Reznjun

kicking back waiting on the kansas city chiefs game. i know they will give me something to cheer about. i am a K U football fan but  their season is over. they will be good down the road. the chiefs are good today. we will have our  pre game meal of chicken wings.

i am still working on my playlists. i have most of the songs off my cds down loaded to my computer. i have more to go. it will take me awhile to get all in. then i have to recreate my play lists. sad to say but i did lose a few songs.

i had to move a book shelf into my bedroom. i didnt have a place to put my cds. i have piles of them. i know cds are a relic of the past. they do have most of the music i want to listen to. i am not into todays music. that probably ages me but so what. i am older. i want my music. i got no musical talent at all but that hasnt stopped me from loving music my whole life.

in my prowling around days i used to stop and listen to street musicians. i thought it was good mojo to drop some change into their hat. once while we were traveling we stopped to hear one horn player. he said he had been all around the world playing music. he said he could play anything. he said name a tune and he could play it. i said how bout ‘night train’ by jimmy forrest. that tune came out in the same year i was born in.

the guy looked stumped. he asked me how it went. i said i got no musical skills to hum a few bars. anyway he didnt know that tune. he played something else. i dropped some coins into his hat anyway. maybe his next trip around the world he can catch that tune.

speaking of traveling. i havent done much traveling at all this year. i think a day trip or two. that is about it. i dont know when i will be able to take a long road trip. most likely i will have to wait on that.

lately we had a few people stop by for various reasons. each one wore a face mask. i was thankful that they were considerate enough to do that for us. they understand we have been staying home. they also know we are older and got some health problems.

the weather lady said we might have had our last warm day. i sat up when i heard that. i thought damn. i had the past week to toss wood into the basement. my mother used to say it was no good to say pama. i said pama for a week. now i will have to toss wood in when its cooler weather. that will make me work faster to get it done. but i dont feel the cold all that much when i am busy.

gotta donate my red blood cells tomorrow.

we had a good get together yesterday. we had our big eat. was it for thanksgiving or was it a family get together. does it really matter. we get together often. and not just on specific holidays.

we had the smoked turkey and ham we bought. they cost more than from the grocery store but were worth it. the taste is so much better. besides having them we also had kakasuwabo, nenwezhek, wild rice, corn soup and dried squash. i like those indian foods. thats why i raise them. well i get my wild rice from up north. the rest i raise or pick. we also had cranberries and pie.

the grand kids played all day. i sat in the living room to watch the K U basketball game. it was no fun to watch. our jayhawks got beat. i always thought that gonzaga was an over rated team that didnt play anyone. not this year. we will find out if this game was a fluke next week when they play baylor.

K U plays again today at 1. i will watch that game too. its very unlikely we will lose two games in a row. the betting line has us up by 19 and half points. so that means i will have something to cheer about today.

i had some left over ham this morning for breakfast. the ham was still good. we will have ham and beans some other time. then probably burritos with the left over beans.

sounds like i enjoy eating. well i do. i have said i have gone hungry many times in my life. i appreciate food now. i got on the scale this morning. my weight was down a pound from two days ago. so i didnt over eat. my weight didnt go up. i am glad about that. i havent been walking lately. time  to fire up the tread mill.

today is black friday. i wasnt lined up at any stores. i did get on amazon for a while. i got tired at looking at things that didnt seem to be on sale. i clicked off after a few pages. maybe i will get back on later.

monday i am heading to topeekie. i signed up to donate blood. i have been getting calls and emails for the past few months. they after my blood big time. i figure if i donate they will leave me alone for a few months. i usually donate my red blood cells or whatever it is when they hook me up to the machine. i do this because back in my wino days i used to sell my plasma for my next drink. now i do it for the right reason i hope. that is to help some one that needs it.

one of the home boys stopped by the other day. he had some deer meat if we wanted. we turned it down because we didnt have room in the freezer. we put away food all year long. we freeze, dry or can food. we are not self sufficient but we can eat something we grew or picked all year.

gotta get ready for the k u game.

back in the hippie days they would put on free eats. i guess for hungry hippies. they would call it ‘the big eat’.  i call any feast like thanks giving that. tomorrow we will have our big eat. its not so much a day of thanks giving. to indians thanks giving was a season. we are always grateful for what we have. not just a day or a season.

i have gone hungry many times in my life especially in my bumming around days. i was always skinny. some may not believe that today. i  appreciate anything that i eat. i hear kids and big people today that say i dont want that. we had to eat what was in front of us or we didnt eat. there wasnt a choice.

my daughter wont be home but we will be with our sons and grand kids. we will serve mostly indian foods. dried corn soup with buffalo, nenwezhek, dried squash and wild rice besides our turkey and ham. i would say that cranberries are an indian food too.

during this pandemic our government refused to help the masses. they gave most of the money to the rich. there wasnt much left to help the poor and middle class. they were suffering from the effects of the pandemic the government wouldnt acknowledge. millions lost jobs. some are about to lose their home. our government didnt seem to care. some did but in our system they were out voted by the ones in power.

people that do care have been having food give aways. the lines are backed up, sometimes for miles for these events. the president bragged the dow jones hit 30,000 for the first time ever. i wonder what the people in line for food or are about to be evicted from their homes think of this prosperity.

topeekie used to put on a free thanksgiving dinner for the community. i think that has been cancelled due to the covid. i heard now they are giving away free frozen dinners. that is good for the people that need it. communities still try to help their own.

i hope that people have enough to eat every day. not just on this one day. it will take a while for the economy to recover from the losses it suffered. i think of the homeless that live under the overpasses in many cities through out this country. it dont seem right in this greatest country in the world. none should be hungry.

i have been getting calls and emails from blood banks. they want my O positive blood. donors arent stepping up because of the covid. i usually donate to the blood drives on the rez. that aint happening during this time. i called the topeka blood bank to schedule an appointment. they got me and my son william coming in on monday. i will do the double cell thing where they hook me up to a machine. gotta give something back eh.

i hope i dont eat too much tomorrow. the day of glut in this country seems obscene in a world where many go hungry.

it was a nice fall afternoon yesterday. andrew wanted to play catch with the football. the girls decided the leaves misho didnt rake up would be fun to toss in the air. they always have fun playing outside when they are here. gotta enjoy the outside weather before winter rolls in.

i still have to toss wood into the basement. now i have two big piles of it after i called about a small load. i hope i wont be viewed as one of those mean ones who will raise hell if they dont get something. thats who get everything around here. but i aint like that. i never complain. when i get something i appreciate it. i lived here when we had nothing. i do think that everyone should be treated equally though.

i want to have at least a months supply of wood in the basement. when an extended cold snap comes i dont want to go outside to get wood. or if it snows or ices up.  i will never forget when i needed more wood in the basement after an ice storm. the wood was covered with a layer of ice. it was cold while throwing it in. then it had to thaw and dry  out before i could use it.

i stack the wood along the basment walls. it is with in reach when i want to stoke up the fire. wood neatly stacked outside may look rustic but i prefer to have it where i can use it.   moving that wood and stacking it will be a chore, but keeping busy is what keeps me going.

i watched the kansas city chiefs football game last night. they didnt play last week so i was jonesing. it was a close game but i had confidence in our quarterback when the game was on the line. it was too close for comfort but i was happy with the win. i wore my new chiefs jersey for good luck.

i am looking forward to thanksgiving dinner this week. actually it isnt at dinner time cuz we will eat around noon or one o’clock. we will eat at my sons house. our oven went out so we have to cook somewhere else.  his house is roomier than ours. we ate there last year too.

while we are eating we will be able to watch K U ‘s first basketball game. it will be against gonzaga, who is ranked number one. our team will knock off that over rated program. this year will be the first time in years that i havent gone to our opener in allen field house. i wont be able to buy a new jersey either. i dont have a favorite player yet.

if i am looking forward to basketball that must mean i gave up on K U football. i am a fan but i kinda did. i think they will be good in a few years. gotta give miles a chance to turn this team around.

will see what this week brings.

our deer jerky is done. we ended up with half a gallon.  i used a food dehydrator i bought at a garage sale. i bought it because it had different settings including one for jerky. good thing it worked. i have bought duds before.  i couldnt pass on this one at the price i saw.  i think its sacrilegious to sell broke stuff at garage sales.

i fixed a batch of marinating sauce. i used soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, worcestershire sauce, cajun seasoning and a coupla splashes of my habanero sauce. i cant give out my recipe because i didnt measure anything. i just tossed in what looked right to me. 

i put the deer meat in a freezer bag with my secret sauce. it marinated for a day or so. then i put it in my cheap but effective food dehydrator. it took about 5 hours and had the texture of jerky. i let it set overnight.

i tried it this morning. that was the real test. it tasted good to me. and i didnt have to pay mucho dinero for a small sack of it. it wasnt hot even though i put some habanero in it. next time i will put more habanero sauce in it. 

now i wanna defrost some deer and make more jerky. or maybe try some of that buffalo roast. we usually save it for corn soup. we have to make room in our freezer. we will empty it out over the winter.

the meat processing place called. our smoked turkey and ham was ready to be picked up. we bought a smoked turkey before and really like the taste.  they cost more but are worth it. the home raised hams from meat places taste much better than the spiral cut hams.  i dont care for spiral hams at all.

we had already gone to town the day before but we went after the turkey and ham  any way. we dropped them off at our sons house because our freezer is full. we didnt have room for them. we will have them this coming week for thanksgiving dinner.

hope my militant friends dont go off thinking i celebrate the day. no need to sing the aim song. or use terms like ‘decolonize’. we do it to have a family get together. the same with other holidays. we like to get together and have indian food like nenwezhek, dried corn soup, wild rice and dried squash. that plus the turkey and ham.

i always used to want to have someone dress up as pilgrims and serve us our thanksgiving meal. that never happened. it probably wont ever happen either. just my twisted sense of humor.

i am looking forward to the big meal.  at my weight i dont need it. but i have gone hungry enough times in my life that i can really appreciate a good meal when i have one.

had to go to town this morning. we refilled our water bottles. i know some say it is the same as tap water. well they should drink my tap water. i can smell the chemicals in it sometimes. after a shower my skin itches because the water dries my skin out. i have to put lotion on as soon as i get out of the shower.

i can also taste the tap water when i drink my coffee. or indian tea. thats why i go fill up our water jugs for drinking water. i want to enjoy the taste of my fresh ground coffee and my indian tea. i had to wear a mask at the water place. i got no problem with that. i actually prefer that. i wont go to a place where no one wears a mask.

we seen a coupla garage sales. even if it is late in the season, still some one has garage sales. i bought some pastel chalks for a good price. if i dont use them for art work, i know my grand kids will have fun with them. i also found some crayons. my grand daughters like to color. i have their pictures hanging on my walls.

while in town i drove around. i remember my doctor saying my car was the safest place in town. driving around is how i found the garage sales. i noticed that people are already putting up christmas decorations. i havent even had my turkey yet.

i did buy a santa hat at one garage sale. i put it on a carved, wooden bear i have in my living room. i bought that at a flea market. we put a new years hat on it on new years eve. we also put a mask on it during halloween. now it is being santa. my grand kids look to see how the bear is fixed up.

i had to take my rav4 to the dealers. the check engine light came on. turns out the gas cap wasnt sealing right. they replaced the seal and it works fine now. they charged me $94 for that little job. the warranty didnt cover that. oh well now i know there is nothing wrong with my car. on the rez, kids drive newer cars than old people do. but old folks keep their cars longer.

dont know if this is true or not but i heard mayetti was getting a dollar general. we cant keep stores in business but one of these stores is coming to town. thats the way it is for small towns. you cant buy healthy food but can always get pop and junk food. kinda like our convenience store. once we had a subway there. but we wanted grease not healthy food.

thats kinda funny. i dont want to say whether or not if something is true or not. i dont wanna tell a lie. but in todays world it is acceptable for people to lie, especially our politicians. if some scandal comes up involving famous people, all they gotta do is just deny it ever happened. people now are willing to accept that. is that what we have become? it used to be that a mans word was everything.

will see what happens next.

we cut the deer meat off the bones of the hind and front quarters we were given. the back strap is already stored away. we cut the big pieces and bagged them up as roasts or meat to fry. we diced up the small pieces and made stew meat. we will put that in stew or chili.

we cut thinner pieces to make deer jerky. i have that marinating in a home made sauce. i put a little habanero sauce in it to give it some zing. we have made jerky in the oven. i may do that again or use a food dehydrator. i bought a coupla them at garage sales. i  used one to dry red anaheim peppers. another time i dried cherry tomatoes. i am sure the jerky will turn out okay.

it didnt take long to cut the meat off the bone and bag up. we have done that enough times. it hung on the porch for a few days to cure. it didnt have that gamey smell when we were cutting it. nor will it have that gamey taste when we are eating it. thats why we cure it out first.

mary used her food saver vacuum bags to store all the meat. we put them into the freezer.  now we have squirrel. buffalo, turtle, fresh chicken and deer meat. we will get out what we need for what ever dish we are cooking.

i saved a few pieces of sinew. not tryna be all tradish but i want to try using some. mary might also. i wish i would have cut the sinew off the back strap. there were long pieces on it. i was also given the legs of the deer. i will cut off the toes and dew claws. i use them in crafts.

i ordered another knife sharpener rod. the one we had is probably cooked. its time for a new one. gotta have sharp knives in the kitchen. nothing as aggravating as picking up a knife that wont cut.

next i will have to scrape the hair off the deer hide i have. first i gotta scrape the meat side clean. i have scraped enough hides that it wont take long. i will use the rawhide to make miniature hand drums. that will become inventory for a stand i will have when ever pow wows start again. gotta have smalls for the stand. not many carry enough shonya to make a big purchase like a roach.

since our chickens arent laying we have been buying eggs from the feed store. the old guy that works there sells them. they come from his chickens. we have to have fresh eggs. our chickens better start laying soon. i feed and water them everyday. they gotta take care of my breakfast needs.

this indian gotta go to  town. the check engine light came on. i am hoping it is just something simple. the car is under warranty. it should be covered.  i dont like going to town nowadays. but i gots to go. i need my car.

we were given some deer meat. it is considerate that some hunters try to hook up older people with fresh meat. ol’ misho dont get out to hunt any more. we were given two hind quarters, one front quarter and the back strap.  i gave the young hunter a container of sema i grew. i told him i really appreciated being thought of.

i was asked previously if i wanted some.  some guy told us he would bring some so i replied no. but that didnt materialize. this time i took it. a friend of mine that is gone now used to bring me deer meat every winter. when he was alive i always ate deer meat.

i hung the meat up on my screened in porch. i want it to cure a few days before i cut it off the bone. i will dice up some for stew meat to go into chili.  we will barbeque some. i will make deer jerky with some of it. our freezer is full from our stocking up for the year. we will have some room for the deer meat.

i was also given the deer hide. previously i told these hunters i needed a hide. most hides get tossed. i put this hide in my rain barrel. it will soak it a day or two before i scrape it. i will use the raw hide to make miniature hand drums. these little drums are about 3 inches wide. the kind one would probably hang from the rear view mirror in the car. or just hang on the wall. i put one on our christmas tree.

we cut up part of the back strap and made corn soup with it. we already had some dried indian corn soaking. we were gonna use buffalo roast for the soup but changed our minds when we got the deer. we gonna have the buffalo roast today. my grandson andrew really likes our corn soup.  he takes a lot of pride in knowing he helps us grow our corn. he has helped his misho since he was a little guy.

when i was younger there werent many deer around here. if you seen one, you would still talk about it a few weeks later. now they are so common its rarely mentioned. back then a hunter shot a deer. he tracked it all day until he found it. you didnt waste that life. meat was precious in them days. we didnt get per cap.

i got an ad from the heirloom seed company. i save seeds from things i grow. or i buy them from this company. i prefer to grow heirloom veggies. the ad i got was for their next years’ seed catalog. all i had to do was give them my email address. so i did. now i wait a few months and i will have a new seed catalog.

my chickens have settled down. they get all agitated when we do some thing like cleaning chickens. or if raccoons get in the chicken house. now they are calm. they go into the yard to eat. the hybrids we cleaned wouldnt let them eat.

i usually wonder what the next week will bring. this week i know i will be busy again.

we cleaned chickens yesterday. i let out the rhode island reds and barred rocks. the hybrid chickens wouldnt let them eat, so it was time to clean the hybrids. they werent laying eggs anyway. they are a breed that was suppose to give lotsa eggs. they didnt roost either they stayed on the ground.

it took less than two hours to clean six chickens. i have two left that i can butcher later this winter. i made a fire outside to heat the water. i hung the hens up on the clothes line pole. i cut their heads off with a sharp knife.  we plucked the feathers after they bled out. we then butchered them.

we bagged up breasts, legs and thighs and wings. we had a bag for backs and necks. we will use those to make chicken broth that we will can for soup. we put the bags in the freezer for meals this winter.

as an elder i get wood from the tribe. and i appreciate that. the bottom pile of wood in this picture is what they brought me this year. i am not one to complain. i even pointed that out when i called a tribal official about this. i said i only got about half a pick up load of wood.

for the past few years its been like that for me. i get half a load of wood when i seen big piles in some yards. or i get all green wood with no dry to keep it going. or logs that are too long for my stove. or small chunks of wood. some times i get wood that burns quick and leaves no coals. i said i aint asking for any more than others i just wanna be treated the same as every one else.

i hung up i thought that was it. bout a week later one of our home boys brought me a nice load of dry elm and oak. it was about 4 or 5 times bigger than the first pile. i told him i appreciate a good load of wood. i said the first pile would only last a coupla weeks then i would have to call for more. i said this pile would last at least a month. i was happy.

then this morning i heard a truck outside. i looked and seen they were had a load of hack berry.  they did drop it off though. last year someone was bringing a load and seen i had some laying on the ground. this old guy didnt toss it into the basement yet. they drove off with it. i had to call again a week or so later to order more wood.

now i have the two piles of wood in the top of the picture. it will last me most of this remaining calendar year. i only burn about 6 or 7 loads of wood a year. i heard some got like 16 loads of wood last year. i couldnt burn that much if i tried. i wasnt asking for more than others. i dont want to worry about staying warm when it is cold. i would do it myself but i am old, got arthritis and am diabetic. i help others when i can. i dont like asking for help but i wont beg for it either.

have a good day

today is veterans day. i had to think of my brother larry, as i do often. he served in viet nam and was awarded the purple heart. he wrote a book about his experiences titled ‘potawatomi tracks’.  now the book is selling for $961 on amazon. or $801.77 used. thats how it goes. he had trouble selling it for 20 bucks. the rip offs glomming on are profiting more from his experience than he did. honor our vets eh.

larrys book made me aware that i havent been writing mine. i  blog every other day to practice writing. i better force myself to  get back to my book. i am not getting any younger. i want to leave the story i have to tell behind. i gotta have my book on the shelf next to gary and larrys books. we all have different styles of writing.

when i traveled thru the southwest i enjoyed  the food there. now i have to have green chiles on lotsa cooking. i also developed a taste for mutton. either cooked with fry bread and a roasted pepper on the side or as mutton stew. the only place around here i can get mutton is at the haskell pow wows. i have been looking for a place where i can buy mutton. i seen one place that sells lamb but it costs more.

i have gone to a coupla flea market places. wearing a face mask of course. i have so many of them. when i check out, they ask me if i would like to round it up to the nearest dollar. they give this money to a charity. i thought if i keep it i could put it to good use too. but i always give to good causes. thats good mojo.

it has been cool enough that i made a fire in the wood stove. it is nice to wake up to a house with a warm floor. i replaced the stove pipes before i started the fire.  i went to a home improvement store. the stove pipes were priced higher than ones advertised at the feed store. i saved 5 bucks by driving half a mile to the feed store. i save where ever i can so i can spend that money on something else.

now that i have a fire going i make more trips up and down the basement stairs. i have done a few sets on the weight machine while down there. i might get in more reps while keeping the fire going. older people also need weight training. it helps with balance and strength. i do it  to burn calories. walking hasnt made me lose any weight. i will hit the treadmill anyway.

temps will be in the mid 50s today. our plan is to clean some of the hybrid chickens. at least 4. they arent laying many eggs. they wont let the rhode island reds and barred rocks eat. these will  be my main egg layers for the next few years. so the hybrids gotta become soup. it dont take us long to clean chickens. i have done that plenty of times.

gotta get a fire going outside to heat the water to dip the hens in. then the plucking starts.