The Whip Poor Will Show

Front row seating for the Whip Poor Will Show!

Entertainment in the forest is "price less".  Priceless is a funny word.  You have Price Less stores, priceless moments, and price less entertainment.  Price less entertainment is no cost, free, given to you as a gift.  Take that gift and enjoy.  It. Costs. Nothing!!!

Our price less entertainment are the birds!  Country birds need nothing from us city folk to survive...they have the forest figured out to survive.  They can put on a great show!

Enter stage left....the Whip Poor Will.  It is a night bird that thrives on insects and is best found during  dusk and especially during the full moon.  It has a daunting sound that mimics it's name.  It is low flying and and during the silence of it's song, it will be heard again at stage right.   Whip Poor Will, Whip Poor Will. click click  Whip Poor Will.....

Thanks to modern day technology, we googled the song of the Whip poor will.
Click the link.
This is when the priceless moments and price less entertainment combine.  With droid in hand, my husband plays the song to get the birds attention.  In the far distance we can hear him.  Silence and he is nearer.  As the dueling "songsters" communicate the "real" Whip Poor Will lands right next to the porch!

Never seeing a Whip Poor Will, I begin to freak.  My freak is freaked. I pull my hoody over my head, sink my hands into my pockets because the dueling of the "real"and the"droid" is on!  The Whip Poor Will flies up to the porch and onto the eaves! It is deafening!

My mind  immediately remembers the bats that I experienced in my Colorado Camp days.  They would come into our bedroom at night and land on our hair.  That is when my freak was born.  Since then, the freak has had babies.  My freak is HUGE!! ( shuttering and vomiting in my mouth as I think about those bats.)

Price less entertainment.  The show is over!  There is silence, then I can hear the Whip Poor Will off in the distance.  Time to go to bed!   Wait.....do we have bats????

A Cabin... in the woods.... with a porch!

A cabin...in the woods..with a porch!

Why on earth would a couple entering the retirement phase of their lives build a cabin in the Hoosier National Forest?

For the last twenty five years, my husband worked in the "corporate world".  I, for the last 39 years, have been joining him at each new destination.  We have stopped in Wisconsin and Minnesota where he followed his childhood dream of becoming a large animal veterinarian.  Then we made a detour out of Veterinary Practice to a long stop in Ames, Iowa where he pursued a PHD in his second career as a Veterinary Pathologist. The end of this career will be soon...what to do?.....what to do?

During my college summers, I was lucky enough to have a job in the Rocky Mountains.  As a Home Economics major who loved adventure, what better job than to cook for 100 kids in a camp located on the Colorado River!  This was not your ordinary camp.  This camp was for the "rich and famous"  It was awesome....and I was one of their cooks!  (in the 21st century I would be called a Chef!!!)

After dinner, Cindy ( the other chef....love calling us that) and I would rest on the front porch of the massive log lodge and breathe it all in....the sky, the sunset on the mountains to the west, the rainbow to the east.  Sit'n and dream'n and plan'n our futures.  It was the.best.summers.ever!

I still do a lot of sit'n and dream'n on my back porch of my "city" home.  Dream'n that I had a front porch like the one from my youth!

So back to the question, why did we build a cabin in the retirement phase of our lives?  I would like to say that it is because of the election year.  We don't need to exit to Canada because  the state of our nation sucks.  We can just go 72 miles east into the forest!  But I can't say that! We did it as a compromise.  He wanted to go back to his dream about working the land...you know....being a farmer ( trees!) I wanted to sit on a porch dressed like a Hippy! I wanted to preserve food, make soap and sew quilts.  And another thought was to make lunches for the hunters in the fall of the year!....You know....like a food truck in the woods! I love to dream!

 We realized that in retirement, we would not be the couple who would travel extensively.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to be that couple who travels with the local priest to the far off reaches of the world. I still love adventure. We have our own adventure! What we have, that most folks in our age group don't have, is a teen age daughter, Hope, who just happens to have Down syndrome.  A teenage daughter who loves to stay home, who loves to be with JUST us, who is stubborn, predictable, unpredictable, sweet and mean all in the same minute! We are blessed! We are more than just a couple.  We have Hope.

 And..... we have a cabin.... in the woods... with a porch.

Adulting on a weeknight!

My husband and I don't regularly eat out at restaurants because, well, he sends me recipes via email and I make them.  But this week, we had dinner with our accountant at a place called, The Kennel Club. (There is a big history about this club and it does have to do with Dogs.  Beautiful club and setting in the country.)

First of all, having an accountant make me feel very adult.  You can hide behind your accountant just like children can use their parents as an excuse to say NO.  I use him when unsolicited charities come looking for donations....." Oh, let me check with my accountant!" or when someone that resembles my son-in-law asks to go 50/50  in a Section 8 housing rental investment." Hum, let me get back with you, I need to consult my accountant!"

Second of all, eating at The Kennel Club is very adult!  When we moved to our town 20 years ago, I met some well established women through a women's group that talked fondly of this place. At that time, there was a waiting list to join The Kennel Club.  Being an outsider, there was no way we would even try to join!  ( An outsider here is not having a letter jacket from any of the local High Schools)  But now, in the new century, the long list for joining is gone and I'm at the that point in my thinking that I don't even want to join the Y!  There is a perk though, knowing a member at The Kennel Club gets you in.

As adults who had to drive separately from opposite ends of town, my husband arrived before me and entered the door closest to his car.  In this room was racks and racks of women's clothing  and a dozen women cheerfully buying them.  He was startled, quite shy and probably wanted to back out of the door. Toni, one of the reps for this clothing line recognized him....from the Y.  ( You know, the one I don't want to join.)  She introduced herself and told him that this was a CAbi sale and that he should send me in when I arrived.

As the female adult, I arrived early and sat in my car responding to my Facebook comment about an adorable puppy.  I did not see him go in the WRONG door. I knew where the front door was since I have attended 2 Christmas parties with my women's group.

My first stop, the Ladies Restroom.   The whole thought of Ladies Room made me think, has this dinner club changed it's signage for restrooms? Then I thought...what did their signs say before this whole RESTROOM law or not a law business started this year.  Bitch and Stud?  Lady and Tramp?   I didn't really pay attention once I got in the building because....I saw the Room full of Women's Clothes located next to the said restroom!

I found Tom, in the bar area, the accountant hadn't arrived.  He told me the story of coming in the wrong door and when he said CAbi.....I started hyperventilating.  He doesn't really pay attention to my wardrobe or my closet but if he did....he would have understood why I needed CPR. I love these clothes!!!! I left my purse with him and headed to that room.  OMG...it was like CABi threw up in there and I wanted to cleanup every inch! Then I snapped back and became an adult thinker. I was meeting with our accountant....I needed to restrain myself....I needed to say...."I must check with my accountant!"  The colors were vibrant, the racks were shiny and the clothes were organized by size, styles, color, and it was 50% off!! Three blouses picked in 2 minutes, that time includes try-on!  I had to retrieve my purse from the bar!  The accountant and my husband were at our dining table.  I stared glassy eyed at them and then grabbed my purse stating with confidence " I am so glad that you know Toni from the Y,  I NEED to buy something from her!"

Adulting (v): to do grown up things and hold responsibilities. Funny term.  We are like super humans in decision making and sometimes we probably should consult our accountant!  I will be adulting again this weekend, I see an antique shop in my future!

Beets and Fennel on Father's Day

I heart Beets and Fennel

Happy Father's Day.

You know that the father of your children really, really loves you when he sends a daily email with recipes that HE wants you to make!  Every day I can count on an email from him.  He and I also communicate through email subject lines instead of texting.  WHY?  because!

Many of the the recipes he sends are desserts. We have desserts nightly!  Desserts is stressed spelled backwards and what a better way to De-stress than with dessert.  So what does this have to do with Beets and fennel???? Several months ago he sent me a salad recipe. It has become a favorite in our home.

The email recipe was pretty darn fancy, not only did it call for fancy stuff like fennel, it also had shallots, grapefruit and oranges.  The first time I made it, I followed the recipe to the "T" and it cost me  $20.  That is a lot of money for a salad. I have tweeked it by changing and decreasing some of the ingredients. Now  I have made it Original! We all love it.

Beets and Fennel are good for you! Fennel is excellent for your digestion and beets will help your prostate if you are lucky enough to have one!  Happy Fathers Day!

Roasted Beet, Fennel, and Citrus Salad

• 3 large beets  roasted wrapped in foil like a baked potato in oven 400 degrees for 45 min or until done  make sure you put it on a cookie sheet....can make a big red mess! When cooled peel, slice thin, cut in half .
• 1 medium orange cut in segments, no pith, no peel
• 1 ruby red grapefruit cut in segments, no pith, no peel
•  1 med. bulb fennel, trimmed, cored and thinly slice 

Dressing 
Whisk together and pour on Salad

• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil  ( can use oil of choice..olive...canola etc)
• 3 tbp white balsamic vinegar ( can use 3 Tbp white wine vinegar with 2 tsp sweetner of choice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1 Tbsp dried onion flakes 
• juice from the orange and grapefruit that may be left over!

Can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight container, if it lasts that long.

Serve over Greens or not!

I am not a professional so I don't have Nutritional information to share, but by the looks of it, I would say it is healthy and gluten free!

Happy Healthy Fathers Day to you, Tom!

 

You.Cannot.Make.This.Stuff.Up.

I did it because you said I should! Blogging that is!  My name, Cinda Sue Originals, is what I used 30 years ago when I had a small cottage industry out of my trailer!!! I machine appliqued sweatshirts and sold and shipped them throughout the midwest.  My best customers where the Scandinavian Stores in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.  I was very brave and approached the local university bookstore to custom design some shirts and to my surprise...she placed an order and my product ended up in the University Alumnae Catalog.   Cinda Sue Originals was in business!!

Fast forward to now.... I am a senior citizen raising a teenager daughter with Down syndrome. I am married to a brainy fellow who is retiring at the end of the year. We built a small cabin in the Hoosier National Forest.  My 3 grown daughters are married or not! I have 4 grandchildren that I love to play with and make cookies.  The "Original" in the Cinda Sue has now become....YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP....IT IS ORIGINAL!

Just as my applique business was all about embellishment, as you follow me and the adventures of this family, I will be sprinkling in true stories with embellishment, recipes that I have changed to taste better in my opinion, maybe some crafts ( but I doubt it) and anything else that strikes me as something YOU ALL want to see.  Keeping it ORIGINAL!

1980 Something The Trailer where it began!

                                 

2016 The retirement cabin where it will end!