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.

Paper or Tech, A Dilemma!

Which do you like?  Paper or Computer ?  I am a middle of the road person on this question.  Sometimes I love the computer and the various tech things it has brought into my life.  Other situations I can cope with better on paper that I can hold in my hand.  The idea of the computer holding a daily schedule and helping me plan my tasks---that appeals to me, but I just don't want to have to be connected to it in order to go about my day and feel I have accomplished something at the end of the working hours.  I am still makes pencil and paper lists, I am still planning events in the hand written form.

  In photography, I love being able to delete blurry pictures, the ones too dark, where someone has a pole growing out of their head.   But I also don't have pictures to send or show unless I print them all out.  I have a friend who positively hates the idea that all these pictures are floating around in some unidentifiable place she calls 'space.'

A monitor and a keyboard has simplified some of the trials of correcting mistakes made with  a typewriter.  Delete, simple!   One can get half way through a writing and decide to move this paragraph to a different spot and insert thus ans such there with ease.  Too much delete, Disaster!   As long as the printer is working it is easy to have the paper copy one needs, but if not?  And a constant need for ink cartridges, one more thing! Sending an attachment or an email, a piece of cake, and done so quickly.  At the same time a dragging finger can cause problems. Unsaved documents vanish in an instant.

Paper piles up, paper takes up real space in your home or office.  The computer helped reduce that problem we were told..   However, when you walk into the lawyer's office, or fill out an application online, etc., there comes a time when what is wanted is that hard copy, paper!

When I am researching genealogically I feel a special connection with a person long since passed away when I see their signature, handwritten.  Or a will written by hand, a letter to a loved one.  Some how I don't think I would feel that way if it was a font from the computer, printed out.  I have a neighbor who feels the importance of writing to his  grown children and their families each month.  I too feel this is important and make an effort to do it.  I use the computer, print it off before mailing through the snailmail.  He is a businessman, fully able to do it in that fashion, but he writes his missives in longhand.  His wife, on the other hand keeps in touch with their kids by email and texts.

 For me, personally, I don't see this as a dilemma soon to be solved.  I live much of my life feeling I have one foot lifting off  the distant past, another teetering in the present.   How about you?

Eggs and Boiling Water

   The other morning I was preparing hard boiled eggs.  In the process it occurred to me  how similar the egg is to us, human beings.   We even start out in parallel fashion, encased in a protective environment, liquid surrounding us, with a cord connecting us to the membrane around us. We both endure the pressure of delivery as well.
       In cooking the egg at the beginning the water and the egg were much the same temperature and the egg just lay comfortably in the pan,  barely submerged.  (It was a small pan, and only one egg.)  Then as the water started to warm up the egg rolled a bit, then more quickly, this direction, then that.  Tiny bubbles came up to the surface of the water, then the bubbles increased in size.  
        I turned the heat down and the action leveled off.  If I had wanted it to be a rolling boil the poor egg would have been bouncing around in the water at a rapid pace.  The result, after the given time, would have been much the same, regardless of the increased pressure on the egg.  A hard boiled egg!
But had it gone through a rolling boil there was the possibility of having cracked the shell, part of the egg leaking into the water,  and water leaking into the egg, also a pan requiring more cleanup.
        Life is rather like the boiling water.  For us we get nudged in different directions by the things about us.   Sometimes the pressures from our environment and society are so great that we have a tendency to cave in.  The outside influences  can cause us to become different than we were meant to be.  We are altered in some way.  
         We have need of having the temperature turned down when things start to get rough.   There may be occasions when we need someone who can help us make some changes so that we are still good, just on a different path.  The egg whose shell became cracked might not work for the perfect display, but the flavor, the nutrients, all are still intact, still perfect  and acceptable by the one doing the cooking.
          Just some musings of my mind, it works this way.

Let Your Light Shine

Recently we have had some days of storm and I have some thoughts about driving in storms with the car lights off.   How do we expect an oncoming driver to be aware of our presence on the road if we don't have our head lights glowing?  In rain, fog, snow, I have had cars come out of the gloom ahead of me, dark in their approach.  Because of the conditions, hopefully both of our vehicles are being driven with care, but not having lights adds to the possibility of accidents no matter how careful we are. 

It has made me reflect on the storms we go through in life. No matter who we are, where we are, there are plenty of those storms.  If we don't try to have our own personal light shining, others may not be aware of our presence.   We might cause harm unwittingly to another person on the path of their earthly life.  Be aware of those around us. If we do try to have the light that comes with a good attitude, a love of others, the effort to be kind, we may be able to help someone who is traveling in the dark. 

Many do travel in the dark and often through no intention of their own. Circumstances, or even their background, past events or family upbringing might have left them in a blight of dark emotional stress. Some have no idea of how to be happy, even though they may envy others who exhibit happiness in their lives. They need to see that light shining from someone else. 

 Don't let someone else blow out the light you have within. This blog is about keeping your lights on, particularly when there is a storm  of any kind near you. If you are wrapped in storms of any emotional darkness, look for those who are moving through the storms, lights on to help light the way to happiness.