Interesting

 Termite asks in comments:

Don't pardons generally come AFTER a conviction? Hunter has been convicted of anything, just charged/indicted.

Yes, generally.  When I was a Parole Officer I would occasionally do a clemency investigation for the Pardon Board.  These offenders were serving time, or had completed their sentence and were looking for some time of legal relief.

However, there is precedent for summarily pardoning an offender.  Those of us old enough to have been at Woodstock recall when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon following Nixon's resignation.  No charges, no conviction, no sentence.  Just a "Get Out Of Jail" card.   It happens.

I was excited this morning to hear that Biden is headed to Angola.  Then I remembered that there are two Angolas.  One, a country in Africa.  The other, the main prison for the Louisiana prison system.

I was last at Angola during the late '80s for training.  At the time, the horse guards on the farm were still using Winchester lever guns in the fields.  Back in those days, if you wanted to rank the worst prisons in the US, among the top ten would be Angola in Louisiana, Parchmanin Mississippi, and The Walls in Texas.

Hunter Pardoned

 It seems that our lamest-of-duck president has pardoned his wayward son, Hunter.  This comes as no real surprise.  Joe is never running for anything, ever again.  His political capital is shot, He is a pitiful husk of a man with no future.  What does he have to lose?

Joe's entire political career was smoke and mirrors, the perfect machine politician, and lying to the public was his stock in trade.  He's lied to us about everything.  What does he have to lose?  The big story is that this is a story at all.

Martin House

 In 2014 I put up a Martin house that my dad had on his place.  After he died in 2007, and Mom was making some changes on the family property, she asked me if I wanted Dad's Martin house.  I did.  It had stood beside the trailer for a decade of longer and the trailer was leaving the property, so the Martin house needed a new home.

Last year, the Martin house fell after a storm, and the impact shook everything loose in the house.  My elder son and I performed an autopsy and decided that we could rehab it.  The internals were made out of the same material that yard signs are made of, and I had some yard signs left over from my political campaign.  So, we used those.

In a couple of hours, we had it back together and strapped to a fence post in the back yard.  The Martins won't get here until March, but the scouts will find it in February and lead the other in.  I like watching them fly, and hearing their warbles.  Dad's Martin house is ready for another decade of service.

Turkey Gumbo

 Juvat asks if I could post my leftover turkey gumbo recipe.  Easy-peasy.

My basic gumbo recipe is here.  We make a few small changes for the turkey variety.  Take that leftover turkey carcass and break it apart, putting it into a stockpot.  Cover with water and boil it for an hour or so, making stock.  Set it aside to cool, then pick the meat from the bones.  Discard the bones, but keep the stock and meat.

Make your gumbo as usual, substituting the turkey instead of chicken.

I boiled our turkey carcass yesterday and today I'm making a gumbo that we'll eat tomorrow.

White Bean Soup

 Belle was watching the weather yesterday and concluded that we were going to have our first frost, so we moved her potted plants indoors. After three days of prepping, cooking, partying, and cleaning, I didn't want to spend much time cooking today, so I dredged my memory banks and came up  with a recipe I haven't cooked in over 20 years.  White Bean Soup.

White Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 lb dried lima beans

3 small russet potatoes,  peeled and chopped

1 cup leftover ham, diced.

8 cups cool tap water

Salt, pepper.

Dump all the ingredients into a slow cooker, on low for eight hours.  I put mine on last night and let it go all night.  Closer to lunch, we'll make a cornbread.  I have less than four dollars in that pot, and could probably feed six people with it.

A Great Day

 Baked ham, fried turkey, cornbread dressing, egg gray, cranberry sauce, corn casserole, candied yams,  green bean casserole, yeast rolls, pecan pie.  We fed nineteen folks and one dog.

Tomorrow, I'll prep what is left of the ham for a pot of beans on New Years Day, and I'll prep the turkey carcass for a gumbo on Sunday.  Belle and I will eat leftovers tomorrow and count our blessings.

Prepping

 Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday.  Belle and I are prepping for the big meal, at noon.  We're having ham and turkey and all the fixings.  Each daughter has her responsibilities, one for the corn bread dressing, one for sweet potatoes, one for green bean casserole.  Belle's brother is bringing a corn casserole, and my sister is in charge of dessert. It will be a great time.

We have one dear friend, Vovo, who lives across the little lake in our subdivision.  He spent a lot of time in South America, and his wife is Brazilian.  His wife's family is Brazilian, and they are hosing the Brazilian expats who live locally. He expects about 25 for lunch tomorrow.

He was over on Monday, teasing Belle about her cornbread dressing recipe. He wants to give the Brazilian crowd the full experience.  Belle graciously to make a big corn bread dressing, and it took him about two seconds to graciously accept.  Belle is making a big dressing that he can slip into the oven for a half-hour before serving.  He will pick it up today for the party tomorrow.  We hope the South Americans enjoy it.

I'll spend today prepping, getting the turkey ready for the frying pot tomorrow and generally giving the shop a good wipe-down.  Y'all have a good Thanksgiving.

Campaign Wores

I am given to understand that while Kamala cools her jets in Hawaii, Failed VP Tim Walz is asking donors to help puck up the tab for vendors that haven't been paid and for campaign workers who said that they were stiffed because the campaign is over. 

Wait, what?  These folks thought they would be paid by the campaign until January 1st?  Why?  The campaign was over at 8:00 pm local when the polls closed.  At that point the campaign is over.  They should have seen that coming. Turn off the lights, lock the doors, it's over.

I ran a campaign once, and there was a little paperwork that had to be done, post-election, but for all intents and purposes, the campaign is over when the polls close.  Honestly, the campaign workers should have seen this coming, whether they won or lost.  In this case, they lost.  Campaign is over.  Go Home.

Declination

When I was a young'un, as a Boy Scout, learning how to read a map and use a compass, we had to learn about magnetic declination.  The compass did not point to true north, it pointed to magnetic north, which in central Louisiana was about 6 degrees east of magnetic north.

 As a young Army officer several years later, this was important  Land navigation was all about map and compass. The first thing we checked on the bottom of the map was the declination diagram, which showed the difference between the actual north pole, and some spot in Canada where your compass was pointing.

For no particular reason, I decided to check the local declination and found that it is zero degrees.  Magnetic north is moving, and will sometime in the future, be somewhere in Putin's Siberia.

Of course, no one uses map and compass today.  Today, it's all about GPS navigation, but I find it strangely interesting that the magnetic pole is moving, and has been for some time.

One of the things I learned as a young Armor officer is that a compass will not work in a tank.  Too much steel around you.  All land nav in a tank was terrain association.  I was thrilled when the Army put GPS sensors in the M60A3 series.

Blind Hog

 The house that Belle and I call home was built in 2001.  Very few problems, but recently we noticed a problem with a switch that controls the back porch light.  Not a problem, easy-peasy.  I took the face plate off and found a double switch.  I had never changed one of those.

So, I took a picture and heded down to my local electrical supply.  Wandered up to the counter.

Counterman asks, "What'cha got?  I showed him the picture.

"Is that a two-way, or a three-way?"

"Hell, I don't know."

"Well, " says he, "It matters.  The backs are different.  I'll sell you a two-way and when you get home and find out it won't work, come back."

As it turns out, it is a two-way, it works, and Belle is happy.  Sometimes a blind hog does find an acorn.