What a great time everyone had at the Friday Fish Dinner!  The guys went all out fishing and then worked hard to clean their catch in time for an early dinner.  Paul brought his wood fired pig roaster to the church parking lot so the fish could be cooked in large batches.  There is no cooking oil for frying, but no one minded.  It was delightful to see how polite everyone was, even the children, about taking just one cookie and just a small squirt of catsup, to make sure everyone got some.  There were six cookies left which were then broken in half so the dozen kids there could have an extra piece. I was amazed at how well the cookies were received!  The hotel had brought over a huge can of beans, enough for everyone to have a spoonful, and someone brought two jars of olives.  Still another made a big bowl of macaroni, tossed with Italian salad dressing.  Bob and Cynthia came and brought their banjo & violin for some music; then Nick showed up with his guitar.  Music and some dancing, what a way to end the evening! Seeing everyone pitch in and work together made me forget my own worries… for a while anyway.

One of the main topics of discussion during the dinner was what we were going to do about our trash.  I hadn’t thought much about it; the chickens get anything organic; I burn anything that’s paper; and I have very little of anything else, but that’s not the case with most others.  Usually, everyone just takes their trash to the transfer station on Tuesday afternoon, but the compactor needs power to work.  We use to have an actual dump many years ago that we might have to reopen.  That’s something that will have to be presented to the township board.

A few more inches of snow fell; if it weren’t so hard to get around in it, it would be very pretty.

Second day of rotating the ice blocks in the refrigerator, and it’s working like a charm!  The refrigerator is holding at 42 degrees, better than I thought it would.  This morning’s chores included cleaning the wood stove.  I took the top plates off and wire brushed the underside; then swept all the accumulated soot off the oven box into the firebox so it could fall into the ash pan below.  I scraped the side and bottom of the oven box and pulled out that ash thru the access door.  I worked quickly; it was cold in here!  I thought longingly to the past when I did this and let the furnace run instead.