We had grandchildren here all week. That made things interesting. With Stacey, who is the master at entertaining them, and Hannah, also a great entertainer, at work during most of the day, that left Miriam in charge of keeping them going. Miriam is excellent at directing their energies. I was glad for that because I am not very good at that sort of thing. I have things I want to do and they usually are not things they want to do. If it’s up to me, I expect them to find things to keep themselves occupied.
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| Mable and June with crowns of flowers. |
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| Russell. |
I had the usual list of things to do all week. Monday was a hot day, the first in a week of hot days. In the morning while there was still a bit of coolness in the air, I cut down the tall grass in the orchard under the early apple trees. It’s easier to pick the apples when the grass is short. I have three early apples – Yellow Transparent, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Sops of Wine. They are all three dropping fruit and it is time to pick. The smell of overripe, mushy apples on the ground is a nice smell. It is sweet and yet a bit vinegary. Tuesday morning Mabel and Florence helped me pick up all the fallen fruit and we fed a bucketful to the pigs. All three of those early apples are on the soft side. They make great applesauce, but I haven’t been able to make any yet – more on that below.
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| Cut grass under the Yellow Transparent tree. |
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| Three early apples: Yellow Transparent, Sops of Wine, and Duchess of Oldenburg. |
On Monday after I finished cutting the grass in the orchard, I mowed the lawn. I’m glad we are down to mowing just once a week now. It was in the high 80s by then. Everything was very dry. It had been ten days since our last good rain and we were parched. After working in the garden the rest of that afternoon in the dust and heat, I began to pray more earnestly for rain.
On Tuesday morning my prayer was answered. Sort of. When I went out before dawn, there were enough clouds to make a pretty sunrise. I did the chores and came back in for scripture reading and prayer. At 7:30 I went back outside and found that it was raining in the front yard – but not the back. I went out the front door and the rain was pattering on the porch roof. I looked east and I could see the rain coming down. I went back inside and out the back door and it was clear and dry and, looking to the west, the sun was shining. It was strange. That rain only lasted a few minutes. Through the rest of the day, the rain came in brief bursts off and on. It freshened things up a little, but it wasn’t enough. That evening we were supposed to get a thunderstorm, but there was one rumble of thunder and it was done. I was disappointed.
Finally early Wednesday morning around 3:00, the rain came. It was a warm night and we had the windows open. The smell and sound of the rain woke me up and I laid there and listened to it until I fell back to sleep. Wednesday was a gray day with spells of rain now and then. I did what I could between showers, but I didn’t accomplish much.
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| Colorful summer flowers in my garden. |
One of our Big Projects began last week. We decided to use some of my retirement money to fix up the kitchen. The kitchen in this house isn’t big. It’s narrow, only eight feet wide and eighteen feet long. When you subtract the room taken up by counters and cabinets, it’s a tight squeeze. The old counter tops were fifty year old formica and very worn. The linoleum flooring was so bad, we tore it out a few months ago. Over the years that we’ve lived here, we’ve painted the kitchen several times, but because it gets so much use and we are not professional painters, it gets shabby looking pretty quickly. This time we decided to let the professionals do it. On Monday Miriam emptied the drawers and unloaded all the cupboards and took off the cupboard doors. She piled all the contents of the cupboards and drawers in the dining room, music room, and living room. I was amazed at how much stuff there was – food, dishes, bowls, silverware, utensils, cups, baking supplies. Seeing the kitchen gutted like that revealed how run down it really was. Having all of that kitchen stuff spread through the other rooms makes me nervous. It violates my need for order and tidiness. I try to ignore it to keep from getting too anxious, but I’m not good at it.
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| Chaos. |
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| And more chaos. |
The workers arrived on Tuesday morning and took away all the cupboard doors to refinish them in their shop. On Wednesday they came and began working on the walls. They did a lot of sanding and repairing of cracks and seams. By Friday, they had done some priming. Work will continue this week and so will the chaos. We are without a washer, dryer, and dishwasher at this point and life feels pretty primitive. In the next few days, they will take out the stove and move the refrigerator. We are using our toaster oven to bake anything we need. We have to rummage through piles of things to find dishes, cups, and utensils. I have to keep reminding myself how nice it will be when it’s done. And it will be nice, almost like having a new kitchen.
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| How things looked in the kitchen on Friday. |
Work on the kitchen came at a bad time, however. I need to be canning and I have no kitchen to do it in. I have apples and cucumbers going to waste because I can’t make applesauce and relish. They aren’t really wasted because I’m feeding them to the pigs. Instead of being transformed into applesauce and relish, they are being transformed into eventual bacon, ham, and sausage. But I’m missing an opportunity to restock our pantry.
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| Miriam's lily pond. |
We managed to do some fun summer things during the week. On Monday Miriam took the children swimming in the afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Potter County Fair. We made our traditional way through the fairgrounds – starting with the exhibit halls, on to the goats and sheep, rabbits, cows, pigs, and horses. Then a walk down the fairway to the booth that sells taffy and then home again. On Thursday, Miriam and Hannah took the children to Lyman Lake to cool off. It was a hot day. Every day the children played on the porch with the dollhouse, played in our yard and the Shillig’s, on the trampoline and zip line, riding bikes and the little Gators. They were always going, going, going.
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| Russell thrilled to be near tractors at the county fair. |
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| June. |
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| At the county fair. |
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| Taffy. |
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| Florence at the lake. |
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| Russell at the lake. |
Wednesday and Thursday evening we had dinner with the Shilligs. With our kitchen out of commission for the time being, they have been kind enough to invite us to eat with them. It’s great to sit on their back porch and eat and talk and watch the sun set. We had several beautiful sunsets last week.
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| A sunset last week. |
On Friday, everything changed. Stacey left early that morning to fly to Colorado Springs to attend her 45th High School Reunion. That afternoon, Miriam and Hannah took the Thayn children home. So I went from having a house full of people and chaos to being alone with the chaos. My usual procedure when I’m left alone at home is to clean house. That wasn’t possible this time. And the weather was rainy, so that prevented me from working outdoors. I sat and read a while and got tired of that. I listened to music and after a while I got tired of that. I was restless and for once, I couldn’t think of anything to do to keep me occupied. I ended up going upstairs, where the chaos was minimal, and watching movies. I chose my favorite Studio Ghibli animes, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Grave of the Fireflies. And I watched them in the original Japanese, not the dubbed English versions. I must admit that, even though my Japanese is improving (recovering?) with my daily Duolingo lessons, some of the dialog was still beyond me. But it was fun and somewhat educational.
Yesterday was a quiet day. Saturdays are usually busy, but it was rainy most of the day. I was home by myself – no workers. The house was a shambles and I couldn’t do much about it. I tried to tidy some of the piles of kitchen things in various rooms, which seemed like an exercise in futility. I did the morning and afternoon chores, tending to the chickens and the pigs. I spent more time reading and listening to music. Late in the afternoon the weather cleared. It was hot and the humidity was tremendous. I sat on the bench in the garden for a while, enjoying the late afternoon light, breathing the rain-scrubbed air, planning what I will do in the coming week. I could smell dill from the vegetable garden and phlox from the flowerbeds. It was so quiet. For the first time in a while there were no children playing in the yards. It was tranquil, but it made me feel lonely.
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| Afternoon in the garden. |
In the evening I continued my Studio Ghibli anime festival by watching Howl’s Moving Castle, The Secret World of Arrietty, and From Up On Poppy Hill. I’d never seen that last one before. After two evenings of watching these films, I think my Japanese has actually improved a little. At least my ability to understand what they are saying has. I don’t think my ability to speak is any better.
Stacey posted some pictures of her high school reunion. She had a great time. She stayed with her brother Vance and his family. While she was there, she got to go to the house where she used to live. The people who live there let her go inside and walk through the house. She took a video. She got to visit her old neighbors, Hazel Doxey and her daughters. She met up with her best friends from high school. I’m glad she had such a good time. I’ll be glad when she’s home again and can tell me all about it.
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| Stacey with her high school friends. |
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| Stacey's class reunion. |
This Sabbath morning was very quiet. It was a pretty morning that started out foggy and then brightened when the sun came up. I felt my aloneness in the house even more keenly this morning. I put on a long queue of Tabernacle Choir music to break the silence. I’ve been without a car since Miriam and Hannah went down to the Thayns, so I rode to church and back with the Shilligs. Church was good, but attendance was very light. Now I’m home. I’m having dinner at the Shillig’s later, which is good because I’m tired of living on quesadillas. Every one will be home later tonight and I can hardly wait. The week ahead looks to be chaotic still with work on the kitchen continuing. I’m hoping they’ll be finished by the end of the week. It looks like the weather will be a little cooler and maybe more rain. I plan to do a lot of garden work when I can. And August will roar on by at top speed, as it always does.
