Time Travel

Scattering leaves and gravel beneath their shoes, my 4th grade class hiked up the trail at our school district's outdoor education center back through time to the year 1837. Suddenly a gruff voice hailed us from the trees at the top of the path. "Who's that coming through my woods?" a deep voice shouted and a bearded Pa Merrill stepped out onto the path beckoning us closer.

So began our day long experience living as pioneers of 1837 when Michigan was a new state. Our city kids got to dip their own beeswax candles, help in the preparation of ham stew, and use authentic woodworking tools of the 1830s.

We met Ma and Pa who shared their home, lunch, and settler ways with us. Here are a few pictures of our pioneer adventure.

Ma's domain was the cabin. She showed us how to make cornbread using ingredients from Mr. Bristol's store and an egg from the chicken shed. Sweetened with honey, baked in a cast iron dutch oven over the coals, and eaten outside, her cornbread was delicious!

Outside in the clearing Pa instructed us in chopping potatoes, onions, carrots, and peppers to add to the ham broth brew stewing in the pot hanging over the open wood fire. Mmmm! It began to smell wonderful as we worked up an appetite cutting wood for Pa!

After our chores we all sat down on some wooden benches to a filling meal of ham stew, cornbread, warm homemade applesauce, and cold water from a jug. Seconds and even thirds were offered and we managed to clean the pot!

After lunch we settled on the cabin porch to watch Pa demonstrate his 50 caliber black powder rifle and tell tall tales. Ma shared how to dip beeswax candles, card and spin wool thread on a hanging spindle, and the skill of being thrifty. A couple of students took her wool work back in the cabin. "Pa!" she hollered, "Bring out the special cake I made yesterday. Out he came with a shallow wooden box lined with some plain cotton cloth. She took a small knife out of her apron pocket and proceeded to cut the cake into small squares. What a surprise it was for the students to learn this cake was a cake of lye soap she had made yesterday! Then Pa brought out her homemade lye and some warm animal fat and she stirred the two together while explaining how the lye was made from wood ashes and the fat came from rendered animal fat.

When time came for us to leave after putting the chickens back in their coop we found it hard to go. The journey back to 2008 though short in distance was made longer by our dragging feet. "I'd like to live like they did!" one of my city kid students stated as we wandered back to our bus.

Me too.

Cow Pie

This post contains one of my memories of my mother as a young woman. She was always very proper and correct. Here is the incident as I remember it from the perspective of a 7 year old child.

Skirt flapping and legs flashing, my mother made a one-legged bee-line for our rented farm house as her family doubled over with laughter in the apple orchard. I can still see her in my mind's eye as clearly as the day it happened.

Friends of my parents were visiting us at our house that butted up to an old apple orchard belonging to our dairy farmer neighbor. It was a balmy summer day - warm and breezy - the perfect day for a group stroll in the orchard. It trees were old and gnarled and their fruit was spotty and mealy so the farmer sent his dairy cows into it daily to graze. Large thistles dotted the closely cropped grass, so you had to watch your step for more than one reason in this old orchard turned cow pasture.

My mother was wearing a plaid shirtwaist dress and thin rubber flip-flops (we called them Zorries.) The adults were walking in a group as my twin sister and older sister buzzed around them like flies circling a warm apple pie. The adults walked too slow for us to stay with them all the time, but Mom, Dad, "Uncle" Leland, and mom's sister, Ruth, were lazing along enjoying the sunshine and good conversation.

Suddenly we heard a screech followed by... "Leland! Put me down!" We kids stopped in our tracks, turned to see Leland grinning and gripping my shrieking aunt around her waist holding her above a huge thistle plant bristling with sturdy thorns. Her tanned legs bicycled as she tried to wriggle out of his clutches as his smile spread wider. "Okay! I'll put you down right here!" he chuckled and started lowering her down onto the thistle plant.

As Ruth's shrieks increased in volume, Mom went to her rescue...and stepped smack dab in the center of a fresh cow pie!! Pasty brown manure squished out between the ground and the rubber sole of her flip-flop in slow motion as my mother stared at her foot in horror!

Time stopped. We all stared at the manure curling up over her bare toes like a tsunami.

Then...my Dad snickered, opening floodgates of laughter from the rest of the adults...."Ha, ha, ha, ha!" I looked incredulously at Dad, stunned that he was actually laughing at Mom. He NEVER laughed at her! Soon we were all howling so hard we had doubled over clutching our stomachs.

Mom's face reddened when she saw that even the sister she tried to rescue was laughing at her. She turned and started hopping and running back to the house, disgusted with us all. I can still see her make that desperate run for the house, cow-pie bits falling off the flip-flop that she held gingerly at arms length.

Those were good times...but not for Dad. Someone didn't talk to him for quite some time!

Nothing Much...

Nothing much has been going on but work this week. I'm always amazed at how tired I get when returning to teaching after a week off. We did have a nice campfire with my sister last night and today spent some time at my other sister's twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, but tomorrow promises to be a day full of leaf-raking and laundry.

At the end of the evening my husband and I sat watching night fall after walking Gingersnap along the road. The peepers were in full voice down at the lake and wetlands that are across our country road. As we sat petting Jerry and Ginger an owl swooped silently past us from the fir just off the deck. His flight path ended in the dark woods to our south.

"This beats living in town," my husband stated. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Anticipation of Summer

As our days lengthen and the temperatures warm, anticipation of summer joys begins. Here are a few of my favorite things that summer brings!



















































I hope we all have a fabulous summer this year!

In Her Youth

The young woman on the left in this old photo is Katherine, my mother. She's been on my mind a lot this week; tomorrow will be the seventh day since she left this world. My mother had lifelong faith in God, lived an exemplary life, raised three girls along with Dad, and was an inspiration to many.

To her right is her friend, Connie, followed by her younger sister, Delores. Delores married a man from Oklahoma and spent her life in that state with sporadic visits to her northern family. She died young in her late forties of a brain aneurysm, being granted her "oft-repeated" wish of never growing old.

As the eldest daughter my mother was taught responsibility by her parents at an early age, and lived her life accordingly. I wonder if mom's life lived up to the dreams of her youth? I'll never know...sadly, I never asked her. Unlike her sister she never wished to never grow old, even after caring for her mother who was transformed by Alzheimer's during the final twelve years of her life. When she entered old age, our Mother faced all the indignities of failing health and memory with grace and even managed a bit of humor now and then. Her vascular dementia made her more of what she had been in life, a good, kind woman.

Mom, I hope Heaven is everything you and Dad thought it would be. Rest easy. Your work here is done. We all miss you.

Random Images from our Acres

Seventeen Acre Companions

Our first picture of Gingersnap shows her disapproval of the snow as she trots gingerly around the perimeter. "We'll just go look at the shelter, that's all." But when I saw her calm, friendly demeanor in the outside kennels while the other dogs were going wild with excitement I was drawn to her. She's a hound-pitbull mix with a sweet personality and is friendly to all. Her brindle and white coat is beautiful!

Ben, our elderly Saint Bernard, and Jerry whom you may have already met here, welcomed her with the "Hello" sniff-fest and only a little curiosity. She responded in kind and I knew all would be well.

She's our first medium sized dog and appears to have inherited the best traits of her mixed lineage. Her favorite toys are stuffed hedgehogs whose round sturdy bodies and tiny felt feet seem determined to withstand her chewing and pulling power. When she desires some lap time she rummages up a hedgehog and presents it as a "please hold me" bribe. Cute!

Of all our companion animals, Ashley has the most seniority, being almost thirteen years old. She's a polished beggar and stretches out her poly dactyl paw to try to "hook" the food morsel you're holding. Ashley has been altered, as are all our adoptees so we can save a life while not adding to the horrible problem of unwanted animals in this country. 3-4 million are euthanized annually, estimates the Humane Society.


Ben, our Saint, is very old and has lost a lot of muscle mass while still continuing to have a good appetite. He does "wibble-wobble" around a lot and sometimes needs help standing back up after a fall. Snow is one of his loves and in years past he would wander out behind our large shed to find the last vestiges of winter's bounty lying there crystallized just for him. This is a picture of him in his prime as we walk the trail we blazed through our woods. "Hurry up!" he seems to say as he looks back at my husband whom he adores.

When we adopted Nugget he was thin and had almost no hair on his tail or ears. But what he did have even then was his rumbling purr and affectionate nature. So we brought him home, got him vetted and cured of his skin condition. He was the first "new" cat the boys had met in a while, so there was much chasing and cornering of Nugget by the two dogs. Until... the dogs cornered him in the dining room with no way out. Nugget reared up on his hind legs, spread out his front legs, and with a mighty scream began batting practice on both dogs' muzzles simultaneously! At that instant his domination over them was established. He's our morning alarm clock as well, waking us for his morning breakfast with running passes through the bedroom.

You've met our Jerry in my previous post. He looks much the same now except for his exceptional middle age spread. That's the list! Never a dull day with this crowd around.