Another Phone Call

Got another one of those phone calls I love so much.  Boston called me a little before supper time to tell me to check my email.  They had sent me another picture!

Boston said that she had been in the garden picking vegetables.  They have tomatoes growing along a little fenced in area that is a run for Charlie the Beagle, and she said that she had to go to the other side of the fence to get some of the tomatoes.  It seems that the vines had grown through the fence.  Boston said that she and her Dad were going to can some pickles this evening.  I'm not sure what they are going to do with all those beautiful tomatoes.  She said there are lots and lots more waiting to turn red.

Boston also told me that there were some more cherry tomatoes with my name on them.  I asked her if she would like to make a trade.  Duane had brought me ten cases of peaches and I spent today and will spend the next couple of days canning them.  Am thinking about some peach jam and peach butter as well.  I have been canning in half pint jars for Duane, as he likes that size to take to work.  And pint size jars of peaches make a couple of meals for me.  So I told Boston that if I could have some more cherry tomatoes, I would can up some peaches in quart jars so there would be enough for her family, and I would trade the peaches for the tomatoes.  She thought that sounded like a pretty good trade.  It is, too.  The peaches are delicious!

Boston said that her Dad thought it might be good for her to spend a day with me and learn to can things like peaches or jam.  I thought that was a pretty good idea .  My mother taught me.....her mother taught her.  I like the idea of passing along those skills to another generation.

Monday Morning Surprise

Monday mornings aren't known for good surprises.  I remember when I was still in the job market, Monday mornings weren't my favorite part of the week.  It was hard to get back into the swing of things after a couple of days off.  It seemed as though if anything bad was going to happen, it would be on a Monday morning.

However, this morning I had a good surprise.  My phone rang and my youngest son asked if I was busy and was I going to be home.  I told him I would check my calendar.

That's a joke.  These days my calendar is whatever I want it to be.  I love retirement.

He said that he would be in my neighborhood within the hour and would stop by.  That's the first part of my good Monday morning surprise.  Any time I see one of my kids it is a good day.

The second part was when he unloaded from a cooler a dozen canning jars.  They had been full when he got them and I was really glad to see the empties.  Canning jars are like gold to me.  The Farmer's Markets in my area are gearing up with all sorts of home grown produce and I hope to fill lots of those jars before the snow flies.

The third part was when he handed me a container of home grown cherry tomatoes!  Fresh off the vine.  And super delicious.  I snacked on them through the morning, had a few with my lunch and more with supper.  By the time I thought about taking a picture, there weren't enough left to photograph.  Since David started growing tomatoes, and especially since he shares them with me, I have a hard time eating tomatoes from the grocery store.  The difference in taste is incredible.

And then there was a bonus.  David's garden includes cucumbers and he had made dill pickles.  And I got a jar of them!  I haven't opened the jar yet, but if they taste anything like the ones he made last year, I have a treat waiting for me.  Last years pickles tasted like the ones Aunt Em used to make.  And that is pretty high praise, considering that as a kid I begged her for her dill pickles whenever I went to her house for a meal.

I'd say it was a pretty good Monday morning.  Thank you, David!

Fruits of Their Labor

Yesterday I got another of those phone calls I love so much.

"Grandma, we emailed you a picture!"

Boston told me all about picking fresh vegetables from their garden and that her Dad was making stir-fry with them for supper.  She told me how well the garden was doing and about how the tomato plants had fruit on them and how the kids had been helping Dad in the garden.  I am amazed that with the heat wave we have going on here, the plants haven't just burned up.  They must be doing something right.

I am so glad that my grandkids are learning that vegetables are grown in the ground and don't just appear on store shelves in cans or wrapped in plastic.  I am reminded of a story told by a member of a home canning email group I belong to.  This fellow raises a big garden every year and sells at a Farmer's Market in his area.  He said that a woman was looking at the potatoes he had dug the night before, which had a little dirt left on them.  She complained about the dirt and when her small daughter asked why the potatoes were dirty, the mother told her that they shouldn't be, because everybody knows that potatoes grow on trees.

After talking to Boston, Jacob took the phone.  He told me all about the bunny that was trying to eat their green pepper plants, but he chased the bunny away and he didn't know where the bunny went, but he chased it away from the peppers and it ran away so it won't eat any more peppers!

They promised to save a few cherry tomatoes for me.  I'm gonna hold them to that promise!

Old Folks Dictionary

I think someone should publish an old folks dictionary.  Fill it with terms that have meaning to nearly everyone over the age of fifty.  It would be a big help to grandchildren who have never heard of the terms and would make it easier for them to understand us.  For instance.....

Sunday Afternoon Ride:  When Dad would pile us kids in the car and we would just take off for parts unknown, usually within a ten mile radius of home.  We would look at the crops or the beautiful fall leaves or maybe wind up at the river, looking for huge clam shells.  If we were really good, there might be a stop for ice cream.

Going Visiting:  Sometimes a Sunday afternoon ride would end up at a friend or relatives house, where we would play with the kids and the grown-ups would visit.  There was usually lemonade and cake involved.

Sunday Company:  That's when somebody else's Sunday afternoon ride wound up at our house.

Visiting:  That's when friends or relatives sat on the front porch of a summer afternoon, and talked.  Not on cell phones.  No texting.  Nothing remotely computer related.  They talked.  As in have a conversation.  Which seems to be a dying art.

Play Outside:  That's what we did, as kids, from morning to night.  Without parents hovering over us.  Without helmets and a ton of other gear to protect us.  We played ball or hide and seek or any number of outdoor games.  Nothing was pre-planned.  We didn't make play dates.  We just played, which is what kids are supposed to do.

School Picnic:  That's when the entire neighborhood would gather at the two-room country school I attended.  Each family brought something good to eat for a potluck picnic.  The Dads would usually get up a softball game and the Moms would catch up on the neighborhood gossip.  And the kids ran around and played, which is what kids are supposed to do.

Potluck:  Everybody brings a dish to share.  Usually a casserole or salad of some kind.  And a pie or cake or cookies.  Nobody worried about the number of calories or fat grams, or whether there was a balance of "healthy" food.  We just ate and enjoyed.

Christmas Pageant:  That's when the school kids would put on a program  for the parents.  It wasn't a "Holiday Pageant."  It was a Christmas Pageant, with usually a combination of Santa Claus, Angels and the Baby Jesus.  Nobody thought about it being politically incorrect.  Of course, at that time, Christmas was still Christmas.

OK.  So when I write my Old Folks Dictionary, I suppose I had better change the title to Grumpy Old Folks Dictionary.  I tend to get a little grumpy when I see so many of the simple pleasures in life go by the wayside in favor of technology.  I am not such a Luddite that I can't see the distinct advantages to todays technology.  After all, this blog is written and published using a computer.  But I sometimes think that technology is taking over our lives.  Some of us go through withdrawl if we can't send or receive a text every few minutes.  Others can't live without their laptop.  We rarely have verbal, face to face conversations any more.  It is sort of sad, really.

I will get off my soapbox now.

And go for a walk:  That's when a person leaves the house, goes somewhere that doesn't require transportation, and enjoys seeing the green grass and trees, the flowers, the eagles that soar over the river, and breathes in fresh air.  And leaves the phone at home.

Good Kitty Drugs

My cat, Kizzie, has been really needy lately.  She either parks herself wherever I happen to be, or she meows at me whenever I walk by where she is laying.  She clearly needed a diversion.....something to do besides focusing on me.

I remembered a small jar of dried catnip that I had on a shelf.  So I took an old sock, tied a knot in the toe end of it, filled the heel with catnip and tied another knot above the catnip.  Kizzie wasn't too hard to find.  She was laying on the kitchen floor next to the chair I was sitting in while making her new toy.

When I tossed the toy on the floor for her, she went nuts.  She loved it.  I took some pictures because it was so funny to watch her playing with that silly catnip toy.

Noodle tried to get in on the act, but Kizzie just wasn't into sharing.

After Kizzie had played with the toy for most of the morning, the other two took a turn.  That one silly catnip sock toy has kept all three cats busy and amused and out of my hair all day.

There is some catnip that grows wild along a fence in my neighborhood.  I guess I will have to go pick some and dry it and make a couple more toys.  Who knew that such a simple thing as a catnip-filled sock would keep three felines so busy.  I wonder if they need to go to Kitty Detox?

Chris Graduates

I guess what they say is true.  The older you get, the faster time passes by.  It seems like it wasn't all that long ago that I received a phone call telling me of the birth of my first grandson.  And just a couple of weeks ago, that same grandson graduated from High School.

This past Saturday afternoon friends and family gathered to celebrate Chris' accomplishments.  His Mom planned the party and it was a huge success.  Relatives from both sides of his family were in attendance and there was enough food to feed a small army.  I think everyone there enjoyed themselves.  I know that I did.

Congratulations, Chris.  I am so very proud of you, as I am sure are the rest of your grandparents and your parents.  It just doesn't seem possible to me that you are now old enough to go to college this coming fall.  It is that time flying by thing again, and I have to accept it, especially now that you are so tall that you tower over me!  I wish you all the best while you continue your education.  I know that you will do well in whatever you decide to do.

Love, Grandma

Real Life

While cleaning out some files on my computer, I ran across the following.  I wish I could remember where I found it so I could give credit, but alas, I can not.  I am going to post it anyway and if anyone claims it, I will be happy to credit them.

Bill Gates gave a speech a while ago at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.  He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.  Love him or hate him, he hit the nail on the head.

Rule 1:  Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2:  The world won't care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3:  You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school.  You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping;  they called it opportunity.

Rule 6:  If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7:  Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.  They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8:  Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.  In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer.  This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

Rule 9:  Life is not divided into semesters.  You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.  Do that on your own time.

Rule 10:  Television is not real life.  In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11:  Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one.