Of Blog Hopping and Home Dentistry

I can't remember when the last time was I felt so tired! I just finished a marathon blog hopping event thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew! I found and entered a few great giveaways. The girls enjoyed spending time in their "house" eating popcorn while I was thus occupied.

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My husband has a tooth that was acting very unkindly to him, and so he decided the offender has to be removed. He called a few of his brothers that live in the area to see if they would be willing to step up to the task. They weren't brave enough so as a last ditch effort of avoiding the dentist he called his brother that lives a hundred miles west of us, and he agreed to give it a try if we were willing to drive all the way to their house.

So after work last evening we headed out. The children were excited to get to play with their cousins again, since they have eight children there is never a dull moment around them! We arrived and we had to catch up on all the latest news before we got down to the nasty reason we were there. Once his brother had the instruments of torture in his hand I headed outside, I'll admit I'm a coward, but I just could not bear to actually see the grizzly event unfold. My sister-in-law had no such qualms though and happily took a lot of pictures.

I felt much better outside listening to all the night time sounds and admiring the vast amount of fireflies that were flitting about across the fields.

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The children were much too busy to all gather together somewhere for a picture, but I did manage to get one of the girls.

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The attempt of at home dentistry was not successful. So an appointment will be made with a professional. For anyone brave enough I am including one little picture that shows just a little of their painful attempts. If you're not brave you might want to find something a little safer to look at.

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I had warned you.

Mom's Apron

I was cleaning and doing some general de-cluttering today when I came across one of my Mom's old aprons. It isn't what anyone could call pretty, its a worn faded royal blue with several scorch marks on it. It still feels soft like her aprons always did. (To me it feels like love.)I sat there for a while just holding it and allowing many good memories to come back.
Mom always wore an apron. Usually it was several shades lighter than the color of dress she was wearing.
As a child, her apron was as much a part of her as her smile, or her gentle hands. If I hurt myself and had to cry her apron was always there to dry my tears.
In the evenings after supper, Mom and Daddy would often walk out to the garden to see how everything was growing, and often times it would be filled with various vegetables by the time we got back to the house.
Her apron served as a pot holder on the occasions when a pot was threatening to boil over on the stove.
It served as a towel to dry her hands when ever she had to leave in the middle of washing the dishes to answer the door or help us children with something.
It was used as a blanket when we sat on the porch swing in the evening and one of us would be chilly.
It was removed and snapped at stray dogs to chase them out of our yard and away from her frightened children.
It was used to fan her face on summer days when the kitchen was hot from canning.
Every once in a while she would let us hold the apron strings and pretend to be driving a horse.
Often when she spied something dusty, the corner of her apron would be used to wipe it off.

I gently folded the apron and put it into one of my drawers. I'll never use it, but every once in a while when I'm missing my Mom I can go hold that apron and once again be a carefree little girl skipping beside my mother.

Blogging Friends

Thanks to Valerie from Val's Diary and the Ungourmet for presenting me with this award. I have chosen several other blogs to pass it on to. It was hard to narrow it down to only four, but here we go...

1. Katie at My Pinecraft World
2. Bethrusso at Snoozin' Pooches
3. Robynn at Robynn's Ravings
4. Janie at Janie & Steve's Utah Trails

I enjoy visiting these blogs among many others too. You might want to check them out too.

Of Fruit and Fish

Summer time in the Dundee was filled to the brim. With many different orchards in the area it seemed that every other week we would be picking a different fruit.
Mom would hitch Jim to our spring wagon and we would go to Grandpa Mast's and Aunt Emma and Vernie would join us. Aunt Emma would sit on the seat beside Mom, holding David and Vernie would join John and me in the back on our blanket nests. Grandpa would give us each a handful of long Timothy grass and we would hold it against the wheel spokes. It made a funny noise as Jim trotted down the road to Gibson's Orchard.
Once we were there Mom would hand each of us an empty peanut butter pail and we would help her pick blueberries, or raspberries. Emma and Mom would pick fast and soon had their pails full and dump them into the berry boxes. John and I barely had the bottoms covered in our little pails. Mom never seemed to mind how slow we picked and would encourage us by saying every berry we pick she won't have to. By afternoon we would pay for the berries we picked and drive home. Vernie, John and I would snack on the berries all the way home.
Cherry picking was even more fun. Grandpa would put several ladders in the back of the spring wagon and then sit in the back with us. Once we got to the orchard he would set up the ladders and Emma, Mom, and he would climb up into the trees to pick cherries. Vernie, John and I would pick everything we could reach from the ground.
Once we got home we would have to pull the stems off all the cherries and wash them and put them in jars. Mom would mix a sugar syrup and pour it over them. It was fun watching as the canning shelves filled up with row after row of fruits for the winter.
We saved a big bowlful to eat fresh. When Daddy came home from work he suggested we pack a picnic supper including plenty of fresh cherries and we could go to Grandpa's pond and go out on their big row boat and do some fishing while we eat our supper. We hurried and packed everything we needed and headed for Grandpa's with our spring wagon.
Uncle David helped Daddy get the boat into the water and helped all of us in and then took David back to the house so we won't have to worry about him tumbling into the water. It was great fun eating our sandwiches as we drifted across the pond. We ate our cherries and tried to see who could spit their pits the farthest. Daddy could make his go an impressive distance, Mom and John weren't too bad at it either, but the only way I got mine in the water was if I leaned over the edge of the boat.
Once we were done eating we settled back to do some fishing. We caught quite a few and decided it's time to head for home. We picked David up from the house, Grandpa came out to admire the fish we caught and gave us a bigger more shallow container to use to take the fish home in hopes the water wouldn't slosh as bad.
On the way home we hit a bump and I put my hand out for balance and happened to put it right into the bowl of fish. They were still alive and felt really weird. I still shiver when I think how it felt!

Like Father, Like Son

Last spring Sailor became the happy owner of one of the sweetest and most loyal little Beagles I had ever met. He named him Jack and spent hours with him every day roaming our land. A few months later someone abandoned another Beagle at the end of our driveway. Jack made her feel right at home and Sailor gave her a name. Jack and Jill were one happy couple. Last fall they had six little puppies.
Sailor spent all of his free moments with them, and grieved every time one of them found a new home. Finally there was only one puppy left. He had named him Waggy Tail but we called him Wags for short. We found a place for Jill too, that left only Wags and his daddy, Jack. And then Jack disappeared for several weeks we were afraid something bad might have happened and then one morning when Sailor was outside playing with Wags they heard a strange noise. It was Jack minus his eyes sniffing his way back home to his beloved Sailor.
The tears that flowed then! The children sobbed and petted and cried and hugged that poor little dog, his head looked terrible as there was obvious infection too.
The vet couldn't do anything and we were left with only one option. They call it humane. We called it heartbreaking!
We were very glad we still had not found a home for Wags. He really helped Sailor to not hurt as badly as he would have otherwise.

Jack inspecting a turtle that came wandering along.

And exactly one year later Wags is telling a turtle exactly what he thinks.

He got right up in his face, and put all his vocal energy into his message of no trespassing on his guard. The snapper finally got tired of it and snapped him.

Wags retreated to a safer distance to voice his grievances. In the meantime the girls got a little closer for a better look.