From my house to yours, Merry Christmas!

Actually the house below is the one I grew up in! This was taken in 1973...a lifetime ago. The lumber for the house came from our property, my parents had a couple friends that were carpenters--one laid the block foundation. And if I am remembering what I was told correctly, they helped get it framed. But my brothers and all of us helped with all the rest of it. I was not even in school, but I was given a block with sand paper wrapped around it to sand down where two pieces of dry wall were seamed together. This will always be home to me...my brother owns the place now. We go down there on an irregular basis. Hopefully when my husband retires we will have more time to go.

Instead of listening to Christmas music like normal people, I made myself a new tape from songs I have downloaded over the past few months...the first four songs specifically mention Tennessee, and two of those mention Knoxville. I am not from Knoxville, and only been there a few times, but it is the nearest big city to where I grew up. Guess you can tell I sort of been homesick....and it is something that can't be cured. Because I can't go back in time.....

I had to search my photos to find one I wanted to upload...this is one from nearby Parke County. I still have not taken any pictures of Christmas lights. I had the time tonight, but it turned so cold and the wind is just howling again. Nothing sounds quite so cold as when the wind is howling across the flat land of Indiana and Illinois. Anyway, I have been cold all evening anyway and just didn't want to get out in it.

I did sew a couple lines today, but that was it. I am really in the mood to sew, but seems like when everyone is around I have a hard time going down there and starting. I need to make a decision about a couple baby quilts. My oldest daughter wants to make one for one of her secretaries...and my youngest daughter's best friend is due in April. She is having a boy, and I don't have any fun panels to use that would go good for a boy.

I really don't want to get into any more quilts like the Raggedy Ann and Andy one we did a year or two ago. And then a couple years before that, we did one for my oldest daughter's boss's daughter. And we had the mom sneak us a sample of the wallpaper and did a custom one based on the wall paper colors and figure....the more I read the more I have become uncomfortable with doing anything like that because of copyright. I wasn't doing them to sell, and sure won't be doing any more. But I am still just uncomfortable with that whole process.....

So this time around I want simple and quick if at all possible...

I had to change my header picture to this one--it is the same barn as in the previous picture, just a little different view. And the one in the post is actually part of our yard--the creek had flooded and was running through it a little bit...It is hard to describe the feeling that washes over me when I see these pictures. It goes to the very core of my being...a million feelings come tumbling in. The happiness we found at this, at the little shack that we lived in is almost too good to be true.

My husband and I moved to Tennessee and lived on the property this barn belongs to for a little over a year. We only had a wood burner--a Buck Stove to be exact--to heat with. We cut our own firewood. I learned to use a chainsaw then.

We had three channels on our TV: PBS, NBC, and CBS. In that time there we became hooked on Masterpiece Theater, though the main show I remember watching was I, Claudius. I don't remember the show as much as I remember the anticipation of seeing the next episode.

We had a huge garden there--I canned enough green beans that year to last us two or three years. Plus I sold enough to more than pay for all the fertilize, plants and seeds that I had to buy. We didn't have to pay for the garden to be plowed--we used my brother's tractor and plow.

I raised both half-runner and cornfield beans (they are very similar to pole beans), okra, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, pepper, and onions I know. I cannot remember if I raised anything else or not. Oh, I know I had cabbage...I remember making kraut with it.

My husband could shoot from the front yard over to the ridge behind the barn pictured above--I think he could place the target 500 yards. He could shoot his bow and arrows in the front yard. Just an idyllic sort of life for us at that time.

We still miss this place--I dream of it fairly often. In my dreams it is always so good to be there. I was only a mile from my mom and half a mile from my best friend..I visited with both almost daily. If not actual visit, then talked on the phone. That seems a lifetime ago.

I guess Christmas is a time of remembering...seeing these pictures and some others really have me in mood. Kind of sad and happy all at once--just thinking and remembering.