This 'N That

My dear  Gma
    This afternoon Jim  came in with his shirt off!  Since he is never shirtless, he immediately got our attention.  I sputtered, " Where is your shirt?",   I thought janell and i would die laughing. At first we could not figure out why he suddenly appeared half naked, but then we spotted the bulging shirt full of chicken eggs.  Oh, it was SO funny, but maybe you had to be there :)  He keeps tabs on the chicks and  horses now that the kids are in school,   Well, we here at home all do.  And, we love it.

We have been letting the chickens out to roam the front pasture.   They just cluck around and seem so happy.  Their eggs turned enormous since letting them free-range, and the shells feel so much harder,
so i think it agrees with them.  I just hope our way too friendly  eagle stays away.  Every once in a while he circles the property.
So far they have been  locked in their chicken tractor and lived on, but one of these days
i am afraid somebody will become lunch for him.  We worry a bit about the two Maltese dogs running free and wild too.  Hopefully,  if they feel a big shadow overhead they will run for
cover.  Chickens do not strike me as being that smart, but the dogs might be.  :)    

    I always had this awe for eagles until i moved to Alaska.  Up there you cannot take a picture of the sky and not get an eagle in the background somewhere. 
I loved the crows aka blackbirds aka Ravens in Alaska.  I liked their family values. lol  So, in the winter, I worried they did not get enough food.  Saturdays found me putting cookie sheets
of food out on the back deck railing and then i watched them from the kitchen window.  One or two would come, and then away they fly to tell the  rest of the "family" that would number in
probably the twenties.  We had a swing set in the back yard and a long railing on the porch.  They would line up and patiently await their turn.  Maybe two would take a morsel each and fly off.  Smooth as silk,  two would replace them at the feeding trough: totally patient and generous.   I found it fascinating to listen to them chat the whole time they ate together.  I cannot find a picture of the ravens but here is a pretty good one of a Cordova Eagle.


    We had this enormous tree beside the house and about once a week it would be filled with crows.  We family, and neighbors,  called it their Sunday-go-to-meetin day, and i think we
must have been close on that call;  although, I found the sheer number of them, and the noise---omg, the noise--- pretty intimidating.  I  felt grateful so many of them did not come for the Saturday morning pancake breakfast.  I figured they must ascribe to some " decency code" though because of watching their manners, and interactions as they ate on the back porch, and also because of the story i heard about a crow that got killed on main street in downtown  Cordova.

It seems that ( the rumor is now hundreds) crows lined the tops of the buildings all the way down the street , on both sides of the streets, and they screeched and
carried on for some time over the dead body lying in mid-street.  Eventually all the scary commotion suddenly ended, and they all abruptly left.  The ppl in town figured they held a funeral for their dead relative.  I believe it. I find it very plausible from watching them for long periods of time.  They amazed me, and the grandkids, as we watched  the Saturday morning pancake breakfasts from the kitchen window.
   
    Once, i decided to clean out the freezer and get rid of some of the freezer-burnt salmon.  We caught tons of fish in Cordova.  We canned most of it, but the freezer held a lot too.  Anyhow, i
cut some up into many chunks, but i did put out one huge filet, from probably a fifty pound salmon.  They seemed elated with the change of menu, but so did a Seagull!  They would not take him on though, and, and he would not share. He would fly at them when they came close,  and they retreated.  He pecked away at the whole slab of salmon, as they had been doing but they had taken their usual turns with each other.  He did not ascribe to that kind of behavior.   All seemed very unfair, and then swoosh.............................  an eagle swooped down and took the whole filet then flew off into the
horizon.   Jonathan Seagull left dejected.   I've not known anybody who ever came out a winner with an eagle.  This guy crashed the party and when he left they all departed.  He seemed enormous as he flew in for his prize.  I had never seen an eagle, before or since, so up close and personal.  Here is a picture of Chris, Kenzie and jake about ten years ago in Cordova.

      We had a cat when we moved to Eagle country in Cordova, Simba had traveled with us from Oregon,  and that young cat seemed to instinctively understand that outside-the-house self-preservation required he  immediately run under the seats that ran around the deck when he wanted to venture outside.  He never laid out in the sun like he did in Oregon.  Of course, we saw precious little sun in the rain forest of Cordova anyway. :)  He would run under the built-in seats, as i said,  then sprint for  the trees where he found protection, and could hunt his own prey in peace, well relatively speaking :( . I believe he instinctively knew that when you live by the sword, you might just might die by it.  Eleven year old Simba  never made it to Montana because he did not like the way our household turned upside down when we moved to here.  Guess he is just like all us old folks who do not think much of change.  He moved to the field across the street in Wasilla and he may be there still because, though we had been together for probably eleven, or more, years he would not forgive us for the upheaval in the house.  I told the new owner of the house in Wasilla about him, so i hope they will take pity on the old curmudgeon. :(  Simba looked and acted like Garfield, so that gives you an idea of his personality.  He was a heck-of-a-hunter though, and we could use him here.  I try not to think about him now, dang cat! 

    Anyhow, i don't care much for eagles anymore.  They seem selfish and only out for themselves and very dangerous.  And it seemed like they perched everywhere in Alaska keeping an eye on our lives and planning to move in on any mistake where they could capitalize. I did not trust them, nor should i have,  then or now.  They seem to answer to no one, and be for no one but themselves.  I don't like that in people and i guess i don't even tolerate it in birds!!  I learned a lot watching out the back window in Cordova; like when the wind blows a hundred miles an hour and stuff flies through the air with the greatest of ease, if it is Thursday, you call it that,  not a hurricane, and i learned that crows care about one another? They seemed more civilized than many ppl i know  :)

You know i care for you Gma and how blessed are we to have one another. Oh, on a different slant....  jim and i went to get our Montana Drivers License the other day and they came in the mail
today.  Guess what!  I look just like you!  How did that happen?!   I could not believe it was me, it looked so much like you.  Usually my hair is shorter, and i think that made the difference, but it really shocked me to know i look like you.  But it makes sense i guess.  I am my father's daughter.  And, i always knew i looked like his sister and you are their mother, so there ya have it.  Speaking of Family Trees, we all hope Baby James will look at us with brown eyes in the very near future.  We may have a chance.  He certainly does not look to be blue eyed at this point.  Cross your fingers!  Caleb needs a sibling that looks like him!  I always thought brown eyes would be dominant, but not in this gene pool! 

Well, i must go.  You know i love you
ttys
loving you still
your
*j* aka jacqueline

Ya just never know

If you asked my teachers when i was a kid if i would be an artist, they probably would still be laughing, and in truth, i cannot draw even a stick kid, dog, or a dimensional house on paper.  But, imo, inside of each of us God created some little creative genius that, if given a chance, thrives with producing color on paper or wood, or maybe carving something from wood, or molding as in a sand dune, or gardening ... or have you seen the miraculous ice sculptures in Alaska? Amazing artistry.   So many of my friends can sew and design, but if you asked them they would claim no great expertise; they just enjoy it. 

 I think it was about fifteen years ago when i found out i liked to paint stuff other than walls.  It's kind of a long story i guess.  It all started when jim went hunting in Eastern Oregon. ( At the time we lived on the South Coast of Oregon).   He found thousands, well,... maybe not quite.....but  a lot of pine cones, and he hauled them home.  He thought something good could come of them.   After putzing around all weekend in his shop, he comes in with a really cute birdhouse and he has glued the scales from the pine cones ( seems like their is another name for them, but you get the idea)  to the roof of the cute widdle  house.  He says, " You should paint this and i could take it to the Christmas exchange at work. "  I laughed at him.  " Paint it how?"    He says, " You know...flowers and stuff."                         

" I have no paint,"  says I :)

I thought that ended it, but the next day he comes home with a little paint set of acrylic paints!!!1  I said, " Well, do you want this to look like an old fishing place or a cute little cottage or antiqued?  Just what miracle do you have in mind for me to produce ?"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  " You'll think of something." :) (insert his cute little grin.)

So it sat on the table looking forlorn, but eventually i began to see a cute little cottage, like the Gingerbread house in Hansel and Grete with lots of cute little flowers around the bottom, but no way could i paint those.

I honestly can draw NOTHING and have been bummed about that all my life.  But, i had some paint and i decided to make it look kind of worn out by streaking some white or something through the
color i had chosen.  When it was finished i thought, " Man, i wish i could at least make grass, but had no idea how, nor did i have any kinds of brushes but the one that had come with the play set. At the time, i had no idea that the brush actually does the work in painting scenes.  As luck would have it, he and i wandered into JoAnn's later in the week,  and there on the front table was an advertisement for some tole painting classes with some samples of widdle flowers, like daisies and violets.  Five bucks a class!!!!  He said, " You should do that!"  " Me? YOU do it."  But, i did think about how perfect those flowers would be on that widdle birdhouse. 

Of course jim talked with " ...his girls..." at lunch about this class. (He was either managing or working at the Coos Bay, Oregon store at that time.  That is another story.  Manager or not though, he always had lunch with the " girls".)   Not sure he told them about the birdhouse.  But the way i heard it, Sharon says, " ... if Jackie does it, i will go with her, and Debbie says, " ...if you do it Sharon, i will too..."   And so it began.   I drug my feet for awhile but eventually about five of us signed up to do this thing together.  Everyone professed to not having an artistic bone in their body, but i didn't believe them.  Nobody was worse than me at anything artistic, and i knew it. 

Well, we laughed the entire night of our first class comparing commas and squiggles with our newly purchased brushes.  I don't know when i enjoyed myself more with ppl i barely knew.  And Sharon and i were so true to ourselves.  She just stressed over absolutely every imperfection, but  i gloried in what i could do with a paint brush that i could not do with a pencil!  I discovered she never went outside the lines, and  i was not capable of staying within them.  Now i barely knew Debbie and Sharon at that time, but that one fact told me volumes about Sharon, and she scared me!!!!!  :)  But omg, the fun,  encouragement, and eventual deep friendships formed..  AND, i found BETH!


 Beth became, over the years, a daughter  to me.  She was the sister of Debbie who worked with jim and Sharon. And though Sharon became less scary to me ( teasing you Sharon) i have to tell you, Gma,    if i had not gone to those silly classes a huge hole would exist in my life.  Beth and i bonded through the laughter and  joy of trying something new and fascinating.  She continues to be a blessing to me to this day.  She had lost her mom at an early age and i had lost the companionship of a daughter, but i found it in Beth.  Though we can go months without talking we know there is a strength in our relationship we cannot explain except to say it is a Gift from God. This young woman understands me more than my own sons do, and i am forever grateful for the time we had together, and oh how i wished she lived next door to me, but i will take what i am given.

Funny how things work out isn't it.  I went to learn to paint widdle flowers on the widdle birdhouse and i found a rare flower whose beauty i cannot even describe; but  it feels so precious to me: friendships. Don't they just make life worth the living?  Don't they prove that everyday can bring something or someone new that you never expect?   Many women have come and gone in my life, just like in yours, but when i think back, this all started because my husband went deer hunting, got bored, and picked up pine cones. Oh, and the " girls" fought over the birdhouse !  :)   And, we continued to paint for years; even made some money at it.  However, tomorrow i will paint the deck :(  I am hoping though for more birdhouses and new provocative women in my near future.  :)  Ya just never know!

Better go,
You know i love you
your
*j* aka jacqueline

Who knew!!!!

Who knew indeed!  Well, Africans and fine restaurants know that grasshoppers are just tasty and look forevermore like little red crabs when they cook in oil, but little boys?  Yep, i can name two boys and a five year old girl who know all about this seldom tried cuisine. :) It started like this:

This morning Caleb ( 8)  asks this Gma if they could catch some grasshoppers and dip them in chocolate and eat them.  I inform him we have no chocolate.  " Well, would they be good without the chocolate?"
Good question and we discuss how most ppl probably don't put chocolate on them, so we conclude most likely they taste as good without as with the, uhm, chocolate.

And so out the door to find his brother (almost 11), and the next time i see them they have one scrawny looking pitiful grasshopper.  I told them that was hardly enough to fill the two of them up for lunch.  I give them a quart jar with a lid and tell them to go find their lunch. :)  When they return with probably a dozen grasshoppers, i suggest they google how to cook them : dead or alive, boil or oil??  the legs or not the legs?

" It says here to take off the jumping legs." Google reporter Jacob relates" Ah, that makes sense" " These will be SO good"  "Look at all of them" " Mom, we're going to cook grasshoppers for lunch!"  As they survey their future meal, the lid is off and the grasshoppers are jumping!!! High, way too high!   Mom warns them keep the lid on while they are in the house, They show McKenzie their hunt conquests but she is not impressed, and then freaks out because one just seemingly ate the head of one of it's pals!!!!"  Caleb says, " No, Jake took that head off.  Its not a problem"  Whew!  Good to know the critters are not cannibalistic!  She hands the jumping lunch back to the boys shaking her head and showing a look of disgust.

Eventually they decide to boil the grasshoppers in oil, so mom gets involved and they get the right pan with the a lid they can see through and the lunch commences.   " They are turning red!"  " They look like crabs!"  " Cool" " These will be great to eat!"  Mom suggests they are finished cooking, and out comes the paper towel ( we would not want to eat too much oil :) and then the long awaited delicacy ... the tasting.  This reminds me of " Give it to Mikie;  he will eat anything"  bawahahahaha

Caleb, the instigator of this whole deal took one bite and spit it out exclaiming, " i only like them with chocolate!".  Jacob deemed them,  " ...not too bad..." and Hannah's proclamation came forth,  " I  liked the smallest one.  It tastes like shrimp!"  And they ALL decided they would save the big fat juicy one for.....,  " Dad!"  " Ya, he will love it!"  But who ate the most?  Joshua, the two year old.  I think this may amount to sibling abuse, but he very willingly downed several :(

And so Gma, the entertainment of joy and delight on faces trying something totally outrageous delivered a totally delightful afternoon delight.  You cannot dream this stuff up.  These kids are always thinking, doing, and accomplishing much.  Time for dinner.

You know i love you
*j* aka jacqueline

A weekend Blessing

Praise God! A new baby in the family once morei  Our two year old now looks like he must be ready to go to school he seems so big.  :)  James Lucas arrived this morning around 8:30.  He weighed in at 8 pounds and he is only 18 inches long, so he has a way to grow.  But, so cute and healthy tho sleeping way too much for his five siblings.  Hannah laid a cute blanket out on the floor at the birthing clinic... which acts and looks like a home away from home.  She asked her mom if she would let him get down on the floor and crawl around.  :)  He has a lot of black hair and though Chris says he will have blue eyes, i say the law of averages says Caleb cannot be the only one with beautiful brown eyes like his mother.  Everybody was there except for jim and me who walked in just as he came.  I had slept on the couch there most of the night but then left to go get janell's nourishing soup, and my husband, and had to stop at the store for more bagels,  and that was just one too many stops.  Little James  decided to switch around sometime in the birthing process and came face up, which made the end of the birth more difficult, but janell is a pro at this after 8 babies, and she not only got herself through it once again, but she again caught her own baby in the birthing tub.  The midwife said she doesn't see that everyday!

Janell does baby labor well, but she drags it out, or her babies just like it in there and take their own sweet time.  She worked this baby out, over about three days,  and yesterday seemed like it had 48 hours in it. It wasn't challenge enough for her to be in labor, but the guys were here pounding away and putting in heat pumps.  It took them two days instead of one and she was pretty much in labor most of that time.  They tried to be considerate and she stayed up here while they did the downstairs and then yesterday she went down to her Cabin, and tried to zone in on the baby, but it was difficult with seeing strange men in and out of their truck whenever she looked out the windows from the basement.

We could have put it off, but it needed finished right away, to our way thinking, as the season has changed.  We went from summer heat to that wonderful Indian Summer with coolness prevailing most of the day, or a heat that doesn't quite feel real,, and that runs away way too quickly.  Anyhow, she felt, "...not too much pain...", but the emotions and exhaustion that come with labor pains that gently push to a conclusion, still  exhausts a person and takes its toll,  by the time the climax of story comes to fruition.  Alls well that ends well and everyone is resting at this time.  Joshua and Hannah are sleeping like they were up all night, but they were not, which makes me worry they will be up all night tonight!!!!  Nonetheless, we will be warm or cool, as we choose to be.

So, life goes on now with another voice to listen to and another little person to love, cuddle, and marvel over.  I was looking at Joshua's face as i watched him nap this afternoon and my gosh what a beautiful child, not unlike what his daddy looked like but not looking like my child either.  He is his own person, a combination of mom and dad that turns into a whole new being with all that possibility that i so love to watch revealed as they bloom and grow. 

I love watching the older boys these days and marvel at how straight and tall they stand and walk.  They carry themselves so confidently and their smiles have grown full and beautiful.  Their personalities go in all different directions and i have never in my life seen kids with such active imaginations.  They have five acres to create and crawl, and they use every inch of it, even thirteen year old McKenzie.  We have jumps for bikes, we have stacked hay bales for climbing way too high upon to wait for deer to show up, and oh, then the plotting and the planning of how you would shoot it if you were allowed to.  We have horses, and a pony to ride, we have ropes that can be flung around all kinds of implements, including a little sister.  We have a pond that used to hold water, but spearing make believe fish came with a consequence and it no longer holds water, much to the chagrin of the dogs who loved walking in it when it was so hot.  Soccer goals and baseball bats, doll strollers, play guns and even a few neighbor kids once in awhile keep these kids going in all different directions.  The kids have a good place to grow up here, and though chaos reigns when everybody is home, they no longer seem here enough as school robs us of our time to watch them jump their bikes or ride their horses.

Speaking of horses, Red seems better today though he has missed his antibiotic because of the birth and none of us know the concoction she put it in, but we will fix him up here shortly. In fact, Chris is working on receiving instructions as i write.   I sure hope he continues to recover from a ridiculous, unnecessary  accident.  There was no way we could have even seen that little pointy metal piece hiding in the pasture.  Hopefully we will eventually rid this place of danger for these horses.

There are lots of things on this property that we keep finding that are dangerous,  mostly for the horses.  Like when Chris made the round pen,  and dug into the area where he had chosen, he found it loaded with pieces of old beer bottles.  They seem to be surfacing all over this property!!!!  No, not good for kids either, but the kids are old enough, and speak the Kings English enough to tell their dad:  the horses-- not so much.  We have a lot more clean-up to do before winter.  Now that we have the heat pumps installed, and at least half of the deck staining finished, and the garden is about kaput ( it was 38 last night.  The garden was mostly an experiment as it turns out. :( Thank goodness for the local Friday market);   i hope we can do a couple of runs to the dump with some of this stuff that we will never use or need that they left us, mostly from the man-cave and around it..  I thought the ppl would be coming back to get some of the stuff they left behind but we are hauling it off to the dump very soon.  Thank heavens the dump is free!

So, the weekend was a blessing: we got cheaper heat in the house, we got a baby to brighten the winter. We would like to hold the winter at bay, but forget that. We all survived the stress of James' arrival,  Did i tell you all they had told us they were going to call him jeremiah, which i hated, and pretty much told them so?  Well, they decided early on to name him after jim, and even Hannah kept that secret!!!!  I love his name and he seems like a Jamie to me, which i hope will be ok to call him.  I never called David, Davey, and did not like when others called him that, so i hope jamie is ok with them as i like it.  :)  Guess i better ask.  :)

Well Gma, i better get with a project or two.: like holding the baby :) Take care of yourself
You know i love you ( this is how Gma and i always signed our very frequent letters to one another, and so i will continue because i just cannot forget)
*j* aka jacqueline