Saturday was our annual Spring (a little late….) get-together of the Skunk Hollow Girls – all cousins, all friends.  We started the day by meeting at Historic Hanna’s Town, where I was able to give the girls a ‘deluxe’ version of the standard tour of Hanna’s Tavern and the town, including the history of the area.  My favorite bit of information about Hanna’s Town was that in 1775, Hanna’s Town and Pittsburgh were the same size.  Pittsburgh flourished, for obvious reasons, including the three rivers. The stop at Hanna’s Tavern would have been a day’s ride out of Pittsburgh on Forbes Road. If you’ve never been there, I recommend it!  There are lots of very knowledgeable guides at the site.  For information, check it out at www.westmorelandhistory.org and click on the Hanna’s Town tab.

Anyway, I took nine ‘skunks’ on the tour, and we had a great time together.  Thanks, Beth, for sharing the photos!  After a few hours of history, we drove back to my house where we had a great lunch which consisted of more food than the population of the original town could have consumed!  Thanks to everyone for bringing all the yummies, as we had chips, brownies, candy, pie, icecream, cheese/crackers, fruit, veggies, ham BBQ, pasta salad, potato salad, and cold drinks.  What a feast.  As tradition dictates, we always share an original essay about something closely connected to one or all of us.  This time it was about a skunk invasion – but one that was very unwelcome!  It’s fun to share and laugh with people so close to our hearts.  Don’t really know what I’d do without these girls!  But attached are photos of the town and grounds, the last one is a field of flax.  If you go back to the home page, and click on the tab for ‘Skunk Invasion’, you can read the story for yourself.  It was a super great day, and we’re all looking forward to the next adventure of the Skunk Hollow Girls!

We had a very lovely time yesterday celebrating the pending arrival of my niece Sarah’s baby in September.  It was all things PINK and elegant as we enjoyed sharing our love, time, and the showering of gifts on the Owens family.  The banner on the staircase welcomed little Amelia Jane (Jane is my mother’s middle name!), and the cake had alphabet blocks (which was extremely yummy, by the way!). Huge sugar cookies trimmed in pink were shaped like onsies, carriages, bibs…  Those, too were very tasty.

As part of the decorations, my sister had hung up three little dresses.  The first was a dress made by our grandmother for our mother, Dorothy Jane.  The second was a dress made for Kathy by our mother.  The third was a dress made by Kathy for Sarah.  That was my favorite part of the whole shower!  It was wonderful to be there with family and friends, to see the joy and wonder as the gifts were opened, and to truly celebrate a little life that is coming into the best of families. 

Congrats, Sarah and Kyle.  Can’t wait to meet little Amelia in September!

This weekend was Court Days at Historic Hanna’s Town.  Westmoreland County Historical Society – with a huge array of volunteers – present life as it was in the late 1700’s, right down the road.  And I loved it!  To give you an idea of the venue, several antique dealers set up tents in the field across from Hanna’s Tavern.  There was also a food tent with basic sandwiches, snacks, and a bake sale.  Those cinnamon rolls were absolutely YUM! 

But that’s just the beginning.  There were kids’ craft activities, Colonial Dance (courtesy of Miss Joanna), needlework demonstrations, crafters, Frontier garden interpretation by Miss Debbie, Proctor’s Militia (and a few other reenactors), several native Americans, tours on the tavern and outbuildings, and of course, court case re-enacting. 

I spent a good part of the day as a docent in the tavern, talking about the Hanna family, 18th century taverns, money exchanges, and even sweeping floors!  The court cases were acted out for a very lively audience, and were based on actual court cases in the 1770’s and 1780’s.  There was a paternity suit, a drunken thief, a rogue who was dating two sisters at the same time, and a young horse thief. They were all delightfully entertaining! 

The day ended with a skirmish between the town’s citizens and the combined British/Native Americans.  In the actual attack, the British won and burnt the town; in our version, however, the citizens triumphed and the Redcoats were scattered dead across the battle field.   Yea!  I was particularly interested in the teepee- type structure and the animal pets in the ‘Indian’ Village.   It was so nice to see my friends again – it’s been a while! – and to hear Augie’s recitation of ‘himself’ as a 10-year-old, watching his home burn.  He did a marvelous job. 

A huge thanks to Augie, Lisa, Joanna, and all of those that volunteer and made this day amazing!

I have mixed feelings about the birthday that I just ‘celebrated’.  It’s wonderful to know I am loved and appreciated, but my heart was a little heavy with so much concern over my parents.  Although they are doing very well, John – at 96 – is struggling to deal with his broken shoulder, and Mom – at almost 87 – is trying very hard to care for this giant of a man who towers over her petite self!  We are all helping (A huge thanks to Barb – no one could do this without you!) but it will be a slow road.

In the meantime, I did enjoy the day.  I mentioned in the last post that we celebrated the week before when we were at mom’s – and how thankful I am about that!  Afterward, Kath left an ‘unbirthday’ gift for me, which now flies happily on my top deck.  Nate, Jen and the girls bought me the first three seasons on DVD of the AMC series TURN (Revolutionary War spy saga).  Ron surprised me with a picnic at Linn Run, two solar color-changing lights (fairy and bird) and a garden plaque. Then on Monday, he sent purple iris’s!

I received countless cards from dear friends and family, and close to 100 well-wishes on facebook.  Thanks to everyone for making my day (and my life!) special.  It’s the stuff that makes life smile!

Since my last post, we got word that my step-father fell in the kitchen and broke his shoulder (turns out he bruised his hip as well).  It was a scary, rough couple of days, shuffling schedules and making care-giving phone calls with medical providers and step-siblings.  And although the situation is only slightly less panic-laden, we stopped to be silent in God’s presence and asked Him for comfort (all around), patience, wisdom, and direction.  Even for God, that’s a handful with our crew! 

Kathy, Paul and I headed up Thursday evening and just took appraisal of the situation.  It’s so terribly hard to see the ones you love most in the world struggling and hurting.  But God is Good, all the time!  By Friday mid-morning, John was feeling a little more settled, mom looked a little (only a little!) less frazzled, and we were stepping in to provide whatever we could.  John kept pretty busy fielding phone calls, which was an encouragement to them.  His arm is in a tight sling but we were assured that it is a fracture that will repair itself and no surgery should be necessary.  Blessing! 

After a crazy three-person struggle to get their window air conditioner installed (absolute necessity!) the house felt a lot cooler.  In the meantime, though, John had directed the process with Barb (John’s daughter) and Mom enjoying the entertainment.  It should have been a you-tube video! But mission accomplished with great results.  After lunch (side note here:  It was my job to heat the left-overs and make the grilled cheese sandwiches.  I was doing really good until we realized that I had toasted the sandwiches really nicely but had forgotten the CHEESE!  Alas.  Chalk it up to high-gear, non-focus agenda!!  So I had to take the heat for that one all afternoon!)  Anyway, after lunch, Paul sat down at the table with Mom and wrote out a grocery list – adding things like ‘special watermelon’ and potato salad and corn-on-the-cob and ice cream (and something they just HAD to have, whatever that would be) – and Kathy and I set off. That mission was accomplished, as well.

We split our time between doing what needed done (burning the trash, pulling the vines off the main outside steps, doing laundry) and nurturing (as in the Mary part of Mary and Martha – no secret Kath is Mary and I’m Martha!).  It was lovely to take a walk around the yard – just for a minute – to water the tomato plants and to stop and enjoy the lilies.  What a beautiful color.  Balm for the frazzled soul! 

We headed home later that evening, relieved that we could offer the little that we had, and praying that God will wrap them in his comfort and healing as they work their way back to their daily routine.  Like the story about the 5 loves and 2 small fishes feeding 5000-plus people, we know that God can work miracles.  He can take the little gifts that we offer and turn them into huge blessings! Prayers are always appreciated, so thank you for praying for them.  God bless….

I’m sure you are familiar with Charlie Brown’s kite-eating tree.  Well, we have a hammer-eating tree!  It kind of started when Kelly’s boys (Peyton, Logan, Chase) were tossing football with Kelly’s friend Jamie’s daughters (Josie and Julia).  The group came to spend the day and to sort through my boxes of Snoopy (etc) items.  Julia is a TOTAL Snoopy fan and knows all there is to know about all of the characters.  I invited them to ‘shop’ through my collection, as having it all sitting stored in the shed in tubs isn’t doing anyone any good.    While Kelly, Jamie and I took a little break to take a flower walk through the gardens, the kids were tossing the football. 

Peyton somehow got the football caught about 15 feet up in the crab apple tree!  And it wouldn’t budge. So his idea to get the football out of the tree was to toss my HAMMER into the tree.  Believe it or not, the HAMMER got STUCK! 

While they were considering what else they could toss into the branches of this hungry tree, we walked back into the yard.  After a brief consultation we decided on the extension ladder.  But the branches were so thin and brittle we couldn’t get the ladder close enough to help.  Alas.  Jamie then thought about poking it with a broom handle, but none were long enough.  Next came the spear throwing attempts, which did not dislodge anything. In fact, they got the spear caught in the tree…. 

Finally Jamie took 3 handles and taped them together with duct-tape, and climbed on a step stool with several spotters.  We finally got the hammer loose, which crashed to the ground with a thud amidst much cheering and clapping.  Five more minutes and we had the football down, as well.  By the time all this transpired, we’d spent half an hour trying to get our hammer-eating tree to shake down it’s prey. 

But we had iced tea, lemonade, chips, fresh (home made) chocolate chip cookies, and Abie and Bimbo’s pizza for lunch so it was all good.  We had a great day despite (or maybe even BECAUSE OF!) the tree, and it was a delight to have them here for the day.  Great memories, precious people!  FUN!

We had such a beautiful weekend to head up I-79 to visit our parents.  The sun was shining, the sky was pure blue, and the clouds were white and fluffy.  We even made the whole trip up in daylight!  We stopped at Walmart to grab food for the weekend, and our little cashier was so exuberant and friendly!  He wielded that cake around til Kath had to duck!  But it was all good. 

Mom was excited about going to the beach, so after breakfast on Saturday the three of us ‘girls’ headed to Raccoon Park.  I wasn’t totally sure of the directions, but Kath plugged it into her phone GPS and we had no problem.  The day was perfect – the water was about 60* – and we walked along the sandy beach and picked river rock.  Those are moments you don’t forget. 

Later back at the house – and after a scrumptious lunch! – we presented John with a ‘money’ pizza from “Pappa Johns'” for father’s day.  They snuck in a little week-early birthday celebration for me as well – with a crystal cut bowl and a Wendell-August Ford ornament from my parents.  Kath and I have Suzie Squirrel that we exchange for each birthday, and Suzie came back to live with me for the summer wearing a stylish M&M pinafore, holding a pack of fun-size M&M’s.  Perfect! It’s memories like this that carry me through the hard days, or the lonely days, or the busy/crazy life that I embrace.  Happy June, everyone! 

When my sister talked to our mom last weekend, Mom was nostalgically recalling the age-old tradition of putting flowers on the graves every Memorial Day.  Mom wasn’t certain that anyone would visit her parents’ graves and plant flowers.  So of course the first thing that popped into Kathy’s thoughts was, ‘Let’s do that!’  So early Saturday morning Chrissy and I picked up Kathy and headed out ‘Home’, stopping to grab a few flats of bright-colored flowers on the way.   We had stopped at the dollar store to grab cold drinks, and Chris picked a small package of modeling clay to keep her entertained. Chris wasn’t entirely certain that she was on board with this, but as the day progressed, she was fully engrossed.

The first stop was in Smicksburg, to ‘visit’ Aunt Hazel, Uncle Gene, baby Norman, uncle Dan Gaston, and Bob Walker.  Chrissy did the digging and was better at turning the dirt than I was.  Each time a flower was planted, we shared with Chrissy a little story that we remembered about that person.  Some were funny, some were sweet.  A firm pat of the soil around the flower, a good dose of water, and we were off.  But before going to the next cemetery, we stopped at the Chocolate Shoppe and got non-perils and chocolate covered peanuts.  Oh yum!  Next was the Smicksburg Country Store, where hot dogs were lunch, and where we also got cheese – my favorite in the world, by the way!  Donna had a star-spangled tree in the store, and it really captured the essence of USA!  I loved it!  But the fun part was that when we turned in the driveway to the store, there was a fair-sized calf just ambling up the road!  We stopped and watched as it wondered around, while the other cows (including an amazing long-horned steer!) stood in the corner of the fence and watched it.  I think they were trying to figure out how to join it!  A bucket of oats tempted our little escape artist, and soon the little guy was safely closed back inside the barnyard. 

Munching cheese and hot dogs, we headed down the lane to the Old Mahoning Baptist Church where Uncle Jim was buried.  More planting, patting, watering, and story-telling.  The last stop was Sagamore, where my grandparents (Jess and Erma Crooks), great grandparents, great aunts and uncles were resting.  We planted the remaining flowers, telling stories, and letting Chrissy look for the names on the tombstones to find our family.  During all this time, we passed Amish farms, buggies, kids playing, animals, clothes on the line — it raised tons of questions for our curious Chrissy, and she really asked good questions. 

On the trip home, she mixed and blended her clay into different shades and patterns, and soon had an entire universe of ‘planets’ arranged on the back of her phone.  So we entertained each other, shared some wonderful memories, and paid honor to people who were so dear to us – and when we called Mom, she was thrilled and delighted, and insisted that we made her day.  There’s nothing better than that.  So here’s to an amazing day spent with precious people, sharing memories of those who will never be gone, as long as there are people to plant flowers and share stories!!!

Early this morning Kathy and I headed down Route 119 to Friendship Hill, the home of Albert Gallatin.  This man has many incredible accomplishments to his credit, and I for one am not sure why he isn’t more widely celebrated.  He was a great statesman, business man, and political advocate. My recommendation is to ‘google’ him and see for yourself.  But back to the house.  We were greeted inside by a very knowledgeable park ranger, who gave us what she called the ‘Cliff Notes’ version of Mr. Gallatin’s life and the house and grounds.  We roamed through the house, seeing bedrooms, sitting rooms, huge porches, a very interesting kitchen area, and my favorite:  The writing desk with a fabulous view!  It certainly wouldn’t be hard sitting there to write!  After we were done exploring inside, we went out to roam some of the paths on the estate, heading first to the gazebo that overlooks the Monongahela River.  When we went in search of Albert’s first wife Sophia’s grave sight, we passed a pond.  Sunning themselves on a huge log were several very big turtles!  We were hoping to see them move but they were obviously content in their sunny spot.  The house, built in three different stages over the years, is beautiful and stately and the setting is amazing.  The view of the distant mountains is so charming!  I suggest reading a little about Albert Gallatin and then make it a point to visit Friendship Hill. You certainly won’t be disappointed!

Well, dog and baby birds!  The eggs have hatched, and it took me until they hatched to realize that Daddy bird is very involved in this event.  I was amazed when I went out on the deck the other morning and the robin flew off (as usual) but several little bald heads poked up and opened their beaks wide and high. Sorry, babies, no worms here!  To me they just look like a tangled mess of nakedness!

But as I sat on the deck last night, I watched both momma and daddy fly off and return with a piece of worm, which they dropped in those waiting mouths.  It was very cool to watch, especially when a hummingbird decided to have a sunset snack among my flowers. That was a fun treat.

This morning Nate brought Derrek Shepherd over to stay with me, because he and Jen had to work.  DS doesn’t like staying home alone!  So I am dog-sitting my step granddog, or something to that effect.  Derrek Shepherd is a very well behaved dog and seems totally content here.  He was delighted when a noddle slipped from the macaroni salad and landed right under his nose!  He doesn’t get much outside time at his place, and with my fenced yard this is perfect for him to go exploring, which he has done at great length.  Somehow it’s nice to have him here, curled up a foot from me, happy just to exist.  And no, Jen Johnson, I do NOT want a dog!!!  But he’s been good company and very relaxed.  He’s napping now.  Running in the yard all morning has tired him out!  It’s been a good morning!