I’m not a holiday guy. I sort of hate them. They can never compare to the holidays when the kids were little. No matter how much we try, it just aint the same.

Be that as it may, there is something magical about November here. The leaves are changing colors; the air is crisp.

A crisp California November day

Follow up:

It has become a tradition for us since we have been at the lake, whenever wakitu and I are there together at Thanksgiving, we roast game hens on a spit over an open fire by the water. This year was no different and, again, the weather was absolutely beautiful: 78 with a light breeze, clear as a bell, all the mountains in view and reflecting in the lake. Huge white pelicans with black-tipped wings flying by, fish jumping, coots cootin’, ducks rutting, the soft sound of wavelets hitting the shore; it was a postcard day.

The Holey Dory. I love this boat. It has a hole in it as big as your head.

We headed down early, poured a little wine and launched The Holey Dory. It has a huge hole in it, hence the name, so you can’t stay out very long. The current was soft and runnin’ southwest so we turned the boat north and rowed up to the bouy and let the oars drop. A fun thing we do in the boat is row out and try to pick the spot to just let go where the current will take us right back to our beach. It’s a trick to get it just right. This time, though it took 3 tries, we nailed it from two back yards over.

A lazy row out, drifting on the current home again.

We weren’t the only boat on the lake but there were only a few. It was nicely quiet with little rolling wakes from the occasional passerby. It seems most folks were eating or napping. Kid sounds in the distance as they ran off their dinners, the sun going down behind the hill with the big E on it. There are actually two Es there now. Not sure what that means.

I had some wood already cut and started a fire as soon as we landed. I have an old culvert pipe connector we use down there to burn out stumps. It was a great little fire pit and the height was just right for our purpose. I couldn’t find the spit we usually use but I found a piece of allthread that came out of MU2, the video truck we bought on ebay. It was bent just right and fit the tangs. MU2 pays off one more time. !!! AAA trans/ Great BUY !!11! would buy again A+ deal. That and a couple of spring clamps and we had a spit.

The game hens were just the right size. End to end, they took up the middle of the spit with room on each side to rest on the edges. It turned easily and the clamps held it where you left it. It was a sweet setup and worked perfectly.

wakitu flips the birds

The hens we stuffed with an impromptu applesauce stuffing. It was great. Applesauce, a little flour, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, egg, other spices, raisins. After stuffing we shoved a celery heart and a piece of bacon in each and put them end to end on the spit. After painting them both with the juice of mandarin oranges and stuffing leavings, we wrapped them in tinfoil.

We put it on the fire over really hot coals and spun it every so often for an hour and a half and made the whole neighborhood smell like our dinner. Awesome.

Needless to say, they were delicious. The skins were kinda singed from the heat where the foil was wrapped too tightly, but the rest of the bird was moist and tender and flakin’ off the bone. The game hens are the perfect choice for the spit.

Of course like everyone else we ate ’til we could eat no more and, after coffee and oatmeal raisin cookies, slept like stones for a few hours. Happy friggin’ Thanksgiving! omnomnomnom!

Spit roasted hens with applesauce stuffing omnomnomnom!

Obviously I’m thankful for you and them and all the rest of that blahblahblah holiday crap but the thing that gets me at this time of year is how lucky I am to live where I do, when I do, with whom I do. Today, the day after, with yesterday’s shirt smelling like applesauce stuffing with a hint of campfire there on the bedpost, I am thankful for that.

Stay tuned.

_{Photos by wakitu}