Days spent in the back yard...

This was taken a few days ago by Sarah. The toot would not stand still for a good photo...anyway.....the girls are here. Well, right now only the toot is here...asleep for the night I hope.

Today has been a big day. I had to be at the doctor's office this morn at 8:45. I was dreading it so bad, but walked out full of hope. First I had to have some more x-rays, and one position I had to hold hurt really bad. Next I seen the doctor. He was a young doctor...one I immediately had confidence in.

He does not think I need surgery, and thinks I can get all movement back with therapy. He did give me a steroid shot in the shoulder....not fun. Oh, it wasn't horrible....just a bit more than a normal shot. He said it would take a couple days to take effect and then I should not feel pain.

I am going to have to focus on doing the therapy though and not have days like today where I cannot even take time to do them.
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After we got home from there, the girls got here in just a little while. Oldest daughter and I had to go get her self-storage rented, then to get a lock for it....and from there they started loading the truck, trailer and cars. They got the most of it in the first round....not too much at all left for the second round of loads...

Now if it hails, we can put the truck in the garage, and IF I find a few more things of oldest daughter, I can take it and put it in storage.

While they were doing that moving, I played with Lorelei....most of the time was spent playing with water/sprinkler/rocks. She loves running water in a bucket and bowl and having smaller things to fill and pour it from here to there. And she LOVES rocks...

I may try to visit a few blogs now, but am so tired I don't know if I will get far. and I may not get much done tomorrow as I plan on babysitting the toot while her mom tries to get some other stuff done.

Beautiful barn/not so beautiful shot....

Every time we go to Sarah's house, we pass this barn. It has been there as long as I can remember and as far back as I can recall it has always been this color. There is another building this color I am sure, and maybe even another...but it is in a place that has the feel of 'Now you see it, now it's gone....' One of these days I am going to stop and take time to take a decent picture.

Also, it always has a sign up about a flea market being there on the weekends...so would like to go for that also. Then I could see inside! Usually I don't link both my blogs to Tricia's Barn Charm meme, but I am this week because I want to show this...but don't consider it good enough for my Time Stand Still.
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Older daughter came home this weekend...we have been at Sarah's visiting with her there. She will be here later in the week. It is so wonderful to see her...seems like the time flies. Lorelei was a tiny bit shy...for about two minutes.

When her auntie was here at Christmas, she started sharing her lip gloss/chapstick with Lorelei. Ever since then, if Lorelei spots your chapstick or lip gloss, she has to have some. Well, the other day, she seen her mom's lip gloss, and wanted some. I think Sarah had just put some on her a little while before so she told her no, she didn't need any.

Lorelei started crying, but Sarah did not pay any attention to her. Lorelei got her mom's attention and said, 'Mom, Look at ME!' Sarah asked her why....she said 'Cause I crying!'

Still standing...however wobbly

We came across this scene during our one and only rambling drive...it is as far off the road as it appears in the top photo. It struck a cord of lonesomeness in me...wondering about the lives that were lived there. I wondered was it an old bachelor or was it a family. It was probably at least half an hour to the nearest store with today's travel...let alone back then.

I wondered how long they would stay on the place without seeing another soul to talk to. That would be the time when a big family would really be a blessing...imagine being an only child living there.

And with all the hills, hollers and rocks in the general area, I thought what a rough ride it would have been to go any where in a wagon. It would have jarred your teeth loose if you weren't careful. The field right around this house did not seem to have all the rocks sticking out of the ground that so much of the area had...but still they would have had to pass through it to get any where.
I zoomed in for this view...don't you wish you knew its story? And wouldn't you love to prowl around the area to see what you could find?
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I went for my first session of physical therapy on my shoulder/arm. It is not going to be rough...just time consuming. And there is no danger of her making the tear in my rotator cuff worse. She really made me feel reassured in that area.

She could tell that I don't deal with stress well...told me I needed to learn better ways to deal with it. I told her I come from a long line of worriers...LOL It is easier said than done. She gave me a couple little exercises to do to help loosen up the muscles in the arm, plus a breathing exercise to help me relax. It really works if I do it right...but the way I am I have/need to do it often.

For now, I am signing off with the intent of laying down...she did say we should be able to have me sleeping better fairly soon. Right now this 2/3:00 a.m to 5:00 and 6:00-6:30 a.m. thing is for the birds. I get up then and feed the cats, then try to prop up on the couch or in the recliner for more sleep...and I do usually sleep some but it is not restful...I wake every little bit.

Do you see anything???

The other day Roger and I went fishing for just a little while out at one of the Izaak Walton strip pits. I took fishing rods plus a book to read. Roger took fishing rods and fly rod and his belly boat....he has had the belly boat for over a year and not had a chance to try it out. So, while he took it out, I would fish a little while and read a little while. After he got back, I was sitting back in my chair and looked up at the tree.

I was farther back than from where this picture was taken, but I was thinking what looks funny about that tree? So got up and walked up closer and seen what you see below. I assume someone had lost them, and whoever came along next found them and put them on the tree in hopes that they would be found later.
Or who knows? Maybe someone put them up there and just forgot to get them. Whatever the reason...we both thought of Lorelei. She likes trying on sunglasses when we are out...and she loves to put on my glasses. She thinks that is just the most fun.

A little Lorelei post....future wrestler or massage therapist

Just have to show a little video of Lorelei...


And then I had this photo from her mommy in my email last night when we got home...

They were outside and she told her mommy, 'I need my gwasses...' so Sarah had to go hunt them for her...

Too tired to think....

This is the Bubbie...this was taken two or three weeks ago. It is hard to take a picture of any of my babies. They never stay still long enough for a good photo, unless they are sleeping. I just wondered if you could see the gleam of mischief in his eyes, and look at his smile....can you see how the corners of his mouth turn up. We call that his smiley face.

He likes to spend time outside, and when we come home, he comes out to the garage to meet us. He tries to hide at the corner and jump out to grab us, but he just cannot hold still long enough...so he comes out and comes to meet us then races to the house ahead of us.

Or if I am out, he likes for me to chase him...then he will turn around and chase me and jump up and pretend to grab me. Like a big cat hunting...
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We are still working on getting stuff transferred to the basement. I got my shelves moved down today...and a filing cabinet. I got some of the stuff put back on the shelves, but not near all.

And during it all, the cats were up and down with me/us. If they only had thumbs, they could help carry stuff...

Notes on migration

No, not migration of birds. Migration of stuff. Books to be more specific. When our older daughter moved out, I took over her bedroom with my books and desk and file cabinets. I never dreamed she would be moving so far away. I didn't even think Sarah would be moving far enough away to want to spend the night ever again.

Being that they have both moved, and return home from time to time....we are slowly trying to clear out that bedroom till we can set up a spare bed for them when they come home. I don't have a lot of books...I try my best not to buy too many. I try to find the ones I want to read at the library. Yet I have several books that I consider among my treasures. Most of the ones that are fiction, I don't mind moving downstairs.

However, even some of those I want up here. Plus there are the non-fiction books such as Sod & Stubble, and Grass of the Earth and several other books that are letters, or diaries about settling the prairie and the west, diaries of covered wagon women...I just cannot bare to put those where I cannot get to them. So, a slow migration of stuff has begun....I am trying to take my time and enjoy looking at the books and making decisions...

I see books that I think, oh, I want to read that again, or this one will remind me so much of home...just never enough hours in the day to read all I want and to blog all I want...so it is back to the job for me...

But I will leave you with this little video....

And no, it is not Lorelei...if you can believe that. It is a video my nephew sent me. I think it is so much fun to watch.

Post about blogging; totally unrelated to photo

This is from Cumberland Gap, Tennessee...it is the Regimental Headquarters for the 63 TN Vol In....what is bad is I did not notice or read the sign when I took the photo. I was just admiring the logs and windows, etc. I would love to own this place!

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What I have been meaning to blog about for a long time is blogging. Specifically comments. I love getting comments, and I love leaving comments. But I don't always have time to do all I want to do. I may get behind for days, and then will have a day or two where I try to catch up on all the blogs I read/look at.

I like a variety of blogs...some I go to for friendship. Some I love for the photos. Then there are quilt blogs I visit for inspiration. A few are a combination of those listed above.

I have a favor to ask some of you...you can set how your comment form appears. It can come up as a full page, as a little pop up window, or embedded below the post. I definitely prefer for the comment form to be in the form of the little pop up window....that way I can still refer back to what I wanted to comment on. Specially if I get interrupted. How many times does the phone ring, or hubby ask me something, or Lorelei wants me, or a cat wants in...sometimes I get right back to the computer, others it may be hours.

Even the full page is not bad, because there is a link to click and at least see what was said in the post...

The one comment form that I really hate is the form that is embedded below the post. First I type the comment, then I have to choose what type of profile I have; then I hit submit. It disappears as if I'm done, but then if I happen to pause, it comes up again, this time with my name...then I hit submit again. Again it disappears, only to reappear with word verification.

What is more, with this type of comment form, I have to turn my 3rd party cookies on, which I normally keep turned off. Not to mention, I hate to think of how many times I have commented and thought I was done, only to discover that I had clicked to another page before the word verification came up. Therefore, I just wasted my time and that blog got one less comment than it would have.

I used to use word verification, then read a post by Betsy about how she has her comment form set...I forget just how she had hers set...but I set mine similar to hers. I turned off word verification and will probably never use it again. I do not accept anonymous comments, though I do have the option of rejecting or publishing them, I also have mine set to moderate any comment on a post older than a few days...

I know there are a lot of us that really have/or have had trouble with the embedded comment form...so if you want to change yours, and don't know how....it is under the settings tab on your blogger dashboard...click on the tab comments and go from there. I for one would really appreciate it.

I will probably still visit your blog, even if you don't...but it would really be a help if that is changed...

Sawtooth Star, Double 4-patch

The above photo is a cropped portion of the barn below.
Again, this is a barn in Tennessee...on one of the roads less traveled. I would say we were driving for 2 or 3 hours and maybe passed a dozen cars....if even that. Of course, it was a weekday and people were probably at work. Still, that is not many cars...specially if you consider all the area we covered.

And I keep forgetting to tell this little tidbit...we were way back in the hills. Now, almost all the roads we were on were paved...but a lot of them only had just enough room for one vehicle. If you are meeting someone, you have to look for a place to pull off to the side..

Anyway, picture a road like that, and green, green hills on either side. And we come across a couple guys working on a fence...we stopped to talk a minute. The one guy turns around and guess what? He has a Colts t-shirt on....Roger introduced himself to them, and they did the same...well, the one in the t-shirt was the son-in-law of the other guy...and that son-in-law was from Franklin, Indiana!

It just goes to show how small the world is. One time several years ago, one of my boss's daughters was in Switzerland...she got on a train and sat down beside someone. They realized they were both American. So they each inquired of the other about what state they were from. Imagine, both are from Indiana. Of course, the next question is...what city....and both answer oh, a small town you have never heard of....guess what...they were both from Rosedale (population 725 in 2010)...well, at least that is their mailing address. Just imagine meeting each other for the first time thousands of miles from home...across an ocean, in fact.

Juvenile Bald Eagle!!!!

Roger spotted this juvenile bald eagle not 10 yards from the car, sitting on a stump in a little pond....but it flew up to this light pole before he could focus and shoot. I was able to get out of the vehicle and walk fairly close to get these...
You can click on each one to enlarge it...it was an overcast day so they are kind of grainy.
I have a hard time focusing in normal conditions so an overcast day is really tricky for me.
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My MRI showed I had a tear in my rotator cuff...plus there was a thinning of it and also it showed some calcification. I see a specialist June 1, if all goes well. I have no idea what to expect.
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The toot and her mommy came down Thursday and spent the night...we did not make it a creek because we figured they were all still too high...and today in our rambling drive we did confirm that the ones close to here are way too high. There is one that is about half way between here and her house that would have been okay...so maybe next time we can meet there.

Look me in the eye...

This little fellow was just outside the kitchen door yesterday...he is not the same one that used to come here but I wonder if he is one of her offspring. It did not seem to bother him when I was right down in his face almost to take his picture. It was an overcast day so had shallow depth of field. I can only say I hope he stays around...and I hope Lorelei gets to see him.

If she is anything like our girls, and I am pretty sure she is going to be, she will love almost all wild things. Speaking of her, they went to Lowe's for something yesterday, and they had a water fountain set up...she looked at her mom and asked her where the rocks were...I did tell you that she loved throwing rocks in the creek in Tennessee, didn't I?

Sarah and I are anxiously waiting for the creeks to go down enough to take her to one here and let her play all she wants to. It would be fun if it was when her Aunt comes home towards the end of the month or first of June...I can't wait to see her and can't wait to see Lorelei's reaction to her. Cause Lorelei still mentions her occasionally. I sure hope someday not too terrible far in the future, her aunt gets to move closer to home.

I wonder if one ever gets totally used to their children living far away...sometimes I am okay with it, but sometimes I get so lonesome for her...we passed the turn off for her apartment one day last week and I thought if only...but would rather her to be where she is and doing what she wants to do than to be back here in her old job....and I never go to Terre Haute that I don't wish Lorelei still lived there. That way if her mom wanted to go back to work, she would have a built in babysitter...

My irises are starting to bloom...

This is a new iris to me...it was in a mixed bag I got a couple years ago. I think this is the first time it has bloomed. It is a beauty.
Some of the others are blooming, but I have not taken photos of them....I don't know why. I guess I have been in a kind of funk.

I haven't wanted to bore everyone with things...but hopefully one of them is over with. Roger had another spell of being broken out in this rash. I am not even sure how long it took to get over it, but probably at least 8 weeks, with three trips to the doctor. Maybe even longer. It just seemed like he was never going to get over it. He was in a lot of misery...even while we were in Tennessee. It was the nights down there....soon as we tried to go to bed, he would start itching.

When we came home he saw our doctor....he had just seen the nurse practitioners prior to this. And I am not saying anything against them...I really like both of them. A lot. But our doctor is older than both of them ...I am sure she has been a doctor longer than either of them has been a nurse practitioner. She ran a couple tests this time...which told her it was not lupus and not an allergic reaction.

Then there is me. My shoulder has been bothering me for months now. Started out kind of stiff...then there were certain things I would do that would hurt so bad. I kept thinking it would disappear just as mysteriously as it appeared. No such luck. I am not in constant unbearable pain with it....but moments of excruciating pain when I try to do certain things. And it is getting hard to find ways to sleep that it doesn't hurt slightly. Just enough to not be able to sleep.

Anyway, I had x-rays a couple weeks ago, then an MRI today...so will find out if anything is going on. We are hoping that therapy will do the trick. The doctor gave me a medicine to reduce swelling and pain, plus a topical ointment....and a couple exercises to do in the meantime. I think the medicine is already reducing the pain and I think I am getting more movement back...

Through this with the both of us, I hope we have learned to go to our regular Dr. when it is something like this...I bet she would have had Roger over his rash long ago, and if not would have been working on finding out what it is. She says if it comes back again, she is going to run more tests.

A bright moment in life

I had this video in my email yesterday afternoon....you just have to smile when you listen to her. Hopefully they will get to come over one day this week.

What is left behind...

That stove there in the corner...that is the stove our mom cooked thousands of meals on. Hard to believe that someone my age remembers their mom cooking on a wood burning cook stove. My brother and I often talk about how we were raised. It was as if we were from an older generation....I doubt that there are many people our age that actually remembers and grew up using stoves like this.

I am pretty sure that all of us at one time or another carried in wood and kindling for this stove...and probably at one time or another, all of us sat by it to get warm while we waited for breakfast.

Our mom was not perfect....but I won't go into that. Probably never will on here. But I will say there are 8 of us children and not one of us thinks the other is making up stuff...we all have good memories made up of things we done with each other...for that I am very thankful. I really don't know how we would have made it without each other.

But along with that, I know that some of us think about how our mom lived and worked and never really had any of the normal things we take for granted. Just so many little things we don't even give a second thought....

As far as I know, my mom did not have her hair cut by a beautician till after I left home, in 1975. I think some of my sisters would give her a home perm when they were home for a visit. And she may have had a sister that gave her one every now and then, but I am not sure about that.

Mom did not drive, so she was lucky to get to town once a month when I was young, but as us kids got older and got our driver's license, we took her. I am not sure how often my brothers took her, it still may have just been once every two or three weeks....why go when you don't have money to spend? I do think once I got my license, we went more often.

Mom wasted very little money. About the only thing we ever spent extra was if we found a paperback western by Zane Grey....and every now and then one by Grace Livingston Hill or Emile Loring...but mainly the only ones we bought new were Zane Grey. You just cannot imagine how excited we were when we found one. I don't recall how it was decided who got to read it first...cause my mom and I and my oldest brother read every one we could get our hands on...not sure about Neal back then. I know he has since read them.

Also, once in a blue moon there would be a magazine with a picture of a quilt in it, or even an article about quilting. Before she died, there were at least a couple quilting magazines, but I don't know what she would think now with all the different magazines dedicated to nothing but quilting. (And talking about quilting, I would be afraid to hear her reaction to my stash of quilting fabric.)

When I have company coming, I can easily run to the store for anything I need. And I really don't have to worry about how I am going to pay for it. Mom would usually try to get to the store if she knew one of my siblings was coming home for a visit, but she couldn't just go and buy whatever she wanted...she had to sit down and decide just what she basically had to have. For the life of me, I don't recall what those things were...probably eggs, and maybe bacon...depending on if we were milking at the time, she might have had to buy milk and butter, also she would probably have bought chicken to fry and ground beef for a meatloaf.

Other than that, she could come up with a meal from all the stuff she canned and stuff she put in the freezer. And probably even some of the bacon she used was from hogs we butchered. She was quick and efficient in the kitchen...and cooked three full meals every day that we had company.

When it was just us, she cooked breakfast...but not always a big breakfast. That being said, she always made a pan of biscuits. And she cooked a full meal at lunch, which we always called dinner....and she always made at least one pan of cornbread. When I was young, she usually made two pans.

Then when supper rolled around, she warmed up what was left from dinner, and if more was needed she would cook little bit something extra....fried okra, fried green tomatoes, or whatever. But mostly, she cooked enough for both dinner and supper when she fixed the noon meal.

These are just a few of the most obvious things...I will hush about it now...just wanted to spend a bit of time thinking about the positive things about mom.

So, being that Mother's Day is tomorrow, I hope all of you have a wonderful day and that you get to be with the ones you love....

The picture says it all....

We ran over to see the kids today...I think Lorelei's face tells all. She liked her little dress and did not want to take it off.

Were you born in a barn...

Just think...if you lived here and someone asked you if you were born in a barn...you could answer yes! Notice the deck, and the fuel tank in the above photo...and that is an air conditioner up on those legs right next to the barn/house...
We had a couple errands to run today and took a little side drive before coming home...and I spotted this place. I couldn't believe my eyes when I notice the deck. The more I looked it dawned on me that my eyes were not deceiving me...and that it wasn't just wishful thinking.
I half expected to come around to this side and see garage doors, but instead saw these windows. I would pay money to see the inside of this place!

Tank top + a little fabric

I have heard of others taking t-shirts and a little fabric and making dresses for their toddlers. I had been meaning to try it for a long time and this evening I finally settled down to do it. Of course I don't have Lorelei here to try it on, but I think it sort of cute. The only thing, I am second guessing my fabric choices. Click the photograph to enlarge it and tell me what you think...

Photos from Sarah

All of these were taken by Sarah, with the exception of the one of her and Lorelei...which Jeremy took.
First of all, that is Jackson above--Lorelei's little cousin.
This is Lorelei playing in water, of course!
And here we have Jackson on his slide, with Lorelei peaking out. I think you can tell by the smiling face how much she enjoyed him.....
I love the look in Lorelei's eyes as she looks at her daddy....
and you all know who this is....

They are sitting on upstream from the mill in Cumberland Gap--that is the headwaters for Gap Creek....it goes by home. By the time it gets the few miles down there, it is wide enough to flood fields when we have a lot of rain...and also floods the road in two places by home. There is a way out through another farm...but the average person would not be able to do that.

There were two or three summers that we played in that creek almost every single day....and it was always so cold....but George mentioned that when they were at the Gap last summer that it was warm....that totally surprised me. My brother said that now when the water level gets real low, that it does get warmer.

In recent years, since they put the tunnel through the mountain for the road, Gap Creek gets lower than we have ever seen it. Plus there is a spring up near our old place that almost goes dry....and that is something else we had never seen until the Cumberland Gap Tunnel was built.