Mission Accomplished

Right outside the garden gate, I caught a little creature.  A bug.  A ladybug, to be precise.  It could have been a gentlemanbug, perhaps, as I'm not sure how to tell them apart.  The bug was quickly trying to get away, but I wanted her (or him) back in the garden.  Ladybugs are beneficial insects.  I need all of them that we can handle as the stinkbugs absolutely tear up my tomatoes and right now, I'm having a heck of a time with caterpillars on our beets.

Let's get to the heart of tonight's post, Mission Accomplished.  That phrase is often used when a goal is achieved.  George W. Bush infamously put a banner up, if I recall correctly, that had that phrase on it, and I don't think at that point that the mission was accomplished.  Sometimes the goal is reached; however, and this is one of those times.  What am I speaking of?

Each year as the summer heat beats down, I long for cooler temperatures and a respite from the high heat and humidity.  It is in those dog days of summer that I plant a row or two of green beans.  Snap beans, you might call them.  The goal is this: We want to have mature fresh green beans to harvest and eat as a side dish for Thanksgiving Day.  To this end, I planted two rows of Contender Green Beans that I had saved from seed from the spring crop.  They germinated and grew and here is a photo of them the day before Thanksgiving:

The plants, other than some leaves that insects ate on, look good.  But we need to look beneath the canopy to see if we reached our goal.  Drum roll, please.  Well, how about that?  I see mature green beans, ready to harvest.  I also see some that need another week of growing time, and then I see blooms that promise more beans after that!  Looks like a healthy crop of Thanksgiving green beans.

I picked a bucket full of the ripened ones.  Some were a little over ripe, but we'll eat them.  After Tricia washed them, I snapped off the ends of the beans and stringed them.

It's always a good idea to string them, especially as they are a little larger or the strings are a tough when you're feasting on them.  One thing is for sure, fresh green beans are a real treat.  Tricia sort of stir fried these in butter and added dried cranberries and chopped pecans for a nice, festive, tasty side dish.

Mission Accomplished on this year's crop of fall green beans.  We had a mighty fine mess of them and believe it or not, we just finished up on the leftovers tonight.  The best part is, these Contender green beans will continue producing for us until the frost kills the plant.  We may actually be able to freeze or can some to set aside for the winter months.

Happy Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving 2024.  I hope you had a great one!  This is always my favorite holiday.  We started it out reading about the first Thanksgiving.  William Bradford and the pilgrims fleeing persecution and arriving in the New World at the Plymouth Colony in 1620.  Life was hard and they suffered loss, but their faith in God was strong and over time and with much effort, they succeeded.  Good lessons for today!

A stiff north wind blew all day.  We lit a fire in the fire pit and enjoyed its warmth.  Tricia, Russ and Benjamin were here for lunch, along with Mom & Dad, my mom's cousin, Julee Rae, my brother, Kristian and his wife, Emery, and their chocolate lab, Scout.

Tricia, Benjamin & Russ

In the evening, we gathered around the fire pit and talked while the fire blazed.  My sister, Jenny and her husband, Brett along with most of their 6 boys were here for supper.

We ate entirely too much food, and we laughed and visited, enjoying good conversation and each other's company.  Not everyone was able to make it and we deeply miss those that weren't here.  As time marches on, we learn to appreciate the little things.  In retrospect, the little things aren't so little.  We don't know how long we have with one another, so we value greatly each moment.

Brett, Jenny, Dad, Mom, me, Tricia, Emery & Kristian (with Scout in the foreground)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  God is so good to us.  Even though we've suffered loss this year (Tricia's brother, Orlando), we've experienced His Goodness, His Presence and His Love as He strengthens us.  

Feeding the Fishes

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love the family time, the festivities, the crisp fall weather in the air, the focus on thankfulness and the food.  One of the things that we always shoot for is fresh green beans out of the garden as a side dish on the menu.  We grow snap beans in the spring.  In the fall, it's a little more tricky, but it's worth it.  I'm thinking about fresh snap beans wrapped in little bundles bound by bacon, topped with brown sugar and cooked in the oven.  Delicious!

But we have to work hard to get them there.  For one thing we planted two rows of Contender Snap Beans.  It's still 90 degrees a week into October.  That means the pests like army worms, caterpillars and other bugs are feasting on all the fresh foliage.  You can see some evidence of worm damage to the sweet potato leaves in the right corner of the photo below.  In looking at the forecast, on Tuesday, we'll have lows in the lower 60's and highs around 84 degrees.  That'll be the best the weather has been in a while.  Hopefully it will send the pests into hibernation or at least slow them down.

Yesterday, now that the snap beans are getting some size, I figured it was high time to give them some fertilizer.  They were started with some composted chicken manure, but now it's time to give them a little boost.  This time I'll hit them with some fish emulsion.   I use a powdered fish emulsion that calls for 1 Tablespoon per gallon of water that I put in my garden sprayer.  The leaves are covered until they are wet, giving them a good foliar feeding and then a spray the ground around the stem until the soil is wet.

I learned from experience to try to use it all up, leaving no leftovers.  If the fish emulsion is left in the sprayer, it heats up and 'cooks.'  The concoction turns green and smells absolutely awful - like raw sewerage.  So now I use it all up, emptying out the sprayer.  Although the fish emulsion stinks, the plants love it, and it is an organic, natural way to fertilize your plants.  I'll try to do this once every week.

Hopefully, this will keep the snap beans growing and pretty soon we'll see blooms and then a little later, pods.  And you know what that means?  We'll be swimming in snap beans come Thanksgiving.

The Snap Bean Goal

We always have a goal to have fresh snap beans for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Some years we get an early freeze and the beans don't make it.  Some other years we've had worms and/or rabbits decimate the plants before they even bloom.  This year, in spite of the drought, we got the beans in the ground at the right time.  The seed we used was saved seed from the spring crop.

Well, we met our goal.  On Thanksgiving morning, I was bending over in the garden harvesting snap beans.  They were quite nice.  I filled up my basket with three different varieties.

From the left side to the right in the basket, we have Italian Roma II, Blue Lake Bush/Contenders, and Purple TeePee Beans.

From a taste standpoint, the star of the show is the Italian Roma.  These beans are wide and flat.  To me they have a delicious taste.

To ensure we were going to meet our goal of having them for Thanksgiving Dinner, I snapped off the ends of the beans and washed them up.  Tricia cooked them and we ate them up.  Mission Accomplished.

We like to grow things that are colorful.  The purple teepee beans add a colorful touch to the garden.  Oddly, when they are cooked, they lose the purple color.  Regardless the color, they are all scrumptious.  Tricia cooked them, adding some cashews and cranberries.  They were a hit.  What we couldn't eat fresh, we blanched and froze.  We've already picked another mess of snap beans and will be eating them again shortly.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I hope you and your family had a nice celebration.  We have so much to be thankful for.  I heard it said this week that a thankful spirit and a complaining spirit are like two roommates that cannot live under the same roof.  Someone has to pack their bags and leave!  Let's make sure we show the complaining spirit the door.

I knew this Thanksgiving was going to be a good one.  We do have a tremendous amount of things to thank our Lord for.  One of them is in the center of the photo below.  It's Benjamin.  He's standing up and walking!  Praise God.

Are things back to normal?  No.  Are things perfect?  No.  But he is alive and he is improving day by day and we can't stop thanking God and praising Him.  It's from Him that all blessings flow.  We had all of our kids with us, my Mom and Dad, my sister, her husband and her kids.  We gathered and laughed and talked and enjoyed one another's company.

In the photo above you can see that Laura Lee has opened some old family photo albums that she's looking at, remembering her childhood and reliving old memories and good times.  It's always good to remember the past that we're anchored to and be thankful for our families, the love we share and the God we serve.

We got so busy visiting, that I forgot to take photos when we were all eating.  I took this one when we were almost finished and the rest of the crew was visiting in the den.  We had a delicious meal with loads of leftovers.  No one left hungry, that's for sure.

We had turkey, ham, and beef brisket and more casseroles than you could shake a stick at.  I asked to help Tricia in the kitchen and she put me in charge of making a zucchini casserole that my grandmother, Bumby, used to make.  It's more like a soufflé.  There are lots of eggs in it.  Well, I have a confession to make.  I wasn't as diligent as I should have been and apparently, some egg shell made its way into the casserole (it's in the bottom of the photo below).  Several of us were chewing the crunchy casserole, having to spit out eggshell on a napkin.  I did not do a good job with this.  A lady at church today told me that this was a slick scheme of mine to not get asked to help in the kitchen next year!  

We didn't get a photo of Laura Lee before she took off back to Baton Rouge, but here is a shot of my Mom, Benjamin, my Dad, Russ and Tricia.

God has been so good to us!  We are incredibly thankful for all the works of His Mighty Hand.

Thankfulness!

 "Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 118:29

Thanksgiving Day 2022 has come and gone.  Time seems to be such a blur.  We hosted the celebration at our home and our immediate family, my Dad & Mom, My great aunt Julee Rae, my sister and her family and my brother and his family were here.  We held hands together in a big circle in the kitchen before serving and asked God's blessing on the food and our family.  We thanked HIM for all the blessings in our lives.  Things aren't perfect, but He, the Giver of all things, is so good.

We had more food than an army could eat, including a baked turkey, fried turkey, beef brisket, and smoked specklebelly goose, along with all the side dishes and desserts that you could ever imagine.

We had tables stretched across three rooms and we laughed and talked and enjoyed one another's company, stretching the meal out for easily more than an hour, telling funny stories and recollecting memories of times past.

Then we retired to the den and visited some more.  Here's Mom & Dad:

And here is our family:  Front (Tricia, Me, Laura Lee) Back Russ and Benjamin.

That was Thursday and today is Sunday.  We just finished up all the leftovers!  I hope you and yours enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday as well.  God's given us another year.  He is so faithful.

Giving Thanks 2021

Psalm 100:1-5 KJV

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday.  A time to pause, refocus, and count our many blessings.  We give thanks to our God who is so faithful and good.  Although there is turmoil and division in the world, we find a respite from the turbulence and find peace.  It is a time to gather with family and friends and visit, enjoying one another's company.  And we eat!

And we visit.  For hours we talk, and laugh, and recollect good times in the past.  We discuss what's going on now and we look to the future.  Then there's coffee and dessert.

We are thankful for so many things!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

A Grateful Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays.  It is a time where we gather together and enjoy each other's company.  Before asking a blessing on the food and eating, my Dad read Psalm 100, A Thanksgiving Psalm:

100 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

We then held hands in a circle and prayed, thanking Almighty God for the many blessings in our lives.  To be totally frank, 2020 has been a hard year, Covid-19, two devastating hurricanes, politics, civil unrest, financial uncertainties, stress and anxiety.  I could go on and on, but you understand, you have lived it too.

As a person with many faults, I easily fall into discouragement, especially in the upheaval that has defined 2020.  The Psalm my Dad read and the overall theme of the holiday of Thanksgiving tells us to look beyond our circumstances and to our King.  He sits on the throne and is in control.  We are blessed beyond measure.  He is God and He is Good.  

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

Today was a day for giving thanks.  When you think about it, everyday we should be giving thanks.  We are blessed.  I hope that you were able to fellowship with family as we did and enjoy each other's company, good food, and most importantly take time to that God for His provisions.

We met at our home and laughed and reminisced and told funny stories.  My beautiful wife did a great job cooking and preparing everything.  We ate far too much food and sat around the table and made the meal last for hours.

Getting ready to thank God for the food and our many blessings.  Then we'll feast!

Benjamin left early to get ready to hunt as he has a big duck hunt scheduled for first thing in the morning, so when we got ready to warm everything up again to eat supper, he was gone.  He missed out on the photos.  Here's Russ, my Mom, my Dad, and Laura Lee.  She drove in from Baton Rouge for the get-together.

Here's my Mom and Dad.  They brought two turkeys - one was roasted on a rotisserie over a hickory fire.  The other was fried.  Both were so delicious!

And here is four-fifths of our family.  Benjamin made it into the first photo, but missed the evening photos.

What a great Thanksgiving!  Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me!

Thanksgiving 2018

Psalm 100 King James Version (KJV)

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving and had and opportunity, like we did, to spend it with family, eating great food, enjoying fellowship with those you love, and making memories. 

Baked Turkey Before it was Devoured

We ate entirely too much and then sat around and had great conversation with one another, telling stories and laughing.  Amazingly, these conversations didn't involve cell phones or computers. 

We sat around a fire pit and enjoyed the beautiful weather and then ate again in the evening.  As I write this I am so thankful for a great family, for health, for spending time with people that I love.  I am thankful for salvation through Jesus Christ and for blessings that I do not deserve.

Although our lives are far from perfect, God is so good to us, and we are so thankful!

Thank You, Lord, For Your Blessings On Me

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It is a time where we don't get distracted by other things and we concentrate on giving thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.  We always sit around the table and go around one by one and count our blessings.  It is a matter of perspective.  When we focus on our disappointments, areas of lack, and wants, it is easy to get discouraged.  However, when we focus on all that we have, we realize how fortunate we are and how much God has blessed us.

Image Credit

This past Sunday in church we sang a song that very simply sums up Thanksgiving to me.  Here are the lyrics:

While the world looks upon me, as I struggle alone
They say I have nothing, but they are so wrong
In my heart I'm rejoicing, how I wish they could see
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me

There's a roof up above me
I've a good place to sleep
There's food on my table
And shoes on my feet
You gave me your love Lord
And a fine family
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me

I know I'm not wealthy, and these clothes, they're not new
I don't have much money, but Lord I have you
That's all that matters, though the world may not see
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me

There's a roof up above me
I've a good place to sleep
There's food on my table
And shoes on my feet
You gave me your love Lord
And a fine family
Thank you Lord, for your blessings on me

My non-exhaustive list of things I'm thankful for:
1. My Almighty God and the salvation He gave me through the Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ,
2. My loving and supportive family, (wife, kids, mother, father, brother, sister, etc.)
3. Being raised in a loving, Christian home by a loving mother and father,
4. Living in a great Country,
5. A church and church family that stands on the Solid Rock and unashamedly preaches the Gospel,
6. Family and Friends that pray for me each day,
7. Health,
8. A comfortable home,
9. Plenty of good food and never having to go to bed hungry,
10. Freedoms afforded me by the Constitution and Bill of Rights,
11. Military men and women that made sacrifices so that I can enjoy that blanket of freedom,
I could go on and on and on, but it is getting late.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

The Only Thing Going to Waste is the "Gobble"

On the evening of Turkey Day, we were stuffed with leftovers and a little tired after cooking, cleaning and the letdown after all the excitement of the big day with family.  Time to find an easy chair and relax, right?  Not exactly.  First there is a bit more work to do.  After lunch and during clean-up, we carve all the remaining meat of the two birds - one a baked turkey and the other a fried one.

The meat goes into the fridge for leftovers and the bones, skin, cartilage, onions, carrots, and bits of small meat goes into a big stock pot and water is poured to cover the contents.  A cover is put on the pot and it is boiled all afternoon long.  In the late evening, we turned off the stove and let it sit.  In the morning, the contents of the pot was still warm.

Remnants of the Gobbler

The contents of the pot was poured through a sieve to strain out the non-liquids. The photo above shows those "non-liquids."  The dogs really appreciated eating on this for about three days.  As for the liquid, well, that is some good turkey stock.

Straining through a sieve

The turkey stock was nice and rich and we wanted to be able to use it for being the base for soups this winter or gravies, or, if you really want to make your rice more flavorful, cook it in turkey stock instead of water.  Wow! Does that ever make a big difference.

There are many things you can do with turkey stock

We put the pot of turkey stock in the fridge and cool it down fully for about half a day.

Turkey stock

Once it has cooled, the turkey stock will settle out with the fat rising to the top.  The bottom congeals like turkey flavored jell-o.  We skim the fat off the top and that goes into the pile of bones and skin for the dogs.  They really enjoy that.  The remaining turkey stock goes into quart jars and is frozen in the deep freeze for use later.  Not much gets wasted on the turkeys.  Obviously, we do this with every chicken we eat as well.  Turkey stock is a flavorful, healthy item that we enjoy long after the rest of the Thanksgiving turkey is gone.

Giving Thanks - 2016

Thanksgiving.  My favorite holiday.  It seems that the weather is simply perfect. The fragrant aroma of delicious food wafts through the kitchen and even outdoors. And last but not least is family.  It was nice to have Laura Lee in from Baton Rouge, where she teaches school.  And Russ, our senior horticulture major from LSU came in.  It was nice to have the whole family under one roof.  I heard some noises coming from Benjamin's room and they were all in his bed, laughing and enjoying being together.
 

Being together.  That is a recurring theme.  In addition to our five family members, my Mom and Dad, my great aunt, my sister, her husband and her six boys, and my brother and his wife and their chocolate lab, Scout, were in attendance.  As far as the other animals, namely our milk cows, goats, and chickens, they weren't invited. They did require some attention, though.  They don't celebrate Thanksgiving and still require to be milked and fed prior to us enjoying the food and festivities of the day.

Tricia cooked quite a meal and my Mom, sister, and sister-in-law brought all sorts of delicious food. We held hands in a big circle and thanked the Good Lord for all the many blessings in our lives and went around the circle telling things we were each thankful for.  Then we ate and visited and ate some more.  Then we played some games that we enjoyed immensely.  First was a game for the kids - a game to see who was the fastest, so we timed them with smart phones.  It works like this. Each participant has a bowl with 10 M&Ms in it and an empty cut set beside it. They are given a drinking straw that's been cut in half and the object of the game is to suck the M&M up out of the bowl with the drinking straw and transfer it to the cup.  You aren't allowed to use your hands other than the one holding the straw. Everyone, I suppose, is a winner, though, as you are allowed to eat your M&Ms.

Graham & Hayes competing

At the end of the game our two semi-finalists - the two that had the best times, competed against each other to see who the champion M&M sucker was.  The time of the two fastest was only separated by 1/10th of a second.  In the championship round, Hayes obliterated his competition and won handily.

Conner & Russ

Then we played a game for both adults and kids, not to say that the adults couldn't have played the previous game.  We each got a toothpick and separated into two teams.  We lined up and the first person in each line was given a Lifesaver. Without using hands and with the toothpick in your mouth, you had to pass the lifesaver from person to person.  The first team to pass it all the way down the line wins!

Conner to Russ

Depending upon the height of the players, one person has to bend down and reposition in order to pass the lifesaver from person to person.

Russ to Laura Lee

There's lots of excitement as the lifesaver is passed from one person to another.  It is definitely a game in which your personal space is invaded.  Especially after a big Thanksgiving meal, it might be a good idea for everyone to gargle with Scope or at least eat a lifesaver before playing!

Benjamin to Brooks (Bita)

There were no eyes poked out in the game, which was good.  Here dad passes the lifesaver to Mom. Mom would "run the anchor leg," passing the lifesaver to Julee Rae.

Dad to Mom

A friend of Benjamin's dropped by after the meal and games and became the Designated Photographer.  His role was to take the family photo in the backyard. We were able to assemble the entire tribe for the picture.  Even Scout, the chocolate lab took part in the photo shoot.

The whole Family

God has been so good to us.  Our lives are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and we all have our fair share of struggles, trials, and discouragements, but we are thankful for the LORD, who will not abandon us and a family that won't either!

Thanksgiving 2015

Image Credit

A Psalm for Thanksgiving.

100 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
3 Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His loving-kindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

As I go to bed tonight at the close of a nice Thanksgiving, I am truly grateful to God.  He is so good.  Although we may not be rich by the world's standards, we do not lack.  Our bellies are full, we are in good health, and we are blessed with loving family and friends.  Even though chaos is swirling in other parts of the world, we have peace and tranquility at home. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  

The Thanksgiving Bonfire

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and had the whole crew over for a big meal. The food was amazing.  I mean every dish was perfect.  After our Thanksgiving feast, we all waddled out to the pasture.  You know, that uncomfortable, "I ate too much and should have passed on the dessert" walk.  We walked out there to light up the bonfire. Since Spring, every time limbs fall out of the trees in the yard, we pile them up on our burn pile in the pasture near the barn. Over the course of months, the limbs pack down under the weight and they dry out.

We have a ten foot high by fifteen foot wide pile of dry sticks waiting to go ablaze on a chilly night. All it took was a couple of matches and some strategically placed newspaper and we had a little fire going that lit up the darkened area a little bit.  It was then that Benjamin reminded me that we had a water hose running right underneath the pile that we quickly pulled out of the way before we melted it.  The burn pile serves as a sanctuary for doves, for hens to run into when being chased by roosters and neighbor kids, and some other critters hide there as well.

C'mon baby light my fire!

It was pretty chilly and as the flames grew higher, we huddled closer to the fire to feel the warmth of the fire that radiated outward.

Flames growing a little higher

The curious cows approached the fire, too, accompanied by a couple of my nephews.

Cowboys

As the flames leapt higher, the entire family enjoyed watching the fire, talking, and warming up right next to it.

Family Bonfire

The fire lit up the night sky.  A couple of years ago when we lit it up, the fire department showed up, sirens wailing.  A neighbor thought our barn was on fire and called 911.  I had to go and thank them for coming anyway.  The heat grew along with the height of the flames and pretty soon, we had backed up as far as we could go against the barn and it was still uncomfortably hot.

Back it up

When we couldn't bear the heat anymore, we moved to the other side of the bonfire where we could back up to a comfortable distance.  It was generating a lot of heat.

A Roaring Blaze

Tongues of flame were dancing into the night sky - easily 25 feet into the air. Fortunately there was no wind blowing as that might have caused alarm for our barn filled with hay.

Tongues of fire

For perspective, you can see just how big the fire was against the two story barn. You can also see the double strand poly wire electric fence that I had to move back away from the fire so it wouldn't melt.  It was about this time where we saw something scurry out of the pile, run across the pasture and into the garden.  All the kids gave chase.  It looked like it was the size of a rabbit.  They stomped around in the garden and out he came.  A big ugly rat running like crazy, scared to death, followed by a herd of stomping, giggling, screaming kids.  And really, you just know that the fun at a bonfire has only just begun when a rat shows up.

It reminded me of the boys chasing the pigs in the book, The Lord of the Flies.   They cut off the rat's head, put it on a stick and paraded it around.  No, they really didn't do that.  The poor old rat was so frightened by the mob of kids chasing him, he ran out of the garden and right back into the fire!  

Now that's a fire!

He quickly determined that that wasn't a good move and ran back toward the garden.  Big mistake, Mr. Rat, for the tribe was awaiting that.  A few kicks and stomps and the enormous rat's life came to a tragic end.  Not counting the length of the tail, this guy was almost a foot long.  A quick election was held by the tribe of kids and they voted to cremate the rat in the bonfire.  We watched as the rat baked in the inferno.  They pulled out his charred and blackened remains after a bit and stuck a stick in him to check on his level of 'doneness,' and he was 'well-done.'  No one ate him, though.  We were still way too full from the Thanksgiving feast. 

Mr. Rat's remains prior to cremation

The fire consumed the huge burn pile and we circled it to kick sticks into the center. It was so hot, you couldn't stand it for long before you had to back away and cool off.  As the fire dwindled, so did the crowd.  One by one we made our way back inside.

Dwindling bonfire

We recruited the neighbor kid to stand on the bannister and take a picture of the entire family.  The whole 'smoke-smelling, rat-stomping, casserole-engorged' crew smiled for the camera as Xander snapped off quite a few photographs before we found one where everyone was relatively photogenic.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

The next morning I walked out to the pasture and here is all that was left of the burn pile.  Virtually every stick (and rat) went up in smoke and was gone.

The fire is gone...

All that remained was ashes... and good memories of another Thanksgiving.