The Party's Over

 

Monday__________

When I got up this morning there was no hot water. I tried every faucet in the house hoping, rather foolishly, that one of them would produce some hot water. I was probably a bit irrational. I was up late last night talking with Geoffrey and Daniel. So no shower this morning. What a way to start the day. It was also dismal, damp, and gray outside. The heat wave is over. I wish it had gone on longer. July needs to be hot. The forecast said the day would be cooler and rainy. I was in a grouchy mood. I had the Mamas and the Papas song stuck in my head all morning – "Monday, Monday, can't trust that day." What were we going to do with such a day and house full of people, mostly children?

When Stacey got up, she called our neighbor, Ray the plumber. Stacey left for work and children began to drift in from the tents and downstairs wanting breakfast. I was the only adult awake for a while. After a while, other people arrived from bedrooms upstairs and from the Foster's house. Breakfast happened in waves. Ray came over at 9:30 to see what was wrong with the water heater. The warm humid weather we've been having caused a buildup of condensation that made a sensor malfunction. Ray fixed it and by 11:00 we had hot water and people were showering again. It's amazing how I sometimes take such things for granted. Life without hot water is pretty miserable.

As the morning went on, a group of adults left and went to the gym. Here at the compound, the children entertained themselves. It seems like there is something going on somewhere involving some people at all times. Kind of like a three-ring circus only uncoordinated and bordering on chaos.

The weather stayed gloomy all day, but occasionally the sky opened up and gave us a downpour. During a dry moment, I weed wacked the edges of the beds out in the big garden and weeded the bean rows. Then I had a garden project that Daniel, Geoffrey, Josiah, and Hannah helped me with redoing one of the hoop houses. We could only work on it in short intervals because of the rain. While Geoffrey was helping me, he threw out his back and was partly incapacitated for the next few days. 

There was a brief lull in the rain in the late afternoon and a group dashed to Erway's pond for a quick swim. It wasn't long before the rain returned and they came home again. Our dinner this evening was a Mexican Fiesta involving the whole compound. The menu included tamales, burritos, tacos al pastor, beans and rice, guacamole, horchatta, limeade, virgin piña coladas, and chocoflan. We had planned to eat under the canopies out in the big garden, but the rain put the kibosh on that. Instead, we all jammed into our house. It wasn't an ideal set up, but the food was fantastic.

Eating indoors because of the rain.

After dinner, we had a short Family Home Evening lesson and after that, we set up a screen and projector in the living room and watched the USA vs Belgium World Cup Soccer match. Sorry USA. It rained through the entire evening. The tents got soaked with rain, so all the tent dwellers moved back into the house for the night.

Tuesday__________

Gray and gloomy outside, again. We only had a few things planned for the day. Josiah and I went for a haircut in the morning. The lady who cuts my hair, Mrs. Richard, used to also cut Josiah's hair back when he was a youth. She was so happy to see him. She looked in her book and said the last time she gave him a haircut was in 2018. On our way back from that, Josiah wanted to buy some Amish-made belts for his brother-in-laws, so I drove him to a shop in Harrison Valley that stocks them. We took the backroads from Genesee to Harrison Valley and it was a beautiful drive. We drove near the old Howe farm at Moon's Corners built by my great-grandfather S.P.B. Howe, where my grandmother Mabel was born.

On the backroads with Josiah.

The old Howe farm at Moon's Corners.

Geoffrey had his own adventure this morning. Joni drove him into town to the chiropractor. Our chiropractor, Dr. Fink, is really great. He determined that Geoffrey has a herniated disc at L4-L5 (the same as his father) and worked on him to get him headed in a good direction. Geoffrey came home feeling much better, and with two more appointments scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.

At noon, most of the family (not me) went into town at noon to the county office building to see the bell that Miriam painted for the Semiquincentennial Celebration. After that, they went to a private showing of the new Minions movie. Most were not impressed. By then the weather had cleared and when they got home from that, they went swimming.

Visiting Miriam's bell.

I did not go swimming this time. Stacey and I ran up to Wellsville to do errands. We also went to check on the chapel. The storm yesterday caused some flooding to the north and east of here and we needed to make sure the chapel was okay. It was. And we saw that the Facilities Maintenance people had been there to repaint the steeple. Our chapel is 45 years old and in pretty good shape, but it needs a little sprucing up now and then.

Dinner was Mexican food again, but this time it was just our house. After dinner there was a game of croquet on the front lawn. With help from Daniel, Vanessa, and Tosh, we finished rebuilding the hoop house. With the screen set up in the living room, we watched a soccer game, but with the USA out of the picture, we were only half interested. After the soccer match they watched Tangled, perhaps my favorite Disney animated movie. And while all of that was going on, there was a group playing games at the dining room table. The three-ringed circus again.

Wednesday__________

It was gray and foggy this morning. It set the mood for the morning as we had the first of our departures – Daniel, Raven, and Thistle. Stacey drove them up to the Buffalo Airport. We were sad to see them go. 

Saying good-bye to Thistle.

The traditional farewell porch photo with an uncooperative Thistle.

There were others headed north this morning too. Chase took Joni, Jamie, and the older children, Ava, Cash, Hazel, Ellie, and Gwen to the Palmyra Temple to do baptisms. After the temple, they went to the Chill and Grill for lunch. They were gone most of the day.

Cousins at the temple: Gwen, Ellie, Ava, Hazel, Cash.

At the Chill and Grill.

Here at home, I worked in the garden while waiting for the dew to dry. As soon as it was dry, I mowed. With all the rain we've been having, the grass is growing fast. As I was mowing, the sky cleared and sun came out and it warmed up.

After lunch we went swimming. The water was cool and the sun was hot and I got a little too much sunshine. Dinner this evening was just our house, breakfast burritos. After dinner we had a garden project. We needed to clean up the area where we planted grapevines. The vines are still small, but they were overrun with weeds. We weeded and then put down weed barrier. When the vines get bigger we will put up supports, but they don't need them now.

Working on the grapevines.

The cleaned up grape area.

Thursday__________

I went out this morning before sunup and patrolled the garden. First I did my morning snail collection. I had my bowl of salt water and had no trouble filling it. I can collect a bowlful like that every morning. After snails, I went after bugs. The Japanese beetles have emerged. There aren't a lot of them yet, but I'm on the attack anyway. I have my spray bottle with an organic insecticidal soap and I hit each beetle. After Japanese beetles, I sprayed cucumber beetles and Colorado potato beetles. If I'm vigilant in my spraying, I can keep them from proliferating to a small degree. So far, so good.

My morning snail collection.

The season is shifting as summer settles in. The time for the common poppies (Papaver rhoeas) is fading and the opium poppies (Papaver sominferum) are taking center stage. Along the road, my two favorite roadside wildflowers, chicory and milkweed are at their peak.

There are still some lovely common poppies.

My favorite common poppy on this morning.

Some of the opium poppies.

Chicory at the bottom of our road.

Milkweed and daisy fleabane at the edge of our road.

We didn't have any big plans for today. Our time together is winding down. Daniel and family are gone. Josiah and Vanessa leave tomorrow. We mostly just wanted to hang out together and do whatever. Stacey started things off on a high note with cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The children decided they wanted to make a movie and that occupied them for a while. I needed chicken feed, so Josiah and I rode into town. It was nice to have someone else do all the loading and unloading. Thanks, Josiah.

Playing mahjong on the front porch.

In the afternoon, a group went swimming again. I stayed home and weeded out in the big garden. When the swimmers got back, there was a craft session out in the big tent. Geoffrey had made little Liberty Bells on his 3-D printer at home. With Miriam's Semiquincentennital as inspiration, each child got to paint one. 

The bell painting project.

The children with their bells.

Dinner was a pizza extravaganza. Hannah, Sarah, and Geoffrey all made pizzas of different styles. The Shilligs brought mosquito salad and watermelon. Today is Julie's birthday and after dinner we had cake and ice cream and presents. As the day waned, there were games at our house. At bedtime people said good-bye to Josiah and Vanessa since they were leaving very early in the morning.

Pizza extravaganza.

Eating and chatting.

Friday__________

Josiah and Vanessa left at 3:30 this morning. Miriam drove them up to the Buffalo Airport. Stacey and I got up to say good-bye. Everyone else was sound asleep. Their flight was supposed to take off at 7:00, but there were technical problems and it got delayed and then canceled. They got switched to a flight departing at 8:00 p.m., so they ended up spending the whole day in the airport. They flew to Chicago where they will have to spend the night before flying out tomorrow morning to Bozeman.

Good-bye to Josiah and Vanessa.

After they left with Miriam, Stacey and I went back to bed and I actually slept late – well, kind of – 6:00 instead of the regular 5:30. I went out on my regular walk and took pleasure in the cool, dewy, quiet morning. I after my walk, I did my morning snail collection and then walked the garden again spraying for Japanese beetles. That's how July goes. The Battle with the Bugs ramps up. The War with the Weeds goes into high gear. It's a pretty violent month. We had rain off and on through the day with bright sunny intervals in between. The garden is loving this warm, wet weather.

This hollyhock is a volunteer. Volunteers seem to outperform the ones I plant on purpose.

The Thayns left this afternoon and that dropped the party atmosphere considerably. Now it's just Geoffrey's family here and we are a pretty low key bunch. They will leave tomorrow morning and then the house will seem sepulchral. We spent the final evening of our Big Week playing games and just hanging out.

Friday night games.

Saturday__________

A very fine summer morning, cool and dewy and sunny and fragrant. The catbirds singing in the hazel hedge were in full voice. As I made my snail and beetle rounds, I hardly found any – which made me feel like, perhaps, I might be winning the fight. Despite all that loveliness, it felt a little sad as Geoffrey's family prepared to leave. Stacey made a great farewell breakfast – pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage.

They left after breakfast and then the party was over. The Great Gathering of 2026 was done. We spent the rest of the day putting the house back in order. Having so many guests for so long, things got moved around and disorganized. I'm all about organizing. When we finished in the house, we went out to the big garden and took down the tents and the canopies.

Good-bye to the Rocky Mountain Howes.

Geoffrey and family also experienced flight delays, but they made it home. They had a layover in Philadelphia and got to try real Philly cheesesteaks (albeit of the Airport Food Court variety).

Stacey and I ran up to Wellsville in the afternoon on errands. As we drove, I was impressed by the beauty of the world. Summer days such as this are, in my mind, the world at its best. It's warm and green. The season has matured to the apex of the year, fully developed, and no sign of getting old and easing off yet.

I took a walk around the property as the sun was going down. The catbirds were there in the hazel hedge, singing at the end of day just as they were at the beginning. I walked along the weedy edges of the yard, the places were I allow the wild things to flourish, and noted some of the amazing "weeds" that are growing there. I have a patch of Tall Blue Lettuces (Lactuca biennis) out near the woodpile that are over ten feet tall. I have stands of Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) that look like I might have planted them on purpose, but I didn't. They are very pretty plants. There is Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annus), Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), and White Campion (Silene lataifolia) that seem to be the healthiest plants in my yard and have grown to enormous sizes. I have Stinging Nettle (Urtica doica) that I did plant on purpose (for medicinal use) in a patch at the side of the woodshed that has escaped into other parts of the yard, a handsome plant but painful when encountered by accident. And there is Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca), lots of it, that fills the warm summer air with the scent of vanilla. It was a nice way to end the day.

A weedy corner of the yard with ten foot wild lettuces, pokeweed, and mullein.

Now that all the guests are gone, things have returned to a normal, if slightly somber state. I loved having my children and their families here. This was the first time in many years that we were all together here in Gold. I hope such gatherings become more frequent. Now here it is, Saturday evening, and the world has that feeling again – mellow, a little bit sad, a touch tired, like a winding down to the end of things. Even the sky tonight had a feeling of finality to it.

Sunset Saturday.

Sunday__________

Another lovely summer morning and even better for it being the Sabbath. That adds an element of serenity to it as the world seems extra quiet. I took my morning walk and, because it is the Sabbath, I didn't go hunting for snails and Japanese beetles, which made the morning less violent. I ignored the plant predators – they'll be there tomorrow. Instead I took photos of the flowers that caught my eye. Here is a sampling of them.

Poppies and hollyhocks.

Lilies and larkspur.

We are back from church now. We had good meetings. After last week's attendance explosion, things were a little more normal this week. The afternoon is nice and warm. The sun is shining. After lunch I think I'll go out and sit in the garden and read. That will probably turn into a nap pretty quickly, but that's okay. I have plans for the week ahead and, as usual, they are all dependent on the weather. But the forecast looks good so far and I have high hopes of working and enjoying more of this glorious summer.