Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad

This is the day that the Lord has made. Wow! I've been watching the inaugural activities today and this evening and it's so great to see such happy hopeful people and a leader that appears to really want to better our country and the world. Throughout the day, with more than a million people gathered together in one place, there was no violence, no nasty protesting - just excited people interested in witnessing history. I did a lot of crying whenever the folks talked about how proud they were to see our country come so far as to elect an African American as our president.

They spoke of coming there to honor their folks who had passed and suffered so much with the segregation and discrimination of the past. I remember when I was a little girl in Chicago that so many people spoke with such hatred and disgust about the N------s. It made me very sad and puzzled. I now understand that those people were speaking out of fear and ignorance. Now with such an excellent First Family to follow, many more people will catch on to the fact that America can really be a beautiful patchwork quilt of people and cultures and we can be stronger as each piece is added to the whole. God bless President Obama and America.

Sweet Sweet Winter

I skiied over sparkling fields of sugar today.

The sweetest of snows carried my cross country boards.

The warm warm sun deposited Vitamin D upon my aged face

And love of life splashed my ageless soul.

Happy 2009

Hello. It's been a while. It's that time of year for new beginnings and resolves to change. I've decided to add something to these blogs that I've been a little afraid to do. I'm going to tell about one of the nicest parts of Bing and my lives........... Our son, Tony, gave us a three volume book by Neale Donald Walsh called "Conversations with God." I loved reading it. It is full of glorious and novel thoughts about God and religion. When I try to tell people about the books, the only thing I can remember from them is that God wants us to always act out of love and not out of fear. So, in trying to follow that precept, I thought about why I haven't included blogs about all the excellent time we spend with our five grandchildren. I've been afraid to do that because I thought maybe by identifying them with pictures or descriptions of them, I might set off some cyber creep lurking in the shadows ready to pounce on them and hurt them. But, that now seems a bit far fetched and I will act out of love and share one of the greatest blessings bestowed upon us, ie, the gift of getting to know and be known by the offspring of our children.............We love all five of these unique personalitys but the true very best part of being a grandparent is to see your own children loving to the highest degree and wanting to do the very best job they can do to guide these little gifts entrusted to them. You see your sons with the fiercest of love, trying to attain that balance of joy and discipline that is so necessary to bring forth healthy well formed characters. ...................You know that even though you as parent didn't do everything right, you must have been able to pass on the ability to love and that is monumental. ....................I love being a Grandma but my nature is not to spoil kids. It always annoys me when I hear grandparents say, oh, we love to spoil the grandkids and then send them home, ha, ha, ha. I think of grandparenting as helping the parents raise the children and providing a little respite for the parents when needed. In retirement comes the gift of time and it is so wonderful to fill some of that time with the joyful, imaginative, happy little creatures that are eager for fun in all forms.

Slip Sliding Away

In October this year we acknowledged the 20th anniversary of moving into our home after seven months of living in Rhinelander while waiting for this home to be built. The house has been wonderful for these two swiftly moving and incredibly happenstancical decades. But we were contemplating a new roof for the house because we had heard such nice things about metal roofs - ie - 1. The snow slides off them instead of piling up and forming ice dams under the shingles. Each winter Bing has had to shovel heavy snow off the roof to avoid the dreaded ice dams that cause leaks in the ceilings of homes. Since we're already midway through our sixties, we're thinking it might be good to eliminate that yearly chore. 2. They last for over fifty years instead of the twenty or thirty that shingles last.

3. Bing goes up on the roof a couple of times per winter to clean the chimney of our woodburner and we thought it might be safer for him to walk on a snow free roof. 4. We have a couple of sons who goodheartedly agreed to help put the new roof on the house and Tony has a brother-in-law, Rick, who happens to have owned and operated his own roofing company for the last several years and he also agreed to work with Bing and the sons. So, in October, it all came together. For about four twelve hour days, the four strong and brave workers worked like the devil under Rick's able supervision. Rick and Tony did the "up on the roof " work and Bing and Bernie did the ground work. The weather coooperated beautifully. I helped watch Eli so that Carmen wouldn't have too many kids at the day care and I fed the workers. Everything went really well and they came out with exactly the right amount of metal ordered and a price for the completed job that was only half of what it would have cost for a hired company to do it. We've had quite a bit of snow and cold already this winter and Bing and I have been waiting for the snow to slide off. It just seemed to be staying up there and accumulating. Then today the temperature got up to 38 and the avalanches began. The temp is supposed to go down to -11 tonight so I hope all the snow comes down and we can begin again with a clean slate, that really isn't slate. The pictures show the snow free roof and the roof today as part of the snow has descended. Maybe Santa's preliminary workers are in charge of cleaning roofs before the old guy gets going and they'll just keep enough snow up there for the landing of the sleigh.

Change Happens

Change is happening here in our niche of this world. The golds and bronzes and oranges are covered with a light dusting of sparkly white. The water of the lake is now smooth hard ice. Thanks to Bing's morning bird feedings, we have daily visitors - Chickadees, Blue Jays, Cardinals and even a huge Pileated Woodpecker. The Deer gun season is in full swing and the deer are winning - not so many killed yet. I made myself a blaze orange vest this year and I can safely walk our property. I take a broom along to sweep the fluff of snow off the stepping stones and stairs of my meandering paths. If there were onlookers, they probably would try to get a peek of whether or not I take off on the broom. If brooms could fly, wouldn't that be fun. Every morning I love to walk and think and pray. I wish everyone would have the luxury of connecting with nature on a regular basis. What a difference that would make in our nation's health. Not so much need for medicines and tranquilizers and a decrease in anger and rage.

Some Forgotten Crops

The 2008 gardening is over and I thought of four more crops that I forgot to count. Here they are, numbers 36, 37, 38 and 39. Acorn squash - dark green and shaped like an acorn - Bing makes his own because I've never liked the texture of winter squash or sweet potatoes. He cuts it in half, pokes holes in the skin and microwaves it cut side down. When fork tender, he adds butter and maple syrup and says it's great. Zucchini - dark green and shaped like a club - you probably know its reputation as a most prolific producer but we usually only have one or two plants so we're not overwhelmed with them. I usually grate it and freeze it in cup sized portions for use in zucchini bread. Leeks - first time crop and they're still out in the front garden - hope we'll get to them before they're iced Leeks. Grapes - just as with our other fruit crops this summer, the grape harvest was pretty sparse - there will be enough for a couple of batches of grape jelly. They're in the freezer now and waiting for a jam session. All in all, the garden was awesome and so deserving of our attention. It keeps us healthy with its need for attention - we crawl and weed and hoe and till, we pick and freeze and can and store. It keeps us healthy with its vitamin rich greens and roots and bulbs and fruits. Thanks God for creating this symbiotic relationship of man with nature. We applaud your creativity and marvel at the amazing process of seed turning to food. Every year, Bing and I think we're getting better and better at keeping a fine garden - just think how good we'll be when we're in our nineties!.

The pictures attached show some Fall pictures here at our home - but they're already outdated because now the earth is covered with light snow. Ice is on the channel and the boats are in the shed - can winter be far off? Oops! The rutabaga picture slipped in there by mistake and I don't know how to delete it! But I do love rutabagas and this Fall we found out it's an Irish veggie so I like it even more.

Crops 33,34, & 34 Some Root Crops

We put the garden to bed already but I never mentioned these three yummy and dependable foods. The pictures show carrots and rutabagas in our garage root closet and some pickled beets in a jar. Bing built the root closet several years ago and it extends the life of our roots, cabbages, potatoes, onions, apples and dahlia bulbs. There is a thermometer in there and when the temp gets near 32, we plug in a light bulb that was installed in there. The heat from the bulb keeps the closet from freezing and the food at a good cool storage temp.