Dry those wings...

...and flee, Fly!

My green home

Since this is Earth Day, I decided to show you some of the ways in my home in which I try to help our beloved Mother Earth. We only have one home and we have to do our best to keep her healthy.

(click to enlarge)

Starting at the top left, and going clockwise:

1. Our barn is made from recycled vintage barn wood.
2. I keep a roll of paper towels in my kitchen, but I rarely use them. I have stacks and stacks of these white cotton towels that I use instead.
3. We raise some of our own food in the late spring and summer. The older raised beds are made from a recycled wooden fence. We use horse and chicken manure and finished compost as fertilizer and we use organic methods to control pests.
4. I try to dry as much of my laundry as I can on the clothesline.
5. A few of my many reusable shopping bags, and I really do use them.
6. Cardboard that I'm getting ready to take to the recycling center, along with anything else that can be recycled. We don't have curbside recycling out here in the country, so it's up to each individual.
7. The rain barrel at the corner of the barn catches water to be used on the veggie garden. I hope soon to install one at the corner of the house for my flowers.
8. My chickens recycle lots of vegetable and fruit scraps, even stale bread and spaghetti noodles. This watermelon was forgotten in the back of the fridge and got a little too soft.
9. The items that my chickens can't eat go into the compost heap in the corner of the vegetable garden. I include coffee grounds with the unbleached filters and tea bags, too. This little bucket sits right beside my sink.
10. We only use cloth napkins. I made a lot of these and I also buy them at thrift stores when I can find them.

These are but a few of the many things that I do in my home and outside to help preserve our precious gift. Do you love Mother Earth as I do?

a fresh new life

under the corner of our barn

discovered yesterday

watch out, hens!

Text

My son loved lasagne

and his Polaroid camera,

writing music,

and playing it,

writing books and essays.

What he didn't love was life.

I'm making lasagne today for his 31st birthday.

I didn't make it for his 27th,

even though he half-heartedly asked me to.

I talked him into something else,

because of one of the family members.

I didn't know he would be gone a month later.

I won't make that mistake again.

Happy Birthday, Joshua.

Hope

Every brilliant sunset

holds the hope of a beautiful tomorrow.

Spring

Sometimes, spring in Ohio looks just like this.

We woke to one inch of snow this morning.

Spring? What spring?

Green eggs, no ham

My girl Puff lays the softest green eggs for me.

And she likes it when I sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon" to her.

Hidden

Joaquin is partially hidden behind his mommy's leg and the newel post at our granddaughter Lauren's birthday party yesterday.

Flawed

Flawed, that's what I'm thinking.

Or broken, yeah, that's it...broken.

Treasured

Tucked inside a sleeve

or folded over the belt of her everyday housedress,

inside her purse ready for action...

for wiping tears or runny noses,

for making handkerchief babies

to quiet a restless girl in church on Sunday morning;

she was never caught without one or two.

The first things I learned to iron

standing on a low stool at the ironing board,

because I was too small to reach.

She kept them neatly ironed and folded

inside the tri-cornered Lucite box

in the corner of her dresser drawer

which also held her head scarves and other dainties.

The few I have left are threadbare and worn.

It's almost twenty-three years

since I passed one to each of the daughters and granddaughters,

sisters and nieces

who were present at her wake,

where they wiped away

tears of remembrance,

love,

and heartbreak.

They are treasured.

Everyone has something tucked away that is treasured in their heart. I would love to see your treasures.

Susan

Self portrait

This is me.

I'm hiding inside my sweater,

because I don't like the way my lips look in photos.

The older I get, the more assymetrical my upper lip looks.

And I always thought that my nose was almost straight,

But now I see that it bumps out to the side right before the tip.

My hair is hiding my left cheek,

because I have a large circle of sun damage there.

You can see on my right cheek the smaller "freckles".

Too many hours lying in the sun

before there was sunscreen

and I probably wouldn't have used it anyway.

There was baby oil

and even better,

baby oil with iodine in it.

I never liked Hawaiian Tropic,

because it smelled liked coconut oil.

With the sun rays beating down upon my face,

listening to WKEE-AM,

they said it was okay.

They said, "Time to turn, so you won't burn."

Every fifteen minutes

like clockwork.

My skin sizzled to the perfect tan.

Rocks, a pop-up camper, a mini-van, three kids and two countries in three weeks

In 1988, my husband and I had the crazy notion to hop into our mini-van with a 12-year-old, a 9-year-old, and a 6-year-old, pull a pop-up camper across the middle of Canada and back across the biggest part of the United States for three weeks. It was the best trip we've ever taken, but it had its moments.

Click to enlarge. The rocks came from around Thunder Bay.

1.  We left home on the third week of July. Home was Ironton, Ohio.

2.  We had a flat tire on the camper. Luckily it came with a spare.

3.  Spent the night in a provincial campground on the Canadian side of Lake Huron. Shortly before we got into our comfy slideout beds, an intense thunderstorm began. It rolled in and out of the lake all night long. Husband and I didn't sleep a wink...the kids never heard a thing.

4.  Our second son contracted an intestinal virus from drinking unsafe water. That was unpleasant.

Between 4 and 5 we saw wheat fields....lots of wheat fields.

5.  One of the most beautiful sights in the United States....Glacier National Park. If you've never been there, put it on your bucket list. I was scared to death of running into a grizzly bear, but we didn't see even one. We did see mountain goats and a badger. It wasn't without incident though. Unbeknownst to us, my niece had been trying to locate me since the day after we left home. The nice $3,000 check from our credit union that I had cashed for the trip? I had signed it for my husband (don't tell me you haven't done it before!) and the credit union had refused to honor it because of the hinky way I signed it! My niece just happened to be in the bank and one of our friends who worked there asked her if she knew how to get hold of me. How in heavens name she ever tracked us down at the campground where we were staying, I have no clue! But Husband got it all straightened out and it was all good. Thank goodness we lived in a small town!

6.  1988 was the year of the big burn in Yellowstone National Park, but we enjoyed every moment we spent there even though the air was smoky and near the south entrance you could see the fires burning in the distance. That entrance was closed, so we had to change our plans to see the Grand Tetons.

7.  So we headed up to the Battle of Little Bighorn National Historic Site. A more desolate place you will never see unless you're on the moon. It was hotter than Hades and there were signs everywhere warning not to veer from the paths unless you wanted to encounter rattlesnakes. Uhhh, you don't need to tell me twice!

We were fortunate to have a Native American tour guide who gave their side of the story. Why the United States ever wanted control of this godforsaken part of the country is beyond me.

8.  Greybull, Wyoming...nice little town...nice private campground. The kids were getting on my nerves while I was trying to cook supper, so I told them to take a little walk. Two hours later, after we frantically had searched the entire town, they ride up to the campsite in a police car!  Aimee (the 6-year-old) hopped right out of the squad car and started telling us that "she wanted to go to someone's door and ask how to get back to the campground, but that the boys were being stupid and didn't want to because they were embarassed"! Thank God, the police officer had spotted them after we reported them missing! You have to remember this was 1988 and it was a very small town. We were very trusting then.

9.  We camped one night in Rapid City, but there were forest fires there, too, and it was so smoky that it was hard to breathe. So we moved on.

10. Fort Robinson, Nebraska was the last U.S. Cavalry outpost in operation. It was really interesting and at that time you could actually stay in the officer's quarters, but it required reservations. The best part was the rodeo. Normally, there are real cowboys putting on the show, but they were all off fighting forest fires in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. So, they turned it into a little kids' rodeo....and I do mean little! Some of the little cowpokes were only 3 or 4 years old! It was soooo cute!

11. Grand Island, Nebraska...our first sight of green grass since we left home (it was a very hot summer). Unfortunately, along with the nice green grass were swarms of mosquitoes! We stayed inside the camper until we left the next day!

12. By day seventeen we were getting a little road weary and the campground we had booked was one of those places where on the weekend all the locals go to camp and drink and play cards and music and drink. I said unh-uh, no way! So off we went to find a hotel and a restaurant. The only time we stayed anywhere but the camper and only the third time we had eaten out in 17 days. I'm a trooper.

We called home to make sure everything was okay and found out that Husband's 93-year-old grandfather had passed away the day before. So we headed for home right away.

13. We only got as far as Evansville, Indiana when the camper's spare tire went flat while we were driving. So the tire was ruined as well as the rim. Luckily we had AAA, but it was Sunday and no RV stores were open. We had the tow truck pull the camper to a service station and made arrangements to leave it there until Husband could come back and get it.

14. We made it home in time for the funeral the next day,  with everyone intact and a smidgin of our sanity still within reach. Would I do it again? You betcha! But this time with grandchildren instead of children and a full-size camper with a bathroom!

Extraordinary find

My weekly trip to Goodwill (actually there have been two different ones this week) gave me this extraordinary find.

I had been thinking about ordering an Ott-Lite from Jo-Ann's when my eagle eye spotted this one on a shelf for $2.00. The 50% off price at Jo-Ann's is $49.99 plus shipping and handling.

The sewing machine is a vintage Kenmore that I bought new in 1976. It has all steel gears. They don't make them like that anymore.

seeing a new perspective

new glasses today

all the better to see you with, my dear

Shadows

little girl feet,

aren't they sweet?

the shadows they cast are small.

tippy-toe reach

mama offers a peach

i can reach it when i am tall.

Waiting...

...for the warm.

Decorated for the Holiday

Dear fellow LensUsTogether participants:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

-This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal.

-It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting.

-It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

"Happy Holidays"

In case you were thinking that I am extremely witty and clever, let me disavow you of that peculiar notion. I stole borrowed the above from our friend, the internet.

Just kidding, of course, dear friends! I wish all of you the most joyous of holidays spent with the ones you love.

"Merry Christmas"

Frosty togetherness

The snowman in the yard is frozen hard.

He's a sorry sight to see.

If he had a brain, he'd complain.

Bet he wishes he were me....

If you look closely at the center of the picture,

you will notice a snowpeople nativity.

If you look even closer,

you will notice there's a figure missing.

Snow Joseph met with an untimely and unfortunate accident.

Ceramic Joseph meets brick hearth.

Not a pretty sight.

Mary is now a single mother.

Good morning, Girls!

It's what I say every morning when I let my fifteen hens out of their coop....good morning, Girls! They greet me with soft chicken clucks and immediately start pecking at the cracked corn I've thrown on the ground for them. They go about their business of looking for yummy things to eat....bugs, worms, grass, flowers, the occasional larger critters....mice, snakes....yes, I said mice and snakes! They do their job and I do my job as chicken herder.

I couldn't resist showing you a picture of Henrietta, my silver-laced Wyandotte. She posed so prettily.

Up, up and away!

This scurvy pirate  has been captured

and is about to be hanged by the yardarm.

But first, she must be tossed into the air

until she stops giggling with glee!

(Our granddaughter Lauren being tossed up by her daddy, our son Jaye.)

For those who wanted to see Pirate Lauren's face. She's about to walk Ye Olde 4 X 4 gangplank.