August 2021 – Asbery's Echoes

August Storm

Last Thursday brought us an overnight storm that was quite the ride. We were all in bed and almost asleep when the wind picked up and we could hear things blowing around. Then the rain started in, along with hail. We knew it wasn’t going to be good.

We were lucky and didn’t have anything too major as far as damage at our place. We had tree limbs down, the trampoline was blown completely away and Drew’s swing set toppled over yet again. Compared to many others, we were very lucky. We spent all day Friday at my folks’ place cleaning up their damage. They had trees down, facia missing from the house and their canopy where they park their camper was destroyed. They had a vent blow off the camper and a little water inside but Joe fixed that right away. My Uncle Jerry came and helped out and we got their yard all tidied up. Their neighbors weren’t so lucky. They had a brand new 5th wheel camper that rolled and was completely destroyed and on up the road there were grain bins destroyed. Crops were flattened, roofs were missing, many many trees down all around. A tree fell on the roof of a friend’s house and left a hole. But nobody injured or lives lost. So, when you look at the big picture, things really aren’t that bad.

We didn’t have homeschool on Friday as Drew helped out with cleanup. We headed over to Dad and Mom’s to assess the damage then came home and put on our work clothes and gathered the tools we would need. In the meantime, a neighbor stopped by and Joe and Drew went with him to help with a tree limb that was down on a power line. Then over to spend the day at Dad and Mom’s where Drew pitched in. His favorite task was dragging tree limbs down to the burn pile using the Mule.

Saturday was spent at home where we cleaned up our yard. Dad and Mom came and helped. The swing set was righted and repaired. We’ll have to purchase a board to finish up that process. Tree limbs were drug to the burn pile, the yard was raked, the patio and deck were cleaned up. The worst part at our place was the amount of dead birds we found, everywhere. They were mostly sparrows. I have never seen so many dead birds after a storm. Joe figured he raked up at least 20 from under the oak trees alone. Very sad.

Then on Sunday a neighbor came over and asked if he could have Drew for the day. They went to the cemetery down the road and did clean up there and then did more clean up at his property at the end of our gravel road. Our road ends in a dead end and the neighbor has property at the bottom where he has a couple of cabins on the river and he had lots of tree limbs down. Joe and I ended up down there later and helped them finish up. Then we sat in his screened in porch and visited for awhile. It was nice to catch up.

All in all it was a very busy and exhausting three days. We didn’t get anything done we had planned for the weekend as clean up was first priority. And it was a great learning experience for Drew as he got to witness first hand family, friends and neighbors pulling together to help each other out during a time of need.

Appreciating Home

An evening stroll down to the pumpkin patch.

We’ve been on the go for the past few weeks. Camping takes its toll on me. I love it but we camped two weekends in a row, one trip was three hours away, the other trip was closer to home but was unplanned. Planning, packing, getting everything ready, is a lot of work. Then this past week has been taking care of grandkids, spending a day with the homeschool group, going on a road trip Wednesday for our anniversary, then back to watching the grandkids. Another road trip on Saturday to spend the day with Joe’s sister and brother in law. Don’t get me wrong, these are all things that I thoroughly enjoy. And I am thankful I am able to do them. And yet, when we run like this, so many important things suffer.

When the flowers were blooming before it got so hot and dry here.

As I was outside doing some watering I realized how I’ve spent the past however many days running from one thing to the other and not being able to give anything here at home the attention it needs. The flowers are getting watered whenever I can fit them in. The chores get done of course – the animals always get fed and watered, but there’s no time to enjoy them. Since we’re needing rain badly the garden is pretty much done but what little is left hasn’t been harvested and taken care of in a timely fashion. And the house is a disaster.

This little one needed some extra attention as it wasn’t ready to drink from a bowl as fast as its siblings

I get clothes washed, and hung on the line, folded and then it sits in the basket. I’ve had clean clothes sitting in the dryer for days. I have dishes in the sink that need washed. The floors need swept and vacuumed so very badly. And there’s stuff everywhere. We get home, drop things here and there, then leave again. Oh yes, for the past week we’ve been bottle feeding five baby kittens that lost their mama and that has been a challenge. But this week is finally different. Joe is gone for work, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning in town and that is it. No running. Even next weekend is free from any type of schedule. Of course it starts back up again after that. We have three camping trips planned for September.

Drew got bored while the adults were chatting so he climbed a tree!

Being on the run like this reminds me of how precious spending time at home really is. I look back at all the years I worked full time outside of the home and all the years of running kids to school and sports and band and 4-H, etc. We did all the things we thought we were supposed to do. Everything everybody else we knew was doing. I knew somewhere deep inside that it wasn’t what we wanted or needed but it was expected. I don’t do well with constantly being on the go. I tend to shut down eventually. And I find that I don’t really enjoy anything. I can’t live in the moment when I’m constantly thinking about what we will be doing next and how I will get everything done that needs to be done. Then when I do have a little free time, that time is spent putting everything back in order just so that we can go again.

While the homeschool moms chatted, the kids went on a hike and found a great place to play. Drew insisted I hike with him after everybody left so I could see the “house” they built!

I see so many people on this path. And if it works for them, that is great. It just doesn’t work for me. When I think back to how much running we did with our kids when they were young and then I talk to younger parents today and they talk about all that their kids do, it just exhausts me. And it has to exhaust those kids. There is no such thing as a break between extracurricular activities in today’s world. One thing overlaps into the next and on and on. They travel everywhere, in state, out of state, every weekend, week after week after week. Where is the quality family time in all of this? That time of simply being with each other with no other agenda besides living in the moment and enjoying each other’s company? When you get caught up in all of this you don’t see what you may be missing. I try more and more to not be on the go all of the time. I know now that I really just need to be home.

Weekend at Lake Darling

It was so nice Thursday as we were pretty much the only ones there!

My daughter contacted us right after we came home from our Clear Lake camping trip and asked if we would want to camp at Lake Darling with them the following weekend. And of course, we made it happen! How could we not make it work when it meant spending time with her and our son in law and our grandkids? We had such a great time in a beautiful setting.

We had such a pretty view across from our camper. These guys visited a couple of times.

We spent the weekend relaxing, hiking, playing games and just enjoying each other’s company. There was some really good food to eat too. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Ward and Uncle Jerry and Cousin Todd came for a visit Saturday afternoon/evening which is always a treat. Great Grandma brought homemade peach cobbler and homemade strawberry pie!

There’s nothing like camping to enjoy family. Days and evenings with nothing to do but be together. Very little internet reception meant the kids didn’t beg to be on devices and us grown ups couldn’t spend much time on devices either. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took advantage of the cooler temperatures. There are paved trails along the lake and through the woods that are great with little kids as they can ride their bikes and scooters. There are also trails to hike that aren’t paved which we plan to walk someday too.

There was a mink running along the shoreline here. He ran under the bridge we were on when I took this picture, crossed the creek and ran back under the bride. He was a pretty little critter!

A little coffee and early morning reading for me! I like to get up before everyone else and have some alone time and listen to the campground wake up.

The early morning sun peeking through the trees

Grandpa and Braxton having an early morning discussion

Drew starting an early morning fire to warm me up

Bayah may have gotten tired so Daddy gets to carry her scooter while Grandpa gives her a ride

UNO in the evenings. When Abby and Jeremy were dating we would play UNO at the campground, now we’re playing UNO with their kids!

Grandpa is trying hard to convince Bayah that there’s a crocodile in the lake. She knew better!

Camping has been a favorite of ours for quality family time for years now. And it makes my heart happy to have my daughter and her family camping now too. She said once that she has such great memories of our camping trips when she was growing up and she wants her kids to have those same memories. Joe and I are blessed that she wants to include us in those memories!

Happy at Home

This has been a busy week at work for Joe. He’s been leaving the house early in the morning, taking his coffee to go, and getting home late in the evening, long after supper. Sunday evening when we were talking abut the week to come, he asked if I was going to need to go anywhere this week. I said I did need to get to the store to get supplies needed for our camping trip and to get chicken feed but I was flexible on when I would need to go. He asked if I could wait until Thursday morning. He would be home on Thursday. The back of the pickup is loaded from last weekend’s camping trip and he really didn’t want to unload everything for me to take the truck to town if he didn’t have to. I was fine with that. The only downside to me having to stay home is the longer I’m home without going anywhere at all, the harder it is to get me to leave. I’m just happy to stay home.

This has been a busy week for me even though I haven’t gone anywhere. The tomatoes have kept me busy! I canned another 9 pints of salsa yesterday. I think that makes 38 pints, and that’s not counting however many Abby has taken home. She’s come over twice to learn how to can. And I’ve dehydrated twice. I’m trying dehydrating the cherry tomatoes, then using the food processor to turn them into a powder. I can use that powder in soups and stews this winter or to make tomato paste and sauce. I decided it was time to dig out the vacuum sealer and see if I could figure it out and I now have two bags of vacuum sealed tomato powder.

I’m planning to chop up more tomatoes today and put them in quart bags to freeze. Any time I need a can of diced tomatoes for a recipe I’ll just pull a bag out of the freezer. If I have this stuff on hand, I don’t have to worry in the winter if there’s a big storm or if Joe is gone and I don’t want to have to go to town. I can go to my pantry or freezer for what I need! That makes me happy!

I also froze four more quarts of corn. On a sad note, when we checked our sweet corn Sunday evening we discovered that either racoon or deer had gotten every single ear. To say I was unhappy would be an understatement. I fed the rabbits well this spring as they got all of my cabbage plants and all of my carrots and kohlrabi. I’m definitely going to have to figure out how to fence in the garden next spring to keep those pesky rabbits away. And now the corn is gone. I was blessed to have a neighbor drop off some corn so we’ve had fresh corn on the cob and I’ve been able to freeze 9 quart bags but that’s not near what I was planning to have in the freezer. But, it’s better than none at all!

This morning Drew asked if we could start school. I love that he asked! So, we dug out the new math program and jumped in! My original plan was to spend this week getting everything organized and ready so we could officially start next week. Then an impromptu camping trip camp up for this weekend, Thursday evening through Sunday, and having to keep the grandkids three days next week to help Abby out seems to have pushed that starting date back. I guess we’ll do what we can when we can and officially start a little later. But, just knowing that Drew is asking makes me happy!

And so I’ll spend the rest of today chopping and freezing those tomatoes, making cucumbers and onions with the last of the cucumbers from the garden, and making out my shopping list and menu for the long weekend coming up. Oh, and packing up our clothes and everything we need in the camper that can be packed early. Abby asked if I could bring the dehydrator so she could dehydrate her abundance of cherry tomatoes at the campground. That makes me happy too, knowing that she’s starting to have an interest in gardening and food preservation.

Oh yes, I can’t forget the laundry hanging on the line that needs to be folded and brought in. And we watched our chrysalis turn into a Monarch this morning. The eggs need gathered and the chickens need to be fed and watered along with Rambler and the kitties. And of course I have to fit stitching in somewhere as I have orders I’m working on. There is always always something to do. And doing these things makes being home a happy place to be!

Clear Lake

We spent the past weekend camping at Clear Lake. It’s a trip we try to do annually. We have friends we enjoy camping with who live there and they invite us every year as Clear Lake also has a big car show this same weekend. So we combine the two, camping and cars. The guys love it!

The weekend starts out Friday night with a parade of cars cruising around the lake while spectators sit out and watch them go by. We sit in lawn chairs and enjoy the show. I have to be honest, for me, this is the most enjoyable part of the car show and yet about halfway through I get tired of watching vehicles going by. Drew and I rarely last the whole cruise, we pack up our chairs and head back to the camper early and enjoy a little quiet time before everyone else comes back!

There was a bed and a TV and some pretty neat decor inside this guy!

Saturday brings us uptown to walk around all the vehicles. It was interesting to see which cars Drew was drawn to. They have them all. Old, new, high dollar, old jalopies, you name it they are there.

As quickly as I lose interest watching the car cruise, I lose interest even more quickly when it comes to walking around in a crowd of people looking at cars. I do enjoy seeing the old vehicles, they have so much style and class. And I enjoy the muscle cars, they remind me of my teenage years. But I can only be in a crowd for so long before I have had enough and the same with looking at cars. But I tag along and try to enjoy myself as Joe and Drew have a great time and I enjoy seeing them bonding and having fun.

About halfway through the car show uptown we come to the lake which makes a nice break. Behind us are the cars and the people and the noise. But if you can tune all that out for a few moments, you can enjoy a beautiful view, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore and watch the sailboats go by!

When we got back from town Drew and I walked down to the beach. He was wanting to swim and I was needing some quiet time. Unfortunately when we got down there we discovered the beach has become a place for all the party boats to congregate so there was loud music and people. But thankfully they were all out on the lake and not up on the beach so even though we had the pleasure of seeing and hearing them, we weren’t actually with them! Drew swam a little while I sat and watched. We enjoyed a little bit of nature on our walk back and found this really interesting rock that looks like a silhouette of a person. The rock is in the camper and has joined a few other treasures we have collected from past camping trips.

The evenings always mean a campfire and s’mores. The weather was great as it was warm during the day, it cooled down enough to enjoy a fire in the evening and then a little rain overnight. It couldn’t have been nicer.

Sunday morning saw me up bright and early before anyone else. I enjoy getting up early to sit outside with my cup of coffee and listen to the sounds of the campground waking up. I love camping. Joe and I have camped pretty much all our married lives. We started out camping with friends. Those friends have changed throughout the years as circumstances have changed for all of us. But as I get older I’ve discovered that I really enjoy camping with just us the most. No schedule, no agenda, just setting up camp and taking it day by day. We’re taking the camper back out this weekend to camp with Jeremy and Abby and the grandkids. I’m looking forward to this. Chances are we won’t ever leave the campground unless we head over to visit Uncle Jerry and see what new animals he has for us to enjoy. We’ll go on hikes and bike rides and just enjoy the lake and nature and being together. This is what I enjoy most. The days of being with a group, constant talk and noise, games and being loud, I just don’t enjoy that anymore. I guess I’m getting old!

Home

I just can’t decide which I like better – the zinnias or the cosmos. So I brought some of both into the house to enjoy!

“A home is for functionality. Not a show place.”

I read these words today and they resonated with me. Now, I would never say my home is a show place. It’s just a simple, little, very old house. It has rooms and they all have four walls – no open floor plan here. It has cracked plaster and worn floors. It’s been added onto and I have to be honest, the addition was not done well. The original part of the house, the over 100 year old part, is built to last. The addition, which was put on long before we bought it, was not. The floorplan is wonky. When we had it appraised years ago, the appraiser said the floorplan was odd but works. When we bought this place, 31 years ago, I didn’t really want it. The only positive for me was it was in the country. And it wasn’t going to be our forever home. And yet, 31 years later, here we are. And this is home. I’ve grown to love this little house.

Drew had been gone visiting my sister for a few days so my little kitchen table was pretty and neat with a vase of flowers sitting in the center. He was home for maybe a 1/2 hour and this is what it looks like now! He did leave the vase of flowers for me to enjoy too!

I’ve raised four kids in this little three bedroom/one bathroom house. We’ve eaten countless meals and played countless games at the dining room table. We’ve spent countless hours sitting in the living room talking and just being. I’d hate to guess how much time I’ve spent in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes. When you live in a little house with that many people, if you’re truly living, you really can’t have a showplace in the sense that you have a beautiful, spotless home with everything perfectly in place. Just the opposite. Even when you’ve spent hours cleaning and picking up, there will still be a mound of shoes at the backdoor, eggs in a basket on the kitchen counter, piles of books and toys scattered here and there, a project started and not yet finished on the dining room table. And that is how it should be. A comfortable place to just be. To live. To function.

My dining room table right now. They just keep coming! And I just keep trying to keep up!

We used to entertain here quite a bit. When the older kids were younger and our group of friends also had kids, we would have people out. The kids would play together in the bedrooms and the adults would play games and cards at the dining room table. We had lots of fun. That slowly changed over the years. As the kids got older and involved in extracurricular things, our time was spent with our friends at these functions. Then the kids grew up and moved out. Now entertaining means the kids come over to visit. And bring the grandkids. And this little house pretty much stays the same. We’ve done some improvements here and there and there’s many more that need to be done. But for the most part, it’s stayed the same. It’s home. It’s lived in and loved. It functions. Not as a showplace but as a home. And that makes me happy.