Thanksgiving

I got up really early on Thanksgiving to make a satellite phone call with my family. Skype sometimes works for me, but they have never been able to hear my voice…I always have to type. So this day, I got to have a real conversation with them and I even got to talk to my dogs!

The rest of the morning was spent cooking and preparing for the actual Thanksgiving event. Desserts were made, the turkey got put in the oven (thanks to advice from Kyle’s mom), roll dough was made, etc.

We also made some pumpkin spiced cookies that LeeAnn got us in our November bucket!

We did all of this while listening to some oldies!

As the turkey was coming out of the oven and as Katrina was figuring out how to carve it, Kyle and I started on some sides. Two kinds of gravies were made!

Then it was time to eat. We had turkey, stuffing, two kinds of cranberry sauce, puréed, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans and peppers, green bean casserole, and rolls! It was really good. And we all ate way too much. Then we shoved more food in in the form of pies and tortes and cookies for desserts! We even had whip cream thanks to Colin, Katrina, and my arm strength.

After we ate, we decided to burn a few calories by playing a game Colin introduced to us as Dartmouth Pong. Too bad we can’t have beer here. So we played with salt water in the cups but we drank sparkling apple cider instead. Also tasty!

Then it was time for the Shark Chute run. We all piled into the gator with five buckets of slop and four jugs of water to fill. We were pretty crammed in there. Steve was hanging off the back, Colin was in the back too, but sitting on a slop bucket, Kyle drove, Katrina was in the passenger seat, and I was in the middle of them, with no seat. We were all holding empty jugs (except Kyle).

We dumped a bunch of buckets. One bucket contained the turkey giblets, the neck, and the carcass of said turkey. So we thought a shark would show up…BUT NO…it was disappointing. But then we got to see a turtle passing by. That was cool. The turkey got pushed back to shore, so Katrina threw it out further before we left. The chubs that were around sure loved that turkey neck. Enjoy…I guess.

When we got back, we played Quiddler and other games until it was really late. It was a good, full belly day.

Dish Washing

We wash our dishes with salt water. It doesn’t rain enough to use fresh. Our dish washing station is set up outside the kitchen under a tarp covered roof. We have thre jugs of water set up.

The first is over the slop bucket. We rise our dishes to get the big chunks off first and put them in the slop bucket. The next station is for washing. We used CampSuds and scrub brushes and sponges and wash all of our dishes: pots, pans, cuts, plates, silverware, whatever.

The next water jug is for rinsing. After that, it gets put on the drying shelf/rack thing. You have to put things upside down unless you want piles of salt in your bowl.

All the bins under the water jugs get dumped in the slop bucket which gets loaded into the gator for a trip to the Shark Chute. We also use that opportunity to take the empty water jugs and fill them with ocean water. Don’t worry, we fill up the jugs before we dump the slop!