Our trip to Port Allegany

Roy and DeAnn have been wanting to go up to see Olive and Alice for a good while. Roy had a vacation week this week so they came up here on Monday. The three of us went up on Tuesday to see Olive at the nursing home in Smethport, then lunch at the Cottage House, and on to see Alice at her little house. Leah came over and shared the visit. Joe had gone to be with his daughter who was in the hospital in Rochester, NY. On our return trip we stopped at Lindberg Furniture in Johnsonburg and saw Bonnie, Randy, and Randy's little girl, Ella.

Olive looked well cared-for and had a pleasant smile. Roy mentioned to her that conventions would soon be starting in Argentina. She said she loved Argentina, and I asked where what it was about Argentina that she loved! Her reply: "the people". We reminded her about her story of when the workers came in 1914, and DeAnn asked her who the workers were, and she replied, "Nettie Miller and Inez London." One is glad for the things that are indelibly written on our hearts that remain such a part of us no matter what!

Many of you would know that my mother and Olive were the same age, and their parents heard the Gospel in that same mission in 1914. That is the reason why I wanted to have my picture taken with her!

We had a great time with Alice and Leah, too. Alice said she only has pain when she tries to move. I thought she seemed to have more trouble hearing the conversation than she used to. She does such a great job with keeping up with all the news of everybody through her email!

Alice will turn 91 in December, and Olive will turn 99! Leah said she was 83.

So, it was a lovely day for this blogger, spending time with my son and daughter-in-law, and with other dear friends who have been such a part of us for so many years!

Grandma's Brag Page

Whattayaknow! A family portrait! Leigh and Jill, with Shane, Kirsten, and Heidi.

The grandchildren with Grandpa in the back of his truck. Heidi, Kirsten, and Laura, Abby, Ken, and Shane.

The same dear kiddoes without Grandpa! Heidi is 9, Kirsten 6, Laura is 6, Shane is 3, and Abby is 21 months.

The grandchildren have spent many happy hours at this swingset that Ken built from a kit. The swings look very lonesome to me after the kids leave! Here are all 5 of the grandchildren in motion under the watchful eye of Sue, Todd's wife.

Heidi loves to climb the tree near the swingset, and it is a great place for a picture! At 9, Heidi is on the verge of becoming a young woman!

A close-up of Kirsten, a very photogenic first-grader!

Shane is all boy, and loves tractors, trucks, and equipment--and dirt!!

I will get some solo shots of Laura and Abby for the next brag page.

October's Bright Blue Weather

The weather for the past several days here in western PA has been so beautiful, and a fulfillment of this poem. I think we studied this poem in grade school, and I have hung a copy of it on my refrigerator each October for several years now!

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And Golden-Rod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs

Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields, still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,

In idle golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour,

October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.

This poem can be found in:
Jackson, Helen. Poems. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893.
Stevenson, Burton Egbert, ed. The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915.

This evening we have Peggy J. and Marie F. with us. We have had a lovely visit and it is so good to have them! They will start Gospel meetings in Brockway on Oct. 26. The workers are taking turns staying with Judy O.

We had Heidi, Kirsten, and Shane with us over the weekend while their parents went to Ohio for a wedding. Next post I will put up some brag picture!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and MORE tomatoes!

No doubt about it, I had a beautiful garden. During June and July everything was growing nicely, and the garden was lush and beautiful, with practically no weeds. Mulching with grass clippings helped keep the weeds down.

Then came August and conventions and the weeds got ahead of me. The tomato plants that I had so lovingly tied to their stakes again and again became heavy with fruit, and collapsed. Now the beauty of the garden is a different story--we have a bountiful harvest! Early this week I picked the ripe and nearly ripe tomatoes since we had a frost warning. I brought them into my kitchen for frost protection, and to can.

First thing Wednesday morning, I got started. I wash them, cook them, then put them through a food mill and can them in quart jars. Before the day was over, I had 28 quarts done. And, before the day was over, I was tired of standing on my feet! And tired of looking at tomatoes!

I haven't counted the tomatoes I have already done on my canning shelf in the cellar, but I think I must have between 75 and 100 quarts. I have some left over from last year, too.

Spaghetti, anyone? Or chili? We will be eating lots of good stuff this winter at our house! Come and join us!

On Thursday, Ross only had one class and it was such a beautiful day that we decided to dig some of the potatoes in the afternoon. He ran the shovel and I picked them up. (The next morning when I got out of bed, I discovered some new muscles!) We still have a row of potatoes to dig, and so far it has been a bumper crop.

Now, the beauty of the garden is in the fruitfulness of it. My garden was a wonderful investment this year and paid great yields!

Stew Cook

Happy Birthday, Ken! In honor of Ken's 60th birthday, the kids planned a fun day of cooking stew together, and then invited relatives and friends to help us eat it! This copper kettle came from Florence C. She gave it to Don G. who passed it on to us. Finally, after having it in our possession for nearly four years, we got a chance to use it, thanks to Jill's creativity in figuring it would be a great way to celebrate Ken's birthday. Lots of chopping and fixing went into that pot of stew!

Jill's getting ready to cry over all those onions!

One of my specialties--kitchen floor buns. This is a variation on the favorite Grady bun recipe, where I add several cups of various grains to the mixture. This time I used oatmeal, Red River cereal, and some bran flakes. My kids named them kitchen floor buns when they were rascals at home because they said it looked like I had swept the kitchen floor and dumped it into my buns! They are always a hit when I make them.

Leigh and Kirsten helped to dig the potatoes from my garden for the stew. Looks like we have and exceptionally fine crop of potatoes that we will soon need to dig for our winter supply.

Todd arrived by bicycle--he went extra miles besides the eight miles from his house to ours. He did a great job helping to chop up the cheese--left handed!

Even the guest of honor helped to peel the carrots! Most of his time was spent outside tending to the fire.

.Todd clowning around with his dad. We have never figured out how this kid got so tall!

Roy (and Deann, not pictured) arrived on the scene in the early afternoon. By this time, the steam was rising from the pot and smelling wonderful!

Ken's birthday present from the kids was a very nice gold watch. No more Walmart specials for him

This line-up of ladies was waiting for the stew to be declared ready.

After they got their tummies full, they managed to make their way outside the building to sit around the fire!

Instead of gifts, Jill wrote on the invitation to bring her dad a pie. Here he is with all eleven of them! He did not eat them all, but certainly enjoyed them with the others.

Ken reading his cards--His actual birthday was September 18, while I was enjoying Demorest convention. On that day, his 94-year-old mother fixed him supper--roast beef, mashed potatoes, tomato dumplings, other vegetables, and a birthday cake! What a grand lady!

Punk and Roy enjoyed a jam session of music, and others enjoyed listening.

I don't know how Ross escaped getting into any of the pictures, but he was a part of the day, too!

Thanks to all who came! We want to cook in this old copper kettle again!

Sally

Sally was one of my "baby-house buddies". Their four children were a little older than our four, and arranged boy, boy, girl, and boy just like ours. I had so much confidence in her and felt like she would know the answers to all my questions!

This lovely picture of Sally, Dick, and Leah B. was taken in August of 2006, at our before-convention hymnsing. Sally had been diagnosed in February, 6 months prior, and we were thrilled that she and Dick and Leah came up to be with us that night. Her choice of hymn was 278, "Oh, for the peace of a perfect trust". Two years and a month later we were singing it at her funeral.

We knew that Sally was very low when we went to Demorest. Donna had talked to Arlene K. on the telephne from Demorest and heard that Sally was in a coma.

Friday morning we were waiting quietly for the meeting to begin, and Lily C., who was sitting at the other end of the row from us, sent us a note which said, "Did you hear that Sally Clites died this morning?" Somehow, the finality of it all hit me very hard. Even though I could not wish her back in her diseased body, I still keenly felt the loss of a very good friend and example. Within about 20 seconds or so, the meeting began and it took me a while to get my emotions under control and the flow of tears stopped.

Then we went to lunch, and lo and behold, we were served chicken and noodles, the meal that Dick and Sally have cooked together for our Newry convention! More sad/happy memories.

By evening meeting, I thought I was getting kinda situated, but then they gave out the first hymn, "Life's short day will soon be over" and more memories came--that was the hymn Dick had talked on their blog about them singing after they came home from their last trip to Johns Hopkins.

I was glad to get to Sally's funeral on Tuesday with Joan H. By the number of people there, it was clearly evident that there were other people who loved Sally like I did! I was glad to see and visit with Dick's cousin, Dinah D., whom I had not seen for over 30 years.

Yes, Sally was quite a lady and will be long remembered amongst her friends for the example she was in word and deed.

Demorest

Ah, convention. I had wondered what my third convention would be like. With a month in between Newry and Demorest, that gave me ample time to rest my body and brain before using
it again! And Demorest proved to be a great blessing to me. It was wonderful to see a few familiar faces, and make some new friends, too.

Donna C. and I left Punxsutawney a little after noon on Tuesday, heading for Charleston, WV. We got to Ethel L.'s house in time to go with her to Gospel meeting, where we heard Carlton S. and Scott H. How many people get to go to a Gospel mtg. and convention in the same week?

We left for Demorest the next morning and it was a LONG ride that day! We had difficulty finding the convention grounds after arriving in the area, but got there at last about 5 PM. We got settled in to our sleeping quarters over the dining hall and found our seats in the second row.

It was so good to see Jennifer G. and Joel C. and also reconnect with all the Shadles and the Turpins. Fred and Bobbie were at Fort Sam with my brother Ben and Ethel, and they have been friends ever since! I had not seen them for over 40 years!

We left Demorest after lunch on Sunday and got back to Ethel's about 9 o'clock. Carlton and Scott were there to welcome us, and we had a grand visit and rehearsed the things we had heard. Monday it was home again, full of memories to cheer our hearts for a long while to come.

A thought from Demorest that has been in my mind the last couple of days--when love weakens, other things creep in.

What fun to have Jeannette come for a visit! We had a potluck supper for her here on Monday, September 15. We had about 20 people or so come. Several of them had not electricity at home from the previous nights high winds (thanks, Ike), and we appreciate them coming and leaving those problems behind!

Jeannette seems rather frail in her body (see the cane handle in the bottom right corner of the picture) but her personality has not lost any of her feistiness! She had lots of stories to tell us, including about her early days in coming to meetings and going in the work. We have such good memories of her back in the 60's and 70's when she was in PA and trying so hard to keep us straight!

We have a 40+ year old tradition from the Lindberg family to make cream puffs when Jeannette comes, so we upheld it for this special occasion! And, of course, we had to have Jeannette pose for this picture! Afterwards she told us, "I spit on every single one of them!" In spite of that she didn't get to eat them all!

I told Jeannette that I was going to call the picture of the three of us, "I still wish they had gone in the work", but she said she had gotten over that long ago!

Where do I start....???

Where do I start to tell you all about the full, rich days of the last two weeks? I have so much to tell, and I want to post pictures with it, too.

First we had Jeannette F.'s visit.
Then I went to Demorest with Donna C.
Sally C.'s death and funeral
The stew cook to celebrate Ken's 60th birthday.

So, here goes!!