Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Re-posting this, ten years later. Hard to believe he's 45. 

Son number 4, and the biggest baby of the bunch at almost 9 pounds.

Aaron loved to do things for others, and still does--we had just moved to our farm when he brought me these flowers. The smile on his face was almost worth more to me than the gift.

Aaron was almost lost in the drifts of the big snows of 1977 and 1978. Those winters were hard times because the house wasn't really finished, we didn't have a good wood stove, and money was scarce. But those deep snows meant no one went to school for almost a month, and there was plenty of time to play outside.

Always outside, always barefoot, and always a soft spot for animals. I think this cat was called Pattypaws.

Aaron was the star of the Christmas play when he was 8; he had the part of Mr. Scrooge. And boy did he ham it up!



When Tommy was born, Aaron was 13 and suddenly no longer the baby of the family. But he jumped right in, learning to help us take care of the new baby. Tommy had an interesting childhood with so many older brothers. I can remember him being the "girl magnet" they took to town to cruise for chicks. What girl could resist a young man toting around a blond, curly-headed little brother?

Aaron was an uncle when he was 16, when Jordan was born. That's Aaron on the left--who is that nut third from the left?

At 18 and in the Air Force. We missed him a lot during the four years he was stationed on the west coast.

College after the Air Force, then marriage and a little boy who wants nothing more than to be just like his Dad.

And a little girl who is the apple of her daddy's eyes.
It's been quite a journey so far, Aaron. May all your coming years be as good as the ones just passed. You still look pretty good for an old man of 35!

Along Mill Falls Road

(Quick post tonight because I am right tired!)

Last weekend we stayed with my son and daughter-in-law near Fairmont while I was the Mountain State Storytelling Institute. Here are a few photos taken along their road.

Daffodils dot the site of an old homestead. This place inspired a rough draft for a poem that I'm working on.

Up on the ridge the green is not so evident as it is along the creek below.

Forsythia lights the way along Mill Falls Creek.

This sycamore tree seems suspended in mid-air; the soil under its roots is washed away but the tree remains upright.

Weekend: Grandchildren, Snow, Trucks, and Brownies

Early Saturday morning on the ridge, the sun glittered through the ice still clinging to the trees. I don't know if there is a camera that can capture such magic. I was surprised when I visited Glanbrydan's blog to see a photo of her lane--it looked so very like my road. But hers is in England!








Icicles hang from the rock cliffs along Joe's Run. This picture is interesting because I did nothing to it to change the color; the blue is just how the photo came out.

Aaron took this shot of the sun peeking through icy trees on the driveway. Even though the temperatures were rising rapidly, the ice stayed in place until late Sunday afternoon.

James and Michaela were visiting, and we all went out to play in the snow. Did Granny slide? Not on purpose--my main job was to push the little ones off and down the hill.

The snow was melting fast in the 60 degree temperature, which made it perfect for box sledding. What is box sledding? A box flattened, to lay down on and go sliding down the hill!

All our sleds are at Derek's house since he has the kids and a great sledding hill. But the boxes were perfect for little people on a little hill on Sunday.

Poppa Larry couldn't resist taking a ride too. I don't know if the box was the same afterward, but he had a good ride!

Granny's place is a good place for dress-up. The King and Queen were holding court after sledding, snow ice cream and hot chocolate.

Ummm...that Big Red Truck is a tank, but it doesn't go too well if you go in reverse over the side of the driveway when you meant to go forward. Not naming any names, but the one with the initials PL was behind the wheel at the time.

Since the tractor was already out on plow duty, it was only a matter of minutes for Aaron to hook up a chain and pull the BRT back where it belonged. Did I say it was icy? A solid sheet, in fact, underneath the truck in this photo.

Baking time! James and Michaela and I had a great time mixing up brownies. This picture is before they really got into licking the bowl--you can tell by their clean faces.

They both wanted to wear aprons. Both kids took home aprons I got on eBay a few weeks ago. James' is a muslin one with "Yukon's Best" embroidered on it ,a little more manly than the one he wore in this photo.

A fun, fun weekend--the Tannahill Weavers concert, an evening with friends, breakfast at the Downtowner, hanging out with Jaime, grandkids to play with, snow and warm temps.

Did I drop into bed dead tired Sunday night? You bet!

Did we all have a good time? Yes we did.

And I can't wait for the kids to come again. We'll try out some of those new brownie recipes, perhaps.

Grant Town and Ida May

This is just one of the many pretty roads Aaron and I traveled on Wednesday in northern Marion County. You would not guess to look at this land that there are many deep mines under the surface--some active, some long since idle, and a couple with deadly histories.



One of the things I find fascinating about this area is the Italian heritage. Many families are descended from Italian immigrants who came to work in the mines, and the bakeries and restaurants attest to this background. Pepperoni rolls were actually invented in this part of West Virginia, although there still seems to be a little disagreement about exactly who made them first.

We passed this place on the way to Grant Town. I won't say what Aaron called it, but I liked the way it sat at the edge of the road on the little rise. I wonder if it had been a boarding house, a store, a hotel? Hard to say. It may have just been always a residence.

Coal still drives a large part of the economy in this part of West Virginia, although nothing like its heyday. The roads are narrow and twisting, and as you can see in this photo there's no extra room for the big coal trucks to maneuver.



Aaron said that truckers will call ahead in certain areas because tow of them cannot pass each other in those places--like one he called "the dip and squeeze." If you saw the narrow little bridge and sharp curve with no space for shoulders, you'd understand the name. Trucks approaching on either side will call ahead to warn any truck coming in the other direction to wait. Of course, if you're traveling without a radio, you're on your own.

This is the Grant Town power plant where Aaron works. As I understand it, this plant is a recycling plant--they use coal waste from other power plants to generate more energy.

And this is a former strip mine site. Would that all strip mines were reclaimed as well as this one.

On another part of the reclaimed mine, a small forested knoll rose above the landscape. The reason it wasn't tampered with? There is an old graveyard hidden beneath the trees. We didn't investigate as we weren't dressed for hiking, but one day I'd like to go back there.

The post office at Ida May (pronounced, I'm sure, Idy May) is located beside what used to be the mining company's company store. Ida May once was a thriving mine community. It is the tunnels from the old mine that run under the ridge where Aaron's house is located.

There is so much to see in Marion County--the abandoned railroad trestles, the rail trail, The Farmington monument and Monongah. Not all of its history is pretty, but it is filled with stories of people making a living in a dangerous industry, of immigrants making a home in a new place, of ghost stories and small towns and small farms. Sometimes getting off the beaten track, away from the usual tourist destinations, brings the biggest rewards and understanding of people and their place.

Why there was no post yesterday

We spent the day in Morgantown and Fairmont yesterday. Our youngest sone plans to attend WV University in the Fall, so we went up to start the admission process, look at the campus and find out about rentals. I was glad to have a few friends on the campus who could advise us about financial aid, housing, and the student fitness complex (Tommy is a huge fitness buff).

It was a cold, rainy blustery day, but what fun to see the students walking everywhere! Morgantown is very hilly (think San Francisco and except for scale you'd have a good idea) but the kids were walking everywhere and I didn't see many with a weight problem. This chubby ol' granny was huffing and puffing by the end of the day and flat out refused to walk up three floors to view and apartment (sciatica and asthma, along with extra pounds, do take their toll).

In the end, we completed the admission forms, found a really nice apartment complex, and at the urging of our friend in the financial aid office, managed to complete Tommy's FAFSA before the end of the day--March 1 being the magical cutoff date to get good funding.

(Tired Aaron rests on the couch after our busy day in Morgantown. His help as a graduate of WVU was a big, big help).

We also got to spend a little time with Aaron, Jaime, James and Michaela at their home in Fairmont. They're in the middle of a kitchen remodel, and Jaime seemed completely unruffled by wall cabinets on the floor and all the confusion a torn-apart kitchen can cause. Yoga must be good stuff.

James and Michaela wave goodbye as we depart into the night. Although the weather called for snow, we were lucky enough to encounter only rain on the 3-hour trip home.

We were glad to get home, too--something we ate in Morgantown apparently didn't agree with us and we visited a LOT of places on the way home, checking out the restroom facilities! Whatever it was passed on (pun intended) by this morning, thank goodness.

And that's why there was no post yesterday.