LONE STAR CHRISTMAS, 2007

Lone Star Christmas was held on Dec. 22, a brisk cool night with spits of snow in the air. I stopped earlier in the day and took the interior picture while the building was empty. It was a wonderful evening enjoyed by young and old. Fourth & Fifth Generation grandchildren of the Cooks & Gimlins helped with singing of Christmas Carols.

GRANDMA'S LITTLE COOK

Well, I am a little slow with Christmas Greetings this year. The dining table is still spread with cards and calendars that I had hoped to have addressed and in the mail by now. This is a copy of the ad that I ran in local papers for a couple of weeks. Usually it has pictures of my listings, so this is a change. I hope that you had a good Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year.

SUNDAY MORNING BRUNCH

We took a back road to church this morning and spotted a Bald Eagle feasting in the field. A bunch of crows were standing watch in a nearby treetop but they flew when we stopped. At least 150 yards away, Mr. Eagle was not bothered by us as we watched for at least ten minutes. My Easy Share has a 12X zoom which pulled it up pretty good and then a little extra cropping on my computer gave us a fairly good picture. With the zoom it appears that breakfast may have been a deer. Quite a few Bald Eagles spend the winter here so I hope to get a much better picture sometime soon.

WINTER VACATION?

I had looked forward to taking a vacation in January....that is up until about two months ago when those hopes were dashed. That was the day Rick let his two pups, one male and one female, out of their separate pens at the same time. After several weeks of confinement, he felt sure there would be no "Playing Around". WRONG!WRONG!WRONG! It didn't take long for me to figure out that we would have New Year babies. She didn't quite make it to the New Year and we have four cute baby Feist Squirrel Dog pups. Since it's so cold PaPa Rick moved them into the basement where I expect they will be until springtime. We have already had a photo shoot and these are the twins.

MY FIRST CHRISTMAS IN HEAVEN

Clifford Bilyeu, December, 2004

This is our first Christmas without my dad, and we miss him a lot. Lights of a Christmas tree twinkle through the windows of his log house and Kasie and Justin have put his Nativity Scene in the front yard. While those are things he would have enjoyed, we know he is not there.

My First Christmas in Heaven

I see the countless Christmas Trees
Around the world below
With tiny lights
Like heaven’s stars
Reflecting on the snow

The sight is so spectacular
Please wipe away that tear
For I am spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year

I hear the many Christmas songs
That people hold so dear
But the sounds of music can’t compare
With the Christmas choir up here

I have no words to tell you
The joy their voices bring
For it is beyond description
To hear the angels sing

I know how much you miss me
I see the pain inside your heart
But I am not so far away
We really aren’t apart

So be happy for me dear ones
You know I hold you dear
And be glad I’m spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year

I send you each a special gift
From my heavenly home above
I send you each a memory of
My undying love

After all “love” is the gift
More precious than pure gold
It was always most important
In the stories Jesus told

Please love and keep each other
As my father said to do
For I can’t count the blessing
Or love he has for each of you

So have a Merry Christmas
And wipe away that tear
Remember I am spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year

Author unknown

BOOK REPORT

Oh, how I hated writing book reports as a kid in school. I think it was because I found it hard to be brief. Has anything changed? Well, I take time to write a book report tonight because these books would make excellent Christmas gifts and there's not much shopping time left! The first book I purchased today was "DOWN HOME" BY Wayne Glenn. This book of over 350 pages contains more than 1400 photos and according to the front cover "provides a Nostalgic Trip to Spokane, Bluff, Chestnut Ridge, Day, Eaudevie, Green Mound, Oak Ridge, Ponce de Leon, Reno, Tauria and Windy City." I purchased it at Forsyth Library, but I understand that the books are also available at Nixa Hardware and Mr. Glenn will be there on Saturday to personally autograph copies.
Book Report #2 - Elmo Ingenthron's "The Land of Taney". First published in 1973 it has been out of print for quite some time, but recently reprinted through efforts of the White River Valley Historical Society. It can also be purchased at the Forsyth Library.

I LICKED THE SPOON!

It's been a long day, as have most for the past week. That's why I haven't written since Saturday when Lone Star was rescheduled. Although long, it has been a good day. On my way home I stopped in at Jim & Dawn's where there was a lot of activity in the kitchen. Jim was boiling the 25th batch of fudge that he makes every year for his clients. (Yikes, hope my clients don't get any such ideas!) When he pulled it off the stove, Dawn poured in the secret ingredients and he stirred until all was mixed, then poured it up into a buttered pan. I will admit my mouth was watering with all that chocolate aura surrounding me. Can you imagine my sheer delight when he scraped the pan and handed me a spoon full of chocolate? It was wonderful. Just as he finished the fudge, Dawn pulled a beautiful apple pie from the oven. It is for tomorrow night's Christmas dinner with their kids. Just as I was leaving Dawn had begun stirring up a Dark Chocolate Cake for Jim's dinner at work on Friday. For topping Jim was making another batch of fudge to pour over it. Have you ever heard the term "Death By Chocolate"?

LONE STAR RESCHEDULED

Lone Star Christmas is rescheduled for next week due to inclement weather. The Tree is up and trimmed, cookies and pies are baked, but snow and freezing rain has begun. Although the roads may be passable we just have too many elderly people that do not need to be out in this kind of weather. SO - hope to see many of you a week from tonight at 7:00 p.m.

COOKIES & TRASH

With a stuffy nose causing me some grief I took a Claritin D before bedtime last night. BIG MISTAKE! I thought my reaction to sudafed might have gone away, but not so. After tossing and turning all night I got up about 5:30, read, watched TV, and had 3 batches of Christmas Cookies made before Rick crawled from under the covers. While working in the kitchen I heard our dogs barking and looked to see if a bear was passing through. Nope, only Jim and Christie's dogs came by to wag their tails and go on. After seeing Christie's trash strewn up and down the road yesterday, I am surprised to see those dogs still living!

LONE STAR CHRISTMAS

Rick has gone to help Glen Kenyon cut a Christmas Tree for the Lone Star Christmas program coming up this Saturday night. It has to be tall enough to almost reach the ceiling where the silver star hangs year-round. It takes a very large tree to reach the extraordinarily high ceiling. The Kenyon family does a beautiful job decorating the tree and church house every year. Lighted by only a couple of bulbs that hang from the ceiling and lights on the tree, one truly feels like you have gone back in time a few years. It will be a rather informal program with singing of Christmas Carols and other songs of the season. Sometimes our old-timers who attend will share their memories of Christmas programs held there in their childhood. We don't have many of those people left, so we enjoy hearing their memories. Everyone brings snacks or finger food, Patsy makes hot cider and coffee and we break for a time of food and fellowship. There is usually a surprise visitor before the evening ends. Although snow is in the weather forecast the tree will be up and the lights will be on. Here is a picture of Kasie and Justin at Lone Star in 2003.

OAK RIDGE SCHOOL

Double Click on the picture to make it full size and the names will be easily read. I found the clipping in an old family album, no date on the picture and no idea when the picture was taken.

THE TOOL MAN

We went to a basketball game at Sparta Monday night. The whole family was there to cheer for Christie's granddaughter, Vanessa Bilyeu and Blue Eye's Lady Bulldogs. It was a close game, going into overtime with Sparta winning.
After the game we saw Ed and Jenean Gimlin who had come to watch their granddaughter. I was surprised to know they have been following the Blog and Rick has become Ed's hero. Jenean got kinda worried when Ed began walking around the house with a power drill in hand. I hope she got control of the situation before he hung his bow on "his side of the bed".
Ladies, I apologize for creating such havoc in your homes. Surely there is some way we can regain control of our interior design.

DOUBLE CLICK

If you want to take a closer look at any of the pictures posted they can be made larger with a double left-click of your mouse.

ELANE'S FIRST DEER PICTURE

A search for old pictures earlier this week led me to one of my dad's old photo albums. It holds a treasure trove of photos, many I had forgotten about. This one of me was taken in 1952 when I would have been two years old. The car is a 1929 Oakland that Daddy owned. I don't know where he got it, that is probably another story that I should have written down.

WHO ATE ALL MY CORNBREAD?

When I went to work on Friday, the pot of DEER HEART & WILD TURNIP STEW was simmering in the crockpot and there was left over cold cornbread from the night before. When I got home I had to eat saltine crackers with my stew because someone ate ALL the cornbread! Bud Bilyeu came to visit Rick and see the crossbow on "Rick's Side of the Bed". They went for a ride, picked wild turnips, came home and ate my cornbread. I guess I should be thankful they did not try to make gravy! Yes, there is a story there, maybe I will tell you another time.

SHARE A BLOG

Did you know you can easily share a blog? If there is one that you want to share with a friend, just click on the envelope at the bottom. It will pop up a window for you to put your friend's email address in and a note about the blog you are sending their way. Please feel free to share my blog with your friends.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Rick had killed a deer earlier in the week and saved the heart and liver. Before going to the woods Friday morning I popped that heart in the crockpot with onions and some water over it. When I came back from hunting I added Wild Turnips, potatoes, carrots, celery and some seasoning. Left it on high and when I came home that night it had cooked down just right. I removed the heart, sliced and chopped it, then stirred back into the stew. Granddaughters came home with me, but they were not interested in my DEER HEART & WILD TURNIP STEW.

DID IT AGAIN!

Boy, it is hard to balance my time but I managed to hunt a couple of mornings last week. Rick has a muzzle loader and my deer tag allowed me one more deer of any type taken with a muzzle loader. It was 8:50 Friday morning when I saw several deer moving through the brush. I had places to go and houses to list so decided not to be picky as I laid the cross hairs on my target. When I pulled the trigger I heard deer running but it was several seconds before the cloud of gunpowder smoke cleared and I could see. My kill was a little Button Buck. Brother Jim told me if I would have waited there might have been a big buck in the group. I know he is right, but I didn't wait and those tender little steaks will be good in the skillet.