Dot`sThoughts

Winter is finally showing it`s beautiful/ ugly side. Only about 6 inches of snow so far. it keeps starting to snow, but so far has only added a dusting. here I sit waiting to see if it will just be light flurries or turn into a real storm brfore it is thru. So pretty to look at as long as I am inside looking out-- but OH how cold it is getting to be and the furnace is running almost nonstop. .
Must confess that looking out the window and seeing the small wooded area covered with snow reminds me of the younger days. Where I grew up there was woods on one side and across the back of our properties. So I grew up playing in the woods, climbing trees when I was still real young, scaring our Mother whenever she looked out the back or side windows to see us up so high. She told me a few years before she died that she was most scared when seeing me following my older bros up so high. I will always be grateful that I learned real young so I could climb up after my little ones years later.
There was this one day when my twins were about 3 yrs old and I had made a sandpile for them to play their cars on. I was getting lunch ready when something made me feel I should recheck on the boys. I had just looked about 5 min. before. But, I went to the window and there playing was just one of the twins. So, outside I went to find the other son. At first I didn`t see him anyplace. Then something made me look up-- there going even further up the huge back tree was my 3 yr old and still climbing higher. I ran out and started climbing. When he saw me he started laughing and climbing even higher. My long ago experience allowed me to climb faster till I could reach him. Then the fun started as when I started carrying him down, he became frightened and grabbed at each branch that we passed. His hands would freeze on the limb and I would have to try to hold onto him and a branch at the same time to keep us both from falling. The other hand was used to pry his hand loose , lower us to the next lower branch before he could grab on again. This continued all the way down that tall tree- with him so scared about coming down that he kept grabbing every branch we passed and his hand freezing there. Seemed like ages before we were close enough to the ground to climb the rest of the way. Then was more fun as the first branch was over 5 feet off the ground and I just had to hold him tight and jump down the rest of the way . I feared I might fall on him since I couldn`t hold on to anything. He was so scared I didn`t think I ever had to worry about him doing that again-- at least till he was older.
The neighbors kids went after their Father, who came over to help, but I was almost off the tree by then. The neighbor told me " Why didn`t you yell, I would have gone up the tree after him for you. If you saw your little son way up in a tree, would you leave him there to go higher while you went after someone to help you? I think most people would do the same thing I did and hurry climbing up the tree hoping to reach him before he fell out of the tree. Another neighbors daughter asked me " Aunt Dot aren`t you going to spank him" I told her he was punished enough since he cried and was scared all the way down. I wasn`t realy her Aunt, but most of the kids in the neighborhood called me Aunt Dot.
Then a few minutes later I was out back talking to another neighbor when her daughter came in saying, Aunt Dot, Roger`1s up the tree again". Since she was one to exagerate a lot, her Mother just told her to go play. But, to me she sounded like she was serious, so I ran and looked out the window and sure enough there he was again climbing up the tree. So, this time I decided something had to be done before he got hurt. So, I got out the scout hatchet and a saw and started cutting off the lower limbs so he couldn`t reach them. All went well for another 10 years till the youngest son was almost three-- a little younger than his older bro had been. Of course, he couldn`t reach the lower branches, so I wasn`t worried.
Then came the day that he found another way to reach those lower branches. He had taken the big cart belonging to his older bros and leaned it up against the tree with the handle side up. He had his tricycle sitting beside the upturned cart. Then he was able to climb up, stand on his trike, from there he climb onto the top of the handle end of the cart and low and behold- there he was climbing the tree. I managed to reach him as he was starting to get onto those smaller weaker branches. I was getting scared this time because I wasn`t sure those thinner branches would hold both our weight as I brought him back down to the larger branches. One good thing was that he wasn`t scared, so he just laughed all the way down, holding onto me instead of the branches.
Well, you probably already guessed what happened next. I stood on a ladder and cut off more of the lower branches.
Years later this old tree finally died. It fell during the night. We got up to see it laying across our back yard. The Lord was sure with us that time. Sitting behind the tree was a neighbors building, on another direction was another neighbors Garage and the third side would have landed on our Building that was the grocery store at that time. So, it fell into the only open place across our back yard. It was so large that some of the branches laid onto the Store roof, but did no damage. We were days cutting it up with a chain saw-- into logs the size to fit our Ben Franklin. We covered the logs and let them age for about three years before we burned them.
So we finally won against that old tree.
Funny how watching those flurries outside and seeing the snow covered wooded ares brought to mind. At least it has gotten from 9 degrees F at 8am to now close to 30 degrees. I have emptied my dogs frozen water and refilled the dish already 3 times today and it is frozen again. But she is still insisting on staying outside in her coop so I need to do my best to keep fresh unfrozen drinking water out on the porch for her.

Thanksgiving Day, November24, 2005
Here I am again writing about my Thanksgiving Dinner with some Family
members that took place yesterday at D. "T"`s home. I wrote about it in Word Pad, and it was also being saved on the Polyedit board for extra secueioty. Then when I went to hit on Copy, my crockrd finger accidently hit on paste. Well it removed everything off both boards, so now I must write it all over again.
Well there were 15 Family members there- 2 Daughters, 4 grandkids( two are grown amnd parents themself, and 2 are still in High school), 3 great grand kids ( ages 8, just turned 3 and 3 months), one great Niece and her grown-up son and three others ( one an expected son-in-law, and 2 friends of two of the grand kids), plus myself. it was a huge Dinners with so many different foods and so very much of it. Lots of joking and laughter went on all evening.
Lots of picking on each other and noone getting mad-- just joking back -- all in good humor. One of the things said was by the daughter who did all that cooking while running her day care which has 7 kids from babies up to 4 years old. She has some great minding kids, with one exception. When the Mother stopped to pick up this little 3 yr old, I watched him climb up onto her car trunk and on to the top of the car in just the couple minuted it took her to open the door and get the car seat ready for him. The first time I met him, my D spelled out the word m-e-a-n. Then he held up both hands for me to take him. He is one who will grab and pinch your face if you don`t watch him.
Well, to get back to the dinner, T told her cousin that she better eat more than that one deviled egg as she wasn`t going to make them till she said it wouldn`t be thanksgiving to her without them. The Niece said she was getting full from all that delicious food she had eaten. T told her she better eat another one. I told the niece that if she didn`t eat more, then she better check her coat pockets before she put her coat on when she went home as her pockets might be filled with eggs. When her son called to say he would be over as soon as he headed home for a shower. my D told him to forget going home, to just get himself here while the food was still warm as it was already on the table. He got there a few minutes later. We all laughed at how he did as he was told. He works in a car place, but not under the car hoods.
Then one of the grandsons told his 3 yr old that he better eat if he wanted to have big muscles. The little grandson jumped out of his boosting chair , put both arms in the air and said " see I got big mus-cul-s ( his version of Muscles). The whole evening continued like this-- much kidding and lots of Laughter.
The oldest of the granddaughters was at my home with a friend the day before and I helped her with her crochet. Her friend watched us and said " Wow, I could never do that. I jumped out of my chair, went into the other room and came back with more yarn. In about 15 minutes i had taught her how to do plain chain, single crochet and double crochet. Last night after tht huge Dinner, the girls got out their yarn and needles. I then started showing the granddaughter how to do increases in making a hat. The friend showed me how her crocheting was working out. I told her " And you said you could never learn how". She asked if she was doing it right and I told her she was doing great. I told her to never say can`t until after you know you have given it your best try . And she added yes, "you told me there is no such word as can`t, just either I can or I won`t quit till after I have at least tried my best, and that most of the time I will end up finding a way to do it". I told her if she applies that same line to everything she faces she will have a much happier and much better future.
Then it was time for pie and Low and behold, the pies were still in my frig nxt door as "T" didn`t have room in her frig for everything. So, we sent a couple of the grandkids to fetch them. The niece was picking on me when she said 'Aunt Dot, don`t have my car towed away". I then knew her new car was parked in my driveway. I told her she had nothing to worry about as my car was at the garage getting the rust touched up-- so my Garage was empty, and so if your car turns up missing, don`t peek in my Garage. HaaHaa. As you can see we are a kidding Family, but all done in polite ways. She knew she didn`t need to ask to park in my driveway. I only have one rule, park it over on one side or the other leaving enough room for me to back my car out of the garage if I need to. Lots o f the family parks here when also visiting next door as her driveway only holds one vehicle with the 2 cycles still parked there.
When i came home i noticed that the daughter had filled another plate and sent it over into my frig when they came after the pies. So, my Thanksgiving Dinner sits waiting in the frig for me to eat today.
"T" always cooks her Holliday Dinners the night before. This started after her and her Husbamnd divorced many years ago, so their kids could spen that time with each parent- one the night before and one the next day-- except she kept the kids on Christmas morning letting them go to their fathers in time for dinner since she had hers the night beffore. She had full custody, but still met him half way for the kids sake.
It also made it easier for othetr members of our Familt to join us and still be home with their own Family on the special day.
Well, a good time was had by all along with lots of funtime laughter.

Snowed all night and still coming down, Glad I got my small snowblower out of the garage yesterday and put it onto my side porch .
Just watching the Parade in N.Y. Times square and the MnM float hit a street light and knocked the lamp part off and into the crowd. One person was hurt, but not seriously, but the ambulance is trying to get thru to her. Glad noone was seriouslt hurt. With such a large crowd it was luckt that more people weren`t hurt.
Well, My dog Sassy still is insisting on staying outside in her dogcoop. I added one of those materials onto tne doghouse floor to reflect her own body heat back to keep her warmer and the doorway is covered with a heavy piece of rug so no cold can blow in. But, I would still relax better if she came in the house where it is warmer. Was down in the teens for part of yesterday. I used to be able to get some hay for her coop, but they don`t get it anymore. Haven`t got another place around here that sells it. Of couse her heavy chain used to drag much of the hay back out all over that end of the driveway. But it was worth that extra work just to know she was watm enough. I felt of her nose a while ago and it is nice and cold so at least she hasn`t gotten sick thus far. Next month she needs to go back to the vets for her distemper shot which will be due.
I hope everyone is having a Wonderful Thanksgiving Day wherever they are. And if it isn`t Thanksgiving where you live, then still I wish you a nice day followed by a great weekend.

Then there was the sad news . Earlier yesterday I went out after my newspaper. The first thing I usually look at is where they list all the obits at the bottom of the front page of the local news. I got such a shock to see my friend`s name listed there. She lives in California. I first met her older sister when I started high school back in the late 40`s. This girl was in my brother class a couple years ahead of me, but we clicked together the moment we met. We remained close friends over the almost 50 years till she passed away. Thenher mom moved to california tobe near her only other daughter. This other daughter became also my friend from the first time I visited their home with her older sister. The older sis was a couple years older than me and this younger sister was 1 yr 8 mo. younger than me. So I fit in well with them both. Their Mom was like a second Mom to me. We had many wonderful times together over the years. There was one time when I called California and was talking to their Mom. She asked me when I was coming down to see her again. Her daughter had taken her to Calif. on a plane, and she never realized how far away from me she was then living. She kept begging me to come down. She said there`s not many of us oldies left and we have to stick together. One time her daughter told me that her Mom said that if nobody was going to take her up to see me then she would just drive herself up. A couple dayslater they found her sitting in their car. When Eve asked her where she was going, she said" I`m going up to see Dot. Glad they saw her before she started the cay as it is a long ways from California to upstate N.Y.. She had turned in her licence a few years before as she felt 80`s was getting to old to keep driving. She was a greatdriver still, but felt it was her responsibility to turn her Licence in. She did thisshortly after her older daughter died. They had lived about a 20 minutes drive from my home. The oldest had been real sick spending the last few years in a wheel chair and at the last few weeks she lost her eyesight and didn`t know anyone. her Mother continued totake full care of her, only asking that someone come to help get her into and out of her wheel chair. in her 80`s and still keeping her own home and careing for her then invaliddaughter. Such a sad thing to happen to one who had such caring feeling for everyone she ever met. She was a Girl Scout leader for years and helped run the Fort Edward Society and when she ended up in a wheel chair she did all their calls over the phone to keep helping.She had just gone on the boat cruise with her Senior classes 50th get together. She had a Nurseaccompany her so she could attend. Well, to get back to the younger sister, I called her Husband and we had a long phone conversation.I know he would have liked to keep talking much longer, but I felt my phone bill would already be getting way to high. It had been quite a few years since we had seen each other in person,but we still kept in touch thru letters or phone calls. So, him and I had lots to talk about.One thing i did tell him that seemed to help was what she once told me. She said that since he was a few years younger than her Husband, she needed to live longer so he would never be left alone. They were married 31 years when she passed away. They had one of the closest loveing relationships I have ever seen in any Marriage. More proof that age has little to do with makinga Marriage work. They stayed romantic with each other, often walking across the roam just to give the other one a hug. He also took the roll of being a great step-father to her 3 kids and grand kids and great grandkids, even though those 3 kids were from her first marriage. They were one close Family. I copuld understand how her kids could take to him so much as he is a warm, friendly very kind person. Eve will be greatly missed, but as her Hubby said, she will always be with us thru our many memories. Eve was not the average person. She didn`t care if others approved of how she dressed or acted, she stayed true to herself, while her sister was the serious down to earth type. So different from each other, but both so easy to get along with. Once you were a friend of their Mom or either of them, you remained their friend for life. I will always miss them all. They were like my extended family which I loved dearly.

More Animals we have owned.
Prince was a Collie/ German police mix which gave her both the gentleness of a Collie and the protection of a Police dog. There was a time when we had a family in our area whose boys were always looking for a fight with someone. So, I would take Prince with me for protection and walk to meet my daughter ( 16 at the time) as she walked home from her job in the Hosp. caffeteria. Walt used to warn me that those boys wouldn`t care if I was a woman. I knew prince would protect me, so I didn`t worry. You see even when I was fooling around with my teenage boys, if they tried picking on me, Prince would jump up on me, turn her head towards the boys and growl at them. Inorder to fool with the kids, I had to first put Prince outside. We didn`t have the leash laws here back then, but Prince never left the side porch unless she was following one of us. But he would go straight home if we sent him back. We had him for close to 14 years. Then she got into a fight protecting her food dish from the neighbors dog. The other dog bit her on the neck causing an abcess so bad that the vet said it needed an operation, but Prince was too old to live thru the op.
Then there was Flopsie, our little beagle. She first belonged to a daughter , then her hubby brought home another dog and she didn`t want two dogs. I told her I didn`t want the other dog, but I would take Flopsie. A granddaughter named her that because she said her ears flopped. We had her over 10 years. She was almost blind and couldn`t climb anymore and I was carrying her up and down the porch. Finally I could see she was in too much pain and I had to take her to the vets. It broke my heart both times- with Prince and with Flopsie. After that I never wanted another dog, till Sassy changed my mind a few years later.
Then before those dogs there was Champ. His mother was my oldest daughters mineature Police dog. But his father must have been some large dog as Champ was one real strong puppy and at 3 months of age while I was walking him out to tie him up, I got just as far as the porch when a neighbor walked by with his dog. Champ took off on a fast run carrying me flying thru the air and dumping me on the driveway between our two cars. he was already getting to be a big dog. I had to dig my hands into the ground to halt him . Then shortly before he was a year old, he snuck out the door when one of the kids opened it. Off he went on a fast run- up the road and crossed the main road into the woods. My youngest son and a cousin went running after him. About 10 minutes later the nephew came running and told me Ron needs something to hook on Champ to bring him home. He told me to hurry as he didn`t think Ron could hold him very long. Later I heard champ had run over half way around the large pond in the woods and everytime the boys got near him, he would stop look at them and run the other way. Nephew told me that Ron took a flying leap in the air and managed to land where he could grab hold of Champ. We kept Champ for about 4 years and by then he was the size of a small pony- tall and broad. He must have had a very large dog for his father. Walt was afraid of him because of his size, but he was as gentle as could be. Only problem was he was so large and heavy that when he leaned against you, there better be something behind you to lean against or you were going down. Then the youngest moved out and I knew that if he ever got loose again I could never catch him. So, I knew a fellow who wanted a large dog and he had plenty of room for him to run in. He came down with his teenage son and when I looked out later I saw how well his son and Champ got along. They were having a great time playing together, so I gave Champ to them.
Then there was the shaggy dog that was killed by a garbage truck in front of our home and then there was the little dog with the curly tail that was killed by a fellow driving the bread truck to our store. It was no mistake as he said if that dog ever barks at him again he will kill it. That little dog would just lay there by the porch and bark, he never got up when he would bark. A very friendly dog. The bread truck almost hit our house when he killed it. I called the bread co. and told them, either get rid of that driver or stop delivering to our store as that driver was never allowed back onto our property again. The owner told me that he had complaints before and this time he would be fired.
Then when the twins were babies there was this strange dog that hung around. She was so skinny that I felt for her and started putting out food for her. One day I took the twins in a carriage and along with the little 2 1/2 yr old, we headed down to visit my Grandmother. Shortly after we were their, a cousin stopped in and asked my Gram who owned the little dog on the front porch. I went to look and it was that little god that someone in a car had dropped off. That little dog ended up having 1 tiny pup on my Aunts front porch. Gram lived with my Aunt. My Aunt brought the little dog and her - then- one puppy and made a place for them in her bathroom. Later I phoned a brother to see if he could give us a ride home. He asked if the twins were too tired or was I too tired to push them back home. I told him I could easily get the three kids back home, but not the little dog and her five puppies. She wouldn`t nurse her pups, so I called the vet for a formula and fed them with a medicine dropper every three hours day and night. Lost one that night, 2 more the next day, well the last one lived just 5 days. A couple days later a neighbor called to tell me the little dog was dead under her front porch. Turned out the mother dog had been poisoned so the pups never had a chance. A couple months later we found the older daughters cat poisoned. We knew who was doing it, but couldn`t proove it. But the vet thought the little dog might have been poisioned was dropped of.
Then therewere the fish that one of the twins had. We were gone on a vacation and thetwin owning the fish and the girls were working when a friend dropped in to see the other twin. he had a beer with him which he poured into the huge fish tank saying he wanted to see how fish acted when they were drunk, well he found out as he killed them all. i was so irritated when i got home and heard this. Told that son what I thought and that he also knew better than let a friend bring in a beer while we were not home. Then next time i saw that friend, he also knew how I felt.
Years later the same son who owned the fish started raising rabbits. He had about 14 when some dogs tore the coop apart and killed all but the one rabbit that managed to hide where they couldn`t get him. He was born a three legged rabbit and still the only one living. My Son was so dissappointed that he gave that last rabbit away. We had rabbits dead all over the back yard and in one neighbors yard. Funny thing is we never heard any barking dogs, but another neighbor saw them when he came him from work late that night, but he never knew about the rabbits at that time.
Then another daughter raised some hamsters-- way too many. She had so many cages with towers and all. I used to make her take them all up to her room while i ran the Cub meetings as they loved watching the hamsters performing. After she graduated, she lsft home and i told her she was responsible to care for her own animals and she knew that before she started raising them, At the time she was working at the local general Electric night shift and her younger sister said there running those wheels was keeping her awake. Daughter finally gave them to our local pet store.
Hubby, a brother and I bought a very young bull once and had raised it for over 2 years when one day my bro called to tell us it had strangled on the chain when it suddenly took off on a fast run. Vet said he was pretty certain the bull was stung by a bee.
Well, think that tells about the animals we had, and most of them were my responsibility while the kids were attending school.
Now,I am glad there is just my trusty loyal Border Collie to worry about.

I first got my dog in June `96 when she was just 3 months old. So she is almost 9 1/2 years old. She is a Border Collie. I first saw her when Walt and I visited one of his nieces and her hubby. Thie little 3 month old puppy was never trained and she kept trying to chew on the old cats ears. I know she wasn`t hurting the cat as the cat never moved away from her. After a while, noting that her owners were not going to stop her, I started taping her on the nose with just one of my fingers. After about three times she stopped bothering the cat. His nieces husband told me that if the cat wanted him to stop she would stop him. But, I figured if the puppy was allowed to chew on the cats ears, then what would she start chewing on next.
Well, the puppy seemed to like me even though I was punishing her as she followed me everywhere while they were showing me their trailer. She was always trying to jump into my lap, so eventually I picked her up and she settled right down on my lap.
Later when we were getting ready to go home, she followed me out to the car. I picked her up and carried her up onto their porch. But, before i could get back into the car, she beat me there and jumped into the back seat and laid down on the back seat.
I took her out of the car, carried her back to the porch, but again she beat me into the car. I finally took her out and started to hand her to her owners. But, the nieces Husband told me to take her home. I told him I couldn`t take his dog home. He told me that she had never followed either of them like she was following me and that I had to take her home as she had chosen me.
Then the niece told me that there was a small dog in the mall that she wanted to buy, but since she already had two dogs, they didn`t need a third one. But if i took this puppy home then she could get the other one.
So, that`s how I came to be her owner. She was real easy to train, and still obeys well. My only problem is that she barks whenever a cat or squirrel comes near our property. We have a leash law, and the cats ( some are wild ones) and squirrels have figured just how close they can get and still be out of her reach.
Oh, her name is Sassy- they named her that and I just left it.
One day my youngest son came home on a Motorcycle with a friend. Sassy didn`t recognize him with the helmet with the face guard, his friends leather jacket and wearing sneakers instead of the work boots. Sassy let his friend enter, but growled at Ron and wouldn`t allow him thru the door. I told him to remove the helmet so she could see who it was, and she immediately started waving her tail and jumping on him for attention. So she is a great watchdog. I feel safe here alone as long as I have her.
Beside Sassy is my large toolbox that I made the flowered table cover for. It is one of those toolboxes with wheels and the long handle that pushed in when not needed. Didn`t wish to leave it out in the woodshop during the winter and needed a way to hide it in the house. it is like those tableclothes with the floor length and a ruffles edge around the top. Not a very good pivcture of it though. Tjhe yellow is one of those icecream cones with a squeeker in it that a great grandson gave Sassy last Christmas. She is curled up on her dog bed.

Has now rained for two nights and two days. Think it`s supposed to stop raining tomorrow. Sure is still pouring down. Hoping for a better day tomorrow as I am thinking of taking my car to the garage a few streets up to get an estament for treating the rust spots that are starting on the door corners and the rocker panel. Not bad yet so I want to get it touched up before the rust gets worse and I eventually end up with holes rusted thru. Being a 15 year old car, I hate to put a lot into it, but it still runs like a top and i `m hoping to keep it working for as long as I can. Yesterday I took down the two smaller shelfs that are on each side of the main shelf over the Dining area large window. I made two new shelfs a little longer than the old ones and made them the same depth as the center shelf.Now I can place all the larger Clysdale bubweisner Steins and cups in one place. before I had some of the steins over on another shelf and just the smaller mugs and cups on the two smaller shelfs that I removed. Now I am just waiting for my son to find time to nail up the end board enclosing the side between the roof and the porch roof to give it a neater finished look. Once that is done I can start putting everything back up in the dining area. Seems like there is always some more work to finish, or something else waiting to be started. I went out Monday and measured for the heavy plastic sheeting for the side of the porch. I like to hang it double thickness, so it measured 104 inches x about 42 inches-- or 52 x 42 when it is doubled in half. There was no place in the house where I could measure something that large, so I cut off what I needed from the huge roll and headed for the driveway where I could open it the full length and width. Then every time I started to fold it in half the wind would catch whichever end I wasn`t on and blow it back open. Finally I gave up fighting it and took the cover off the garbage can and used it to hold one side down while I folded the other side. Then came the real work of trying to handle something that long , wide and clumsy while using a staple gun to staple the plastic up onto the porch roof under supports. Got out my trusty ladder to climb up on to reach that high. I got just two staples in when the electric stapler acted up. After taking it apart three times to remove more messed up staples, I went in the house and got the old hand stapler. That sure works your hands from pushing so hard. I finally got that side stapled and then I cut and added a single layer going down the front side from the corner to the steps. Once that was finished my yopungest son stopped bvy and he was able to fix the electric stapler for me. Sure wish he was aroung earlier before my hands got such a work out. But, he was working then. I have put up plastic for the past two years and it has helped a lot as it breaks the wind from coming into the house so much when the door is opened. It also keeps the snow from landing on the porch unless the wind is blowing the wrong direction. So, one more job finished before the snow starts. Still need to go our and pull up the metal fence stake that holds the trellis for the runner flowers in the front flower box. Intended on doing it yesterday, but the rain still hasn`t stopped. I did mamnage to get out to the compost pile and managed to turn over part of it before the rain got heavier. Should be in mopping the bathroom floor, but needed a rest first. Glad it wasn`t too cold yesterday so I could work in the shop. Rain doesn`t stop me there, as long as it doesn`t turn into a thunderstorm or get way to cold. But those days are limited as it will soon be way too cold. I do own a round keroscene heater out there, but just never liked using it even though it is completely enclosed. I found out that I have trouble breathing around Keroscene. We used to pump keroscene when we had the Grocery store and it bothered me every time. Probably wouldn`t bother as much inside the closed up Heater. Well, I have loafed from working long enough, so guess i`ll hop out in the rain and get my mail and then try getting more done.

Roof day!!
Two of my sons worked all day building the frame for the new roof for the house addition that is my Kitchen area. They covered the framework with plywood, face metal , fire and ice rolled sheeting, and arkictec shingles . So, my winter roof leaks are now over.
I still remember the day we added on the addition. I was in the middle of a cub scout meeting which could get hectic without any outside commotion to disturb us. You see I had Cubs in all ages and back then there were more books to need. There was the 8 yr olds in the Wolf Book, the 9 yr olds in the bear Book, the 10 yr olds in the Lion Book, then the 10 1/2 yrs old in the Weblow book. All that has been changed today. But, try handling Boys of all ages working in 4 different Books all at the same time with out any helper. But thats another story. Then you will know why I said it was hectic.
When the Den Chief showed up with his Father they both ended up helping Walt. Walt had removed the front section off our grocery store after we closed it and intended on adding it onto the house in sections. With the help of the Den Chief and his Father, Walt was able to get the three sides of the old building connected to the house. Later on we added an inclosed porch to the end of the new kitchen area. Then years later we decided to add the porch to the kitchen to enlarge it- making a better kitchen. When I look at the smaller room that formerly was my kitchen and dining area, I wonder how we ever fit all those kids at a table in there, but we did.
To get back to the roof, by adding first the addition from the store, then later adding on the porch, there were two roofs, the porch one connecting to the other roof. Now, the roof is just one roof going over both sections with no additional roof conneting. Looks much better and will function much better. Took them about 5 hours to get it all done. I am so glad that one of my sons has been a roofer for many years and his brother has learned a lot by helping him constructing the framework and everything else. The roofer is 42 yrs old , while his helper bro is 50 yrs old, but they work well together. The older one doesn`t mind learning from his younger bro. I realy have good kids. When they re-drove my well, all three sons worked together without a single disagreement. Walt and I must have done something right for them to work so well together. None of them will allow me to pay them anything for all their hard work. I just buy the supplies and get the labor free. I am even luckier that the friend my son works with always drops off any tools needed for the job, like the compresser, air guns, long hose, and etc.. His Boss has been a close friend of my youngest son all thru school and they have worked together for years. Often when the friend has two jobs going at the same time, he puts my son in charge of the crew for one of the jobs while he handles the crew for the other job. Thats how well they get along. I am one lucky Mother.

Yes Jac, I fell down a well along with an older brother.
Here is how it happened.
We were visiting an Aunt and Uncles farm with our parents. I was around 8 and my older bro was around 12 at the time. my younger bro was also with us and he was about 6.
When the cows came in to the barn my cousins calf never came in with them. So we all went across the road and down into the woods to search for it. My Father and my Uncle were with us. My Dad and uncle each picked up long twigs to use to guide the calf back to the barn after we found it. My cousin saw the twigs and said " don`t you hit my calf". He kept repeating it till he finally got on my Dads nerves. So, to get rid of him, my Dad told all us kids to go back up to the house. Well, we all left except for the cousin who refused to go and his own Dad ignored him and let hin stay.
My youngest bro often spent weeks vacation there, so he led the way back out of the woods and started crossing the open field heading for the road.
Oh, before I get any further, I should mention that there was snow on the ground so you couldn`t know where the well was under the snow. Thats why we let our bro lead the way as he had often went with them after the cows. As we were starting up the hill in the open field, our Uncle yelled to us saying " Now you kids stay away from that old well. I removed the pitcher pump, but I never got time to replace those old boards". My younger bro yelled back " don`t worry uncle Sanford, we are a long ways from it" Those were the magic words, and the last ones I heard as he must have been directly on the well boards while he was answering, as I was behind him and the boards broke letting me fall in. My older bro was right behind me and he fell in also.
Have you ever watched those old westerns where guys would fall down the well and would be seen shimming up the well pipe? Well, as a kid I thought that was crazy as I didn`t think anyone could do that. Well, I soon found out it was possible. You see the pipe was still connected from the old boards down into the water in the well. So when the boards started falling in , the pipe broke loose from the boards and also started falling down the well. I felt the cold pipe hitting me and the water was going over my head and I grabbed hold of that cold pipe and started shimmimg up the pipe as it was falling into the well. We used to climb trees and shimmy down, sometimes we had ropes to climb up and shimmy back down from the trees. Thank God I learned that following my brothers around even though it scared my mother. I had managed to get the ends of my fingers on my right hand onto the very edge of the top of the well, but try as hard as I could, I couldn`t hang on well enough to swing my other hand up there. I was so sure I was going to fall back down the well and drown.
All this time the youngest bro was screaming to our Dad. My Dad arrived just as my fingers were starting to slip and he grabbed my wrist and yanked me up out of that well. I could feel my older brother trying to push upward on my shoes, but he wasn`t tall enough to accomplish any good. Then they had to find a way to get my older bro up out of the well. I can still remember looking down to see him. He was standing on his tiptoes with his mouth shut real tight , his head bent back and the water was right under his nose. He was 4 years older than I was and lots taller then. My dad got a big tree branch, tore off a few limbs and used it to reach down to my bro. As he hung on to the other end, my dad pulled him up. I wasn`t realy injured, except for a few scratched and nicks, but the pipe must have hit my brothers nose as it was broken.
They just got me to the farmhouse, treated and bandaged all my bleeding scrapes and my Aunt got some of my older cousins clothes to put on me since it was winter and I was water soaked good. This girl cousin was the sister of the younger boy cousin who went hunting his calf with us. She was about 15 at the time - so loads bigger than I was at 8 yrs old. I must have looked real funny in her clothes with the blouse sleeves rolled way up to allow my hands to show and the slacks had the top band rolled down at least three or 4 times and the legs rolled up a lot. I remember how clumsy I was trying to walk in them.
Then my parents left us kids at the farm house while they drove my older bro about 20 miles to the nearest drs office to have his broken nose cared for.
But we were very lucky that it didn`t turn out worse.
Years later when our oldest daughter was only 2 yrs old she gave me a real scare. I had put her to bed and thought she was sound asleep, so I went into the kitchen to fix bottles for the twin babies. While I was working, I suddenly got a funny feeling, so I went in to check all the kids. Both babies were sound asleep, so I headed for the girls room. The step daughter was sound asleep, but the little one was no where to be seen. Then I noticed that the front door wasn`t shut tight. So, she had climb, gotten the key where it hung , unlocked the door- and I had only checked on them a few minutes before I started bottles.
The scarry part was that out beside the front porch was a sistern filled with water and covered with heavy sections of roofing tin. At the end of the house was a very deep well that they dug trying to find water . Guess the past came back, because I grabbed the flashlight and ran outside yelling her name and couldn`t find her. First I noticed that the tin hadn`t been moved. It would have been way to heavy for her to move, but I was scared and checked anyways. My parents lived in the next house which was about 300 feet or probably even further from the farm house where we were living.
My Mother heard me yelling and came onto her porch. She yelled over to me and asked " Are you looking for linda?" By then I was so scared I was starting to cry and I yelled back " Yes, and I can`t find her anywhere." Then she told me that she was over there. Then, I was getting mad thinking they should have brought her back home and let me know where she was and that she was ok. So, I yelled back to my Mother and said put your hand on her behind and send her home. My mother told me to come get her. What I didn`t mention was that I was still not healed from the op when the twins were born and wasn`t supposed to be doing anything, plus to get her I had to leave the babies there alone and I hated doing that. But, I managed to walk over and get her. When I got there, my mother said they heard her knocking on their screen door, and when they opened the door all that showed was the top of her little blond head and she looked so cute. I told my mother she will look cute if she ever tries that again. I took her home washed her up, put on clean pj`s and put her back to bed. Then I hid the key where I knew she would never find it. That weekend I insisted the well hole be filled in since we never hit water there.
Then that following spring a little girl living a few streets up from us , think she was about 4 yrs old, turned up missing. They used an auger to check down an open well and came up with some of her yellow hair. Even today when I think of it, I still get goose bumps . Such a sad thing for a parent to go thru. Whenever I would hear someone saying " Why weren`t they watching her", I would get mad and tell them how fast my little 2 year old went, and that I had just checked on her less then five minutes before and she was fast asleep. That showed me how fast even a tiny one can move. And a four year old could move even faster. I didn`t know this little girl or her family, but I did know the fear that little 4 yr old must have felt while she was falling in the well. I even experienced the fear of drowning when the water went over my head, but was lucky not to have felt the terrible pain of drowning. That might have been my parents people were running down. You can`t keep your eyes on your kids every second and you just have to turn your head for a second for something to happen. Accidents will happen no matter how good parents you are.
So, Jac, you asked and now you know. One memory that left a good swimmer and diver with a fear of water if it cover my head. Something you just never forget.

Finally went out and cleaned up the tall pole that supports my huge bird feeder. I brought in the hotel style feeder off the top of the pole and it is packed away upstairs till next spring. But the pole with the large white tray was still waiting for me to get to it on the back porch. I knew it would require a lot of heavy scrubbing before I could put it away for the winter.
Every summer I spray down the whole length of the pole with Pam cooking spray. I found out that the squirrels don`t like the oil getting onto their feet. So, that is one bird feeder that the squirrels don`t bother.
That pole stands about 6 feet above ground even after I pound it into the ground about 2 feet. It is a job pounding it in every spring and by fall the pole is set hard into the ground and more work trying to pull it back out of the ground. Well, this afternoon I went out loaded with Dawn dish detergent to cut the greese and one of those teflon scouring pads and cleaned all the Pam oil spray and all the junk that had collected onto the greasy pole. And then there was that plastic all white large round tray that origionally sat under the feeder for the birds to stand on while eating. Well as you probably guessed, they do more than just stand there and eat. What an awful mess was waiting for me to scrub off. Well, somehow I ended up with about a half inch long cut on the back of one finger on my left hand which I never noticed till after I came back into the house. Nothing to worry about though as it didn`t go very deep. It only bled for a short time and seems to be ok now. No Idea what I did it on. Walt always used to tell me to sit down. He said I am always getting hurt when I do things. Well, not realy that often, but he would say it anyways. Actually I get burnt from the oven more than I get other hurts. Walt used to tell me to leave it alone when the food was done and he would take it out fior me. Well have to do it myself now. I have this one knuckle on the right hand that sticks up higher than all the other knuckles on the back of my hand.
Years ago one of the daughters was getting ready to use the oven. I was in getting ready to go out with Walt and a sister and her hubby. She yelled in to tell me that the oven won`t work. So, I told her to leave it alone and leave the oven door open and i`d check it when I came out.
Well, it was about twenty minutes before i started to lite the oven for her. When it lit, it blew towards me. My one thought was getting the daughter out of danger. So, I shoved the poor girl so hard she flew across the kitchen landing near the side door, but she wasn`t hurt. But I burnt my hand pretty good. We had to call the fire co. as the fire started up the wall behind the stove. Lucky for us the fire Co. is only a few blocks from our home. One of those on the ambulance was a kid I had known since we were grade school kids together. He wanted to take me off to the Hosp, but I insisted on staying till I knew the fire was out and our house wasn`t in any danger. He insisted that I walk out to the ambulance and let him put some salve on it to stop my hand from getting even worse. So, I gave in and and went to the ambulance for him to treat the burnt hand. I thought I knew him well and so I trusted him. He had me sit on the seat in the back and pretended to be looking for the salve to stop the burning. Then he told me he would be right back and that his partner was the last to use the salve and he needed to ask him where he had put it. Next thing I knew Glen climbed back in where I was waiting and again started to open one of the drawers like he was still searching. Next thing i knew, we were driving down the road with the siren going. Boy, was I ever mad at him. When we arrived at the hospital they got a bucket filled with cold water and lots of ice cubes. That stupid Nurse could have just asked me to remove my rings and put my hand into the bucket and I would have done it. But, no, she just grabed my hand and yanked off my rings making the burns even worse, then she shoved my hand into that bucket with all those ice cubes and little water. By the time the Dr got thru treating the burns, he sent me home with my hand looking like it was wearing a boxing glove. it took a few weeks to heal, but when the back of my hand hit the stove-- when I moved so fast to protect my daughter . one knuckle was damaged and remained higher than the rest after the hand was healed. So, it often hits the top of the stove when I am reaching in to pull a dish out. But, trying to use the left hand ends up being worse. I have the little pinky finger damaged with a steak knife. I took out some frozen pork chops and reached for a knife to separate them. Hubby had just used a steak knife and left it on the counter. So, instead of getting out a butter knife like I usually used, I picked up the streak knife. Well, I have arthritic hands with some fingers that curve and are not straight like they should be. So, while I was pushing the knife between the frozen pork chops, the knife turned in my hand allowing it to go in one side of the finger and on out the other side. Without thinking, i just pulled the knife back out bringing the inside flesh out with it. I knew that the flesh would die if it stayed exposed to the air, so I used my fingers to poke it back inside under the skin. Then I held the finger under cold water while putting pressure to stop the bleeding. Boy, did it ever bleed. Then I yelled into to Hubby and told him he needed to drive me to the Hosp. he came out, looked at the finger and said " you can take care of it-- just pull the cut shut and bandage it up tightly". So, rather than argue with him, I just turned my hand over so he could see the other side. he took one look and told me to get my coat. I went to the Hosp with a large bath towel wrapped around my hand and kept holding pressure to stop the bleeding. We sat for almost 3 hours while they kept waiting on others in the emergency room. There was this little girl that kept standing in front of me talking to me. Finally her dad told her to come over and sit with him and leave the nice people alone. Knew I couldn`t undo the hand in front of her but The minute she left, I unwrapped my hand and turned it so the Nurse would see it. You never saw anyone move so fast. She jumped up and came over to where I was sitting and said come with me. Then I waited in a room and a Dr came in. When he asked what I did ( I had rewrapped the hand to keep my clothes from collecting blood on them). I told him I needed a surgeon and there was nothing he could do for me. He said " Sounds like you know what you did". Told him, yes,-- can`t bend it so know I cut both tendons, can`t feel it, so know I cut the nerves and the way its bleeding, know I cut the veins. He took one look and said you are right and headed out to locate a surgeon. Had two ops, neither worked. Then the surgean told me I was loosing my whole hand unles I had that finger removed. . All the fingers were being drawn down into a fist and I couldn`t open them. I told him I needed to think about it. He said don`t take too long as the longer you wait the worse your hand will get. I came home and called my oldest brotjher for the name of the Dr he had a few yrs before. Then I called that surgeon and made an appointment to see him the very next day. He ordered some finger braces that have a screw to force the brace against the fingers to try forcing them open. Took three braces and a couple months with the Dr turning those screws in a little every few days till he was able to get 3 fingers open and the little finger was opened to about a 45 degree angle. That was the best that could be done, but at least I still have all my fingers. But that angle means that the center knuckle sticks up and the first half of the finger stays in a half closed position. When working I often need to pull the finger back where it connects to the hand and place it over the next finger out of the way. The first Dr did the second op to lengthen the cord hoping it would allow the finger to open , but all it did was make the cord too long in my hand so when I close my hand that cord in the palm just pops up and pushes things out of my hand unless I am hanging on tightly with the other fingers.
So that is why I can`t use the left hand in the oven without that finger hitting and getting burnt. But I still manage to play chords with that hand on my organ. I just can`t reach far enough to play all the regular keys with that hand. my motto is "Where there`s a will, there`s a way".
Guess I`m just too stubborn to give up. Or maybe it`s just that I was raised with parents who went thru a lot and still kept going. They were good examples for us kids to follow. There is always someone a lot worse of than we are.

Boy! What a run-around day.
Decided I wanted to start having direct deposit for my SS check. So, checked out SS on line. It said your Bank could handle it. So when I went to the bank to deposit the check I asked them. They told me I needed to do it at the SS Office.
Also on line it mentioned changing the Direct Dep. I needed the Banks Routing #. Of course I didn`t read that till after coming back home and rechecking on line.
Shouldn`t the Bank have also known this? So, why didn`t they tell me I would need their Routing # inorder to have my check deposited in their bank? So, I came home , checked on line, read where I needed their #, and called the Bank and got their Routing # over the phone. Then I tried calling our local SS Office, line stayed busy. Gave up since they close in another 4 minutes. So, today was shot accomplishing nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing since when I left the Bank this morning I did stop at Hallmark to buy a couple Birthday cards for my 2 brothers, plus an Anniversary card for an Aunt and Uncle. If you ever thought Friday the 13th was unlucky, then you never met my oldest Brother. He was born on a Friday on the 13th of November. He quit High school and entered the Navy. He got married before he got out of the Navy and when he came home he got a job with a local Lace Factory. He took up Mechanical Drawing in High School same as I did. Well that subject landed him a job drawing lace designs for their lace machines. He learned all he could about running those machines to be sure his designs would work well on those huge monsters. A few years later he got an offer from a larger lace factory in New Jersey with better pay, so off he went with his wife and kids to live in NJ. After a number of years working-- drawing lace designs for them, he saw a larger lace factory for sale. So, he went into business in Partnership with another fellow, but he was smart enough to be sure he owned over 50% since he was putting more of his money into buying it. It was a huge success. Today, he is semi retired , I say semi, as he still takes part in how the Mill is run even though he has divided most of his percentages up amongst some of his boys who still work there. Sothe boys have as much say as the origional partner -as together they own a bigger share than the partner. Then he started using his earned money to buy other items, such as places all over called Wet Willies, you might have seen them in Georgia, Florida, Australia and other places. He bought few other places such as a Gas Station, until a few months ago he owned 4 houses plus his camp place on a Lake. He sold the home in NJ and last month sold one of the other homes to our Cousins daughter. WEll, maybe we all should have been born on a Friday the 13th. Even quitting school and no higher education didn`t hurt him any. But he did put all his kids thru college. It sure brought him good luck, but also have to give him credit for being a hard worker and having a good head for business. I know if I was ever desperate for money that he would help me, but that`s not my way. I like knowing I got here on my own, well that is Walt and I accomplished everything with no handouts from anyone. I have heard others ( who borrowed from him and never paid him back) saying they don`t worry about it -- he doesn`t need the money. That burns me to hear. Who cares if he needs the money or not, he was the one who worked to deserve it and therefore anyone who borrowes should be honest enough to pay back. To me, if you owe a debt and decide not to pay it back, then whats the diff between you and a thief. A debt owed must be paid back, even if it takes months paying a little at a time, as long as you intend doing it.
Why do some think they must pay their light bills, rent or if they own, then their home taxes, but don`t worry about what they owe to family members. Walt and I lost lots in the Grocery Store and also in the Bike Shop from trusting people who we thought as very honest people who never finished paying us, but the poorer ones who had little were the best at paying their bills. They appreciated the credit more.
From Hallmark, I stopped at the Hannaford Grocery Store and picked up some groceries. Hannaford has been remodeling their store for the past few months and everything is still in somewhat of a mess. Trying to find anything requires you to becomde a Detective of sorts. Seems like there was always some one asking me if I might know where some item was moved to. Oh Yes, there was also one older lady ( not sure why I called her an older lady- probably younger than me for all I know) well, she wanted a certain type of doughnut which she couldn`t reach. First she started to ask me for help, but decided to ask a taller woman. But the taller woman kept walking- probably never even knew she was being paged. So, she looked back at me with a questional look. I asked her what she was trying to reach and she pointed to the ones way up on the very top shelf in that Doughnut case. I took the paper she was holding, reached up and got her a Doughnut, then I asked her how many she wanted. She said just one more , so using the paper I reached up and got her one more. She was just a little shorter than I am, so she said, maybe I could have reached it, raised her arm to see, no not quite. I realize her first impression was that I wasn`t much taller and probably couldn`t reach either. To make her feel better, I told her that I didn`t have to see the doughnuts up there as I could feel where they were enough to get them dowm for her. Actually I could see them, but figured if I told her that I could feel into the shelf bin for them she wouldn`t feel so sensitive about her height. Even had a couple shoppers say Good Morning to me.

Well, I sure got off track from the SS check and direct deposit, but can`t do anymore today. There is a place where you can do Direct deposit online, but first you must get a special Password from SS. To get that, you need to register online asking for the password. That password will be mailed to your home in about 12 days. So, another 12 days this way waiting for the special password before you can register it online. Another run-around. Well, tomorrows another day, wonder what new thing will happen then.

These two boys are our twins. One has light brown hair and brown eyes and looks like my Dad, while the other one has blond hair, blue eyes and looks like their Dad. So, they aren`t identical twins. Doll in the middle represents our oldest daughter. One twin was easy going and always smiling while his brother was more outgoing and more serious. They are still that way today, but they both have great a sense of humor.
So ,the 6 pictures in the 2 wall boxes represent our 6 children when they were small.
Next is a picture of myself with a cousin and the Doll that looked like me. i just noticed that it placed the second picture on the top right of the kids picture.
There are a few more, but these are most of them Have a total of about 19 Dolls. Don`t expect to buy any more, but never say never as who knows what the future will bring.
They are all supposed to be limited additions and not be resold in the future. Have the papers for each one.
Jac, you asked to see my dolls, well here they are to fullfill your request.

I will send more in other blogs.













Here are three of the Dolls that look like 3 of my children did when they were young. The picture of the little boy is one of my youingezt son when he was small. Then look at the Doll holding the toilet paper and you will see they look alike.
The other two resemble what two of my Daughters looked like when they were younger.
I will send more in other blogs.

First picture of part of my Doll Collection. White dishes with flowers are real china. I crocheted the table cloth havinf flowers going all the way around the part that hangs down from the table, also a flower in the center of the tablecloth. I tried moving them so they could all fit into one picture. The fellow with the rope also packs a holster and gun, while the other one holds a guitar. The dolls are usually covered with plastic to keep them clean, but I needed to remove the plastic to show them without the glare .
Last time i sent three pictures at once and maybe that`s why it never posted. So I will send more in more posts.
jac, you asked about my Doll Collection, well I am posting them for you to see.

Sure starting out as one of those days.
I wrote a big write up about my doll collection and when I hit send, God only khows where it was sent off to. Certainly didn`t see it arrive into my Blog. I even added the pictures from my Doll collection and what they stood for. But, I still don`t know where it was sent off to. And I should have written in on the board first and I would probably still have the write up part.
Well, I will try again later and hopefully have better luck. This was my first attempt to post since they did the upgrade.
Wish me Luck redoing the Doll post. Hope i don`t have more problems posting it next time.

Why is it that we hate messing up the house to accomplish something that needs to be done.
We spend time every day straightening up our homes. Then along comes a task that we know should be done. Then we have to take down everything, empty any shelfs that might reflect the pounding overhead when done.
I have spent most of the summer making things in my wood shop to hold items just so I could make my home look neater. Now here i am tearing everythin down, just to have to reput them up all over again later.
Like you and your wife did mr haney when you had to empty the room inorder to do the floor. Then will need to replace things back when you are done. We work moving things out, then we work repairing,. then we need to work again putting everything back into place. Work, work, work, that is the chores we make for ourself.
To get back to the foor--Then along came a small leak in my Kitchen ceiling. Here already this summer two of my sons went and had new black paper and new shingles, plus a tin drip edge onto the high roof of the main part of the house. So, where does the leak show up? of course on the only place I didn`t have the new roof done-- on the addition we added to the house back in 1973, if I remember correctly. I had new shingles put on a few yrs ago, even insisted that the wood boarding be pulled loose enough to be able to slide tin under the boards and under the new roofing. Figured that would keep any rain from running under the down the board siding on the top of the origional house and under the rolled roofing. That did cure where it leaked where the addition was added to the rest of the house. Worked for years, but not any longer. Had the leak spot tarred to get me thru last winter, but think the heat of the sun softened the tar allowing another leak spot.
Tired of repairing, so have decided to have my son build the roof up to give it a higher peak to help the snow slide of better. Problem started when we added the closed in porch to the house to increase the size of the kitchen. That caused that side of the kitchen to have a lesser slant than the other side .
So, intend to make a new roof over the old one having both sides come straight down from the slightly higher peak. One straight slant will replace the half down slant connecting to a lesser slant.
One big problem-- have an upstair window on that end of the main house thats just a short distance above the roof. So, can only raise the roof slant a little more above where the present roof is now.
just hope none of the house siding boards crack when they are removed as they don`t sell the ceder size we had before and I only have a couple more spare ones to use. Had a grandson who was going to climb up onto the kitchen roof and repaint those siding boards for me. But, if they are taken off I could cut them to fit the new area and paint them before putting them back up.
Hoping my son with the truck will have time to pick up everything for me as it cost me $50. for the last delivery, and could be even more now. Couldn`t reach him last night, so he may be gone fishing with his boat for the weekend. Won`t be many more good weekends before gets colder, so I don`t blame him if he did.
Well to get back to the origional topic- cleaning the house and then comes along a day for messing it up. I have loads of breakable items on shelf over the window ( Horses, Bud Clysdale steins and Cups with horses on, and other Horse items)- , plus on the shelves we added in the origional wall that was the outside of the house before the porch was added on. We needed better circulation allowing the heat to go into that end of the new kitchen. So, I decided to just cut out the origional wall about half way done and replace that opening with a mirrored like trim and add three shelfs going across in the opening. Each shelf is about 5 1/2 feet long x 1 foot wide x about 11 1/2 high. Only the bottom shelf is enclosed with plexiglass to protect the expensive Budweisner 8 Clysdale horses hitched to a large wagon ( wagon can be used as a large planter, but with that price I don`t wish to) . Bought it from The budweisner Co. years ago. This one cost way too much to chance having it broken. But left the two top shelfs unclosed for the heat to flow thru. Do have another 8 Horse set with a smaller wagon on the center self, and that one was worth $300 when it was bought many years ago.
So, last evening I started taking everything breakable down and packing them temporarily into some large clear plastic bins. Only a little more left to take down before they could begin pounding overhead. Figured I should get it done ahead of time and have it ready.
One more thing I did when we added on the porch was to leave supports in the wall that was removed adding the porch to the kitchen. Walt asked me how I was going to keep any support under the roof on that long wall we were removing. Simple. We were left with an 8 foot opening where the wall was removed. I simply had two 2x4`s nailed (placed tightly together for a 4x4 support) ) about 4 feet into the room and added 4 shelfs going from one end of the main wall to the double 2x4`s this gave extra strength to that area. Then I used some of the extra wallboard to enclose all 4 sides of the 2x4 section so it matches the walls and looks like it belonged to the shelf section. Then I bought some of the foam lined outside corner edgings in the light varnish color to match the shelf varnish to glue up each of the 4 edges going from the bottom shelf up to where the 2x4 section ended about a foot from the ceiling. This foot we closed up for extra support going across the entire 8 foot opening and covered that side with matching wallboard. The other side lined up with the drop ceiling on the other half of the kitchen. Oh, yes first i made a rectangular open box to hold the first shelf up about 5 inches off the floor So, it came out fine. Surprised Walt when it was finished as he couldn`t understand what I was talking about till it was done.
Can`t wait till the boys can get the new roof made so I can find my house again. Looks funny with all the shelfs empty= well not quite all the shelfs as didn`t need to remove the electrical appliances from the 3 bottom shelfs on the room divider effect that supports the opening.
Walt would be impressed if he could see all the things I made in my wood shop this summer. He would have been surprised seeing the garage doors as the most he ever saw me paint was a few pictures. Guess all the Mechanmical drawing and designing in High school did come in handy after all. So did the alegbra and geometry that I only took because math was easy for me. you never realize how much what you took up on high School might help you in later years.
Well, guess if I don`t want to become glued to this chair, then I better get moving and get more things done.
Then I can come back and play on the comp some more :).

Just read the Blogger News- Down time notice. Since it will be down in the Pacific time zone from noon Sat. and last for about 2 hours while they do some upgrading, that means I will be unable to enter my blog at 3pm Sat afternoon till around 5 pm as I live in the Eastern time zone. So my friends blogs will be down at different times depending on which time zone they live in.
Just think about what that is saying to us.

If you live in the Pacific zone it will be down at noon to around 2pm,

but if you live in the
Mountain time zone, it will be down from 1pm till 3 Pm.

Then if you live in the
Central zone, it will be down from 2PM till around 4Pm

In the Eastern zone it will be down from 3PM till around 5 Pm,

In the Atlantic time zone it will be down from 4Pm till around 6 PM.

Think about what that might mean for us bloggers and our friends that live in many of these different time zones.

Starting from noon on up to about 6 pm we might not be able to enter someones blog. So if we find we cannot get into our own blog then we know why- it simply means that is the downtime for our own zone,

but if we can enter ours and some others, but not someone elses, they might just live in the time zone during their zones down time.

Did I confuse everyone, or have you already been thinking about this time zone and how it affects who and when we might be unable to enter a friends blog.
Hope their upgrading doesn`t affect our blogs, I know the last Down time one didn`t.
Also are you wondering what their upgrading might give us to allow us to do more in our blog? Well, we will know on Sat. after they are done with the upgrading. Mine should not be in service from 3pm till around 5pm, so if you can1t reach me during those hours, don`t worry , as I`ll be back when they are done and hopefully so will you.
Just wanted to bring up the topic in case someone didn`t read their notice.

Hey Shirl, If you are reading this, the wind report at the end of this post should also cover your area. The trees are just starting to sway here.
This wind should bring down the remaining leaves on the trees-- more to clean up. But, I had`nt cleared off all the others that fell , so will just be more waiting. Glad I got the ones under the huge tree done as there is always more there than in the rest of the yard and the vacant yard combined. Of course there is always raking to do in my front yard even though I have no trees there. They blow over from the neighbors across the street and from the small wooden area on the other side of the road. They used to have 3 tall trees in their yard, but one died and they had to cut it down. I noticed that a second tree isn`t as healthy as it used to look, so maybe next year there will be just one left in their front yard to ship leaves into my front yard. One tree is still full of leaves, while their other one is almost bare of leaves. They have an old junk van sitting in the wooded area across the road and I`m surprised that the town hasn`t made them move it before now. Been there over 5 years and the law here says you can have just one unlicensed vehicle and the parts in it must fit another vehicle you have on the road. That old vans parts would never fit any of their new vehicles. But, maybe the town doesn`t know who owns the vehicle since it is not on their own property. I don`t even know who does own that small wooded area and I have lived here since 1955. it is too small an area to build on unless theychange some laws- here you need at least three lots or 90 frontage x 100 back. Thats why noone can build on our empty lot as it is only 60x 100. They once talked about making everyone join any empty lots to their home property that it joins. I won`t do that because it would make more property to my home lots and raise my taxes. We bought it when the older neighbor passed away and his wife wanted the money for a son`s wedding. If their trailor hadn`t been moved out, we might have gotten permission to exchange the junk trailer for a more modern one. But the owner had it removed before selling the property. That trailer was there before the law was passed on property limits. Isn`t it funny how trailer park owners can place trailers one almost on top of the next with no regard to the same lot limits that other home owners must abide by? Over the years most of the wooded areas have been cut down for new Homes ot trailers. Was a much smaller community when we first moved here-- you knew most everyone who lived in this section of the town. Today there are so many new homes making so many people that you never get to know. Of course running the Grocery Store for over 5 years and running a bike shop for a lot longer than that, this did help usto get to know those who origionally lived here. Any being involved with scouting also helped us to meet even more. So, we were well known in the area years back. Well back to the wind report:

Issued at: 3:59 AM EST 11/3/05, expires at: 12:00 PM EST 11/3/05High wind warning in effect from 9 am this morning to 10 pm est this evening, The NWS in albany has issued a high wind warning for the southern adirondacks, western mohawk valley, saratoga region, eastern catskills, taconics, southern vermont, the berkshires and litchfield hills, which is in effect from 9 am this morning to 10 pm est this evening. A strong pressure gradient will form across the northeast united states today as a result of a low pressure system moving across southern canada and high pressure over the southeast united states. The pressure gradient will be responsible for producing south to southwest winds of 15 to 30 mph with gusts to 60 mph especially at elevations above 1500 feet. The winds will shift to the west this evening and decrease late this evening. Areas which will be most vulnerable to the winds are those which sustained damage from the heavy wet snow last week and areas where winds are channeled. In addition the ground remains saturated in many areas from the heavy precipitation which fell during the month of October, so shallow rooted trees may fall easily. The very strong winds will result in widespread downed limbs and some power outages. A high wind warning means a hazardous high wind event is expected or occurring. Sustained wind speeds of at least 40 mph or gusts of 58 mph or more can lead to property damage.

Been another busy day. Woke up at 4:30 and couldnt get back to sleep.So I decided to get up and start mopping my kitchen floor. It takes me all day to do this one floor. I move everything to one side of the room ,( plus carry the chairs and some other items in to the middle room out of the way) while I mop the other 2/3rds of the floor. Then I wax that side, let it dry and put on a second coat of wax. This makes it possible to just damp mop for longer than doing just one wax coat would.
By the time I got this much done I needed to sit and rest for awhile before moving everything a second time to clear everything off the other side of the room.
I had only sat to rest for about 10 min. when my youngest sister called to see if I wanted to go out for Lunch with her. So, off we went. After Lunch we headed off to Wal-Mart to do some shopping. I had been wanting to get some clear totes to hold my yarn in. Had some, but they were a bit too large to sit inside the cupboard I made. Had to sit the larger one in sideways and that took up too much room. With the shorter ones I can fit 4 of them in just a little more room than one larger one needed. The 4 shorter ones will hold a lot more in the same amt. of space. So, once I finish the kitchen floor, that might be my next chore-- packing all the yarn into the shorter totes and putting them out of sight. But after all that walking around that large store, I needed to rest again. Guess I must be gettingold. :). iSeems like no matter how much work you accomplish there is always more waiting to be done.
I used to think that houses stayed cleaner when someone lived there alone, but I seem to work as hard today as I used to, except of course while our kids were growing up. Then it seemed like no matter how many loads of washing you did, there was always more waiting the next day. And all that ironing, seemed like I often Ironed way into the night to keep up with all those school clothes. So much easier today with so much permanent press around. The young mothers seem to think they have to work so hard caring for their kids. What would they do if they had to do like we did in the early marriage years. We rented on a farm and every winter the water used to freeze up where it went under the road. Then you had to wait till spring for the ground to unfreeze to thaw it out.
I would borrow my Mothers old wash tub and her old boiler. I would fill that long boiler with snow, sit it up onto the stove where it covered two burners, then melt the snow for water to wash the clothes. Had my Mothers old scrub board which I used a lot trying to keep stains off the clothes. That scrub board in the old round wash tub. And if that wasn`t bad enough, I only started out with 3 dozen diapers for two babies ( our twin boys). That meant I was always washing out diapers and trying to fast dry them on one of those old wooden floor racks with all those rungs to lay the clothes over, this rack, I would sit in front of the space heater we were using for heat. Never had to worry about croup then as there was always plenty of moisture in the air from the drying. When the boys were about 2 or 3 months old I finally managed to buy 2 more dozen and with 5 dozen diapers things were a little easier. Today, most of the younger ones buy pampers,so they don`t know all the work of washing Diapers. We never could have afforded the expense of pampers even if they had had them years ago.
The small apt, we rented when we first got married and only had his daughter had a wood stove. Ever try to bake a cake in a stove that used wood? Took me a while, but I finally figured it out-- of course that was after burninf the bottom on the first cake, so let the wood die down the second time and the cake fell.Oh! What a time that was. Those wonderful olden days. Must admit though that even with all that extra work, marriages did usually last, can`t say that for so many of them today. Maybe we just were to busy to have any time for complaining back then.
Well, it is already getting dark inside, so will hneed to put on a ligjht to finish.
I also need to get to the compost bins before it gets real dark out. Maybe i better dart out there and finish this afterwards.
Back again. Took things to the compost bins and covered them with more leaves.
Yesterday I raked up loads of leaves from under the Eucalyptus tree and took them out to build up a tall wall of leaves around the HollyHocks that are growing at the end of the compost bins. I read on the net that it isn`t the cold winters that kills them, but the cold winds. They made it thru last winter with banking around them, so hoping it works again this year. Still a lot more leaf raking waiting to get done. The winds are fast knocking the leafs off now. Last year we had snow covering the ground before the leafs were off the trees, so that meant losts of raking in the spring after the snow melted. I was afraid it was going to happen again this year, but looks like I just might have time to clean them up this year.
Here it is supper time and I`m still too full from our Lunch and we were only to eat half of what they piled on our plates. Think of all the food that gets wasted when the plates hold more than some people might eat.
Well, guess I`ll go on line and check out the e-mails that came in today. If I don`t feel rested enough to finish the floor tonight, the floor isn`t going anyplace , so could finish it in the morning.