Nature Woman

I’ve been tagged by my friend Jennifer, Winterwoman at A Passion for Nature, who is happy that the weatherman is predicting 20 plus inches of snow to fall this weekend. I’m glad I ordered and received my new snowshoes this week! Anyway, the meme is to list seven random things. Let’s see what I can come up with this time.

The rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven random facts:

1. I think I’m too nice to be a director of a daycare and deal with parents that don’t think they owe the weekly rate and other stupid things like that, i.e., I have a hard time being mean when I need to be. Example, I left a late due notice for a few parents the other day and one came screaming at me “What is this?” My response to her, said calmly even, “It’s your bill and it’s past due.” DUH.

Another view of the lights at work. My office window is hiding
behind the American flag. And it’s a window that I have open
all day long, even this time of year. Mmmmm, fresh air!

2. I would totally love working at Onondaga Historical Association for pay and totally know that I wouldn’t care what hours I worked there. Because I love history. And the people there are fun to work with.  Maybe I should look to work at a local historical society and/or museum, though.

3. I am expected to be at work this morning (Saturday) for no pay and I’m not going (see reason number 5 below). Update: I missed my favorite little guy being the bestest and cutest little guy ever. Wah! They took photos for me, though!

4. But I think I would work seven days a week at Onondaga Historical Association if I could.

5. I’ve had a bad cough and laryngitis since two weeks after I started working at the germ factory. I’m getting really tired of coughing my lungs out. And this is one reason why I’m not going to work today. It’s hard enough going to work five days a week with this as it is.

6. Because of #5 and my stupid work hours, I haven’t been able to enjoy nature like I really like to.

7. Even though I am complaining about my job today, I still love seeing the children, especially my favorite little guy.

Now I have to tag seven people. I apologize if you’ve already been tagged!

Jayne from Journey through Grace

Mary from Mary’s View

Lynne from Hasty Brook

Liza from The Egret’s Nest

Sandy at Gardenpath

Ruth at Body, Soul and Spirit

Linda at Erie’s Argonaut

I have received two gorgeous calendars as gifts this year, and the first one I want to mention is the “Scenes of Syracuse & Central New York” 2008 wall calendar. If you have any interest in Syracuse, NY, you’ll want to buy this calendar. It is absolutely gorgeous, and it has historical details on every calendar page, too! And coupons, too!

This calendar is by Reflected Images and the Onondaga Historical Association. I highly recommend it. I know it will make me happy looking at it all year long. The other calendar I received I’ll mention in another post!

I was in my vehicle about 2:30 in the parking lot at work today and saw turkeys across the road!

There were six of them in all that I saw, but as I was about to shoot the photo of all of them someone pulled in the parking lot and parked in my way. Bah!

As I was leaving work today it actually wasn’t precipitating so I took a couple of photos of the lights.

I love light any time of year but especially now since it is so dark for so long!

You may want to check out this interesting article (ha! You like that? I think it’s interesting anyway!) I wrote for the Onondaga Historical Association last year and finally published it on their website: Deerskin coat given to Harvey Baldwin by the Oneida Indians as a gift for helping them survive the cold year of 1816. The coat is beautifully beaded, and the cold year has something to do with a volcano. Check it out!

Detail of beading on the bottom of the Deerskin coat

Please let me know what you think about it when you’re done reading it! I hope you enjoy it!

The other day I received a catalog from Smucker’s and given that I love jam and jelly, I figured I’d flip through it. In the middle of the catalog is None Such Mince Meat now manufactured by Borden. This brought a bunch of things flooding into the front of my mind. First was an article written by Post-Standard’s Dick Case a couple of weeks ago on the lighting of the water tower for Christmas at Franklin Square in Syracuse. He mentioned that several items were manufactured at Franklin Square, one of which was mince meat. I was wondering which building was used by the Merrell-Soule Co. And then I remembered the photo in the OHA research center of the None Such Mince Meat parade float in front of the Merrell-Soule Co. building at Franklin Square.

None Such Mince Meat parade float with Miss None Such,
from OHA Research Center Collection

This five-story 1904 factory remains at 600 N. Franklin St. and was built at a railroad siding on what had been old solar drying beds for salt. It is now the home to Dupli printing.

Merrell-Soule Co. manufacturing building at Franklin Square, Syracuse,
from The Post-Standard Newspaper Archives

In the 1920’s, it was the headquarters of Merrell-Soule Co. with 26 plants in the US and Canada and 900 employees, half of them in Syracuse. Merrell-Soule’s signature product was None Such Mince Meat for pies perfected by G. Lewis Merrell and Oscar Soule at their small canning factory on West Fayette St. starting in 1868. When Merrell-Soule was sold to Borden Co. in 1928 it was one of the largest manufacturers of powdered milk, mince meat and powdered lemon extract in the world. Borden made None Such in Franklin Square until 1981 when production moved to Pennsylvania. The company’s research center at 600 North Franklin left in 1997.

circa 1937 None Such Mincemeat Ad

None Such Mince Meat is a mix of apples, raisins, currants, citrus peel, sugar, vinegar, cider, salt, starch, beef and spices, and sometimes brandy and rum. “Mynce pies” were mentioned in 15^th-century manuscripts. People used to make their own mince meat at home until Merrell-Soule, who started out canning vegetables, discovered a way to make low-moisture, marketable mince meat from dry ingredients. It is said they started with a recipe from a family member named “Grandmother Seward.” None Such Mince Meat succeeded because it was easy to use and because of a “secret” blend of spices that accounted for half of its 27 ingredients. The company made both a dry and a wet version.

circa 1920 None Such Mincemeat Ad

Merrell-Soule had canning factories in Fayetteville and Chittenango and sold millions of the 10-cent packets of None Such Mince Meat every year. The cardboard boxes carried a drawing of a local woman, “Miss None Such,” proudly holding a mince pie. Miss None Such did the job for mince meat that Betty Crocker and the Jolly Green Giant did for their products.

Sources:
Onondaga Historical Association
The Post-Standard Newspaper Archives

Click here to see a cookie recipe using None Such Mince Meat.

Since I have off of work for employee appreciation and I am trying to recover from an upper respiratory thing, I don’t have anything exciting to blog about right now, so here’s another quiz I found on Liza’s blog, the result of which I thought was really funny!

You Are a Gingerbread House

A little spicy and a little sweet, anyone would like to be lost in the woods with you.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Things have gotten really bad at work as the firings began. I won’t even get into it. I wish we would get to firing the secretary because she is really messing things up, including my work schedule, but all in time I guess.

But I do have to show you what makes it all worthwhile.

Looking for the Gingerbread Man

These cute little adorable people. Their gingerbread man ran away from their room and they were looking for him. The little boy is the one who spotted him first!

Gingerbread Man found!

I am hopelessly in love with the little boy (on the right):

Seriously, I am head over heels in love with him. He has the *sweetest* personality, he is very expressive and very helpful. I have to get my fix of him several times a day in order for me to make it through the day. He tilts his head, raises his shoulders, smiles and bats his eyes at me, and I do the same to him. He also throws me kisses, as do the little girls. These kids get right into your heart and I want to see them grow up. So I have to stick with it.

P.S.  One day this little boy was crying (he *never* cries) so of course I dropped everything and picked him up.  Oh my, he is much heavier than he looks!  One very solid little boy, for sure!

I haven’t been talking about work because there are some major messes that need to be cleaned up and the major messes are making my life a living hell, seriously. The cleaning up will end up in the firing of a few people who are not good for the place. But we have to get new people in so I can have the secretary that I want (she’s worked there for years so I know she’s good), and etc. You know how it goes. . . So I haven’t been talking about it much. But yesterday my boss called down the stairs to me so I could see *the dog* in his latest outfit. And I had to go grab my camera. . .

Get the me the hell out of this outfit.  NOW.

There is a little tag at the top underneath the hood that says “IAM BAD.”

If you don’t take me out of this outfit now I’m going to show you just how bad I am.

Obviously my boss is a Miami Dolphins fan. I’m not, but I don’t tell her that!

I am so ticked about having that stupid outfit on for so long, I am going to chew this toy to bits.

Grrrrrrrrrrr. . .

He was flipping that dog up into the air while he was on his back. Unfortunately I didn’t capture it!