What's Typical?

What's a typical day for me, now that I'm retired?

That's not an easy question to answer. Each day is different and each is full of so many activities it's hard to say what's typical.

Last Friday I went to yard sales. I came back with a lot of things I'll be listing online. And I found a lovely old bed and dresser set for the log room that isn't even built yet. (Ummm, I already have all the furniture I need for it now, and Larry says don't buy any more. Okay, okay. He's right--but we did need the bed and dresser and these were such a good deal.) When I got home it was canning time. Peaches for the rest of the day. Fun. Really. In the evening we visited some friends and I helped her with her tomatoes.

Saturday and Sunday I canned, but we took a little break Saturday evening to go to a local auction. Nothing exciting there except the cute little boy who sat beside me. He was a miracle child, his mother said, born at 25 weeks and has already had 3 major surgeries--and he's only 7. He was so well-behaved he was a pleasure to sit with.

Larry spent his weekend fixing my car (replacing the big belt before it broke) and mowing our son's grass and our grass, as well as digging on the footer for the log room. He's got it finished and will be ordering sand, gravel, cement and block for the foundation this week.

Yesterday I worked on routine housework in the morning. After canning all weekend I needed to catch up. So it was laundry and cleaning up clutter, sorting paperwork, and making a grocery list for today. Then I got to work on preparing some promotional letters for mailing. I also needed to respond to emails and clean out the spam emails.

Next was eBay. I had packages to prepare for shipping, items to list, and general catchup work there. Then more of the same with my book sales on Amazon (not as much work to do there), and then write my blog and catch up on Facebook. By then it was time to cook dinner and spend a little time with Larry. After dinner I worked on more promotional letters and got my mailings and list ready for today.

This morning I did some quick housework, researched gas refrigerators and then left for town. Grocery shopping, library, post office, bank--the usual stops. Now I'm home and back at work on eBay since they are offering a "listing sale" and I can list items for a penny and I can't miss this opportunity. This evening I'm heading to Parkersburg with a friend to attend a program about ghosts.

Tomorrow I will be cleaning house and cooking because one of my sisters is coming to visit! I know we'll get into something fun while she's here. Then on the weekend more family is coming in for the holiday, so I see a cookout or two on the horizon, and maybe a big country breakfast crowd too.

So that's how it's been recently. I've been up early to enjoy the cool, fall-like mornings, and stop often when hanging my laundry to listen to the sounds of birds and bugs and no human noise at all. It's peaceful. In the evenings we sit out on the yard swing or on the patio and play with the dogs before we head in--Larry to watch a movie, me to do whatever I'm into that night. Bedtime comes around 11pm for me, earlier for Larry.

The days are certainly full. I realized the other day that I never had any adjustment difficulties at all. No longing to go off to work, no missing the routine, no wishing I could sit in an air-conditioned office instead of sweating over a canner. I wondered if I would feel any of those things--once in my past I worked full time for a brief period as a mail carrier, and when it was over I was at a loss for a week or more. This time, there wasn't even a hiccup of longing.

My New Co-Worker

This is our office:

It's been kinda messy lately. We've had some big projects going on.

And this is Irene, my new co-worker:

We get help from a couple other big guys from time to time:

Our workstation is a pretty efficient machine so we can get a lot done in a day.

Irene had been in retirement in a lady's garage when I hired her for a fee of $5.00. Once she cleaned up she was perfect for the job. I don't know how I managed without her. She can boil a gallon of water in no time and has a huge pouring spout and a lid that stays on no matter how far she is tipped. Her handle doesn't usually get hot either. She's quite a gal.

Meet Daisy

We weren't looking for another dog, but then we seldom are looking when "new" pets join our household.

Saturday morning I was up to my elbows in peaches when the phone rang.

"Mrs. Holstein, are you missing a black lab? A female?"

I could answer that quickly enough. "No, both of our dogs are male and they're right here."

Turns out the someone either dumped a young female lab at the community center down the road, or else she was lost and far, far from home. She'd been at the center for several days, the caller told me, and he and others had been feeding her.

"She's a real nice dog. It's just a shame for someone to leave her like that. Guess she'll have to go to the pound."

It was hard to get a photo of this hyperactive girl.

"Well...maybe we can take her." What was I saying? We had two dogs already, one from the shelter and one from one of my sons who could no longer keep the old dog. We had two cats too. We don't need more mouths to feed. But the old dog was getting older and Otis, the younger dog, could not get old Jeb to play any more. Maybe she could be company for Otis?

 Off she goes...

Her name is Daisy, we decided. She has only dug up on flower bed, is not interested in chickens or turkeys (a key requirement for any pet we own) and loves to play. She and Clyde the cat are fast friends, spending hours chasing each other around.

..and here she comes again!


I think she might stay. We'll see. I am slow to commit to an animal; I need to see how they behave for at least a week before I decide they can stay. Living up here is rough, and there are requirements for all tenants. Like no chasing the poultry. No pooping in the yard (well, they forget that one sometimes); no getting on the porch; don't bark all night (unless there is good reason to, like all the other dogs are barking). No fighting with the other pets. No biting anyone. No growling without reason.

Sounds like the 10 Commandments, doesn't it? "Thou shalt not jump up on people." "Thou shalt not lick Granny's hand." I hate being licked--but they forget that one a lot too. Where's the doggie confessional?

Poor Otis--he stayed far, far way, with droopy ears and sad eyes.

Otis' nose was seriously out of joint all day yesterday; he was jealous! Which is odd considering that he loves it when Benson comes to visit. But Benson comes with other people in their car. Daisy arrived with us in our car. Oops. I think he's over his pout and is on the way to enjoying his new playmate.

Looks like we'll have a lot of 3-dog nights.

Busy, Busy

Hard at it the past couple days: putting up elderberries and peaches and pickles, a few tomatoes. The elderberries are juiced and ready to make into juice and a cough syrup I want to try. There are also elderberries drying in the oven.

We visited our son last night and his peaches were ripe so after working on peaches most of the afternoon, I came home with over a bushel of more peaches. These are very small and will take a lot of time to work up, but they are delicious. Larry brought in another bucket of cucumbers this morning so pickling is in the forecast again.

Today I did no canning although I certainly had planned to. First we needed to do some catchup cleaning around here, getting laundry put away, etc. Then we worked on the hot water heater. We've been at this project off and on for months it seems. The dryer too. Both are gas and both will save us money because the gas is free and the electric isn't. I am happy to report that both are now working. Hurray! Next is to order the gas fridge--on the to-do list for tomorrow.

Beyond that I just nursed along a headache and muscle spasms in my shoulder and neck. Ouch. They're better now and I hope to see the end of them by tomorrow morning. Tonight is writer's group, so I'll sign off now and get myself ready to go.

See you tomorrow!

Quilt Roundup

I was lucky enough to find three quilts during the past month's travels.

The first one I found was an an antique mall in Virginia. I expected high prices at this mall due to its location in upscale Fauquier county. This quilt, however, was tagged as a "cutter quilt," meaning it was only good for cutting up to make craft projects. I thought it was beautiful--completely hand-stitched, with a few damaged pieces in some of the squares. I will not be cutting it up! I may attempt to repair the damaged places, or secure them so they don't get worse, but this quilt is one I will use a a blanket.

The back is just as pretty as the front, with delicate small stitches forming patterns in the white backing:

The next quilt I found at Reta's Antiques in Ripley, which is run by my old friend Reta Groves and her husband Junior. Normally a quilt bought at an antique store would be high priced, but this little gem was priced at $45.00:

I know no one who is turning 40! I may remove this embroidery, or I might just leave it as is.

The last quilt I found at a resale shop:

It has a few bad bits of stitching but is overall in very good shape. While it is mostly hand-stitched like the others, I believe this one is actually commercially produced, very likely in China--such quilts are available very inexpensively, but the work and materials in them are not high quality and they don't hold up well. Still, for $4.95 I think this one was a great deal.

Three quilts, total investment: $65.00. It's been a good month for quilts.

Throw-Away Soup and Grape Juice

That's soup made from leftovers that might otherwise be thrown away. Today's soup was made from about a cup leftover boiled squash in butter, 4 leftover tomato slices from breakfast, and half of a grilled chicken breast left from dinner. A trip to the garden supplied a handful of royal burgundy beans (purple when raw, green when cooked), a couple stalks of celery, one onion and one big leaf of cabbage from a plant that had been beheaded already. From the cellar I grabbed a handful of potatoes.

All the veggies were cleaned, chopped and put into the pot together. I added a bouquet garni that contained a piece of chive, some winter savory, some parsley and some thyme. I added about 3 cups of water and a chicken bouillion cube and set the soup to cooking. About 20 minutes later it was done and filling the kitchen with lovely smells. I added some salt and pepper and lunch was ready.

It was delicious. A glass of the white grape juice I made yesterday and a thick slice of homemade bread spread with butter and pear conserve finished off the meal.

And to think, most of the ingredients would have ended up in the compost bucket.

I found some good things during my garden visit:

Celery, lilac peppers, a small tomato, some broccoli flowerets, a few cucumbers and the Royal Burgundy beans make a nice still life. The gardens are winding down but there is still plenty to be harvested and still some canning to do.

Today I worked on grapes again. I put up white grape juice yesterday (that's actually a lot darker than the store kind)

and today Larry brought in all of the red grapes and the remainder of the Concords.

I should be a winemaker with all this bounty!

I ended up with 20 quarts of delicious juice and 20 pints of grape jelly (some from the red and purple grapes, and some from the white grapes). We've eaten grapes daily for the past two weeks, too. The grapes don't do so well every year so I am enjoying it.

Big Stone Celtic: A Photo Journal

 Big Stone Gap, here we come! I took this as we headed down the mountain into the Powell River valley and the little town of Big Stone Gap.

I met Wendy Welch and her husband Jack Beck about 12 years ago at the West Virginia Storytelling Festival where they were performing. I'd actually met Wendy previously online on the storytelling listserve Storytell. At that time they were living in Jack's native Scotland while Wendy finished her doctorate. They later moved to Big Stone Gap and established a used book store in the town. I've stayed in touch and have looked forward to an opportunity to re-connect. When I read about the Big Stone Celtic Festival last year, I put it on my calendar as a gotta-do this year.

Big Stone Gap has been made famous by two novelists, almost 100 years apart--John Fox Jr. wrote Trail of the Lonesome Pine and The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (the first American book to sell one million copies) while living here. In 2000, Adriana Trigiani published her novel titled Big Stone Gap and it became a best-seller. She followed up with other stories in the Big Stone Gap series. I read Trail of the Lonesome Pine when I was about 12 years old and fell in love with the Appalachian culture (romanticized, to be sure) that it portrayed. When Trigiani's novel came out I read it as soon as it became available and recommended it to all my friends. A town that inspires such writing must be quite a place, right? It is.

 When we arrived we stopped first at Miner's Park to pick up a program for the festival and to listen a bit to the band Coyote Run, a Celtic Rock band that also performs more traditional material. The band's harmonies are to die for and they know how to engage any audience, rock, traditional Celtic or even old-time. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the miner's statue and the guys in kilts on stage. Such is our wonderful mountain world.

 As I was walking to the ballads workshop, I passed this sign. Whoa! I knew John Fox was from this area, but here was his house? I made a mental note to go back after the workshop, which I did.

 This is the porch of Fox's home, a lovely place for rest and reflection. No wonder he was so inspired here that he wrote about 500 stories while living here.

 Coyote Run came to the Fox home to present a program far different than their stage stuff I'd seen. I liked both!

 Some workshops were held here in "the cabin." I did not have time to learn the history of the cabin and only got to hear the last 10 minutes of Jack Beck's ballad workshop. Next year we need to start our trip earlier! At least we'll know where everything is next time.

There was a lot to do during the day--a person could stay at Miner's Park and hear several different bands, go to workshops and performances at the cabin or the Fox home or attend jam sessions on the porch of the book store (which is housed in a beautiful old two-story white house in the middle of town). I opted for a workshop, a session in the Fox home, and two singing sessions on the porch of the book store. I thoroughly enjoyed singing with the people who gathered on the porch, and was happy to run into Joseph Sobol from East Tennesee State University there and share some ballads with him.

After the day's activities, many people gathered for the final ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) at a local church. Musicians from the day's performances provided the ceilidh band.

 Our friends Jack and Wendy (she in the red and he in the kilt) cut a good figure dancing together)

 The ol' Granny got into the dancing too (only for the last dance, but next time it will be more. Too much fun!)

After the dance people congregated on the book store's porch for more music. A young fiddler tried out her chops with the positive encouragement of seasoned musicians. She played Soldier's Joy, Sally Ann, Cluck Old Hen and several others, an amazing repertoire for one so young.

We headed home before dark, sorry to miss the evening get-together that was just beginning. but had to stop for one last long farewell look.

Good-bye, Big Stone Gap. You are too lovely for words.

Kitchen Report

Today's canning: 4 quarts of turkey, 2 quarts of broth and 6 quarts of grape juice. I'm still making pickles and figure to add a few quarts of those to the booty from today's work.

You may be wondering, why on earth is she canning, let alone cooking, turkey in this weather? The reason is that we eat a lot of turkey. We raise our own, and cook one a month. One turkey for two people is a lot of meat, so usually we have it for dinner, then pick the rest of the meat from the bones and freeze it. I like to cut the breast meat out in two large chunks; those are saved for when we have visitors because they make a nice meal or lots of sandwiches, whichever is needed.

This time I decided to can the meat because it's very handy to have some jars of canned turkey in the cellar for quick suppers, soups and casseroles. I also stewed the bones with bay leaves and onion to make broth. I used the broth to cover the meat in the jars, and then canned what was left. There's nothing like broth to start a good soup or stew.

We planned to work on the peaches today. We picked them but they are still too hard so they will have to wait a little to be processed. I will  make them into jam as I am completely out of peach jam.

The grapevines are loaded this year, especially the Concords and the Niagaras. Niagara is a white grape and has a delicious flavor. Larry picked a bushel of Concords so I used those to make juice. He went back out and picked almost a bushel of Niagaras, too but those are in the fridge to be done later. There are still grapes on the vines so I will be into this juice-making process for a while. We already have all the grape jelly we need.

Cucumbers are just going crazy, producing enough to make a batch of pickles every day. Which is a good thing because this family sure likes pickles. I've lost track of how many I've made so far, but I think it's about 40 quarts of dills and a few bread-and-butter. I made some yesterday and have some ready to finish up in the kitchen right now. Yesterday was also tomato canning day; I still don't have enough but I'm getting closer to my goal of 50 quarts. Our tomatoes and corn are not doing as well as usual due to the dry, hot weather this summer.

I dried yellow squash yesterday for squash chips. I sprayed the slices with Pam and sprinkled with salt and they came out very tasty. They are still not as crisp as I would like, but I enjoy them as they are, and I'll try again. They are a good snack to have around.

It's nice to see the cellar filling up!

Railey Ridge Report

Crisis in the Chicken Yard

A hawk flew over the chicken yard this morning, creating panic and pandemonium among the residents. The rooster reports that all is well and order has been restored. There were no casualties. They turkeys extended their sympathies to the upset hens and asked what a hawk was anyway.

Security Forces on the Job
Jeb and Otis noted that there was some suspicious activity around the ridge last night but due to their incessant barking intruders were kept at bay, although Ridge residents are bleary-eyed from lack of sleep.

A Cat-astrophe
Some consternation ensued for Clyde and Charlie when the Old Man did not get up at his usual time yesterday, delaying their morning milk serving until almost noon. The cats plan to file a complaint with the Old Granny.

Ripley Visitors
The Old Granny visited Ripley yesterday to have breakfast with her granddaughter and great-granddaughter. Great granddaughter was much impressed with how the Old Granny could mimic the Old Man snoring, and confided that her daddy 'nores too.

Traffic Report
State Road trucks will be safe on Joe's Run today as the Old Man does not plan any outings. For more information about why the trucks are safe, ask the Old Man--or my car's back bumper.

Weather Report
At the moment, skies are blue, dew is heavy, the air is fresh and all is right with the world.

Kitchen Quips
Tomatoes and cucumbers won't can themselves so it is time for this Reporter to quit playing and get to work.

Vintage Thursday

I've done so much junking, flea-marketing, yard-saling and overall gathering in good stuff in the past week that it's hard to know where to start. Here's a few things added to the eBay page:

Old wine bottle with a pretty grape pattern and its original lid;

 Hazel Atlas pitcher in the Colonial Block pattern;

 a cute country angel;

 and a nice vase complete with cherubs;

 an Avon bottle in milk glass;

 two awesome solid glass bookends;

 some old cake plates or dessert dishes, probably German or Bavarian but unmarked;

These lovely herb-patterned dishes,

and a lot, lot more.

Tomorrow: canning! a bushel of tomatoes and half a bushel of cucumbers await. No more play for this woman.

On the Road Again...

but not storytelling today. Yesterday grandson Jared moved into a new apartment for the coming college year, and Poppa Larry helped. Our youngest son Tommy, who is Jared's uncle but only 5 years older, helped too. In the process of the move the guys and Jared's roomie managed to misplace a cell phone, 2 wallets and a set of keys. All ended well with the furniture and boxes moved in despite pouring rain and negotiating a narrow staircase to the second floor with a huge sectional sofa.

Except that one of those missing wallets ended up in Larry's truck, about 150 miles away from its owner. Solution? Drive back to return the wallet to its owner, which we did today. I went along with Larry so I got a chance to see my baby boy (who is not quite such a baby anymore) and to see Jared's new place. It was a good trip and a nice visit.

Then we stopped at an estate sale near Jared's and came out with some real goodies, like 2 of the old wood bushel baskets (one with one of those plastic liners that women used when they used the baskets for laundry), a wood magazine rack that happened to have a lucky head's-up penny in the bottom (you know if you've been a reader for a while that I am obsessed with picking up pennies), a big old teakettle that will be great for boiling water for canning, some wineglasses for 10 cents each, a big wood furniture clamp that will go to son Derek who does some woodworking from time to time, and a few other odds and ends. I liked the ladies who were having the sale. The things were their mother's and it was hard for them to part with some of them, but they were happy to know that the things I bought would be put to use in my house. I really, really wanted to buy the Hoosier-style cabinet with the sifter that was in very good condition (at $150 a real deal), and a couple other old-style kitchen cabinets but I have absolutely no place to put them. I hope they find good homes.

And then as we drove back through Ripley we discovered a new auction that apparently is held every Tuesday night! Who knew? Of course I had to stop and check it out, and came out in less than 20 minutes with a wrought iron patio set that has those springy chairs--four chairs and a round table for $50! I was a happy woman. I hate the plastic patio furniture and the Walmart kind because it doesn't last. These will hold up for a long time, and being metal they can be welded if they break. I've been looking for a set for a while so I was happy to find one I could afford.

So that was my day today--not at all what I anticipated doing, but a very good day all the same.

The Marietta Ghost Walk

It had been a long day, but we were ready for the ghost walk at 8:00 pm.  Tour participants meet here:

 This is the site of the original beginnings of Marietta, the place where the flatboats and stagecoaches carrying pioneers to the frontier would dock so people could stock up for their journey and store things they could not take with them.

Tour guide Jan Adams asked us where we were from and what we had done in Marietta during our visit. I had to admit that we had not stayed in town but had traveled out to Beverly to see the Buckeye Belle gravesite. She was surprised.

"How on earth did you know about the Buckeye Belle?" she wanted to know.

I explained that I was a storyteller and had been in Marietta to tell stories during the Inland Waterways Festival, and that was how I had happened on the story. I also told her that I wanted to observe how a ghost walk was conducted since I am working on the research for a similar type of tour for another small town. She told me about some ghost story books about Marietta and those are now on my to-buy list.

Clayton and Grace were pumped up and ready to go. The tour started by walking down Front Street, which borders the Ohio River, and past a little ice cream/sandwich shop that was sponsoring a bluegrass band because the Ales and Trails Festival was going on and lots of people were in town for that. The music was great! I wanted to listen but I also wanted to hear the ghost stories. So I walked determinedly past.

Our first stop was a place we had tried to go to for dinner last week, the Levee House Restaurant. They were closed when we got there last week but who knew the restaurant was next door to the scene of a gruesome murder? The story dated back to the early days of Marietta when the riverfront was teeming with bars, brothels and bad characters. It was a suitably gory beginning to the tour.

Next stop was the beautiful and historic Lafayette Hotel. We went inside and sat in the ornate lobby as our guide told us the history of the hotel and a few tales of strange things that had been reported there. Nothing gory or fantastic, just....weird.

 
We went to the lower level of the hotel and heard more stories, and I can tell you that place made the hair raise on my neck. There was nothing specific in the stories to cause such a reaction, but still...I would like to be down there late at night and alone to just listen and watch. That's all. The above photo, when enlarged, has faces in it. Creepy.

We moved on to several other buildings in the old town section of town. As we walked we were passed by a horse and buggy tour group and a trolley tour group.

Marietta is on to something good--the people there know their history, have preserved it and are basing part of their economic development on that history. Smart people.

The sun set and the evening grew darker as we continued on our way.

While we saw many old buildings and heard a lot of stories; the one story from the rest of the tour that still haunts me is the tale of a man who died on the roof of his building. That story will stay with me. (As for the above photo, is there are car there, or not? A strange picture, certainly. I did not notice this one until I began writing this post.)

I have found that when I want to truly experience a place, I need to be alone...and quiet. So I often lingered behind the group to listen, watch and feel the area we were traveling. Some of the photos I took while I trailed the others were pretty interesting; nothing specific, but a sense of another time still busily moving about its business. The moon rode high as clouds moved in, setting a mood that fit the evening.

After the tour we walked back to the fountain and ate some excellent ice cream while we discussed the stories we had heard. The Ohio flowed quietly on as a train sounded its mournful whistle on the West Virginia side of the river.

Was the tour what we expected? Yes and no. The children and adults with "paranormal activity meters" on their iPhones were distracting; the stories were very good; there were few of actual ghost sightings, but quite a few odd occurrences. The town is charming, the energy is excellent and I know I want to go back and do some more exploring on my own. Overall, we gave this tour an A+ for information, history, entertainment and interest.

Saturday Tourists: Cupcakes, Antiques, Picnic and Ghosts

After considering many possibilities, we decided that what we wanted to do yesterday was to go to Marietta, Ohio and take the ghost tour around this historic town. It was a good decision, and since we left early we had several adventures along the way.


We headed north on old US 21 towards Ravenswood, intending to stop at the riverside park for a picnic lunch. Instead we made a detour to the covered bridge at Sarvis Fork.

 Picture taking time:

Then we saw that the Silverton Fire Department was having an ice cream social, so of course we stopped. Homemade ice cream, music and meeting with some old friends made for a pleasant and unexpected treat. I can attest to the great ice cream--chocolate was awesome.

No one was really hungry for lunch so we stopped at the River's Bend Antique Mall in Ravenswood and browsed. Grace and I had a great time; Larry and Clayton humored us (and I took this bad photo. Geez. You'd think I'd remember to check the camera settings). I like this store because it has such spacious aisles, no danger of knocking things over. Some antique places are so full I'm afraid to even look. This one has breathing room.

I was impressed with this HUGE barrel--it was a shipping barrel for wool and it is without a doubt the biggest barrel I've ever seen.

I found something I'd been searching for--a glass washboard. I have a small one but this one is the standard size, and the price was excellent. While paying for my washboard I got into conversation with the lady who works there. She is also one of 13 children, was raised near Ravenswood and remembers her mother washing all day on a washboard. We talked a long time, and I will be back to see her. She has many stories to tell.

We left Ravenswood and went in search of Alligator Jack's, a big flea market on the Ohio side of the river. We found it all right---and this place was guy heaven. Guns, knives, weapons of all sorts; food and snacks; movies. For us women there were vintage items, beads, books and all sorts of things to look at. Including this little lady:

Gwen is 14 years old and was shy at first, but soon showed her feathers. She was a real delight, and I appreciated her owner's graciousness in talking to us about her pet.

It was time to find somewhere to eat! We drove on towards Marietta to have lunch in the park I wrote about last week, on the shores of the Muskingum River.

The park is a lovely place, the only downside being that there are no picnic tables. We improvised and had a nice picnic--we'd packed ham and turkey sandwich fixings, pickles, tomatoes, cucumbers, chips, cookies and drinks so we were all set. We decided that since we had some time, we should venture up to Beverly, Ohio to see the site of the explosion of the Buckeye Belle and the gravesite for the 13 unidentified people who were among the victims of that disaster. Imagine that many people dying and no one knowing who they were. Back then a person could pay cash for their fare and no one would even know they were on the boat.

The grave was not difficult to find; I knew that it was near the back fence of a cemetery in town and after asking a young guy where the "old" cemetery might be, we drove straight to the site and found the stone marker. We stood and talked quietly, feeling the past creeping around us like the evening shadows.

As we drove back to Beverly we saw this little brick schoolhouse, which is the oldest brick schoolhouse in Ohio--the Round Bottom School (ahem).

 
A cemetery beside the school drew my attention (surprised?) and this stone in particular caught my eye. Story indeed--surely there are many stories that could be found about those sleeping in this peaceful spot.

At last it was time for the ghost walk. More in my next post!