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Howdy everyone,
Well, it's that time of year again, ain't it? Got your shopping done and packages wrapped? Are your credit cards maxed out yet? Tree and lights up? Don't forget the stockings hung by the chimney with care and garter belts. Don't forget to water your tree regularly also. Remember when you put out the cookies Christmas eve also put out some milk! We'll our Thanksgiving dinner on the day after Thanksgiving was a success. We had about 3 dozen friends and guests chowing down on a honey ham and 3 turkeys. We smoked one of them. You know it's hard to find zig zag papers that big. lol. Another dozen or so showed up that afternoon just to check us out not knowing about the dinner. Maybe next year they all said. For dessert we had pecan and apple pie and peach cobbler. I also made Sheriff Stone's home made chocolate pie. Sandy also made a Pumpkin Surprise Cake. Yumm Yumm. We, of course, had leftovers for the rest of the weekend. Then Sunday night I boiled the three turkey carcasses down for turkey soup stock. All three one at a time in the same pot. Just added water once in a while. WOW!! What a super stock. Thick and rich with all that meat. The best turkey vegetable soup I've ever had. (Sandy made up three big batches of the stuff, each one had a different taste). I ate turkey based food for at least 10 days straight. I know what you're thinking - no I wasn't tired of it. It was too good. I'm ready now for next weeks food fest. Just have to buy the perishables. We're expecting around a dozen or so friends and guests to spend Christmas with us. I bought a 12 and 1/2 pound prime rib for Christmas Eve dinner. I'm going to wrap it in a rock salt dough recipe. 15 cups rock salt, 15 cups flour and just enough water to make a dough. Roll out to about an inch or so thick and wrap the prime rib. Cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes a pound. Then get a hammer and break the rock salt that has hardened. Are you drooling? Pat is making his famous lasagna and I'm cooking a honey ham for Christmas Day. For the whole time everyday we have about 3 lbs. of assorted Christmas cookies, 3 lbs. of assorted chocolates, 3 lbs. of assorted European cookies dipped in chocolate, 2 lbs. Chex mix, 2 lbs. roasted and salted almonds (Sheriff Stone's mother's recipe) and colorful Christmas cup cakes, Sheriff Stone's home made chocolate pies and ice cream and Red Dog Lil's pumpkin surprise cake ............................................................................................... Thanks for waiting. My cat Tigger just jumped up on the desk and motioned to let him out. The other morning he wanted to bring in his new toy. He went shopping and got it all by himself. It was a huge rat. Yep, r-a-t rat a 7 inch *&%ing rat. Red Dog said no. It was dead so I put it up on the electrical box to dry out and mummy fy next to the other bones. Oh yeah, we were talking about the great food we're going to have weren't we. I remember the holidays when I was a kid. For Christmas Eve Mom and Dad and my brother and sister (sisters after 1963) would go to my Mom's aunt and uncles house. There we'd play penny ante card games and have a real treat. I'm part Sicilian and my Mom's side so her aunt would make fresh home made Italian sausage. She would make them in long, long links. You measured them not in inches but in feet. She would coil up a long one and put it in the oven to broil while we were playing cards. When they were done we'd stop playing just long enough to chow down. By now you've probably guessed that I want to relive one of those old Christmas Holidays. Why not? Everybody knows I haven't grown up yet. For New Years Eve we'll have a party of some sort but without a band. So if you're interested we still have cabins available. It's tuff to have a good New Year's party when it falls in the middle of the week. Now on to some other Gold Point news. As of last Friday the 13th, Red Dog Lil, alias Sandra, is now an official minister of the Universal Life Church. Judge Red Dog can now perform legal hitches (marriages) right here in Gold Point. Her first one on the books is for next June 7 th. The father of the bride came by here with his motorcycle buddies February 10th. They spent a couple hours or so in the saloon during a mild blizzard keeping warm. It wasn't snowing when they first got here but had several inches when they left. He mentioned to Pat that this might be a good place for a wedding. Pat said we could do that and he told his daughter. Long story short-she and her future husband agreed. They expect around 100 in the wedding party. We are going to b-b-q up a mess of vittles and supply a band and libations for the afternoon and evening. This last Tuesday we went to the Esmeralda County Commissioners meeting and requested a right of way along Wiley Road to bury a pipe line to bring water to Gold Point. It was approved. Our neighbor Bruce has the water rights secured and the pipe bought and we are going to supply the labor to put it together and bury it. The last time water ran to town was about 1960. The pipeline belonged to the mining company. After the mine closed the residents failed to maintain it. After the first winter it froze and broke. Since then water has been hauled in from Lida, 11 miles away. In the early 70's a water line from Ranch Springs on MacGruder Mountain was put in with the help of the residents and friends of the residents of Gold Point and the local rancher and the county of Esmeralda. That cut the trip down to 3 and 1/2 miles. With luck maybe by spring we could have a 10,000 gallon storage tank in town next to the future Volunteer Fire House. Then we'll only have to drive our portable tanks a very short distance. Pat has gotten the 1x4 wainscot installed in the bedroom and kitchen now at the Radkie House. Maybe after the holidays we'll get the living room done. Since I've been gone working no progress has been made on the wallpaper. I'm back for a while again so we'll get back at that also. Last weekend after a few drinks, with pardner Walt, Chef Pat and computer geek Roger, I brought up the idea of "time share " to them as a possible way to raise the needed funds to complete the other 7 cabins desperately in need of saving. After discussing ideas and drinking shots for an hour it was finally decided that we may have been just fantasizing while we drank. So I agreed to put it on this newsletter to see if "YOU" the public had any ideas as to the feasibility of this. So, here's the question-would something like this work here and would anyone be interested? Any and all comments, positive or negative, would be greatly appreciated. I'll close by saying this-- FROM ALL OF US AT GOLD POINT, NEVADA TO ALL OF YOU AT HOMETOWN, USA-- HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Happy Trails and Sunsets, Sheriff Stone &/or Red Dog Lil
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