The Blessing of Christmas

   When I want to complain about the pain in my knee and dread the coming surgery to correct the torn meniscus I only have to look around me to see how many people live daily with pain that no surgery can fix. They bravely face each day going about their daily chores and even find time and energy enough to help others. The smile on their face shows no indication of the pain they endure. Then there is the pain of the heart when someone looses a loved one and faces life alone, there is no medication to ease that pain. For these the holidays become lonely sad days to face.
   Christmas becomes a time of sharing and opportunity to show love and concern for those around us, those of you who read Angie's blog will know what I mean. Angie has felt the warmth of Christian love and will remember it all her life. How can we leave Christ out of Christmas when it is because of Him that we are moved with compassion for our fellow man and we are reminded of His words "truly, I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me"(Mt 25:40). We should remember this as we slip our small dollars into the Salvation Army pails or when we have an opportunity to give for special projects at church that reach out into the community.
    As I sit in my recliner with my book and I glance out my window to see the birds at our feeders and the pine trees with the branches decked in snow I am over come with a feeling of peace and thankfulness, I am warm and comfortable here in my home with my loving husband who looks after me so well and I am so blessed. A Christmas wish is that each of us count our blessings.

Christmas past & present

    The cards are all addressed and sent, the wreaths are all hung on the outside of our house and inside the final Christmas decorations are in place. No it is not like years past when we had our 10 ft tree in front of the wall of windows and each year I would work on a new Christmas theme, like the year when the tree was decorated with things from our forest like moss, berries, acorns, pine cones etc. I couldn't wait for the children to see the tree. I spent hours baking and the smell of cookies and pies hung in the air. Don made deer using logs and branches and stood them out in the yard, choosing the best branches for the antlers and hanging red bows around their necks. The ceramic village and train I made complete with a church would be placed in it's special spot on the mantle. Candles everywhere with the scent of bayberry. What wonderful memories! It was Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays for Christ was the reason for the season and in my mind it shall always be. I wonder how many children's Christmas programs I have attended starting with my three and then the grandchildren. I still have to smile when I remember the Christmas my mother gave our boys bathrobes, they wouldn't wear them but they got good use because they would show up each year on the wise men at each Christmas program. Mother gave Don a robe too but like the boys he would not wear it but God forbid you should end up in the hospital and didn't have a robe was mother's thought. God bless her, I miss her today and Christmas will never be the same without her. But this year Don and I will go to a children's Christmas program at our church and no they are not our children but they will be adorable dressed as wise men (perhaps in discarded bathrobes) shyly repeating their lines glancing quickly at mom and dad for encouragement like mine did. My eyes will tear up as they always have. My family which started with Don and I now numbers 33 and though time and distance may keep us apart they are never far from my heart and prayers, and so my dear family .....Merry Christmas and God bless you all.

Proverbs 3:5&6

    This is scripture that I have often repeated to myself and have relied upon, it goes like this "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight". He has shown me so many times that He has gone before me and just recently He has done it again. I want to share with you how He takes care of us when we ask Him to.
    This Nov. 9th Don and I flew down to Avondale Az. to visit with Dale and Carol at their apartment there and to see the area that they have moved to. We had a very nice visit and about 2 days before we were to fly back home I developed a very sore knee and the next day it was very much worse and I had excruciating pain, so much so I could not walk on my right leg at all. What to do...I had to fly back home the next morning. Dale and Carol dashed to a Goodwill store before it closed for the day and bought a pair of crutches and spent the evening teaching me how to walk with them. I slept with my clothes on because it was too painful to remove my jeans, I say slept but no sleep would come all night for any movement of my leg was intolerable. Carol came to my bed to pray with me and that gave me hope and comfort. The next day they drove Don and I to the airport and I was put into a wheel chair. God had already set out a path and all along that path he stationed his helping angels. Enter Kelly, who took over my wheel chair and like a mother hen with her precious chick she got me through all the check points and got us to the US Air gate. Now Don had wanted to get us on an earlier flight but both times when he asked he was told it would be at a substantial cost increase but stirred to try again he went to ask once more, enter Debbie, who said I'll take care of this" and we were transferred to the earlier flight at no added cost and she personally took me onto the plane and turned me over to two stewardess's there. One stewardess asked me what happened and I explained and she said you have a torn Minisca, seems she had it happen to her and I was encouraged to see her walking so easily. Now I was on a high dose of Advil and I was due to take the four tablets and you should not take it on an empty stomach but on US Air they serve no snacks only drinks so I took my pills but started to get a pain in my stomach. Enter Katie, the other stewardess, down the aisle she comes  passing my aisle seat and without a word or a glance she slips two cookies onto my tray and hurries on. Those cookies put my stomach at ease. Soon we were in MPLS airport and looking for the shuttle from the Park and Fly hotel where our pickup was waiting, as it drove up I realized I had another challenge, getting up the steps and into the van. With help I was soon settled into one of the seats, one of the ladies in the van asked me what had happened to me and again I explained, now up to now God had sent a person all along the way to help me but this time he sent a van full because to my surprise these ladies all worked at an assisted living home in Omaha, Neb. and they took over and made sure I was put into our truck as easily and as painless as possible. Don and I were so amazed at it all.
    As of today I have had an x-ray and MRI and my orthopedic surgeon says I indeed have a torn Minisca and surgery will correct it, but my knee has improved a bit so I have decided to see if my body can heal itself and if not I will have the surgery. Now this has been a time of pain but I would not change anything because to witness God's great love for me is greater than any situation, to realize I was enclosed in my Father's unseen arms will warm my heart forever. He indeed has a plan for my life and a path but it is up to me to read His road signs.

The paints come out

    The leaves are dropping and Don is busy circling the yard on his mower picking up the leaves with his leaf rake. It looks great till the breeze comes by and the trees drop the next batch. I don't think Don minds that much since he enjoys being outside. If he isn't on the mower he is out in his woods cutting, splitting or stacking his fire wood for next winter. He comes in for coffee and a cookie at 10, in for lunch at noon and back in at about 3pm, like going to a job. No wonder he is so fit.
    I have my own routine which keeps me busy too. I like order and try hard to keep things neat. I found out years ago that if my house is a mess it makes me feel tired and frustrated. Frustrated because when you need to find something it never is where it should be and that takes more time and energy. As you age you find you need to keep better records and to not count on your memory. I have what I call my "book of records" it is a note book with many tabs all labeled, example "insurance" and in it is the insurance info including dates of payments due, address and telephone numbers, policy numbers etc. I also have a section labeled "Paint" and in it is the paint records for each room and a sample of the paint color. Good records make for fewer mistakes.
    Speaking of paint I have taken up my brushes again and have turned my extra bedroom downstairs into my studio. Don has made me another easel and I have bought more oils and so I have begun. Painting for me is a time where I become lost to the world. I have no sense of time, I'm in my own world and it is good that I have to stop to make meals for Don or I would forget to eat. All the fall leaves have inspired me, I paint the picture in my mind first often as I lay in bed at night then I try to put that picture on canvas. I may not be any famous painter and that's okay it is the act of doing it that feeds my inner soul. I wonder if someone way back in my family tree was also someone who liked to paint, did I inherit a painting gene, perhaps that person had green eyes like me, I wonder since no one of all the family tree information had green eyes. Maybe there was a lady on The Isle of Man with green eyes painting pictures of the Irish landscape many years ago. I wonder!

Fall means back to school

   The leaves are blowing by the window and the green grass becomes a background for the yellow and red leaves as they come to rest. It is so pretty outside now , pity it is such a short season.
    Fall may be the end of summer but it is the beginning of the school year and the yellow school bus passes our house daily. I never knew what it was like to ride a bus  because being a city girl within walking distance of a school I never had an occasion to ride to school until I was in high school. I remember when we lived in Belle Plaine I walked about 6 or 7 blocks to school, out of my neighborhood, then past the stores down town and  to the other side of town, a nice walk when the weather was pleasant but not much fun in the winter. When it was cold we dressed in layers, no insulated boots to keep feet warm, no down filled jackets or fancy mittens. I had boots that were rubber with a thin layer of felt inside but provided no warmth only kept my shoes dry, my coat and mittens were made of wool but I did have snow pants which kept my legs warm since it was not permissible for girls to come to school wearing slacks only dresses. If you had no snow pants you could wear slacks under your dress but they had to be removed and hung in the cloak room during school.
    Mother was a very good sewer and though I didn't have fancy clothes for school I did get compliments on my pretty skirts, I didn't ever mention that they were made from feed sacks mother had bought down at the feed mill. Now don't think they were gunny sacks, no they were made of cotton and had pretty prints on them and if you could find two alike you had enough for a skirt or blouse. Mother didn't use a pattern but could sew it to fit me as I tried them on. She did buy fabric for special dresses like for Easter. I recall one dress she made for me that had a circle skirt and a peplum, which was a ruffle on a tie and the ruffle went in the back of your waist and tied in front with a bow. The dress was silky and felt so beautiful and when you spun around the circle skirt would stand way out. I still remember how it felt to wear that dress. I didn't have many store bought dresses but at Easter time I got a new Easter hat. I recall one that was called a sweet heart hat because it's brim formed a heart shape around your face.
    Our school was considered modern in that time with black boards made of slate and felt erasers, sometimes I would stay after school to help the teacher by taking the erasers out into the hall where there was a built in eraser cleaner. You opened a small door and inside was a circular beater that you held the eraser against as you turned the crank. It sure did a good job and you didn't have to go outside to smack them together getting the chalk all over your clothes.
    Spring was so special for me because finally mother would say "you don't need to wear your boots today" that meant  no more struggling to get them on or off and best of all it meant that I could tap dance all the way to school.  You see shoes were expensive and the only way you got new ones was to out grow the old ones. Shoes were polished every Saturday and even though heels and soles could be replaced, that cost money so instead cleats were nailed to heels and toes making them last longer. So when the boots came off and I walked to school on the side walk I would sound like a tap dancer and I loved it. Was I poor or rich you judge but for me I am rich in memories. You see we were treated as children so we had a carefree childhood. We were not burdened with sex education in grade school and our parents dressed us like children instead of miniature adults. The only violence on TV was wrestling and in the movies the only shooting was done by the Lone Ranger who only wounded the bad man and good always prevailed. Our young minds had good things to think on and wholesome books to read and our folks made sure of that. The times were hard and money was short but I never knew that, I only knew that I was young and life was great fun. I am sure if my mother was here she would say " ah but it was more fun growing up when I was young" and she probably would be right.

Out with the old

    This is a good day to check the closets, time to move the summer clothes down to the guest room closet for the winter and to move the winter clothes up. One year I did that and immediately we had Indian summer so hope that works again. The act of moving clothes takes a while as I look over each piece of clothing to see if it is in good condition and if I did indeed wear it at all this year. It is time to get rid of a lot of clothing that just takes up precious room in my closet. Time to give it to the Salvation Army perhaps. When I was librarian at our church years ago I recall a book that said it is a sin to keep good clothing that you don't wear because there are people that need it. I try to keep that in mind but I am a person that has worn the same size for probably 20 years and I take good care of my clothing so even though it is older it still looks like new. But I must remember what I read and take it to heart. When Don and I decided to sell our home and go rving full time it meant getting rid of things we had for years. That is a hard thing to do because many of our things had memories attached to them, but it was a cleansing move. You never realize how much junk attaches itself to you and fills up your space. All those boxes on shelves what do they contain? If they were truly something we cherish we would have them out where we can see them not tucked away gathering dust. Boxes of kitchen gadgets that we were sure we would need but only used once and boxed because it took up space in our kitchen drawer. Boxes of Christmas ornaments and lights that no longer light up, old books no longer read, etc and etc. Yes it was a freeing moment to get rid of so much unneeded things. Perhaps it is also time to clean our spiritual closet too, tossing out old grievances and grudges. Sweeping out our dusty thinking so that we can see more clearly to make good choices and making room for God to work in our lives. God has His way of cleaning too, for many years ago when I received Him as Lord and Savior he did just as his word said in 2 Corinthians 5: 17  Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. God swept away the old sins and made me new again, a fresh beginning. What a blessing to not have the burden of sin cluttering up my life.

Nature's Bounty

   It's that time of the year when the apples are heavy on the trees and we view them as apple pies warm from the oven when frost is etching the windows. But why do the trees produce so many apples. Of course I have my ready helpers, the deer, to help with the bounty. While sipping my morning coffee I can look out and watch the deer standing on their hind legs reaching high into the upper branches to pick the choicest apples.. it seems they prefer to pick their own rather then eat any from the ground but so do I. We co exist with the deer as long as they do not lunch on my favorite flowers. They are beautiful creatures and oh how we laugh as the fawns kick up their heels and chase each other around the lawn, they know they are safe here and pay no attention to us. I dread the gunshots that come at midnight some times but here on Shaw's Acre's they can safely play.
   Canning brings back so many good memories of my mother. She always had a good sized garden if possible and canned all she could and if she lived where there was no yard for a garden she always seem to have vegetables from someone's over flowing garden. I remember she had a gas stove and a large container called a "double boiler", the boiler was oval shaped and would cover two burners on the stove and many times it was used to heat water for washing clothes but my dad had made wooden racks,one for the bottom of the boiler where mother would sit jars of green beans and another to put on top of the jars to make a second layer.  This was filled with hot water and allowed to cook for hours making sure all jars were covered with water at all times. The kitchen was steamy and you could hear the jars jiggle in the boiling water. Mother would wipe her hands on the ever present apron and sit down at the table for a cup of tea. We enjoyed our tea together. In later years Linda and I also liked to share tea time together, in fact a few years ago I received a package in the mail and it was from Linda and inside was a Boyds Bear figurine of a mother bear and her daughter bear having tea and Linda's note said "look on the bottom" I turned it over and this is what it said "Come and sit with me and we'll have tea and talk of things that were and things that are to be, of places we will go and things that we will see. Just the two of us my dear daughter...and me." A tear still comes even as I write this for my dear daughter is a thousand miles away and I would give anything this moment for us to have tea together.
   What a pleasure it is to stand and view the shelves laden with many jars of green beans, corn, beets, tomatoes, not forgetting the jars of peaches, pears and pickles. Rosy jars of jams and jellies ...what a treat. Apple butter to spread on warm from the oven home made bread. Mother's bread was better then the best cake to me. Mother knew hard times, depression years were my childhood years and we learned not to waste and to do with what we had. A good thing for us to remember in these times. Somehow you felt more secure when you had rows of canned foods in the pantry. Little did we know that we were eating healthy, no insecticides on our veg's and no chemicals added to preserve freshness or artificial coloring. There were no boxes of foods on the shelf, cakes were made from family recipes and for years no canned soups were used in casseroles and gravy came from a good roast not a can. Little wonder food seemed to taste better back then. Like they say "ah the good old days"
   Well there, I am done with the apples and I have seven bags of pie apples to go into the freezer, I think I can smell a pie now but no it is the apples I am frying for supper tonight to go with our fried fish. I better check them ..don't want them to burn and it is time to sprinkle on a little sugar to help them caramelize. I'm thinking of you mother while I am making them. Thanks for the memories!

Grand Marais

    If you look at the word Marais you might ask how to pronounce it and you may also hear the word and never guess the spelling but if you have been there you know it is a "Grand" place like the name suggests.
    This was the week we finally made our way up to spend a few days camping at the camp grounds there. While the weather at home was rain, one inch of rain to be precise, the weather at Grand Marais was beautiful, sunny and almost no wind, the perfect weather to sit on a bench by the lake and just gaze at the water until all of life's tensions are melted away. The benches are tall and we sat on one and swung our feet like little children do when feet do not reach the floor. The sun was warm on our faces and we had the beach all to ourselves which is rare. After 56 years of marriage we can sit and chat about all kinds of subjects or just sit comfortably silent. We are so much in tune with each other we often can finish the others sentence knowing exactly what or who the other is referring to.
    Back at the fifth wheel we realized that seeing we don't have cable tv here at this camp and since we did not bring the TV dish with we should have brought some music cd's or some movies but alas we did not think to do it. We also had no books or magazines but to save the day we had at least brought our cross word puzzle books. So we did some pages of puzzles and then laid back with our feet up and napped. Our radio brought in the local station at Grand Marais so we heard some PBS radio program's. One such program was a lady taking a walk in the woods listening for the different bird calls which was very interesting to me since I have never heard a Brown Capped Chickadee before only Black capped.
    One day we did our tour of all the antique, gift and my favorite art shops and no we didn't buy the very expensive fudge but it did make me think of making some fudge when we got home. What I did buy was a cook book named "Recipes of Minnesota:. This one had a beautiful and mouth watering cover but what caught my eye were all the Swedish recipes, we are not Swedish but we have lived along side them for years and they are very good cooks and have enjoyed so many of their traditional dishes.
    Now that we are home again Don is busy getting the fifth wheel ready for winter and I have hauled back into the house the things that can not take freezing. The house smells so good from the beef roast that is in the oven and I am anxious to serve the Swedish Hasselback Potatoes, a recipe from my new cook book. Yum

Sign's of Fall

   We all recognize the sign's of Fall, the tree's leaves are taking color, the yellow school bus goes by, the arts and crafts stores are full of fall materials to make your home colorful even Halloween crafts are displayed. For us here at Shaw Acre's it means the winter birds are coming to the feeder and the fat has been hung out for the woodpeckers. Our tiny nuthatches and chickadees still come to eat out of our hands when ever we come out to sit on the deck, they prefer we feed them by hand then to go to the hanging feeder. The grass has slowed down so that mowing is less frequent and I heard the furnace come on so it is definitely cooler outside. Don busies himself with getting the wood piles covered with tarps to keep them dry when the fall rains come. His piles of wood are a work of art with each chunk of wood stacked just so and in long neat rows. There are many cozy warm days inside those logs when the snow is blowing against the windows this winter. I love to go down to the furnace room and throw  a log into our Daka wood burning furnace, it means that as long as it is heating our house the fuel oil furnace won't come on and that is quite a savings. Wood is a different heat , more comfortable. Also a pleasure to watch as we snuggle together watching the logs burn in our fireplace in the family room. Don keeps our woods free of dead and dying trees by adding them to the wood pile and a bonus is that Don keeps fit and trim as well.
   Fall is here when the White Pine Harvest Show is on. Sunday before last Don and I stopped by and picked up our friends and neighbors, the Nelson's and we drove to the show. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a terrific turn out, we found some very good seats and watched over 200 tractors go by just feet from where we sat. Mary Ann and I sat together and talked of many things while the men sat and discussed each tractor as it went by. Marv and Don have so much in common and their knowledge of tractors astounds me. Marv said " that is my dad's old tractor" as one old tractor passed by and he was right but what amazed me was he recognized it by a small bit of welding on the grill. We walked around the park and went into the various buildings to watch them making wooden kegs, sawing logs, making horse shoes and in one house we watched a lady cooking on her cast iron stove while the scent of warm cookies filled the air. We watched them harvest grain and chop corn using vintage machines. We strolled around to see the wares of the vendors and stopped only long enough to eat lunch. At the end of a long day we decided to go to Finlayson for our supper at the town cafe. What a fun day it turned out to be and for me Fall is now officially here.

Mother in Law's

   Our pastor Chris and family were on vacation Sunday and we had a visiting pastor who gave a very good sermon on the book of Ruth. He spoke of her great love for her mother in law Naomi. So many mother in law jokes we hear and most are not nice. I can not relate to them, my mother in law, Don's mother, Louise was so kind and loving to me and I loved her dearly and though she has been gone 41 years I think of her often, perhaps even more often as the years go by. She was a tall women whose black hair had gone to salt and pepper but her brown eyes still had that almost mischievous spark. She loved a good joke or story. Her back ground was French Canadian and as the French are known for their cooking she certainly was. She could make a feast out of anything. As a young bride I stood by her side at the stove hoping that some of that magic would rub off onto me. If she had extras for lunch she would say "we'll put the stretcher's on it" She would cut up the left over roast and potatoes, some onion and a dab of her marvelous gravy and the "stretcher" was some good bread which she tore into small pieces and added it to the skillet. Combined well you never knew the bread was there and it was all so delicious. She told me stories about her mother, Julia, a very proud women who was known for her special cake. Louise said Julia died with the recipe not wanting to share it with anyone not even her daughters. Louise did how ever remember her mother had a large can that sat on the shelf of the cast iron cook stove and she saw her take cookies and cake and grind them fine, dry them and then add them to the can and when she had enough she would make a cake using all the crumbs and her recipe. A cake like no other.
   Louise grew up in the early 1900's when women wore corsets and as a result she had very weak back muscles so she had to wear a more modern version of those corsets. She always wore a dress, nylons and shoes with high heels. She had beautiful legs like a model so why not  show them off. I never saw her in slacks although it was rumored that she wore some on a hunting trip. I did see a photo of her wearing slacks as she rode on the back of Bill's Indian motorcycle when they were young. But I only saw her in a house dresses with crisply ironed aprons. She lived by the old saying "Monday wash, Tuesday iron, etc. and she took great pride in her whiter then white wash that was on the Monday clothes line long before every other housewife in the neighborhood. Each piece was hung just so...no drooping tee shirt or towel on her line. I never could figure how she got them so snow white.
   She and I would play double solitaire a game that she always won because she was so quick and after she  would say "stay for lunch with Bill and I" no way would I refuse.
   Funny how you remember certain things about people, I can still see her hands if I close my eyes. She used to sit in her easy chair watching the show "as the world turns" and embroidering on dish towels or dresser scarves. I had a friend who had access to embroidery thread wholesale and one Christmas I gave her an embroidery case with drawers and every color of threads, she was so happy. After she died at 69 of cancer Bill gave that back to me and things she had embroidered and I was able to share these with her daughters Lorraine and Bernice. Louise was not just a mother in law she was a mother of love.
   A day of remembering, like drops of gold we hide in our hearts that make us truly rich.

Perfect days

   Haven't you had a day that was just about perfect in every way, we had one last Sunday. Don and I decided to visit our son Gary's church at Braham, heard a good sermon, went to lunch at the local cafe and met some of our old neighbors. When we got home we decided to go for a long walk on the bike trail behind our land, later we sat sipping our coffee on our shady deck watching the birds. We put sunflower seeds on our railing and they come, it has gotten so that if we go to sit on the deck they come cheeping as though to say "where is our seeds" and they will even eat out of Don's hand. By the end of the day I felt nourished body, mind and soul.
   As I type this I can stop and look up at my "Great Grandma's brag board" where I have all the great grand children's pictures. I love to look at their shinning faces, bright eyes and big smiles and I think how wonderful it is to be so young when everything is an adventure and you get so excited over the smallest things. It is so important to keep the thrill of life as a child sees it no matter what your age. Try to stop and see things through a child's eyes.
   When we got back from our Alaska cruise we went quickly to the window in our den to see the baby robins and too our shock they had already flown away. How could they have grown so fast in less then a month. Don and I had watched from the window as mother robin formed her tiny nest in the honeysuckle bush. With only her beak she bent each twig to form a perfect round nest and cement it in place with beaks of mud and grass. Only when she considered it good enough did she lay the three blue jelly bean size eggs. Many times in a day we ventured to the window to check while mother robin would cock an eye to watch us also. Then one day tiny bare babies lay in the nest, tiny babies with huge appetites. It is not the first time we have seen robin babies but it is still a thrill. We were sad to see our babies had out grown their home and had ventured out into the world while we were gone but I am sure they will not forget where they were born and will return to sing their morning and evening song for us.

Small Towns

   The days are swiftly moving toward Fall and I am dragging my feet trying to savor the smell of summer, the warmth of the sun and the length of the days. Why do the months go so quickly now that I am older , when I am not in any hurry. I want to crowd so much into the week but never seem to accomplish all that I plan. One thing I want to do is have a coffee party and invite my new friends that I have met since moving to this home. I have not seen such welcoming people as these for many years, it reminds me of years ago when neighbors often visited, and when people knew and cared about those living around them. We have been invited for meals, to go camping and other activities and when we go to the little church in town we are greeted with the same warmth. There is a lot to say for small towns where you can get to know the person that waits on you at the hardware store and the waitress at the local cafe calls you by name or in one cafe where the waitress calls us "honey". They don't just shove your food at you but rather linger to chat a bit.
   We considered building a new home but I am so glad we didn't, this home on 20 acres is established with mature trees, shrubs and flowers. Granted the shrubs and flowers may not be just where you would have placed them but when the lilac's are in bloom you soon forget that and just enjoy. To have trees that are giants always makes me fill with awe, how old are they I wonder. I am some what of a worry wart so of course I get filled with concern should we get strong winds and I see them swaying and hear the pines clanking against each other but I realize too that they have stood the test of time and weather.
   Don has been so kind to erect the arched arbor we bought and to nail the lattice work to the wall of the garage so I could plant the four clematis vines I bought and he hauled black dirt to flower beds and hauls branches and debris away. How could I ever have done it all. Love comes to me in daily doses of thoughtfulness through Don, I am truly blessed.
   Next week Don and I have been invited to join the camping club again and to go camping at a neighboring farm. Last time we did it was so much fun and I think there were about 30 campers. We miss our full time rving life style and we are thankful for our new friends for including us.
   The day is so beautiful I think I will take another stroll around the yard to admire my flowers, watch the birds and maybe there is a ripe tomato to pick.

New friends and old

   More rain 1 1/2 inches, I think we should begin to build our ark. It has been a visiting type of week, Dale and Carol came by to see our Alaska cruise pictures on Sunday afternoon, our RVing friends Bob and Carol spent the evening with us on Monday and Tuesday our friend Deloris came by. There is always time for family and friends, old and new. I have lived long enough to realize that I won't remember the house being neat and clean or not, but I will remember the wonderful times with friends that  "just drop by". The truth is a little disorder puts guests at ease as long as you don't run around franticly picking up everything. I love to cook for guests too but sometimes it doesn't always turn out like I would like it, example, last Sunday when Dale and Carol were here I had the urge to serve country style pork ribs with my mother's barbeque sauce. Well the sauce was good but the pork was tough and dry. We didn't go hungry but what to do with all that left over pork? I came up with the idea to shred it all and make barbeque pork in buns and that turned out so good. Since the rage to have very lean meat the pork most often is tough and dry. I remember tender pork chops and Don's mother Louise's moist delicious pork roast with the best gravy. Like it or not fat makes the difference. Don is always saying he wants less meat and at least smaller portions and after watching PBS and a program P.O.V. it won't be hard to cut back. Authors Schasserand and Pollan showed how our meat is raised and processed. Not easy to watch when you hear the beef is fed dead animals and chicken feces and their intestines are filled with E coli, worse yet they showed how they grind up the most awful chunks of unidentifiable meat then add ammonia-hydroxide and it is used as a filler for hamburger in hopes of destroying the E coli. Sure puts me off. If one can find pastured beef it is a healthy source of protein, but where and for how much? I am so proud of my granddaughters who are trying to raise their children on good healthy food made by mother instead of coming from a box. Today Don and I went to Pine City to the flea market and talk about fresh home grown veg's there was all kinds. We bought a 20 lb. bag of potatoes for $4.00 half of what they sell for in the store. We had an outing, got exercise and food, it has been a good day.
   On this last Tuesay Don and I registered to vote and voted. What a privilege to live in a country where we have some say in how our country is run. We need good honest, God fearing people to lead us out of these hard times.
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   The golden years, the title of my blog. immediately brings to mind retirement years and beyond and yes Don and I fall into that category seeing we retired over 14 years ago and we are both into our seventies, but I am wanting the title to represent the whole of our lives. A blog. I can hardly believe I am even writing one and posting it on a computer network all this coming from someone who went to school with a pad of paper and a pencil. We never had computers (not invented) and even if we had a calculator we would have been forbidden to use them, considered cheating, so seeing my background and age why am I typing a blog.? I got the idea from my granddaughter Angie's blog. when I found that reading hers made it possible for me to keep in touch across the miles, to see pictures of the great granddaughters and to watch her family grow. What better way to reach out to all my family, a way to share even though miles separate us.
   Golden years just don't happen, you make them happen, it takes planning, the right frame of mind and it requires the right attitude. Things don't make you happy, you make yourself happy by how you face life. I hope you enjoy going with me as I share the past, the present and hope of the future, in other words "The  Golden Years"