The Surprise Party!

 The Surprise Party!

 

Talked to my brother a bit ago. He has his entire family at home with all the children and grands. Currently he said that they were all out swimming in the creek. If you have ever walked into an Arkansas creek, they are freezing cold and feel absolutely delightful in the summer heat. So, when they get back and everyone is dried off or maybe just drip drying, they will throw together a great big pot of spaghetti with a gallon of sauce so that everyone can get enough to eat. Then they will have dancing and whatever else they can come up with just for a surprise party for his former mother-in-law’s birthday. She is 96! That age just pretty well boggles my mind. Sterling is 77 now, so she is about twenty years older than he is. Marion was not her oldest child, but most of her children have already died except for the younger ones. But she has some sweet ones who really love her—especially the grands. But she and Ed True had six kids—the last one a boy. It was enough kids to help her run the dairy farm. Anyway, it should be a great party out there on the farm in Sterling’s workshop.

 

Sterling said that the church was able to sell two-thousand-dollars-worth of junk and stuff from their garage sale that they held in his workshop. And he was very satisfied with the way they cleaned up afterwards. That made it easy for him to enjoy even if he were not the kind of person to sit down and laugh to himself at some of the strange folks who came for the sale. He always has something kind of funny to say about the folks in Arkansas. For instance, if he were to go into a doctor’s office that was full of folks, he would almost bet there were enough teeth for an entire set among those people. When we were talking about the price of land, it reminded me of what Granddad Pollard said about buying cattle from Arkansas. The Arkansas cattle were at a distinct disadvantage on level land as they always grew with one side longer than the other from trying to graze on the mountains. Sterling said that they are currently selling acres of land that go straight up for the same price as land that is level. How a person would ever live straight up on a mountain is a bit puzzling. But if Granddad were still alive, he could tell us about the folks who lived up there in those mountains. After all, he was born there.

 

Have some tea on steeping in my tea pot. Thought the lid had gotten misplaced, but it turned up. It would be wonderful to be organized, but no such thing will ever happen as long as yours truly is in charge of the mess. Did discover that the white sugar in the canister is all there is left in the house. Brown sugar has a taste all its own. It will work in a pinch, but white sugar works better. And forget about using honey! Have a couple of jars of honey that could be used, but it always makes me feel sticky just to look at the jar!

 

Have noticed that some kind of little bug has been flying around my face. Looking at it, or trying to look at it means that it will fly to the side or to the table or somewhere off of center. Then it dawned on me—one of those little floaters is in my eye. Can’t very well swat that sucker.

 

It's only 104 on the front porch, but the gauge says 110 on the back deck—in the shade on the west side of the house! And nary an egg today. Absolutely can’t blame the hens! It is simply miserable out there. Have put out clean water once and thought about spraying under the deck for them, but they were all just clucking away under there. No sense in making them move out of their happy place.

 

Slipped my knife out of my jeans pocket this morning and cut a few clumps of grapes. The hens fight for them, but the dogs can’t have any, so the hens have to clean up the ones they are given. Pretty tasty little grapes, but they are quite small. Maybe next year they will be a bit bigger and there will be enough to make some wine. Did that one year with green grapes. After they made the initial juice stuff, it smelled a bit like gasoline, so we put it back under the cabinet after adding a bit of sugar. When we finally put it in serving bottles, the stuff was fantastic. We served it at a dinner we had here at the house. When everyone was gone, Lewis wanted some more of that “gasoline” wine. They drank every drop of it, so he did not get another glass of gasoline. We laughed about that stuff for years.

 

Decided not to look at any news this weekend. It is so easy to be upset by crud that no one person can change. About the only thing an individual can do is show kindness and love to those with whom we come in contact. But right now, it is too hot to even think about getting outside more than absolutely necessary. The dogs and the old woman are staying inside under the AC units. We just need to pray that the electricity will remain on and that the idiots playing with fireworks won’t burn the countryside or the city down!

 

Each day that we wake up and see a sunrise, we can tell God thank you for another day of life. And then we can ask Him for His peace. Give yourselves reasons to reach out to His spirit as often as you feel despair or loneliness or any other negative feeling. He is always there for us. And he sends others to us to show that it is still His will that makes the difference.

 

Rest well, enjoy what you can in this heat. You are loved.