible, with temps in the high forties and the sun shining brightly above, in a blue sky, but yes, they are forecasting a storm warning for us tomorrow. The amounts of snowfall vary from source to source, anywhere from 4 inches to 10 inches and blowing snow too. That’ll be all day tomorrow. So, we’re trying to get ready as well as trying to get ready to host Thanksgiving dinner for family.
Will went out and cut a big load of dry poles for more firewood and got that hauled up. We’ve put extra big round bales in with the cows and calves, so we don’t have to go out during the storm or Thanksgiving dinner. Now, it’s just pick up this and that as this snow will probably still be on the ground, come April and anything left out will remain buried for the whole winter.
We were worried, as yesterday, some of our cows had clear, snotty noses, often the first sign of shipping fever. But this morning, only a couple had just a bit of yucky noses, and were acting fine, eating and moving around normally. We are very grateful for that!
I added a little more straw to my two stock tanks (with leaks) that I planted our garlic in, as after a while, it packs down. We’ve been having rain, so that garlic is all nestled down and ready for winter. I’m already planning for spring! Of course, I’m starting to get seed catalogs in the mail and am horrified at the price of everything. It seems that the big companies get quite a bit of their seed from foreign countries and the tariffs are hitting them hard. Thank God we grow most of our own seed and no tariff! We saw some sweet corn seed for more than a hundred dollars a pound! Holy cow! But then, the stores often sold sweet corn, by the ear, for a dollar an ear this past summer. I just couldn’t ever do that.
Likewise, we saw beef, in the store today, for $18.70 a pound. For sirloin steaks. I was afraid to see what the T-bones were. We came home and kissed our cows on the nose, snots and all.
I’m gearing up for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, making sure I write everything down. I sure don’t want to forget the deviled eggs out on our “refrigerator” porch, like I almost did last year. Wednesday is the big get-everything-ready day, with a lot of the dessert baking done then. That frees up Thanksgiving for the turkey, potatoes, and green bean casserole, plus squash. I’ll be using both ovens, the propane stove and the wood range. So very nice!
I dropped off an extra donation for our local food shelf plus another few bucks for the Salvation Army. There are a lot of folks who could use a little boost up for the holidays. — Jackie
For one the forecast is closer than not – already at 9 inches with 1 – 3 inches in the next 24 hours. Winds are picking up however. We’ve not plowed the drive but have shoveled other areas twice today. More firewood into the house and garage of course. We’re getting more snow than I think we got all last year. Last time I remember this much snow was in early 2011 – it was light and the winds were howling. Took the plow crews a few days to clear the rural highways and they did find a thankfully abandoned car.
Snow is medium heavy and has accumulated steadily over the day. Out of town kiddo and spouse got home yesterday afternoon before it hit their area.
Happy Thanksgiving Jackie. Thanks for ALL you share with us. YourGrowing and Canning book is certainly the most valuable book I own! Now I realize what I am going to give my daughter in-law for Christmas! She called again for canning instructions.‘just a second gotta grab Jackiesbook’! 1$seed 2$!!!! So thankful for the seed storage I have and the resuppler in Seed Treasure. GodBless you and your family this thanksgiving season Take care in this storm. It so exciting to find the first pullet egg!
Well the 1-2 inches is now is now 8-11 inches so kiddo and spouse will be heading out Friday morning instead of Saturday. They’re traveling west so the snow will hit 6 pm-ish Friday while won’t hit our area until early Saturday morning. Can’t blame them for Friday or Saturday departure – nice to have at least one day at home before heading back to work Monday morning. Cannot wait until we pick up the kittens Friday morning. It very well may be a three ring circus at my house lol.
Seventeen here on Johnson mountain, far north California, for this Blessed Thanksgiving: and so much food. Relatives from Wyoming, Arizona, Sweden, and Oregon. We have a new 2.5 mth old grandson, Yeah! and 7 other grandchildren. All these are thrilled to get out of the cold of their areas (not Arizona) and into our warm area, in the 60s/day time. Golf for the men, quads for the older children for the grumpy neighbor to chew out, lots of outdoors to play in, and Christmas tree getting on Saturday following, up at Lassen mountain, 5,000 ft. Nice Mt. Shasta, Lassen, and Shasta bally are snowy and a beautiful sight. Appreciate you, Jackie. My advice giver!!! And I love reading your blog friends. God bless all!
The warm weather down here is about to change going from 72 today to 57 tomorrow! I see two 28 lows for Friday and Saturday but I think the only thing I’ll cover are the young carrots. It’s been so dry here and the forecasted storms for last night never happened.
The turkey has been slowly defrosting since Friday in a cooler with water kept at 41 degrees with ice. Yesterday I pulled it out, unwrapped and cleaned it and it’s in the reefer ready for stuffing tomorrow morning. Gotta have stuffing and not dressing! Most of the smaller dinner preps are done and pumpkin pie will be made today. That leaves final dinner assembly for tomorrow, an easy job.
Fortunately I have most of my garden seed on hand, left over or collected from last year. There’s no way on earth I’m paying a high price for 5 or 10 seeds of some new foo foo variety of anything. They can keep it. However I’m still on the look out for a few new “toys” to grow if the price is right. I’ll be starting spring brassica seeds in mid January for planting out mid February.
Y’all have a safe and warm Thanksgiving! We all have a lot to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving! We’ve got about 6″ of snow on the ground this morning and it’s still snowing and blowing. It’ll be a quick trip out to the chicken coop this morning for sure. By early next week, the lows will be below zero here so I envy your temperatures!!
You all have a happy Tthanksgiving. Here in the Copper Basin Alaska we have been running single digit temps with it just below zero now with only an inch or so of snow. It will be a somber feast as my eldest son died of a stroke last month and one grandson who has always come, moved to Texas where his sister lives. Still we invited some friends and will make plates for a couple friends who prefer to stay home.
I’m so sorry to hear of your son’s death. It’s hard to feel thankful following such a devastating happening, isn’t it? And having your grandson move far away makes it so much worse. I’m glad you have some friends coming and can share with friends. We’re headed below zero by Sunday, so we’re not so far behind, although we already have about 6″ of snow on the ground and it’s snowing and blowing like mad today.
So sorry Howard for the loss of your son.thanksgiving will be a hard time. Memories are more precious . Pray you find thanks and peace.
You have my deepest sympathy @Howard – a parent should not outlive his/her child. May your grief lessen over time.
Getting ready for our first snow of the season here in Spokane,WA. It will be light tho and probably get rained on. I’m still getting spring-like blooms… lavender and snapdragons and more! I was in Georgia and the Carolinas last two weeks where hydrangeas and camellias were blooming but sure didn’t expect to see color at home in the north west. Those flowers don’t think winter is acomming!!
Wow, blooming flowers this time of the year. What a gift for you! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours Jackie!! Got the last random piles of dumb stuff out of the yard so that we won’t have the ugly surprises in the spring. Looking forward to the white blanket that signals its time to go inside and do the dark night projects like knitting and sewing. I cannot get myself to do them when there is dirt to dig in. Spending Thanksgiving with dear friends and our new pastor and his family. We have so much to be thankful for as you mentioned. My heart holds you with Javid’s empty space this year. Peace to you dear ones.
We’ve got plenty of snow on the ground now but probably there are some things we’ve missed picking up. Like the riding lawn mower, for instance. Oh well, when the snow stops, we’ll get at that before it gets too buried. My oldest daughter will be coming up via son, Bill, to spend the weekend with us. That will sure be nice. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and family and thanks for all the information you share!
And a very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Always glad to help out.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, your family and all your readers! Thursday will be quiet, just my husband our daughter & me. Saturday our son & wife are hosting a larger family group, including a new baby we haven’t seen yet, looking forward to meeting him! Today baked rolls and kolaches. No snow here yet, but getting colder, high winds today 50mph. So hard to think of the homeless and hungry in the world when we are blessed with all we need. We try to share what we can too. Yes Jackie, I’ve also noticed the high prices on some seeds in the catalogs…even $2 each for some tomato seeds! Good to hear you are hunkered down and that your cattle are ok. Keep warm, safe, and Peace to all!
Wow, $2 a seed!! I thought I’d paid plenty when I bought some rare beans for $1 each. Inflation, I guess. LOL It is hard to think of the homeless and hungry as well as those in war-torn countries like Ukraine when we’re so well fed, at peace and nice and warm. I remember to thank God every single night for all those blessings.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Saturday with your family!!
Happy thanksgiving to you and Will and the family. My mother in law forgot the potato salad until the meal was over. We never let her forget. She was a wonderful lady and I’m so thankful to have been blessed with her and my mother. I miss them so much at the holidays.
I know what you mean. At holidays, it feels like there’s always a couple of empty chairs around the table, even when people are sitting in them. We’re so thankful for the family that is still around us.
Yes, we all need to stop and be thankful as that is what Thanksgiving is all about. I guess all you snow recipients should “hunker down” and stay warm. We have storms and rain here, but we are dry and toasty inside. We got all our goods ready to cook and don’t need to go anywhere for next 7 days and maybe not even then. I have enough canned veggies and meat to last quite a while. Our kids are traveling here so we are ready for company.
I had a friend call me this morning about a canning question. She recently asked me to teach her how to can and now she is canning everything in sight. She wanted to know about leftover broth and turkey canning. It feels good to pass anything on that will help folks in the future. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
It is such a great feeling when we teach someone how to can. That’s why I wrote Growing and Canning Your Own Food. I get to do it for a whole lot of people I don’t even know yet! Canning is so addicting, in a good way. Once you find out all the good stuff you can stock up on, it blooms out from there.
We’re waiting for the big storm, but so far it’s only a dusting on the ground. We’re certainly ready and totally comfortable in front of the wood stove. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, Jackie and family. I am thankful to have one of my sons, his wife, their daughter and husband and 4 kids-ages 3-9. Two other grandsons are planning to share part of the day with me. I miss other family members but am blessed to not be alone. One does have to share as families expand.
I made the cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes ready to put in the oven, made the cornbread and put the dressing together except the eggs and my canned turkey broth on Monday. Today is hot rolls that I will warm on Thanksgiving. Tomorrow is pecan, apple and sweet potato pies. The turkey, mashed potatoes and relish tray will be prepared on Thanksgiving morning. I will make the noodles Wednesday evening so they can dry overnight. Green bean casserole and deviled eggs are being brought by my daughter-by-heart.
Sorry to be going on for so long about the menu but this is the first year since 2022 when my husband was still with me, that I have really looked forward to cooking this much. Guess it takes awhile. Life does go on.
Yes, it does take a while to get past a beloved one’s passing. As they say, “been there/done that”, several times over. Your menu sounds wonderful and a lot like mine. As our chickens molted and stopped laying, I went to Aldis and bought two dozen eggs, for baking, deviled eggs, etc. Then I went out to the coop and found one of our pullet’s FIRST nice brown egg! Yes, I’m thankful for both the big and tiny things! I hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful!!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I’m looking forward to snow and so are my two sons who ski 😊
Good luck with all the snow! We’re supposed to get clobbered starting next Tuesday and, of course, beloved husband does not have all of his outdoor stuff buttoned up yet. I’m too busy getting ready for Thanksgiving to help; all the food gets packed up and we drive to Pennsylvania for the holiday. I still have to do all the cooking though.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Getting ready for snow possibly by Friday night but nothing like the snow you are going to get.
Garlic all bedded in for winter but I wonder how much straw could one put on top the bed?
I am grateful we live in midst of the supply chain – our beef (a good portion local) is not that unreasonably priced.
Some snow for us too – not a lot and not very windy. One kiddo will be traveling home Saturday but I don’t think the trip will be bad.
Friday the Polydactyl AND one of his brothers will be joining our household. Better half said my call as I am primary “caregiver”. I think it will make the transition easier too. I know our one cat is lonely, she still hopes her buddy is on the other side of a door. I’m excited but it has been a long time since we had kittens in the house. So hoping one bonds to my better half – while we both miss the last stray we took in, he really misses him.
They’ll be six or seven of us for T-Day – with enough food to feed twice that number lol. Leftovers for everyone.
At least this year it will be cold enough to use nature’s refrigerator. Have to ask – mayo or no mayo deviled eggs? Mom’s recipe is sans mayo and it has spoiled me for six plus decades. Butter is the “binder” instead of mayo. Gotta love those Grange cookbooks from the 1960s or prior. Need to make BBQ for 100 people, not a problem!
Better half is cooking green beans – not green bean casserole. The beauty of holidays is you cook what your family likes. But funny story – my MIL used to make sweet potatoes for one of her nephews at Xmas. No one knows why she thought he liked them – he really didn’t (but I and one kiddo did and still do). Ah memories. Happy T-Day to you and yours.
Yep, I made cranberry Jello salad for years and just last year found out my son, Bill, never liked cranberries. Surprise! Let’s see, I do use some mayo in my deviled eggs but also some Cowboy Candy syrup. Boy does everyone love that change.
The best of luck with your new kittens! I remember when we first got Buffy in October, I wondered just how high in the Christmas tree she’d climb. She batted a few ornaments but never did climb it, unlike Mom’s cats, who scaled it, two at a time, right up until they turned 18 and 19 years old.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!