Sunday in Two Cities

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Today in my city ice fishermen continue to apply their craft in SPITE of sunny skies and temperatures warm enough to melt, not freeze, the ice.

This little guy, Dane, is a fisherman in a bucket.

;-)


While a mere 425 miles away in her city, my little gran, Piper, sips her hot chocolate totally unaware that such a thing as ice fishing even exists.

Oh, but one day her Papoo will educate her on the subject, I'm sure!

Thanks to Unknown Mami for hosting
"Sundays in My City"
To which I am linking this post.
My Cities today are Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin

and Bluffton, Indiana

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Friday Fragments on a Very NonWinter-ish Day

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It's almost Friday, so for ONCE I'm trying to pull my fragments together early rather than my usual late or even nonexistent.

I Went Back Down to the Creek

And when I go to the creek, I can't just dip my toes in, I have to fish things out and bring 'em home with me!!!

This copper pint oil can was my favorite find of the day. I love how shiny he is and yet he still has a few splotches of green patina showing around the edges.

Doesn't he look HANDSOME escorting Miss Tea Cup???


I also "caught" a Majestic shiny tin coffee pot which joined my orange basket vignette in the dining room.

Oh, looky here! A REAL antique rug beater and a miniature faux one.

Nope - - - haven't found any faux eggs for my wire chicken egg basket yet.


More copper oil cans. These are some honkin' BIG oil cans - - - maybe some Wisconsin dairy farmer used them to oil up his farm engines. I don't know, but I love their color AND the way the tips of two of them bend over.

They moved in on the lower level of the African Savannah.



Confession Time

See this cute little thank you note? Other people THRIVE on writing them. They mail them out if you say "God Bless You" when they sneeze.

I'm NOT one of those people.

I'll send you an e-mail, or blog about what you send me or do for me, and I'll for SURE brighten up with a huge smile and grovel at your feet with my thankfulness in the moment.

But I can't REMEMBER the last time I mailed a thank you note.

I deserve to be kicked out of the race - - - the HUMAN RACE!


So, when I receive a thank you note, I put it right here, on top of my bread box, where it will strike guilty daggers into my heart every time I pass by.

Nope - - - hasn't made me write one thank you note yet.

Surprised AGAIN by the Mail!!

A while back I received a Wisconsin Badger Nutcracker in the mail from an undisclosed recipient. I made a blog post and BEGGED due disclosure. Turns out it was from my mother-in-law, Robin.

Well - - - ANOTHER mystery package arrived!

What can it be????


Oh my GOODNESS!!! One of my all time favorites - - - NEWSIES!!!

A while back I did a post about Newsies, mentioning that we used to have the VHS tape and wishing I now had it now on DVD.

I guess SOMEONE took that as a hint - - - because VOILA!!!! They sent it to me!!

Oh mysterious gifter, PLEASE reveal yourself.

And THANK YOU!!!!! (Better take that, 'cause there's no snail mail one coming.)

Home, Home on the Range

The kitchen range that came with this duplex was dying. The self-cleaning and timing portion of the oven never worked from day one.

I don't do oven cleaning without self.

Then the right front burner started shorting in and out - - - would work sometimes and sometimes wouldn't.

Besides, that old dinosaur had coil burners.

I HATE coil burners - - - I just can't keep them clean no matter how hard I try.

So, I betook myself to the store to PRICE a new kitchen range with the PLAN of asking the landlord if I could pay the difference and upgrade to a ceramic top.

As fortune would have it, the day I popped into Sears, they were having their year end sale and if I bought it, I could save $150. So I decided it would be better to ask forgiveness than permission and BOUGHT IT.

Later I contacted the landlord and offered to just call it my stove and take it with me when we move. (Oh heaven forbid that we should EVER move again!!!!)

But my landlord she is one AWESOME lady and she said she would pay for it all.

She even THANKED me for doing the shopping for her!

So, my shiny new stove has moved into the kitchen and I am one happy camper!!!

Oh, I KNOW it isn't stainless steel - - - but you see girls, I don't LIKE stainless steel. Too cold. Too commercial. YUCK, not for me.


But I DO love me my ceramic top almond colored range. Ahhhhhhhh the CLEANNESS of it all!

(Yes Cass, I KNOW you got rid of your ceramic top, and I GRIEVED just to hear you tell it!)

Florida Girl's Scarf

My OTHER mother-in-law, Rosie, sent me this Florida girl's scarf for Christmas. It's a cute little thing made mostly from single strands of yarn.

It is surprisingly warm though - - - I don't think you'd catch ME wearing it in Florida heat and humidity.

Too bad the light/shadows in this picture and my sober face make me look like I just stepped out of a Vincent Price horror movie.

Bwaaaa haaaa haaaa!!!

Angels Among Us

Our oldest daughter told us she knows some folks who seriously believe when they find a feather on the floor that a real live angel left it behind.

Fortunately for us, Fisherhubby and I BOTH have feather pillows, so we are abundantly BLESSED with angel sightings. (Well, pseudo sightings - - - we find the feathers, not the angels.)


I told my friend Kay, with whom I work BOTH at the Library and at the Shepherd's Loft about our angel sightings.

The other day while we were both working in the library she brought me THIS piece of angel evidence.

Fisherhubby says it's from a DIRTY angel.

The Frozen Tundra is Not

The other day we had some snow. I got all excited thinking that FINALLY winter might be coming to the usually frozen tundra of Central Wisconsin.


I even took this picture to COMPARE when the snow got deeper.

HA!

We've had so many 40 degree sunny days and so few below freezing days that the bare ground is showing in many places.

This is NOT what I call winter, and I'm not a very happy winter camper.

Fisherhubby says it is despicable weather.

Please head on over to Mrs. 4444's place
And check out all the Friday Fragments.

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I'm a Very Literal Person

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So, when I saw a bumper sticker that said this, I wondered what other people besides me visualized.

I mean, how many ways are there to throw peas around the place????

Then a horrible thought struck me, could this have some deep, dark, hidden meaning that I really have no business even contemplating????

I decided to come home and google, just to be sure, before I made some silly post about throwing peas and why was pitching peas all the rage these days. Why is lobbing peas enough of a rage to warrant a bumper sticker?


When I googled, I found this.

Now I really was confused. What in the WORLD do violins have to do with tossing peas??? Do people try to toss the peas in the resonance chamber of the violin through that tiny little hole???

I went about my business and suddenly - - - like a flash - - - it all came to me.

I say suddenly, but it was, after all, quite a while AFTER my initial sighting of whirled peas.

Please, don't throw tomatoes at me.


Photo credits: top - alpinegarden.blogspot.com, bottom - instantattitudes.com

Lampson Barn Charm

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Ever been to Lampson???

Lampson, Wisconsin that is.

I'll be far more surprised if you've heard of it than if you haven't, even if you too hale from this Dairy State.

When you pass through Lampson, you'd better not blink or you'll miss it.

In Lampson you'll find a house or two, an old closed down one room school house, a church, a couple of bars (this is Wisconsin, after all!) and this red barn:


Still a beauty even now that the "city limits" have encroached upon it.

You see it there, sitting right next to the Lampson Bar and right across the street from the Lampson Mall:

Sometimes purported to be the largest Maul in America.

Oh, and lest you are corn-fused, I took these pictures in mid July and NOT while we are frozen up during the winter months.

Well, USUALLY we are frozen up during the winter months - - - but not THIS year! Why, we barely have enough snow on the ground to keep the field mice warm!!!

Linking today with "Barn Charm"
Please click over to Bluff Area Daily
To enjoy all the Barn Charm posts.

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Blessing In My City

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Today was a very unusual day at our church.

There was no sermon.

Instead, there was a celebration and honoring of the relationships God has instituted in our lives.


First the teams that go out each week or every other week to minister in nursing homes were called to the front in recognition of the one year anniversary of this ministry. Those teams were prayed for and commissioned for another year of service.

Next, one couple came forward to renew their wedding vows. Their two grade school age children were their "attendants." It was precious.

Then three young children, not babies but young children were dedicated to the Lord. These children are from families who have just recently made the Lord the center of their lives and since they were never dedicated as babies, they were now. Never too late!

After that, one lady was baptized and a gentleman was brought into church membership.

For each of these people, whether renewing vows, being dedicated, being baptized, or brought into church membership pastor had a special verse for them to take as their life verse.


Then, to close the service, anyone in the congregation who wished to receive Aaron's blessing was invited to make a procession up the center aisle to the pastor where they would be anointed with oil, prayed over, and given Aaron's blessing.

There was a holy hush amongst us as we nearly all came forward.


Then pastor (in the beard) placed his hand on our shoulder and said these words from Numbers 6:24-26 over each of us individually:

"The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you; and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."

And I say, "Amen."

His presence was surely there with us.

Thanks to Unknown Mami for hosting
"Sundays in My City"
To which I am linking this post.
My City is Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin

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More Tales From Down on the Farm

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My previous post about Uncle Harold's Barn elicited so many comments that I've been going down memory lane over and over ever since.

I have some more stories set in this special place, I think now would be a good time to tell them.


You may, or may not, have noticed that I referred to the two portions of this farm separately - - - Uncle Harold's Barn and Aunt Vetra's House.

Sister Pam and I always referred to them that way. I believe it was because the Barn was Uncle Harold's Kingdom, and the house Aunt Vetra's.

Let me tell you - - - Aunt Vetra ran her kingdom in a way few of us today can manage. Everything homemade.

I remember when she baked bread. Huge bowls of dough rising on the counter. At lunch time, she would slice off generous slabs of that dough, pop them in the frying pan until golden brown, then shake cinnamon and sugar all over them.

HEAVEN on a plate.

Right beside the kitchen table was a small door, when when opened revealed the staircase to the bedrooms upstairs. Hanging on that door was a small chalk board which always had chalk at the ready. Many times we would linger at her table after a meal to play a round or two of hangman on that chalk board.

Aunt Vetra and Uncle Harold had four children, two girls first then two boys. The two boys were closest in age to Sister Pam and myself, so we spent many hours together.


The youngest was Rusty, pictured above on the right. (The one on the left is another cousin, Kent who is the son of mom's only brother.)

Since Rusty was too young at the time to carry a large farming load, we spent hours playing.

Our FAVORITE thing to do was to pack a picnic lunch and go "exploring" in the creek. We would get in the creek near the barn and wade right up the middle of it looking for "special spots." Once we found a really good one, we'd stop for lunch.

Another time Rusty showed us how to use the hollow stem of a dandelion as a straw in the clear, cold spring water. He also told us it was OK to drink downstream from cow pies, that they would "filter" the water.

I'll let you guess whether or not we followed that particular piece of advice!


Dad, Richard, and Sister Pam.

Richard is Rusty's older brother, and is about four years older than me. I am one year older than Sister Pam and Rusty is one year younger than she.

Richard is still to this day my hero.

One summer, when I was still in elementary school, Richard had broken his leg and was sporting a cast and hoping around one-legged with crutches. We decided to play kick ball on the front lawn. Richard took on all three of us at once, and we couldn't even get up to kick because he made a one-legged home run hops every single time we "pitched."

Another day we four decided to have a "sword" fight. Our swords consisted of sticks. Richard and I, being the two oldest, took on Pam and Rusty. As if that wasn't already unfair enough - - - the two oldest against the two "babies" - - - Richard was an athlete, remember he beat ALL THREE OF US single-footedly at kickball on CRUTCHES.

But I digress - - -

I confess, all I had to do was WATCH and back Richard up - - - he certainly did not NEED my help to harvest a FRESH, green branch about an inch in diameter. He shaved off the smaller branches and leaves, and our "arsenal" was complete.

Pam and Rusty on the other hand, being much younger and less wise, combed the woods for fallen, dead branches. They appeared with an arsenal of quite a pile of brittle sticks.

The fight was on.

Richard made quick work of ALL their "swords" - - - slashing through them and chopping them to bits with his fresh green branch.

Undaunted, they returned to the woods in search of a better weapon. When they emerged, they were dragging an old, dead, tree trunk of about 5 inches in diameter. Between the two of them they could barely hold it up.

Richard took one fell swoop at it with his trusty sword and knocked it right out of their hands. He proclaimed that if they couldn't HOLD their sword, they were disqualified.

END of battle.

BEGINNING of YEARS of laughter over the event - which laughter I hope continues for many more years to come.

I am so glad I grew up with such great cousins and memories.

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"Ain't No Rock Gonna Cry - - -"

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In My place!


We are having an ongoing major answer to prayer in our family this week. I am praising our Lord, so no rocks are gonna have to cry out in my place!

My oldest daughter, Keri, says it so much better than I could.


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Uncle Harold's Barn

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When I was a girl living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, we made several trips each year to Vernon County. In many ways, Vernon County was a "hub" in our universe.

It was where mom grew up on Grandpa's farm. Grandpa and Grandma lived there in the tiny town of Hillsboro. Three of mom's sisters and their families still lived there on farms of their own. And, possibly most important of all, our beloved Burr Camp was there.

As children, we could not realize how precious were those days. To us it seemed life would ALWAYS be the same and we could return at any moment and find all that we loved untouched and unmolested by the fingers of time.

How wrong we were.

As we would travel toward our Vernon County destination, when the flat northern lands would bunch up into steeply rolling hills, Sister Pam and I would begin to lean as far forward in our back seat as we could.

No seat belts in those days.

We would lean forward, straining our eyes ahead to be the FIRST to catch a glimpse of Uncle Harold's barn around the curve. Uncle Harold's barn meant we had arrived in the promised land.


"I see Uncle Harold's barn!!!" we would shout, and then argue over who saw it first.

When uncle Harold and Aunt Vetra lived on this farm, the barn was the center of their dairy existence. "Chores" had to be done twice a day at 5. With more than 30 milk cows, there was plenty of work for everyone at chore time.

When we stayed there, Sister Pam and I would arise with the family at 4:30, don some borrowed "chore clothes" which included rubber boots for mucking about in the barn, and sally forth to do what we could do to help with the milking.

What we could do wasn't much, for we weren't part of the well oiled machine that was milking in Uncle Harold's barn.

Our cousins, on the other hand, who milked TWICE every day of their lives knew precisely what they were doing and did it with utmost efficiency.


Aunt Vetra's house was right across the highway from the barn.

Aunt Vetra too helped with milking, but she returned to the house well ahead of the rest of us to fix breakfast.

Oh what breakfasts!!! Eggs, bacon or sausage, and pancakes or waffles. Let me tell you, milking 30 cows before the sun is up makes you HUNGRY and that is just the BEGINNING of the daily work on a dairy farm. Farmers can eat a breakfast like that every day and still be trim and slim.

Time passed.

My cousins grew up and moved away from the farm.

Uncle Harold and Aunt Vetra remained and carried on with the "chores" by hiring in some help until they simply could not do it any more.

Uncle Harold said his kids would have to "carry him out of there feet first." But when Parkinson's took its toll on his strength, he was forced to eat those words and he and Aunt Vetra spent their last days being cared for in a nursing home.

No one could take over the responsibility of the farm and the awful day came when it was sold.

Now when I drive by, I notice that the folks who bought it aren't keeping it as a working dairy farm. The house is lived in, loved, and cared for but the barn looks lonely and forgotten - - - tall grass is growing up around it. I doubt it has heard even one bleat of a calf in decades.

Sad, this thing called progress.






One day while searching for something else on the web, I had the happy accident of coming across this video of "Dan" (whomever he may be) riding his bike through parts of Vernon County.

As soon as the images began I KNEW where he was. Sure enough! The very first farm he passes through is Uncle Harold and Aunt Vetra's. You will see the house on the right and the barn on the left.

Hang on, it's a dizzy ride!

Enjoy.

Linking today with "Barn Charm"
Please click over to Bluff Area Daily
To enjoy all the Barn Charm posts.

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If My Colts Had to Stink it Up and Not Even Make it to the Super Bowl at Their Own Lucas Oil Stadium - - -

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I'm at least glad the OTHER Manning brother won the Lombardi in the House that Peyton Built. It just wouldn't have been RIGHT for Brady to win a ring there.

ESPECIALLY now that it looks like Peyton may well be pushed out of his own house during the off season.



Photo credit: photo.nj.com/star-ledger

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Grandpa Was a Farmer

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Until he became a preacher.


This beautiful farm, nestled in the rolling hills of Vernon County Wisconsin, formerly belonged to my Grandpa, Isaiah Butcher, when he was still a farmer. This is where my mother, her seven sisters, and one little brother were raised.

Did you catch that? Yep - - - a family of 9 children, 8 girls and only one boy!! Here they are, in the order of their birth (The fact that it makes a cute little poem is purely a bonus):

Mama, Papa,
Ferol, Aileen,
Vetra, Guida,
Doris, Verneen
Beulah Mae, Clinton,
And Janet Doreen.

Beulah Mae was my mom.

I don't know WHY I never saw this farm when I was a child. True, Grandpa no longer owned it then as by the time I was born he had long given up farming and gone to preaching, but it's just a stone's throw off one of our regularly beaten paths. And as strong of an influence as it was in the lives of my mom and her siblings I find it incredible that we never took the little detour required to traverse down this memory lane.

But we did not.

After my mom passed away, it was my dad who guided me to this site of family origin.


It appeared to me that the barn was the only original building left on the site.

We Butcher cousins grew up on stories whose setting was right here - - - in this barn, on these hill sides, and in this valley. My mom had memories of playing on a "sand hill" behind this very barn. She also told the tale of falling in the milk cooler one evening when she was so tired she sat on its wall only to fall asleep and tumble in.

(A "milk cooler" back in THAT day was a large stone walled trough filled with icy spring water much like the "spring houses" I mentioned in last week's post.)

Just down the road a piece from the farm was the little one room school house where mom and her siblings walked to school.

It now serves as a storage building (barn!) behind someone's house.


Oh, but I got right out of the car, walked down their driveway, and took these photos. Yes I did, because you know - - - I needed to connect with my roots just a little!!!!

Linking today with "Barn Charm"
Please click over to Bluff Area Daily
To enjoy all the Barn Charm posts.

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The "Emoticon Gene"

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Our grandson, Mackinley, got it in spades.

Oh, he came by it rightly - - -

I've been known to "emote" a time or two in my life,

And so has Papoo, whom you know better as Fisherhubby.

But the transmission of this gene
Through our family pedigree
Followed a tortuous route.
For it wasn't Mackinley's mommy who was
Our child emoter - - -

Oh no! It was Mackinley's mommy's BROTHER,
Mackinley's Uncle Kelly who was the emoticon king.

We're not sure HOW this gene jumped sideways
From Kelly to Mackinley,
But jump it did.

In fact, Mackinley seems to be pretty much
A CLONE of his Uncle Kelly in every way.

And Mackinley's mommy would LOVE
To have this phenomenon 'splained to her.
'Cause she thinks it only FAIR
That Kelly have his OWN clones to raise.

;-)

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