New Life Old Farmers

We are living in Seahawk country now….  and today is ‘Blue Friday’, well, officially it is ‘Seahawk Blue Friday’!  Even the littlest of kids know…you wear your blue or your Seahawk clothes today, which we do not actually have yet…(a large collective ‘gasp’ by my Seahawk readers).  So, this is the best we can do…

(For my English folks, a ‘Seahawk’ is an American Football team…and they are winning.  Imagine if all of England was behind Manchester United and they were going to the biggest match….and everywhere you went everyone was wearing Manchester United clothes and speaking of nothing else….well this is what it is like…except more so….no one rooting for Chelsea or Liverpool…nothing but Man U or Seahawk) 

Coming from a big state like California where there are multiple football teams and some are loved and some are not and some just do not matter…this has been something of a culture shock.

There are 11 men on a football team…except if you are a Seahawk fan…then their is the mighty 12th man (the fans)…they are a loud and proud bunch.  The number 12 is everywhere… on the elementary schools, the stores, flags, shirts, decals, balloons, cakes…you name it!   They think this is normal…well, it is if you are in Washington…normal and different.  I am afraid we not only do not have any Seahawk garb (yet), we also have not found the time to mark the farm with the number 12.

Do not worry Washington!  We are here for the long haul and I am sure we will begin to get it ‘right’.  So far, our Blue Fridayness has not really been all that thought out.  Now this is a family that knows how ‘Blue Friday’ is really done and is raising them up ‘right’.  Thanks friends, for showing us the ‘way’.

I went ‘home’ over the weekend.  Home to the town I was raised in, where I raised my kids, where I left just 20 months ago.

It filled me up….and it wore me out.

The flowers were blooming and the lawns were green and I’d forgotten my socks, but it was okay as it was ‘warm’ there, even sunny.

I sat in the church I’d attended since I was a teen and soaked in the music of the beautiful choir, that I miss so much… I miss singing with them, sitting with them, teasing them and most of all…hugging them…and appreciated once more how blessed I was to be able to be one of them.

I was able to collapse at my sister’s house, catch up with them, laugh with them, hug them and encourage my nephew and his wife who are struggling in a way I once was and to give them my piece of hope.

I ate the best Mexican food in the world, but did so with one of the best friends I’ve ever had and time with her was the gift.

I heard the most amazing once in a life time concerts and marveled that in my life I could have such rich experiences…4 Grand Pianos played the most beautiful music by talented and marvelous musicians, each of whom I can call my friend.  It was a moment that time stopped still and there are no words to truly share the wonder of that music with you.

There was not enough time…to spend with all the people I would have like to see and that alone wore me out…pulled at my heart and left me feeling tired.  There were coffee’s and hugs…lots of hugs…and they filled me up.

I went because My Loving Spouse is a kind and considerate man, he sent me down to see Bob.  Bob is 97 and not doing as well as he once was…no surprise…but we were ‘concerned’, that if I didn’t go… and so I went…

and in this small unlikely piece of life, I found that I have done this loving someone well…

and it has made a difference in us both

and touched me to the core as he said,

“In some ways…you are the best friend I have ever had”… and I am deeply humbled.

…a piece of my heart rests in each dear friend I left there, but

I am back on the farm with My Loving Spouse and I am…home.

It is no surprise, I like old stuff.

Even when I don’t really know what it is, say… old farm, tractor, truck stuff…

So, when we went to pick up Blue and My Loving Spouse was haggling over the details, I went for a walk around what looks like a junk yard, but is really a well-organized yard of metal bits, pieces, tools and tires.  I am no photographer, but still I had some fun snapping the pictures of organized metal.

Cool isn’t it!

My Loving Spouse looked at me last night and said,……

“Can you believe it??  We are a two tractor family!”

Yes, it is true.  Although my love for Jubal remains strong, a tractor even older than I am does have a few draw backs…so began the hunt for a ‘small’, ‘cheap’ tractor with a loader.  (L-O-A-D-E-R, as in very exciting to my men, jury out for me).  Blue is another Ford, but decades younger than Jubal at only about 30 years old.  Blue is pretty fancy, having a key to turn it on and a seat not made out of metal.

The loader I am told is going to really come in handy.  All I can think of right now however is that having that big old piece of metal at the front of the tractor where I cannot see it, could possibly make it easier to run into more stuff.  As far as the loader goes, having heard more than one man say, “Oh, that is good, it has orchard tires on it, which keeps it low to the ground, that’ll make it less likely to tip over”.  Uhmmmm, tip over?  Seriously? 

Blue does have a fancy steering turning ball thing, which I have already used and if you have or need one of these then you have a tractor that came complete with a very special word called ‘power steering’.  I’m sure some of my previous tractor-running-into-stuff driving might never have happened had I had ‘power steering’!

We got Blue home just as the sun was setting, preparing to take him off the trailer between our two barns.  Everything went as it normally does, Blue wouldn’t start.  (Bad British Word)  Did I mention it was cold…at least below freezing…and now dark.  My Loving Spouse and I managed to jump-start the tractor and get it off of the trailer without breaking anything.  We were trying to attach the blade so I could run it as soon as I got home from work, but of course we didn’t have all the pins and clips it should have come with…no worries, we had some…somewhere in the workshop.  It was then that our neighbor the Fire Captain showed up.  He had his flashlight out and was inspecting Blue.

“Oh, did he call you to come help?”, I asked.

“No, we just got home and I could hear the tractor running, so I knew you’d gotten a new one and had to come and check it out”.  I love farm men…they hear (literally) a ‘new’ tractor was in the neighborhood and had to explore, they are our closest neighbors, but…it is still not all that close.   I got to go inside and thaw out and My Loving Spouse had another male around to enjoy the wonders of big metal pieces of machinery, figuring out why it wouldn’t start (darn safety features) and The Fire Captain says that he really ‘likes it’ and it is ‘good, being so low, so it will be harder to tip over‘.

It was a weekend of family, football, fun and introductions….stay with me here this could be a jumbled mess.

One summer a long time ago, when The Teen was just a girl, we were on a family camping trip.  It was not uncommon for us to do a bit of ‘dancing’ when we went camping and instead of listening to the sounds of nature, we were probably listening to the sounds from the boom box…(remember those!)  We were washing the dishes, singing and dancing.  The Song ‘My Girl‘ came on and ‘The Teen’s’ brothers and I with impressive choreography danced and pointed to our girl every time the song came to the words…’my girl’… To this day, should she be around when that song comes on… I dance a little and point to her.  So it just makes sense to introduce to you The Teen, who is no more, but My Girl who she forever will be.

To make matters a tad more confusing, this weekend My Other Girl was here for more introductions, but I will get to that in a minute.  My Other Girl (previously known as the Older but Shorter Teen) also aged out of the name category, so clearly it was time to take some new naming actions and clean this blog up a bit, complete with perfect names for ‘Our Girls’ that they cannot outgrow.

This weekend My Girl had a birthday party.  My Other Girl was here for the fun, as she wanted to introduce CC to us.  CC is currently auditioning for the role of Number Five Son…as we’ve been told he has convinced My Other Girl to leave the name ‘Walton’…

CC is one of nine kids, so he handled our chaos with a calm and comfortable manner.  The word is that when it came time for ‘that talk’ with her father (My Loving Spouse).  My Loving Spouse went easy on him, because we like him…they seem a good fit…and she is happy.  My Loving Spouse then quickly went into his manly advice mode.  Country folks can nod their heads and city folks can say-“what?”…

Marriage advice from My Loving Spouse (don’t let the British accent fool you)…

Men, before you get married you need to make sure you have three guns.  

A shot gun, a good deer rifle and a 22.

A shot gun to go out an just shoot stuff with ‘the boys’.

A 22 to go out and ‘plink’ with your wife.

A deer riffle to go hunting.

Because after you are married you might not get to buy any others for a while so at least you are set and after 3 guns your wife doesn’t usually notice if you’ve been able to get more.

So, as soon as My Loving Spouse gave CC (who is not Number Five Son..yet) ‘permission’ and a hug, he said….

“Do you have a good shotgun and a 22?”  To which there was a sad shake of the head…

‘No worries!’ As My Loving Spouse has an extra set of each (surprise) which he is giving to him, because that is loving…

country-style.

The Teen turned 20 today.My youngest is 20!

Sort of makes one feel old….yes, I know, I know!

…and yet,

she is doing so well, makes us laugh, takes care of herself and has

a passion for God.

We are blessed.

However, with the Teen turning 20 today, it does beg the ever so serious question ‘everyone’ is asking her,

“What is your Mom going to call you on the Blog now?”

Hmmmm…

Who knows?  Who knows…

Ideas?

Anyone?

This does pose a problem…

I guess I could actually call her by her name…nah.

I found myself hoping to receive a good book to read this Christmas, but got something even better, a gift certificate to the charming book store in town, Pearl Street Books.  The store is small, but engaging, warm and delightful.   The owner is truly helpful and interested in the books you’ve read and enjoyed and is never too busy to help you find a good book. She also has the best shopping bags I’ve ever seen.Honestly, I am a ‘library’ sort of gal.  I enjoy the price and the non-commitment I get from my library books, if I don’t like it, I don’t read it and back it goes.  I do love to give books as gifts, especially children’s books.  Good children’s books are more than ‘just books’, they are the wonder of imagination, artistry and quality time all wrapped up in one.  I am also hard-wired to pay the least amount of money for the same product available.  I haven’t spent all that much money at Pearl Street Books, because Amazon is easy.  I like Amazon.  Amazon sends the books where ever I want them to go, but Amazon doesn’t smile, the boxes do not smell good and I do not get to discover new authors by walking through the store or find the funniest cards ever!  I realized while cashing in my gift certificate, how glad I am that there is this charming book store in my town and I had my ‘ah ha moment’.

If you know me at all, you know that my favorite movie is “You’ve Got Mail”.  If you haven’t ever seen this movie (Our Friend the Farmer), well then you should, chic-flick or not.*  In the movie, the children’s book store “Shop Around the Corner” is put out of business, when a big, large chain book store that ‘discounts’ moves into the neighborhood.  Everyone knows the economy is sort of blah…and I do not think that any small business owners go to bed in a pile of money.  So, I am going to do my little part and my new year’s resolution is to buy a book every month from our cute little book store.  This is my unabashed plug for every little ‘Shop Around the Corner’ and I hope you’ll join me and buy a book or two from them as well.

*Yes, I have the movie and yes, you can come over for movie-night and I will be happy to watch it with you….the same cannot be said for most of my family who will not watch “You’ve Got Mail” with me anymore.  Sheesh!

Just a quick snippet post to let you know, that even in Ellensburg, ‘they’ get my name wrong.

Really!!!

The other night at a party I was introduced to a lovely lady.  I shook her hand and said, “I am Ellen.”

She said, “What?”

“Ellen”

“Helen?”

“No, Ellen….like Ellensburg, without the ‘burg’.”  Then I tried to smile, but it probably looked a bit like a grimace, as she finally said, “Oh… Ellen.”

Yes, right.  How hard can this really be?

The other day in church, My Loving Spouse announced how excited we were that we are to become Grandparents.  All announcements and prayer concerns are re-written in the church bulletin the following week.  There it was:

“Pat & Helen” looking forward to becoming Grandparents.

I give up.

If ‘they’ cannot get my name, ELLEN right in ELLENsburg….

Today at church My Loving Spouse stood up again and explained why his wife had a new name and introduced me for the first time as “Mrs. Ellen Walton”…to a round of applause.  It was a sweet moment and it meant a lot to me!

I am pretty sure that now they will remember, no not that my name is ‘Ellen’, or even ‘Walton’, but I am fairly certain that they will just remember that I am the ‘lady with the new name’…

Somewhere on the ‘master list’ of replacements, upgrades and plain old fixes was the issue of lights.  Some rooms did not have any lights, some had lights hung in odd spots and some lights were just…. well, let’s just say, that we did not care for them.  It would be nice to say, that we’ve been working on a light replacement ‘plan’, but in true life Glory Farm fashion that is not exactly how things come about.

Number Two Son has taken out 4 lights.  He is our light ‘taking out’ expert.  Last winter he crashed into an oddly hung light, breaking the globe.

“Well, that is okay…it was hung in a strange spot.”

This summer he greeted me at the door one day,

“Mom, I’ve got some good news and some bad news….  Bad news – I just took out two light globes in the Family room, good news – I did it spending time with my sister, playing “Just Dance”, it was an awesome dance move…I got both of them… sorry.”

“Well, that is okay…we didn’t like that light anyway.”

We sort of liked it even less, hanging at a tilt with only three globes….

In late summer the farm flies were bad and another light globe in his room went when he was after them, then My Loving Spouse got in the action and took out the light globe in our bathroom as well one morning as he ‘over stretched’ or something.  The Damn Cat was not to be outdone, as she knocked over an antique oil lamp and broke that globe as well!  So…if you visit and you wonder why we have bare bulbs in some areas… we just cannot keep up.

Our family room is almost DONE!  What a process and what help we’ve had along the way.  Here is our ‘before’ with the listing Realtor’s picture while our home was on the market…

We are making headway!  No more carpet, new wood trim, French doors, paint, Dear John’s contribution and hard work rebuilding the windows, Number Two taking out the lighting, so we could get the ceiling fan My Loving Spouse really wanted and my sewing machine with which I made our new drapes (which was an intimidating project and not nearly as fun as quilting, but I did it).

We love it.  It is a warm and cozy room with the right period details in keeping with our 1889 home.  My ‘ta da’ moment and ‘after’ pictures are lacking the flare one would get, if this were say… a magazine or a blog by a photographer or one of those Pinterest super mom’s who set up everything perfectly, who I am sure never have mess, never raise their voice, do not have multiple animals or children and never take out lights in the manner we’re perfecting…called ‘real life’.

Yep, this is real life, our real life and we’re delighted you are sharing our journey with us.  To really experience this wonderful room, you are invited to come and enjoy a cozy evening here…

but, bring your slippers the floor is still a tad chilly, as I haven’t finished making the rug yet…