Go West!

Everything on my job list is crossed off. Our bags are packed except for the last minute things. Take off is scheduled for 7:30-8 a.m. tomorrow. I don't have a laptop so unless I can hock the use of a computer somewhere, posting will be scanty (or none) until after May 29.

Three For Breakfast

Back in the early 1970s my dad bought a movie camera to take pictures on their trip to Israel. He had a Super-8 projector to show the pictures and then also bought a few cartoon films to show to his grandchildren---Pooh Bear, Three Little Pigs, etc. Those films became a standard part of the afternoon at the family Christmas dinner. Everyone knew what would happen next because watched them every year, but we never got tired of them. Of course the films were all silent, but the watching children provided sound effects.

I think the favorite of all was Three For Breakfast. Yesterday I found it on YouTube. Some sounds have been added but the pictures are exactly the same as the film we watched over and over. I tried to embed the film in this post but for some reason the entire link wouldn't copy. So I went with Plan B. If you click on the link below you can watch Three For Breakfast on YouTube. It will bring back memories to those of you who watched it with the family every year. And maybe the rest of you will see why we loved this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mRMUkS6psk

Novo Engine

For a change, this post is about Leroy's activities instead of mine. He's been collecting parts since last summer to make a garden-tractor-size John Deere B. He saw one at a show that had an old Novo engine which sounds just like a John Deere, so he started watching for a Novo engine. He bought this one at a sale the end of February. He saw more potential in it than I did.

It did not run when he brought it home and he wasn't sure how much it will cost him to get it going. He's been tinkering with it. First he got it loose so it turns. Then he took off the muffler and cleaned out the cherry seeds some rodent had packed in there all the way into the engine. Last evening he tinkered some more and got it to spark. It looks like he may not have to spend a lot of money after all to get it going. It should sound like this when he's finished.

Ready, Set

This is the countdown. There are five days left before take off.

We've been dreaming for years of taking a trip to the Midwest "sometime." The longer we dreamed and talked, the longer the list became of places and people we want to see. The trigger that finally got us to set a time to go was an invitation from Meredith Mauck to spend Memorial Day weekend with them in Kansas. We have flown over and driven all around Kansas but never set foot on the soil. My original idea was to go to the Little House in Coffeyville, Kansas, just so I could say I was in Kansas, and then head back east. But the invitation from Meredith has extended the time in Kansas a few days and will take us a little further west to the Mennonite area around Newton and Peabody.

One of the high priorities for me on this trip was to find Levina (Good-Powell) Griffith's death date and burial place. The last trace I had of her was in the 1880 Census in Terre Haute, Indiana. I was planning to allow three days to look for clues in a library and the couthouse. Leroy doesn't mind helping to look for gravestones in cemeteries but he was groaning about waiting a couple days while I dig through old books. Now he doesn't have to. About a month ago I got a tip that led me back to her former residence in Paris, Illinois. After years of searching, I now know she is buried in the Edgar Cemetery and we can go directly there.

Here is the itinerary I have planned. (Some things could change as we go.)

May 16-17--Spend the weekend with our daughter, Cheryl, and family in Antrim, Ohio

Monday, 18th--Stop at a cemetery south of Lancaster, Ohio; go on to Bainbridge, Ohio, to visit a couple of Leroy's cousins; spend the night in Erlanger, Kentucky

Tuesday, 19th--Spend the day at the Creation Museum and the night at Louisville, Kentucky

Wednesday, 20th--Drive to Leroy's cousin at Latham, Missouri, and spend the night there

Thursday, 21st--Drive to Coffeyville, Kansas and see the Little House on the Prairie; drive to Newton, Kansas and check into our Kansas "home" with Ed and Marge Harms

May 22-25---Sightseeing in Kansas and visiting with our friends; spend the night of 25th somewhere in Missouri

Tuesday, May 26--Drive to Carbondale, Illinois, and visit the Oakwood Cemetery where Joanna (Good-Powell) Coughanour and some of her descendants are buried; spend the night with my cousin in Bluford, Illinois

Wednesday, May 27--Visit the Edgar County Genealogy Library in Paris, Illinois, and then the Edgar Cemetery where Levina (Good-Powell) Griffith and her descendants are buried

Thursday, May 28--Drive back to Ohio and spend the night with Cheryl again

Friday, May 29--Drive home

Three Old Ladies

I grew up attending a little Mennonite church in a little town. Sallie Schaeffer, Florence Graff, and Sallie Balthazer were three old ladies from town who were not members but attended our services every Sunday. I have good memories of each of them.

Sallie Schaeffer lived just down the street, within sight of the church, and for years was our self-appointed janitor. She cleaned the building, mowed the grass, turned on the heat, and generally watched over the place. I have a big old antique mirror in my bedroom which used to hang inside her front door. She always had bunches of dried Money Plant at the top of the mirror. I also have some Mountain Pinks which came from the rock garden behind her house. I thought of Sallie this week when I was weeding my rock garden.

Florence Graff (she used the German spelling of Groff) lived down the street on the opposite side of the church. I remember going to her house for a Sunday dinner. That was the first time I had mashed potato filling which is a Berks County PA Dutch specialty. I have made it many times since.

Sallie Balthazer lived across the street from the church. She was the oldest of the three ladies. Her hands were crippled by arthritis. With her thick PA German accent she used to moan, "Ach, I have the arseritis so." It's been a long time coming, but since I started having pain in my hands a couple weeks ago I am finally beginning to realize how much she suffered. My fingers aren't crooked like hers were but I'm already saying, "Ach, I have the arseritis so."

Those three old ladies are long gone but their fingerprints are on my life. And (can it be??)now I'm one of the old PA Dutch Berks County ladies.

Swine Flu

Here's how it started

Grandpa & Grandma Size

The garden is planted at last. We got the vegetables planted the beginning of the week and then Leroy seeded the top half in grass. This is the third time the garden has been cut in half. This picture looks like the new lawn section is bigger than what is left of the garden, but that is due to the angle from which it was taken. Gene stepped it off before we planted and the remaining garden is just as big as the newly seeded grass section. Gerald got a couple bales of straw from one of his farmer friends and spread it over the grass. With the cloudy skies and showers we're having, the new grass should come up quickly and we'll have a Grandpa-size garden.

And here is my Grandma-size strawberry patch. When I was young and foolish I planted 100 strawberry plants in the garden. I don't know what I was thinking when I did that. We had strawberries for everybody and their brother! I gave up having a strawberry patch perhaps six or eight years ago. We missed having fresh strawberries of our own when they are in season but I can no longer keep a patch weeded all summer. This year I got the bright idea to put a couple strawberry plants in this big pot behind the house. They will survive the winter and eliminate the need to buy annuals to plant in that pot every year. And we can have a taste of fresh strawberries in season. It takes so little to keep me busy these days!