Mother knows best

The little colt (is that what they are called?) was standing away from its mom when I pulled up. He wasted no time moving closer to his protection, then gave me the look.

Good-bye Grandma D.

Family birthday parties have found us meeting a lot of the other-sides of the families. We go to my baby brother Boo's childrens' parties, and meet his wife Ruby's sisters and mother and grandmother. Grandma D. was a hoot. We saw her most recently on April 14th. Boo always escorted her to her class reunions, and she had it all planned out. She had a new purple outfit, and one of her daughters had helped her find just the right jewelry to go with it. She had talked to her good friend who also went to the reunions, and had told her to save her a place. The reason for having to save places: Grandma D planned to be fashionably late, so she could make an entrance. She regaled us with how she would rule the festivities.

The next Monday was a dance recital that two of Boo's girls were in. Grandma D had been expected, but was a no-show. That was unusual. One of Ruby's sisters also didn't show, and we found out later why. She had gone to Grandma D's to pick her up. There was no answer to her knock, and she couldn't gain entrance to the building. She called her husband and he broke down the door. Grandma D was there, but she had had a massive stroke. She lingered for awhile, but last Wednesday she passed on.

Today we went to the visitation. Hard to keep a dry eye when she was laid out in, yes, the purple outfit.

Simple, Part the Second

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Order :: Chaos
2. Mortician :: Funeral Home
3. Determine :: Find Out
4. Ignore :: Snub
5. Guy :: Gal
6. Train :: Montana
7. Garlic :: Ward off a cold
8. Wacky :: Goofy
9. Parent :: Mom and Dad
10. Burning :: Fire

Global Warming

Diane has proof of global warming here.

Sick

One of the bad things about living alone is that when you get sick, you are really alone. No one to hold your head or your hand, no one to yell at you, no one to tuck you back into bed. Alone. *sigh*

Woke up in the middle of the night with a bad case of the stomach upsets. Don't know if it was something I ate, overeating, or a bug, but man, I was sick! The cats seemed to sense something was wrong. Snuzzles likes to bite my nose to wake me up, but he would come close, I'd say "i'm sick" and he'd leave me alone. Whew.

Feeling better this morning, but everything is kind of achy, and the only food that sounds good is stale crackers. I have a load of dirt coming this morning for the flower gardens, but I bet I won't be doing too much shoveling today. (I know, I know, it's weird to bring in dirt when you live on a farm, but this is screened top-soil to go in the flower beds. I have three other flower beds besides the new one where the wall is.)

And, the sun is finally shining again, and when I opened my front window there were three deer grazing out in the field across the road. So life is good. It would be better shared, I think, but we do the best we can with what we've got.

Michigan's State Bird

Some say our state bird should be the Kirkland Warbler, but the robin is our traditional state bird.

Development???

Susan has a good post about preservation in her town, and the problems that build up as property gets into developers hands. I so hear this discussion. I've followed the provenance of a couple of farms in this county pretty closely. I live in a house that has only family historic value, but it is approaching a hundred-years-old, and is situated on 160 acres that is still used for agricultural purposes. It is the house my Grandma Bea grew up in, and as she was an only, and my Mom is an only, it has stayed intact through the years. However, the bulldozers are working overtime four miles down the road, as the road is widened and given turn lanes. Mom's half-mile stretches of just farm are rare: most frontages have been transformed into homes. I'm just grateful for the time I do have here. The uncertainty of the future makes now sweeter.

Now Grandma Bea's husband, Chris, also grew up on a farm, over in the next township (closer to Lansing). He was the youngest of six. His father bought him eighteen acres when he married Grandma. The farm he grew up on passed to his oldest brother, who helped take care of the parents. Uncle Wills and Aunt Tommee had a dairy farm. Development hit their township a lot earlier. Uncle Wills passed in the early 60's, and in the early 70's Aunt Tommee sold the land to mall developers, with the proviso that part of the acreage would be a township park. There is nothing left of the original farm.

Development. Progress. Or is it?

Great-Grandma's Jonquils

The jonquils are outside the north kitchen window. I can see them there in the morning as I make my breakfast, and in the evening as I putter in the kitchen. I like to think of Great-Grandma looking out at them, and then looking down the road to the next farm, where my Grandma (her daughter) lived. I like to think of her peeking to see if she can see little Barbry (my mother) playing in the yard, or walking down the lane to meet the team coming back from the fields.

I'm glad the jonquils bloom. But I forgot to smell them!!!!

Happy Birthday to You

Julie has a birthday. She's a young thang!

Nerdy Me

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Drama Nerd
Musician
Science/Math Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Simple

Building a Wall

Mom and I were sitting on the back porch last spring. The view is the yards, the barns, and a gray wall on the barn bridge. Mom said, "That gray wall needs dressing up somehow."

"Yep," I replied. So I thought. And I put a couple of planter boxes atop the wall with sunflower seeds. Looked kind of dorky, but it was something to do, and added some greenery to the wall. Well, it added greenery until some thing (deer or woodchuck or maybe both) ate the sunflowers.



As I thought some more, I thought it would be cool to have a flower bed by that old gray wall. I wanted it to be a defined bed, though, because we have a lawnmower guy and I didn't want it to be hard to mow around. I was telling my friend Carol this one day, and she said, "Oh, I know how to make the retaining walls, I'll help you!"

Wow. I have such good friends, both on the internet and off. This weekend Carol met me with her 1/2-ton pick-up to pick up the blocks for the retaining wall. She drove them out to the farm, and then patiently showed me how to set the first row of blocks so that the wall would be level in all directions. (She actually set most of the bricks.) What a friend.




Now I just have to figure out what to plant that the deer and woodchucks won't eat.

Interview Meme

Saw this at Julie's, and thought it was a good idea. (However, I did warn her I might lie.) So here goes....


1. Why did you move to the country?
*smile* Because I wanted to live in Paradise!
I had lived in apartments for the last thirty-some years. My mom owns a house in the country that was vacant. I thought, why don't I rent that? It's one of my favorite places on earch. I've been here for eleven months now. It just keeps getting better and better.

2. What is the best and worst thing about country life? There are two best things: the wonderful sounds and sights of nature all around, and the fact that a lot of people love the country, so I get a lot of company. The worst thing about country life? The cellar!!!!

3. Share a vivid memory from your childhood - whether it's good, bad, funny, sad, etc is up to you. Visiting Yellowstone National Park, and watching the Tetons in the rearview mirror for 100 miles.

4. If you could go back in time, what's one thing you would change and why? You can't change things when you go back in time, or

you'll make even worse problems!

5. Who is your favourite entertainer and why?
Well, after all these years it would still be Kevin Costner. His early work fascinated me, and Field of Dreams is my favorite movie. Now his work is more spotty, but there's something comforting about his screen presence. Only, I wish he wouldn't keep dying in his movies!!!!

DIRECTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW MEME
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Unconscious Mutterings

Here we are at 4:44 in the morning, so let's mutter!

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Found :: Lost
2. Male :: Female
3. Spoken :: Oral
4. Life :: is a bowl of cherries
5. Tonight :: From the Musical West Side Story
6. Fingernail :: Mine are all broken. I've been doing hard manual labor
7. True :: False
8. Give up :: Quit
9. Shining :: Moment
10. Everywhere :: nowhere

She's Got Deer!

Wow! I am jealous. Diane puts out corn for deer in her backyard, and look at them come. Wow!

Once Again, My Flickr Favorites

There are just so many styles and colours and fun things happening on flickr. Here is a sampling of what I have seen in the last month. Click through for the links to the individual photographers.

Look Both Ways

The deer are getting closer!! This is out the kitchen window, so it had a lot of screen and dusk to get through, but it's proof that the deer are getting closer. And isn't it nice, she checks both ways before crossing the street?

Virginia Tech

Our hearts are saddened and our minds horrified by the events at Virginia Tech. I have checked flickr, keyword Virginia Tech and recent, to find non-news words of the situation.

Gone

I've been watching this old abandoned house about six miles west of me as it deteriorated. Finally someone decided enough was enough. A controlled burn reduced the house and outbuildings to scrap and ashes.