Thread: Merry Christmas to YOU ALL!!!

& a Merry Christmas to you too !

Originally Posted by Mike the knife

& a Merry Christmas to you too !

Thanks Mike
For a while there I wondered whether the Aussies celebrated Christmas
or maybe I got the wrong day

Have a good one Mike. To you and yours.

Hi Spiritwolf, no you didn't have the wrong day, just a very different day I would imagine temperature wise in Ontario compared to just about anywhere in Australia.
About 27 deg C in Sydney and a clear sky, and very little snow about the place!
What sort of a day did you have in your part of the world?
Hope it was a good day, and that 2017 is kind to you.

Merry Christmas,
Alan...

Merry Crispness from the city of Prince George BC. That's at 54N, in the center of British Columbia.
This morning was -22C with a few snow flakes. Roasting a chicken for tonight.

I had 4 wonderful Christmasses in Melbourne. Pretty weird to see homes with fake snow sprayed on their windows.
When? Full moon winter night climb Mt. Bogong, the night the Americans landed on the moon.
Christmas on the beach isn't too hard to get used to.

Originally Posted by Uncle Al

Hi Spiritwolf, no you didn't have the wrong day, just a very different day I would imagine temperature wise in Ontario compared to just about anywhere in Australia.
About 27 deg C in Sydney and a clear sky, and very little snow about the place!
What sort of a day did you have in your part of the world?
Hope it was a good day, and that 2017 is kind to you.

Merry Christmas,
Alan...

Well of course it's 'different" but not like another planet different.
I just assumed the sentiment was the same. Even people in the tropics celebrate Christmas. They decorate palm trees while we decorate conifers.
Here are pictures of around here

Front Lawn
image.jpg

Back Lawn
image.jpg
Designer BOOTS of course !!!
image.jpg

Basement tree & woodstove

image.jpg

What kind of Christmas did I have? A quiet one. A relaxing one.
The dogs opened their stockings and got their gifts from Santa cause they were GOOD dogs.
image.jpg
Cooked a bird in the oven with roasted veggies and melted some chocolate for fresh cherries.
Enjoyed a stroll down the road and some phone convos with family. That's it. I'm good.
Oh and got TWO NEW FRONT teeth and feel like a million bucks
Thank you Alan and a Merry Christmas to you also.

Merry Christmas from the U.K
Boston Stump(St.Botolphs church) typical calendar church dominates the town and seen from miles around in our fenland
hope all had a good time
chistmas card.jpg

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Merry Crispness from the city of Prince George BC. That's at 54N, in the center of British Columbia.
This morning was -22C with a few snow flakes. Roasting a chicken for tonight.

I had 4 wonderful Christmasses in Melbourne. Pretty weird to see homes with fake snow sprayed on their windows.
When? Full moon winter night climb Mt. Bogong, the night the Americans landed on the moon.
Christmas on the beach isn't too hard to get used to.

Merry Christmas RV. Sorry buddy. I should have acknowledged you yesterday but I was too wrapped up in MY post .
Happy BoxingDay You spent 4 Christmases in Melborne? When? What were you doing over there?

Originally Posted by cobalt32

Merry Christmas from the U.K
Boston Stump(St.Botolphs church) typical calendar church dominates the town and seen from miles around in our fenland
hope all had a good time
chistmas card.jpg

Merry Christmas Cobalt. I did not realize you were from the UK also.
Thats a very pretty church. Have a lovely Boxing Day also and happy carving for 2017

Hey Nikki! It's over for the year. The 86th of October has come and gone.
Cheese fondue for New Years. Set the alarm clock to get up for 10 minutes at midnight.
Went to LaTrobe University = PhD/Botany/wood anatomy, etc. Commonwealth of Nations Research Fellow.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Hey Nikki! It's over for the year. The 86th of October has come and gone.
Cheese fondue for New Years. Set the alarm clock to get up for 10 minutes at midnight.
Went to LaTrobe University = PhD/Botany/wood anatomy, etc. Commonwealth of Nations Research Fellow.

Ahhh Brian. 'Tis not over for me. I've got my family visit on the 7th of January. I'm seeing my parents and brother . I'm excited because I have a carved chickadee I'm working on to give my brother. He turned 60 this year and won first place in two bike marathons NATIONALLY. One was a 90 kilometre race and the other a 60 kilometre race. The last time I saw him he bicycled the entire way and back and I'm about 130 kilometres away. For any age that good. For 60,...... That's amazing
So I still have some obligations. I'll be sure to show pics of the chickadee when it's done.
When he went to U of T he was sent into the Algonquin to study the chickadee for 3 weeks so it has significance.
Anyway glad you made it through the holidays Brian. Now you get to celebrate New Year.

Blizzard has let up. -5C (up from -25C) and the snow quit. Still breezy. Absolute pig-out of a smorg of left overs tonight.
Need to make some baguettes tomorrow for cheese fondue supper on New Year's eve. Will be #20 with my partner.

The Chickadees keep my grape vines bug free all summer long.
Every morning and late afternoons, work from south to north.
Even while the bumblebees are pollinating, they don't bother each other.

Expect to have an agent buy 70lbs/30kg Brazilian soapstone for me.
Some paleo people are interested in Inuit style oil/fat lamps.
Have bear, lamb, bison & pork fats to try. Basically a flat candle.
Need to saw off some slabs and make a few. The lit wick part might be burning
3" long at a time = lots of light and heat for hot water, too. I predict pretty stinky, burning animals fats.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Blizzard has let up. -5C (up from -25C) and the snow quit. Still breezy. Absolute pig-out of a smorg of left overs tonight.
Need to make some baguettes tomorrow for cheese fondue supper on New Year's eve. Will be #20 with my partner.

The Chickadees keep my grape vines bug free all summer long.
Every morning and late afternoons, work from south to north.
Even while the bumblebees are pollinating, they don't bother each other.

Expect to have an agent buy 70lbs/30kg Brazilian soapstone for me.
Some paleo people are interested in Inuit style oil/fat lamps.
Have bear, lamb, bison & pork fats to try. Basically a flat candle.
Need to saw off some slabs and make a few. The lit wick part might be burning
3" long at a time = lots of light and heat for hot water, too. I predict pretty stinky, burning animals fats.

Another fondue lover. Those things are great. This year I made a chicken for me and a ham for my housemate. He's not into turkey and I can't eat a whole one to myself. We don't have visitors for Christmas. We visit only for reasons I'd rather not explain.


Chickadees are my favourite songbird. They are smart, fast and super friendly.You rarely, if ever, see them fight with other birds.


And Brian dear. The soapstone idea sounds awesome.
Using animal fat to burn like candles?
You THINK it 'might' STINK? Seriously? Buddy!
Trust me . It WILL!!!

I don't have any whale or seal blubber = maybe they don't smell.
I expect that the others will. At -40C, who cares?
Was not the tallow/fat from sheep used for cheap candles in medieval times?
I have heard the spatter mess from candles referred to as "candle grease."

I watched a guy load a soapstone lamp with finely chopped blubber. With a thick wick, he got some of it to melt.
Then he rigged up about 6" wick, horizontally with several peaks, to make 3" long fire for light & heat! Promptly
set a kettle of snow over that. Said it was -25F outside the igloo and +30F inside.

I reclaimed more beeswax candle stump mess last evening. I'll load one lamp as a reference with beeswax
and use it to fool with moss/lichen/cottongrass as wick material.

Birds. I do Cornish Game hens, 2 at a time, in the smoker, 275F with apple wood smoke for the first hour.
Nobody ever spits that out.

hope all of you have a good and successful new year 2017.jpg