The Duck Shack

thanksgiving

Spending Thanksgiving with my family is a truly unique experience. 

And when i say 'unique' i mean that it is a novel episode that can't be given justice when it is written about in a blog. 

but i will do my best....   :)

In Willows, California there is a trailer park where 3 families get together to share thanksgiving. This is an annual tradition where at least 40 people cram into 2 modular homes (one of them being a double wide) and a camper and share one of the best holidays. This tradition began about 50 years ago, and started with 4 people- 2 of them being my grandparents. 

{Willows is SUCH a random town! which helps make Thanksgiving what is. It has a population of 5,000 people and consists of a sketchy airport, Wal-Mart, a Black Bear Diner, and trailer park.}

To help you further understand this tradition you must know that my grandfather (aka: the ol' tiger) is an avid duck hunter (Willows is his hunting area of choice?) and according to him, Thanksgiving happens to fall on duck season. So ever since, his family has spent Thanksgiving in small 'shacks' within the Willows area where he has been able to duck hunt to his hearts content and have thanksgiving on the same day. From this, we got the name 

"The Duck Shack".

Currently The Duck Shack resides in a small trailer park that is anything but glamorous. But that is what makes it so great. There is no parking and the term 'personal space' doesn't exist.

I always look forward to thanksgiving because it is a casual time to eat, drink, and be merry. It is a time to catch up on everyones busy lives. It is a time for the men to go hunting and the women to go shopping. And when the Turkeys finally come out of the ovens, it is a time to sit in a warm room filled with the smell of delicious hot food and toast to all that you are thankful for with the people you care most about. 

Thanksgiving is splendid. 

in the car...the Sutter Buttes: smallest mountain range in the world

we cant forget about Black Friday now can we? 

The friday after thanksgiving the ladies make the trek on up to Chico to get some boutique shopping in, although, i didn't buy anything this year :(

Every year my experience at The Duck Shack has 3 consistencies:

1. There is ALWAYS drama with the hotel rooms-no matter what

2. There are at least 3 turkeys (one is deep fried! yum!)

3. There is an abundance of Dogs-which means dog hair and slobber

One: Cramming 40 people into 2 trailers is a hard thing to do when planning dinner, but as far as sleeping arrangements go, it is impossible. Every year we rent 3 hotel rooms for those of us who don't want to be sleeping on the floors of the dirty trailers with the dogs. However for some reason, EVERY YEAR there is always some kind of drama with the hotel. For example, last year they didn't have our reservation. this year the rooms were FILTHY, and i mean grimy, slimy, dirty toilets. ewww. But everything worked itself out, like always, and we upgraded :)

Two: Yea, we have 3 turkeys for dinner and 4 fresh geese for hors'devours. YUM!

Three: Every family brings their dogs. there were at least 7 dogs this year, including 3 puppies. One of those puppies was a St. Bernard and at 7 months, it was bigger than all the other full grown labs. My dog is Otis...a Jack Russell who I consider to be my main man (sorry mike). 

meet Will and Otis 

Thanksgiving is always a treat. This year was so great. But now i am home and back to reality of writing papers and memorizing more about the human body. ughh...

i can't complain though, it was such a nice break.

i couldn't ask for better...

Oh! and it was EXTREMELY W-I-N-D-Y last night and this morning. We almost blew away :)

walk

I woke up at 7 am this morning

so i could walk to school instead of drive. 

according to mapquest my house is 3 miles away from the school.

so it was a pretty legit walk. and, although the sun was shining, 

it was FREEZING to say the least. my face almost froze off.  

thankfully i had a hot mug of coffee to keep my hands warm.

It was the first time i have ever walked to school from my house 

and it felt great! I want to get more 

outdoor activities in before the weather gets to nasty

and if walking to school is all i can get, it's what i'll take.

While i was walking i saw the coolest scene. 

There was fog covering the meadow and the sun was trying 

to shine through. I'm lucky i had my camera.

Walking this morning was peaceful...

Until 2 middle school boys riding their bikes to school almost hit me.

it was partially my fault though because i was taking up the 

whole path by walking right down the center of it.

 and i had my ipod in so i didn't hear them on my tail.

They scared me but i was so cold that my reaction time was even slower than normal and i just stood there as they whizzed by me on either side.

after that incident, my walk became peaceful once again.

chesse enchiladas and salty waffles

Day 1 of my vegetarian diet was a lot easier than i thought it would be...

...that is until dinner time came around. 

It was about 5:30 pm when the boy asked if i wanted to go with him to this AMAZING mexican restaurant in downtown Petaluma. 

i was so excited to go, and the first thing that popped into my mind was the delicious steak burrito that i would get. Then Mike reminded me of my new meatless diet and i'm not going to lie...i got bummed.

i will probably say this a million times but i am not very good at cooking and, as i am learning, ordering food. i once ordered a waffle with bacon inside it. 

lesson learned: bad choice. it was like eating a salty waffle. 

When we got to the restaurant i ordered a cheese enchilada with rice and beans. 

Lesson learned: a cheese enchilada has absolutely nothing in it but cheese. with even more cheese on top. that is a lot of cheese and not much substance.

All that to say, today went a lot better as far as my vegetarian diet is concerned. no cheese enchiladas (or salty waffles!)

untill next time!

food

This week i have decided to try to eat as a vegetarian.

Saying that this trial is going to be a struggle for me is an understatement because i absolutely LOVE hamburgers! i would gladly take a burger over an expensive five course meal any day. 
i also LOVE steaks (but due to my 'poor college student' budget, it is not in my diet these days). I eat a lot of chicken burritos and chinese food (orange chicken is my entree of choice), all of which have meat. 


Clearly i was not raised as a vegetarian, in fact, my family consists of very hard core meat eaters (i know, "hard core meat eaters" is a weird phrase). Not to mention that my mom was raised on a dairy farm where they had an abundance of beef. 


I have some friends [Pilar] who are vegetarians and they claim that when they stopped eating meat their bodies "just felt better." I wonder if this is true-not that i don't believe them because i think they are lying, but because i have a feeling that it might be harder to convince me of a vegetarian diet than it would be to convince them (based on how we were raised).

Last night i told Mike (the boy. he likes to point out the grammatical errors in my blog) of my plans to eat only vegetarian for a week -starting today Monday, November 16, 2009. You might wonder why I am not eating meat for ONLY a week. why not a month? well, like i said, i LOVE meat and Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and i can't pass up a deep fried turkey. sorry.


Also, when it comes to food, i am a baby step type of gal. I know that if it is only for a week, i will be able to stick to it. :)


so, untill Sunday i am a vegetarian. and let me be clear: a real vegetarian eats NO MEAT of any kind. That includes chicken, fish, and fast food. 
Freshman year i was eating dinner with some friend in the school cafeteria. One of our friends, Grace, was all about being a vegetarian ...i mean ALLLL about it. But when we would get to the caf she would pound down a burger. when we asked her about it she said that she was "only a half vegetarian." Haha.


To start my week of eating nothing with face i will have some hot oatmeal...