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| Our house on the 4th of July. |
We had a bit of real summer weather here. In Potter County, especially here in Gold, that means temperatures above 80°. We even hit 90° a few times! I know that’s not much compared to other more sweltering parts of the country, but here in our part of the Appalachian Plateau, that’s hot. We had to get out the fan. And it was humid – not the muggy sort of humidity you get in the lowlands, but enough to make us sweat a little. I love weather like this. And the garden loves it too.
The poppies are at their peak right now. I love poppies. I let them grow wherever they sprout and they sprout in some strange places. Somehow they have found their way into almost every flower bed and vegetable garden. They are beautiful. There were other new flowers in the gardens – the potatoes are in bloom, the first squash blossom opened on the 4th, and the elderberry bushes are loaded with flowers that promise a bounty of fruit later in the summer. The orchard is full of clover now and I’ve stopped mowing it so the bees can take the nectar. When the air is warm and still the smell of the clover blossoms is sweet and powerful.
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| Poppies. |
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| Potato flowers, squash blossom, elderberry flowers, clover. |
We had some sad trouble here. On Monday Rachel fell coming down the front porch steps. Josiah and I were just a few feet away putting up a swing for Hazel. We helped Rachel into the house. Her foot was swelling. She said she heard something snap when she fell. We put ice packs on her foot and called the chiropractor and I drove her down to see him. He took x-rays and found that she has fractured the 5th metatarsal on her left foot. On Tuesday morning I took her to the orthopedist at the hospital. She will have to keep off her foot for four weeks. She has to get around on crutches, keep her foot wrapped and elevated as much as she can and keep ice packs on it. After four weeks she has a walking boot she can wear. It’s a pretty rotten thing to happen at any time but especially when you are on vacation. And having a 22 month old to take care of doesn’t help. All her vacation plans for the rest of the summer will have to be adjusted.
Kurt arrived home on Monday and brought his daughter Kohl and her two boys Wade and Reed with him to spend the week. It’s been nice having them here. Hazel loves to play with her little cousins.
Tabor (Rachel’s husband) arrived early Thursday morning after having driven all night from Nashville. Rachel and Hazel were so happy to see him. Josiah was also happy since Tabor is an avid fisherman and he takes Josiah fishing with him. They went fishing twice on Friday and again on Saturday morning.
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| Fishing with Tabor. |
Our Independence Day celebration was great. After being hot most of the week, the weather cooled into the low 70's. We had a cook out dinner at Shillig’s with lots of delicious food – hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings, potato salad, broccoli salad, baked beans, seven layer dip and chips. For dessert we had watermelon and Julie’s homemade ice cream sandwiches. We didn’t go anywhere to see fireworks. Our neighbors up the road always put on a pretty good show and we usually watch it from our yard, but it was chilly and we were tired, so we didn’t even bother to do that.
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| Gathering at the Shillig's house. |
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| Our 4th of July feast. |
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| Cousins. |
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| Julie's homemade ice cream sandwiches. |
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| Hazel and Tabor sharing an ice cream sandwich. |
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| Transporting the Thayn family back to our house. |
We spent a large part of Saturday working on painting Josiah’s room. It has been a slower project than expected. We had to get the trim put up before Tabor leaves because he knows how to cut the angles on crown molding. We worked hard and got it all done. I’m hoping that tomorrow Josiah will get all of his things out of my workroom.
The Thayns are leaving in the morning to go back to Tennessee. We’re sad to see them go. It has been so fun having them here. Hazel is so funny and animated. She does and says such amazing things (and that’s not just a grandpa's biased opinion either). We were sorry that Rachel broke her foot and that put a damper on things she wanted to do, but it’s been fun hauling her around in the wagon behind the lawn mower. And we’re sorry Tabor was only here for a few short days. I love having my children at home. They want us come down and visit them in Tennessee and we’re thinking we will go in the fall when the leaves are done here in Potter County, but still beautiful down south.
Today in church we sang The Star Spangled Banner. It was wonderful to sing three verses. We don’t often sing them and most people don’t know the words. I was moved as we sang them today. Someone asked me on July 4th if I thought we are freer now than they were in 1776 or 1789 when our government was created. I don’t think we are. Somewhere along the years the freedoms our founding fathers established began to slip away. Some freedoms were quietly legislated away by less inspired or designing men. Some were interpreted away by our judicial system. Some were willingly surrendered for the sake of some imagined security. Many of our most basic freedoms are threatened now by a government that has wandered far from our heaven-inspired constitution. Most of us, I fear, don’t even realize what liberties we’ve lost. I think we’ve arrived at a point where we are once again in much the same state those patriots were in in 1776 when they declared their independence from a government that oppressed them and did not represent them. I think we need to reset the government and remove all the corruption, misinterpretation, revision, and erosion and return to the original intent of our constitution and revive our zeal for the liberty our forefathers cherished.
