"Pumpkin Pumpkin Who got the pumpkin?"

The Bank reopened the lobby, so Bancorp South treated the community to a party... to celebrate. The speaker is Mayor Perkins...Thanking them on our behalf. This is the pumpkin patch... We each got to choose a pumpkin. Some of the pumpkins had prizes under them... Fever didn't pick a prize pumpkin..... But I did! My pumpkin won a flat screen HD TV!!!!!!! On the left is Pat Sigrest the bank manager That's me in the middle The fella? I have already forgotten his name.... A grand Time was had by all!!!!!

Planting Cotton and building "Eudora" The Joggling board. At my Nebraska home "Mississippi on the Plains"

Hinds County News

June 2017

Me in my brand new bibs!  my Spring gardening uniform

I, Gloria Christiansen, living at my home, “Mississippi On the Plains” in Holdrege Nebraska, soon will be a cotton grower!  Yes, I will!!!  Of course, my planting of cotton will not be of the magnitude of lets say, a Mississippi Delta plantation or of a Gaddis Farms in Hinds county…. doubt you would even describe mine as patch of cotton…I am suspecting my cotton growing will be more in the manner of a large galvanized tub from the farm store in size.

Y’all, at Garden Club Monday evening (April 17), our speaker was a Nebraska Master Gardener, toward the end of the meeting he held up beautiful fluffy boll of cotton, he vowed and declared he grew it right here in Holdrege.  Well, you know I light up like a Christmas tree! I was so excited!  I had to know where I could get seed.   lo and behold he had cotton seed with him and he gave me a package!   Now it is just a matter of waiting for the ground temperatures to come up to between 65 and 70 degrees.  Wish me luck! Because I do not even live on the south side of town.

 There is not a cotton gin close by….so to get my cotton ginned, I may have to box it up, send it priority mail, to the Gaddis McLaurin Hardware store, Main Street, Bolton, Mississippi, and ask Joyce if she would mind stepping it across to the Bolton Gin.

"Eudora"
The Joggling Board

I told you last month I had lumber delivered so I could construct a Joggling Board, like the one Eudora Welty mentioned in her book “The Delta Wedding”.   It is finished!  And It is Grand addition to the back yard! Some of those who have seen my joggling board, have speculated it is perhaps the only one in Phelps County…. Maybe even the whole state of Nebraska!    Wouldn’t that be wonderful!   I have never been first at anything…ever. 

“The Delta Wedding” Joggling Board and the tub of cotton will be the focal point of my Mississippi Garden.  In addition, to the Joggling board and cotton there will be okra and collard greens.

Love to all,

 stop by if you get this way!

Hinds County News April 2017

Good Morning! Hinds County!  I am writing this March 20, the first day of Spring, today’s high, here in south central Nebraska, is fore casted to be in the middle 60s, yesterday’s high was 85, weather man said this morning, snow is a possibility toward the end of the week.

We have had some gorgeous days of late....so I have been scrambling to get yard cleaned up and ready for spring.   I have never been ready for spring…. Ever!   Now, I understand why it was difficult to be ready for spring’s arrival while in Mississippi…big yard, so many bushes needing attention, big pecan trees, dropping huge limbs all winter long.   Those limbs piled in and around the burn pit had to be dealt with and that is not easy as you might think…You cannot just strike a match and set the pile a blaze…oh no!   It was usually very dry, so had to wait until after a nice rain...and a day the wind was not blowing.

fallen limbs from my pecan trees

fire pit behind spider

But here…in this little tiny yard…...I still cannot be ready for spring when it blows in! Why!? 

  I know the answer, I have come to believe I have a mental disorder “Putter Brain” …. I will stop raking, cutting back roses, or cleaning out planting beds to run to the lumber yard to buy lumber to build a joggling board!

This is a joggling board
(not mine)

  Or make a hardware run to get a can of bright pink paint to repaint my flamingos, or a junk run in search of yard art…. The junk run turned in to a tree and flamingo pillow buying excursion.

New Pillows

  I do recognize I am an out of control putterer…. If there is a cure…I do I really want to be cured? Me thinks not.   This morning as I peek out my front door…I see a fabulous flamingo pillow in the swing, bright red pillows in the Adirondack chairs, plastic flamingos staked around in the yard.   One hardly notices the shrubs that need tidying up, or the great piles of leaves that have blown in the corners of the fence.

new tree

The tree I planted in the front yard, by the Adirondacks and swing, is a flowering crab, the picture on the tag shows the blooms being almost the exact same color as the flamingos! Won’t that be fabulous?!!!!

I planted a maple in the back yard….in my direct line of sight, as I peer out the west window of the kitchen…. Won’t that be fabulous when the leaves turn this fall!!!

I built the Adirondack chairs from a kit, I like them a lot, they really dress up the front yard.  I painted them bright white…I am not a neat painter…lots of drips and runs…but I am not disheartened …because I have nearly convinced myself drips and runs give the chairs character and age, like this was not their first coat of paint.   And with the addition of the bright red pillows, one hardly notices the chairs runs and drips of paint.

Essentially the paint job looks as if it was done by your teenager, trying to make a fast buck, to buy a tank of gas.

Love to all

Come see me if you get this way!

You can sit and joggle on my joggling board with me….

Since writing this I have begun to make my joggling board 

 I had never heard of a joggling board, until recently when my book club read Eudora Welty’s The Delta Wedding…She mention a joggling board….so you know I must have one! I have not gotten it built yet…But lumber has been delivered! 

Hinds County News

  December 2016

Our first snow has fallen,

 Winter came quite abruptly to Nebraska, we were blessed with a long and delightfully mild, nearly jacketless fall.

Our first snow came, on Friday, the day after one of the most pleasant weather days in my memory, Thursday the 17^th of November, the high that day was 75 degrees, no wind just a gentle breeze from the South.  The pups and I spent the entire day outside.

 I cut greenery, and made wreathes for my doors, windows and gates.   That is going to be a lot of green and red on this little house….But, the southern side of me knows, “It is not  done until it is overdone” But my southern side also knows, there is a fine line that you cross over to “tacky”.  But southerners, especially southern women, possess  a very valuable gift, they have an innate, you might even say God given ability to hone in on tacky, we KNOW what tacky looks like.

 But we, ourselves, we  NEVER EVER do tacky….Our friends and our neighbors…they are the ones who do tacky.  And we do not mind at all saying how tacky they are.  Oh!  Not to them, not to their faces…we would never do that…that would be tacky. 

Southerners, particularly the ladies, also have the unique ability, an art really, to carefully pick their words, say them in a sweet tone, wearing a charming smile, that never hurts feelings. They say things like “Interesting”, "Fascinating", they will reach far to find something nice to say, “oh what a great color!”

Wait! Wait! This reminds me!  let me tell you about a friend and what she did, that left us all rather stunned and without words…It was winter, everything had turned brown in her yard….Our friend got up in the middle of the night and took cans of green paint and went outside and sprayed all the brown plants in her yard green.   Her only statement about the incident was “I just got tired of looking out the window and all I could see was brown.”  

 Our friend had recently lost her husband, so we attributed to the late-night painting spree to her loss.  So, the worst that was ever said, but repeated over and over was “Bless her heart she in mourning.”  She never did it again.  (I know some of you Edwards folks remember this event)

So anyway where was I before I got off on that…..Oh yes I remember! The day before first snow.

Around noon, my brother stopped by and we ate a nice lunch of my homemade Tamales,  salsa, from one of the last farmer’s markets, and sour cream…we ate in my little building.

 When he left, I took the wreathes to the garage, for safe keeping until after the snow, and high winds that were forecast to come with the snow, then I sweep out the little building.   The rest of the afternoon the pups and I spent watching the sky, as the sun went down, it spread a subtle glow of gold, lite up the beautiful church across the avenue….It was a grand day!

In fact, the pups and I sat in little building, until the street lights came on, I did not want the day to end, so Emma and I went for a walk, my house is a block from downtown, we walked toward town, the store windows were brightly lit, in the windows were Christmas trees,  snow men, dolls and toy soldiers…

We walked and we walked, back home I went to close the little building for the night, instead I sat back down and watched it get darker and darker. 

Summer was gone, there would be snow on the ground tomorrow. I felt not unlike I did after Angela and Adam had left home, and they would come back for a visit.  When they left…. John and I would stand on the porch, and watch as they drove out the driveway, down the hill, over the railroad tracks, up the hill and turn the corner by the old water tower….when they finally disappeared from sight, John would sit down in his rocking chair, I would go to the swing….and we would just sit….sometimes we cried.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from Mississippi On the Plains

Hinds County News

February 2017

Good Morning! Happy New year!

I celebrated New Year’s Day the in the southern tradition…. sort of.  This may surprise you all, but smoked hog jowl is impossible to find up here.

 last year, about this time, I mentioned my jowl disappointment to Tim, the gentleman who cuts my hair, he took finding hog jowl as a challenge.   Tim, bless his heart, thought he had found it a time of two…. but just was not to be.

  Black eyed peas, I found those in the bean section, on the bottom shelf, at the Sun Mart, a bit dusty, but hey I found them….no collards though…I grow collards but, mine were in the ground wilted from numerous frosts…so I had Cole slaw….and as you well know, cabbage is perfectly acceptable as your green for the New Year’s meal. Smoked hog shank was the replacement for the jowl. I Made ice tea, they drink tea up here, but it is unsweet as a rule, and cornbread baked in an iron skillet, so it was crusty on the bottom, rounded out my New Year’s Day meal.

Hog jowl is not the only thing difficult to find…. pig feet they can be found up here but, it is a road trip to get them.   Well, that not exactly true, every grocery stocks Hormel’s pig feet, pickled in a jar.

 Storytelling, like the food is different here, I came to that realization one day when a neighbor returned from a trip to New York City.  When I inquired her about trip…she told the WHOLE story in a couple of sentences.   A southerner can’t go to the grocery store without coming home with a longer story than that!  And she went to New York and came back without a story… I was shocked! 

A southerner telling a story about touring New York City!  I am here to tell you, it would be nearly impossible for that tale to be told in just one sitting.  Of course the story would not begin in New York, might would begin in the car headed to airport…because a trip to the airport is never uneventful….but could start anywhere anytime, even weeks before the trip began…shopping for the clothes to take….or even years ago telling about a movie they saw about New York. 

Let me tell you how stories in the south are often born…I was having a gathering on my front porch, everyone had arrived except my friend Fredna…. On after while, she arrives hurried and breathless, and explaining her tardiness as she climbed the front steps.  Fredna was late because she was trying to meet a taxidermist…as she went on with the explanation, we discovered Fredna was carrying around a deer head in the trunk of her car… and because she and the taxidermist had not been able to make connections, the deer head had been in the trunk for several days… Now keep in mind this gathering was on my front porch so it was not cold or even cool…. she did have it in a cooler…. but still and all.

We laughed and laughed and a story was born!   Fredna did not know at the time she was telling a story that will be told over and over.

Maybe the stories do change a bit from one telling to the next… not to embellish you understand, but because we remembered some very significant detail/details that will improve the story greatly.

Things just happen in the south that make great stories. I have a friend who is the mayor of one of our small towns in rural Hinds County, as was her duty, as mayor, she was participating in a celebratory parade, may have been 4^th of July, can’t remember.  Any way she was being driven in a patrol car by one of towns policemen, they were rolling along, waving and smiling at the crowds gathered along the street, when suddenly among the spectators, the policeman spots a “person of interest”.   The policeman had been looking for this “person of interest” all day. So, not wanting to miss this opportunity, he pulls over to the curb, puts the “person of interest” in the back seat and  then continues the parade route…with the “person of interest” in the back seat.   He too, the “person of interest” got in the spirit of the occasion and began smiling and waving too.

Southerner have stories…one story leads to another story… the tales can go on for hours and hours and often do.  I have fond memories of storytelling at social gatherings, pig pick’ns, crawfish and shrimp boils, church dinners of the grounds etc.   And dinners parties…. sitting down at seven and not get up from the table… many times until after 10 to go to the living room for a night cap.

One thing I love about the south…we are easily entertained and not easily offended by a story told on us…heck we will tell one on ourselves.

Love 

Hinds County News (Mississippi)
for October 2016

So here I am, and another month has passed, Summer is gone and it is Fall.   Here in Nebraska there has already been a frost in the panhandle.

Let me tell you a bit about my road trip to Louisiana for grandson Garrett’s wedding.

   I do not travel the interstates at all, so I am mostly traveling on two lane roads.   Been making the same trip up and down highway 183 for many years, in fact 50ish years.  There are not many towns of any size on my route, mostly small farming communities…over the years those little towns have changed from bustling main streets, with local cafes, grocery stores, feed stores, furniture stores, a Ben Franklin 5&10, Western Auto store, several full service filling stations, and every town had a school.  Oh! And an adorable little motel with a bright neon sign flashing “vacancy” or “No Vacancy”.

It is not that way anymore, sometimes it is a challenge to even find gas, when you do it is often an unmanned place, next to what used to be a Co-Op.  If you happen up on a little convenience store that has a gas pump, it is not uncommon that you have to pay inside, because the pump is of an age that it cannot accommodate a credit card.

Many Main streets in rural mid-west are empty shells, once lovely homes abandoned, schools and play grounds vacant. 

 Even the smallest of villages may not have the amenities they once did, but most still have a nice water tower, frequently painted whimsically, but always proudly embellished with the town’s name, and very often the towns have a well-cared for city park.   In very recent years Dollar General stores have begun to pop up.                                          

  But what I find most fascinating about the small towns in the rural mid-west is this, there may not be a school, grocery or hardware store but, there is almost always a functioning bank.  For some reason I find comfort in that…. maybe the rural Mid-west is not dying, maybe it is just beginning a new cycle. We old people do not have to like it…we had our “good old days” these changing times are the “good old days” for this generation.

Before I head out on “The Junk Jaunt”, Let me relay an invitation to you all, from the sweet folks at Old Lebanon Church.

There are many abandon country churches in the rural areas of our country….But not Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church off Highway 18, Raymond Mississippi, years ago the congregation moved the few miles into Learned, Mississippi.   But Old Lebanon was not left to out there in the country unloved and forgotten, every fifth Sunday the congregation meets in that old church, even though it lacks modern comforts, no kitchen, or reliable heat and no air conditioning, I don’t think it even has electricity.  The windows do function and as I recall there is an outside privy.

October, 30, 2016 is Homecoming and dinner on the grounds, at old Lebanon. After the service, under the trees in front of the church, is where the cover dish dinner will commence. So take a covered dish, and a lawn chair, and enjoy the afternoon visiting with neighbors, friends and strangers,  and be sure and stroll through the old cemetery.  Everyone is invited. 

 I have been to 5^th Sunday at old Lebanon many times, when it was raining, sweltering hot and when it was cool bordering on cold.  Grand! Grand! Memories! I wish I could be there for this homecoming.

  By the way Old Lebanon Presbyterian church is on the National list of historic places.

Love to all    Come see me if you get this way

Hinds County News

March 2017

The older I get the more conscious I am of the fact, I will die at some point.  I am well past middle age now, unless I should live to be 144.  I am certainly not afraid of death. To quote my mother at age 92, “we cannot live forever just because our kids want us to, we are tired and want to go live with Jesus.”

Mind you, I am not wanting to go anytime soon, because I have BIG PLANS for the coming spring and summer.   But I am ready when ever my time comes.

I do not often dwell on my demise but, what got me contemplating it recently is this; I walk Emma Dog downtown Holdrege, Nebraska, I live one block from the courthouse and the down town area.  

 On the next block from my house is the Methodist Church
 across the street from the church is the court house. 

This is picture on up my street, West Avenue, from the Courthouse,

Miss Emma

The downtown area is about 5 blocks long and 3 blocks wide.  We enjoy strolling past the shops, window shopping, and seeing what is new and exciting going on downtown.

I walk her downtown because, when we walked around our residential area…we were unable to enjoy the walk, for dogs barking, from inside their homes and behind fences…early on over on Garfield street, I thought this big dog might come through the large picture window, ….he was jumping against the window…barking, growling and slobbering, he was so annoyed by our passing. I was not afraid of the dog particularly…but what if it had gotten through the window…was injured by the broken glass, I would have felt obligated to try and catch him.

  We had several incidents before, dogs climbing their fence to come out and smell Emma.  But the dog behind the picture window was what made me decide to begin exclusively taking our walks down town…where we seldom encounter another dog. 

I had come to believe my death might very well be the result of drugs….No! No! not illegal drugs! But some brand spanking new miracle drug, I would be given by a well-intentioned doctor, to treat some minor ailment….then find out from, from an attorney's  TV commercial, that the drug had horrifying side effects, sometimes even death.  (does it seem to you prescription drugs may be more deadly then street drugs?  Me too.)

coming up on corner of East Avenue and 4th Avenue

Well…. last week Emma and I were walking down town, beautiful day, we were waiting in the sunshine, for the light to turn green at the corner of East Avenue and 4^th Avenue, across from The Hotel Dale….the light turned green,  we stepped into 4^th avenue,  at the same time, waiting for the light to turn green was a car, as Emma and I began crossing the street, the car went to making a right hand turn, in to our path and was barely able to brake and get stopped before hitting us….I looked through the windshield at her, she was horrified, still had phone in hand, I felt a bit sorry for her….

Said all of that, to say this, it may not be a new miracle drug that kills me…. I may die in the middle of a street, from car crash wounds.

Love to all

"Mississippi on the Plains"

Come see me if you get this way

Hinds County News, Mississippi on the Plains column, for October 2016 by Gloria Christiansen

Hinds County News October 2016

So here I am, and another month has passed, Summer is gone and it is Fall.   Here in Nebraska there has already been a frost in the panhandle.

North Park
Holdrege Nebraska

North Park
Holdrege Nebraska

Let me tell you a bit about my road trip to Louisiana for grandson Garrett’s wedding.

My Buddies
Peggy Ann, Jacqueline, Me and Lindsey

Xenia, Garrett
And Adam

   I do not travel the interstates at all, so I am mostly traveling on two lane roads.   Been making the same trip up and down highway 183 for many years, in fact 50ish years.  There are not many towns of any size on my route, mostly small farming communities…over the years those little towns have changed from bustling main streets, with local cafes, grocery stores, feed stores, furniture stores, a Ben Franklin 5&10, Western Auto store, several full service filling stations, and every town had a school.  Oh! And an adorable little motel with a bright neon sign flashing “vacancy” or “No Vacancy”.

It is not that way anymore, sometimes it is a challenge to even find gas, when you do it is often an unmanned place, next to what used to be a Co-Op.  If you happen up on a little convenience store that has a gas pump, it is not uncommon that you have to pay inside, because the pump is of an age that it cannot accommodate a credit card.

Many Main streets in rural mid-west are empty shells, once lovely homes abandoned, schools and play grounds vacant.  

 Even the smallest of villages may not have the amenities they once did, but most still have a nice water tower, frequently painted whimsically, but always proudly embellished with the town’s name, and very often the towns have a well-cared for city park.   In very recent years Dollar General stores have begun to pop up.                                          

  But what I find most fascinating about the small towns in the rural mid-west is this, there may not be a school, grocery or hardware store but, there is almost always a functioning bank.  For some reason I find comfort in that…. maybe the rural Mid-west is not dying, maybe it is just beginning a new cycle. We old people do not have to like it…we had our “good old days” these changing times are the “good old days” for this generation.

Before I head out on “The Junk Jaunt”, Let me relay an invitation to you all, from the sweet folks at Old Lebanon Church.

There are many abandon country churches in the rural areas of our country….But not Old Lebanon Presbyterian Church off Highway 18, Raymond Mississippi, years ago the congregation moved the few miles into Learned, Mississippi.   But Old Lebanon was not left to out there in the country unloved and forgotten, every fifth Sunday the congregation meets in that old church, even though it lacks modern comforts, no kitchen, or reliable heat and no air conditioning, I don’t think it even has electricity.  The windows do function and as I recall there is an outside privy.

October, 30, 2016 is Homecoming and dinner on the grounds, at old Lebanon. After the service, under the trees in front of the church, is where the cover dish dinner will commence. So take a covered dish, and a lawn chair, and enjoy the afternoon visiting with neighbors, friends and strangers,  and be sure and stroll through the old cemetery.  Everyone is invited. 

 I have been to 5^th Sunday at old Lebanon many times, when it was raining, sweltering hot and when it was cool bordering on cold.  Grand! Grand! Memories! I wish I could be there for this homecoming.

  By the way Old Lebanon Presbyterian church is on the National list of historic places.

Red Necks and Cajuns

Mississippi Rednecks

Louisiana Cajuns 

Hinds County News September 2016

Recently, I was in South Louisiana, White Castle, at Nottaway Plantation, for my grandson Garrett’s wedding. It was beautiful!  And the food!  I do not think there is any better food anywhere, than south Louisiana. We had a grand time!

 One week later, on that very area, a storm with no name, dropped 20 plus inches of rain, more rain than came with Katrina, causing history making floods.  My heartbreaks for those folks.

But, they are not without help and support, almost immediately some of our Mississippi boys loaded up their pickups and headed to south Louisiana. These guys have been called “Rednecks”.    Those Rednecks took boats, tools and all supplies they could carry.  And they were ready to work…hands on… boots on the ground work.  Ready to do what they could to help out those Louisiana Cajuns in their time of need.

I may not be politically correct, using such terms as Redneck and Cajun, but those who are Rednecks and Cajuns seem to be proud to be what they are…. Boys raised on the river and in the woods!

Mississippi is jam packed with Red Necks, some are riding tractors, some driving trucks, some roping cows, working at the hardware store etc.  But what may shock folks not from the South…. they can also be found behind desks in corporate offices!

 God Bless those Mississippi men, black and white, who were raised in the woods and on the river! Those guys know what to do in a crisis!   Thank you for all you do!

I shall tell you about the trip and wedding next time, my heart is not in it today.

Love to all

Cream Can Dinner

My first Cream Can Dinner

 I have been to many shrimp boils, Crawfish Boils and weiner roasts

Now then I have been to my first cream Can Dinner!

This dinner took place at the home of a friend of a friend....A grand time was had by all!
   
  Naponee, Nebraska, population 106

How to Crochet an Old Fashioned Rag Rug

Hinds County News May 2016

Hinds County News May 2016

The last day of March I began my first journey back Mississippi, since selling my home, a year and a half ago, my wonderful home of thirty years, to come back to Nebraska, where I was born and raised, to be near family in my old age.  It was hard leaving Mississippi when I left the first time…it wasn’t any easier leaving this time. I will be back!!!

I began the trip at first light, I leisurely motored along back roads, all the way…nearly a 1000 miles.  What a lovely drive it was, the morning I left Holdrege there were only miniscule hints that Spring might be coming soon to Nebraska.  I took highway 183 South through Kansas and Oklahoma, then Highway 70 across southern Oklahoma and Arkansas, that is where spring took on color, Wisteria climbing in trees that had not yet leafed out turning them purple…. The dogwood trees tucked in to the edges of the woods were in full flower. Oh!! My favorite the azaleas they were spectacular!

By the time I cross over the Mississippi River at Greenville, into the Mississippi delta, it was full blown Spring.  The trees were all leafed out, well that is not entirely true, there is always one exception…. the pecan trees.  Bless’m they are the first to drop their leaves in the Fall and last to acquire them in the Spring.

I was in hopes that by the time I returned to Holdrege it would be Spring, was not to be… the trees did not yet have their leaves, but thrilled to see the ornamental cherries, and pears were in full flower….as were the dandelions, my yard was a carpet of yellow, rather happy looking…I love the color yellow.

 Recently I was among a group discussing the dandelion, one meek little voice spoke up to say, “leave them for the bees” I must say that was not the prevailing attitude of the gathered.

Folks up here look down their noses at dandelions, my lawn in Mississippi if it was green I mowed it and called it lawn!  Now the poison ivy, that was crawling in the grass and up the pecan trees, I, on occasion, tried to kill it…but on after while I gave up that notion…. telling myself it was okay because, some summers it was so hot and dry that the leaves would just turn brown and plummet to the ground without ever turning color, those years’ poison ivy gave us our prettiest fall color.   I got to say in the fall, poison ivy is spectacular…brilliant reds and oranges!

Back to the dandelion saga, my yard was the only one on the block covered by the happy yellow flowers and they did not go unnoticed.  I do not know that I ever intentionally set out to kill a dandelion…Oh whacked them with the weed eater…that does not kill them, if anything whacking invigorates them. 

With sadness in my heart, I set out to deliberately kill the dandelions…went to the hardware store and bought a sack of happy yellow flower eradicator… that was a week ago, so far they do not seem to be at all daunted by my efforts, they are still looking up and smiling at me. I must confess, I am somewhat relieved.

Hey I got to go

Love to all

Ponderings from my front porch....On the Avenue Holdrege Nebraska

First   published in the                                                                      

Hinds County News

July 2016

I had always assumed my John did not like talking on the phone.   If the house phone rang more than twice he would announce, “Telephone is ringing”.  And he would continue making that announcement until someone answered the phone or it quit ringing.  John refused to answer the phone even if he was sitting right next to it. He claimed, “it is never for me.” And of course he was almost always right.  But now that I am thinking about it if someone was able to get to the phone before the ringing stopped…he would always ask, “who was it?” …. “what did they want?” Hmmmmm quite odd….
                                                     

My dad was not a phone talker…I have known very few men who were social phone talkers…. business yes.   But personal no… for John his phone conversations were limited almost exclusively to arranging hunting or fishing outings and those were short and to the point.

So anyway…as I was drinking my coffee, from the porch I noticed most everybody driving up and down the Avenue were on their cell phones.   Even the men!   

I said all of that to say this:  On the porch this morning I had an epiphany!
 About men and telephones…. They love their cell phones just like women do!   What they did not like about house phones was being tethered to a wire plugged into the wall or a phone that only functioned inside a certain perimeter. And after John bought his first cell phone he became quite a chatter.

Done with that thought

What I planned to talk about this morning is paint and painting.   I recently acquired a darling little building one of those already built, it is a Derksen! 

Little Building
"LB" for short

As I have told you my house is small.  I needed more room so I ordered a 10x12                                                                                                                                                                                               shed … I really don’t know how I will be using Little Building for certain, so far, in the evenings the pups and I just enjoy sitting out there and watch the goings and comings on the Avenue.
                                   

Pups
Emma on the left Shelby on the right

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

So back to the painting, I set out to prepare to paint “Little building”, The outside was already painted a bright shining white, so was only dealing with the inside.  I was determined to do it right, go according to manufacturer’s instructions. I have to tell you they have very specific directions, no grease or dirt, if dirt or grease are present, it must be washed and rinsed meticulously then let dry completely… any glossy surfaces must be sanded lightly….no loose or peeling paint…rust must be dealt with…  Certain kinds of woods must first be primed!   As I was uncertain of what kind of wood, Little building was composed of I bought primer and paint.

Daughter Angela volunteered to paint Little Building over memorial weekend…

Daughter Angela

She was able to get the ceiling completed, it took three coats one primer and two of paint. I was left with the walls…no big deal…the she was able to do the hard part, the overhead painting. Angela calls Monday morning her dog Scout has paint on her back and on her belly…. The latex paint would not brush out or wash out…it had to be cut out.

  After several days of me staying on task, the painting was complete!  Walls and floor!

But!  My brand new pedicure was a wreck, covered with paint splatters, that could not be scrubbed off….Paint splatters all over skin, hands, arms, and nose, that paint did wear off, but it was way on after while …

 Last week I went to get my hair cut… Tim the fella that cuts my hair, after shampooing it, made the remark, “some of the paint came out, but not all”.    This after many washings at least 10!  

 The intended surfaces to be painted must be dealt with carefully for the paint to adhere to it, but on unintended surfaces that paint clings like grime death without any preparation what so ever.  I think that is rather odd….But on the bright side if the paint on little building clings to it like it does to noses, toes and dogs…I will be in the grave many years before it has to be painted again.   

I sure do miss Mississippi

Love to all                                        

My column from the Mississippi newspaper

The Hinds County News 

April 2016

From the Avenue

Every year, to anyone who will listen, I go into a long tirade, about the pointlessness of daylight savings time.  It makes absolutely no sense, no matter how the powers that be, shift the hands on the clock, there are just so many hours of sunlight in a 24-hour period!  That said…I believe I am adjusting a bit faster this year.  However, my body is still in a bit of a protest mode, body is slow to get out of bed in the morning …Maybe body is not so much slow… as confused?

  But! my mind is doing MUCH better with the change! Yes, it is!   Well possibly not…. when I look at the clock, I translate it.  For instance, the clock on the wall may say four my brain converts it to real time three O’clock!  Okay, that is that rant.

   Now then, we all know soft drinks are bad for us and we should not, under any circumstances enjoy one.  How do we know this?  The food scientists/ police tell us so… that is how.  

   I do not partake in sodas often, because they are bad for me…. but if I have an upset stomach a 7up or Sprite seems to calm it and I cannot eat a pizza without having a cola, Coke or Pepsi makes no difference to me.   Just yesterday I was enjoying my pizza and sipping slowly on my coke, trying not to consume too much, as I do not want to hasten my death.

    You know how when you are eating cereal you pick up the box and read whatever is on it? Well I picked up the Pepsi bottle and commenced to read the ingredients. Here goes “Carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, phosphoric acid, caffeine and natural flavors”.  We all know sugar has been named one of the really bad guys in the world of nutrition, but not bad enough that they are banning it in schools like sodas. So it must be the phosphoric acid right? 

So while sitting there munching on pizza, sipping on Pepsi I picked up my phone and googled phosphoric acid.   Well guess what folks!? According to my not extensive research, studies have shown phosphoric acid “may” be harmful.  And orange juice has more of it then sodas.  

Phosphoric Acid is an inorganic mineral, pretty much what I would call dirt.  Who hasn’t eaten a carrot or radish pulled out of the ground…cleaned off best you could by rubbing on you pant leg…still dirt on it but ate it anyway?

I said all of that to say this:  I am not longer going to let the food police tell me what I can and cannot eat or drink!  They are so often wrong…over years they have warned us about butter, coffee, eggs, bacon, dairy …. the list goes on and on….and on and on.  Corn syrup is high on the beware of list.

   Green Tea and nuts are pets of theirs at the moment, for a while they were real high on kale.  Very recently, I bought a bag of pistachio nuts, BIG BAG, just two days’ later the pistachios were recalled.  That may explain my queasy tummy after eating them…I had to drink a Sprite to get my tummy to behave. So in this case I considered the ice cold soda a medicine.

  Speaking of Medicine, Just Google the side effects the medicines you are taking…. the side effects of some of those are considerably more frightening, than any health concerns related to the Pepsi consumed. I am sort of seeing it this way…food can possibly shorten your life…. the medications you are taking can kill you.

   And if the lawyers who advertise on TV are correct, many medicines are very dangerous.   Even the manufactures of the drugs often do not speak very confidently about their meds….after they finish listing the side affects …you have to wonder, “how did this drug get approved?”

 If sodas are killing us, those lawyers, whose only concern is our wellbeing, they would be on TV advocating we jump on and sue.  Shouting at us through the TV to take legal action, against food and beverage companies…Right?

    I must tell you all, the Girls Scout cookies, I ate for dessert, after my pizza and refreshing cola,…the ingredient list on that package was much longer and less pronounceable than the soda I drank …. but reading the ingredient list was not enough to dissuade me from enjoying the cookie…. several cookies…half a box of cookies.... they were really really good!

    You all, I am not suggesting that you adopt my devil may care attitude toward food….I have had the cancer, twice, who knows if it is what I ate and drank or genetics.   Also I am over weight and would not be surprised if the Alzheimer’s has been sneaking in while occasionally eating at fast food establishments.

I am 71, and consider myself healthy….However Doctors I have been to since gaining weight, seem to disagree.  But I can still out work people decades younger than myself.

I hope to die digging in the garden, or running the string trimmer…. eating and avocado, bacon, cheeseburger would not be a bad way to go ether…Oh!  sitting on the front porch or in the swing watching the world pass by that might be the best!

porch last summer

 But the way I die, that’s is God’s call.   I shall just continue to soldier on best way I know how until that day.

Love and good health to all!

Hinds county news for march 2016

Written February 20, 2016
 at Mississippi on the plains, Holdrege Nebraska

 The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016

 Yesterday was a beautiful warm day here, the pups and I spent a good part of the day, on the front porch, watching the last of the snow melt from “The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016”.    The snow in this yard measured 23 inches on the flat, drifts along the fence and the side of the house were a good bit deeper. Watching snow melt is slightly more exciting than watching paint dry…and slightly less exciting than watching grass grow….That said,  any one of three activities can be extremely therapeutic.

I was rather surprised to learn blizzards are not as common as I thought…As a kid growing up in Nebraska I thought blizzards were a common. But for a big snow storm to be officially called a blizzard, there has to be large amounts of falling snow or blowing snow, and winds must exceed 35 miles an hour for at least three hours.

The weather people warned us it was going to “BIG”, I have in the past been rather skeptical of dire warnings from enthusiastic weather folks.  But after being caught by hurricane Katrina miserably unprepared.  I had no real money, no gas in anything I drove, not even the lawn mower. Thankfully John had a tank full of gas and money.  Money was not much use however, because the electricity was out over much of the state, so could not buy anything.   So anyway, I said all of that to say this; before the storm I went to ATM and got real money, (to pay someone to scoop the sidewalks for me).  I went to the grocery bought lots of canned goods and water, you all I was prepared.  even had batteries! And gas in my car!

So the blizzard begins, first thing snow drifts up on the back door to where I could not get it open.  So I was diligent keep snow from building up on the front door. Because I had to be able to get outside to measure snow and take pictures to post on Facebook.  Not everybody was excited about the blizzard, but for me, “The Great Ground Hog Day Blizzard 2016” was grand fun.

When it was finally over, it went on for two days, I looked out, the sun was shining bright, I thought to myself, “let me see if I can clear the sidewalk just to the front gate.”  So I got dressed in the recommended layers, my yoga pants, jeans, overalls, threes shirts and John’s hunting coat and gloves.  (I have yoga pants because my doctor urged me to take yoga to improve my balance and get limber.   Well, one look at myself in those yoga pants, I knew I would not be taking a class!

Then as an afterthought, before going out, I went to the computer, then to YouTube and watched several videos on how to scoop snow.  Even though I grew up in Nebraska, doubt I ever scooped any snow before…I had brothers so I feel sure that the snow scooping job fell to them. ( Heads up…if you do not want to be snickered at do not mention the fact to Mid westerners, that you went to the computer to learn how to scoop snow.)   So anyway, when snow is very deep you take it off in layers.  It worked beautifully! So well in fact I went on to scoop the sidewalk in front of the house, then on to free up the back door…. still going strong I scooped from back door to the back gate.  I was first on my block to get the sidewalk scooped! I was sooooo enormously proud of myself!

Picture taken from alley

Picture taken from back door

Swing area early on in the storm

Backdoor to gate

Miss Shelby loved the snow!

 Decided to stop and continue the next day, scooping from back gate, to the garage and alley.  Big Mistake! Still puffed up with pride…  I went to take trash to alley…there was no pathway,  I fell… as I was tumbling… I recalled the verse from Proverbs “Pride goeth before a fall”    I was not hurt, because the snow was so deep…in fact, deeper than my arms are long, so could not lever myself up.  You all I had to roll over to picnic table and grab on to it and pull myself up!  Remember that movie The Christmas story? When Ralphie’s mother bundled him up in that puffy snow suit, he fell and could not get up?  I know how he felt….

Then! I did not learn my lesson form the fall in the snow! Later in the week, I was in the grocery store! In the pickle isle! I Struck up a conversation with a sweet lady, about the blizzard!  Boasted to her about me scooping myself out at 71!   She gently informed me she shoveled her own snow too and she was 81!   When will I learn!?

Love to all

Come see if you get this way