Thoughts

Today I came across a writing that a longtime friend wrote before she died and it hit a nerve. That is because I'm always looking back and, in fact did just that today! I truly miss hanging out my laundry. Actually I miss doing it myself. I even once worked in a personal care boarding home for several years and did all the laundry for 30 residents! As a young mother I was overly proud to have the whitest diapers on the line showing to all who passed by. My mother was the same. It was a very satisfying task and I was always willing to assist with it. Soooooo, I pulled out some fairly recent photos to remember how good it felt to have clean laundry on the line. As my shoulder lost motion over the years I just had to give it up. That hurt! I know there are more photos not scanned but those images are well remembered.

2009

 2010

2011

(Broke shoulder 2012)

2013

2014

2014

2015

2016

2016

2017

2018

2020

Now many birds use the line as a perch. 

It is all frayed.

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PAST VS. PRESENT

The past is the past for a reason.
That is where it is supposed to stay,
But some cannot let it go.
In their heads it eats away

Until all their focus becomes
The person they used to be and
Mistakes that happened in their life.
Oh, if only they could see

That you cannot change what happened, 
No matter how hard you try,
No matter how much you think about it,
No matter how much you cry.

What happens in your lifetime 
Happens for reasons unknown,
So you have to let the cards unfold 
Let your story be shown.

Don't get wrapped up in the negative.
Be happy with what you have been given.
Live for today not tomorrow.
Get up, get out, and start living,

Because the past is the past for a reason.
It's been, and now it is gone,
So stop trying to think of ways to fix it.
It's done, it's unchangeable, move on......

    by Jan Grace 10-28-17

Grocery Observation

A friend took me to the grocery store today and was a great help loading the back deck of her car with both her bags and mine. Mine were heavier as I had several large bottles of juices and soda and bleach, sugar, flour, and... you get the idea. She even unloads the bags after depositing them in my kitchen. (Younger is stronger in this case!)

As I was putting things away I couldn't help but notice that the size of many things are not what they used to be as I replenished my supplies. The one that really stood out was my paper towel rolls. I happened to have one older full roll left. The new ones were smaller. See?  I guess we'll all have to live with diminishing product sizes and increasing costs but I don't like it at all. It's isn't the store - it is the suppliers and manufacturers, I'm convinced. But as a frugal person it annoys me that this is happening. I can't buy one or two rolls either - they are packed in bundles of 6 or 9! Got me coming and going!

please tap image to view larger

Change

I can't believe summer is already over and soon the natural world will turn orange, brown, grey and white. AND COLD.  It seems as if the days are flying by, like what happens as the roll of paper gets smaller and the end is near. I have been able to keep pretty busy, sometimes doing nothing which is busy on a different scale. I did manage to vacuum the kitchen and living room this week. Major work for me now. The other day I was a social butterfly, chatting with the trash pickup man, the Schwan's delivery fellow, the mail carrier woman, the potter, my brother, and then a neighbor who was walking his dog. He stopped to help me with the filling of distilled water into the golf car batteries with a special system of doing it all at one time. Soon after, another neighbor made a special delivery of a bag of her home-made cookies! Killer Cookies, I might add. Soon things will have to be covered - the porch swing, the golf car, the air conditioner. I plan to have my lawn and yard guy help with this after he cleans out the flowerbeds and gutters and blows leaves. He does the snow removal as well. Perhaps he can use the Mister's great blower. It needs to be taken from the shed and put into the carport for easy access. A gasoline supply will be needed. I still see a couple of hummingbirds at the feeder but sure hope they leave before frost! It is time!

When I watch TV, which is for the morning news and weather and the suppertime updates, I know I have nothing to complain about. My health is fair for my age and as long as I have books to read, my computer for communication, shelter, warmth and food, I know I'm one of the lucky people in a safe environment. I also know this could change in an instant, but for now I'm going with the flow of good vibes, good friends and neighbors. 

The photos below are from last year.

It's Nature's way.

for a closer look and to be prepared, click on an image

It's a Long Story - REALLY

The Chopsaw Girl

From 1972 to 1980 I worked in town at a cabinet making factory before the accident. I was a "chopsaw girl." The factory had all sorts of stations such as sorting, stacking, sanding, planing, inspecting, and chopping. The job involved looking at a long plank of wood as it came down the line and immediately deciding how many of certain length cuts could be made from it while eliminating (chopping out) flaws and cracks and knots. There were all sorts of lumber going through the molder, run by a man, including oak, basswood, poplar, pine, cedar and more. There were two of us chopping and I was front chopper. That meant that the first board coming down the line was mine, the next was the girl's behind me, and the one after that was mine again. We had to go very fast so we didn't get behind. If I missed my next board it meant that the other chopper would get mine in addition to hers. Then I would have to go like hell to do two in a row! (Something like Lucy in the chocolate factory!)

When the molder man went to get a new load, we got a break to catch up if we were behind. A coincidence is that her name was also Geraldine May!!! TRUE!  We also could work at the other stations but at chopping we were the most competent. We had thick rubber pads to stand on, knee pads to protect the punch knee and wore goatskin gloves because splinters were horrible. Twice during the day we got a 10 minute break and 30 minute lunch. We punched in and out of the time clock for all.

The machines had a spinning blade and when I punched the knee lever with my knee, it would jump up (activated by air compression) and chop the board I held in place for the chop. It's hard to explain. To chop out a knot, it was chop! Move board. Chop! Move board on to next chop. I pushed away the waste pieces with the board moving to the left, readying for the next chop. There was a poster board pinned up in front of us telling us how many pieces of a certain size we needed to get out of the actual order.  For instance, the order might read: 3,000 12" - 8,000 24" - 800 45" - and so on. Sometimes it would continue on for several days until the order was completed. Then another order would replace  the current one and perhaps be for a different variety of wood. The oak orders were more difficult due to being heavier, very splintery, and sometimes warped.  

We tossed our good chopped pieces to the left conveyer and they went on a roller trolley to a sorting roundtable that moved slowly so the sorter girl could stack the pieces by size, on separate pallets. Many times she would get behind with the table piling up like a pyramid, and wood cuts falling on the floor;  we would stop the molder and line and go help her stack and then start up again.

The shadow guard over our saw blade would come down when the blade jumped up to cut. Sometimes it got loosened by all the action. We each had a wrench on the saw table and we would tighten the nut often. One day my wrench slipped off the nut, hit the blade and pulled my hand into it. I knew it was BAD when it happened but felt no pain -  saw no blood -  I just grabbed the injured hand with my other one, ran up and over the belts away from the work station, while telling the other chopper I cut myself, and headed for the boss's office. He took me to the hospital. When I got there as an emergency patient the pain set in as they tried to see exactly what the injury entailed. My left hand that was holding the injured right hand would simply not release! They gave me a shot of morphine in my neck and I remember my legs both pounding up and down hard on the table. The next thing I remember was being in a hospital bed with my hand all wrapped up and pins sticking out everywhere. 

The local surgeon had pinned it together as a temporary fix with surgical injection needles holding it together until I could be shipped to a Philadelphia hand injury orthopedic surgeon in a large hospital for repair surgeries and therapy. They said our local man actually saved my thumb. The ring fingertip went up the waste chute at the factory, along with the tip of the glove. 

Dear friends drove me to the hand center at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia and they had never even been out of our area! They were horse friends and truly country folks. Another friend drove me back and forth to the Philadelphia hospital for surgeries and therapies very often. It took over a year for me to finally be discharged. When there, I saw so many other severe and horrible hand injuries that I felt I didn't deserve to have so much attention to my small one. 

If you have never injured a hand severely, you can't understand how many things you do with your hands. Try hanging clothes on a clothesline, or emptying a pot of boiled potatoes or spaghetti into a colander. How about changing a sanitary napkin, or other personal care, shampooing, fixing hair, tying shoes! All were very difficult to do. 

Gerri and I were excellent choppers and worked the 7am to 3pm shift. We both had kids in school and it worked out fine.  There were two other choppers who worked the night shift. We actually liked our job. It was both mentally challenging and physically active. After my accident, Gerri soon left and I went to work at a personal care boarding home, doing all the laundry for 30 residents and doing all bookkeeping, including payroll. I liked this job too. The owner recently died and we had remained friends until this year. After 5 years there, I left to go to work for the County as the 4-H Coordinator, planning and executing programs for over 500 county youth and 200 leaders. I was already a leader and never dreamed I would be chosen as coordinator when I applied. I was also put in charge of the county horse and pony program, and was on regional and district and state committees, executing shows and activities. I stayed in that position until 1998 when I retired. 

TODAY Most of what we did at the wood plant is done with computers!! My grandson and his girlfriend work there. It changed hands in 2012 and is now called Diaz Manufacturing, a division of Diaz Companies. Many upgrades and improvements have been completed and the company is an asset to our community.

Bob the Builder, shown in these videos from 2011was just a scrawny teenager on his first job at the plant when I worked there. WOW! 

https://youtu.be/FV0tSdE318k

https://youtu.be/DDjxTKcjEHo

https://youtu.be/PPlNEq514CQ

https://youtu.be/Ye8CmgwNxPk

Three Trees Downed Part 2

That's is it for this year.

Good job well done. 

Three Trees Downed 9 5 17

This is a 2 minute slide show that I made after the men went back to their business main location to repair the chipper which developed a leak of some sort. They promised to return as soon as they could to finish cutting down the large tree and finalize the cleanup of the beachfront. 

We will miss those trees but it was absolutely necessary to remove them before Mother Nature did the job. I often have used them as accents in my photographs during all seasons. The doves, crows and other birds including the bald eagle have roosted there on the jutting broken limbs. I do not like change, especially this one. I'll miss those trees.

 Please click on image to see the last view of the 3 trees in March 2017. 

New Happenings on Our Property

We are trying to make things easier around here. The Mister can no longer work so hard at getting the portable generator in place, hooking it up and storing enough gasoline to run it for several hours -  especially in sub zero degree weather. Winter power failures will definitely cause frozen water pipes. We can't have that!

Automatic standby generator delivered

It's definitely exciting to have these different and new things. "It's so nice to have some men about the house!" Their job was completed in one day!

A ditch is dug for wiring

Labor and brain in action

Eating and working at the same time

Trench will be deep

Breaker box nightmare - power off for 4 hours during work

All conduit finally installed and buried 

We are wired

Base built on site

Unit is absolutely level

Waiting for propane gas to be hooked into unit

Click on image to view larger

In My Neck of the Woods

In my neck of the woods it is impolite to show your half eaten dinner to the public. Here is my apology.

In my neck of the woods, people knock on the side door.

In my neck of the woods, tips are handed out at Christmastime to the mail carrier, the trash pickup man, and the car wash guy who does the first hand-rinse.

In my neck of the woods, shots are often heard during hunting season and not at other times except for the sighting-in days just before the hunts begin.

In my neck of the woods, thoughtful people drive by homes on dirt roads slowly.

In my neck of the woods, going to town in jeans and boots and work clothes is perfectly acceptable.

In my neck of the woods, you know the first names of the owner, meat manager, dairy and grocery managers, produce, delicatessen, bakery people, and the checkers at the market. Most shoppers have a favorite checker.

In my neck of the woods, grocery carts are returned to the store front and not left in the parking lot. 

In my neck of the woods, pleasant greetings are given to both those we know and those we don't. 

In my neck of the woods you probably won't be knocked over by a strong whiff of expensive perfume in a market - I abhor Tabu. Flashy clothing and such tell that you don't live here - or just moved here.

In my neck of the woods, the firemen, post office and library employees, bank tellers,  police officers, road department, and courthouse staff are people we know either personally or by face and name. We know our doctors and our dentists and most of the hospital staff. We know the people who pump our gas, deliver our propane, and teach our children. We know who our artists are and what their art is like. We know our shopkeepers and business owners. We know how many churches we have in the close by area and what denominations and faiths are served.

I could continue, but I think you get the point. 

It all reminded me of words in a childhood nursery rhyme.

Remember The "Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker?" 

Well I obtained the following information from another blog I read several years ago and cannot now tell you where or who wrote it but I copied it down to remind me of the three kinds of people necessary to make changes in a society. Of course this is only one of many interpretations of the rhyme! I like this one.

"• The butcher is the person willing to take whatever action necessary, despite the implications or nature of the act, in order to cause or further change. 
• The baker is the person who takes what he has, despite how little or how much that may be, and uses it to support the others in the cause.
• The candlestick maker is the person who illuminates the darkened path leading to change, and who keeps a beacon of light constantly burning to light the way for others to follow."

Author unknown to me.

What is it like in your neck of the woods?

Local Highlight

For many many years, did I say many? the Harford Fair was THE place to go just before school started back for my kids. And their friends. And me and mine all. Now it has changed so much I just can't even imagine attending. Crowds irritate me now. I've become as resistant to change as any person you might know. Why? I just don't comprehend it myself. I used to love the fair. I also entered many of my projects and slept in a tent and even a horse barn stall. I showed my horses and my kids showed their 4-H project work. I, in my time of being the 4-H County Youth Coordinator had access to the fairgrounds, buildings and arenas for a good number of events and activities that I was managing. I was on the fair committee for several years and attended meetings. Now I have no interest in going there and it just might be due to the multiple changes and progression and improvements that have taken place. It's been 15 years since I have attended. I once entered some items in 2003 but I had a friend take them to be entered and then pick them up after fair was over. The premium awards and ribbons didn't help to change my mind about going back.

Today I experienced the fair this year and last year. It has a Facebook page now and I spent about 2 hours reading everything posted and looking at ALL of the pictures. I was quite shocked at the changes, both in how people dress, act and what really goes on there now. I'll attend via internet next year.  It works for me. I've moved on.

Today's Fairgrounds

PR Blurb on Facebook page.

"Nestled in the rolling Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County is the village of Harford whose residents enjoy a simple, quiet existence except for the third full week of August when approximately 65,000 people come to celebrate a long-standing tradition, the Harford Fair. This fair is one of the few truly agricultural country fairs which exist today. What began in November, 1858 with a one-day event in small sheds around the church has grown consistently to a six-day event with 23 different departments providing opportunities for young and old alike to exhibit handcrafts, agricultural items, fruits, vegetables, baked goods, animals, photography and art work. There are arena events, amusements, commercial displays, and foods of all kinds. Throughout fair week a variety of different acts perform in the Shade Pavilion providing constant entertainment in a comfortable seated area. At the north end of the fairgrounds there are daily equestrian shows and in the North Arena a free specialty animal act performs multiple times throughout each day. The parking is always free, the gate admission is only $6.00 for children 12 and older, and there is always some free seating for the shows in the grandstands."

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harford-Fair/162001413972493