Monthly Archives: July 2013

Celebration! The Chooks Have Delivered

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Have I got something to tell you.

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My chooks, my beautiful chooks, after months of feeding them, have begun to deliver. Why do I call them “chooks?”  David and I have been watching a television series filmed in Australia about a group of women who farm a cattle, sheep and alpaca ranch.  It’s called McCleod’s Daughters and we watch it at least once a day. The women call the chickens on the ranch chooks.  I don’t know if that is the way Australians say chicks, or if that is what they call chickens.  Could someone from Australia let me know?  Anyway, we started calling our chicks, chooks.

This morning I went out to let the chooks out and saw a broken egg on the floor. The silly chook who laid it didn’t even get off the roost to lay her egg!  Then this afternoon after church I went out and there was a soft shelled egg under the roost.

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Later in the afternoon I was reading the paper and David came in and said he would let me find the first real egg because one of the hens was sitting in a nesting box.  I went out to check underneath her and all I felt was a plastic Easter egg.  Then while I was raking out their yard, I heard some really loud and very different clucks coming from the coop and I went to look and Penninah had laid an egg.  It was kind of small, but a perfect little egg.  I was so excited.

I had had a contest on my Facebook page to name my first egg.  A friend gave me a really good idea for the name so now you must meet her.

Meet Princess Ida Gottlaid.

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Like her crown?  Now I will be looking for eggs every day and soon we will be eating omelettes,  scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, eggs benedict and………..

Here’s to laying hens and a happy chicken keeper.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chicken Condo and Other Useless Things to Know

When David was building our chicken coop, he kept calling it the chicken condo. After he finished building it, I had to agree.  Our six chickens have a pretty nice place to live.  You saw the coop in past posts, but I have never shown you the inside.

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The hens have these pictures of handsome roosters to look at while they are roosting.  Wonder if they dream about them?

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On one wall hangs the door from David’s grandmother’s outhouse.  He helped his mom tear it down a few years ago and I wanted the door. Don’t know why, just did.  Outhouses are pretty much a thing of the past in most places and I thought it would be a neat reminder.  Just a note.  Grandma Henley’s rhubarb patch was directly behind her outhouse and she had the best rhubarb patch I have ever seen.  We use to go there and pick the rhubarb to make pie. Once the outhouse was gone, the rhubarb died.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

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David put up this cute shelf to hold all the medicines, organic sprays, garlic and food for the chickens.  He put it up high enough that the chickens can’t reach it.  Garlic, you ask?  Although you should never feed your chickens onions and garlic is part of the onion family, I learned that just a tiny bit in their feed stops mites and lice.  Also a little apple cider vinegar in their drinking water keeps them from getting worms.  So far, so good.

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David built this handicap ramp for Freedom so that she could get up with the other chickens when they roost at night. His idea and I think it was a good one although I have yet to see Freedom on it.  Are my chickens spoiled or what?

One of the best blogs I read about the care of chickens is called Fresh Eggs Daily.  I have learned so much from it.  Anyway, one of the posts tells what to do to get your chickens ready for laying in their nests instead of elsewhere.  Put an egg or rock or something egg shaped in the nest to draw their attention to the nesting box.

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What could be better than Easter Eggs?   They are the right shape and colorful enough to catch the chicken’s eyes.

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Every three or four weeks I sweep out the coop and spread new bedding.  First I spray the walls and floor with an organic orange and cinnamon spray that makes it smell so good. I got the recipe for it from Fresh Eggs Daily also.  I love when the coop is all clean and smells so fresh.  I almost want to lock the doors and not allow the chicks to get inside, but that would be wrong, wouldn’t it?

Something happened today that made me think we may be getting our first egg soon. I learned from Fresh Eggs Daily that when a chicken is about ready to lay, she will squat on the ground.  Today Penninah squatted on the ground and let me pet her, something she never does, so maybe, just maybe the due date is close at hand.  These girls are certainly late bloomers I must say.

I told you about a blouse I made this week and here it is.

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I love this blouse pattern.  It’s loose and floaty and feels so good on.  I have gotten compliments for other blouses I have made from this pattern. Now I probably won’t get any compliments and I will go and cry in a corner.  No, I won’t.  I’ll wear it in defiance.

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Love the bow at the neckline.

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The pattern calls for buttons down the front so I raided David’s button jars and found several blue buttons in different sizes and thought to myself that it would look cute with different size buttons down the front. Either people will think it looks cute or will think I was blind when I sewed them on.  I am blind in one eye.  I could use that for an excuse.

Well, that’s all for today.  Hope you all have a great weekend planned.  It will just be me and the chickens.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Amazing Corn Cutting Machine

Before I show you my amazing corn cutting machine I’d like to tell you what I have been up to for the last couple of days.  Yes, I have been freezing corn, but I have managed to catch up on some long awaited sewing that has been bugging me all Summer.

I started a quilt in the Spring and had to put it aside for quite a while since I had a graduation quilt to complete  and several door prizes to sew for our family reunion/anniversary party.  Now that those things are over, I am getting back into the swing of working on some new things.  I made a blouse the last couple of days.  I don’t have a picture of it yet, but will show you on another post.  It’s from a pattern that I have used to make several blouses.  It is really more of a smock type blouse, loose with full sleeves and a tie at the neck. This blouse is so comfortable to wear and so easy to make.

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I have to make ninety of these blocks plus cut out blocks to go between .  This is a fun quilt because I get to use up a lot of my different fabrics.  The squares measure six inch square.  It will be an old fashioned looking quilt I hope.

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I am pinning this quilt and this is all that I can show you because I am going to give it to someone.  I pinned it once and discovered the backing wasn’t big enough for it so I had to unpin it all and sew more borders on the backing and then repin it.  Errrrrrrgggg!!   Now it is going together nicely and I am looking forward to quilting it on my sewing machine.

Yesterday David and I shucked and froze sixteen quarts of sweet corn.  I told you about putting up corn on my old blog if you can find it.  Every time I do corn I forget just how sticky everything gets.  Thankfully we now have air conditioning or the job would have been unbearable.  I have frozen corn on very hot summer days without air conditioning. I think that is why I quit doing it for a few years.

My amazing corn cutting machine came in quite handy.  I have the only one in town so you won’t find it in the stores.  First I will show you the corn in the freezer and then you will be able to watch a video of my amazing corn cutting machine.

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It’s nice to know that when the snow is flying we can taste the wonderful taste of corn on the cob from our freezer.  I still have corn left over from last year so we are stocked up now.

Now for the amazing corn cutting machine.

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Click on above link, click on the link at the next screen to see the high speed corn cutting machine. Okay, so it’s not a machine.  But I felt like one.

Here’s to happy sewing and sweet corn.  Bye.

 

Knee Deep in Summer and the Girls

Summer is going too fast, isn’t it?  I have lived my life waiting for Summers although now I do love Autumn and Spring equally a well.  The lazy days of Summer when you go bare footed, don’t have to throw on a sweater or coat just to go outside.  The smell of new mown grass, the lavender in the garden.  The taste of the first ripe tomato out of the garden.  Dogs hiding from the hot sun under the deck. The sun on your face and feeling the coolness of water when you go swimming.  It’s all good.

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My garden is thriving.  The pumpkin vines are spreading all over everything.  I just may have pumpkins this year.  I haven’t had any luck with the big ones but have with  the small Jack-be-little pumpkins and I have grown hundreds of those.

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See that pumpkin among the leaves?  It makes me so excited.  I have planted a variety pack of pumpkins.  Some are suppose to be orange and some white.  I have plans for Halloween decorating if I have any white ones.

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The cucumbers are getting ahead of us.  I have never liked cucumbers.  I always try to grow some for David, but this year these cucumbers are so good and sweet I have been eating them a lot.   I even make cucumber sandwiches.  So British of me.  Try spreading chive and onion cream cheese on a cucumber slice and it is heaven.

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Every day I bring in nine or ten.  David takes them to work and gives them away.  I am going to take some to church Sunday and try to give them away to whomever wants some.

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The basil is doing well despite the dogs having dug it up by the roots.  Now I have to figure what I am going to do with it.  I have never made pesto, but I hear it is easy and is good.

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The flower garden is flourishing also.  I love this Perovskia.  It makes drifts of blue in the garden.  I am going to plant more of this next year.

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Years ago, my neighbor gave me a small Hibiscus plant.  This one plant has spread so that now there are several of these plants in the garden.  They are making a hedge along the garden path.

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Some are this color. These look almost like Rose of Sharon flowers.

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Shasta Daisies.  Another plant so easy to grow and transplant.  I have these in several places in the garden.

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Our Jack-in-the Beanstalk sunflower.  I have not planted one sunflower this year.  The birds did a fine job of doing it for me.  The Goldfinches sit on the flowers pecking away and dropping seeds for next year’s crop.

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I cannot close this post without talking about the girls.

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The chickens like the cucumbers as much as we do.

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This is Freedom. See her poor little twisted foot? Sometimes she can stand normally, but most of the time her foot is twisted under.  she can still get around quickly when she wants to.

 

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See Freedom hiding under the ramp?  The other chicks, the bullies, peck her sometimes and that is where she feels safe.

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I think Penninah is just beautiful.  She follows me all around the pen and always meets me at the gate when I go out there.DSCN6362

My camera intrigued her.  I read on another blog that if you put a mirror in the chicken pen they will enjoy looking at themselves.  I think I will do that.

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Chickens can take a patch of ground and turn it into this very quickly.  There were Irises growing in the pen when we first put the chickens out there and they ate them, bulbs and all.

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Hello, Penninah. You are my favorite chick, but don’t tell the others.

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Bonnie continues her vigil.  We had to reinforce the fence as she was trying to pull it down to

get to the chicks.  There are now three layers between her and the chickens.

Hope your Summer day is full of sunshine, ice cream and enjoying the beauty of nature.  Bye.

 

Epworth Forest Memories or Dave and Kate’s Excellent Adventures Part II

David and I celebrated our forty-fifth wedding anniversary this week.  David took a week’s vacation and we took some short trips and spent lazy days around the house and just enjoyed being together.

One of the things we did was drive north to look for antique stores and fabric shops.  We drove through beautiful countryside with fields of corn and soybeans growing thick and lush.  We saw some barn quilts, alpaca farms and shining lakes.

On this northern trip we drove through the town where my oldest brother use to live.  When I was a little girl, we use to make the drive there to visit and I remember when we went there to see my first nephew after he was born.  I was an aunt when I was five.  My baby brother was an uncle when he was less than four months old.  That is how spread out the children in my family are.

We arrived in North Webster, Indiana where the Methodist camp, Epworth Forest is.  When I was a teen-ager I went to camp there several years.  I wondered how much it had changed.  To my delight it hadn’t changed very much at all.

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We couldn’t drive into the actual camp because we weren’t registered to be there, but we drove around the area around the camp.

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This is the auditorium where all the campers gathered in the evening for worship services.  It was always packed with teen-agers.  All those hormones in one place.

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This is the lake where we swam and boated.  One summer one of my girlfriends and I discovered a rowboat with oars along the lake and took it out rowing without life jackets and me not knowing how to swim at the time.  No one told us we couldn’t take the boat so every day we would go get it and row  out into the middle of the lake by the island.  We always thought about getting on the island, but we were afraid we might get in trouble.  We never thought about the trouble we could get into for stealing someone’s rowboat.  No one ever told us we couldn’t.

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I was a Methodist for years, but my husband grew up Baptist so we decided we would try the Baptist church after we had been married for several years and we have been in a Southern Baptist church ever since. But the memories of Epworth Forest will always be with me.

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Boats come in at night for worship service.  I would have liked to see this, but we had to continue on.

We stopped at some stores with lake themes and a couple of antique stores and then we headed back south.

Of course I bought some fabric along the way even though I don’t need it.

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I am going to make curtains for the upstairs bathroom, but first I have to paint it.  Should I paint it rose or one of the greens in the fabric?

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Found this pattern I plan to make to hold my old clothespins.

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Saw this VW.  David and I had a VW when we were first married and I loved it.  I’ll take one in this color, please.

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My handsome chauffer drove us out of town.  We drove to Peru, Indiana under dark skies, lightening and light rain.  “I don’t think we should stop at any antique stores because it is raining,” David said.  “I’m up for it if you are,” I replied so we looked around town for antique stores.  Not finding any we started out of town on highway Nineteen when  out of the corner of my eye I saw a little brick building with an antique sign on it.  David turned the car around and we went back.  The lady in the store said she had another antique store back in town, so we headed to it.  We saw ambulances, fire trucks and police cars going the same direction we were.  Traffic was going very slowly and we saw flashing lights ahead.  After a long time we finally found the antique store.  It was a really wonderful one.  While I went in, David went out to see what was happening.  The young man in the store was talking on his cellphone about a tornado that had just gone through town.

Tornados evidently don’t stop me from antiquing because I found several treasures while I was there.  We told the young man we were heading out of town on highway Nineteen and he said, “No, you aren’t because it is closed because of the tornado passing through.  There are trees and limbs down all over it.”  He told us a route we could take to get out of town and we took it and left Peru thankful we had stopped at that first store or we may very well have been in the midst of the tornado.

We headed home tired and ready for our bed.  It was a fun trip and it is nice to get away, but home is best.

Here’s to long marriages, church camps and dodging tornados.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and it will come faster than we can turn around.  Here’s to church camps, long marriages and dodging tornados.  Bye.

 

Ten Things I Hope to do Before I Die

     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

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

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

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David grilled under an umbrella.

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Before pictures of my shop.

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

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Ah, grandsons, you gotta love them.

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

 

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

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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.

 

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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.

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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

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

 

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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.