Tom and Huck and a Balloon

68°f/20°C, expected to be in the low 90's today. Hot!

Our 4th was a bit different this year. Instead of going to the biggest 4th of July celebration in the US, hosted by our county seat, or having a picnic or cookout, or any of the other things people do on this day, we were playing Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Not painting a fence, though, but painting our deck.

We are not done yet, still plenty to do. We painted the rail first, moved everything from one end, painted there, then painted the other half.

While waiting for the first half to dry, we went into town (after a good shower, because we were both wringing wet with sweat by the time we were done) to go to a cookout at the local VFW (Veterans if Foreign Wars) club. Larry is a member there but we rarely go to anything because, being a private club, they allow smoking inside the building, and I can't stand being around it; i have very mild asthma that immediately reminds me of its presence. We stayed for a short while, but the cooking was far behind schedule because the cooks were held up by snarled traffic after the big parade in town. I was starving and had had enough of the smoke so we left, and went to one of our favorite restaurants,  where the loaded potato skins are a meal by themselves.

I ended up bringing most of my burger home. The burgers at this place are made from their farm-raised beef. I am not a big beef eater but after having my mind set on a burger, well...

Back home, we moved the deck furniture to the painted end of the deck and got the second half ready to paint. Then we cleaned up yet again and went back to town for a hot air balloon ride.

The ride was underwhelming.  It was a tethered balloon, and only rose about 200 feet. The ad for the ride did not mention it being tethered, so I was pretty disappointed, but after they explained that untethered rides need a very large clear, flat area,  and would cost upwards of $400 per person, I understood! 

Our friend Suzy was on the ride ahead of ours. The way they boarded people was one got off and one got on. So she got off, and I got on.

Don't you love that wicker gondola?

Here, the operator is turning on some fire. Hot!

The moon was riding up there with us.

Down below a quirky Jeep arrived with more customers.

For $20 each we hovered for about 10 minutes above the field. 

Oh well. I must say, those things are hot! They have 4 huge burners that fire up,  literally, with propane, and each ride, holding 4 people plus the operator, burned about $30 worth of fuel. Not a very efficient use of a natural resource. 

I can't even imagine how much it costs to use helium. Even though disappointing, I am still glad to have done it. I have wanted to see what it would be like to ride in a balloon wver since I watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time when I was just a little thing. Now I know. 

We didn't stay in town for the evening musical entertainment (Bucky Covington of American Idol fame), or for the fireworks. We were tired and happy to get home again to our comfy chairs.

So that was our big 4th this year. How was yours? (I must say I was not feeling particularly celebratory this year, especially after that budget bill passed. I just felt sad about what has happened to our country.)

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

Done: Looking Back at the Weekend Sale

Hot. Humid. Happy.

That about sums up our four days selling at the annual antique and flea market in Fairplain, WV. This was our second year as vendors at this market, and it was quite a bit different from our first year.

the rustic corner

The most obvious difference was our space. This sale is held in the county livestock market barn, so when we arrive to set up the place smells, ummm, earthy. And it's dusty. After last year's initiation, we learned a few things. First, we asked for a better spot that had a concrete floor, and we ended up with a bigger (and more expensive) area that had 2 great advantages and one not-so-great that we didn't know about at first.

The old flag looked so good I decided we'll keep it to use at other sales. We sold most of the
windows we brought, and that lamp in the photo

The two good things: good lighting and a big industrial fan overhead. We added more lighting with fluorescent shoplights overhead and a few lamps that I wanted to sell. We also brought our own vintage fan that is an incredible air-mover.

The not-so-good thing: because this was a cross aisle, we missed a good bit of the traffic as people seemed to opt to go around the outer circle and not to go across where we were set up.

We also learned last year that we needed something to cover the rails, as they are not very clean (and being a cow barn, you can imagine what's on them). I bought a roll of white plastic table covering and that worked pretty well, although I think white sheets would be easier, given the fans blowing in almost every booth. The concrete floor was nice too, except for being hard on feet and legs. At least it was a level surface, though.

We brought better stuff this year. Last year I brought lower-end things and old doors, windows, tools, etc. Our sales were pretty good but I had lots of the glassware left over at the end. This year I brought more furniture and better quality furniture and glassware/smalls, and some unique items like the walking wheel (large spinning wheel), wagon wheels, etc. I also brought windows, sleds, some old tools, and other more rustic items.

The number of people who came to the sale seemed lower than last year, probably because with the 4th being on Tuesday many people had to work Monday and could not take a long weekend that extended to Tuesday. The hot, humid weather might have kept people away as well, and the ramped up 4th of July activities in town also competed for crowds.

Sold! To a sweet young couple.

So how did we do? Well, we sold about the same dollar amount as last year. I brought home far fewer smalls, and we sold several larger pieces, like the dresser, a treadle sewing machine table we'd made, two old wheelbarrows, and a few small tables. I got smart and put glassware I wanted to get rid of into boxes--$1 a piece, or the whole box for $5! We sold many dollar pieces, and then a lady came and bought it all. Awesome!

Lamp, shelf and wheelbarrow all sold 👍

Buyers loved the $1 hankies and doilies, and pulled through the trunk of quilts happily. Men looked at the tools but we sold almost none of them, and the wagon wheels got lots of lookers but no buyers. Everyone loved the antique bentwood rocker but not enough to buy it. They also loved our old fan and we could have sold it over and over if we'd wanted to.

Love this bike! 1950's Western Flyer with front basket. Attracted attention but didn't sell.

As I learned last year, this market draws bargain hunters. Everyone wants to haggle prices, everyone is looking for a steal. I learned last year to set my bottom price and stick with it and not be deterred by the many wiles of the flea market shopper. It was fun, and sometimes funny.

The quilt trunk was a hot spot in the booth. We sold several.

I gave away some china to a lady who makes crafts with it, and 4 boxes of miscellaneous stuff went to the thrift store today. We'd brought in about 7 loads in our vehicles and came home with 4 loads, so we sold or got rid of about half of what we brought.

The swing sold the first day, as did the little wire candleholders I painted that are hanging above it.

Will we do it again next year? Maybe. Probably. It's a good way to unload stuff from our booths that has not moved in a reasonable time, and to reduce inventory. It's also a good way to promote our booths--I had our card there to hand out and was able to tell many people where we were located. I also had my storytelling brochure, cards and merchandise there and had several enquiries about that.

It's also hard, hard work. As we get older that becomes a consideration with so much lifting needed to set up and then take it all down. So some of our decision will rest on how well we are when the time comes to reserve our space. We also need to decide if we want to go back to the same booth or try to get one more in the main traffic flow. Signage might help if we take this one again, and return shoppers will look for us there. Decisions, decisions, We were among the few vendors who did as well as last year; many said their sales were down this year, so I am satisfied that we at least did all right.

We still have to finish unloading the vehicles and get everything sorted for storage or the booths. But that can wait. The rest of today is for rest, right? So why is Larry out there unloading the truck?

Sigh. Back to work!

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

A Soldier on the Fourth of July

We are staying home today, missing the parade and festivities in town because we have a soldier visiting. Or maybe I should say we have Soldier visiting.

Granddaughter Haley leaves for Army National Guard basic training in a few days, and Larry and I will be taking care of her new kitten while she's away. The kitten, a rough-and-tumble little fellow, is named Soldier. It suits him pretty, well, although from the way he's bossing the dogs and other cats around, I think he should be promoted to Sarge.

This little guy is a survivor. Haley found him dumped at the side of the road. She brought him over to show us a few days later. One of our cats had killed a mouse and we had not noticed dead thing was lying by the sidewalk. But that little kitten saw it, jumped from Haley's arms, dragged the mouse under a bush and ate it, growling the whole time as if defying anyone to take it away. Our other pets watched with interest from a safe distance. I think they were impressed.

Soldier arrived for his extended stay yesterday, and he's had a big time exploring here. I had forgotten how entertaining a kitten can be; we spent an hour last night just watching him play. He settled in quickly, and I can see we're going to have an interesting time watching his antics and the pecking-order process resolve. I'm betting Soldier will find his place pretty quickly, and it just might be at the top of the line.

Happy Fourth, everyone! I hope your holiday activities are as fun as ours have been so far. Tonight we'll be by the firepit, grilling hotdogs and watching the continuing adventures of Soldier. Stay tuned.

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

Wordless Wednesday: Revisiting the 4th

Some memories of this year's 4th of July celebration in Ripley:

At the  Downtowner Restaurant:

Great-granddaughter Cadyn shares a special moment with her grandmother, Jennifer.

Jared meets the Governor of WV,

and Cadyn does too!

Three of our family's runners in Firecracker Run:

George, my oldest son (#247 above) came in first of our family group. This was my niece Amanda's (#263) first race. Derek (#262)was happy to cross the line ahead of his two oldest children:

Haley (in b&w striped top) was ahead of Jared (#118) as they neared the finish, but he poured it on and passed her at the wire. Nothing competitive about these two! Haley finished 2nd in her class (15-19 year-olds, she's 15). She was the only one of our family to place this year, but everyone did well.

After the race and the parade I found this group playing and singing. I stopped to listen and join in on a few songs:

We gathered at Derek's for a cookout later on, to christen the new patio he built with huge cut stones, brick and fieldstone. It is beautiful--I need to take some photos to share here. Some went back into town for the fireworks, but I was happy on the patio by the fire. It was a perfect, laid-back family 4th--the only bad part is that we have to wait another year for the next one.

Kids' Day

Everyone else celebrated the 4th of July. We celebrated Kids' Day. My mother said, "There's a Father's Day and a Mother's Day, so there should be a Kids' Day too." My father usually added in a fake grumpy voice, "Humph! Every day is Kids' Day if you ask me!"

There could be another reason why my parents decreed it Kids' Day. All of us in the US know that this is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Independence from England. My mother was English. She didn't see a need to celebrate. So perhaps Kids' Day was a compromise, a peace agreement between my very patriotic Dad and my very British mother (who never did become a US citizen)?

Whatever the real reason, Kids' Day was an event we looked forward to all year. It was almost better than Christmas. Definitely better than Easter, better than our birthdays; every other holiday paled in significance too.




The day before we prepared. Mm packed the picnic things and Dad went to Manassas Ice and Fuel Company and bought big blocks of ice. I remember the man loading the ice into our car with big ice tongs. At home, Dad put the ice into sawdust to keep it from melting until we were ready to use it the next day.

July 4th started early with a breakfast picnic at the Manassas Battlefield Park. A breakfast picnic was a real treat--the park would be empty, no other visitors in sight so we could run, shout and play as much as we wanted. The morning mist rising from the ground was cooling and made the woods magical. The smell of bacon frying over a wood fire--well, you can imagine that yourself.


After breakfast we headed home to prepare for the evening cookout. I don't recall eating lunch on Kids' Day, probably because breakfast was so substantial. Dad would get his ice pick and chip the ice blocks into big round galvanized tubs. Many cans of pop (we called it soda in Manassas) were shoved down into the ice to cool. We didn't have pop at any other time of year, so this was a real treat. My favorite was cream soda. Man, I can taste that ice-cold, creamy-smooth, bubbly pop even now. Another block was chipped into another washtub; this was to cool the watermelon. The melons were huge, long and pale green with a few darker green specks.

The cookout started around 4 in the afternoon. Hot dogs were the usual fare; we might have had hamburgers but I do not remember them, and it seems to me that the cost of feeding hamburgers to 13 children and assorted neighbors would have been pretty high. Maybe in later years we had hamburgers but I don't remember them at all. What I remember are hot dogs, with ketchup and mustard. And pork 'n' beans. And macaroni salad with celery seeds and chopped celery and lots of mayonnaise. And Mom's yellow potato salad. And all the pop I wanted to drink. When the cream soda was gone, I moved on to root beer. Or to black cherry. The choices seemed endless.The watermelon was the piece de resistance. Icy cold and sliced in long wedges, the sweet juice would run down our chins, soak our shirts and leave us in sugar shock.

As the sun set and the fire burned down to embers (we cooked on wood, not charcoal) Dad would get the marshmallows and the roasting sticks. It didn't take long for the whole bag to disappear and we added charred sticky bits to the watermelon juice dried on our faces.

Last of all were the fireworks and sparklers. We didn't have anything fancy, just a few Roman candles and a few snakes, usually. But we always had plenty of sparklers and we lit up the neighborhood with their fiery brilliance. When the sparklers were gone, Dad added wood to the fire and we gathered around to sing, remember the funny things that happened that day or on other Kids' Day, and watch the stars pop out in the sky.

Kids' Day was over. It would be another year before it came again, another year before the pop flowed freely and the melon was plentiful.

It was our way of celebrating our nation's birth, and simple as it was those days remain in my memory as some of the best of my childhood. Maybe we should consider creating an official Kids' Day in the US. But nowadays, would those simple pleasures mean anything? Maybe it's best to leave it to memory and be grateful that my parents with their limited resources found a way to make this day something that would live on as a happy memory for their children, even 50 years later.

Maggie's Red, White and Blue Cake

One of the things I enjoy about writing this blog is its eclectic nature. The topics I want to write about range far and wide, from serious to silly to fun to interesting--and recipes! I meant to post this after the 4th of July, and just now am remembering to share it with you.

My sister Maggie brought the ingredients for a red, white and blue cake for our 4th of July dessert. I thought it was going to be complicated process, but it was so simple. This cake would be good for Labor day, Veteran's Day or any other national holiday--or heck, just make it for the fun of it. Hats off to sister Maggie for sharing this good idea with us. As you can see in the photo, she had to work fast--while Susan cut berries and Maggie put them in place, little Sam was helping himself.

Red, White and Blue Cake

1 angel food cake
1 container of whipped topping (like Cool Whip)
1 quart of strawberries
1 or 2 pints of blueberries

That's it!

Now, to make the cake:

You can cut the angel food cake in half across the middle and spread whipped topping on the bottom half, then put the cake back together and cover it with the rest of the whipped topping. Or you could just frost the whole cake with whipped topping, which is even easier.

Wash the strawberries and cut into quarters. Wash and stem the blueberries. Use the berries to create any design you like on the cake. Maggie did rows of red and blue berries and it was very pretty.

That's all there is to it, and it was delicious and quick. And low calorie if you use fat-free whipped topping.

Speaking of whipped topping, long ago I used to make my own whipped topping. I sometimes added cinnamon and nutmeg to it to make a spiced topping for peach upside-down cake--which I have not made in years but either, with the peaches coming ripe now maybe I should dig that recipe out again too.

Here's the whipped topping recipe--it's quick, simple and tastes delicious. Low cost too, which is always a plus in my book.

Whipped Topping

1 cup of instant nonfat dry milk
1 cup of ice water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 c sugar

Chill bowl and beaters.

Whip dry milk with water until soft peaks form, about 3-4 minutes.

Add vanilla and beat until stiff, about 4-6 minutes.

Fold in sugar and beat for another minute.

You could use other flavorings, too, depending on what you're using the topping on--almond or lemon, for example.

Fire!

I admit, my family is a bunch of firebugs. When we decide to have a bonfire, we have a bon-FIRE.

Most of the wood on this lovely was from the old log cabin Larry and I are tearing down. Even though we're keeping a lot of wood, there is still much that needs to be burned. So we hauled a few loads to Derek's. He saved it for the Fourth, and this is the result.

Sister Maggie is responsible for this part--the fireworks. She traveled up to Pennsylvania for them and it was definitely worth her trouble. Roger and Aaron set up some kind of Rube Goldberg contraption to set them off and we had a great show. (I really think Rube was a hillbilly, don't you?)

Funniest part? The fireworks in town were going off around the same time, and Maggie thought it was a neighbor, competing!

All went well--the fire stayed where it was supposed to, the fireworks did what they were supposed to and we all had a great time.

Now we need some more old wood from the cabin to re-build the bonfire pile...

Crafty Ladies, and Kids Too

Two of my sisters came to visit over the Fourth of July weekend, and Theresa even brought along her son, his wife and their three children. After the race on Saturday and the evening cookout and fireworks (more about both later) we were ready to settle down and be quiet on Sunday.

Both sisters have gardens and both love lavender, so we decided to make lavender wands. My lavender was a little past its prime but still fine for making wands so we cut a lot of stems and set to work. The concept was new to Susan, Theresa's daughter-in-law, but she was willing to give it a try. In the end, she outdid all of us, making a wand that was braided with three different color ribbons.

Hope, her granny Theresa and her mother Susan all work on wands.

I had some large glass beads in a bowl on the porch that I'd been thinking about using to make suncatchers. The beads were leftovers from a craft project I will be doing at a couple libraries this summer--the smaller beads in the packages I bought were fine but the big ones were just, well, TOO big. With so many willing hands available, it felt like just the right time to make the suncatchers. We used electric fence wire to string them and everyone picked out whatever combination of beads they wanted on their suncatcher.

Hope and her little brother Cade look hard at work, don't they?

My sister Maggie made the prettiest one, I think, in "ocean" shades, as she called it, and indeed the soft turquoises, blues, greens and clear beads were reminiscent of the ocean's colors. I wish I had taken pictures of the finished products because they were both imaginative and colorful. And all my beads were used, which made me happy. Maybe I will remember to post a photo one day of the ones I made myself. I bought the beads from Fire Mountain's online clearance sale and got a great deal on them; I made up over100 craft packets for my programs and still had about 50 or more of these big beads left.

When we were looking for ribbons for the lavender wands, Hope spied my box of supplies for spoon puppets. Of course we had to make those too!

Theresa was a good sport about helping with the finer bits of work--Garrett's puppet was colorful, with a metallic green dress and purple-pink hair. According to him and to Hope, they were making puppets to go with my story "Gracie's Cabin"--Garrett's puppet is Crazy Gracie, he told me.

Hope managed to do most of her puppet by herself. She made Annie Rose, I think, from the same story.

And here's Hope's finished product. To make these silly puppets, you only need a wooden spoon, some fabric about the size of a man's handkerchief, scissors to cut a tiny hole in the exact center of the cloth, some tape to hold the cloth around the stick after you put the stick through the hole, some glue (fast-drying is best!) to hold yarn hair in place, and markers, stickers, etc to make the face. In this case, we used peel-and-stick foam shapes. You can add ribbon, sequins, and all sorts of other things to decorate the puppets. To use them, just slip your hand under the cloth, hold the spoon handle with three fingers and stick out your thumb and index finger to make "arms" under the cloth. Simple, simple and yet I have seen children make the most amazing creations with these simple supplies.The spoons can be found at dollar stores, 4 or 5 in a package for $1.

It was a fun Sunday afternoon and evening, and when we were finished the kids had something to play with and the ladies had cool things to take home. And I had a little less stuff in my house, which is always a good thing.

If you need better instructions for making spoon puppets, try this book. It's the one I learned from and it has lots of other great ideas for making puppets with things you might have around the house. With the heat wave we're having right now, finding things for the kids to do in the house might be a good way to keep them occupied since it's too hot to be outdoors.

(Blogger has evidently made some big changes over the weekend, so please excuse any oddities about the placement of photos and text, etc in my recent posts. It's been a weird experience!).

The Race

This was the reason for what we did Saturday morning: about 20 family members gathered in Ripley, WV to participate in the Ripley Firecracker 2-Mile Run/Walk as part of the city's 4th of July celebration. Jon intended to be here this year to run with his brothers. So we decided that he'd be there in spirit. We used his motto on t-shirts:

The back of the shirts featured the photo that we're using as a bronze plaque on Jon's gravestone.

Family from four states came to be part of the event on Saturday. Nephew Chris, his wife Susan and their children Hope, Garrett, and Cade are from Texas; my sister Maggie and her husband Roger came from Maryland, Theresa and Jay came from Virginia, and there were a lot of us representing West Virginia--George from the eastern part of the state, Aaron and his wife Jaime from the northern area and the rest of us from right here in Jackson County.

Only Jordan and her husband Ethan and baby Cadyn somehow weren't there for the photo, but they had their t-shirts. Michaela and James got their shirts a little later.

From left, back row: Jaime, Roger, Jay, Aaron, Chris, Jared, George, Derek. Second row from left: Michaela, Larry, Maggie, Theresa, me, Haley, and Amy. Front row, from left: Garrett, Cade, Hope, James, Ben and Sam in the stroller.

Three of our sons ran in the race: George, Aaron and Derek. All did well. I think Derek and George might have placed in their age group, but there seemed to be a problem with the times and we still don't know for sure who finished where. (This was a problem at least once before so I hope the committee that plans the event makes sure it doesn't happen again. It's pretty dispiriting for the runners (who each paid $15 to participate) to find out in the end that the results were uncertain.)

Cousin Chris ran for the first time this year, coming all the way from Texas to do so. He loves to clown around, can you tell?

The Sistahs! Just before the race when we weren't all sweaty and hot. Me, Maggie and Theresa represented the over-50 generation, along with Larry and Maggie's husband Roger.

Grandson Jared was the first in the family to finish the race, and I believe he placed 2nd in his age group. Granddaughter Haley also placed 2nd in her age category but it looks like we missed getting a photo of her finishing the race.

Maggie and Roger were walkers, and finished about 2 minutes ahead of Larry and me--which is a good long time in the race. But hey, they're younger by about 5 years or so :-) They actually ran for some segments, and I have to admit we ran very little and did not attempt to hurry; our goal was to finish.

Larry and I were the VERY LAST people to cross the finish line and there is no photo of the glorious moment to share with you unfortunately. It was funny though--the guy leading us in on the bike got everyone clapping and cheering as we crossed, and the parade was right on our heels so my sister Maggie said we must have been the parade grand marshals! Too funny. I was laughing so hard I forgot how hot I was.

We had fun and walked a steady pace, and weren't sore the next day. The way I see it, someone has to be last. I would guess we were the only great-grandparents in the event, and the only people I saw anywhere near our age were the serious runners. Still, I'd like to be at least second to last next year! So it's time to start working toward that goal.

I loved having so many of us there, wearing our shirts and remembering Jon. We were asked about the shirts and what they represented and I was glad to tell people why we were wearing them. Jon's motto drove us to commit to being there, and to doing something besides mourning and crying. We were together and strong and that's what Jon would have loved. I'm pretty sure he would have liked those shirts too.