Christmas Cheer -- 2011

Oft's Bed and Breakfast hosted a Christmas Party Wednesday night; about 25 guest showed up including two guests from DeMoines who stayed over night.  We served "Glogg" which is hot mulled wine, a Swedish Christmas drink; hot cider, finger foods and we made Annie Mohr's Pforden recipe.  Pforden is a round German fritter which is cooked in a special cast iron pan that has half ball depressions.  The depressions are half filled with grease and dough is spooned in.  As it cooks its gently rotated so it creates a round fritter. 

The hot fritters are removed in put in a sack with sugar and shaken and served hot. They are a traditional German holiday Treat!

We are considering serving them with fruit syrups and serving them next year for breakfast.  We'll see how that goes.

Everybody seems to have had a good time.  The ladies took over the dining room and the gentlemen gathered around to guard the 'Glogg' pot and discussed the problems of the world.  I don't think we solved any, but we had a good time finding the bottom of the Glogg pot. 

Paula, Lois, Maureen, Jean, and CoeLeta

Dick, Bill, Dale, Al and Diana making a hasty retreat!

IS That a Leg Lamp?

One of the funniest Christmas Movies I've ever seen was "A Christmas Story" that came out in 1983.  The story centers around a family in the 1940's.  The father (Darren McGavern) was a salesman who had just won a mysterious "prize" from a contest.  His son is scheming to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.   Dad thrill in winning the prize is climaxed by the arrival of a special delivery crate.  He opens it to find a "leg lamp" which he cherishes and his wife despises.  If you get a chance to see the movie, please do. 



The Magnificent "Leg Lamp"

 "A Christmas Story" has become a classic and leg lamps have been showing up in windows around the holidays for two decades.  I have actually been looking for a mannequin in order to build one. 

Guess what?  The Chinese and my wife beat me to it.  Linda arrived today with a very large box and proclaimed; "Merry Christmas."  I opened it and IT IS A BEAUT!!!   My very own Leg Lamp!!  She said I could display it during the month of December.  ??? What??  No!! It needs to stay out all year!   (Very doubtful) 

It is a Very Merry Christmas at Oft's Bed & Breakfast.  Happy Holidays to you!

Trip to Springfield, Ill to see Lincoln shrines

One nice thing about owning Oft's Bed and Breakfast is when business drops off, you can take off.  Last weekend were the last of our reservations for a while so we packed the car and headed to Springfield, ILL for our 39th Anniversary.  Gordon started his career at Lincoln's Home and John was born there.  This was our first time back in 34 years. 

We had driven by Hannibal, Missouri a dozen times and never stopped, this time we did.  We stayed at Lula Bells which was build next to the river in 1917 and served as a brothel in those early days.  Today, it's a restaurant and bed and breakfast.  The surrounding olde town is really neat and its interesting visiting buildings and drinking coffee in a coffee shop built before the Civil War.  We walked the Mississippi shoreline where Mark Twain grew up and worked before moving out to Nevada.

In Springfield, we stayed in the Pasfield B & B built in 1847.  Its located downtown and is owned and operated by Tony Leone, a very interesting and leading historian in the Springfield area.  This year he won the honor of the leading historian preservationist.  He is a fascinating guy and has a beautiful facility located downtown.  It was a great place to spend our anniversary.



The Pasfield Inn

 We have had several people stay with us that told us we simply had to go see the new Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  We did and boy was it worth the drive.  It really drives home the extraordinary man that Lincoln was if you get a chance, please go.  The President and his family even took time to allow a photo with us.  That is special! 

Tall Men Marry Short Women

 We did a lot of walking in Springfield, parking the car and hoofing it around.  The weather was beautiful, sunny and 60.  It was about 6 blocks down to the Lincoln Home and it hadn't changed much.  Today, you have to have tickets to get admitted to the home.  In my day you simply had to knock on the front door.  Today a ranger takes you through on a personal tour, there were only the 3 of us, it was nice.  He was curious how much the home had changed in 34 years.   Afterward, we asked him to do what a hundred Home visitors asked me to do 34 years ago.  Some pay back!

Lincoln's Home and Tourists

 

Christmas and the Holidays

Our most resent guests were a military couple taking the opportunity to get away.  He flew for the Air Force and recently was in Russia flying reconnaissance to verify treaty mandates between our two countries.  He has an interesting and important job to say the least.  Anyway, after we got the cleaning and laundry done we broke out the Christmas decorations.   

The Oft-Gordon Home, Bennington, NE.

The weather was beautiful, cool but sunny.  The lights went up easier this year than last.  I added permanent hanging hooks and I simply had to hang the strands as I unwound the lights.  If you look closely, you might see Santa!

Is that Santa peeking out?

     

Woman's Club Festival of Trees

Living in a small town has its attributes.  One, being the fund raising meals served by various organizations.   There are a number in Bennington.  The Lions have a rib feed, the Legion a breakfast, The Bennington Foundation a park barbecue and the Fire and Rescue have a pancake feed.   This year the Woman's Club held a "Festival of Trees" which featured Christmas Trees sponsored by various businesses and organisations; a bake sale, "Grandma's Attic" (crafts and nick-nacks), and food.   Funds from the two day event goes to support the local library. 

This year we partnered on a tree with A/Art Glass which is owned and operated by Linda's brother and sister-in-law.  The Oft's Bed and Breakfast tree was decorated with hand crafted fused glass ornaments made in Jan and Morrie's shop.  The ornaments were really popular!




The Tree Decorators: Jan, Linda, CoeLeta and Maureen

We got second prize in the tree contest and had a lot of fun.

 

A Copper Fire Extinquisher

I found an old copper fire extinguisher while going through the barn one day.  One of those you see in old movies.  It was dirty and had several coats of old paint.  The hose was missing and it hadn't seen the light of day for decades.  They are plated with copper and brass and when polished up really look attractive.   So, I thought I'd give it a try.

The extinguisher was pretty heavy; probably 30 pounds and it was over half full of liquid.  I tipped it a little and this foul looking liquid spilled out the hose attachment so I took it outside and turned it upside down to try to drain it out. What do you know?  After decades it still worked!  It started shooting this foamy, gray fluid about 20 feet.  After about 15 seconds it stopped leaving the tank nearly empty. 



1920's Fire Extinguisher


The top is made out of cast brass and is threaded.  A little fluid remained in the tank and I didn't want anyone playing with it and creating a mess.  So I got a crow bar and heavy hammer and tried braking the top loose.  It wouldn't budge and I even brake the handle on the hammer (it was about as old as the extinguisher) so I sprayed it with WD-40 and let it set for a couple of days.   I tried again and finally, it broke loose and I got the top off. 

What I found was a glass acid bottle, heavy glass stopper that was held in a brass frame near the top of the extinguisher.  When it was turned upside down, the stopper dropped out allowing the acid to mix with the soda solution causing the rapid expansion of gas that "Wha-La" forced the fluid out of the hose.  It actually worked after decades!

The brass face plate says it's reusable, but I think I'll stay with our new extinguishers.  The old style was simple yet effective; a concept that is fairly rare today.   It's doubtful this could be sold today because of the use of sulfuric acid.  

To recharge the extinguisher, you added 1.5 pounds of baking soda and about 3 gals of water.  You then fill the glass, acid bottle half full of sulfuric acid and replace the stopper.  The bottle and its holder slides down the throat of the extinguisher and lugs hold it from falling in.  You simply have to screw the top on securely and remember not to tip it over until you need it.   

Anyway, I stripped the canister with paint remover and then used brass polish and 0000 steel wool to remove the tarnish.  It took two bottles of brass polish and a LOT of scrubbing.  I discovered that copper tarnishes VERY easily so when I got it shined up, I sprayed it with clear lacquer to prevent it from tarnishing again.  

These extinguishers originally had a red rubber hole and a small brass nozzle.  I'm still looking for those, until then the black hose will have to do.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Between frying eggs and washing sheets.

Business is dropping off which gives us a break to travel ourselves and to spend some times on our hobbies.  I love to bow hunt.  It gives me an opportunity and the time to reassess my life and relationships.  Sitting on a board in a tree for hours is probably not every one's cup of tea but I find it calms my sole and mind.   Beautiful sunrises and sunsets simply can not be described nor do photographs do them justice. I believe some of them gives us a glimpse of the 'gold' waiting in heaven.
   

The calming effect of the sun's warm rays and just being able to have quite time to think and reflect. Watching the birds feed in the trees......the sound of dry leaves rustling that draw my attention to squirrels chasing each other on the ground...the call of flocks of geese and sand hill cranes as they travel south and the sudtle movement in the brush that might be a deer.  

Early morning frosts blanket the ground and as the sun warms things (including me) I start noticing little changes like reflections of moisture off the vegetation and maybe even off a spider web on the branch next to me.

I become mesmerized by the calm and beauty around me and then I hear an unusual sound...possibly an antler being scraped on a sapling....or a simply the unexplained presence of another.   I slowing move my head and look..... there staring at me.....those black eyes have me nailed!!

This type of hunting is humbling because you have to get so close to the wildlife your pursuing.  It make it easier for the animal to see you move, to hear your heart beat, and to smell you.  It's a type of hunting that filled with adrenalin rushes and 'buck fever' boardered by periods of quite time.   But the satisfaction of placing my arrow in the right place for a quick, effective kill is worth makes the experience unreal.   It might even be worth a self portrait to prove to myself I was actually there and it wasn't a dream.