April 22 - Spring/Summer Still Not Here

April 22, 2011
Trying to get caught up again.  We have been spending way too many hours trying to coordinate and tie up the loose ends of our New Zealand trip.  More later but will catch up some on Grandma's diary.

From Grandma's 1914 diary.
March 26 - Thursday, washed windows and woodwork in summer house, set a hen, had two callers.
March 27 - Friday, baked six loaves of bread, cleanded the attic, set a hen.
March 28 - Saturday, done saturdays work, baked fifteen pies and a cake, set a hen, read seven chapters.
March 29 - Sunday, went to Sunday school, read eight chapters of Isaiah, had four callers.
March 30 - Monday, cleaned three closets upstairs, Ben Moore was here for dinner, Eph and I spent evening at Sams.
March 31 - Tuesday, done washing, Curt Swope was here for dinner. Jim Moores spent the evening here.
April 1 - Wednesday, ironed, mended, set a hen.
April 2 - Thursday, was over to Mrs. Bylers funeral in forenoon, cleaned in summer house and Uncle George was here in afternoon.  J. Kurtz, W. Bader and my folks spent the evening here, set hen.
April 3 - Friday, churned butter, baked six loaves of bread and eleven pies, read four chapters, mended, set a hen, baked a cake.
April 4 - Saturday, done saturdays work, moved in summer house.
April 5 - Sunday, went to Sunday school, Paul and Leon Dullabahn came along home for dinner, had five callers in afternoon, went to Reformed Church in eveningto hear Rev. Kendigs farewell sermon.
April 6 - Monday, done washing, read eight chapters of Isaiah.
April 7 - Tuesday, trimmed hat, ironed, set a hen, read two chapters.
April 8 - Wednesday, finished ironing, set a hen, cleaned cupboard, read six chapters
April 9 - Thursday, cleaned east room upstairs, read last two chapters of Isaiah, mended.
April 10 - Friday, washed seven lace curtains, baked eight loaves of bread and sixteen pies, mended.
April 11 - Saturday, done saturdays work, cleaned entry, baked cake.
April 12 - Sunday, went to Sunday school, was over home in afternoon, Will Ritzman was here for supper.

Well I guess that will catch up Grandma's diary some but will do more on the next entry.
Today is April 22, 2011 and is Good Friday.  We will be going to Good Friday service at church tonight and then I will stay after to practice hand bells for Easter Sunday service with the handbell choir.  We will be doing one song - somewhat difficult but could be a lot worse.  Joan and I had separate times at the prayer vigil earlier this afternoon at church.

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and our church decided to have a Palm Sunday re-enactment of Jesus's entry into Jeruselem on the donkey.  In our case Jesus didn't ride the donkey but walked with it.  Our church had done this many years ago and it was kind of a rememberance of that time besides drawing attending to Jesus's trip into town.  Police blocked off the highway from the fire station to the church and it was fun in spite of the dismal weather and high winds that morning.
Below is our hero -

Our Lenten services this year was a study of Handel's oratorio, Messiah, one of the best loved musical compositions of all time.  Handel's Messiah has three main sections:

Part I deals with the prophecy and birth of the Messiah.

Part II reflects on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Part III anticipates the redemption of the world through faith.

Handel wrote the music for Messiah in twenty four days between Aug. 22 and Sept. 14, 1741.  It's suggested that Handel speed in preparation was due to his need for money.  The Bishop of London required that the music be sung only on stage with no acting which was kind of a break from the operas at the time especially the Italian opera.  The Bishop did Handel a favor as this became the form known as the English oratorio and was an immediate success.  It's reported that a servant came upon Handel after finishing the Hallelujah chorus with tears streaming down his cheeks as he exclaimed, "I did think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself!"  Whether true or not it suggests that Handel's motives were not all mercenary.

A man named Charles Jennens, a wealthy country gentleman with a flare for music and theology prepared the selection and organization of the texts used in Messiah.  Jennens thought that it would take Handel a year to write the music and declared that he would never let Handel do the music for any of his creations again when Handel completed it in 24 days.

Our Lenten study centered on Part II of the Messiah and of course the Hallelujah Chorus probably being the best know Easter music and of Handel's creations.  Background study included parts of Psalm's, Isaiah, and yes Revelation.

I never realized that the words were directly from the Bible and how it tied different books of the Bible together.  Live and learn!

All for now - I have to get ready to head up to Kent to pick up friend Terry and head to church.

Hallelujah!!!

It's Not Here Yet - Summer That Is!

March 25, 2011

From grandma's diary -
March 21, 1914 - Sat. done saturdays work. baked a cake. mended. was over home. set a hen.
March 22, 1914 - Sun. went to Sunday school and church in morning read ten chapters.
March 23, 1914 - Mon. done washing. cleaned in summer house. mended.
March 24, 1914 - Tues. ironed. cleaned in summer house. cleaned casings for butchering. set a hen.
March 25, 1914 - Wed. butchered. set a hen. mended. Sam was here for dinner and supper.

Well, grandma was pretty busy this week cleaning casings to make sausage and setting more hens.  They did some butchering and I presume a hog since she was cleaning the casings.  Also she was looking forward to summer as she was cleaning the summer house.  The summer house sat just behind the main house and was probably about a 20 by 30 building with one room downstairs and then one room upstairs with a real steep stairs.  I remember there was an old wood cookstove downstairs and a table but when I was growing up the summer house was no longer used and there was just a whole lot of old stuff stored there.  This was the kind of stuff that "The Pickers" from TV that go around searching for old collectibles would have gone crazy over.  To us it was just a bunch of junk.  The summer house made a good place to hide out for a pre-teen however.

Apparently in the summer time the summer house was used for cooking and canning keeping the heat out of the main house.  In middle to late summer when the thrashers were here and a lot of help with that there was as whole lot of cooking going on.

April 1, 2011
I started out on this entry a week ago so now I have to get caught up again with Grandma's diary.
March 26, 1914 Thur. washed windows and woodwork in summer house. set a hen. had two callers.
March 27, 1914 Fri. baked six loaves of bread. cleaned the attic. set a hen.
March 28, 1914 Sat. done saturdays work. baked fifteen pies and a cake. set a hen. read seven chapters.
March 29, 1914 Sun. went to Sunday school. read eight chapters of Isaiah. had four callers.
March 30, 1914 Mon. cleaned three closets upstairs. Ben Moore was here for dinner. Eph and I spent evening at Sams.
March 31, 1914 Tues. done washing. Curt Swope was here for dinner. Jim Moores spent the evening here.
April 1, 1914 Wed. ironed. mended. set a hen.

Grandma had another busy week doing spring cleaning, setting hens, and baking pies.  I'm always amazed at the number of callers and visitors that stop by.  I guess that before television people did more visiting.  It certainly took a little more effort back then to get the horse and buggy out. 

This week we continued trying to tie up loose ends for our trip to New Zealand.  We were trying to get the notebooks ready to mail to our intrepid group.  Now that the route and itinerary are final and campgrounds have been selected and sites to be seen we put everything together in a notebook for each of the couples.  Day to day driving instructions are provided to keep evreyone from getting too lost along the way.  This year we are going to have GPS's in the motor homes so no one will have an excuse for getting lost. We have been able to confuse Amelia ( name of our GPS here at home) at times.  Basically when we leave in the morning everyone is on their own to follow the suggested route but we suggest that they stop along the way to see the sites and take any side trips that they think might be interesting in order to learn about the country and the people.  The only responsibility is to find the campground that has been reserved for that night.  If they can't for some reason then we request that they call us to let us know.  Hopefully the notebooks will get mailed Monday.

We have been working in the yard on nice days and it is shaping up.  Will have to get some mulch on the beds next week.  The weather turned cold this week and it took away my desire to work outside.  I was supposed to have an instrument training flight with the instructor on Thursday but the snowstorm the night before and the precipitation and low freezing levels cancelled that out.

We went to the Wednesday Lenten service this week again and we continue to find it interesting.  The Lenten program was one that Wally our interim pastor suggested and that is studying and learning the gospel basis for Handel's Messiah.  This week it was Psalm 24.  More later about that.