Far Side of Fifty

I forgot all about the Cousin’s Quilt Square that I need to have done by February 21. Old age I guess..the theme of this years quilt is “birds.” 

I usually do a cross stitch pattern on waste cloth.

The waste cloth is attached to the top of your quilt square.  Waste cloth is a patterned cloth that has threads running through it..so that a cross stitch design can be stitched upon it and then the cloth is soaked and removed.  The threads are pulled..Far Guy likes to do that part. 

Here is my pattern. My eyes are not as good as they used to be..but it is coming along.

I pulled some pinky looking floss..I am not sure that it is quite right for the thistle flower so I need to go to town to get some more floss.

I organize all my floss onto plastic holders, that are marked with the color and then they are put into the containers in numerical order.  It is one of the things I am anal about…I like it perfect and not a mess.  I have been cross stitching for about 30 years and there is nothing as frustrating as having a balled up messy bag of floss to sort through when you want to begin a project.

Years ago I began with cardboard thingys to wind the floss on..then the plastic ones came out. I have a bunch of extras..I am not sure that they even make them anymore.  I am not sure why I have three boxes either..I may have used a box for each of the girls..they both enjoyed cross stitching too.  I used to cross stitch on sweatshirts and give them away as gifts.

Someone asked for my Pork Chop Recipe.  Use one box of Uncle Bens Wild and White Rice and 2 cups of water and a little butter put it all in a roasting pan and submerge three pork chops into the rice.  Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes…whilst you are napping:)

Lollygagging = to waste as much time as possible without the appearance of obvious laziness.

If there were a medal for lollygagging I might be stiff competition. However yesterday was the first day I lollygagged in my jammies all day long.  Is being in your jammies one entire day a sign of laziness..or is it just being calm and comfy?  Chance does not care what I wear..as long as I throw the ball.  Far Guy never noticed..or if he did he didn’t say a thing. No one came to the door and no one came to visit.

I took my turn cooking yesterday…pork chops and rice..you just throw it all in a roasting pan and toss it in the oven..Wala!..an hour and a half nap later you are ready to serve it.   It makes it seem like you have slaved all afternoon in a hot kitchen..when in fact you waited it out laying on the couch..occasionally waking up because you were snoring loudly.

Did you all catch Gwen from Hebron Ya, You betcha North Dakota on “The Voice” after the Stupor Bowl?   It will be interesting to see how she fares in the competition..since her recent comments were from Nashville..perhaps she is on her way.

No one on Idol is inspiring me so far this year..not a Clay or a Rueben or a Kelly Pickler or a Carrie or a Scotty in the bunch.  Perhaps they have discovered all the Idols.

Survivor starts next week and so will the no answering the phone let the machine handle it policy on Wednesday nights.  I see there are two older than average people..bet they and the Little Person are the first to go.  I wish they would go someplace that is a real challenge to Survive..like Canada in the winter..or maybe even Minnesota. Jeff could wear a blue parka.

What have I been doing in my spare time..besides napping?  Scanning old photos, playing games on my Kindle Fire, reading, working on The Cousins Recipe Book and I began a project that I missed on my January list.

Can you tell what it might be? 

Gone are the days when everyone wore a hat. This photo was most likely taken on a Sunday.

This is Far Guys Dad, his Grandpa, his Grandma, his Great Aunt Charolette and second cousin Roxie.  This photo was taken in Omaha in 1948. Grandma and Grandpa must have went to visit.  Grandpa never traveled very far from home so it must have been a special occasion. 

These women are sisters in law.  Grandma married the oldest son, and Charolette married  the youngest son.  Both were marvelous women whose company I enjoyed. The beautiful child Roxie..lives in Florida and occasionally reads the blog to stay in touch with her Minnesota cousins.

Photographs were often taken outside, the light was better and you did not require a flash.

I have begun to scan some more old photos from Far Guys family, they have been in the trunk upstairs..waiting for me:)

The school in nearby Osage was built and finished so that I could attend First Grade in the new school in 1957.  No country school for me..my parents bought a farm close to a country school with thoughts that their children wouldn’t have far to walk to school. I rode the bus.  Ivan Siegford was the bus driver. He and his wife owned the Hardware store in Ponsford. I got on the bus at 7:45 to 7:50 every morning to ride six miles in to school.

The old school has been renovated and it is now apartments.  We were invited there one afternoon last week for coffee.  One of Far Guys shirt tail relatives lives there.

I stood in line to get on the bus in this covered area for four years.

I could hardly believe that the drinking fountain between the first and fourth grade classes was still there.  It looks so short.  I stood in line here too.

I think the door on the left was a furnace room.   The double door further down was the milk room..that is where we went to have our milk break and it was also the room were the girls were segregated from the boys to watch a short film on how our bodies were changing.  The boys were oh so curious what the girls film was all about.  As far as I remember the boys had no film to watch in a darkened room with the School Nurse.

Straight ahead was the entrance to the gymnasium/lunch room.  To the right are two doors one was the in to the lunch counter and one was the out.  The “in” door is not in the photo..and that white door has been added.  I stood in line at the “in” part to get lunch.  I loved school lunch..Spanish Rice was one of my favorites and green beans and cooked carrots and peaches.  We were encouraged to finish our lunch and we had to show our lunch tray to the Principal Mr. Vaadland before we could leave the lunch room. 

It was an interesting afternoon that brought about many memories:)

The sun came out for a little while on Saturday..it made for some great frosty photos with blue skies.  I left the house in such a hurry I still had my jammies on..no one in the cemetery cared..and neither did Chance.

I loved the sunshine..but it was short lived.

Heavy clouds were on the horizon.

Soon the sun was gone. As I began the finishing touches on a fundraising project for the museum it receded even further.

I had the project under control.  It was to be mailed out shorty after my staycation and lollygagging around February 15.  I have worked long and hard on this project getting volunteers to represent the museum at township annual meetings in March.  It could be an excellent way to gain financial support at the local level.

THEN…

Two Board Members decided that they wanted to micro manage me and create more work for me. They want the project mailed out ASAP and they want me to include double the paperwork with each request.  After all they are the bosses..I have seven of them you know..and one has a husband that wants to boss me around too…eight bosses.   None of them understand the ins and outs of the project I am working on..I have read the Statutes and contacted the Minnesota Association of Townships to verify that I am headed in the correct direction.  I got a nasty email.. I ignored it and the person who sent it to me. I can understand why no one keeps the directors position for more than a year or two. It is very discouraging.   

Far Guy helped me to make mega copies and all the letters are ready to be mailed this morning. Everyone should be happy..papers and forms that are not needed were mailed with each request..and they were mailed out two weeks before they needed to be.

I am probably in a foul mood because my staycation was interrupted. Ackk!  Perhaps I need to hibernate a few days…unplug the phone and don’t answer the door:)

The gates down at the cemetery are always open.  The past few days they have been frosty.

I spend a fair amount of time taking photographs in this cemetery.  It is not far from our house and  it is on the way down to the river.

It is all fenced.

I am not sure if that is to keep people in..or to keep them out.  Perhaps they just define the space. 

Along this fence row is where we buried my cousin several years ago..he was young.  Little did I know when I took this photo..his only sister was losing her battle after a pulmonary embolism and a heart attack.  She died yesterday..she was just 41 years old a few days ago.  She is survived by four brothers. She was never married and she had no children.  One of my other girl cousins became her guardian after both of her parents died. She had special needs..but was able to care for herself..she just needed a little help to make good decisions.  I was nineteen years old when she was born.  She was my Uncle and Aunts only daughter, and they were just thrilled when she was born.  I am sure they were just as thrilled to see her again yesterday.

I saw her in the Clinic a few weeks ago..I just said a quick “Hi, how are you doing?”  I wish I had taken the time to give her a hug..but she wasn’t a touchy feely type of person that enjoyed hugs anyway..she liked her own personal space.

I have a whole bunch of cousins on that side of my family..41 cousins and now 3 are gone..dead.  So I only have 38.  That may seem like a lot to you..but it really isn’t.  I know many of them quite well.   My cousins range in age from 73 to 40.  When the older ones can remember when the younger ones were born..and then the younger ones die..it is difficult.

So we will have a funeral one day this week.  And lunch..with hotdish and rainbow Jell-O and cake..here in Minnesota we always eat well after a funeral.

We drove by the Cemetery last night..a number of people now have solar lights  decorating their graves.  Far Guy finds the lights a bit disturbing, and a lot spooky.  I think they are pretty.  I wondered aloud  “What would happen if someone bought a whole bunch of lights and spelled out something that could be seen from an airplane?”  Far Guy inquired  “What would you write?”  I said “Help Me” and then we both laughed:)

Hey!  Chance the blogging Border Collie here.  Yeah!! My turn..finally.

I had some visitors this week.  Brooke came by to play.  She kicked the ball a few times for me, she wouldn’t pick up my ball.  She didn’t like my ball, it might have been a little slobbery, but that’s okay I still liked her a lot! I like all kids..especially when they play ball.

She petted me real nice..Brooke is 2 1/2 years old.  She came over with her Grandpa.

Then some of the girls came..just to visit and go to Bingo and to play Hockey with me.

Just Jen ( my sister) and Miney came..they left all the boys and Little Elvis at home.  Miney likes to play Hockey too!

I am a real gentleman and let Miney get the ball..sometimes.  Isn’t she beautiful?  She is a Shetland Sheepdog or a Sheltie.  She is my very best friend.

EXCEPT..WHEN…

She takes the ball and goes and lays down in the snow bank because she is tired:)

The hoar frost and snow fog was awesome yesterday morning.  I think the roads were slippery in the early morning.

Chance and I went out to capture some frosty views.

He is the best model and companion for early morning outings.

The snow fog blocked out the sun all day long..so there were no Ground Hogs seeing their shadows in my part of Minnesota yesterday.

Lollygagging has officially begun.  I am taking some time to just do whatever strikes my fancy for 15 days.  I am going to nap if I want too..I am going to spend an entire day reading a book if I want too. It will be like a mini vacation right here at home:) 

Whilst I was rummaging around in the trunk I found some things that our daughters will have no idea where they came from, or why they were saved..they could guess of course..or they could read the blog.

My Mom marked the photo.  First Day School 1959 Stuart, Iowa. We spent the entire summer and fall in Iowa while my Dad was working on Road Construction in the area.  I started Third Grade there and after two months we went back to the farm.  I loved Stuart Iowa. There was a library, and I had my own library card..for a reader like me it was pure heaven.  There was also a city park and a bandstand.

My Mom sent the dress out to me one day when she was cleaning out some of her old boxes.

I suppose I should have ironed it..but it is old..and ironing it now may damage the fibers..besides that I just put it back in the trunk after the photos anyway.

This dress now has provenance .. yes this is a historical dress..a 53 year old historical dress.  Provenance means “to come from”  usually it is reserved for great works of art.  In my case it works for the red dress.  I know it was a store bought dress, and I wore it many times.  Not my favorite dress..but it was my second favorite dress. I only wore it one season..cause then I got breasts and nothing fit right ever again:)

A very long time ago.  Something happened in a pasture..I do not recall exactly what the circumstance was. I  believe a tree went down in a storm and a nest was disturbed.

Our neighbor Walt showed up with a gunnysack slung over his shoulder.  Inside were two baby owls. The other baby owl went to live with his grandson just down the road.

Carey named our owl George Washington, Danny named his Theodore Roosevelt. Very patriotic names for owls!

We fed them grain and bugs..lots of bugs. Owls grow really fast on a diet of bugs.  We may have fed them some ground up pocket gofers too because we always had a trap line going in the summer.  I believe all this happened in the summer of 1962.  One day towards Fall we released them back into the wild.  

That is my baby brother giving the owl his arm he would have been 7 years old, I am holding my other baby brother who was almost 2 years old and I would have been almost 11 that summer.  I cannot remember where we kept that owl..most likely in a rabbit cage in the barn.  That is the old picture tree behind us and I noticed a set of concrete lawn ornaments in the background..a Hen with four chicks.

We always wore long sleeves when handling the owl. My baby brother took very good care of that owl.  Have you ever been pecked by an owl?  I have:) 

My baby brothers version:

The baby owls were on the ground in the pasture, couldn’t fly or run. I and Danny B found them. They were Great Horned owls. The Owl Mother didn’t like the fact that her babies were removed and would sit on top of the barn and watch. The owl George lived in a case by the side of the chicken coop. Sharp claws. Ate hamburger. Released into Smoky Hills state forest, not sure how he faired