Today would have been my Dad’s 97th birthday. A man who believed our world could address peace, he would be horrified at our current world state. As a young cadet at the University that is now Virginia Tech, a cadet by requirement then, he was called from school with his classmates to serve in Europe in WWII. Upon his return to college after the war, as a veteran, not having to be in the Cadet Corp, he met and married my Mom, lived on campus in an Airstream trailer park set up for returning vets who married. It was there that I came into their lives a month before he was to graduate. Class of 1943, actual graduation date, December 1947.
As an adolescent, my family joined my uncle and his family at an Conference Center in the mountains off the Shenandoah Valley and it started an annual pilgrimage to Shrine Mont until the year he passed from our lives at the age of 92. That trip often fell on the week of his birthday or the week following as it was always the first full week of August. Many birthday parties were held there with family and friends that gathered for a week each year. The August after his death, we as a family gathered again, toasted his life and the lives of the other’s from his generation that had gathered with us, all gone by then and we left his ashes in those mountains that he loved to hike.
The remaining children of that generation, when possible, continued the tradition and our children joining us at times. Baptisms, weddings, and memorials have been held in the outdoor stone chapel.
Not this year. The facility is operating on a limited scale, using only cottages with kitchens, families who can’t travel or visit for fear of passing or catching the pandemic virus are not able to join together this year. The 8 bedroom log cottage we shared not used because it doesn’t have a kitchen.
He stood proudly on those steps with his children, children in law, grandchildren, grandchildren in law, nieces and nephews. The last patriarch of that crew. We are much older now, but that is the last group photo I have from there and try as I might, I can’t place the year, maybe his 80th birthday so 17 years ago. A few of those people are gone, a lot more added. My stepmom is the Matriarch by marriage, I guess I am by birth, now only 7 years younger than he was in that picture.
I miss his wisdom, his wit, his corny jokes, his gentle, loving spirit. May he live on in all who loved him and all he loved.
Because of the dreaded virus ravaging our country, we had been unable to meet our newest grandson, born in January. Initially we didn’t want to add any stress to their lives with their household of 5 children, 3 under the age of 4, so we decided to give them a month or so to settle in, then COVID came to visit and as we are in the at risk age and health group, we determined it was not in anyone’s best interest for us to drive across the state and stay in a hotel in an area of the state that was a hot spot. Yesterday, they headed west to a family wedding and had to pass by a nearby town on the interstate. Last night after dark, we drove to a fast food restaurant just off that interstate and met them, masked and socially distanced and finally got to meet our newest grandson, see the two little girls that were an infant and a 2 year old when we last saw them, and the two older grands as well. The only two that really know us are the older two. All of the children are beautiful, healthy children and it was so good to see them even if we couldn’t hold the littles and hug the bigs. We did take pictures, but I don’t post pictures of my grandchildren without permission and didn’t think to ask last night.
It continues to be hot and humid with occasional thunder storms, so haying still hasn’t begun on our farm and garden work is limited to early morning or late evening. Today I will harvest and freeze more green beans, I’m sure that the last two days storms have caused the small ones to thrive and swell.
I continue to spin on my spindles, adding a few grams of fiber each day, most of the spinning done on the front porch under the ceiling fan, in the car on the way to two dentist appointments for hubby in a week, neither of which have resolved the problem, or sitting in my stressless chair in the evenings. I have spun about 100 grams of fiber in the first 12 days of the Tour de Fleece/Jenkins Team, some has been plied. The darker fiber on the smaller spindles is the weft on the sample scrap scarf I am weaving on my rigid heddle loom. Hubby bought me the stand for it recently which makes weaving on it so much easier that I actually pull it over to my chair and weave a few rows several times a day. The hand spun warp is sticky and one of them must not have been tightly enough spun as it keeps breaking requiring me to tie in a piece. I’m hoping I am past the fragile area and it will hold together for the remainder of the project. It is going to be entirely spun on Jenkins Turkish spindles.
Stay safe everyone. Be cautious, wear a mask, wash your hands.
Old is a number. By number, I am old, but still active, healthy in habit, and fairly strong. I am older than my Mom was when she died by almost a decade. Old here in the mountains seems to be a lower age than I have reached, but I’m from a long lived arm of the family paternally. My great grandmother lived to 94, my grandmother to 88, my father to 92.
I love old things, but I’m not an antique collector. My parent’s home had many antiques when I was small, but most of them were replaced during the two years my mother worked outside of the home when I was in 7th and 8th grades. A few pieces were saved and a couple of those pieces have come to me. Two simple tables, hand built by past generations and kept in the family. One is a small table with three drawers that was in a kitchen long ago. When the top right drawer isn’t pushed tight shut, there is evidence of a mouse gnawing it’s way into the drawer, a small oblong hole and a keyhole with no lock.
My Dad cleaned this beautiful little table of paint and put a wax coat on it, it is repurposed as a side table in our living room.
I don’t know the history of this one, except hearing the story that my parents felt it was too tall, the legs had the same flattened ball shape turning at the bottoms of the legs and Dad cut them off. When it was given to me, the top was loose with nail holes in it, the finish damaged. It too had evidence of having been painted and the paint removed. I stripped the table, put L brackets under the top hidden by the drawer to tighten it and refinished it. It is the table between our chairs in the loft, where we put our beverages and my spinning bowl. It too is from my mother’s family home.
This cedar chest was in the hall at the top of the stairs of my in-laws home. When my Mother -in-law passed and their house was sold, we got the brass accented cedar chest. It smelled of mothballs and is full of old family photos and home movies from hubby’s side of the family. It serves as our living room coffee table.
When I was pregnant with our first child and we were moving from the duplex that I co owned with my parents into a larger home in which to raise our family, we bought me a Boston rocking chair for the nursery. It was used in the nursery for the older two children, but when we moved to a larger home in a nicer neighborhood prior to child three, I found this 1700’s pressed wood rocking chair in a shop where I bought the reed I used to make baskets. The gentleman caned chair bottoms and had begun making the pressed leather pieces that adorned some chairs from that period. This rocker came home to be in the nursery for the youngest.
Because of it’s age, it was used, but used gently. When youngest was about 3 or 4 years old, we elected to down size to a townhouse that we could afford on my salary as a school counselor so that hubby could open his own Law Office, knowing that it would be a while before his fledgling business would be solvent. Since the boys had to share a bedroom, the chair was put in the living room. Our children knew that if they used that chair, it was to be used gently. One Thanksgiving while we were living there, I hosted the meal for some of the extended family. One member, a large man sat in that chair. Son 1 suggested to him that maybe it wasn’t an appropriate choice just prior to him leaning back and snapping the back right off the chair. There was an antique repair shop that put dowels in the broken spindles and re glued the chair so that it looks okay, but it is now just a decorative piece. The seat is sound, and it is probably safe for gentle use.
Somewhere in our life history, a good friend purchased this antique treadle sewing machine at an auction. My husband purchased it from her for me as a gift. It has been in several locations in our homes, but fits nicely in this corner of our hallway and holds a landline phone that we must keep to have internet. The brown rectangular box basket on top is my great grandmother’s sewing basket. The machine has a leather drive band and still works, though I think it needs a good cleaning and oiling.
There are a few other small items, a child’s chair that is from my Dad’s childhood, another child’s chair that belongs to one of our Daughters in law, a bentwood doll’s chair made for my mother, and a small pottery jug that came from my mother’s family home. And in our loft, the large Walking Wheel seen in the header photo. That wheel, a gift from hubby a few years ago, purchased in an antique shop in Front Royal, Virginia on a visit to Son 1’s family. It is a functional wheel and knowing now what I didn’t know then, we paid about twice what it is worth, but it is beautiful and I love it.
Whether these pieces stay with our children when we are gone or not, this is so they know some history. I have thought about putting the history of each on a card and tucking the card in a drawer or under the lid. They haven’t all “fit” in some of our homes, but they are all perfect for this log home in the middle of a farm.
With a socially distanced, outdoor adventure with daughter and her two youngs, and hubby. She owns two tandem kayaks and wanted to take her kiddos out for a fun afternoon. She asked us earlier in the week if we wanted to join them for a socially distanced outing. My car has the kayak rack that can be easily attached and she had borrowed it to see if it could be adapted to her car, but to do so would have cost her as much as a new rack and she wants to be sure of what to get, so we drove over and wrestled the two monsters up on the racks, tied them down securely and took off for the river. We were in my car, she and her kids in her car, and all 5 with masks for the loading and unloading. The river is still very full and muddy from the heavy rains.
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We had a grand time. It has been years since we were out on kayaks, we loaned ours to Son1 as they live near the Shenandoah River and enjoy going out. The local lakes here have too many power boats to feel safe in a kayak and if you do the river, you need two cars for put in and take out and that is too difficult for us as seniors so this was delightful.
As we came out of the river while I waited with kayaks and kids and daughter and hubby went to get the car from the put in point, I found out I had been one of 14 people who won the chance to purchase a new design spindle from my favorite craftsman.
After we arrived home, I treated hubby to his favorite meal of homemade tacos, enchiladas, and guacamole.
Dinner is enjoyed and cleaned up, we have both showered and laundry started, and the spindle email has been sent. I am now awaiting my invoice to pay for it.
We were supposed to take a weekend trip this weekend, across the state to meet our newest grandson. Out of precaution for them and us, our hotel reservation was cancelled and they were called to tell them we love them, want pictures of all of their children, and we would reschedule when it is safe to do so.
This is the second event we have had to cancel reservations on and postpone, the first an event with our other 3 grandchildren.
As we stay at home avoiding other people, cancelling opportunities to see our children and grandchildren, people with nationally known names are posting “that this is a ploy to disrupt capitalism,” “if you are healthy, go to your local pub,” “it’s just the flu,” and other statements and tweets to try to diminish the severity of the situation.
My extended family has many folks with underlying health conditions, compromised immune systems. My sibs, cousins, hubby, hubby’s sister, and I are over 60, several over 70. We are the folks that the CDC is most worried about.
We can hope for a vaccine, but if like the flu vaccine, they aren’t fully effective for several weeks after it is given. We can hope for coming to spring will cause it to die out. But what we can do, is stay apart, whether you are healthy or not so that you don’t spread it unknowingly. Stay apart if you have any illness symptoms whether they are COVID-19 or not. Check on each other by phone, text, or other media.
We are on a track that mirrors Italy and that is frightening. Be safe, practice safe habits. I want hugs from everyone when it is over. In the meantime, I love you children, grandchildren, sibs, cousins, BE SAFE.
I hope this nation learns from this the importance of vaccines for communicable illness where there is a vaccine; the importance of self distancing when you are ill with a cold, flu, chicken pox, measles, or whatever; the realization that it isn’t about you.
As we made our last purchases of an extra bag of dog food, and extra sack of chicken layer pellets, and headed home to distance ourselves to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19, we heard that all public K-12 schools in Virginia were closing for 2 weeks. I suspect it will end up longer. It is going to be tough on working families. Our daughter who is local to us has an 8 year old and a 13 year old. Normally we chip in to help out when they need coverage, but daughter realizes the potential impact on us as we are both beyond 70 years old. Last night we wrote the kids an email and told them that we would miss the hugs and kisses until it is deemed safe for seniors to be around potential vectors. On our way back to the farm, I said to hubby, that I hoped we didn’t start sniping at each other. We are rarely apart, but we do go out. The house is large, the property is 30 acres, we live on a rural gravel road, it is getting to be garden season, so we can seperate from each other if we need to, we can still get fresh air. Nearby, only a few miles is a part of the National Forest with walking trails that are not heavily travelled, so occasional walks may be made there. We have self isolated for now. We purchased extra groceries and will refrain from eating lunches and a weekly dinner out. This is a change in our habits, lunches will be sandwiches or left overs.
Our local grocer has the program where you can order and pay online and pick up in the parking lot. When we run low I guess that is the route we will take and avoid purchasing fresh produce from the grocer. Though I hate the idea of not going to our local Farmers’ Market, it is often very crowded. Some of the vendors are offering local delivery. I don’t usually grow salad greens and other salad vegetables other than cucumbers and tomatoes, which are still months off, I purchased lettuce and radish seed this year. I plan to sow a half barrel of salad greens and radishes close to the house and divide it into quarters, planting a quarter a week to spread out the harvest. Years ago, I kept a jar of sprouts germinating in the house but drifted away from doing so when I could readily get microgreens at the Farmers’ Market. Yesterday I started a jar of small spicy greens and this morning, a jar of crunchy beans.
They can be added to sandwiches, salads, or stir fry to add some fresh vegetables.
The seeds started for the garden are sprouting. The growlight down close to the lid to keep them from getting too leggy. The peppers haven’t sprouted yet, but tomatoes and Chinese cabbages are up as are the Calendula flowers. The coneflowers not yet.
The cabbages are a bit leggy, I am hoping that they will make it, if not, I will direct sow a few when it warms a bit more.
Once in a while, you see suggestions to resprout the bottom of the celery head. I had two celery hearts that were getting beyond prime, so I sliced the celery and froze it to use in soups and put the two stalk ends in water as suggested to see if I can at least sprout some celery leaves to use.
It has only been a couple of days, but the centers are swelling, so they must be uptaking water. We will see if this experiment works.
Of course, I can knit and spin to pass the time. I have several books and subscribed to the library app, so I can check out ebooks to read. I made laundry detergent and dishwasher tabs as both were low. I have soap to make for a B&B I supply, but am awaiting Shea Butter in the mail and if this goes on for very long, they may not need a big shipment.
It is going to be a lifestyle change, probably harder for hubby than for me, I could easily become a hermit here, but know that socializing is important too. For now we will avoid and hope that this virus dissipates and doesn’t devastate our country causing small businesses to struggle or fail. I hope that people are responsibly. Watching the news last evening, seeing Florida cancelling spring break gatherings and asking people to be responsible, one young woman interviewed said she would ignore that. She may become ill and being young will likely recover, but will she infect others in the community who are not healthy or young who might not. We must all take this seriously and be responsible. Let’s hope for a vaccine or for the warmer weather to hopefully cause it to subside.
Today was a gorgeous day, perfect for lunch out and a walk on the Huckleberry Trail. The scrub bushes are beginning to leaf out, some of the trees are about to flower and it is too early. We will have a freeze but in the meantime, seeing the snowdrops, the crocuses, and the buds swelling on the daffodils is delightful.
The nice weather has the hens laying nearly as well as summer. A bad day now is 4 eggs from the 9 hens. A good day is 7. It always amuses me when all three Oliver Eggers lay the same day. One lays green eggs, one lays Khaki colored eggs, and one lays pink eggs.
Daughter had a “I want to move to Australia” week, so we had them over for dinner. Fifty years ago on a flight to Hawaii, I found a recipe for Hawaiian ribs. The recipe works equally well for pork chops, so that was on the menu along with egg noodles, peas, Naan bread liberally spread with homemade garlic butter. Daughter brought an Angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream, so we had dessert too.
Some time was spend spinning on the little Jenkins Delight Turkish spindle, spinning a colorful fiber sample. It is a dark wool base with silk, silk noils, bamboo. I’m not a fan of noils, but spun it to lacy weight noils and all. I will ply it tomorrow and measure it out.
We have no appointments this week. I will be leaving on Thursday for a fiber retreat, leaving hubby to deal with the critters.
Forty two years ago tonight, we were celebrating at a rehearsal dinner and then slightly tipsy rehearsal for our wedding the next day. He proposed on New Year’s Eve and decided that Valentine’s Day was a good wedding date. If he forgot it, he said he would be in double trouble. His proposal came the night we got back from a week long ski trip to Vermont, my first real ski trip, and I had separated my shoulder on the first day and continued to ski for the rest of the week. As soon as the bus returned, we went to the Emergency Room, had my shoulder Xrayed and left in a sling. We went out for an early adult beverage and home to spend the evening alone. Our honeymoon plan was for another shorter ski trip and a lot of home therapy was done to make sure I would be physically able.
Our wedding was a small church affair on the evening of February 14. An at home reception at my parent’s home. We did get our ski trip as Valentine’s Day that year was close enough to President’s Day weekend, that neither of us had to take too much time from work.
That day was a good beginning, 3 children, 8 grandchildren, several house moves, a few pets, a few vehicles and we are a retired old married couple now, as happy now as the night he put this ring of hearts on my finger.
If he asked again, I would say “Yes” again. I love you, Babe. Happy Anniversary and Happy Valentine’s Day, love.
My love added to my fiber toys this morning. Under the tree was an Ashford Samplet 16″ rigid heddle loom.
We began our morning with Huevos Rancheros, a dish I traditionally fix on Christmas and New Year’s mornings. It is a special treat for him, one he grew up with. It was just us this morning so no rush on opening gifts, he already had most of his with his new leather chair and his refurbished “new” computer, but there were a few minor surprises under the tree for him.
We took gifts to daughter’s house and had an exchange with them, then home and I upacked the loom box.
When our house was being built, I made several 5 gallon buckets of home-made paste floor wax. The instructions said to wax or seal the wood before assembly, so I opened on of the remaining buckets, scooped out a tin full of the wax and spent about an hour hand waxing the pieces. Then assembly commenced.
With my recent lesson, having warped my friend’s borrowed loom, and the very detailed instruction booklet, I successfully warped the loom with some of my hand spun dk weight yarn.
My stocking contained a Barnes and Noble gift card, so a book or two of projects and techniques will be added to my growing collection of craft and fiber history books, several had been added by eldest son’s family for my birthday and Christmas. The booklet with the loom has a sample scarf with instructions for several different weaving techniques to try in the meantime.
The Let it Snow box in the photo above was the gift from daughter and her family. Treats and a beautiful cribbage game in a wooden box. I used to play it with my Dad and plan to refresh my skills and teach her and her kids.
Youngest son and his family sent us a pair o mugs with all of our grandchildren represented on them. Tonight I am enjoying my evening tea from mine.
As a Christmas bonus, the year old hens produced 3 eggs today. We have been getting 1 or 2, and I have never had hens lay in the winter before. Such a treat to still be getting farm fresh eggs to eat and cook with this time of year.
I think my favorite gift from hubby today is a tiny music box in my stocking.
It plays, “You Are My Sunshine.”
Here’s hoping you had Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah.
Eldest son and eldest grandson made a very quick visit, arriving yesterday afternoon and leaving this evening. I traditionally prepare the Christmas Day dinner, turkey, ham, and all the fixings, but since they couldn’t be here on Christmas Day and since they arrived on the Solstice, we had Christmas/Solstice dinner with all the fixings for them and daughter and her kiddos. Brother and sister got to spend some time together as did the cousins, and they shared gifts, I got some help in the kitchen, and we all ate well. I even spatchcocked the turkey all by myself. Doing a chicken isn’t too hard, but a larger turkey is difficult for me to do.
Yesterday morning, two of the young men who are part of the team who mow our farm and get a share of the hay for a small herd they share, came over with chain saws, a hydraulic log splitter, dump bed truck, and a big tractor and cut up a red oak tree that fell into our hay field winter before last. They had hayed around it for two summers. They brought the entire cord plus of wood up to my woodpile and dumped it. They even offered to stack it for me which I refused as I hadn’t expected the entire tree. The three grands got out there while dinner was being prepared and spent a couple hours stacking firewood.
This morning, this is what I found. The kids ate well and I’ll bet slept well. This morning after fixing biscuits and gravy with grandson’s help, sharing gifts with son and grandson; grandson and I went out and did some cleanup of the last little bit, hopped the short stack on the right over the pile on to some cedar poles on the opposite side of the big stack where we had also stacked the clean up amount.
Son was in the house nursing a finger he had seriously cut about a week ago and finishing grading the papers from one of his upperclass University classes he teaches. To try to keep grandson out of his way and away from too much TV time, I also got his help finally pruning back the dead asparagus tops and getting spoiled straw from the compost pile over it, getting about a foot of hay into the chicken run for them to peck through and to keep it less slippery for me when it rains. The big round bale was wedged between two objects that made it difficult for me to peel layers off of it, but with his help it is now more accessible. I asked son if I could keep grandson for a while. He jokingly asked me how long. My response was as long as I could still get good help out of him or until he started treating me like a parent instead of grandmom.
Son got his grades done and submitted in time to have hot turkey sandwiches and other leftovers before heading home this evening.
We will go to daughter’s house on Christmas Eve for dinner and back for a bit on Christmas Day give them their gifts. Christmas morning will be quiet, just us. Jim will primarily get a stocking as his gift was “the chair III” which arrived Wednesday and he has been enjoying it for a few days now.
On Thursday afternoon, daughter came over and she and I were able to get the two deteriorating pleather loveseats onto our trailer and off loaded at the local trash location. After Christmas decorations are down, we will consider what to get to put in the living room. The loft got a rocking chair that had been in our bedroom and had become a place to dump things instead of putting them away. Maybe I will be better about keeping that area organized now.
