Thanksgiving Hodgepodge

I don't know what the deal is, but we've had the most beautiful sunrises this fall...more than I remember in the past...but my grey hair gets in the way of my memory, so I may be just full of it!

No matter...a good sunrise always makes the start of the day special. This photo was taken on the eve of Thanksgiving...pie making day. I was hoping that the sunrise was an omen that my pie crust would turn out perfect, but that was not going to be the case. On a scale of 1-10 I'd say the crust turned out a 7...the apple and pumpkin pies still looked good and tasted great, so I can't complain too much.

Another beautiful sunrise

My older brother and his wife came over from Portland and stayed three nights. We had a great time catching up on family news, playing cards and telling stories from our past. The last time we saw my brother was in the spring during sage rat hunting season, and I hadn't seen my sister-in-law since last Christmas.

Since we got Red, My Man's been working on rebuilding the fence in the back yard. It had some holes along the bottom where Bella Jo would get out and the posts were rotted off and the whole fence was going to fall over if we didn't do something. So, that was the project for the four-day weekend that My Man decided to do...with help from my brother, they got the old fence ripped out and all the posts in...between all the other stuff happening...like Thanksgiving dinner and Black Friday shopping in town.

Yep, we all went to the lil' town of Burns for Black Friday...it was fun! Red and Cindy Sue came with us. We went to the farm store and of course Red and CS get to go inside. Red really well, some people he didn't seem to like...others he loved. I'd say he just knows a good dog person and who isn't a good dog person...gotta give him credit for that.

Tamping in the posts

My Man is surveying the situation...and Red is inspecting
 the quality of the work! Red loves to hang out with his dad.
So far, he hasn't become just a mommy's boy!

For Thanksgiving dinner, we decided to try smoking/grilling a turkey on My Man's Traeger grill. It was only a 13 pound turkey, but it was still too big to get into the Traeger! So, I went to the Traeger FaceBook page and found that someone else had the same problem, and the solution was to spatchcock the turkey...huh?...I said the same thing...what the hell is that?!?

The internet is an amazing source of information...in case you didn't already know ;~)

Just Google it and you'll learn all about it. But, in a nut shell, you remove the backbone from the turkey and break the breast bone. That allows the turkey to be laid out flat in the roasting pan.

I felt like a turkey murderer as I was cutting out the backbone!!! Then I had to stand on a stool to get high enough to get any leverage to break the breast bone...which I really didn't break good enough...I'll explain...

The Traeger smoked turkey...1 hour from being done.

I found a smoked turkey recipe that I liked which was simply onions and an apple with some garlic and a can of carbonated cola...yep, Coke! All the reviews were excellent, so we decided to give it a try. I placed the spatchcocked turkey on a bed of onion, apple and coke in the roasting pan, and smoked it for 30 minutes, then turned the heat up to medium (350 degrees or so). We used hickory pellets. It should have taken about 2 hours at medium heat to reach the correct temperature.

The legs were done before the breast though...so, I think the problem was that the breast bone didn't get broken enough to lay flat in the roasting pan...so it took an extra hour to get the breast meat up to the right temperature. It was one of those awful waiting games where everything is ready to eat except for one thing!

But, it all turned out perfect...the turkey was totally awesome!!!! We all went into a turkey coma after dinner!!

My Man, your's truly, brother Larry and sister-in-law Laura...
and yes, I do have another brother...named Darrell ;~)

Saturday morning, Red and I had our first training class. It's a very informal get-to-gather of a few people and their dogs. We first did some obedience, then a lil' bit of agility, and then some search. Red had already done all of this with his foster family (B & B), so he was very comfortable in the surroundings. This is giving Red and I a good bonding tool and an opportunity to really get to know one another.

I have only done one obedience class and one agility class in my lifetime, and that was 12 years ago with Abby...I definitely need the refresher!!! I really enjoyed it, and Red did too. We'll do this every Saturday as long as the winter weather doesn't get too nasty.

The Red dog...look at that dirty red nose! He'd been digging!

My brother brought his 100+ pound dog Sydney. He and Red got along very nicely...they played and shared toys. The angle in the photo below doesn't show how big Sydney really is...but, he's huge for a Golden Retriever...and he fills up a room in no time when he lays down!! Sydney is just as sweet as he is big...he's a great dog.

Red and Sydney

This afternoon our neighbor stopped by. He has the dog named Missy that Bella Jo loved to play with...well, it wasn't much different with Red...they hit it off great!!

Play time!! Red and Missy.

I hope that you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did!

Guess this means we're officially into the Christmas season!!