Hi all,

Just a few moments this a.m., but thought I'd at least get stuff started.

We hauled firewood and I worked in the garden all day yesterday. Finally took a "shade" break late in the day and worked on making my garlic look pretty...gonna sell some today maybe. Hey, my neighbor gave me 32 6-foot T posts! Guess I'd better start more fencing.

I'll check in later. Have a great day!

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

Answers

And while I'm thinking of it, anyone heard from john l. lately? Is he at another forum, or just busy?

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

Finally settling back in after our trip. I can't remember if I told you all about it or not. We had a great time. Spent most of our time hiking. We tried out trekking poles for the first time. I liked those. They really helped me on Mt. LeConte. I don't know if I could have made it without them. That one whooped me. We don't have such steep things to climb here. It just went up and up for what seemed forever. We had a few bear sightings. One of them was a full grown bear up in the very top of a tall tall tree. I was amazed that those small branches could support such a large animal! But he seemed to be doing just fine. Seemed to have found something he liked to eat up there. Couldn't tell what it was.

The alone time was fantastic! We won't wait another 10 years to go away. That's for sure. I'd love to go back in the fall to catch some of the hiking we missed this time.

Low carbing is still going well. My loss has slowed down to about a pound a week. I chalk that up to being close to my goal. I've lost 12 lbs. now. To meet my conservative goal I have 7 to go. Or possibly 12 more if I'm motivated once I get to my first goal for a grand total of 19 or 24 lbs. lost depending on how gung ho I am.

Jim has lost 15 and teen daughter has lost about 15 also. They are both very excited as well. They each have about 25 more to go.

Well it's good to be back with you all. I'll talk to you later.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

Good for you Denise! Low carbing was going great for me but hasn't been my friend lately. I took today off out of frustration and will get back on track tomorrow. All is well here. We are going to go see a comedian next Sunday night and I am sooo excited!! His name is Ron James and he is so funny I may need a Depends! Another couple is coming too so it will be an exciting night out for us country bumpkins!

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

Congrats Denise!!!

I found out that horns on goats hurt! I've got black and blues all over my legs. One boy likes to rub against me as I'm trying to lock the gate. I'm now trying to make a feeder so when I go away next week, my friends can feed from outside the fence. I picked up a few pallets and figured if I use the top 2 feet for hay with a wide openings (wire holding hay back) and the bottom 2 feet with keyhole openings for grain (slanted wood so the feed will slide down to the goats) I will only have 2 inches of thin wood if I keyhole so I thought I'd reinforce it with 2x2's that I have laying around. I'm trying to decide whether to make is stationary or movable. Maybe I could put wheels on it. It would be convient next to the water pump, but it leaks, so it may not be good there. Anyway, it would be 10 feet wide so 12 goats could eat off it.

I'll have to hot wire the babies in and put a new gate in too, before I leave. The stupid things like to put their heads threw the fence and get stuck with their horns. I was trying to get the one boy loose but every time I tried to push him back, he would push forward. It was pretty funny. Guess I pushed harder.

Hey, anyone have some rain they could send over to NJ? We could use it again.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 2002

For those facing the battle of the bulge . . .

I've been taking a vitamin B complex taken sublingually that really seems to help my energy level AND push away sweets. Available at Wal- Mart under Spring Valley (?) label, it cost about $6.00 for a two month supply. The dose is once a day; a mL under the tongue, held there for 30 seconds min., then swallowed. To me, tastes like sour grapefruit juice, but the results are worth it.

I learned about this on another site at Chuck Holton's Homesteading Today (the old Country Families), it's working for me, at least for now. I've probably lost two pounds without dieting, not bad for the way I eat :^).

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002

Our lovely upper 70's/low humidity weather went away. Got hotter and more humid, but it did rain a lot last evening, and though it's sunny right now, it's supposed to rain more later today. We need it. I hope a lot soaked in yesterday, but I'm afraid the ground was so hard and dry that most of it just ran off. :-(

I am trying to sew a wedding dress for my best friend for her September wedding. It's a fancy dress, but not a conventional white dripping in lace, pearls, and crystals type, so I should be able to get it done. But so many other things interfere and the days disappear before I know. There is a limit to how long I can stand up and bend over that cutting board. It should go better after I finish the pattern alterations and the cutting out!

My tomatoes are really starting to produce now. Too bad I can't remember what half of them are and the identifiers are way under the bushy things. I should have made a diagram! ;-)

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002

Hey y'all! Nothing much going on here; just came off a weekend of work. Same old, same old at home - pick tomatoes, wash tomatoes, squish tomatoes, can tomatoes in some way, shape or form. I'm waiting for the canner to drop pressure so that I can take the salsa out and put the spaghetti sauce in. I'm running late - Pop and I FINALLY got the freezers both cleaned out and organized this afternoon; after we picked 6 1/2 buckets of tomatoes and one of green beans. Then, it was time to fix supper and eat supper and clean up after supper and... I keep heading out to the porch when I should be working - to watch for the meteor showers that are supposed to be at their peak tonight and tomorrow - of course; it's cloudy. Can't complain about them tho, we need the rain; and I can always see meteors another time! It was hotter than heck and humid as well here today - sweat dripping off my nose out in the 'mater patch; but then we had a front move through. It rained like the dickens for about 5 minutes; then stopped and turned off hot again for as long as we were out in the shed (in the heat) working. Once we came back in the house, it cooled off nicely. We all took a bubble break out on the front porch with Bailey after supper; so we did get to enjoy at least a bit of the cool weather.

Gardenwise, the green beans didn't do as well as I'd like this year - they're about done for and I've only canned 27 jars so far; tho we've been eating them several times a week as well. Maybe the late ones I planted will come through before frost (there goes my last week of vacation!) I really like the Dragon Langerie - a flat yellow bean with purple stripes (yep, I remembered that I DID plant a yellow romano type) and Rattlesnake pole beans - a green bean splashed with purple. Now, if I could just find a yellow romano pole bean; and those blue speckled (Florida speckled?) pole lima seeds that I've been looking for...

Yeah, still in garden planning mode - mostly on my breaks at work; and when I'm trying to fall asleep in the mornings. I've got to forage in the tomaote jungle for labels as well, Joy! I've got two different kinds of small round canning tomatoes - one is very prone to cracking and the other one isn't; so I need to find out which is which. Can't seem to break away from the garden stuff at home long enough to lay out my fabric and finish cutting out the dresses that I'd like to wear on vacation; guess that I'd better make time, or they won't be going with me!

And speaking of vacation - Sheepish, I don't think that we can make it to Page by the 2nd or 3rd. We don't leave here until the afternoon of the 31st; and we're heading to Iowa first, to the Old Thresher's Museum to attend their annual show on September 1st. We still don't have our itenerary figured out beyond that; but I don't think that we can make the drive from Iowa to Page in a day. Or be fit company if we did. I suppose that you are flying down and back?

I've got to get my fanny to the used book store to buy myself a stash of trash for the trip! We're taking the truck, so I have to be somewhat conservative in what I take. Let's see...if I wash my knickers out in the sink each night instead of packing a dozen pair, I can fit in a couple of book in that amount of space...what else can I leave home!? Pop isn't even griping too much about having to take care of the critters while we're gone; tho he's already told Jes that he WILL NOT be manning the cat box! I've already started making out my lists - tote bag list, duffle bag list, suitcase list, cooler list, food list - maybe I won't forget a nightgown this time and have to go buy one the first night out! Has anybody seen my swimsuit? Where's the little coffee pot? AAACCCKK! I only have 18 days left to get ready!

Time to go load the canner and head for the tub; and then to bed - hopefully I'll stay awake long enough to finish the book I've got started. Gotta do more darn tomatoes tomorrow; tho I may wait until evening - Pop is driving a friend of his up to the outlet mall tomorrow and I think I'll have him look at the Kitchen Collection for me a new stock pot - one of mine has a no-stick coating and it is getting a bit worn; time to retire it to shed use, I guess. Pop'll probably go into shock when he sees the prices they want for a pot! I'm not going to get anything done if I don't get off here and get to it, tho! You folks all take care this week,

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002

Here's my little lame contribution to this homesteading forum (I just finished reading yet another of our amazing and wonderful Polly's posts!)......I love you Polly bunches!!!!

Anywho, my Ali, who is like the empitome of "homebody", ventured down the driveway (we have a very long and completely private driveway, especially considering we are actually within city limits), and came back with a half gallon Tupperware container full of BLACKBERRIES!

You cannot perhaps know how exciting it is to live in the Cities and discover WILD FREE FOOD!!!

The berry bushes are just beginning to produce, they are mostly along our long driveway. Ali and I put a couple of containers' worth in the freezer, pronto. We had so much fun!!! You can't know how wondrous it was for me an Ali to discover this incredible treasure! ......plus we ate enough, giggling all the while, to keep our bowels naturally moving the next few days!

Bren and Lotus came home from Duluth today, and Lotus has already experienced being creeped out by "fame."

I think I mentioned that Debbie Davies (IF YOU LIKE THE BLUES, BuY HER ALBUMS!!) :) invited Lotus to play on her last two numbers at the BLUES ON THE RANGE festival last month at IRONWORLD in Chisholm MN?

So apparently lots of people remembered her,and she was like .. kinda stalked..at the Bayfront Bluesfest all weekend...by several people....

the one time it really creeped her out was when she was just kinda dancin all crazy-like but mellow, totally gone with the music, like she usually is, while a band she really digs wuz playin....and when she glanced up towards the stage, almost all of the photographers in the media section were taking photos of HER instead of concentrating on the band that was playing!!! So she immediately called me on her cell phone, cuz it creeped her out! She needed her mommie!! :) Oh dear....

Lotus' demo is now complete ; we are havin a bit of trouble gettin the website up, which is a kind of a branch off of our wisespirit webspace, as I understand it, which is very frustratin. I will inform y'all of the address when its workin right. If anyone here would like a copy of her demo, just let me know, although as soon as we get the site workin right, anyone should be able to download it anyway, far as I know, which ain't much.

Should be an interesting trip into the future for all involved!

Oh yes, my gardening experiences...........

I have discovered that Earthboxes need Lots of water......I have been lax at givin em enough, thats for sure! I do not think I could leave em alone very long unattended, like for more than two days even, without being watered. Dissapointing......otherwise, my cukes are wonderful, and cukes are the onliest thing I have in my Earthboxes.

Oh, and I meant to mention to you Polly, that I surely do resonate with your beautiful meanderings about the sight of a storefull of food.

When I first met Bren, back in 1974, one of the first things I noticed was that her basement was lined with shelves of food. It was somehow very attractive to me; even though some of it was cans of store-bought potatoes, (YUK) which I actually had never even heard of in my whole life!! This was not stuff she grew, just stuff she had on hand cuz she like to buy and store stuff in bulk , but for some reason I found it so wonderful!! .......weird huh? {As I think on it now, methinks it perchance brought subconciously to mind my grandma's cellar, which I think I've mentioned before. Shelves upon shelves of lovely food, under the house; scarey as hell down there, but exciting and satisfying as well..)

I did so love my grandma.

Cheers!

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2002

My Nanny had a shelf at the bottom of the scarey cellar stairs and it always had jams, jellies, marmalade, and pickles on it..all homemade of course. What is it about grandmothers and their scary basements????? I still have creepy dreams that figure that basement/cellar.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2002

We had shelves lining the basement stairs (when I was a kid), and they were always lined with foodstuffs, too. Comforting...and a HUGE commercial freezer in the basement, mostly full of salmon that my dad caught, plus lots of jam, beans, and bread..

We're driving, Polly. Sorry we'll miss you!! We are distance freaks, I guess. If we do between 400-600 miles a day, we can get there in plenty of time to see some of the North Rim. We might be sleeping in the car though (we have in the past and it's not too bad) since we haven't made any previous arrangements. ROAD TRIP! We have assembled lots of CDs, will fill the cooler with cold coffee beverages (especially for driving through Utah), grab some maps, and head out.

Supposed to be 95 here today. My goodness, it's hot for here.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2002

Rats! Rats! Rats! I CAN do the distance driving, Sheepish; straight home from Lawton, OK one time; and from Berea last summer; but it ain't a pretty picture when I get wherever I'm going! I'm used to moving around a lot, so we have to make frequent rest stops so that I can stretch my legs and work the kinks outa the rest of me. So, I s'pose you'll be heading pretty much north and west through Utah and Idaho then? Hmmm, I gotta 2nd cousin twice removed that I call Uncle Dick up by Coeur d'Alene; and that's right near Missoula where my buddy Bob lives and not too far from Spokane where cousin Jim lives which is only about 1/2 way across the state from Wenatchee where Uncle Don and Aunt Marlene live and I really want to stop by Wall Drug and get me a mounted Jackalope head and I don't care WHAT Pop and Jessie say about it this time...NO NO BAD!! John would kill me if I screwed up his trip to the Southwest! Maybe on another trip - and we'll bring Pop along on that one, since he so loves Washington state. Right after I talk him into heading Northeast; or is that Down East, Marcia?!

Neither of my Grannies had a basement; but I do remember playing hide 'n seek with my cousins and sharing the under the bed area with Granny Leone's boxes of canned stuff; it was always such a comforting space... Gotta love those old beds with room enough under them to store stuff (and kids!). I must be weird (oh yes, I must! I must!) 'cause I've always liked basements and cellars. Spiderwebs? Bah! Creepy crawlies? A couple of good squirts from the spray can takes care of them; and a good door keeps the big ones out! We didn't have a basement at the home place; so the cellar was a refuge from the frequent thunder and wind storms of the summertime. Poor Jessie probably thought she was a baby mole - we had a summer full of terrible storms the year she was born; and I had a rocker and a big old clothes basket set up in the corner of the basement of the old house we lived in; every time there was a storm, down basement we went, to rock and nap until the storm passed over. I've always liked small enclosed spaces tho - as long as they have a door that I can see out of!

I've been weird about food since I was a kid and went into hypoglycemic shock on vacation one time - Granny had a stash of food in the back seat with us on every trip after that - even if it was just up the road! In every house I've lived in since I left home, I've had a pantry - and they just keep getting bigger and bigger! My Mama wasn't much of one for stocking up; that's probably why I took over shopping duties as soon as I could drive. (She just put things away helter-skelter in the cabinets, too; and never alphabetized her books - drove me NUTS!! Wonder where I inherited all my O/C traits from, anyway?!) When I moved to the shack on the other side of the farm, we had a running joke that she was the State Bank of Esther (I always needed $10 for gas before payday) and I was the Lick Creek General Store (she was always running out of tp or coffee or some other essential) - always nice when family member's talents fit together like puzzel pieces to form a whole, isn't it!?

Well, I gotta head out - Pop hyperventilated as expected when I told him what a stock pot would cost, so I am heading down to Effingham myself this morning for a look-see and possible purchase. Gotta go get a perm, hair cut and brow wax this afternoon; so the perm has time to calm down before vacation; then I guess we'll work up those darn tomatoes late this afternoon when I get home. Bailey will be with us this afternoon and evening again, as her Mama has to close the store; she enjoys turning the crank (at least she THINKS that she's doing it; Pop helps quite a bit!) on the Victorio strainer and watching the juice come out! I get to wash and dip the 'maters in and out of the boiling water, dump the juice and pulp pans when they get full and do general clean up! Boo and Pop will take the swill pail out to the chickens while I finish that up; then maybe we can talk him into trying to find us a few more ears of sweet corn for supper - she really loves that stuff; so much that she ususally ends up wearing quite a bit of it! Supper is going to be something that can be thrown in the oven or pressure cooker; guess I'll decide what when I get to the store this afternoon!

I've got to go in on OT again tomorrow night (and then stay up for a damn staff meeting and CPR certification after work; then work the next two nights as well - boy will I be crabby!) so I guess maybe we'll just make all the tomatoes into juice and I can boil it down tomorrow and make more spaghetti sauce while I clear the kitchen table and finish cutting out at least one of the dresses, and maybe get the stay stitching done, at least. Gonna have to take a nap, for sure, before I go in if I don't want to have to stop for a nap along side the road on the way home! Guess I'd better get a move on - all I've done this morning is the chores and unloading and loading the dishwasher! Take care,

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2002

Hey Polly, it sounds like your trip is really coming together. One tip gleaned from my wife's family is to take some of those microwave pop corn packets along for the road.

Any time you want to snack, just stop by any convenient 'stop and rob' type convenience store, ask to use their microwave oven (we haven't been turned down yet) and back on the road. It's easy to pass the bag around, and if it falls down, easy to pick up, and leaves no crumbs.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2002

I think the depression was the reason grandmothers horded food and supplies.

My one grandmother had store bought stuff lined in her basement too. If you needed anything, chances were, they already had it in the basement. I think they just bought things when they were on sale with coupons more then anything else.

My other grandmother had a cold cellar under the stairs in the basement that was scary looking too. When she passed away, my sisters and I went for a final walk through the house (I miss going there more then house I grew up in) In that basement there were about a dozen hard bars of Borax soap hidden in a nitch. I was told that people used to like the bars to get hard because they lasted longer but I think that was too long :) Anyway, I donated them to a country museum at the fairgrounds. Saw them when we went to the fair last week.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2002

Ah, Grandma's scary basement! I can relate. But it was also a place of fascination. They had an old house, with a funky, substandard basement. The concrete floor was uneven and not very high quality concrete either. The farthest recesses were DARK, only dimly illuminated when you would turn on the low-wattage bulb back there. Mostly a junk repository by the time I came along. There were some canned goods, but Grandma was getting past putting things up, and there were lots of empty jars too. The basement smelled FUNKY too. Partially because that's where my grandfather would skin and clean dead animals -- ducks and other fowl in the autumn, furbearers in the winter. Did I ever mention that Grandpa made a lot of his income from trapping? The rest was from selling bait, lures (he designed and produced his own as well as selling others), and candy in his waterfront store, and he rented out boats and motors and was a fishing guide.

Anyway, back to the basement -- there was also a wood chute where he's dump in the wood supply that he cut outside. They had a wood furnace for most of my childhood. So there was the smell of the wood and the furnace (cold ashes in the summer). They had huge grates in the floor above that were fun to stand or sit on in the winter -- the warmest spots in the house of course. Also in the basement was Grandma's "laundry". The Fels Naptha soap was fascinating, because my mother used some sort of laundry powder, and anything at Grandma's was just fascinating because it was hers. I can't explain that. She had some sort of old washer (early electric) that had an agitator tub, and rollers that were "automatic". I would be rich if I had a nickel for everytime she warned us about not putting our fingers anywhere near that thing. Of course, she was perfectly justified. It had no automatic safety stop and would have taken my small hand right through it. She would show us the bumps in her crooked fingers caused by the dangerous wringer. I was impressed. My job, when I helped her do laundry, was to catch or pick up the wrung out garment and put it in the laundry basket. Then we'd go outside so that she could hang them to dry while I helped/bugged her.

I wasn't too afraid of her basement -- not at all when she or Grandpa were down there. But if she'd send me down for something, I would carefully not look at the dark areas, find what she wanted, and scurry back upstairs fairly quickly. Ah, my memory just called up the sound of my feet going down the steps, and the smell and feel. A nostalgic trip.

Our own basement was kind of scary too, if your imagination is in overdrive (mine usually was). It was a conventional concrete block basement, actually fairly light as basements went. But . . . . there was the crawl space, under the bedrooms. It had lights, but you had to crawl into it to turn them on. You actually had to put up a ladder or boxes to get into it, because the access was at the top of the full wall. We would play in there occasionally in the winter, as it was totally filled with sand. Like a giant sandbox, but very dry. The scary part was when I would have to go down alone. Because, a mountain lion lived in there, you see. It even looked like a dark cave. I didn't want to go anywhere near it unless someone else turned on the lights first. I also didn't want to admit that, probably because my brother would torture me with it, and my mother would tell me that I was imagining it. There was an old fruit crate sitting there, with a label that said Mountain Lion Peaches, with a very realistic illustration of said lion with a peach in its mouth. I'm sure that's where I got the idea. But anytime I was coming up by myself, all lights but the one on the stairs off, I would be sure it was creeping up on me, about to spring upon my back, and I would absolutely THUNDER up the steps. Now, I wish I had that old fruit crate. I don't know what happened to it.

If I had the opportunity to travel back in time, I would want to go meet and get to know my great-grandparents and to know my grandparents as a fellow adult. Who cares about meeting Napoleon or being presented at court to Queen Victoria or anything like that!

Another nice day here. We had two rainy days, which we desperately need and today, right now, its 76 degrees. I should go outside!

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2002

The cellar in my grandparent's house didn't scare me, I thought the stone walls were pretty neat. There were two cupboards for canned goods down there (homemade and store-bought), and they also had 2 enormous chest freezers on the enclosed front porch. The basement in my parent's house scares me to this day. It's just your plain old concrete block basement with florescent lights, but when I was a kid I had a nightmare that there was a giant black cat that lived in the basement and it would kill me if I went down there. I can still remember the feeling of fighting for my life in this dream.

This past Saturday some of the Indiana members of the Homesteading Today forums had a picnic. Most of the folks were fairly new to the forum, but I did get to meet Cindy from SE IN and Joel Rosen. Cindy reminds me quite a bit of diane in both her looks and mannerisms. She is sweet but also very strong-willed. She has given up on the forums entirely and didn't want to be in any of the pictures.

Joel both was and wasn't what I was expecting, if that makes any sense. I was expecting him to have dark hair ( I guess since my ex- hubby Joel has dark hair) but turns out he's a redhead. He actually looks pretty normal, I always imagine him as dressed in camos with guns slung over both shoulders and a knife in his teeth. :) He's actually quite charming and personable, but I still feel like he's someone that you need to watch your step around. His wife Becky and their 2 children also attended. Becky is much younger than Joel, quiet but with a backbone. She admitted that she is a horrible speller and that's why she doesn't post much, she said being a nurse ruined her spelling because everything in nursing is abbreviations. Both she and Joel thought it was pretty funny when I told them at one time there was speculation on the CS forum that Becky didn't actually exist and that it was Joel posting under a different name because no nurse could spell that badly. :)

John from Southern Indiana and his family were supposed to have been there but John's work shedule didn't cooperate and Mrs. John was ill. Their oldest son Ian did attend with the Rosens, he seems like a really good kid.

The rest of the week has just been going to work, then coming home and canning tomatoes. Tonight we're going out to dinner with my friend Karen and her daughter Jessica. She's just bought a new house so after dinner Keith is going to help her pick out a garage door opener and an over the range microwave.

On Saturday our friend Crystal has her first home football game so we're going to go watch her play.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2002

Its so cool when cyber friends get to meet! I met friends from Canadian Parents Online and was never disappointed. This week was the first meeting of the Fibre Freaks, the spinning group friends and I started. We had 4 attendees and I found out why my bobbin wasn't winding on (I was the problem and not the spinning wheel of course!). I loved sitting and spinning and listening to the more experienced spinners gab. Fascinating!!!!!! I must find a distributor that carries Spin Off magazine!! That way the others and me too..we can buy the magazine at my shop rather than subscribe. We meet at the shop because its fairly central to everyone and in this heat the AC is a blessing!! The shop is slowly coming along. The coffee bar is being assembled in the next week and then the cash counter and shelves can be built. We met with the coffee guy (Scott..he's great) and he loans us the machine and racks but we need to buy the thermal servers. We get his freshly roasted coffee as we need it (every week is best) and will be using an organic,a french roast, a decaf, and a house blend. We will stock 4 flavored syrups to make flavored coffee by the cup (chocolate, Irish Cream, hazelnut, and French Vanilla). I'm going to mail off my Roger's Chocolates order Monday and Richard is setting up an account with a mag distributor today..we await lists from a couple of others to see who else we go with. God I hope this venture works out. We are getting lots of positive feed back but its such a risk I get scared as hell. Its rather fun though despite my jitters.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002

It's so fun listening to ya talk about all this comin together! What a wonderful adventure you are in for!

Speaking of adventures, here's a link to Lotus' website. Course it only sounds as good on the 'net as the quality of one's speakers will allow, but I think it sounds a little closer to CD quality on Windows Media Player than the MP3, least on my puter.

Lotus

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002

Oh my gods EM, your girl can SING! I only had a chance to listen to the first track but it was awesome! I'm certainly no music critic, but IMO her voice has a depth and maturity I really wasn't expecting to hear in someone her age. I wish I lived closer so I could hear her live. When she becomes famous and goes on tour you'd better plan a stop in Indy! :)

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002

Seriously, where is John Leake? I MISS him!

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002

Yeah, me too, along with several others who have flown the coop. (Kirk, where the heck are you?) John posted on LUSENET this weeek.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2002

You know that your brain is in serious trouble when you can spot your sister's posts from the first sentance alone, huh?

I knew that that was going to be Joy talking about Grampa and Gramma's basement. Funny how they were always Grampa Joe and Gramma Edna -- and the other other pair were always Grandma and Grandpa with their last name tacked on, no using first names there. Crumb, I don't think I even KNEW that grandmother's first name until I hit at least 11-12 (or maybe I was just unconscious).

Since Gramma and Grampa lived right next door (funny, I'm sitting in that house as I type this, so it's MY basement now!) we spent a lot of time down there. I have many many memories of that basement!!

I knew where the root cellar was down there...and I knew how to stoke the wood/coal burning furnace they had down there (with wood that my grandfather and I had cut...or he cut and I interfered with), and I can remember filling the water reservoir that was for humidifying the house.

When I got the house, one of the things I had to do was to clean out the basement -- YUCK to the twentiety power! I ruined a couple of shop vaccuum heads doing that, and sucking off years worth of carbon from the floor joists down there, however, I found interesting things while I was doing so, in addition to the tons of plaster dust, cobwebs,funky insulation, etc. When I cleaned the underside of the floor above, I found our family name stencilled onto one of the boards. The house had originally been a Montgomery Wards kit house, shipped up on the train and assembled on a hand-dug basement by my grandfather. The name was stenciled there to note who the kit went to. I also found a purple and white swirled marble that probably belonged to my father, as well as a bunch of pencil scribbling done on the upright supports by me when I was about 7 years old. (we weren't allowed to draw on the walls upstairs, so I tried it downstairs instead)

Oh, and the mountain lion in our basement? Well, Joy, being the older sister, of course HAD to instruct me about said catamount living down there that would spit out the peach in it's mouth and get me. I don't know HOW many times I went to OUR basement to nervously practice my piano lessons, listening desperately for any sound coming from the direction of the mountain lion's lair -- and when my half hour of torture was over, I'd run up the stairs as fast as I could go. I don't think my mother ever understood why it was that I never got very good at the piano (my mind was on something else -- survival!), or why I always seemed so anxious to get away from that piano.

What are older sisters for, after all?

My tomatoes aren't much this year. We had too hot of weather I think, and they were not setting blossoms, and are only now starting to really set fruit well. The leaf crops are doing fine. The potato plants are huge and holding up well, I'm wondering what the crop will look like this year.

We've been filling in the sinkhole in the back yard, anyway. And I've been doing some dry stack brick work, but mostly I've been busy de-cluttering the house. I know, you're going to say that this is a job for the dead of winter when there is nothing else to do, not for summer weather, but I didn't have a choice. I had to clear the decks, rearrange the furniture, and move the GPs into another room where I could throw up a security gate.

Because I finally got a phone call from the dog rescue I had my name in with that they had my prospective dog. Everything was okay until I discovered that she's blind -- that put a whole different perspective on things!!! So I have been feverishly trying to organize the house, finish fence so it was secure, etc etc. I had to get over there and make a decision immediately, or she was going to be put down the next day as unadoptable (due to blindness) and 'starting fights' in the household. How being stomped on by two enormous Rottweilers who outweighed her 4-5 times was not provocation, I fail to comprehend.

So, Blossom came home with us. Good heavens but she is fat. I would guess that she needs to lose 3 lbs minimum, 5 would be better -- she weighs 25 lbs now, and 16 is the upper limit for female Westies, but she is abnormally large, so perhaps 20 would be better. I guess we'll see when she hits 20 what she looks like.

She is actually a very good dog, well behaved, house-trained, doesn't chew, bark, or howl, and at times you seriously do not believe that she can't see exactly where she is going, even when she hasn't been there before. I'm hoping that it will continue to work out, because the first 24 hours have been amazingly easy in adopting an adult blind dog that has only had one owner previously. All the things that they told us she was not good about (vaccuum cleaners, thunderstorms, children, touching her tail, walking close to her) have been met with absolutely no reaction!

I do think I am going to buy her a pair of Doggles (eyeglasses/goggles for dogs) to protect her eyes -- she keeps them wide open like she was trying hard to see, and I'm afraid that she's going to get poked in the eyes with something.

As Joy noted, the Stevie Wonder of Dogs!

-- Anonymous, August 17, 2002