Spring's Around the Corner

March 20, 2011
Catching up again on grandma's diary taking up on March 14, 1914.
Mar. 14, 1914 Sat., done saturdays work. finished one night shirt. made four towels. baked a cake. read four Psalms.
Mar. 15, 1914 Sun., was sick. had four callers.
Mar. 16, 1914 Mon., felt a little better. read five Psalms. had three callers.
Mar. 17, 1914 Tues., not feeling well yet. read eleven Psalms. had four callers.
Mar. 18, 1914 Wed., done small washing and ironing. read seven Psalms. had three callers.
Mar. 19, 1914 Thurs., went to Aunt parcie Keisers funeral at Akron and burial at uniontown. was over home. went to church in evening.
Mar. 20, 1914 Fri., was over home. baked six loaves of bread and ten pies. Hazel and I took car and went to Akron to do shopping in afternoon.

Those in the know say that today is the vernal equinox and that the first day of spring arrived about an hour ago.  Well bring on spring!  This past week we've had a few really nice days with a couple of days into the 60's.  Joan and I have done some work in the yard and for sure I have found some muscles that I know I haven't used for a while.  We have quite a bit of work to do to get the yard in shape before we leave for New Zealand in May.

The time for all the applications to be in for the New Zealand trip came and went this past Friday so it's pretty well locked in for this year.  We will have three couples plus Joan and I and one single fellow, 19, from Canada.  We're getting anxious for the trip but have a lot to do before then.  It's always nice once we start on the trip to get away from the land line phone and once we board the overseas flight the cell phone.  No more meetings to attend for a month and the attitude of ignorance is bliss prevails.

Coming back from Florida we stopped for a day in Savannah and also a day in Charleston, SC.  Both cities have so much to see and do and so many historical things that a day hardly makes a dent but we are glad we stopped.  We had never been to either city before.

A couple of photos -

Along the Savannah

As they say - "Life is Good"

Dirty Snow

March 13, 2011

Below are more entries from Grandma's diary.  I have been putting these entries in an attempt to make entries to the blog on a regular basis but so far hasn't worked very well as I keep having to catch up a week or more at a time.

From Grandma's 1914 diary.
Mar. 6,  Fri.  baked six loaves of bread and thirteen pies, read four last chapter of Proverbs, mended, had four callers.
Mar. 7,  Sat.  done saturdays work, washed the boys sweater coats, baked a cake, read five chapters.
Mar. 8,  Sun.  went to Sunday school anc church in bob sled, then all went to Lucys for dinner, read seven chapters
Mar. 9,  Mon.  done washing, washed ceiling in summer house, set a hen, had 5 callers.
Mar. 10,  Tues.  ironed, mended, Mr. Upp spent the evening here, had five callers.
Mar. 11, Wed.  mended, read the eight chapters of Soloman's song, set a hen.
Mar. 12, Thurs. cleaned summer house attic,, read five chapters, spent the evening at Will Baders.
Mar. 13, Fri.  baked five loaves bread and ten pies, read four chapters, was over home.

In grandma's diary she mentioned "setting a hen".  I had to do a little research about what this meant as I couldn't really remember from my farm childhood days what this meant.  If you wanted to hatch and raise your own chickens there was a process to successfully do this.  I remember that my parents would order chicks from the Hartville Elevator or some other farm supply and they would arrive as very tiny chicks that didn't have feathers yet.  A bunch of little chirping fuzz balls.  In 1914 perhaps grandma and grandpa didn't have suppliers to buy chicks from and hatched and raised their own.

The key player in this of course is the rooster.  He must have had contact with the other hens in the brood for the hens to lay fertilized eggs.  A problem arises if the laying hen doesn't have a large interest in "setting" on the eggs and tending to them.  Help comes from a brood hen who apparently does have an interest in setting on the eggs.  Grandma would watch for a hen that wanted to set on eggs.  The characteristics of a brood hen included one that would peck when you tried to collect the eggs from under her and also one that wanted to set on eggs.  Most laying hens would lay the eggs and then go about their other social activities. 

"Setting a hen" then involved grandma knowing that fertilized eggs were available (probably by "candleing") putting bup to a dozen in an isolated nest and the setting the brood hen on them.  From that point nature would take it's course and the hen would keep the eggs warm and rotate them.  In 21 days her job was done and the chicks would hatch.

Today was my turn to host a family selection meeting at our Habitat For Humanity affiliate for families wishing to apply to become partner families with Habitat.  Driving up to the office I was looking around at the disgusting remnents of winter.  Last week we had another 6 inches of snow and I'll have to admit it was pretty since there was no wind and it was a wet snow so it blanketed the trees and ground making it a winter wonderland.  Yesterday it was around 45 or 50 so most of the snow melted except for the places where the snowplows piled it up.  These piles turn into ugly messes of white mixed with dirt and then lay around for a week.  The roads are full of potholes that will eat a wheel off your car unless you take evasive action.  The surroundings are brown and grey with no signs of life yet.  It's a dismal scene.  But these are the sure signs of spring coming in northern Ohio and that's something to look forward to.

The Journey Continues

Another Couple of Days in the Journey

March 5, 2011

I goofed up on the last two entries from grandma's diary.  Somehow I skipped from the year 1914 to 1915 so I went back and corrected the year on those two.  It's interesting I think to have these bits of family history from 97 years ago and get a little bit of feeling for what family life was on the farm back then.  When I get a chance I'll try to find the family photos of the cast of characters.

Mar 3, 1914. Tues. done washing. read eight chapters of Proverbs. spent evening over home.
Mar 4, 1914. Wed. ironed. read four chapters of Proverbs. mended.
Mar 5, 1914. Thurs. butchered. Sam was here for dinner. Uncle George was here in afternoon.

The last few days we continued work on organizing the New Zealand trip.  In the last couple of days we received four more applications for the trip and have started reviewing those with followup emails working out details.  Currently we still have six couples including Joan and I plus one single 19 year old male student that we have decided to adopt and have ride with us.  I don't know how you would manage these trips without the benefit of the internet.  The last two days have included emails to the Habitat affiliate in New Zealand and to the rental agency of the motor homes to work out details.  We start the motor home trip in Christchurch and pick the motor homes up there.

The first 10 or 15 kilometers with them is always interesting.  For most of the team it is their first experience driving  a motorhome with a six speed manual transmission, driving on the left side of the road, and doing roundabouts in a clockwise direction instead of clockwise like we do here in the US.  I think the New Zealanders know to steer clear of rental motor homes being driven by foreigners.  So far no major disasters have occured, knock on wood.

We have been visiting a neighbor, sister-in-law, and aircraft partner, all who had serious surgery after we left for Florida.  We are glad that they are all recovering well.

Life is Good!  The Journey goes on!

Catching Up

March 2, 2011
I'm getting behind again on this blog.  The days go by so fast and then you're a couple of weeks behind.
I'm going to catch up grandma's diary first of all.  The last entry from the diary was February 18, 1914 so I will start with the 19th below.
Feb.19, 1914. Thur. Went to Aunt Parcie Keisers funeral at Akron and burial at Uniontown, was over home, went to church in eve.
Feb. 20, 1914. Fri.  was over home. baked six loaves of bread and ten pies. Hazel and I took car (street car) and went to Akron to do shopping in afternoon.
Feb 21, 1914. Sat. done saturdays work. Sam was here to dinner. had 3 callers.
Feb 22, 1914. Sunday. went to Sunday school and church in morning. read fifteen Psalms. went to church in evening.
Feb 23, 1914. Mon. ten degrees below zero. done washing. read eight Psalms.
Feb 24, 1914. Tues. ironed. mended. baked a cake.
Feb 25, 1914. Weds. fifteen degrees below zero in morning. mended. read twenty Psalms. had six callers.
Feb 26, 1914. Thurs. butchered. Sam was here for dinner and supper. read two chapters.
Feb 27, 1914 Fri. churned butter read the last nine Psalms. baked seventy five fried cakes, eleven pies and six loaves bread. Walter Smith was here to dinner. went to entertainment at Keisers school house in the evening.
Feb 28, 1914. Sat. done saturdays work. went up to Will Ritzmans in the evening with bob sled load. got home at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Mar 1, 1914. Sunday. stormy. read eleven chapters of Proverbs. had four callers.
Mar 2, 1914. Mon. Blizzards all day. mended. read four chapters.

Well! Got that all caught up. 
The last couple of weeks I've been wearing the keys out on the laptop trying to get all the loose ends together for the Habitat for Humanity New Zealand trip we are leading in May.  It takes quite a bit of work to plan the itinerary, pick out the campgrounds for overnight stays, etc.  We try to choose a route that has things of interest to see and do also.  We think that it's going to be a great trip once again.

This year we had an extraordinary number of single college students under 21 that were interested in going on the trip but they can't rent and drive motor homes from the agency that we use unless they are 21 or older. 

We are pleased to know that there's a number of young people out there who want to explore other parts of the world and help others in low income levels to gain safe decent housing for their families by working with Habitat.  Joan and I talked it over and came up with a plan for them to ride with us during the day and then we put them in a cabin at night.  We think that their young attitudes and enthusiam will be refreshing.

After getting home from Florida and having to shovel the snow out of the end where the township snowplow put it we decided that we should have stayed another week or two to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather there.  So far we've had another snow storm with about 6 inches of snow and a rain storm that flooded virtually all the rivers in northern Ohio.  I think a good plan would be to head to Florida in January and not come back until about the end of March.

So much for all the whining!

Life is good!