Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and father figures.

I was looking through old Father's Day posts to see if there was something I wanted to use again, and I found this from last year. 

"Today is Father's Day. We're going to celebrate with my father-in-law and Ward's siblings. Yesterday, Ward, Wally, and Theo celebrated while I was at work. They spent the day cooking using the sous vide and the grill. Fun toys for them. I was at work all day but contributed a cherry pie that I made the night before. The carnivores enjoyed their time together."

Guess what? Today, we're going to visit my father-in-law, and Wally and Theo came over yesterday. Theo cooked dinner on the grill while Wally helped Ward with a project. The carnivores (Theo cooked chicken and sausages) enjoyed their time together. I had to work all day but made a cherry pie the night before for dessert. 

Boy, we are more predictable than I thought. 😁

While I was perusing, I found a post from 2013 about my father and his garden that I am rerunning today as I remember him on this Father's Day.

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My Father's Garden

For most of my life, I watched my father garden, and I learned a lot about life as I observed him adjust to the ever-changing world surrounding him there. 

He usually had an acre or more of vegetables growing every year, and I watched as he spent hours and hours, days and days, and weeks and weeks planting the garden. He'd plant 20 rows of corn, and the crows would eat 20 rows of corn. He'd plant beans, and the rabbits would feast on the leaves. He'd plant tomatoes, and the groundhogs would take one bite out of each one. And the deer—they liked EVERYTHING in the garden. 

So he put up an electric fence. That worked except for the things that could go under it, like the rabbits. Then he put up a chicken wire fence inside the electric fence to keep those critters out. And that worked except for the creatures that burrowed under the fence like groundhogs. So, he buried fencing a foot underground, which worked for the digging critters. Now, all he had left were the flying creatures. So, he put up scarecrows and shiny streamers, and that sort of worked, except for the wild turkeys. And turkeys are like the deer in that they like EVERYTHING in the garden. Turkeys are really smart, and for several years, the turkeys did more damage to his garden than all the other animals combined.

But yet he kept on. He would plant and plant again. He would hoe a row, and he would weed a row. He would stake the tomatoes and build teepees for the beans. He would fertilize, and he would carry water. And along about the middle of summer, the first of the bounty would need to be picked and picked and picked. And my father was happy. 

As time passed and the kids moved away from home, my father planted his huge gardens. He gave away most of what he grew, but he was happy. My mother finally convinced him that maybe the two of them didn't need such a large garden. It was hard, but he cut back. He adjusted just as he had when the crows ate all of his corn. And then, because of failing health, he had to move to a nursing home, and he was not sure if there would be a place to plant a garden where he was. However, he adjusted, and he was happy.

When I grow up, I want to be like my father and his gardens. I want to do things when they need to be done, just like my father did when he had to water his plants when they needed it, not just when he felt like it. I want to keep working on anything important until I get results, just like my father did when he had to plant his corn again and again. I want to adjust to changing situations just like my father did when he had to downsize his garden. And most of all, I want to find a way to be happy in any situation, just as my father did when he had to leave his garden and couldn't live at home any more.

Note: My father passed away two months after I wrote this.

Until next time...

Speed Blogging Check-in

 As I often do, I am doing my morning check-in of email, fitness app, Wordle, and blogs. And sometimes, I squeeze in time to write a post. And that's what I'm doing this morning - squeezing in a post by speed blogging with a timer. My timer happens to be set at 12 minutes. So here it goes. Twelve minutes of stream of consciousness. 

We recently celebrated my FIL's 91st birthday.
Ward's family likes to play music at family gatherings.

You may (or may not) remember back in January, we started a project of going through our house room by room and decluttering. It took a couple of weeks, but we successfully touched everything in our bedroom and bathroom, reorganized, and purged what was no longer needed. Next, we moved onto the office and started with all the paperwork. And I am thrilled to report that we finally finished last week. Yay!! Double Yay! We haven't worked steadily on it for the last few months, but I was determined to finish. We shredded several big bags of paper during the process. But papers are like dishes and laundry; there are always more being generated. 

We do many things online that we used to do with paper, but paper still abounds. Someday, when I'm feeling ambitious, I will tackle all of the files on my computer, including pictures and email. But next up are the rest of the things in the office. 

However, at this time of year, the outdoors are calling. We planted more pots this week, including four big ones for our porches. My attempts at making planters have never been that successful in the past. If I make a decent-looking one, it never holds up. The plants grow at different rates, and the whole thing looks lopsided in no time. However, this time, the people at the nursery showed me groupings that you just plop into a pot and water. It helped that there were examples they had been growing for a while that looked quite good. It was cheaper buying this grouping than buying individual plants. We'll see how they do.

This was my attempt to take a picture of the first tomatoes that are forming. They are hard to see, but if you squint, you can see one above the bloom on the right.

I also planted zucchini and basil this week. None of the basil came up from last year, so I bought some plants. The zucchini was hard to find. Lots of yellow squash out there, but not zucchini. I found two scraggly plants at Walmart after visiting several stores. I really have to get coordinated next year to start it from seeds. However, the beans are up from the seeds I saved from last year. 

I harvested the last of the spinach yesterday, and the peas are ready to be picked. I hope Ward will pick peas while I'm at work today.

There goes my timer. Time to get ready for work. I have to leave early today because I am feeding my sister's cat while she's on vacation.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and gets a chance to feel the sunshine.

Until next time...

Around the Yard This Week

 We've recently had some hot and humid days, along with the stormy weather they often bring. Luckily, we didn't get the worst of them. Friends not that far away had 2" hail at their house, while we only had rain. Today is going to be a pleasant day with moderate temperatures, so I will be taking advantage of that with some puttering around the yard, probably focusing on more planting.

In the meantime, here are some things I've seen recently in the yard.

Siberian iris. 

One of the storms had a rainbow at the end. It was hard to see through the clouds, but it was there.

Impatiens. These are planted in front of Ward's shop in a planter his dad made from an old hot water heater.

This lettuce didn't come up last fall when planted, but did this spring. 

The peas are blooming.

Another rhododendron is in full bloom.

It's kind of hard to see, but this little bee on one of the rhododendron blooms was more loaded with pollen than I have seen any other bee carry at once. Notice the pollen sacs on either side; the back was covered like that, too.

One day, I planted 12 zinnia plants, and the next day, they all looked like this. So disappointing. But I guess all of God's creatures gotta eat.

The first Stella Dora day lily has bloomed.

Purple sage.

Our soil is very rocky, and I've been collecting the rocks we dig up. Bless, asked to see my rock pile, so here it is, Bless. It's several inches thick. What looks like dirt are pine needles on top.

Not all rocks make it into the pile.

We just discovered that a woodpecker has been at work on an evergreen tree behind Ward's workshop. Woodpeckers destroyed a maple tree at our old house. I hope this one doesn't meet the same fate.

Also, behind the shop, we encountered this juvenile blue jay. (Debris is in the background from the neighbor's garage, which is under construction.)

Until next time...

Finally!!

 I am happy to report that after four months, all of the paperwork is completed from the car accident I had at the end of January. You may remember that someone ran into the side of our 2-week-old van and totaled it. We have been working steadily to get everything cleared up since then. In the meantime, we did get a new van - just like the old one. Unfortunately, it got its first dent in a parking lot while we were on our recent trip. But, hey, it's just a dent, and we can live with that.

In other news, today is Theo's birthday. Below is a post I wrote about him a few years ago. It seems like I rerun a lot of posts, but I've been doing this long enough I've covered a lot of things. And I'm trying to get some yard work done before I go to work, and I don't have time to reinvent the wheel. Maybe another day. :)

Until next time...

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Theo

Theo entered the world early and, at first, seemed like a calm baby--at least calmer than his brother. He only cried several hours a day instead of all day. But as he gained mobility he was not so calm-he became nearly perpetual motion. We spent a good deal of our time trying to keep him safe and from tearing down the house. Never a dull moment. For example, even when we tried to lock the door of the fridge, he managed to open it. Playing with eggs was a favorite. Do you know how hard it is to clean up a dozen broken eggs? I do. Nearly impossible. And he was a climber from early on. He was just as likely to be on top of the refrigerator as opening it. But he never fell, even when he was learning to walk. A calculated risk taker, one doctor called him. At the playground, the other mothers would look at me disapprovingly as my toddler was on top of the swing set instead of swinging in a swing. But I had to choose my battles. As I said, he never fell.

He was curious, and all the world was an experiment like the time he burned some of his toys in the fireplace (gas logs that he turned on while we were sleeping). He was only a preschooler at the time. When we hysterically yelled questioned him, he pointed out he wanted to see how they burned, and he only used toys that he had two of. We didn't sleep well for a lot of years worrying about what he and his brother were into.

Also, Theo has always been a deep thinker. Many times, he would think something through, then engage us in a conversation, and carefully lead us down a path to a gotcha at the end. Ward and I used to think we were pretty intelligent people until our preschooler kept outsmarting us. Not only was he thorough, he thought about the big issues, too. When he was five, he lamented about his place on earth and whether his life mattered in the grand scheme of things.  We weren't exactly equipped to handle those kinds of thoughts from our child at such an early age. But they kept coming.

As you can imagine, when Theo entered school, it was not easy.  Hyperactivity, along with an active mind, didn't always work in the classroom. Some teachers loved him with the interesting thoughts and insights he brought to class. Others got upset when he asked a question or made a comment because it often got the lesson off track. Not because it was off-topic but because it was beyond what the other kids could understand.  His deep thinking didn't stop just because he was in school now.

I don't think I need to describe the calls I got about him because he couldn't sit still. Eventually, we understood that was because of anxiety, but the teachers didn't care what was causing it. They just needed him to be still. It was hard for everyone--Theo, the teachers, and us. I think we were on speed dial with the principal and that is not something that we wanted, but we can smile about now.

However, Theo made it through school, and I wish some of his teachers could see him today. I don't think they would believe the adult he's grown into. He is calm and measured, as well as a kind and responsible person. Kids grow up. Thank goodness.

So, for Theo and the wonderful, rich, and interesting life he has given us, I am thankful.

Memorial Day

 Today is Memorial Day here in the US, where we remember those who lost their lives while serving our country. It is also the unofficial beginning of summer and a weekend of cookouts, including Wally and Theo, who have us over today for ribs. But amongst the fun, I want to make sure we acknowledge the day. Below is a story I've told before, but I'm going to tell it again about Ward's grandfather, who lost his life during WW II.

 Memorial Day--Leo's Story

Leo, 1941

Leo was the son of Polish immigrants and, as a young man, joined the Army in 1929. He became part of the Army Engineer Division. Later, at a dance, he met a smart and pretty young girl, LeeAnn, and married her in 1932. They soon added a baby boy to the family, and two years later, they had another. After renting a small home, Leo built a house for his growing family. Being an enterprising young man, he used discarded lumber from a railroad yard for much of the house. (By the way, the house he built still stands firm today.)

Leo's and LeeAnn's happy life was not affected much when World War II broke out in Europe in 1939. However, the Army started to send units to Iceland to build defensive fortifications to be ready just in case. At the end of 1941, his unit was assigned to go to Iceland to help in these preparations. While they were in New York waiting for their boat, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The US immediately declared war against Japan and its allies, including Germany. The US was officially in World War II.

Leo and his unit continued with their orders to go to Iceland, but they didn't make it. Their boat was attacked in the Atlantic by a German submarine and had to be repaired before it could go any further. During the month that the repairs took, the soldiers got to go back and spend time with their families. No one knew this would be the last time they would see each other.

Their boat was repaired, and they were finally on their way. They made it to Iceland and completed their work. However, on the way back to the States, the boat was attacked by another German submarine, and this time, it sank. The seas were rough, which made it difficult for many to survive. Most went down with the ship. First, Leo was declared missing at sea, and later, he was declared killed in action. It wasn't until several years later that his family knew the details of what happened because much of the information was classified.

LeeAnn was suddenly left with two young boys to raise on her own. A few months later, the unthinkable happened, and her younger son was killed in an accident. Despite the terrible losses, she kept going. With various jobs, hard work, and the help of family, she carved out a good life for herself and her son (Ward's father).

When I met LeeAnn, these events had happened over 40 years ago, but it was like they had happened yesterday for her. She talked about the surprise that Leo was going to bring her when he got home from Iceland and still wondered what it was going to be. She showed me some of the subflooring that Leo built, where you could read writing from the railroad cars. She talked about how long it took them to declare Leo dead and how that affected her benefits. But mostly, she talked about the surprise her husband was going to bring her. She thought it was going to be something to do with their tenth wedding anniversary that they would celebrate when he came home.

On this day and every day, we remember Leo and the sacrifice he made for his country. We also want to remember all the other men and women who have died in service and hope their stories have been told. Most importantly, we want to thank each and every one of them and their families. Because of their sacrifices, we can live a good life today.