Memories

One thing I like about Facebook is the "memories" feature, which brings back daily posts from years ago. Many of these are things I have forgotten, little moments that are not particularly important, but still offer a look back at our lives. I though it might be fun to share the ones Facebook offered today.

So on this day in:

2024

I will get hot and sweaty soon, but right now I am enjoying this cool, pretty morning. 

Edit to add, well maybe not so much. Apparently I am sick with a summer cold or who knows what. So on the couch with a fever and sore throat instead of in the garden. Fluids, rest, meds are what I will be doing today. Geesh. 

2022

Water in a 150 year old or so goblet just tastes better.

2021

Sorted my husband's drawers this morning.😲😲😲 Whew. That wasn't on the list for today, but had to be done.

Not his underwear, y'all. His dresser drawers. And his "Chester Drawers".

Patio in 2022. I sure need to repaint that furniture!

2020

So thankful to have some rain at last. About an inch and a quarter after a night of thunder. No watering morning. Yes!

2020

Finished this little thing [table]. I know yellow is not the most popular color, but I do love it. So if this doesn't sell, I'll be finding a place for it here....somewhere... [it sold! Whew]

2018

Took a break from painting this morning to make some noodles :) Spaghetti for today's dinner, the rest to dry for later.

2017

Done for today. Pasta sauce and peach preserves for the cellar, corn and carrots in the freezer, onions pulled and drying in the woodshed. Tomorrow, more corn and last of the green beans. Tuesday, I plan to do nothing but write my article for Two Lane Livin' and study for the upcoming storytelling at the Inland Waterways Festival. Time for a change of pace!

2015

So Larry's  pinky finger is broken ...an open break as the doc calls it, clean in two. Almost cut off. And I had to durn near drag him to the hospital last night. He did it at 3, I got home at 6, andhe was still mowing! He's gonna be the death of one of us for sure. Three fingers stitched up. Maybe he's learned something but I'm not too hopeful that that is the case. Meanwhile, I'm on the way to today's performances while son Derek takes him in for followup. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts!

2014

This morning Larry stopped at the Sheriff's office in town to get my license plate sticker. A man was there with his grandson, and there was also a young lady in line in a, shall we say, well-fitting, short dress. After a few minutes in line, the grandson said to his grandfather, "Grandpa, why do you keep looking at that lady?" 

Grandpa: "Be quiet, boy."

Larry said nothing at all. He was too busy choking back laughter.

2014

Conversation excerpt from the lady behind us in line at the store: "I went to Sissonville High School. When I was 15 I had a boy friend. I wanted to get him a gift but didn't have any money. School lunch was 25 cents back then, but if I cleared tables after lunch I ate for free. I saved my quarters until I had enough money to buy him a $25.00 sweater at the Diamond Department store. It was my only experience with the Diamond, but I married my boyfriend that year. That was 56 years ago and we're still married."

2014

Conversation excerpt from the lady behind us in line at the store: "I went to Sissonville High School. When I was 15 I had a boy friend. I wanted to get him a gift but didn't have any money. School lunch was 25 cents back then, but if I cleared tables after lunch I ate for free. I saved my quarters until I had enough money to buy him a $25.00 sweater at the Diamond Department store. It was my only experience with the Diamond, but I married my boyfriend that year. That was 56 years ago and we're still married."

2013

On my way to tell stories! A good night's sleep works wonders. Rainbow over the park when I woke up. Gorgeous.

2012

Homeward bound after two great programs at small, actiive libraries. Heard a new ghost story too, and got to see so Aaron and his family. New story, rough draft of a new poem, great audiences, interesting towns, the Farmington #9 mine disaster memorial...richness, all of it.

2012

Detour sign at Mineral Wells: Turkeyfoot Rd closed. Take Society Hill. Sounds lie a step up the social ladder.

On the road, following the Ohio to points north today. Sky Tales and Campfire tales as I head into my last Summer Reading programs this week.

2011

Home again after a good day of storytelling, traveling with awesome grandkids and meeting friends. Emily and Jessica, how nice to hear your voices for real and not just online. And meeting your children too. Even if Elliott did think the sand dollar was a communion host and took a scrumptious bite! Memorable. Hope to see you both again.

2010

Getting 4 teenagers up at 7 AM again to get on the road to Moundsville. Maybe Blennerhassett Island too, if the rain holds off. The island with its rich early American history of dreams of empire, duels, death, rebellion, illicit love, rich living in the wilderness, river life, soldiers--why hasn't this story been made into a movie?

2009

Home again from an awesome day of storytelling. Stories and puppetmaking at two libraries in rural West Virginia. The kids who helped with stories and improv puppet shows? They rock--especially the two boys at Center Point library. 

A Productive Week

64°f/about 18°C, beautifully clear and much less humid.

It's a gorgeous morning here, and I am having my tea (Barry's Irish, with milk and sugar) on the porch, just enjoying the lack of heat and humidity. The dogs, of course, are out here too, Buddy doing his guard duty from his self-assigned position.

We have had a lot of garden produce to deal with this week, which has kept us in the kitchen. Larry has been helping with some of it because my left shoulder continues to be a problem, old Arthur Itis rearing his ugly head again. But us old folks manage anyway, don't we? It's just one more challenge to aging.

This was yesterday, snapping beans on the porch while Pip had a nice snooze.

I tried a recipe new to me, pickled 3-bean salad. I have made it uears ago, but this was a recipe for canning it. The salad is marinating in this photo.

. It is really very good, not as crisp of course as if made fresh, but very tasty. I have been hunting for new ways to preserve green beans, as we have plenty already in the cellar. I have made dilly beans before, and they don't seem to be popular with my guys. I think this marinated salad will be a hit. I also canned 7 quarts of beans in the traditional way, but next I want to try a recipe for German green bean soup that I can put up for winter. It sounds promising! Beans, onions, potatoes, and bacon are the main ingredients.

Here is what we have put up this week: from left, broth from the rabbit I cooked up and picked the meat from the bones, made into a stew, and then canned a couple quarts of the stew as well: then dill pickles, zucchini pickles, the canned three-bean salad, and in the back black cherry jam.

Ohand the 7 quarts of beans.

Oh, and more dehydrated onions.

Now I have caught up with the garden, at last! But there is a table full of tomatoes waiting for me, so that will be next. Maybe Saturday. 

Today we have a special treat coming up. For our birthdays, our oldest son gave us tickets to a Vince Gill concert, and also reserved a room for us at a hotel and provided $$$ for dinner out! He is such a thoughtful guy. We had picked out a restaurant we wanted to try, but after all the terrible flooding and damage on Tuesday, we decided we will send that money to someone impacted by the storms. Honestly, we would just feel guilty eating an expensive meal while so many are hurting. And here we are with so much food just sitting here waiting to be eaten. So we will have new potatoes, corn on the cob, yellow squash, tomatoes and cucumbers for our "fancy" dinner--a true feast.

One last photo for today, one that makes me smile:

See that very tall corn in the center? I did not plant that random patch. A few years ago, we grew some Hickory King corn, intending to make hominy. The corn got put up in the cellar top, and we just forgot about it. When I was cleaning up that building this Spring, I found it and figured it wasn't any good. Larry gave it to the chickens but they wouldn't eat it. I guess it was just too hard. So when he cleaned out their coop, he scattered the bedding and the corn on the garden, figuring it would rot away.  One cob of corn decided it wanted to grow, and now i have this strange patch in my garden! To the left of it, you can also see a bit of the rainbow corn--used to be called Indian corn--that I actually did plant. It is pretty tall too, but nothing luke the Hickory King, which got about 10 feet tall last time we grew it. Maybe I will be making a little hkminy after all!

All Good Here

You might gave seen on the news that West Virginia got hit with some bad storms and even a couple tornadoes yesterday. And just across the river, Marietta and areas to its north and west also had a tornado and some bad flooding. The auction house we frequently buy from is right in the worst hit area over there, but i have been unable to find out if they are okay. 

Somehow the storms missed us, going north and south of our county. This was a cell phone tower near St. Mary's,  WV, a small town we have visited several times, which was hit by a tornado:

At Philippi, WV, there was great concern about the historic two-lane covered bridge,  but it seems to have survived, so far.

This map shows how many roads were closed this morning suevto flooding, downed trees, downed power lines,  and even buildings, homes, and other debris washed into the roadways.

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For a while I was worried about my granddaughter Haley and her house, and my son Aaron's family, who all live around Fairmont, WV. I got text alerts that a tornado was heading their way, but fortunately the tornado apparently fizzled out in the hills so it didn't reach them. Whew.

While we are safe and fine, having only got 3" of hard rain, many areas in our state experienced flooding, and there was more than one tornado. It is so sad to see the devastation.  This isn't a wealthy state, and many people already living on the edge are now dealing with huge losses. The randomness of such storms is just hard to cope with. One man was trapped in his car with his year-old child, by a huge tree that fell on his car, but miraculously they were unharmed. I have not heard of any fatalities, yet, which is wonderful. Stuff can be replaced, people can't. 

I know it seems odd, but I feel so personally connected to so much of this state, because I traveled so much of it during the 25 years I was a storyteller.  I got to know the people,  researched their town's histories, and often found stories that I added to my repertoire. Each one feels more like my hometown than the place I grew up. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.