Last Monday was Memorial Day and it turned out to be one of the nicest days of the week as far as the weather was concerned. It was warm and sunny and just what a Memorial Day should be like. Most years we go to the parade in Ulysses, the town closest to us. Until recently we always had a child involved in the parade with marching band or Boy Scouts. This year we went to the parade in Coudersport, our County Seat. Our main reason for going was to see Stacey’s employer, Mr. Rigas, ride in the parade. Mr. Rigas is 94 years old and a veteran of World War II. His unit, the U.S. 20th Armored Division, participated in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Dachau. For this parade Mr. Rigas wore his uniform for the first time since he took it off when he left the army. It still fits him. We arrived in town before the parade began and took a walk around the County Courthouse and down Main Street. We stopped at the Sugar and Cream for some ice cream. The Coudersport parade turned out to be smaller than the Ulysses parade, which surprised me. The parade came up Main Street with the high school marching band and Mr. Rigas riding in a Jeep. The parade stopped at the Courthouse Square where there was a tribute to those who have died in the service of our nation complete with speeches, music, and a 21 gun salute. After the parade we came home and had a cookout over on the Shillig’s back porch. The Shilligs were hosts in absentia. We missed them. Their back porch is perfect for cookouts. Later in the afternoon we went over to Uncle Dick Young’s pond to fish for a while. Then Tabor and Rachel left to go home, leaving their girls here to spend the week with us.
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| The girls at the Civil War monument. |
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| At the parade: ice cream, the marching band, Mr. Rigas, Hazel. |
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| Fishing at Uncle Dick's. |
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| The hills behind Uncle Dick's. |
Having Hazel, June, and Mabel here all week was fun. I was at school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Stacey was at work every day, so Miriam was left to keep them entertained all day. She did a great job. There were art projects, cookie making, tea parties, and other fun activities. Each day when I got home, Mabel insisted that I take her over to swing on the Shillig’s swing set. I think she could swing for an hour – much longer than I can push her. We had to take walks in the orchard to pick fuzzy dandelions and make wishes before we blew the seeds away. All three girls had to accompany me to the barn at chore time.
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| After Tabor and Rachel left. |
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| A tea party with Aunt Miriam. |
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| Swinging and a dandelion walk with Grandpa. |
I was nervous all week on account of my lawn. Our mower had a flat tire and I could not mow. I had to wait until the tire was repaired and then I tried to wait for the rain to stop long enough for the grass to dry out. The grass grew taller and taller, helped by the copious amounts of rain that fell all week, and my anxiety grew with it. The tire was finally ready on Thursday. It had rained that day, but had stopped during the afternoon. The grass was not dry, but I decided to mow anyway. The grass catcher kept getting clogged with wet grass so finally I took it off. It started to rain when I was almost done, but I was determined to finish, so I mowed on and got soaked. I was so relieved when the lawn was under control again.
Thursday was the last day of school. Now we are in Summer Break, the fastest ten weeks of the year. I have so many things I plan to do during the break. My list includes indoors and outdoors projects so even if the weather continues to be rainy, I still have things to keep me busy. At this point I’m thinking one of my projects should be to build an ark and start gathering animals.
Sarah and Tosh arrived Thursday afternoon to join the party. I love to have a house full of my children and their families.
On Friday the weather was perfect. I worked in the garden most of the day. I tilled two beds and put down mulch where I will plant my brassicas and cucumbers this week. In the afternoon we went down to the Rigas’s house where Stacey works. We let Hazel and June try their hand at golfing on the putting green there. We rode around in the golf carts. Hazel got to drive and she loved it.
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| Preparing the vegetable garden. |
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| Golfing and other fun. |
Friday night was high school graduation. Sarah was the guest speaker and she did a great job. Rachel and Tabor arrived in time to be there with us.
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| Sarah addressing the Class of 2019. |
Yesterday we planned to do outdoor work all day and then have a cookout in the afternoon. The forecast said rain after 2:00, so we tried to do all we could before then. We finished cutting down the remaining three trees on the property line between our house and the Shillig’s. It was hard work. Tabor did the sawing, the rest of us piled and burned the branches and hauled the logs away. Our neighbor Ziggy Dunn saw what we were doing and came by with his tractor and chainsaw and helped pull down and cut up the last tree. Now that the trees are gone, the yard seems so spacious. We will plant a blueberry hedge where the trees were. The rain didn’t come until later in the afternoon when we were starting our cookout. When it did arrive, it came with thunder and lightning. We abandoned our plans and moved the cookout indoors.
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| Tree removal before (last year) and after (yesterday). |
It’s June now, the finest month of the year here. Now come the longest days as we approach the Summer Solstice. June is a lush month with rampant growth in the plant world, but the garden is still somewhat under control. The weeds haven’t gone crazy yet. Things still look tidy. In the fields the grass is tall and along the roadsides the wild phlox is blooming. In my garden the irises and bluebells are in bloom and the peonies will be soon. I’ll do my spring cutting of the orchard grass this week. I only cut the orchard twice in the year, once at the beginning of June and again in the fall before apple harvest. The apple trees have lost their pretty petals now and the tiny apples are starting to swell.
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| Irises. |
It’s lilac time. I have six lilac bushes in my yard – two white, two purple, and two dark purple picotee bushes with a white edge. I wish I had more. Next spring I think I’ll plant five more. The smell of lilacs on a warm and humid day is the perfect distillation of what June is all about.
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| My three different lilacs. |
Unfortunately, it seems this June is going to start out on the cold side. The Jet Stream is pushing some frigid air toward us and tomorrow night there is a frost warning. I keep checking the forecast hoping to see a change, but bad news weather always comes when predicted. I will cover what little I can and pray the other things don’t get too damaged. After that, it’s going to warm up again. I hope this is the last time we’ll have to deal with frost.
Today was Stake Conference. They decided to broadcast the session to our building in Wellsville and I’m thankful for that. Our stake center is two and a half hours from us. When they don’t broadcast, we don’t go. So we went to church and the broadcast was good. The Fosters left to go home this morning. The Thayns left just a few minutes ago. The house feels quiet and empty and sad. They’ll all be back again in July for another visit. I’m already looking forward to it.
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| Good-bye to the Fosters. |
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| The Thayns after church today. |
