Posts
Then there was daughter-in-law Monika's mother, Floriana, coming from Namibia this weekend to be here when the baby is born. She left her home in Namibia about Thursday and made her way to Johannesburg and from there to Washington, DC and finally Burlington Vermont where Bill, Monika and Jo-Ann picked her up on Monday afternoon. This lady has never flown before and speaks little English, although Monika says she can read and understand some. Monika had armed her with translations she might need along the way, she made it just fine. Even so, I worried about her - it must have taken a great deal of courage and determination for her to undertake the trip all by herself.
We haven't met her yet - she will need a few days to rest up, I expect. That's a long flight - something like 19 hrs. from Johannesburg. We are excited to have her here. She will stay for a couple of months to help with the new baby.
I've also used some of the nice weather to attend to my gardening - although things still don't look as robust as I think they should, but now that things have dried out a bit, they're doing better.
I'm trying "container potatoes" this year. I planted them in a large plastic container in a thin layer of soil and as the tops appear, I'm supposed to add more soil and keep adding as they continue developing. It's the same idea as "hilling" them in the fields - we had a machine that plowed the earth up around the plants from both sides on the farm - but some folks just hoe the earth around them as needed as the roots developed the potatoes. In the fall, you turn the container over and harvest your crop, neatly exposed. Sounds easy - we'll see if it works.
Today I'll be touching up the paint on the deck railings - winter always takes a toll. Unfortunately, it is all pressure treated wood - which I would never use now - and it doesn't take kindly to paint. Not only that, but it seems to soak up water and I've scraped as best I can to let it dry out some before I paint.
Fred got the chimney cleaned out yesterday - a big job, but there's always just a little residue, hardly worth doing in my estimation, but he insists it has to be done anyway. I don't like him being up on the roof wrangling that heavy piece of slate that covers the big double chimney aside to get the long brush into the flue. He doesn't mind - he's been doing it for years and I guess having climbed telephone poles for the railroad years ago (in a former life) was good training. I'm not a fan of heights. I helped my father shingle roofs at the farm and at our house (in a former life) but always had trouble when it came time to climb down. I didn't mind so much going up, or while I was concentrating on the work, but navigating from staging to ladder when I had to look down to see where my feet were supposed to go, was scary.
Now I need to get things ready to go to the historical society Thursday afternoon, and call Terry Persons to stop by for some articles for the rummage sale on the Fourth.
Fred took a side trip onto the Bayley Hazen Rd. from South Walden when he went to recycle the other day. Above is a picture of the South Walden Church steeple and then the church itself - it's a very rural setting, but the church is still used even though the community is very scattered.
Great views and well worth heading off in that direction if you haven't been that way
before. The road leads to Dow's Crossing and intersects with Noyestar Road at the end, with Rt 16 and E. Hardwick to the north and Rt. 15 at Noyesville if you go south, but there are numerous cross roads to explore in between, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment