The Swing project

  There was a time a three year old boy was my best friend

With much help from our friends, Whit and my swing project is complete! We wrapped it up Friday.  But not, without, over the course of the project, innumerable trips to Gaddis McLaurin and to Doug Turner’s wood scrap pile. 

 The place in the yard,  Whit always heads to when I open the back gate is the front yard, to the left of the house, under the pecan trees, so that is where we placed the swing frame. ….it is made from five, 8 foot, 4X4 posts, Doug and Kay came and helped set the swing up, it is a good thing they came.  I had a picture of the swing from a web page selling the plans to build it.  I did not want to pay the $12 for the plans, so constructed it from the picture.  Well when we got it set up…It looked just like the picture!  Yes it did!  But there was just one little thing…it would not stand on its own, it wanted to fold.

  Kay and I had to hold it up while Doug scrambled around and found some lumber to make temporary braces. After much measuring…Doug wanted it to be square…Kay and I didn’t care so much about square…we just wanted to be able to let go.  But way on after while… Doug got it like he wanted and nailed in the temporary supports and it held on his own! 

 Then Doug went to his shop and cut permanent braces, when I went to pick them up he gave me very careful and detailed instructions on how to attach them. I hope it suits him….he has not been by yet for final inspection of the braces and ropes.

I wanted a porch swing to place in newly constructed frame; because the intended purpose of the build was a comfortable relaxing place for me to sit while watching Whit play.  So I went swing shopping… but did not find a swing like I wanted, in the short time I had to look. (I did learn one thing though while out looking for a swing…I could have bought a swing set for what this one cost.  That is… if ever all things were taken in to account…gas alone back and forth to Bolton would figure to be a substantial outlay.)

So anyway, Friday Whit was coming back and I knew he would be expecting something to be happening with the project. Bless Whit’s heart, he worked hard on that swing frame, he learned real fast how screw in the lag bolts with the ratchet wrench, I think he liked the sound it makes.  And he can use the drill to make the pilot holes for the bolts…But I do have to hold up the back of the drill… that battery is heavy.

Doug Turner inspecting our build

So anyway, not wanting to disappoint Whit, I wondered “What to do? What to do?” You all, I felt like a genius when the solution finally came to me!   An old time rope and board swing! We went old school! John was a bit of a rope aficionado, so had plenty of rope in the shop and there was a board in my very own scrap pile just the right length. 

Whit calling himself tying a knot

Whit enjoys the old timey board swing so much….I may never get another swing….Until he grows up….which will be way to soon, Whit will be three years old next month.

  While working on this project with Whit… I came to believe my children were no doubt  just as smart and clever at three years old… as my grand children were and Whit is, if I had had taken the time and had patience with them…. as I have had with the Grands and Whit. 

Love to all

Call if you need me

 Christiansen Comments
First Published in
Hinds County Gazette April 18 2013

Whit

"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette Febuary 3 2011

I am so much better now the sun has shined!

I puttered in the yard Friday and Saturday, actually I did more then putter, I got a pretty good bit of work done. Friday I sheared the crepe myrtles…but only lightly. Because, my friend Peggy Ann, a master gardener, called what I have done to them in the past “Crepe murder”. Following Peggy’s logic that made me a “crepe murderer“….I didn’t much like the sounds of that…. So I did not cut them back to waist high as was my usual habit ….just the very tips.



But in my defense, I was told to get crepe myrtles to bloom, I had to cut back them quite severely. And I must say this, in all of the years I have cut them back so brutally…none ever died….but come to think about it,,, they didn’t bloom profusely ether…. So to my crepe myrtles, I opted to be horticulturally kind this year.

At the bottom of the hill I have a contorted mulberry and a cedar tree…. they were becoming entangled…I thought giving a rather messy, unkempt appearance to that part of my yard…The contorted mulberry, obviously needed more room. Saturday morning, I walked to the bottom of the hill , bow saw in hand.

I stood and contemplated on the two trees… cedar was a volunteer it came up on it’s own…it grew up, to it’s present 15 foot height…with no help, and very little encouragement from me. The contorted mulberry on the other hand, has been pampered and praised, from the day it was planted…That contorted mulberry is the most exotic plant on the place….one year ago December, when one of it’s very large branches broke and fell to the ground, I shed tears..



I was ready to cut the “dime a dozen” cedar to the ground. Even though, standing between the two trees, I came to recognize, it was the mulberry encroaching on the territory of the cedar…robbing it of sun light. But, I knew, if I didn’t do something, eventually the cedar would become weak.



Because, I know how I feel….after days and days with out the sun‘s reassuring warmth and bright light….I didn’t want to….but I had to do, what I had to do. I took a deep breath and walked up to the enormous offending branch on the mulberry, and cut it off.



Love to all, call if you need me


PS
For those of you who read me both in the Gazette and on line, I hope you see, I do know how spell crepe myrtle..(It's not crape myrtle)..I am one of the world's worst spellers, so normally would not know if a word was spelled correctly or not...but  as I was writing that morning I looked it up...because I thought maybe crepe myrtle was one word....I blame the spelling error on an auto spell check program...they are built in to most word processing programs........it must have been turned on that day at the newspaper.

PS
 to my PS Crape Myrtle can be spelled ether crepe myrtle or carpe myrtle.

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette January 20 2011

Monday January 17 2011

It is drizzling rain this morning…it drizzled much of the day yesterday too. Drizzling rain is preferable to sleet and ice for sure…Lately there have not many days full sunshine…… it is grey and gloomy.



You all, just Soon as the holidays have passed and the tree is down…. I am eager for Spring to arrive…. my friends and acquaintances keep reminding me of how stifling hot and miserable Mississippi summers can be.



So of late Brain has had me contemplating the misery of sweltering summers verses the misery of gloomy winters…comparing them…. I have come to only one conclusion so far…..That being; no matter how hot it gets in June, July and August, I do not ever remember wanting to stay in the bed all day, curled up with my cats.



In the Summer I am out of bed at the crack of dawn… I may not accomplish any more on a scorching summer’s day, then I do on a bleak winter’s day. But I am up and dressed….and maybe all I end up doing is….going to the front porch, cold drink in hand , sitting down in the swing, and watching the grass grow…or helplessly watching the grass wither….but I am up and involved in the day.



Through the window behind me I see the Japanese magnolia budding…this time next month they will be blooming…. and then, perhaps, my winter melancholy will begin to slip away.



On a less whiney subject.

Lindsay Noble called last Friday after reading the Gazette and explained to me how Blue use to make her tamales…He said, Blue began her tamale making by boiling a whole hog’s head…and while the hog head was in the pot cooking, she went out to the barn, to gather up the corn husks to wrap the tamales in….. Well, I did not beg for that recipe…it sounded a bit like real work.



The tamale cooking has garnered up a good many comments…but nothing like the Ambrosia episode…you may or may not remember how out done the sweet, genteel ladies of the South became when I put gelatin in my ambrosia to tighten up the juices. Well, some of those very same ladies, when I filled a punch bowl halfway with ambrosia, (orange segments, coconuts and cherries) and poured 2 bottles of champagne over it and called it “punch”…. They had no objections or complaints to that adulterated ambrosia recipe …..there was nothing but, grins and lip smacking all around…



The sun is up, but not out….I am still in my pajamas ….the cats are asleep, in my not yet made bed.

         Call if you need me...I will be with them......

Christiansen Comments Hinds County Gazette November 18 2010

 I am Never first! Never! Never ever!

No matter when I set  my Christmas tree up…This year, it was in the wee hours of the morning ,Thursday the 11 of November that I brought the tree down from the attic, and put it together, That is early even for me.

Back in the day when the kids still were home and would assist in the tree’s assembly and decor (sort of) we put the tree up Thanksgiving afternoon. Then when they left home and had their own trees to deal with…I was on my own…. John had ballgames to watch, as I have no TV in the living room…he was no help. So to get the tree up and over with, I begin putting it up the first part of Thanksgiving week…now then I am up to two full weeks before Thanksgiving. Jacqueline says, I will soon be beating wal-mart.



I was so sure I was first this year…My friend Jo Gayle Reeves beat me by a hair last year. So soon as it got late enough in the morning, that I felt comfortable calling Jo Gayle, (that would be shortly after day break,) she, like me gets up very early. I called to brag….Jo Gayle answered laughing, not only did she have her tree up…she was decorating it…AND wrapping gifts. Mine was only up…I depend on the pity and kindness of my friends to come decorate my tree.



As you may or may not know, I am not from the south, but over the years I have worked hard at polishing my southern culinary skills and have more or less perfected Chicken and dumplings…. Kay Montgomery says mine taste, “just like the ones my grandmother‘s cook made. “ I don‘t know… could there be any higher praise then that? And after a few fits and starts…. I can now make quite agreeable Ambrosia.



Well, tomorrow is “Old People Club” I am baking a turkey and making Yankee dressing to take….We Yankees make our dressing with white bread, not cornbread…we will see if the gathered crowd goes to spitting and gagging. If they don’t like it, my dogs will. Peggy Ann said she would make cornbread dressing to bring to O P Club…I hope she doesn’t forget….



Next year I may try cornbread dressing. My favorite dressing is oyster. I shall make some to have for Christmas Eve this year. Yum! Me and the cats will eat it even if no one else does.



Becky Montgomery drove Peggy Ann and I to Bolton for the old time hymn singing at St. Mary’s Sunday…What a treat! I love the old hymns….we sang loud … real loud…a lesser building may have collapsed under the pressure of our voices. Lots of folks turned out…nearly a full house….Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist , Presbyterian…we were all there. James Anderson tells me they are planning a special event for every month. Looking forward to them all!

call if you need me

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette, October 7 2010

My old House is expecting company....

I was debating as to whether or not to even sit down here this morning, as I told you last week I have very important company coming to visit a few days,in mid-October, and I have lots to do before they get here.

For those of you who moved and now live far away and may have forgotten, Summer time in Mississippi is brutal, this year was especially hot and miserable. During Mississippi Summers ….when it comes to chores around the house, watering the plants confined to pots, keeping the grass mowed, roses dead headed… all such as that…. you are fortunate if you can maintain status quo, let alone take on any projects.



But, has cooled down now, so I have been preparing for my company, the kitchen has been degreased, the mildew has been scrubbed from the front porch…mostly. Saturday, I moved to the back steps…. In the late 80’s when we moved here to 201, we had new steps built to the back porch…to replace the wobbly., rickety ones with the loose and rotting treads….as I recall they were to be a stop gap measure , an emergency build, to be temporary, just until we could sort out what we really wanted to do…..Well, here it is some 20 plus years later and those hastily built steps are still in service at the back door….

I do have to mend them now and again…..I did that Saturday, the boards were loose and there was a significant, possibly dangerous, tilt to the treads…way more then necessary to drain the rainwater off ..for sure. Foot placement was getting tricky…some steps were solid in the middle…some were solid only on one end or the other. They are all sound from end to end now!



There is something so comforting about old houses…even though they can be quite drafty, they still have a cozy feel and they are so friendly….they love to have folks come to visit.







But old houses are work…lots of work. Recently, I heard Allan Huffman say as he was gazing toward his beautiful antebellum home, Holly Grove, “I was hoping to get it fully restored, before I had to start repairing it.”

Now John and I we never quite got around to restoration….the repairs kept us busy.



You all, my ambition is no longer renovation…I have just two objectives left for this old house. 1. Keep it reasonably safe for guests and 2. dry enough to sleep comfortably….… Time and energy are fast fading.

This 90 year old house I live in, He does not seem to mind a few scuffs and dings, He is a happy house, He does not seem to mind that his floors are worn, where folks have walked, children have played and my dogs have laid. He does not seem to worry that his windows and pipes sometimes rattle or his floors creak…For nearly 100 years, he has squared his shoulders and stood up to the elements and protected his people. And House knows he was here before I was born and he will be here long after I die….



But, I know this old house is very fond of me…When ever I come through one of his doors….He gives me a big hug and in his voice, rattles, creaks and squeaks says to me, “you are safe, you are home” . I get the idea on occasion, I need to down size…..But if this old house has his way, 201 will be my address until Jesus comes to take me Home.

Love to all

Call if you need me

PDA s And other Ramblings

Christiansen's Comments
Published in the
Hinds county Gazette
Raymond Mississippi
September 23 2010

Mankind has been through some extraordinary revolutions, what with the, automobile, TV, rockets, crushable beer cans and plastic shopping bags…..But, I am thinking the cell phone have to rank fairly high on the graph of life changing gadgets.




Actually they are not called cell phones anymore, they are PDAs, Personal Data Assistant….a title appropriate to it’s endless talents. With the aid of an appliances… about the size of a deck of cards you can access information from anywhere in the world….dictionaries, Bibles of numerous translations, games…..land records, death records, you can visit art museums, traffic can be monitored in real time. PDAs are equipped with cameras, still and video, GPS, stop watches and even a level…..it can do just about anything…except cook …Though, I would not be surprised , if the PDA could be programmed to remotely turn on your oven….



It has been my observation that in any group of people, say for instance in waiting rooms, in restaurants, etc at least half of the people will be on their PDA, talking, texting, or surfing the web ….the younger the group the higher the percentage.



But, what I think surprises me the most is the number of men using cell phones….Once upon a time I believed men did not enjoy talking on phones. My dad, of course, talked on the phone, but until he retired, seldom answered a ringing phone….….if he answered, you knew he was home alone. My John when the phone rang….on the first ring, would begin hollering, “Is somebody going to answer that phone?”



But John took to the cell phone right away…he went and got us each a phone. But for the longest he would not turn his phone on, unless he wanted to call someone….He said, he didn’t want to run his battery down.



I have noticed in the vehicles I meet, at least 2/3 of the drivers are on their phones…just as many men as women….young and old.

I have come to believe…men just didn’t like being tethered by a cord…while women did not mind being constrained by the wire…gave us an excuse to sit down a few minutes.





PDAs have changed how we communicate in such a short time…I get very little personal mail in my mail box at the road anymore…I could not even tell you, the last time I wrote a note, stamped and put it in the mail. Email…. that was the way to go.



But then,….this is what has come about in just the last few months….I am getting and sending less and less email ….But getting and sending more and more text messages. I use test messaging a lot…it is very convenient…it takes very little time. With the smart phones our world is getting bigger and bigger…we are free!…we can go where ever we want and still be in touch with scores of our friends. You can go for days and not speak to even your best friends…and still know what they are up to….by means of Text messaging and the likes of Twitter and Facebook.



Of course there is a pretty hefty cost for the convenience…The high price of the PDA is only the beginning of the cost….To use your PDA you pay by the minute or subscribe to a packages.



In my parents lifetime it was transportation that moved at mind blurring, head scratching speed …leaping from horse and buggy…. to rockets, taking men to the moon.



My lifetime it is communication and information that gushed ahead …When I was a little girl, we had no TV in rural Nebraska until I was 12, and not everybody had phones, and phones were not like they are now, you had to go through what we called “central” gave the number to an operator, who was sitting in front of a big apparatus equipped with plugs and switches…some how, with the aid of the plugs and switches she miraculously was able to patch us through to our intended party.



When I was a little girl… mother often spent the afternoons visiting friends, the elderly, or shut ins…..I spent many hours sitting on a chairs, my hands folded in my lap, and only speaking if spoke to…..It was not a bad experience…I enjoyed listening to the conversations.



So this is what I have been pondering of late,… is money the only cost we are pay for our…for our …..new convenient forms of communicating?

Love to all…. call if you need me

PS Have you noticed ….you don’t hear as much booming music coming from the car next to you at the traffic light…..it must not be possible to talk on the phone and listen to a relentless, pavement shaking…. Boom! Boom! Boom!

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette May 27 2010

Today, Monday, May 24, The Vietnam Veteran’s “Run for the Wall” will be passing by Edwards. This is an annual memorial event, veterans of the Vietnam war band together… the event begins on the west coast and they pick up riders all along the way and ride to Washington to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall…. to honor their dead…those thousands of young men who died fighting for a cause that many of us of that generation….did not understand and grew very weary of…and began to ask questions…. Why? Is it a just war?

But no matter what conclusion you came to personally….It does not take away from the reality those men and women who went to Vietnam and died ….died for this country. This is America the president is the commander and chief of the armed forces, he can send our troops to the far end of the earth, he did …and they went.



It was a heartbreaking time in America’s history….the veterans of that war were not treated as heroes…no ticker tape parades for them as had been in previous wars. Many Americans treated the returning soldiers with distain….They blamed the soldiers….soldiers who thought they were fulfilling their duty to America.



And on into that long, long war…it became more and more unpopular among Americans…protests broke out in the streets. Protesters too, were wounded and some died for their cause…remember the young students at Kent State? Many young men of draft age went to Canada to avoid serving,



I shall get up from here in a few minutes drive to the Edwards, I 20 overpass, take photographs, and cheer for those aging, tattooed, pony tailed, bike riding, ole’ soldiers. On their way to Washington, to pay tribute to their dead. There will be hundreds of them…odds are I would know a few. Because my John was career army…. a Vietnam war veteran ..two tours….

At the time of the war, he was a soldier, but, he was also a father of a young boy. Once in a discussion with some of his army buddies, about the war, the protests and the protesters …John said, “I chose this… I will go where the tell me to go…but I will send Adam to Canada.” It was not an uncomplicated time for anybody….who was trying to be a patriot.



The war was hard for some the men who went, fought and came back too ….it did something to their mind… Many of the men, when they got back to the states were never the same. A few years after the war finally ended… John and I were driving past a food kitchen….scores of homeless men waiting on the sidewalk for the doors to open, waiting to get a hot meal. John said, with sadness in his voice, “Lots of those guys are veterans…that would be me if it hadn’t been for you and the kids” John’s heart went out to those men, he felt like they too give their life for their country.



When we began sending troops to the middle east, John and I were watching the news one evening, as young men were boarding planes to go…John began to cry…his big heart went to hurting again…War is hell….

I’ll see you next week

Hinds County Gazette, April 27, Christiansen's Comments "Knocky is Gone." ..

Sydney Knox Askew died the way he wanted to die, in his sleep, the morning of Friday April 16, at the age of 84. It came as a shock to the community…even though we knew he was having some health issues…he just that week had been to the doctor for tests….But Knocky was the Energizer Bunny…he never stopped. How could he be dead!?!




Mr. Knocky fo had an ailment that caused his bones to deteriorate, so he had been getting shorter for some years…But he kept on going. However, Knocky had begun to moved a bit slower… but never stopped. Edwards Cemetery Day he had commenced using a golf cart to direct the work being done. Then a year ago…he gave up the chairmanship of the cemetery. Just the week before Mr. Knocky died, Peggy Ann and I while strolling the streets of Edwards, saw Knocky and Roma in their beautifully manicured yard, we commented on how lovely it was…Knocky grinned, Roma said, “Knocky does it all“.



Knocky was part of a ever diminishing breed of men …who know what is good for the community… is good for him and his family….Knocky took his church, civic and community duties seriously. Knocky did not do his work to be in the spotlight…he did it, because it was his duty and responsibility



But, Knocky was a humble man…Under Knocky guidance the Edwards cemetery was transformed in to a beautiful, well care for, a final resting place….but he never took credit, he gave the praise to the guys who showed up with the heavy equipment to do the work, the people who sent memorial money to make the work and up keep possible …I said to him “But Knocky somebody has to get us organized, send out the cards and tend to the details“

His answer was, “Roma does that.”.

To hear him tell it…he did nothing. Knocky brought to mind this quote, “It is amazing what can be accomplished, if you do not care who gets the credit.”



Knocky’s funeral was at the Edwards Presbyterian Church, it was standing room only….and the lines were long at the visitation the evening before….



Reverend Whitworth began Mr. Knocky’s funeral service with this very appropriate and comforting quote from the Bible. Ecclesiastes 7:1 “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death better than the day of one's birth“.

Sydney Knox Askew, was buried in his beloved Edwards Cemetery , April, 19, 2010.

Brain or me...

This morning, I am not on the front porch with my lap top, I am coming to you from the room at the back of the house, I call “my office”…I can’t hardly call it “my Office” with a straight face. “Office” sort of implies you have important papers and such to deal with….

I watch the Home and Garden TV channel occasionally…That’s where I became aware that every house must have a media room and an office. I don’t have a media room, I don’t even have a flat screen TV….But I am looking…..for a BIG one….I’ll take it home hang it on the wall, in one of the under utilized rooms in this house…Then run over to Utica, to see Kevin at Cane Ridge, pick up a few miss matched chairs, set them up, facing that TV, I plan to acquire from a road side trash pile. And Voila! I have a media room! Nobody need know the TV does not work…all that really matters is I will have the must have “media room”.

In an attempt to make this room come across as an authentic office/writer room. …I have office type paraphernalia spotted around the room, there is a big old dictionary on a stand, I bought it at a second hand store and , a Roget’s Thesaurus, that I carefully placed on the desk, to make it appear that it in use frequently….(I could not tell you the last time ether one was actually used for anything…. except to press flowers)…it is so much easier and faster to go on line to get answers my lexicon questions. Also on my desk I have pencils and pens standing in vases….quite a nice wooden box, full of paper clips, I have two staplers, nether has staples in it, but they do not need to have staples…I do not have any important papers to staple… Behind me on a narrow table, I have papers and files in baskets….Like I have important business to tend to.
But all of that said, I do feel more like a “real” writer, in this room.

I don’t know how I got off on that tangent …

My brain use to work quite fast…not necessarily well, or accurately, but fast. And I always have been pretty good at interpreting instructions, even quite complicated ones……But some months back I became aware my brain had slowed down significantly …It has slowed down to the point I began to get concerned...it can’t be the chemo…those effect should have wore off long ago…I do occasionally take a Benedryl…some authorities believe Benedryl may have an adverse effect on our cognitive skills….

But, While riding the lawn mower the other day it came to me why Brain is so much slower now then he use to be! He at some point stopped taking information in and instinctively acted upon that information….to where, now, he is thinking in full and complete sentences! Occasionally with punctuation! Like !!! and dot dot dots…

I never thought in sentences, not back in the day.! I didn’t have time! You just do not have time for full sentences, not when you are tending to a house, cooking, yard, and babies.
But Brain is thinking in full sentences Now! And he repeats himself, he may change the words around a bit, but it is still pretty much the same thought….He asks questions and he does sometimes answer…but often when an solution doesn’t appear after he has repeated himself several times….he declares “I will come back to that…” and he makes Me say it out loud…..

Maybe it did begin when I was under the influence of the chemo…Brain had to work hard back then. I remember one time Brain and I were attempting to put a DVD in a Netflix envelop, so it could mailed back…Brain was struggling…. He could not figure out how to put the thing in the envelope where the bar code would show though the little window…I finally had help him by laying it down on the counter and lining it up….even then, it took awhile…we were both just before asking John for help.

I don’t know what to do about brain and his time-consuming, rambling sentences…I suppose it is to late now, I have let him get by with it for far too long. Brain use to get irritated with me, because I was so slow…but even with no parts on this body working as they once did…knees, hands, even my elbows sometimes hesitate…I, at times, am faster then Brain. Now he annoys me!….I am ready to go and he is still rambling on and on and on….

Fact is, Brain and I are both on a down hill slide…..
Brain has been wondering, who will depart this world first him or me.

Call if you need me

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com