Monthly Archives: June 2013

The Blogger Who Can’t Spell

Posted on June 17, 2013 by jolynnpowers

For those of you who are reading this blog for the first time, I will explaine a little more about myself. I have been recently contacted again about my blogs spelling and grammitcal errors… let me put all the rummors and helpful statments to rest… I CAN’T SPELL…This is my disablity.

people who love us dont see our disablities just our ablity to love

people who love us don’t see our disabilities just our ability to love

Ok, now that we understand each other, let me also explain why,I have a form of Dyslexia called Disgraphia. It causes problems with short-term memory and graphic recall. I can read fine and really enjoy it as a hobbie. But the same skills that it takes to read are unrelated to spelling. Hard to beleive, I know, but when I read I only identify only about half the word and by its shape and size and context my brain is able to understand its meaning and moves on. I never really see each individual letter while reading. Then, add in the fact that my brain recalls letters and numbers in the wrong order and presents them to me in a jumble, I have a terrible time remembering what words look like. So I have spent my life trying to hide, correct, learn, memorize… millions of words that no matter what I try to do end up coming out of my damaged recall system… in a mess.

The fact that I even attempt to write on my Face Book wall or write on a blog is maybe a little on the crazy side. I constantly miss spell simple third grade words that anyone in the world knows are the basic building blocks for communication. But I continue to gain friends and readers of my blog. I at some point in my life I made PEACE with myself and my situation…. I am not a technician of language, I am not a professional writer (thank GOD) I am a Mom who has, in some strange twist of fate, found that she LOVES to write. Yea, kind of like having no legs and learning that you love to ski.

You find a way… I have found a voice and a place to, lets say improve, my skills. Word Press and its freedom and tools have allowed me to have a space in the universe where I can share my world and stories.It is freeing to write without a person leaning over me ( a thousand teachers) saying with red pen in hand, “you misspelled this or that” or “that is not the correct usage for that verb”. I do try to correct what I can and manage my grammar, but let’s get real… I am not good at it! I don’t get paid to reread my own words forty or fifty times. So Please stop informing me that I have spelling and grammar errors, I already know. 16 years of education didn’t fix it, I am positive that rude statements will not either.

I have lovely friends and family that are grammar Nazi’s. They chose to not read my blog and I am fine with that. it is grating on their nerves to read and try to not correct every one of my mistakes. I love them for their honesty and wish that I had their skills. I also have die-hard fans who read and enjoy my stories and photos without much comment about my spelling. I love their support and understanding and am glad they “GET IT”.

Maybe to your surprise I am educated, I have a B.A. degree and graduated from college with honors… my lack of spelling skills has never stopped me from pursuing my dreams and attempting to share what I love. It also does not lower my intelligence. Dyslexia has actually given to me many wonderful things, one of the most important is tolerance. I know what discrimination feels like. I understand being segregated from others because you are different and I have learned to work around my disability and at times over come it.

Word Press is the perfect place for me. I can write when and where I want. I can write about any topic and share what is real and important to me. I can write with my own misspelled voice. Word Press is freedom from over bearing institutions,where my words fly out of my finger tips. I love my blog and that I can find a creative freedom here that was lost in the 4 years of college and the twelve-years of public education. It is my freedom from the grammar Nazi’s in the world. Finally, I hope that this has enlightened my readers.That maybe it is something deeper than laziness and lack of attention to detail that causes a person to misspell. Thank you for your time reading this, it is my goal to improve my skills. I just hope that in 5 years I am a better writer then I am now.

JoLynn Powers

Categories: About me, Dislexia, Friendship, history, Uncategorized, writing | Tags: dislexia, education, friendship, spelling | 16 Comments

A Senior Horse Still Has Much to Offer

Posted on June 10, 2013 by jolynnpowers

A Senior Horse Still Has Much to Offer

Jasper is a branded Quater Horse who has seen thousands of miles. At age 19, leg and knee pain has slowed him down. Yet, today he showed what a gental and loving animal he really is when my husband finished his trim and picked up my 4 year old son and with out thought put in on his back for a ride around the round pen. He is a One in a life time animal and we are so happy to be part of his life

Categories: Christopher, equine health, Farrier work., Horses, Photos | 2 Comments

Wild Turkey, and our the dinner table

Posted on June 6, 2013 by jolynnpowers

Turkey season in West Virginia starts on the first week of May and runs through to the end of the month. My Husband started hunting the timid birds as teen with some success, but had taken many years off from hunting them recently. With more time to pursue hunting, Tom thought it would nice to see if turkeys were still in the area. Within two trips to the woods he brough home this. A nice gobbler that was not to old to eat and enjoy.

Tom and Christopher with years first wild turkey

Then my husband teased our older son Cody “you need to see if you could keep up with the old man” and get one for himself. Well in “show up my dad style” my son also got his turkey the very next day. Two large gobblers in two days what a great weekend.

So early friday morning I got my first lesson on wild turkey cleaning, processing and cooking. With the help of family friends, we were able to get a quick lesson on cleaning a turkey.Ken suggested that we “NOT CLEAN” the whole bird. “You will only need to clean the whole bird if you are not going to roast it” he stated.Ken also suggested that we only “remove the breast and thighs of the bird to eat and leave the rest.” So by mid morning,working on the tail gate of our pick up, my husband and I removed the parts of the bird that we planed to eat. We also removed the tail fathers and wings for crafts with natural fathers. By skinning the bird instead of plucking it, the entire process took less than 20 minutes we had no feathers to remove and no entrails to clean up. The meat was fresh and clean and ready to eat or freeze quicker then I could drive to the local store to buy meat.

With the meat removed, washed and frozen. I started the process of looking and asking friends about their favorite Wild Turkey recipes. Wild Turkey is extremely low in fat and moisture and can easily be over cooked. So, with this in mind I went to the National Wild Turkey Federations web site for help…at www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/recipes.php. They have a nice collection of recipes and Tom and I chose one for Turkey cutlets.

The process is very simple and the list of ingredients is short, almost everyone will have these items in their home. All of these items can switched out with store-bought organics… making a 100% organic main course

2 whole wild turkey breasts

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/3 bottle of zesty Italian salad dressing ( I use Wishbone)

1/4 of a pound real butter

First take the wild turkey breast and cut slices across the grain of the meat about 1/4 of an inch thick. The slices will vary in size, some large and some small. I also cut the tender strip of meat that is on the back of the breast and removed the tough tissues from its middle section before cooking.

Place all the these pieces into a gallon zip lock bag adding enough zesty italian salad dressing to cover the turkey and mix dressing into the meat to cover every piece.

Let sit in refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Turkey cutlets after marinading for 3 hours

Turkey cutlets after 3 hours in marinade

heat 3 teaspoons butter in large skillet and roll cutlets in remaining ingredients of flour, salt and pepper mixture.

Fry cutlets over low heat until turkey is firm and is easily picked up with a fork. This may take more time for larger cutlets and short time for smaller ones.

Wild turkey rolled in coating mixture

Turkey cutlets cooking

Brown them slowly on both sides( low to low-med heat) adding butter as needed. I remove the first batch to a paper towel covered plate, putting them in a 200 deg oven to keep warm, as I fry the next batch of turkey. Two breasts easily feeds 4 to 5 adults and we have found that the kids love these home-made turkey tenders also.When serving the cutlets if they are not cooked to long, we omit any sauces. But, if you like to dip chicken/ turkey in a sauce we used honey mustard, and it was very good.

The flavor of the turkey is mild, yet more buttery then domestic turkey, cooked this way it has become a family favorite. As of this weekend, we have eaten every bite of the 4 turkey breasts the boys brought home this spring. My family will have to wait until next year to have this dinner again, and that is a long time coming. Now I may just have to get my gun out and get my own next year.

Happy hunting and cooking, hope to have another Wild Turkey recipe posted soon.Wild Turkey Pot Pie… this one is our own family creation. I just have to redo the spices and type up some thing our family already loves.