Country Cousin

Birds...

Hi Folks!

Christmas is almost upon us! The snow last week made driving a nightmare, but it left TiMESland looking like the landscape for a Christmas card. Triangle Park in Peshtigo is a feast for the eyes and for the soul, with lights glowing through their veil of snow. Other communities share their own visions of loveliness. Every decorated home and yard is a Christmas card for the neighbors. As a state and nation we may be going through economic hard times, but the indomitable American spirit continues to shine. God bless us, one and all!

That said, it was a joy driving to work on dry pavement Tuesday morning for the first time in a week. No more bent steering wheels, at least until the next storm.

The cold that set in Tuesday night surely must pass. Hold that thought. Think positive. After all, Winter doesn’t officially arrive until Monday, Dec. 21.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

Have heard many good things about the Village of Pound Christmas Parade and community celebration last weekend.

What a great idea, truly in line with the Spirit of the Season, to put on a festival at a time when no one else in the area does. And it’s not a fund raiser, either, just a wonderful party. Nearly everything is free. Thanks, Pound! Merry Christmas.

GLOBAL WARMING?

The folks who dreamed up the Global Warming theory may or may not have ulterior motives (as in get the terrifying “cap and trade” invitation to graft laws passed) but you have to hand it to them. When the climate refused to warm up as they predicted, they espoused the notion that the warming will be preceded by a period of unprecedented cold, all caused by that same theoretical hole in the ozone layer! How’s that for covering all bases?

Maybe Al Gore and all his pseudo-scientific friends at their global warming conferences in exotic locations (paid for with taxpayer dollars) should spend a bit of time studying history, analyzing growth rings in ancient trees, etc. They will find evidence of cycles of global warming and global cooling throughout the Earth’s history.

If they correspond that timeline with a look at the rise and fall of human civilizations they will find that advances in arts, knowledge and culture came during the warming cycles. The Dark Ages came during a cold spell for the Earth, when folks, especially in northern Europe, had to struggle so hard to stay alive that they forgot nearly everything else.

SNOWY ROADS

Heard many comments last week about the condition of Marinette County roads and experienced more than a few of them personally.

Granted, when the snow doesn’t quit falling it’s hard to get any stretches of road clear for more than a few minutes at a time. Nonetheless, several callers noted that crews in Oconto and Brown counties managed to get U.S. Hwy. 41 plowed down to bare pavement while the Marinette County segment continued to have icy, snowy sections.

One of the callers, who went to Green Bay on Friday, Dec. 11, two days after the big storm, said he noticed the difference both on the way there and again on the way home. He happens to be a former snow plow driver, and suggested the problem may be that Marinette County plows are trying to work too fast, which prevents putting the pavement-scraping center plow down far enough to do a good job. So perhaps it’s a tradeoff, between getting roads cleared quickly and getting them cleared well.

CHRISTMAS COMFORT

Marilyn Anderson of Peshtigo was kind enough to share this lovely Christmas poem, with the hope it will bring comfort at this time of year to those who may have lost one or more of the “someones” nearest and dearest to them:

It’s a letter, entitled, “Dear Family and Friends, I’m spending Christmas with jesus this year!”

“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, because I’m spending Christmas Eve with Jesus Christ this year.

“I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear, but the sounds of any music can’t compare to the Christmas choir up here.

“I have no words to tell you the joy their voices bring, it is beyond description to hear the angels sing!

“I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart, but it’s only for a little while that we will be apart.

“I’ll ask Him to light your spirit, as I tell Him of your love. so please, pray for one another as you lift your eyes above.

“I can’t tell you of the splendor, or the peace here in this place. ut can you just imagine Christmas - with our Savior face to face?

“Please let your heart be joyful. Let your spirit sing. I’m spending Christmas in Heaven, and I’m walking with the King!”

Marilyn said she has lost two sons, and often reads this poem during the Christmas holidays. She said it makes her cry each time, but she finds comfort in the words. She hopes it will bring comfort to others as well. Thanks for sharing, Marilyn!

GIFTING

Many of us face the problem of a gift list that’s too long for the money to support it. To stretch your resources, consider giving the gift of time. Children in particular can create gift certificates for yard and household chores above and beyond the ones that are regularly assigned.

Wives might promise half an hour of back rubs for Hubby, and vice versa. Those with aging parents could promise help with chores that need doing, but are often put off, for example painting the kitchen or working up the asparagus patch come Spring. Or two hours assembling a family photo album - far more fun than doing it alone!

The trick here is, once you’ve made the promise, keep it! Consider it a sacred trust.

A few suggestions for the difficult to please might be an annual sticker for admission to state or county parks, tickets to the movies, concerts, theater or sporting events, or gift certificates for a favorite restaurant.

Youngsters still given to “dress up” and make believe might be thrilled with their very own junk box. Get a sturdy , sizable box, probably a plastic bin is best. Visit the thrift store and buy things like hats with veils, high heeled shoes, fur coats, fancy gloves ... anything made of colorful, shiny, slightly exotic fabrics.

One of our favorite “toys” when we were kids was a black velvet full length circle skirt with a border decoration of dark sequins.

That skirt spent time as Zorro’s cape, a queen’s mantle, a knight’s robe, a bull fighter’s cape, a blanket for living room picnics, whatever our little hearts could dream up. Dolls were okay, but never, ever, did we have as much fun with a doll as we did with that skirt!

BIRD TREATS

Now that the bears have gone to sleep for the winter, it’s probably safe to put out treats for the birds. Put out the right treats and you’ll be rewarded with the flitting gems of blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, and more. Just please do remember, if you start feeding our feathered friends in the winter you need to keep it up. Bids burn so much energy so rapidly in winter that if there is no food where they generally find it they could die of starvation before they get to the next stop. A chickadee, for example, can gain 7 to 11 percent of its body weight on any given day, and lose that much again at night. And they don’t have that much body weight to start with.

Got an evergreen growing outdoors? Trim it for the birds. Strings of cranberries and popcorn are an old tradition, but have you ever considered baking cookies for the birds?

Any of these treats could fill double duty. Bake up a batch, package nicely, and give as Christmas gifts to bird loving friends or relatives. You will have done something nice for them and the birds.

BIRDSEED COOKIES

The kids should have fun with any of these!

2 cups flour

1 cup bird seed

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup suet (venison suet will do nicely here if you have it.

So will lard.)

2 eggs (shells and all)

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 plastic straw

Grind the suet in the food processor or meat grinder, and melt it. Mix it with everything else, using hands or electric beaters. Break up the egg shells a bit. Form the mixture into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or more. Roll out the dough, cut out with cookie cutters into whatever shape you want, and use the straw to poke a hole in a strategic location. (It’s okay to decorate the cookies with colored sugar sprinkles, but quite lightly.) Put the cut out cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Thread a bit of yarn through each hole and tie to make hangers for the cookies, and after they’re cool, hang on trees as you wish. In spring, the birds will use the yarn to trim their nests, so you don’t need to worry about it at all.

BIRDIE OATMEAL COOKIES

1 1/2 cups melted fat or suet

2 tablespoons. peanut butter

1 cups uncooked oatmeal

1/2 cup uncooked cornmeal

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup wild birdseed

See directions above.

UNCOOKED BIRD COOKIES

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons corn syrup

4 cups bird seed, any type (Cardinals and jays are partial to

sunflower seeds)

In large bowl mix all the ingredients together. (Folks who have done this say it’s sticky and hard to mix, but it eventually does work.) Roll mixture out on wax paper. Using a round cookie cutter cut out circles. Make a small hole in the middle of each cut out. Let dry 4-6 hours or over night turning often to dry both sides. Hang in trees and bushes using soft yarn or thread that birds can use in the spring to line their nests.

SAVING

Mom, a Depression raised child, was an expert at saving things, and at saving money. Nothing was to be wasted, ever! Each holiday she would carefully smooth out the used wrapping paper and rewind each ribbon, to be re-used as long as the smallest scrap of undamaged paper remained.

Old Christmas cards were saved from one year and used to make gift tags the next year. Boxes - any time, any size, shape or construction - must always be saved.

Once we decorated eggshells for the Christmas tree, and they did indeed make lovely ornaments. (That wasn’t exactly a savings thing. I think it was a craft to keep us busy and happy.)

As kids, we didn’t always appreciate her methods, partly because we had to be careful opening our gifts, partly because dishwashing chores included cottage containers, milk jugs, and every glass jar that came along. But looking back, Dad worked hard and earned a good living, but Mom stretched the dollars he earned and gave us a better life than we would have had otherwise. If we were doing without something, we never knew it. Thanks, Mom!

RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME

During busy times, especially after either sitting or walking for longer than usual periods without breaks, some of us are plagued with foot and leg muscle spasms or restless legs that simply won’ stay still.

Keep on hand a bottle of tonic water - sugarless or sugar free, your choice. It usually helps. So do aspirins. Word of warning though. If you’re on blood thinners of any sort, better ask your doctor first.

COOKIN’ TIME

Recently found some precious old cookie recipes, just in time for serious Christmas Cookie baking time.

COCOROONS

Remember these?The recipe dates back at least to 1939, when it was included in a Wisconsin Public SErvice cookbook, but probably much earlier. Recipe makes about six dozen.

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 egg whites

1 cup sugar

2 cups corn flakes or other flaked cereal

1 cup coconut

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add salt to egg whites and beat in sugar gradually. Add almond extract. Fold in cereal and coconut and mix thoroughly. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from baking sheets at once.

CHINESE CHEWS

Cross between cookies and candy. Almost too easy. No baking required. Recipe dates from at least 1969.

1 tablespoon shortening (not butter or margarine)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 (3 ounce can) chow mein French fried noodles

1 1/2 cups salted peanuts

Melt shortening. Add chocolate and butterscotch chips and over low heat let them melt, stirring several times. Slowly add chow mein noodles and peanuts and stir until everything is coated. Drop mixture from teaspoon onto waxed paper lined cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm. Makes about 3 dozen.

COOKIE KOLACHES

These cookies, dating from 1961, are very similar to what once was my favorite sweet roll from a Marinette bakery. Don’t remember which one, but do remember the flavor of the pastries that we got to enjoy on rare occasions.

1 cup butter, softened

1 package cream cheese (8 ounces) room temperature

2 cups softened all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

About 3/4 cup chopped nuts

Apricot, raspberry, strawberry jam, and/or can of cake or

pastry filling, maybe lemon

Powdered sugar (if desired)

No error here. There isn’t supposed to be sugar in the pastry dough. Cream butter and cream cheese. Mix in flour and salt until mixture forms a soft dough. Shape into a ball. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or until firm. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Working with half of the dough at a time, roll out on a floured surface to 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick. Cut out with a 2” round cookie cutter and put onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Make a dent in the center of each and put in a teaspoon or so of the filling you . Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar while still hot from the oven, if you like. Makes 4 to 5 dozen cookies or less, depending on thickness.

Thought for the Week: December 21, the official first day of Winter, is celebrated in many cultures as the “Festival of Light,” since it’s also the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Share your personal light. Give a smile to everyone you meet, especially those who seem to have none of their own. You no more lose by sharing a smile than a candle loses by lighting another candle. And often the effect is the same.

COUNTRY COUSIN

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