Author Archives: Snickelfritz

About Snickelfritz

I am a wife, mother, grandmother, quilter, walker, reader, gardener, painter, knitter and Jill of many trades. I have two of the sweetest Labs and a wonderful husband who aides me in my addiction to fabric.

Ten Things I Hope to do Before I Die

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Some people have bucket lists. I just have a wish list. I know my mother had a wish to go to England before she died, but she never made it. I am going to make a list and try to complete it before I die. It will be a challenge, but I am up for it. Here is my list.

1. I hope to go to Alaska at least one more time. I would love to rent a cabin and just stay in one place and explore the area really well. I am thinking Haines, Alaska. I read a book about a woman who lived there and it sounds like a small town I would like to get to know.

2. I hope to go to England. David and I have talked about taking a boat over and renting a car and driving all over the countryside looking at the beautiful gardens and castles and eating in the pubs. We are aiming for our fiftieth wedding anniversary to do that. Hope we will still be in good health and David is still a good driver by then.

3. I would like to get a book published. I have written many things about growing up on our Indiana farm. I have also written a series of stories for my grandchildren. Maybe one day I will seek to get them published.

4. I hope to get another Labrador retriever. We have two right now and Bonnie is getting old. I always want a dog around and I love labs the best of all the breeds.

5. I hope to see all my grandchildren grow up and become good citizens and godly people.

6. I want to dance at all my grandchildren’s weddings.

7. I hope to see a cure for MS and a medicine that alleviates the pain of arthritis forever. I have loved ones who suffer from these diseases.

8. I hope to see a great revival in this country. People turning back to God and finding the peace only He can give.

9. I would love to fly in one of those giant Army planes that fly over our heads every once in a while. Wonder how I could get that accomplished. Anyone know?

10. I hope to be a size eight or ten before I die without getting sick to do it. But my love of sweets and ice cream are holding me back from this. I have said to David many times that if I make it to eighty years old, I am going to eat ice cream every single day. I almost do that now so it won’t be hard to do.

This is just a partial list of things I hope to do. What do you hope to do before you die? Bye.

Ten Things I Won’t Do Before I Die

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I sit around, well maybe I don’t sit around, but I think a lot whatever I am doing and I wondered just lately what were some of the things I know I will absolutely not do before I die. Here’s my list.

1. I will never bungee jump. Period. I think it is the craziest thing anyone has ever thought up and I will not put myself in the position of heading face first into a river, lake or into cement on a very flimsy rope that may or may not break.

2. I will never have another baby. Well, that is pretty much impossible although miracles do happen. Let’s just say I hope God doesn’t perform that miracle for me at this stage in my life as I would die trying to raise a teen-ager in my seventies.

3. I will never ride a roller coaster. Not even the kiddie ones at King’s Island or the county fair. Unless you count the runaway railroad at Disney World as a roller coaster and I would ride that over and over again. Any coaster that takes me up higher than twenty feet and drops me suddenly will not have me sitting in one of its seats.

4. I will never get married again. When you have reached perfection in your life mate, anyone else who comes along will always be second best and I won’t take second best. (I know, I may eat my words one day, but it is very doubtful.)

5. I will never be a millionaire and I don’t care.

6. I will not drive cross country by myself. I don’t like to drive anyway and prefer to have someone with me when I go anywhere so unless I can find someone who would dare ride with me cross country, it isn’t going to happen. With me driving, we may not make it across alive. Any takers???

7. I will never be able to jump hurdles again. When I was in elementary school, I use to jump the high school hurdles all the time. We had contests and I always won. This behind is not getting over a hurdle any time soon.

8. I will never climb Mount Everest. I have always admired mountain climbers and thought it would be wonderful to reach the peak of a high mountain. I guess if I started training now maybe this one I could do, but probably not.

9. I will never jump out of an airplane, tandem or otherwise. Just the thought of standing at the door of an airplane and flinging myself out makes my stomach queasy.

10. I will never be in the military. I’m in God’s army. Does that count? That is one thing I kind of regret I didn’t do. It would have been better for me than the college classes I took and I think I would have made a darn good soldier, sailor or airman. David and I could share stories about our military days. But I stayed home and kept the home fires burning and raised the children while David spent his time working for the military. I am proud of him for that.

So, these are things I know I will never do. Do you have some things you know you will never do before you die? I would be interested in hearing them. Next I will post the ten things I want to do before I die. Bye.

A Sexy Old Lady and Other Things

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This weekend because our house is one hundred years old and because we have been married for forty-five years and because we wanted to get some friends and family together, David and I had a party.

I had sent out invitations to many family members and invited my Sunday school class and my best friend from high school and her husband. Most of them came. We planned to have a cookout. It rained.

Happily, David and I had made contingency plans for bad weather and had set up chairs and tables in our house and in my shop for about forty people. Every chair was filled. It was a great time and we had fun. I hope everyone enjoyed the day. I felt so blest.

Here are a few snapshots from the day

David grilled under an umbrella.

Before pictures of my shop.

This is one of my nieces. She is so sweet.

Ah, grandsons, you gotta love them.

Three friends from church. Aren’t they cute? You can just tell they are fun to be around.

My best friend from high school and her husband. She was telling tales about me to my daughter sitting with her.

I met family members I had never met. Another red-headed boy. I told him I was partial to red heads, which I am. I could kick myself because I neglected to take pictures of those eating in the house.. I was too busy reminiscing with everyone that I forgot to take pictures. Two of my mother’s sisters were here who I don’t see very often. They can tell so many things about my mother that I didn’t know. I didn’t get their pictures. I hope someone did.

Anyway, David and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Is that a giant pimple on my head? Someone needs to pop it.

Years ago, I gave this book to a friend on her fiftieth birthday.

When I turned fifty, she gave it back to me. One day I will give it to someone else turning fifty.

I love Judith Viorst. She wrote a lot of children’s books. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” was checked out of the library several times while my children were growing up. There is a poem in this book that I would like to share. My sentiments exactly.

A Sexy Old Lady

I’m intending to grow up to be a sexy old lady,

With a gleam in my eye and lace on my underpants.

Never vulgar, of course, but a perfumed and pedicured lady

Whose passions persist long long after the age of romance.

I’m intending to walk around town as a sexy old lady,

The kind that no Boy Scout need hurry to help cross the street.

With a light-hearted bounce that announces now here comes a lady

Who knows all the steps to the dance and has not lost the beat.

I’m intending to finish my days as a sexy old lady,

Yes, spiritual too-and compassionate, wise, mature, droll.

But along with that high-minded stuff I shall still be a lady

Aware of the joys that lie just slightly south of the soul.

I’m intending to go to my grave as a sexy old lady,

There’ll be plenty of time for propriety after I’m dead.

So, if heaven has answered my prayers,

I expect to be found, around eighty, upstairs

With my sexy old husband nestled beside me in bed.

Thank you, Judith Viorst.

Bye.

Forty-five Years

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David and I keep telling each other we can’t be old enough to have been married forty-five years, but this Sunday we are celebrating that anniversary. Forty-seven years ago we started dating and we got serious pretty quickly. I knew this was the man for me. He was my soul mate. No other guy did anything for me. It was like all through high school I was waiting for the right guy to come along and my junior year David came to my high school.

David’s parents had moved to the Virgin Islands and he didn’t want to go there his senior year, so he moved in with his aunt and uncle for the year. That didn’t work out so he moved in with his grandparents later. I knew all his family as I had grown up in the same town. He sat behind me at our first football game, we went to a movie the next Sunday, he gave me a “steady” ring and the rest is history. I know some people think we were much too young to know what we wanted, but we knew.

Fast forward through all the years and here we are. A good time to remember our wedding day. Here are a few pictures from that day. My Uncle Russell took most of the pictures. We didn’t have professional photographers at weddings back then. Somehow it seems better that way to have a family member catch the moments.

I looked like an angel in this picture. Boy, did I have David fooled.

My sister, Joanne and David’s brother, Bill were our only attendants. The dresses were made by a seamstress in town. My colors were pink and white.

We were married by two pastors. I liked the pastor we had, but I also wanted to be married by the pastor under whom I became a church member and was saved. I loved Reverend Stockinger. He was truly a godly man. So maybe that is why our vows took so solidly. No, I just think we took our vows seriously.

My daddy said he just could not give one of his daughters away so my oldest brother, Jack, gave me away. Jack has since passed away. I miss him.

I loved my cake. It was iced in a basket weave and was so pretty. I don’t remember tasting it. I was in a daze that day.

My sister wore a pink dress, pink hose and pink shoes. She did that just for me.

Is that a look of adoration or what? My sister-in-law was about to give birth. My niece and David’s sister look so little. Oh my.

We left the church to get in the car to drive around town honking the horn. David’s brother drove and because he lived in the Virgin Islands, he forgot he was supposed to drive on the right side of the road and we rode out of town on the left side screaming at him to get over. We died laughing over that.

After the reception, we went to get our car. David had parked it at the Stuckey’s where I worked at the time thinking it would be safe from getting decorated. We were wrong.

My co-workers had made sure we would not escape and decorated the car to include bottle caps in the hubcaps that made a racket when we drove away. David finally had to stop and remove the hubcaps and take them out before we went on our honeymoon.

Ah, sweet love. Forty-five years later it is as strong as ever. Happy anniversary, David. You have made my life wonderful just being in it. Love you.

Happy Birthday Daddy

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Some people are blessed with a good father and I was one of them. Okay, I didn’t always appreciate him when I was growing up, but in hindsight he did a pretty amazing job of instilling a good work ethic, morals and a love of God and country in all his children.

My dad was pretty handsome.. He had brown hair and blue eyes that just got bluer the older he became. He would only have to look at me sternly with those eyes to make me behave. I would be crushed if he said anything to me unkindly which wasn’t often. I have a grandson who reminds me so much of my dad. He has his ears and his eyes. Hope he grows up to be like him.

My dad was the youngest in a family of girls. He had an older brother who died from tetanus so being the only boy left and having older sisters made daddy a spoiled little boy. By the way, that tall man is my Uncle Russell who was married to my Aunt Mid. Aunt Ruth is on the left and Aunt Clara is on the right. My grandparents are sitting. Why didn’t people smile in photos back then? They all look like they are being punished.

Daddy grew up in the roaring twenties, was married at the age of eighteen in the midst of the depression and was a farmer all his life. He had a side job working in a factory, but farming was his life. I loved following Daddy around on the farm although I didn’t get to often because he didn’t want me around the machinery. I helped him pluck chickens, haul hay, and work in the garden. I loved riding on the tractor with him. He taught me about animals and how to care for them(somewhere I missed learning about the chickens.) He worked all the time and was only in the house for meals most days. When he would take a few minutes to play basketball with my brothers in the haymow or to make caramel corn or sit at the piano and play the one song he could play because he never had lessons, it was always fun. Don’t think Daddies aren’t important to their kids because they are. We were watching him and learning just like kids do and he taught us kids a lot. The most important thing he taught us was that he loved our mother and she came first. When he would grab her and kiss her we would act embarrassed, but really we loved seeing him do it.

Daddy played basketball in high school. Wish this were in color so I could see the school colors.

This is Daddy with my Aunt Ruth. I love this picture. Aunt Ruth really does look elegant. I always thought she was a good dresser and she always smelled good. I don’t know what perfume she used, but I liked it. She was a gentle soul and so was my daddy. I very rarely saw either of them angry. I only got one spanking I can remember from my daddy because I had sassed my mother. You treated Mother with respect around Daddy. Or anytime for that matter.

I love this picture just because everyone is wearing hats This is Daddy and Mom with my oldest brother and sister. I’m not sure where this picture was taken. Mom always dressed herself and us kids well even when there wasn’t much money.

Mom and Daddy lived over fifty years together. They loved each other and I am sure they are together in Heaven now. I remember that purse Mom is holding. It was tapestry. She always got a new purse at Christmas. They make a nice looking couple. Gosh, Mom looks like my sister Joanne in this picture. Forgive me I am getting a little teary eyed, but I still miss them. Mom and I use to lock horns occasionally but now I know it’s because I was so much like her. Stubborn and wanting to do things my way. I am more like her than I ever thought I would be. You know, you say,” I won’t be like my mother,” and you turn into your mother? I hope I am like my daddy in many ways also because he was a good, godly man.

Anyway, it’s Daddy’s birthday. He would have been ninety-eight this year. Happy Birthday, Daddy. I love you. See you soon.

Hollyhocks Around the Barn Door

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Growing up on our Indiana farm one had to find their own entertainment. We didn’t have DVDs, cell phones, Ipods, and very few channels on the television. I was good at finding things to do around the farm. I was never bored.

Growing outside my parents’ bedroom window were a group of hollyhocks. I loved these flowers for one thing only, I could make little ladies with them.

This is how I made them. When I was a girl, I took little sticks and fastened the flower bloom to the flower bud and then I would have a lovely little lady. This one seems to have a nose and a topknot.

I would play under the hollyhocks for hours making these little ladies. Mother never seemed to mind that I was using all her hollyhocks for play. Now we have hollyhocks in our garden. A few years back there were two houses down the road and across the railroad tracks where people lived. I use to ride my bicycle down the lane by their houses and see the gardens that were growing there. Then the people all moved out and the fire department came and burned down the houses for practice. A gravel pit was going in where the houses had stood. David and I walked back there after the houses were gone and saw all the flowers that were left, so we took shovels and pails and dug up several hollyhocks and brought them home. Since then, they have flourished and reseeded themselves so that I have several pretty old fashion hollyhocks growing in my garden.

I love flowers that reseed themselves and are so easy to grow. Hollyhocks never disappoint although they do get bugs on their leaves that will eat them until they look like lace, but we spray them now so they stay pretty.

A few years back I found a quilt pattern called Hollyhocks Around the Barn. Wish I could tell you who the designer was or the quilt magazine where I found the pattern, but I can’t. Anyway, I made the quilt and loved how it turned out. Since we had a red barn on the farm, I made the barn in the middle of the quilt a burgundy reddish color.

I loved how it turned out. I had folded it away and forgotten about it until recently. The hollyhocks in my garden reminded me.

The real hollyhocks fade right into the background of the quilt. It’s amazing how similar the colors are.

I quilted the center “barn” just like our old barn at home with three doors and the windows above.

It’s a simple square and rectangle pattern. If I can find the pattern, maybe I will make another. Even though I already have about six or seven quilts I am working on.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch Bonnie keeps her constant vigil on the chickens. If just one of them would fly the coop she thinks. Sorry, Bonnie, their wings have been clipped. But keep on dreaming.

Here’s to hollyhocks, barns and watchful dogs. Bye.

She Fooled Me

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Freedom fooled me today. I go out to the chicken coop every day and check on feed and water. I opened the door and saw Phoebe standing there so I started looking for Freedom. Phoebe is the chicken that usually freaks out when she sees me. She peeks around the chicken house whenever I am in their yard so I was surprised she just stood there looking at me. Freedom wasn’t in the house. I searched all around the yard and then back in the house and could not find her. I was beginning to think a hawk had gotten her. I went back into the house and suddenly, I realized it wasn’t Phoebe standing there as nice as you please, but Freedom. She looked just like Phoebe. They can play the twin trick on me now since they are identical. Poly-visol has done wonders for that bird.

Also today I heard a lot of cackling coming from the yard and thought maybe, just maybe there would be an egg. I looked everywhere, but none yet. Really, I am getting obsessed in finding that first egg. Considering it will cost about one hundred dollars, it should really be a delicious egg. Believe me there will be flags flying, fireworks and a parade when I find my very first organic egg. That’s all for today. Bye.

Headless chicken grows in head backwards.

Through the Garden Gate

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Those who know me well, know I love to garden. In the Summer if you are trying to get hold of me, you will find me outside in the garden, weeding, planting, transplanting, watering or mowing. The garden is something that if you allow to go for a few days, will get away from you. If I never did anything in my back garden ever again, we would soon have a forest of Redbud and Maple trees as the seedlings are growing all over and have to be pulled out of the flower beds. My garden would soon become like in the book, The Secret Garden, a mass of overgrown flowers, weeds and trees. Then a little English girl from India would have to discover it and find two boys to help her clean it up and make it a beautiful garden again.

As it is, for right now, the garden is under control, but tomorrow will be another day of weeding, cutting small trees and mulching. I love it. Hope your garden is growing well even if it is only the garden in your mind. Bye.

One Flew Over the Chicken Coop or Getting Your Wings Clipped

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My dad raised thousands of chickens in his time. He ordered about one hundred chickens every year for as long as I can remember and every year, for some reason, he had to order one hundred more. Probably because we had chicken for dinner almost every Sunday and some of the chickens made the mistake of getting into the lane where the pigs were and were a tasty treat for the pigs.

I guess as a kid you don’t pay a lot of attention to things that are happening around you sometimes so I didn’t realize chickens were good flyers.

Yesterday I let the chickens out as usual. I opened their little door and they all marched down their little ladder and began to peck in the dirt. I locked their gate and began to go back to the house when I saw Beatrice, or was it Dorcas, strutting around in the yard. The dogs noticed her also and began to chase her and, as what has become common around here, I began to scream at the dogs and tried to get the chicken from them. They had her down once and I screamed so loudly, Belle backed off and Bonnie looked stunned. By that time David, my knight in shining armor had arrived to grab the dogs’ collars. Beatrice, or was it Dorcas, strutted on as if nothing had happened. I managed to catch her and get her back into the pen.

“We are going to have to clip their wings,” David said. Now I have never clipped a chicken’s wings and I don’t remember ever seeing my daddy do so. It sounded cruel and inhumane. So I got on the net and saw many sites where they showed you how to clip chickens wings. If you clipped them too short, they could bleed badly. I got a sick feeling in my stomach, but I knew we were going to have to do it.

I got a pair of sharp scissors and David and I went out to the pen. Three of the chickens were in the house and easy to catch. The other two were a little harder. We didn’t clip Freedom’s wings because she uses them to balance herself on her bad leg. You have to be careful what wings you clip and you only clip one wing. This imbalances the chicken so it cannot fly. I sat in a lawn chair and held the chicken and spread its wing and David did the cutting. It’s really like clipping your nails. Just don’t get too close to the blood veins or the chicken will bleed badly. The chickens looked a little startled and fluffed themselves up. I saw Beatrice, or is it Dorcas, later trying to fly and she couldn’t get off the ground. Good. Mission accomplished. One more thing I don’t have to worry about.

A few days ago we were watching the chickens and David said, “That one chicken looks more like a rooster.” Now when we bought the chicks at Rural King we thought we bought all pullets. Suddenly the chicken made a roostery sound. Oh, oh. Hope it’s just a girl chicken trying to sound masculine because we can’t keep a rooster. Too noisy. If he/she is a rooster he/she will have to find a new home. We will just have to wait and see. Still no eggs yet, but it should be happening soon.

Here’s to runaway chicks and clipping their wings. Bye

Grandma’s Camp 2013 or How to Lose Your Mind in Three Short Days

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Okay, that last bit on my post was just my crazy sense of humor. This has been such a busy, hectic, fun, crazy few days. It started Saturday with a bunch of kids coming to swim in our pool. They all had a lot of fun. On Father’s Day, we had some of our children and grandchildren here for swimming and a cook out. Then three of the boys stayed for another three days. All of them are under seven. Need I say more.

We tried to pack a month’s worth of activity in three short days. Monday we took the boys to the Croc store to buy them all Crocs so that we wouldn’t be fastening sandals all the time and they could get them dirty and we could just wash them off. We took them to the park to play. We took them to the army museum near our home where they learned just how many of the army vehicles their Grandpa had driven during his thirty-six years in the Army National Guard. Then we took them to a lake where they bothered an old man fishing so we didn’t stay long there. They painted birdhouses that their Grandpa had built for them. They actually got more paint on the birdhouses than on themselves or me. They helped with the chickens. They swam for hours. We took them to McDonald’s where I haven’t eaten in years. Had forgotten how good a Big Mac is. They sat in the hot tub. They played Dizzios. I took them for a two mile walk. They picked cherries to feed the chickens. They swam some more. They watched a movie(only because Grandpa and Grandma needed a break.) That was just Sunday evening and Monday.

On Tuesday we took them to a really great place in our town called the Kid’s Commons. It’s a place where kids can do all kinds of things like make giant bubbles, do experiments, play games, build things, crawl in and out of secret places, and get flushed down a giant toilet. Yes, a giant toilet, but it is actually a slide. It is advertised as the world’s largest toilet. Our town needs to be known for something. The boys loved it. We spent almost three hours there before lunch. Then we took them to another great place in our town called Zaharako’s, a wonderful old fashioned ice cream parlor. It has a calliope they play every so often and a wonderful old time soda fountain. We almost lost this wonderful place before a man in our town decided to return it to its former glory. The calliope had been stored somewhere in California and he found it and brought it back and had it installed once again in the parlor. The boys had root beer floats and ice cream with a cherry on top after their lunch. By that time, David remembered we were parked in a three hour parking place and we had been gone for four and a half hours. We walked to the car fearing we would find a parking ticket on our windshield, but we were lucky we did not have one. Whew. Then we came home and we tried to get the boys to rest for a while, but no one slept. We had had a major meltdown Monday evening because all the boys were so tired and we didn’t want it to happen again. But all was well for the rest of the day. The boys spent hours in the pool. I think they must have jumped into the pool a few hundred times and our two youngest started to learn to swim. A great difference from last year when our youngest grandson was afraid of the water.

Today at seven o’clock, the older grandson and me were in the hot tub. Soon the others joined us. Then I went back to take water to the chickens and Bonnie got in the pen and grabbed my lame chicken, Freedom. I got her away from her and then she grabbed her again. All the time I was screaming for David to come help me as Bonnie is a very big, strong dog. We finally got her out of the pen and I went to check on Freedom and she was none the worse for wear. The second time in a week she has been attacked by our dogs. Gonna have to be more careful going in and out of the pen. Freedom is one tough little chicken.

We took the boys to the steakhouse for lunch and then drove the two youngest home where the boys played with their pygmy goats and looked at their chickens. We then took the last grandson to a friend’s house. Driving home David said, “Do you hear that?” I said, “What?” and he said, “The quiet.” Yes, I heard it and it kind of made me sad. I miss them already, but the quiet is nice.

Here are a few pictures from Grandma’s Camp.

Cousins swimming.

Hot tubbing.

Peter Pan flying.

The soda fountain. Even the cash registers look old but are computerized. The young man at the register goes to our church. The red head in the forefront is one of our grandboys.