Meanderings

 In my head, I've written several blog posts since I last visited with you. And they have been very insightful as well as humorous. Too bad, my thoughts are so rapid-fire that as soon as I have one, another comes along to push the first one out of the way. So, let's see where my mind meanders today. :)

There are many more where these came from.

We have been picking up dropped apples around the broken tree limb, and although the apples are still sour, they are sweeter than the ones we tried a couple of weeks ago. They are taking a while to process because they are full of rotten places and wormholes, but I have managed to get some into the freezer for pies. While working on the apples, I thought about when I was a kid and we made lots of applesauce. We didn't have an apple tree, but my father collected bushels of dropped apples from various friends. Every day after school, we would have to make a canner load (7 quarts) of applesauce. This continued until the supply was depleted and often lasted for a few weeks. My father was always scavenging for food - I think a throwback to his childhood when he earned extra money that way. We always had a good supply of blackberries, hickory nuts, and apples from his efforts. And he was a big gardener. But that's a story for another time.

I was too lazy to take the pizza out of the oven for a picture. 

Last night, we had one of our easy, frugal, but tasty dinners. We got a cheese pizza from Aldi's (16" one for only $5.99). We added shredded rotisserie chicken from Costco (4 lb cooked weight/$4.99), peppers from Uncle Billy's garden (sweet for me and jalapeno for Ward), and tomatoes from our garden. We have pizza this way occasionally, and the toppings vary with whatever we have on hand. It easily provides a couple of meals. It could have been cheaper if we had made it entirely from scratch, but it was still a very good deal. And all we had to do was push the Easy Button. And if it's easy, we're more likely to eat at home instead of eating out. And eating at home is almost always cheaper than eating out. 

Surprise iris bloom

I had a fun surprise in the yard recently. I turned around in the driveway one day and saw an iris blooming. I got these irises from an aunt, and they have not bloomed in the two years I've had them. I know it takes a season or two for one to bloom after transplanting, so I was not worried that they hadn't. Disappointed but not worried. It was a surprise to see one blooming in September when they usually bloom in April. I'm unsure what it all means, but I enjoy the bright pop of color.

Next week, we are going to the Blue Ridge with Wally and Theo. Where we're staying is not close to any town, so we can't count on popping out to Walmart to pick up something we've forgotten. And there will be no internet, which we usually use to figure out the details of where we're going and what we're doing for the next day. I think it's time to get serious with our planning. In the meantime, work and other things are keeping us busy. 

Hope everyone gets a fun surprise this week, like my iris.

Until next time...

Serendipity

 It all began last spring when Ward and I took a driving trip south. At the last minute, I grabbed The Pioneers by David McCullough to listen to along the way. I had no idea what it was about but knew that his books were usually interesting. The Pioneers chronicled the settlement of the Northwest Territory with a focus on its first town Marrietta, Ohio. It was an interesting discovery for me to learn that Marrietta played such an important part in our country's history. My parents and most of my relatives grew up on the other side of the Ohio River in West Virginia, across from Marrietta. Having some personal knowledge about the place we were hearing about in the book made it all the more captivating for me.  

Jump forward a few months to last weekend when Ward, my sister, and I went to a family reunion in WV. Guess where it was? Across the river from Marietta! And we stayed in Marietta. (Turns out that the hotels are cheaper there than across the river.) And one of the local museums had an exhibit on The Pioneers. 

After a 6-hour trip, we arrived in time to visit the Campus Martius Museum. The museum was built around the original house of Rufus Putman. Putnam led the first party of white settlers into the NW territory in 1788. Amazingly, many of the original parts of the house were still intact. 

This was the land office of the NW Territory and is the oldest building in the Territory. The NW Territory later became Onio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Unlike Putnam's house, this building was relocated to the grounds of the museum.

Much of the museum was too dark for decent pictures, but I did get this picture of a more recent artifact - the first draft copy of The Pioneers book.

After the museum and dinner with friends, we went to the cemetery where my parents and many of my relatives were buried. It was a time of mixed emotions as I remembered my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who have passed.

The next morning, we had a little time before the reunion picnic, so we visited The Mound Cemetery in Marietta. The name came from the prehistoric, 30' high burial mound built by people of the Hopewell culture sometime between 100 BC and 500 AD. 

The early settlers preserved the mound by building a cemetery around it in 1801. The Mound Cemetery has the highest number of Revolutionary War officers buried there of any place in the country. We learned about Dr. Hildreth and his son at the museum yesterday.

We also took a pleasant walk along the river.

Along the walk, we discovered this tree carving of one of the pioneers. It was done by Perl Totman, who was 85 years old when he created it.

The tree had been destroyed by the emerald ash borer,
which made it difficult to carve.

Then it was on to our family picnic. Since I can't show you pictures from this year's reunion for privacy reasons, here's an earlier one. I had 10 more cousins born after this picture. The crowd is small these days, but it's always good to connect with family.

Our trip was a whirlwind 36 hours, but a good one (except for the no-visibility rainstorms on the way home). We got to experience history in a whole new way. First, we got to know the pioneers intimately by reading the book about them, and then we got to actually see where they lived and died. It's not often that I have gotten to experience history like that, and I found the whole experience exhilarating.

Until next time...

A Second Look, September 7, 2023

I have been Second Looking in my yard for a couple of weeks now, but am just getting around to posting some of what I saw. So with no further ado, here I go.

Allium. Early on, the allium had a bad case of black aphids. I managed to get rid of them, but they stunted the growth and blooms this year.

Abelia

The anemone is blooming about a month earlier than last year.

The surprise lilies are always a pleasant surprise.

After the white 4 o'clocks have been blooming for months, these pink ones bloomed. Another fun surprise.

A rare photo of a black-eyed susan before all of its petals are eaten. I just noticed it looks like it's growing out of a violet plant. :)

The fuss-free begonias continue to thrive along our front walk.

A bird-planted sunflower in a pot on our front porch.

Vincas and petunias in front of Ward's shop.

A broken limb on an apple tree. This is an old tree, and the first time it has produced more than a couple of apples since we moved in. Over the years, it has been limbed up, so most of the apples are out of reach. Now we have some easy picking. Unfortunately, the apples aren't ripe yet and won't get any sweeter. I see a lot of sour applesauce in our future.

The bees are enjoying rotten pears. The whole area smells like fermenting fruit.

A rare sighting of a native ladybug on the fence to the vegetable garden. These days, we see mostly the problematic imported Asian ladybugs.

We have seen our first spotted lanternfly in our yard. The spotted lantern fly is new to this country and was first found in Pennsylvania. It is highly damaging to many woody plants, and they are trying desperately to stop its spread.

That's all for now. Ward and I are off to WV this weekend for a family reunion.

Until next time...

An Educational Outing

For the last few months, Ward and I have been concentrating on chores around the house and yard without many just-for-the-fun-of-it activities. So that gave me a big case of go-fever that we treated on Sunday with an outing to Pennsylvania.

I've had a slip of paper on my desk for a couple of years with the name Camp Michaux on it. No other words, but I remembered it was a suggestion of a place to explore from my sister.  Sunday was her birthday. Since she lives in Maine and I was not able to spend the day with her, I thought I would spend the day with her suggestion instead. (See if you can follow that logic.) 

We did a little research on the camp before we left and learned Camp Micheax was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the early 1930s, was used as a Prisoner of War (POW) interrogation camp during WW II (mid-1940s), and was leased for a church camp from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. 

Here's a little of what we saw on our outing.

Our destination was about 1 1/2 hours away, and we took the backroads to get there. I'm glad Ward was driving because I'm not sure where we would have ended up if I had been navigating after this wire in the road detoured our route.

We found our way back to the route and drove through lots of farmland, including apple orchards, along the way.

The directions to Camp Michaux were vague, but one set of them took us to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. As we drove in, we realized that we had been here years ago, 12 to be exact, camping with Ward's Family. We toured the Appalachian Trail Museum then, which you see in the background. The trail goes through the park and is the halfway point for the hiking route that goes from Maine to Georgia.

The park caters to AT hikers with a general store and phone for them to use, among other things. It's been a while since I've seen a phone like this.

The park had one of the furnaces that it was named after. The iron industry was big in this area because of an abundance of the needed raw materials. The Pine Grove Iron Company operated here from 1794-1924. Look carefully in the opening, and you'll see Ward investigating how it's made, per usual.

The rangers in the park office were able to give us directions to Camp Michaux.

A short distance down the road, we found our destination.

This is the remains of the barn for the farm that predated the camp. The farm was started in 1787, and in 1794, the iron company bought it. The farm was used to support the workers at the ironworks. It was sold to the state in 1912.

There were no signs in the area, but we had a chart that corresponded to 27 markers like this one. The chart listed what happened in a spot during the three different uses of the camp. In the background, you can see the foundation for a building that was CCC barracks, German POW barracks, and church camp arts and crafts.

Most of the buildings were removed when the camp reverted back to being part of the state forest. Most locations showed only the foundations of what once was. This fountain was one of the few remaining intact structures. It was made from slag from the ironworks and quartz.

This was a side of a dam built by German POWs. It reads, "PW = 22.5.45" This reminder of the past was cause for much reflection on my part.

After exploring the rest of the stops, we ate a late lunch at a local diner. And then, it was back home to get ready for the week ahead. We had a good time and learned a lot. And maybe that will hold me until I go to my family reunion that is coming up in a couple of weeks. 

Until next time...

Rug Crazy

 

The original rug. It's hard to see the stains and fading in the picture.

It all started when we were planning to have a baby shower here for my nephew and his wife. Or maybe it really started when our cat Leo died, and his remaining sister decided to show how she felt about that by peeing at various places around the house. Or maybe it all started even before that when Leo, in his old age, was peeing in various places before he could make it to the litter box. Not really sure.

But there was definitely a problem because I could smell cat pee when I passed the living room. That was after we removed the bookcase that had been used as a litter box. The smell wasn't strong, and Ward couldn't smell it, but it was definitely there. And I didn't think we needed to host a baby shower with any extra odors because of the heightened sense of smell accompanying pregnancy. So, after more investigation, we figured out that the rug in there had been peed on sometime in the past. We rolled it up and took it to the basement to store until we figured out what we were going to do with it.

Rug #2 on the porch airing out. BTW, the blue rug in the back, I picked out the first place we went. We weren't trying to match anything and just needed something so the floor wouldn't get scratched. It serves its purpose and adds a little color.

The day before, I had visited Aunt Martha and saw a new rug she had ordered online and liked the looks of it. So I ordered one from the same place, and with miracles of shipping, it arrived Thursday before the shower on Saturday. However, it came in a box and had a lot of creases in it - too many to fall out in just a couple of days. So we rolled that one up and put it aside until we could figure out what to do with it. We had bare floors for the shower, but in the end, I don't think anyone noticed.

We brought the new rug back out, and while the colors were okay, I didn't like the looks of it. It was one of those washable rugs that are made to go into a washing machine. We have a couple of runners like that, but I didn't like the looks of it in a bigger 8' x 10' size. So we returned it, but only after paying a hefty shipping charge. So I said if I got another rug online, it would be with an easy, free return. 

We shopped many stores to see what was in stock. And I spent who knows how much time shopping online and couldn't find one that fit the bill anywhere. The colors were right, but the pattern was wrong. The pattern was good, but the colors weren't right. Too thin. Too expensive. Too cheap looking. Nothing seemed to work. 

In the meantime, I was looking for a place that would clean our old, smelly wool rug. We had had it for many years, but overall, it was in decent shape except for the stains and pee smell. It took a while, but I finally found a cleaner who would clean it for $400. About twice as much as we paid for it (granted, that was years ago at Costco), and that was more than we wanted to spend.

So, figuring we had nothing to lose, we borrowed Miss Landers' carpet cleaner and cleaned the rug even though that was not a recommended practice for a wool rug. We got a lot of dirt out of it, but the stains remained. And while the pee smell was gone, it smelled like a wet dog, even after it was dry. The smell lessened with time but still smelled, and I was bothered every time I walked by the room. (Once again, Ward could smell nothing.) So then, I liberally spread baking soda and borax over the rug and let it sit for a few days.

Rug #3 clashed with the floors.

But I couldn't help myself and continued shopping online until I found another rug that seemed just right. Good colors, a good design, and an okay price. But when it arrived, the colors weren't right, the pile was low, and it stunk. Three strikes, and it was out. I was so disappointed, but we returned it with much less hassle than the first one if you don't count the awkwardness of carrying around a bulky rug.

Then, it was time to vacuum the old rug to see if the baking soda and borax had performed their magic. And what a mess that was. I spent two days on it and ended up with fine, white dust over everything in the room. I hadn't realized that even though all of the dials on the vacuum were set correctly, instead of sucking up the powder, it was blowing it everywhere. Eventually, I got it under control, and the rug smelled better. It still had an odor, but it was faint. The stains and fading still bothered me but weren't obvious at first glance. I guessed we could live with it.

That was until I stopped by Homegoods one day to see what rugs they had. And there was a decent one that seemed to fit the bill, so we bought it and brought it home. Granted, it was a nice-looking rug, but clashed with the floors. I had always considered the floors a neutral background, but they're not. The golden red oak floors did not look good with the maroon red of the rug. Ward didn't see a problem. (Have I mentioned that all of my senses are more sensitive than his?) So we took that rug back today.

We're back to what we started with. And yes, you can call me obsessed, crazy, or whatever other term you want. I have used all those words to describe myself during this rug quest. However, Ward has only rolled his eyes at me a couple of times and has not said a word during this rug drama. And what a remarkable man he is that he didn't say what he must have been thinking. And for that, I am thankful.

Until next time...