End of 2015

       I have had cause to consider my feelings about the winter season.   Last year it just didn't arrive in our neck of the woods.   We needed it, but it didn't come.  In the spring we were rescued by sufficient rainfall to keep our waterways flowing and filling our reservoirs.   Still, we had missed those winter months.
         Winter isn't an easy season in terms of  daily life.  There is the shoveling,  the coping with the cold, the added dangers of driving on slick, icy roads.   Indoors or outdoors there is extra demands.  If indoors, in our case we need to keep our wood fire going in order to heat the home.  That brings in bits of wood to clean up,  ashes to be cleaned out,  messes on the freshly scrubbed floors.  If outdoors a person needs to consider how best to stay warm with extra wraps, adequate gloves, hats and footwear.  One walks carefully on icy surfaces, the likelihood of falling down increases.  Just breathing can be challenging as that cold dry air hits the respiratory system.
         Driving takes more concentration, a few different skills.  There is always the possibility of becoming stuck in the snow, as well as whirling out of control on the ice.  Personally, I always pack some material in the trunk of my vehicle that can help me get added traction if I need it.  I was raised in snow country and trained to  travel with some snack items, just in case I should get stranded, and have a blanket, another just in case.
         Still, even in my advancing years, I like winter.  The outdoor beauty, the sparkle of snowy hillsides, the intense blue of the sky against the white environment.   The loveliness of a moonlit night during the winter never fails to trigger my asthetic senses.
          Different types of birds arrive and are active around our home during the winter months.  These are survival birds, tough enough to stay despite the cold.  The aquatic varieties  are beautiful skimming across the top of our leaden colored pond, surrounded by mounds of snow on the banks.  The wildlife stop in regularly, even when unwelcome, mostly looking for a snack of some type.  I see deer walking down the road  as they go about their nightly inspection routine, checking out our haystacks first and eventually when all seems calm, venturing into our orchard for any reachable fruit left on our trees, or perhaps something left out for our cat that didn't get consumed.
           Even as a house keeper there are some advantages to my winter.   My refrigerator space expands greatly because I can use the garage and front porch to keep food cool every bit as well as the electrical appliance.  I don't need to add ice to any water based beverage.  Ice water comes straight from our faucet.
            I love the sounds of children playing in the snow.  Sledding, skating, making snowmen, just rolling around in it.  They giggle, they shout, and they wear themselves out.  Even snowball fights are better than sand being tossed in the air.  The damp duds they wear for play dries out and  a warm cup of cocoa puts everything right in short order.
           Lastly, I enjoy having the end of the day arrive when darkness descends along with the dropping temperatures.  I feel like I can be at rest a little earlier, not concerned so much about the required tasks of the day.    I can read, or write, or ....whatever my fancy is at the particular hour.  Yes, winter has an appeal all its own for me.  

Veterans' Day, the Armistice

        Nov 11, 1918, the signing of the Armistice, brought to an end World War I. When General John J. (Black Jack)Pershing of the US Army undertook the Meuse-Argonne offensive the objective was to cut the German railroad lines feeding the Western Front. The battle lasted 47 days and engaged 1,200,000 American troops. The heavy fighting in the Argonne Forest resulted in those killed and wounded being 10% of the total, a huge amount. As a result of this endeavor the end of the war was in sight. The Germans and their allies had finally had enough.

            At the time of the peace signing these years of conflict, 1914-1918, were called “the war to end all wars.” For two and a half years the battle was waged  in Europe. On one side were the Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary and later Turkey and Bulgaria. On the other side were the Allied Powers: France, Britain, Russia and later, Italy. America's leaders attempted to stay out of the mammoth squabble. In the spring of 1917 US President Woodrow Wilson, a man known for his desire for peace, declared us in, another ally to the Allied Powers.

           It took months to raise the United States Army. Men across the nation were required to register for the draft. Training, housing, outfitting, transporting across an ocean did not happen overnight.  So far I have only read the draft card of my maternal grandfather, an immigrant from Sweden. I am sure that there were  many more in my family lines since the other ancestral side had been in this country since the 1600's in New England, Virginia, North Carolina.

           I honor this day, Nov 11, because it is the day set aside to think, to consider those possibilities of what my life might be like had not others over the generations chosen to do their part to keep this country free and to offer these freedoms to other countries. WWI was not the end of war in any way, the Armistice just offered a break for our world before another began.

         I admire a dear friend who was part of taking the beach in Anzio, Italy, in WWII. My husband's uncle has a grave site in Manila, the Philippines, losing his life in an air-battle in the Pacific Theater of that war. My genealogical research has informed me of a British cousin who served in the RAF during the time of the Blitz across the ocean. Other Brit relatives share how life was for them during that horrendous time.

           Wars continued, lives lost, with often not many years between hot spots warring throughout the globe. I remember how I felt when the news came that an older cousin had been killed by a sniper's bullet in the Korean Conflict. My husband was trained and served as a medic in between Korea and Vietnam. Friends, neighbors, relatives have been part of the Vietnam War.

          Genealogical research has shown me ancestors who were part of the Civil War in this nation. Some even came from those with the Quaker beliefs, feeling that as citizens of this country there is an obligation. I have records of a great great great great great (5x) grandfather who was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. I am sure there was more than this one ancestor of that time period involved. All of these warriors provided something that helped to make my life what it is today. I am grateful to them, and for others like them, in this country and abroad. Freedom is a priceless commodity.

The Seasons

        I am a person who still enjoys living where there are 4 seasons.  Around here it has been fall as usual, putting up apple juice, drying, did some great apple syrup, jelly, pie in a bottle. Plums were plentiful, both wild and domestic varieties. Grass kept growing, always needing mowed, weeds doing well. Garden, tomatoes, have been good this year, perhaps a little small in size this year.  

         For some reason, not complaining, the box elder bugs have been less this fall.  Generally they are covering the southeast side of our house and getting in every crevice and open spot they can find.  It has been nice to have their reduced amount, would that it could last for a few years.  The wasps, too, have not been as obnoxious or thick.  I am sure a farmers almanac could answer these wonderings of mine.

     It has been a strange fall season.  Nice temperatures longer than usual.  The hay fields busy growing a 4th crop weeks after the haying equipment has been cleaned up and put to rest in the shed.  Leaves staying green, along with the grass and the fields.  Deer out munching on the fresh alfalfa instead of raiding the storage in the barn.

      Now, November, the leaves have finally come down.  The whole community is carpeted with yellow and gold.  We have had quite a bit of rain, but no snow until the end of last week, and then it was only a skiff.  The first morning the white clung to the roofs, the fence posts, the upper side of the orchard branches, but the ground was too warm and no white appeared.  The next day the skiff arrived, but gone by noon easily.  Our mountaintops are staying white but the snow line didn't move down until last night.   

         Dark comes early now with Daylight Savings Time taking a rest.  With the dark came big feathery flakes, floating earthward.  They kept coming until everything was covered nicely and then the silence reigned, adding to the feeling of softness.  It is time for the change of the season, time for the flakes to fall and nourish the ground.  Not an easy season for man and beast, domestic or wild, but one that should be welcomed.  It is all part of the plan of our existence.

Kitchens, past and present

Has it really been that long since I wrote in my blog?  But I have had so many ideas going through my mind, how can that be?  I know the answer---I never have the writing tools when the creative juices are flowing and when I get to where I have the time, the pencil and paper, or the computer, I can't figure out why I thought that idea was so worthy of a write.  Oh well, I will still keep working on it, it is good for my soul.   No wonder I have such few readers, and even fewer who comment on what I write!

        I have so many helpful gadgets, appliances in my kitchen.  I have had to learn how to use  some of them, when to use them, maybe even why to use them.  I was not raised with most of these in my mother's kitchen domain.  Now I am going to mentally travel around my current kitchen.
         A dishwasher, an item that most likely would have been  looked upon with some amount of scorn.  Too lazy to wash a few dishes?  A disposal,  one fed most  table scraps to  pets and local scavengers, or a pig if one was on the premises. Such things as peelings, etc went into a compost pile, or the pig, or goat.
          Mom's stove was one that burned coal.  In my later years we had an electric toaster, but early bread was toasted in the  stove's oven.  Toasters have improved a great deal.  Those electric ones of my early memory had doors that opened down  either side and one placed the slice of bread between the doors and the grate that held it away from the fiery red wires.  Then you tended it so it didn't burn black.   It is a bit hard to describe, maybe you have seen one in a museum. We did have an electric oven/roaster.  Marvelous food was produced in that item.
           Mixers were two beaters in a contraption that connected to a gear setup that the operator turned by hand.  It made lovely whipped cream and such.  Eventually a mixmaster entered our lives and simplified the effort of making baked goods and candy that required lots of beating with a big spoon.  The idea that a person needs a machine to produce a loaf of homemade bread would bring amusement to the home cook of a generation past.  Producing it by hand was a skill learned early on by most of the female population of the time.
          A microwave oven was totally beyond imagination, and what a boon it is to the kitchens of today.  I think I would include food processors  and electric juicers in that category.  I have an electric grinder, but there are times I am grateful for the wind-by-hand variety I inherited from my mother-in-law.  It is just like the one I grew up with and can tackle some jobs too difficult for the electric variety.
           Still it is surprising how some of the tools of the past are now rediscovered.  Those little gadgets that remove strawberry hulls.  The apple peeler, with a little different style perhaps, but they certainly beat peeling apples with a paring knife at canning time.  Mandolin slicers, aren't they lovely!   Apple corers,  those corncob trimmers.  Graters  have been in existence for a good long time.  I say 'good' because think how hard it would be to produce the same product without that tool.
        There are many small appliances that I don't own today.  An electric peeler.  I have an electric knife but cannot claim that I use it too often.  Old habits die hard.  It isn't too many years since I have acquired an electric can opener.  No complaints, but there are still instances when I am glad I have the crank variety in my kitchen drawer when the can is just too big to handle or whatever.
         One of my favorite appliances is the crockpot or slow cooker.  The idea isn't new, I am sure food has been cooked in this fashion for centuries, just not so easily, or in a method that does not heat up the house for hours.  That is one of the best features to my way of thinking.  I love being able to have an entire meal in one pot.  A pot that is removable and easy to clean with a little soaking is a real bonus.
           Refrigerators have been around a long time, but I think a couple of generations ago they would be surprised to see ice and ice water dispensed from a small cave in the front.  Even cube or crushed ice, take your choice,  there at the fingertips.
           I know that I could provide meals with fewer helpers than I have.  However, I enjoy anything that makes the task easier, quicker, so that I can have time to write  my stories or a blog.
       

Routines for the New Year

I'm not big on resolutions, ready to put in place on Jan 1st of each year.  However, that day is one that starts my brain considering what I could do to be better.  There is a huge list of possibilities but I know I have to be selective and not get too carried away.  One of my mission presidents told us that it was a good thing we couldn't see all our sins at once because if we did we would just throw up our hands and call it quits in this life.  This philosophy has always been a keeper for me, take things just a few at a time.

As Christmas gifts last month I received two Daily books.  I like these and have accumulated several along different themes.  Some are religious, some self improvement,  positive thinking, some spiritual.  I list religious and spiritual as separate thoughts because I feel that they are not one and the same. Hopefully they go together, hand in hand.  One of my daily books even deals with chocolate, definitely a keeper. I love that these small publications  are always good, uplifting.  Who doesn't need that sort of thing in their lives?

We are told that we humans are a four-sided creation:  physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. One of the secrets of our happiness is finding a balance in each of those areas.  I don't argue with this outlook.  Too many times in my long life have I seen the imbalance  throw a person off kilter. One thing I have found with these daily tidbits is when I get to the 365th day, starting over is like having a new book. My perspective or my needs may have altered during the past year so that the contents can help me in a whole new way the next time around.  Sometimes the thoughts are worth sharing with friends and family.  Some days the content is meant just for me.

I want to include some of these dailys in my 2015 routine.  They will help me mentally to be up and that will keep my focused on the physical things I need to include in my routine.  Having had serious back surgery a few months ago I have to be dedicated to walking daily, walking quite a bit.  During my recovery time I participated in some physical therapy with qualified instructors.  If I don't keep that up as part of the daily activities I will lose the progress, the strength that I received.  I am at that age where my balance is getting a little wobbly.  There are exercises for improving that, but it won't help if I don't do them.  Falling could be a disaster.

I have to remind myself to "not bite off more than I can chew," one of my not-so-good habits.  Pick and choose. Sample  on a daily basis and do some pondering, a little studying---well, things can look good for my four sided, balanced, self for the year. The application, of course, as in all things, is the key.