A GREAT CHICAGO CATTLE BARRON

       Sometimes I like to exaggerate and embellish the odd post to the point of fiction. I usually warn you. . This post has been torqued.

      The owners of  large cattle and lumber operations were sometimes referred to as Barons.

       My son-in-law visited recently. He was born and raised in Chicago and has spent time in another state. The area he lived in was a mix of urban and rural. But I have the idea in my head that he lived in the city jungle with wall to wall buildings. You would only see sidewalks.

      We went to the country to spend time at the Ellis Bird farm. The bird farm is in the country with rolling hills , green grass and crops. There are views where you cannot see farmsteads or buildings. I decided to line him up by a fence where the view is just country with no buildings. Then I changed the direction a bit to include a herd of cattle.

      So there was my cattle baron. Now I didn't have a cowboy hat to put on his head. He looks more like a European farmer. 

      So even if you're old it's still fun to pretend. 

CUBAN LUNCH

     As a child I loved chocolate bars (candy bars). I know , I'll get to Cuban lunch later. In our house we seemed to have a good supply of chocolate bars. Maybe it's because my Dad liked chocolate. He bought chocolate bars and shared them with us. He bought the bars that were made in squares so that they could be easily divided and shared.

     As a teenager and young adult I bought lots of chocolate bars.

     When I went to the isolated northern settlement I took in my supply of chocolate bars. I took six cartons. I think each carton had 12 bars. I also took a variety of bars. I had a wide selection of bars that I liked.

     Gradually my consumption of chocolate bars lessened until today when I can't remember the last time I had a chocolate bar.

     Now the other day I heard about a  woman in Alberta who's mother is ill  and she wanted to give her mother her very favorite candy bar...a Cuban lunch. She found that the Cuban lunch was not produced anymore. The Cuban lunch was a mix of rich dark chocolate and peanuts and were they good! That was the first time I knew that they didn't make Cuban lunch chocolate bars any more. The bars had not been made since the late 1980's. They had been made by a company in Winnipeg , Manitoba.





    Now the Alberta woman decided that she would try and make a Cuban lunch chocolate bar. She did much research. She could not track down the original recipe. Gradually she got something that is very close to the original.

    She has been producing a few of these bars in her kitchen. Now a company has been found that would produce these chocolate bars.

    I can hardly wait to find one and enjoy a Cuban lunch again.

    I think Cuban lunch chocolate bars were only sold in Canada. Has anyone heard of them except for Canadians.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

   Well that's not a terribly original or creative title but I promise I will be on the topic.

    Most followers know that I whine about downsizing. The micro manager and I have many conversations on downsizing but we don't seem to accomplish much.

    We try and bribe our kids to relieve us of some material but it doesn't work well.

    We have not put Christmas decorations up for the last three years so the time has come to part with Christmas decorations. We knew that our daughter was interested in some Christmas items. We haven't checked with our son yet. So our daughter was here this week and we asked here to go through things and pick what she wanted.

    She picked a few special items that had meaning to her. That was it. So we spent a couple hours going through Christmas ornaments in July.

    We have three tightly packed boxes of Christmas ornaments...not a lot compared to some people. What's left hits the garage sale.

    The micro manager carefully bought items over the years from a variety of sources. Some items are unique.

    So the Micro Manger told of one decoration that I had forgotten about.

    As a young couple we went into a small isolated northern community.  We didn't have Christmas ornaments as we'd only been married one year and had gone to our parents for Christmas. This was our first Christmas on our own and surprise , surprise! we didn't have Christmas decorations. We were not able to buy decorations where we were living. We couldn't buy a tree and there were no trees there. So the Micro manager got creative and made some ornaments. She heated up some wax and poured it over figures and that was our Christmas decorations.

    The Micro manager made these in the north.

LAST SPRING BIRD WATCH SESSION

      Many of you know that I lead a weekly bird watching session. I take people for two hours on Saturday mornings. We meet at various locations throughout the season and see how many bird species we can find.

    I have from 8-16 people attend and a total of 25 people who have participated. This spring we went out 9 times and 7 were at in town locations. We saw 70 species in that amount of time.

    We know our birds as several people are super knowledgeable on birds and they don't mind sharing information. They are good teachers. However , we are a fun group and lots of good visiting takes place. There are standard jokes like seeing the " penguin." 

    We don't bird in the summer so our last session was June 20. We went to a place known as Spring Brook Natural Area. It's 160 acres of natural habitat. There are wetlands, grass areas, riparian, brush and old growth forest so a wide variety of habitat.

    I didn't take photos on Saturday but I have photos from last year.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

     To all my American followers, have a happy Fourth of July.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

    I had better get on here and wish everybody Happy Canada Day before the day is over. 

     This year we are 151 years old.

     We are fortunate that we live in peace. We have more than enough to survive. We are a country of many cultures that are able to live in harmony.

     I didn't go out to any of the celebrations but know that many people enjoyed themselves today.

    
      Isn't he  a great image for a typical happy Canuck!

YOU CAN CERTIFY ME C-R-A-Z-Y

      When I retired in 1997 I very specifically took off my watch and put it in the top drawer if my tall boy. I had been controlled by clocks and bells from 1957  to 1997.  I'd had enough of going by the clock. Each period I had to watch the clock to make sure that I would complete my lesson.

     I also wore the watch when I was out of school for weekends and summer vacations.

     I was like most people and got used to wearing a watch.

     I was given a gold watch for retirement. I don't know where it is!

    Since 1997 I've worn the watch on some trips. 

    Now this particular watch is a 1986 model. It's been through a few batteries. It's also had the time set many times for daylight saving time. Like many adults I could not set the time. When my son was still at home he set the watch. After he left some kid at school would set my watch.

    After retirement , for many years I would set day light saving time and I had to learn to do it myself.

    Now the other day the micro manager looked in the drawer and discovered the watch wasn't running and the battery was dead! Now for the Micro Manager , this watch could not be left in peace. Hurry out and find a battery. Replace that battery Red. 

    So I did replace the battery!!! Now I was nuts to try it because I can't really see such small pieces like screws and my fingers are too stiff and awkward to hold tiny screws. Somehow I got the battery changed.

   It was a crazy thing to try.

    Enlarge the photos to see what I was dealing with. Can you see any screws in the second shot? There are screws. I took them out and got them back in.