{Gratitude for Thanksgiving 2014 - Like the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1621}

Yes, we both being 1st generation immigrants, do have a lot of Gratitude for Thanksgiving 2014! 

Being alive and healthy and living in freedom with new found Friends that became Family, is a Blessing. 

'Friends are family members without kinship'. -- Ronald Giphart Dutch writer

Like those 1621 Mayflower Pilgrims who celebrated Thanksgiving for God's goodness.

Thanksgiving By Jennie A. Brownscombe ←click it

What a fate for half of those passengers that survived the sea and the first harsh winter...

And what a FEAST after those Mayflower conditions:

Sleeping with 80 persons in a cabin made to hold 30 people...

Food - Ship's biscuits that were infested by roaches, weevils and maggots...

Warm meals were too risky because they would set the sails at fire due to winds blowing those flames...

For 66 - Sixty Six days living like that!

The Pilgrims Come to the New World - Mayflower Conditions ←click it for excerpt above and below.

Indeed, after a Prosperous Growth during the Summer of 1621 they had a Thanksgiving Celebration for God's goodness... Only 50 pilgrims survived of the original 102

The Food - Wild turkey etc.

No wonder that this became a NATIONAL FEAST - Thanksgiving History (←click it and just scroll down)

as early as 1777 but without an official Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt did just that in 1941.
PILGRIMS, NOT PURITANS...

Often those early Mayflower PILGRIMS are being confused with the later PURITANS

Pilgrims, Not Puritans ←click it

     The story behind the first U.S. Thanksgiving  ←click it to link of the above

Wishing all American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Related links:
Samoset 1590-1653 | information about this great Native American Diplomat!

List of Mayflower passengers | check those names of passengers that came from Leiden, South Holland in The Netherlands

Mayflower Compact | list of 41 male aboard and list of those that died at sea 

Mayflower passengers who died at sea November/December 1620

List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620–1621

Thanksgiving Day: Pilgrims were a surprisingly worldly, tolerant lot | Great Information!
The Red Friends of the Pilgrims
{No fewer than 7 American Presidents are Direct Descendants of the Leiden, Netherlands PILGRIMS}| previous post by me
{Happy Thanksgiving - From Pilgrim to President} | previous post by me

{Black Gum Nyssa Sylvatica Cut Down}

On November 5, I thought why not make some photos of our Black Gum Nyssa Sylvatica before it will be cut down... Later in the day, indeed Rodney from Soles Tree Service, did call to let us know they would start first thing in the morning at our property! 

We can call that JIT = Just In Time; I captured this large tree!

The reason we had to cut it down was obvious; it did clog up the entire gutter from our tiled patio.
Also leaving lots of leaves between our pot plants.

No more leaves that clog up the gutter or fall on the patio and even getting blown into our garage...

You can see where the gutter is, to the left of the tiled patio...
That was part of our extensive Water Control project.

Bye bye Black Gum Tree; you stayed with us since 1990!

Rodney Soles is a certified Arborist and his crew of five did an excellent job!

Removing the tree's limbs on the one side, on which they would let it fall down...

SOLES TREE SERVICE has the equipment needed. Here the rope gets tied to the machine...

The man climbs into his seat for starting to pull it down...

He is backing up the machine, while his colleague starts to cut the tree on the other side...

Our Black Gum Tree is being toppled...

There it goes...

Almost down...

Totally down!

Grinding up the stump...

Photo taken six days later, on November 12, and you cannot even tell we once had a large Black Gum Tree or Nyssa Sylvatica in that spot!

Did you notice that the front patio is nearly empty?
Our pot plants reside inside the greenhouse till spring comes.
We have to climb the ladder for getting some leaves out of the gutter as you can see between the two windows. No more leaves that can cause problems in that area.

Related link:

{65 Year Old Pine Tree Cut Down} | previous post by me from December 2013
{Our Patio Tiles in the Front} | previous post by me about the completion of our Water Control project

{Happy Weekend from Our Pond Area}

Wishing you all a cozy and happy weekend! 
Photo is taken on August 12, from our Pond Area.

This shows still the low hanging branches of the huge oak tree, hanging deep over the pond...