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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Back to Nickerson.



For those of you who do not know, this is an iron.  Does not even faintly resemble the Rowenta that sets in my sewing room and give me a burst of steam when I want it.  In our kitchen in Nickerson, was a very big wood cook stove.  It was made of cast iron and burned wood as the fuel source.  It had a tank we kept full of water which came in handy for dish washing and all kinds of stuff.  It was probably 3' by 2 1/2' and had an oven on the bottom part.  That never made sense to me since heat rises, but that is how I remember it.  The cooking area had several lids that could be lifted off to put more wood in when needed.  It had a shelf above where momma kept the salt, pepper, sugar, and a grease can.  The grease can was aluminum and after frying something, the excess grease was poured in there.  It had a strainer in the top to keep out the crumbs.  We used the grease over and over until it became "rancid".  Can you believe that? 
This was not our only source of heat for cooking.  We also had a small stove with four burners that was powered by either butane or propane.  This was used in case of an emergency.  An emergency usually meant we had run out of wood for one reason or another.  Since it was Jake's job to keep the wood pile chopped into manageable size logs, it was most always his fault!  The "good" stove was also used for frying chicken on Sunday.  I think that was because we were not supposed to work on Sunday.  It was a day of rest.  Cooking on the "good" stove was always fun.  Jake and I did that.  Oh, we fried the chicken and boiled the potatoes and I am sure momma made the gravy, although I learned how from some where! 
We did not attend a formal church until I was in seventh grade.  That was when momma got her cancer and had to have a hysterectomy.  The ladies from the church brought us food and made our dresses for school that fall.  Then we started attending the Christian Church up on Main Street between the school and the doctors office.  More about that later.
Back to the kitchen.  The water source was a hand pump and below it was mounted a sink with a pipe that run out the wall into the back yard for drainage.  The health department's of today would have had an absolute stroke when they say the Muscovy ducks playing in the water hole back there.  I am sure in this day and age, looking back on the living conditions, they would have been described as "squalor".  However, I want to go on record right now and tell you that those were the happiest days of my life and I would not trade one minute of them for all the tea in China! 
(That is what we used to say when we really liked something.  We knew if we had all the tea in China we would be very rich and to not trade something for all the tea in China was the highest compliment we could make.)
In the center of the kitchen sat the "wringer washer."  It was called that, because that is what it was.  When we moved in momma had one that had a gasoline motor, but later she got the electric one with the safety feature on the wringer that if you got your hand caught in it and it was going to rip your arm off, you hit the lever on top and it popped open.  The wringer was used to run the clothes through to "wring" the water out of them.  Otherwise, we had to twist them by hand to get it out.  So when wash day came (and if I looked at the tea towels, I would know what day it was, but it seems like it was Monday) we drug the "wash boiler" down from the hook and set it on the stove.  Water was heated on the wood stove in the winter.  Summer was different.  We also had a "three legged"  cast iron kettle in the yard.  We pumped water into buckets and carried it to the kettle where the fire was blazing merrily and began to heat the water.  Again Jake was expected to tend the fire, which meant feeding the fire god logs.    Since we were extra clean, we had two rinse tubs.  These had to be cold water.  In the last rinse tub went just a tiny bit of "bluing" which gave the white clothes the hint of blue which made them appear more white.
But the most important part was the soap.  Tell you where we got our soap.  In the corner of the kitchen set a metal bucket.  In that bucket went all the grease that we did not use for other things.  When it was half full it was strained into a clean metal bucket.  When the time was right, momma dripped water through pure wood ashes and made her own lye.  This was poured into the warm grease and stirred vigorously  with a hammer handle until it began to "trace".  At the first sign of "trace" (which you actually have to see to know what it is) it was poured into a wooden box lined with an old tea towel.  This process was a definite art.  I have seen the soap set up on the way to the box and the hammer handle remain in the mass until all the soap had been grated and it was free at last.  This lye soap varied in color from dark tan to pure white.  The pure white meant that every thing had gone just right and it was perfect. 
Mother was a pioneer woman that I have learned to appreciate more the last 30 years of my life than I ever did before.  I make my own soap now with commercial lye that is called "sodium hydroxide" because the first time I listed "lye" as an ingredient my customers were afraid of it.  And I can not buy it at the store anymore.  I have to order it online and sign all kinds of affidavits that I will not be making "meth" with it.  Phshaw!
I have no doubt repeated myself today and told you things I have already told you on this blog, but I will try to do better next time.  It is just that my childhood was so important to making me who I am today, that I want everyone to know about it.  I left home when I was 18 and was so happy to escape those early years and move on to bigger and better things.  When I turned 50  I decided that I should rethink my childhood and I have become more fulfilled than ever and I want  the whole world to know that the values that were instilled in me at my mother's knee are the driving force behind the woman I have become.  Makes me sad to think what I could have accomplished on this earth if I  had pulled my head out of my ass way back then.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Pre Sale Garage Sale

 
This was the sight at my house a couple Saturday's ago.  My garage was packed to the rafters with the rummage that Ross and his helper's have been hauling in for the whole year.  They started right after the PFLAG Scholarship yard sale last year and have not stopped.  Since it is almost time again he knew this stuff had to be sorted and what better way then to drag it all out, let people paw through it and anything that can be replaced with a hand full of money becomes that much easier to move across town to the big sale the first weekend in April.  So the plan was made.

Nancy is always head cashier, so she sets at this table.  The item is brought to the table and she eyeballs it and gives them a price.  Prices are always low.  If it can be held in one hand it is under a dollar.  Two handed items are over a dollar and furniture can run all the way up to $5.00-$10.00.  Buyers are reminded that it all goes to the scholarship program at PCC.  Rebecca and her crew are always on hand helping, so it kind of turns into a party of sorts.  You all know how I like to cook, so this day it was a cook out on my big smoker.

This was the view I had of the sale.  I pulled the smoker out and started my fire.  Being the lazy white girl that I am, I just pulled it far enough out of the shed to keep from asphyxiating myself.  As soon as the coals were ready, I dumped a package of hot dogs on the grill.  Now, here is something I figured out rather quickly:  Do not set your grill with the back part lower then the front and put round hot dogs on it laying straight as they tend to roll and do so rather quickly!  There is no back to the grill and so anything that starts a down hill roll does nothing except pick up speed.  So two of the hot dogs escaped the fate of being eaten.  I still had 18 hot dogs left.  And 24 hamburgers and 8 pounds of potato salad.  Oh, and a freshly baked peach cobbler.
The pre sale ran from 11:00 AM till 1:00 PM.  Course there were early birds, but by 1:00 all the signs were down and my house is hard to find without arrows.  I had fed several people early as they needed to get back into town.  Everything being put back into the garage, which now had lots of room, we began the finishing up of the food.   So Rebecca's husband threw the rest of the meat on the grill and cooked it to perfection.   And here is our hallowed leader, Ross in his lovely Christmas apron, testing our wares.  I am happy to announce that we fed at least 23 people and had no left overs, and no one went away hungry.
And I am also happy to announce that we are ready for the sale!  Sadly this will be our last yearly scholarship sale.  When the whole year is spent scrounging things for the sale, loading and hauling  things for the sale, sorting things for the sale, categorizing for the sale, and using every inch of storage for the sale, it gets to be a very all consuming event.  So, we will now concentrate on books only.  Those can be stored at the college and pulled out and put away easily.  We may have a couple bake sales.  Lord only knows what we will do, but knowing Ross and Rebecca, I am sure we will do something useful.  It has been a long run and I will miss it, as I am sure you all will, but time marches on.
So, see you at the sale!
 
APRIL 5 & 6, 2013, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
110 LACROSS
8:00 A M -???????

LAST ANNUAL PFLAG SCHOLARSHIP YARD SALE
 

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Hey, here we are last Thursday!


Went to the Faith Leaders in Action Press Conference in partnership with Together Colorado last Thursday at noon.  Ran into several people I knew and met a very nice lady.  I forgot my camera because 30 minutes earlier I was still in my jammies!  Oh, hell!  I am supposed to be some where else.  So I tossed on something that was not jammies and ran to town.  So back to the nice lady.
Her name is Janet Wallis Altmann and she had her camera.  She said I should feel free to steal pictures from her facebook page, so that is where this came from.  She is with the Pueblo Latino Democratic Forum and she said I could join even though I am not Latino, so I figure to look into that very soon.  If someone as nice as Janet is in charge, I want to be there.  And I am a Democrat.  And a liberal and short.
So this picture is one I lifted from her album.  On the left is the Reverend John Mark Hild  of the Metropolitan Church.  The couple in the center are David and Margaret Barber from the Christ Congregational United Church of Christ in Belmont.  And I am on the right representing First Congregational United Church of Christ  in the Mesa Junction area.  Steve Parke played his guitar and we all sang.  Let me see if I can steal his picture.
Ah!  There he is!  I am getting quite adept at stealing other people's work.  I just love to sing along with Steve.  Every where I go, he is around some where and we manage to hit a note or two.  Makes me feel so special.  So the reason we were here today was to present a united front in asking that we could actually talk to the gun advocates on a level ground without all the emotion.  Doesn't seem like too unreasonable to ask that.  But it was a lovely moment.
Reverend  Dr. Neema  Caughran presented two lovely sentiments, one from Ghandi and one from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. which were both lovely.  My little mind did not retain the words, but they gave me peace and in this world of anger and incivility  for what more can I hope ?  Little peace of mind here and a few kind words there is what makes the world go around. 
So to my new friend who lets me steal pictures and my friend Neema who gives me peace of mind, I send a big thank you and say to the readers of mine who read this blog, be kind to each other, and remember, You can not sprinkle showers of happiness on other people without getting a few drops on yourself.

 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Testing one, two, three...

Ok, I think I   have found the address for the picasa slide show!  It is 5:15 in the morning so I am going to publish this one after while and see if it works.  This is the river by Sherman's house and I think it was taken the spring of 2012, but it might have been 2011.  Anyway, here it is!


 

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A labor of love.

Got this link in an email today and I must confess it brought a tear to the old eye!  Back in 1983 Sherman Schroeder and two other fellows started a group called the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado.  These guys were not your run of the mill Harley riders.  They rode the bikes that were known as British, for whatever reason. 
When I met Sherman he was forever telling me about his Matchless, his Norton, his featherbed frame, his TT Special and I had no idea what he was talking about.  I was in his garage and all I saw was motorcycles in various states of repair or disrepair depending much on the eye of the beholder.  I , myself, thought it was a hell of a mess.  Then dear Sherman   was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I got the wake up call of my young life.
Mark Bosworth, a life long friend of Sherman's, came from St. Louis.  He had a pickup and a trailer and in the trailer was a Norton motorcycle that Sherman had ridden 30 years earlier.  It was restored to pristine condition by Mark.  He had even gone so far as to have decals painted because they did not make the decals anymore.  Sherman was tickled to death.  I have a picture on my desk of Mark, Steve Vallejo, Sherman, Dave Irving, and Ken Ito standing behind the Norton.  If you look closely you can see Cleo, the dog.  This was the first labor of love.
In Colorado Springs is a beautiful man name Dana Robbins.  He took the Matchless, which gave new meaning to "Basket Case" and restored it to museum quality.  I want you to just click on that link and see for yourself!  You can even hear it run and it is smooth as butter.  And check the garage.  Sherman was always fascinated with Dana's garage.  He used to tell me "It is neat as a pin.  It is so nice you could take a date there.!"  Dana has worked very hard putting this bike back into running order and there is no way that this was done with anything but love. 
Over the last year or so I have had occasion to spend time with many of Sherman's friends.  They have all treated me with the same love they had for Sherman and I am touched beyond words by all of them.  So as I settle in for a night alone I leave you with this video made and posted by the man who built the Matchless, Dana Robbins, a wonderful man who shared Sherman's love of the British Motorcycles.  A heart felt thank you to Dana for a true labor of love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57dnNtUk_Q&feature=youtu.be

Friday, March 8, 2013

Spring time in the Rockies.

It is about to get to be spring here in this neck of the woods.  I actually thought about digging around out there to see if I can find my crocus.  I love spring!  My little acre here in the foothills is soon going to be covered with goat heads.  Do not let them fool you with that notion that geese eat goat heads, because they do not.  I have read that if I take baby geese and pen them up and feed them nothing but goat heads they will eat them, but my geese are so old and tough you could not even eat the gravy off of them, and I know you can not teach an old dog new tricks and the same goes double for a goose!
I have gotten 4 goose eggs so far this month.  I sent the first two to Andrea in California.  Thought I had them packed pretty well.  First I put them in a box with 200 pounds of side wall strength.  Packed them in bubble wrap before putting them inside.  I did not mark them fragile as this is a red flag to the post office workers! Then I put that box inside another box.  One was completely broken and the other cracked.  I had told the lady at the counter that there were two raw goose eggs inside, which I think was my mistake.  I expect as soon as I left she took the package to the back and hollered "Heads up Johnny!  Got goose eggs here!" and lobbed the box across the warehouse to Johnny who then went out for the touchdown. 
So I found out those two were shot and this time I packed each egg in a separate box after double wrapping them in bubble wrap.  Then I padded the box with the large bubble wrap and fitted them all around with more bubble wrap.  I left it rounded on the top so nothing could be set on top of it and slapped my label on, wrote "fragile" in red marker every where there was a place to write it and kissed it goodbye and wished it well.
Now if this does not work I am going to try UPS and see how that goes.  Right now I am watching a seed catcher try to make it's way to a lady in Canada.  It left customs on February 20 and is "in transit".  I love this selling on ebay, but it seems like the more I pay for postage, the less I get in service.  I sent towels to Austrailia after I mailed the seed catcher and she has already received them and left feedback.  Amazing!
But back to the Spring time thing here in the Rockies.  I know that means nothing.  Two days ago we had a blizzard.  Today it will be almost 70 and I think we have another blizzard coming Saturday or Sunday.  And they all say, "We need the moisture!"  And I say, "Hey, rain is moisture and I do not have to shovel it!" 
It was so simple back in Kansas.  We planted our potatoes on St. Patrick's Day.  I think out here they plant on Good Friday.  It really is no never mind, because I always dig mine up way to early any way and only wind up with a little hand full.  I love to go back to Kansas the end of March cause it seems like the Lilacs are blooming and the trees are leafing out and Tulips and Daffodils every where.  I just love Spring.  When I go there and then come back here then I get to enjoy spring twice!
But I can not go again this year cause I have to gather the goose eggs or I will have babies and that is not good.  I keep saying that when Goosie dies, I will get rid of the flock, but then Goosie has a husband and son that will need taken care of.  (Just ended that sentence with a preposition which I hate to do, but seemed no way around it.)  Somebody suggested I just chop their heads off and call it good.  Bastard!
Off to a sewing class today.  I am going to learn to make a cup cake pot holder at Sprinkles.  Now I know how to do about anything that can be sewed, but it is rather a social thing.  It is only two hours and we will have fun.  And then I will come home and hopefully do something!
Have a good one.
 

Another year down the tubes!

Counting today, there are only 5 days left in this year.    Momma nailed it when she said "When you are over the hill you pick up speed...