Through an Old Timer’s Eye

The Endeavor News
by Howard ‘Mac’ McDonald

Last Sunday night the moon was full and shining over this place we call home in all of its splendid glory. Nov. 21 brings a cosmic addition to this full moon, as it is called a blue moon.

Most generally there are just 12 full moons, but every so many years we have 13 full moons. In 1937, the state of Maine’s Farmers Almanac gave the calendric meaning of a blue moon. It also stated that when there were 13 full moons, it confused the monks who were in charge of making up the calendar. They had a hard time putting in their special holy days.

Most people think a blue moon is a myth, or a brand of beer, but it is a continuing topic of conversation among the people who study the celestial universe.

Radon gas has reared its ugly head. Besides causing lung cancer, it is causing a stir with the people who lend the money for a mortgage. Until a house is free of radon, you cannot get the mortgage.

This silent health hazard seeps out of the ground and takes residence in your basement.

There are companies that can rid a house of this danger and there are do-it-yourself kits on the market. This is a very serious problem and I would recommend getting the pros to rid your home of this dangerous gas.

With another bear season coming and going, there were some wild tales going around the Cabin Kitchen. Our outdoor writer told me in church that his hunting party got one that weighed over 500 pounds and it was a task getting it out of the woods.

Some people eat bear meat, but I believe a roast cut off from one the big old bruins taken by hunters would be so tough that you’d need a chainsaw to cut it.

One time I cooked about 25 pounds of a young female bear. I cooked in an electric roaster in two gallons of Italian red wine and it came out so good that the guys in camp devoured every ounce of it.

Now comes the deer season, which was once a big thing around here before the herd as cut down so low.

I am writing this column just before Thanksgiving. Every day is a good day to thank God for our blessings.

For our family, it used to be, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go.” My grandma’s Thanksgiving dinner was a thing to behold. The turkey was a golden brown. The trimmings were so plentiful that if you tried all of them, you had to unbutton the top button on your pants. Fluffy mashed potatoes, turkey gravy that came straight from heaven and pumpkin pie that melted in your mouth. That’s the one day you don’t worry so much about diabetes or cholesterol.

I hope that our troops in Afghanistan had a good Thanksgiving. So many of them are so far from home and so many families had an empty seat at their dinner table. When will it ever end?