The Best of Times

We had a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend, Gill's brother came on Sunday and we had a cookout. Uncle Pat is a superstar here. :-) On Monday we visited a little lonely country graveyard called Union Cemetery. It's tucked way back in with the tiniest little sign, if you didn't know it was there you'd drive right past. There were tons of veterans there, more per capita than any other cemetery that I think I've ever visited. And children, lots of children. There is something gut wrenching to think of little ones lying there, forgotten by everybody who knew them. One small stone marked the grave of Rosina, she died in 1845 at the age of 2. I wish stones told how people died. Was she sick? A farm accident? A fire? I wonder about her, not just how she died but what her life was like. Ohio was fairly wild in the 1840s. History becomes more and more interesting to me the older I get.

Today, however, it Katie's 18th birthday. EIGHTEEN! We're not celebrating today, trying to get her to ask for anything is like pulling teeth. She says her trip to Tennessee was the best present she could have had. :-) We'll celebrate this coming weekend which gives me a few more days to figure out what to get for a girl that's satisfied with what she already has. I can't believe that she's all grown up, it tempts me to say some cliche' like "where did the time go?" So, I'll spare you that and just say that I'm so proud of her, I couldn't ask for a better daughter than what she is. She's industrious, accomplished, friendly, witty and enthusiastic about a simple country life. What more could any parent want? So, Happy Birthday Katie! I love you!

Little boy and Big boy have a birthday

Today is Asa's very first birthday! It is so unbelievable that we've had him for a whole year, the time certainly flew by. He isn't walking yet, but gets around very well. He pulls up on everything and is all boy. I don't know if he really is a "boy's boy" or if it's just the difference is more noticible after 4 little girls, but let me attest that boys play different and communicate different than do little girls. It's been such a pleasure having his rough, loud self to love. I suppose now that he's officially a big boy I should try to get him to nurse less and sleep more during the night, he still nurses 3 or 4 times at night, I am beyond sleep deprived!

Tomorrow is Aleks' 20th birthday, I find the whole notion of me having a son that old to be a bit absurd. :-) We will celebrate both birthdays together today since Mr. G and Aleks both work 2nd shift. I know it seems like a cliche' to say "it seems like only yesterday..." but it really does, how could 20 years fly by that swiftly? In some ways I wish that I could just stop the clock right now, right here, with everybody still at home. But it isn't to be, a Mother has so few years to teach and train her babies. I want to cherish every single minute that I have with them.

When my family doubled in 14 minutes

14 years ago today I had the wonderful experience of watching my family double in 14 short minutes. It went like this:

Once upon a time in a land far, far away (it was North Carolina actually) there lived a husband and wife with their perfect American family of one boy and one girl. They lived in a palace (not really, it was a log cabin with bad chinking) and thought that a third child might be nice, instead God gave them twins. The wife mistrusted Doctors (the difference between God and a doctor? God doesn't think he's a doctor) and the Doctors said she was a difficult patient and non-compliant to boot, so she decided to have the twins at home. With a midwife who had never delivered twins before.

Aleks holding Micah and Katie holding Levi, 3 days old

The woman had lots of confidence in herself and her body (which she has sadly lost) and was sure that things would turn out well. She ate lots of protein so that the babies wouldn't be premature and she made it to her due date. And a week after her due date when there was absolutely no sign of an impending birth she told the midwife that enough was enough already, let's get this show on the road. The midwife said that she could try castor oil but didn't know how much to recommend so the woman drank 5. stinking. ounces. of castor oil. Well, let me tell you, that'll clean the sand out of your wicket! So after hours and hours of diarrhea the woman feels so incredibly cruddy that she heads to bed, she gets up an hour later and her water breaks. She calls the midwife and wails, "I can't do labor now, I'm so sick!"

Micah ahead and Levi behind, 14 months old

Well, labor it was and a fast one too because a little more than 2 hours later Levi James was born weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces. And then 14 minutes later (his cord was partially prolapsed so we had to get him out *now*) Micah Jonathan was born weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces.

Levi and Micah at 3

It has been a whole different experience to have 2 at every age. Easier in some ways and tougher in others. They can't imagine life without each other. They do chores together, sleep in the same bed, beat on each other, shoot their guns together, and like the same things. I think it seems just perfect. I think they do too.

Christ tide

Preparations are in full swing here for the coming holiday, there's excitement in the air that's irresistible! I really love Christmas, I feel sorry for those who find it any other way than a time of rest and reflection and joy. I think the running and shopping and commercialism really wear people out and it's so sad. We aren't out much and most of the stores that we do go to aren't playing canned music anyway, so I don't tire of the sounds of the season. There are sleigh bells on our door and I love the sound that they make when rung, it's such a festive noise!

I have always wanted to have the gifts wrapped in brown paper and tied with twine and this year I'm actually doing it! Ah, so much to make my heart glad! We have "real" ornaments for the tree and some years we use them, however some years we make gingerbread ornaments and string popcorn and that's what we're doing this year. When we're ready to undecorate we will remove the angel and then take the tree out, edible ornaments and all for a celebration in the barnyard. The turkeys and chickens and ducks will enjoy their treat!

Aleks brought home the Christmas goose this afternoon so plans were quickly changed in order to prepare the bird for the table. We will have ham in addition to goose, also on the table will be homemade cranberry sauce. To make this delectable side dish you place one 12 ounce bag of cranberries in a pot with 1 can of white grape juice and 1 cup sugar, add 3 shredded baking apples and cook on medium heat until berries explode and sauce thickens. Place in pretty glass dish and allow to cool. It is tart and sweet and very different from the canned variety. Also will be homemade pumpkin pie, to make this you bake a pie pumpkin in the oven until flesh is soft, remove flesh (about 2-2.5 cups) and combine with 1.5 cups of cream, 3 eggs, 1-2 cups sugar (preferably brown), 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon, one eighth teaspoon cloves, .5 teaspoon nutmeg, .5 teaspoon ginger and three fourths teaspoon salt. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 and then 45 minutes on 350.

Thanksgiving is 6 months in the making

Hello to all of you, I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving. Our day was relaxing and enjoyable, as well it should be after the months of preparation that go into it! Plans begin in May when we plant the garden and decide which varieties of squash and pumpkins to plant, the very ones that will grace our table come the holiday season. We had Delicata squash this year, and oh! what a delicious tasty variety it turned out to be! This is a variety that dates from the 1880's or 90's and will definitely be something that we will plant next year. The pumpkins were a variety called Connecticut Field Pumpkin, a very old variety that dates back a few hundred years. They make the best pies, a process that begins the day before Thanksgiving when the pumpkin is quartered and baked. The cooked pulp is then scooped out, seasoned, mixed with fresh cream and baked to perfect doneness. A real homemade pumpkin pie beats any other kind! Whilst Katie and I were in the kitchen on Wednesday, the men and littler girls were outside butchering the Thanksgiving turkey. It was one that had been raised on our farm, outside in the fresh air and sunshine. We raise Narragansett turkeys, another old, heritage breed that is no longer commercially grown due to their slow growth. Your typical store bought turkey was a confinement raised "broad breasted white" hybrid monstrosity. They reach market weight in less than 6 months, whereas Narragansetts take a year or more. Slow is good. :-) The whole butchering business goes quickly, so quickly that I didn't get pictures and I really did mean to. The ambiance of country life, eh Ken? :-) However, I will describe how we go about it. A lot of folks have a killing cone but we don't, so we use the good, old fashioned chopping block. A piece of twine is tied loosely around the turkey's neck to keep its head stretched out so that it can be killed in one quick chop, I abhor the thought of torturing anything. Aleks sights the spot where he wants the ax to fall and thwack! its head is off. I've only ever seen a bird *run* after its head was cut off once, usually they just flop around which is what this one did. They also butchered 3 chickens that day and one of them flopped around so wildly that it ended up in the corn field, much to the amusement of the children. Then the bird is hung by its feet to bleed out, after that it is dunked in the cast iron cauldron of boiling water to loosen the feathers which are then pulled out. After the bird is plucked then it is gutted and immediately thereafter put in a tub of ice water to cool down. And that's it! About 12 hours later it was in the oven to slowly bake to perfect yumminess!

Later that evening we played tableaux vivants. This is an old form of entertainment where people in costume, with or without props, put on a scene. They don't move (so it's unlike charades) or speak and then we guessed what it was they were. For example our first tableaux of the night featured Asa, Abigail and Elisabethe sitting in the cast iron baby tub. Elisabethe held a knife, Abby had a rolling pin and Asa held a pewter candle stick. Can you guess what they were? Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub, and who do you think they be? A butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, throw them out, knaves all three! Other children did scenes from fairy tales, the pilgrims landing, a scene from Of Mice and Men, a scene from Fiddler on the Roof , and even one scene from Bugs Bunny, lol. We had such a good time and already everybody is planning what they will do for New Years. We finished off the evening by listening to records on the phonograph player. I have a treasure trove of 78's that we play, including a lot of Bing Crosby Christmas carols. There are waltzes that we love and even some FDR speeches if the mood strikes us. The younger set like to wind the handle before placing the needle on the record and they like to discover a new favorite from the box of records that we haven't yet listened to. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day!

Family Portrait at Zoar

In other family news, we went to Zoar on Saturday to take advantage of the 70+ degree weather where we enjoyed spending some time together hiking on the towpath trail. Zoar is so beautiful, it's one place where I'd actually consider living in town. The above picture was taken on the trail of the 8 oldest: Aleks, Katie, Levi, Micah, Tabitha, Rebekah, Elisabethe, and Abigail. A certain small person, who shall remain nameless, wouldn't behave for the picture. :-)

However, Katie took this picture of Asa the day before. It really shows how cute his lopsided grin is. I love that face! :-)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mother's birthday; she was born on Saturday February 7, 1931. Since I've already written some things about her childhood, I thought I'd tell you about mine.

Here she is on the right with some friends in 1948

My Mom would make cookies for my entire grade school class with each child's name written on their cookie in frosting, the teacher too! She always made elaborate homemade Halloween costumes, I was Betsy Ross in 1976, a pumpkin in a great big crepe paper pumpkin suit, and a lady-in-waiting with a blue gown and lace overlay along with a tall pointy hat with ribbons flowing from it.

My Mom was the yard sale/rummage sale queen, we spent entire summers looking through sales and buying treasures. I think that must be where I came to love antiques and all things with a "past". She was very indulgent about this passion of mine. When I decided that I wanted to twirl baton she threw herself into that by making some of my outfits,taking me to practice, parades, and competitions. And when that wore off.......well, you get the idea. She was behind me 100% and always believed in me; I suppose that's where the self confidence springs from. She always said "even if you're a failure at everything else in your life, you can still be a good parent" and so I learned what the most important things really were, and one of my much quoted favorites "there's always money for what you want" and so I learned about the importance of priorities and goal setting. There's a lot of wisdom there from a lifetime of experience. I couldn't have asked for better. I love you Mom.

Happy Birthday Dad!

This past Monday, January 19th, my Dad celebrated his 84th birthday. He has spent his whole life in the same county he was born in, Chautauqua County, NY, with a few short exceptions. He grew up in and around the Sherman, NY area; sometimes living with his Father and Step-Mother and sometimes with his Grandfather and his housekeeper Pearl. Pearl saved his life when he was little and had cut open one of the veins in his neck, she put him on the farmhouse table and packed the gushing wound with flour. When the Doctor finally made it he said the the boy would've died had she not acted as she did.

Here he is in 1929, 4 years old

His Father and Grandfather were both farmers and my Dad recalls that they did all the heavy work with a team of horses but they also had a "hoopi", that's a Model T truck rear-end and they used that to disc and drag. They couldn't plow with it though because it didn't have enough weight. His Grandfather also kept a yoke of oxen. After his Step-Mother broke his nose he ran away and was working in a bowling alley sticking pins. He had eaten leeks and she told him never to come in the house smelling like that again, so the next year the hired man asked him if he knew what that plant was and he said "leeks". The hired man said they were wild onions so my Dad ate them; when his Step-Mother asked him if he ate leeks he said no, but he had eaten wild onions. She grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him over the table and onto the floor where she proceeded to beat him. This wasn't an isolated incident and eventually he ran away. His Father said he'd sign the papers for my Dad to join the service if he'd come back to the farm for a while, so he did that. He joined the Navy in February 1942 when he was 17 and was discharged in December 1945. He was on the USS Wyoming, USS Izard and the USS Ross and received 13 battle stars. He was in Tokyo bay when the peace treaty was signed and returned home and went to work on the Nickel Plate Railroad. He was called up to go to Korea in 1950 and returned to the Nickel Plate after he had served there.

1951 aboard the USS Lioba

He married my Mother in 1950 and gave up his hell-raising ways, but I'll save that for the post I want to write on their Anniversary in April. He led such an interesting life and truly (like Laura Ingalls Wilder herself thought) saw the end of one way of life and saw many, many changes ushered in. From farming with horses to space travel; Model T's to the internet.

Happy Birthday Dad, I'm so proud of you!

Love,

Paris

Elisabethe's birthday

Elisabethe had her 5th birthday on Sunday, the 21st and that finishes out our birthdays for the year! I decided -remembered?- that she needed a birthday dress on friday and so we went through our meager fabric stash and found this piece. I wanted to do something different so I decided to try my hand at making bretelles.Bretelles are the over-the-shoulder-thingys that you see edged in rick rack. Rick rack isn't exactly period correct, at least not our modern Jo-Ann Fabrics version, but it was what I had. The bretelles have royal blue rick rack while the waistband is edged in black; that wasn't intentional, I thought that I needed another pack of blue when really I needed black. I never noticed until the bretelles were on, so they'll be coming off and be redone. Bretelles are an 1840's thing which is an era we don't reenact, so this is technically just an everyday dress, not one for reenactments or living histories. Therefore, the messed up bretelles shouldn't bug me, but they do! They dress has 3 growth tucks as well, which are hard to see unfortunately.

Elisabethe had told me in August that she wanted a birthday picnic like Rebekah had and I kind of just blew it off in my mind -you don't have picnics in December- but as her birthday drew closer I began to reconsider. So, we had a picnic by the fire complete with subs, potato salad and 2 kinds of jello.

And then, we roasted marshmallows in the woodstove!

And made smores!

The whole thing turned out very well, it was an interesting notion to picnic whilst the snow blew!

Snowy day

Yesterday and today we had our first snowfall of the year. We don't get much accumulation here but we make the most of what we do get! Micah and Levi wanted Aleks to help them build ships and then take them down to the creek. They set them a-sail and then fired at them with the BB gun trying to sink them. Levi made the argument that it wasn't fair to use the sight because cannons weren't equipped with them and it gave an unfair advantage. He maintained this policy until the battle got too fierce and then he broke down and aimed with the sight. ;-)

Elisabethe and Abigail got out of the bath and after they were freshly braided they decided to have "Church". They got down their song books and proceeded to go through their repetoire which consists of: Jesus Loves Me, God's Love Is Like A Circle, Come And Dine, and snippets of other tunes. It's so sweet to hear their singing!

Since we are homechurching again we've compiled our own "songbook" in a three ring binder. We thought it would be best to begin with the old songs that don't require the women to sing one thing and the men something different (what is that called anyway?) So far we have "Oh For A Heart To Praise My God" 1742, "All People That On Earth Do Dwell" 1500's, and "Praise To God, Immortal Praise" 1772. I want to add some of the old carols this week as well. These songs are meant to be sung slowly and I'm pretty sure that we sing them slower than most people would, but we find it helpful to meditate on the words rather than just race through the songs. That seems to defeat the intended purpose, doesn't it?

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner we've brought out our meager Thanksgiving/Pilgrims/Early Settlers/Native American books out. We also have a set of Indians and canoes and horses that they haven't played with since last year when we read aloud The Sign Of The Beaver, they really enjoyed that story. The Story of Sarah Whitcher is another wonderful, true story that we like! We have two turkeys that are going to be butchered early next week, they are an old heritage breed from Rhode Island called Narragansett. They aren't broad breasted like a Butterball but they are so flavorful, I can't wait!

I love THanksgiving, it is good to reflect on all of our mercies and give thanks afresh!

Our Anniversary

Today, November 3, 2008, is the eighteenth anniversary of our wedding day. We were married in the local Presbyterian church on a Saturday evening.

We had our reception at Delhurst restaurant where Mr. G worked at the time. My brother did the photography, my brother-in-law DJ'ed and my sister Dawn sewed the five junior bridesmaid's dresses. These were all gifts to us.

Mr. G's supervisor provided the catering and her mother made the cake!


And so we lived happily ever after!