Star gazing

Yesterday, daughter and I made a trip to Columbia for some supplies needed where she works and before we came home we just had to make a stop at one of our favorite places.  You may have seen a previous post about this place.   I love the decor, the music (oldies), and the food.  It's called The 63 Diner.

I had the Pasta Primavera and my daughter had the Chicken-fried Chicken Breast.  Both were yummy and I had to bring over half of mine home as it was such a large plate!  I wish I'd gotten my camera out of my purse as it looked as good as it tasted, but I was too hungry...so I just dug right on in! 

Did you see any of the meteor shower, called the Perseids, last night?  It's supposed to be a pretty good show, I went out late and enjoyed some cooler temps and watched for a while and but didn't see anything but a jet flying over.  Oh, and a lot of beautiful, twinkling stars!   Star gazing is never a waste of time.

I snapped this pic of the sunset on the way home yesterday.  Too bad the landscape shows up much darker than it really was.

If you look close, you might see a planet shining brightly in the sky...Saturn, Mars and Venus are supposed to form a planetary triangle in the western skies just after sunset.  The meteor show is supposed to last through the weekend, so maybe I'll catch it yet. 

Until next time...

Flower garden revisited

I'm through with this work week...yay!...and today I'm awaiting my daughter's call to pick her up and go with her to pick up some supplies for her work place.  It's still very hot and humid.  The photos below were taken at Shelter Insurance Gardens that I posted about earlier.   Doesn't the water fall and pond look cool and inviting?  In spite of the somewhat murky-looking water...:)

It was a hot day like today when I took these, I remember being jealous of the fish!

I wish my flowers were still looking this good.  (I think my gardener has slacked off on the watering around here!)

This was a nice cool spot.

There is a glimpse of the schoolhouse in the background.

I'm still trying to find a photo of the one-room schoolhouse that I attended before publishing that post.  Hopefully, I'll find one to share with the story of my early school days.

Hope you are having cooler weather than we are...I'm off to look for photos while awaiting a phone call.  Have a good day!

Until next time...

Barn Quilts

Saturday was another hot and steamy day and we decided it was too hot to work outside, so we got in the car and turned the a/c on full blast and drove through the countryside.  We eventually ended up in Columbia, our ultimate destination.  Let me show you what we saw on our drive!

  
Isn't this barn a well-kept beauty and the quilt colors are perfect!  

This barn sits back from the highway a bit further, 

but I've always loved red barns.

This brick barn is called the "Lucky Barn", 
I'm told that people

honk when they drive by for good luck!

These three barns are part of a project begun by the Boonslick Tourism Council.  They are patching together a "clothesline" of barn quilts that will loop through three counties, Saline, Cooper and Howard in an effort to promote agri-tourism in the area.  

The council began searching for old-style, big barns in the three-county region that were at least 50 years old and in good condition that would remain that way for at least another 10 years.  They don't put quilt blocks on new barns.

The quilts are actually block patterns painted as patches on an 8 foot by 8 foot panel and hung on a barn, where they are easily seen from major roadways in the Boonslick region.

Participating farmers select the quilt pattern and colors to be painted and affixed to their barns.  It takes about two weeks to draw, paint and place the designs.

This is not a new idea, the concept came from similar projects in Idaho, Iowa, and North Carolina.

The council hopes to have 20 quilts in each county by 2011.  And they are also hoping other organizations in counties across the state will jump on the bandwagon.  

This last photo has the name of the quilt pattern on a small sign out front of the barn in my first photo above.  I didn't notice the name of the pattern until I was back in the car and looking at the photo to see if it turned out okay.  Imagine my surprise!  

 I had no idea I named my blog after a quilt pattern! 

I love old barns and the quilt blocks really makes them distinctive. I'll have to see if there is a brochure out that tells where others are, that would make an interesting day trip!  

Until next time...

A Friday farm story

If you aren't interested in our government and what they can do to a thriving, fertile farm or in farms period, then you may just want to skip this post!
 

The photo below is of a piece of land that my father once owned.  It is now overgrown with brush and trees, but when my father owned the farm it was a fertile field where corn was planted or maybe soybeans.  This is what has happened to a lot of farms that the government got their hands on in this area.
 

This photo is taken from a parking lot where people who want to hunt can park.  There are two fields in this area of the farm, one on each side of the highway, they both look much the same now...overgrown with trees, growing right up to the highway.
  

My father sold his 550 acre farm when he reached retirement age to a family from out of state.  They had a government loan (not sure what it was called then) to buy it and began building more grain bins and doing things that were too expensive right from the beginning and without a lot of farm knowledge (at least for this area).  It soon became apparent that they might lose the farm.  And sure enough, when they couldn't make their payments,  they were foreclosed on.  The farm, at least a good part of it, was turned over to the Conservation Dept.  They let the land lay idle and trees and brush take over and this supposedly makes for good hunting.  (I've seen the trees so thick that I doubt a very big deer could run through it, but that is just my disgruntled opinion.)   A couple did get to buy part of the farm, after much legal hassle ensued, and still lives there today.  The part that the Conservation Dept. has taken over is still growing trees and brush. 

The photo below is what the fields used to look like when they were planted in soybeans.  The photo really doesn't do justice to the depth or length of the field, but you get the idea of what it looked like before.   We had wooded areas too, some with a creek running through. 

I never have understood why the government will take a good farm and just let it lay idle.  This was a wonderful farm that raised a lot of crops and livestock.  It hasn't made a dime for the government just laying idle like this.  What a waste!


And, yes, it makes me a bit angry to think of the waste...the money that could have been made from the land now overgrown, the food that could have been raised to feed hungry people.  I really think sometimes that the people in Washington just don't have a clue.


I am so glad the couple that fought hard to buy part of the farm got to do so.  I have many special memories of growing up on that farm that I'll be sharing here in my blog from time to time.
 

One of those memories is of my years in a one room school house.  That school house was on a few acres just next to our family's farm, so I didn't have far to go.  I'll be sharing those memories soon.


Until next time...

Of bluebirds and a birthday

 

How can it be August already?  It seems like only a short time ago that spring had just begun and we were planting our flowers and garden.  It has been so very hot that I've noticed that the birds aren't as active as they usually are.  We have bluebird houses in the back yard and I've always enjoyed watching them, but haven't really seen as many bluebirds as in previous years.  The goldfinches are more scarce at the feeder this time of year, but once in a while I would see an Indigo Bunting, a bird that is mostly blue, but haven't seen him this year.  I hope my feathered friends are surviving this hot summer.  

A birthday party was held Saturday for my father-in-law.  He turned 86.  

The birthday party was held at the family farm.  His three children and their spouses were there along with 4 of his 6 grandchildren, including my 2 children.  A nephew and his family came by for a visit.  It was a nice day and G'pa enjoyed sitting outside for most of the day in the shade where he could look out over part of the farm.  We enjoyed a meal of KFC, sliced tomatoes, spinach salad and, of course, birthday cake and ice cream!  G'pa really enjoyed his day.
 

Time to get ready for the first day of my 3 day work week.  Have a good Monday! 

Until next time...

Friday lunch and a storm

Instead of my usual Friday housecleaning, I got out of the house and went to lunch with my aunt and a cousin.  My aunt is a wonderful lady 84 years young  who is and has been a special person in my life.  She was my mother's only sibling.  Aunt B is that kind of person who has never met a stranger in her life!  She has a wonderful personality and in spite of many health issues in recent years, she keeps on going and going.  She was going to work at the library after we had lunch today.  She helps others with genealogy.  Aunt B has been very interested in our family history for several years now and I think you could say that is her main passion...genealogy...besides her family, of course.

That is my aunt B on the right and cousin on the left and they gave me permission to post their picture.  

We had the delicious lunch special which was a grilled chicken salad...can't think of the name...good conversation with Aunt B talking about family history and she gave Cousin and I some pictures she had copied.  Aunt B works very hard gathering and sharing information but she has a ball doing it!  

The rest of the evening plans were canceled due to the storm that blew through here.  Hubby is still out working, some rural electric lines were down.  And that gives me time to get a post up and visit blogs.  

This is the storm cloud that formed near Columbia, part of the storm we experienced.  This was sent to my daughter by a friend of hers.  I'm not sure who took it so I can't give credit.  Fantastic shot, isn't it?  I think this is called a shelf cloud.  Here's hoping the storms end soon here in Mid-Mo and don't create too much havoc.  


Until next time...

A man's best friend

I mentioned in a previous post about a story I ran across while looking at old photos.  This story was written by my aunt about her grandfather, my great-grandfather, and his dog.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

James E. was born Feb. 11, 1850 in KY.  Little is known about his parents and nothing about his grandparents, although a story often was told about James' paternal grandfather who "came from Ireland and lived to be 112 years of age".  

When James was 2 years old, his parents moved from KY to MO.  His father was in an accident involving a runaway team of horses and died of his injuries.  James was the eldest of six children and was 12 yrs old at the time of his father's death.  James split rails to help make money for the family and no doubt did most of the hunting of game to bring meat to the family table.  This was a very difficult time for the family and during the Civil War the dreaded Carpetbaggers came to the family farm.  James and the other children were given pieces of cornbread and potatoes to eat and told to go hide in brush piles so as not to be found.  Any farm animals were usually taken by the Carpetbaggers or bushwhackers.

James' mother never remarried, saying that she didn't have time because she had so many children to raise.  

James married at age 25 and had seven children.  He was a farmer by trade and became a trader of farms and this was a profession he loved.  He bought a farm and made some improvements and usually sold it by the following March.  It was a family joke that the E. children were never able to complete a grade in one school because they moved before the end of the school year.  The family didn't have a lot of money, but didn't live in poverty either.  They were a well liked and respected family in the community.
   

The E. men were well known for their walking abilities.  The story is told of a neighbor driving his team and wagon to the local town one hot summer day and meeting James walking along the road toward the same destination.  The neighbor stopped and said, "Mr. E., can I give you a ride?"  To which James is supposed to have answered, "No, thank you, I am in a hurry."   

James lost his eyesight in later years probably due to what we call now macular degeneration.  He must have been able to see a little bit, at least enough to get around.  He had a faithful friend who was the equivalent of a "seeing eye dog" long before anyone ever heard of the term in that part of the country.  His dog was called "Old Jim" and went with his master on every walk, staying close by his side to keep James from wandering off the road with a gentle nudge along his legs.  

James often walked to a park where he believed the waters in a spring there might be of benefit to his advancing years and health.  So he and his companion, "Old Jim", would go to the salt spring often during the summers to drink these waters.  "Old Jim" was able to help him along the twisting and hilly roads and even walk across a bridge.

James E. died at the home of his eldest daughter and son-in-law at 84 years of age.  All the family were with him during his last days and the body "laid in state" at the home until time for the burial.  The family followed the hearse on a rainy day over mud covered roads to the church where the funeral would be.  It was roughly 10-11 miles to the church.  James' family home was 3 miles from the church in the other direction. 

The country church has 2 aisles leading from the door to the altar.  During the funeral service for James E., "Old Jim" quietly entered the open doors and walked up one of the aisles to the casket and raised his head to check on his master one last time.  He then departed the church by the other aisle and went back to the family home about 3 miles away.  No one in the family had been in that home for a day or two, so it remains a mystery as to how "Old Jim" knew where to go to find his master. 

The photo above is a picture of a dog believed to be "Old Jim".  I am told that he was a black dog with a bit of white on his chest and was probably a shepherd mix.  I am left to wander what happened to this faithful dog.  I'm sure he was well taken care of by someone in the family.  I'm just as sure that he was never quite the same without his master to tend to.  "Old Jim"...truly a man's best friend.

Until next time...

Flowers and a schoolhouse

On my way to one of my favorite shops in Columbia last week, I drove past the Shelter Insurance Gardens.  After shopping, I drove back by and this time I stopped in to wander around the beautiful grounds and I was glad to have my camera with me.  It was very hot, so I didn't linger long.

Near the middle of the gardens, is an old one room schoolhouse.  I took some pictures of the inside.  I'll show them another time when I tell the story of my own school years spent in a very similar one room school house.

This garden has many varieties of blooming flowers from spring through fall and most are labeled, as well as the trees.  It is open to the public and there are numerous weddings held here.  A very serene and beautiful spot in the midst of a very busy city.
 

The water was very inviting on that very hot day!  Even the flowers look like they want to jump in.

Only one hollyhock was to be found.  I remember when I was young we had a long row of them against a white painted fence.  Beautiful!  

I will have to get some started here at my house.  I forget how lovely they are until I see them somewhere.

We have had lots of hot weather and rain here in MidMO.  Thankfully, we haven't had the damage that some towns have had.  Our electricity was out from 8 pm until 5 am Wednesday morning.  What happened to the gentle summer rains we used to get?  

Until next time...

To be or not to be…organized

Do you consider yourself to be very organized?  I’m not, to be honest.  I wish I were.  LIfe would be so much simpler…I guess.  At least in some areas!

I was looking at some old photos the other night and I ran across an old letter that my aunt wrote to me which included a story about my great great grandfather.  I should have filed this letter away, but didn’t.  It was sandwiched between some old photo packets and I’m surprised it hadn’t disappeared.  That story may have been lost forever! 

So I have resolved to get try to be more organized.  To have everything in it’s place and a place for everything…as they say.  I used to be organized, but the last few years I’ve slacked off.  No more!!  I have a really bad habit of putting things away and thinking I’ll remember where I put it…but I don’t.  This happen to you?  So, I’ll just buy a notebook and make notes.  If only I don’t hide the notebook from myself, I’ll be okay.

Here’s to a more organized life! 

~A note…I haven’t decided on fonts and I have other changes in store for the blog when I find time.  Bear with me, please, as I experiment.  Thank you! 

Until next time….

Summer afternoons

          Summer afternoon—summer afternoon;   to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

                    ~Henry James     
       

I think those words are beautiful too, and I’d have to say that two words I really like to hear in summer are….iced tea and ice cream!! :) Love my tall glass filled with ice cubes cooling off my tea.  Unfortunately, my ice maker has decided to be contrary and is no longer doing it’s job of making ice cubes!  Major bummer.  As for ice cream, we had a yummy Dairy Queen ice cream cake during the 4th of July weekend to celebrate my son’s birthday in late June.  That should be enough for a while!  I love homemade ice cream, but haven’t made any yet this year.  

It has certainly been busy at our house so far this summer.  I know that is true for most this time of year.  As they say, there are things to do and people to see.  We had a wonderful holiday weekend and have been busy every day since.  I have a lot of catching up to do in blogland.  Also a lot of catching up to do house-wise.  I have let a few things slide…think I’ll pull a “Scarlett” and think about it tomorrow!
 

I haven’t forgotten about blogging; in fact, when I’m at work I often think of things I want to blog about and photos of days gone by to share.  I originally thought my blog would be a sort of journal and I’d just jot down memories that my children might enjoy and have when my memories of those times some day fade.  And maybe intersperse those memories with what’s going on in our lives right now.  But, that all takes a lot more time than I have some weeks!  Oh well…I do the best I can!  

I’m not gettin’ any younger, so I probably will be “retiring” again soon.  I say again, because I retired once or twice before and decided to go back to work.  I enjoy getting out and working, I enjoy the extra money it brings in, and there are lots of wonderful people I’ve met that I’d never otherwise known at each job I’ve worked at.  I really am not taking this not gettin’ any younger thing (read…getting OLD) very well!  I’d love to be able to keep working for several years, but the ole body is wearing out and I’m getting tired.  Major bummer!!  So, I’ve been pondering lately just when will I give it up and what will I do then?  Isn’t it a wonderful thing that blogging has come along to keep us older kids busy?  And it is so much fun!!  

Okay, enough of my ramblings, here’s a photo I took one summer afternoon…last week…when I just happened to glance out the window and noticed the sun was shining after a sudden hard rain…then I saw the beautiful rainbow.  I grabbed my camera and hurried out to get a pic.   It was already fading a bit, but I still was able to capture a fairly good bit of it. 

Until next time…