Old Clothes Pins & A Sock Horse

I was going through some old boxes today of patterns and things I kept and came across these two. I am posting them because maybe there is a little one at home who is lonesome because big sister or big brother have gone back to school. Just a little something for them to do. 

Blessings!

Garden's of The Past...

 When I was a little girl I loved Ms. Molly's garden. It was as secret as you could get.  Her yard was mostly shady but over on the east side of her property sat her garden, no shadows to dim the sunlight.  Her garden however was surrounded by a 6 foot plank fence made from barn siding. Each plank fit closely together so neither dog or stray animal could get in to it. The gate was made of the same material and had a large iron bale handle that fit over a rusty protrusion and that kept it from being invaded by anything. She didn't let just anybody in her garden...

Ms. Molly was  short, slender and freckled. A real country beauty with little wire rim glasses and silver streaks running through her once blazing head of red hair of which she always wore in a tight bun.. On weekdays she wore work clothes, jeans and a checkered blouse of some kind and always an apron. On Saturday and Sunday she always wore a dress and hose, she rolled her hose down to her knees and held them up with little elastic garters.  Although I knew her and Mr. Elmer's last name very well I always called them by Ms. Molly and Mr. Elmer, I think its a "southern thing."

 Her garden was like a Cathedral, way more respectful and perfect than our family's garden. I recall watching her pull her carrots one year and it seemed they slipped out of the ground like that had been greased. Her soil was a sandy rich loam. She took great care to make it that way. She told me once that her biggest gardening secret was her turkeys.  In the fall when every little thing had been harvested she would lock her turkeys in the garden during the day with a tub of cold water. They would pick and poop and pick some more all across the rows. Their feet would scratch up the soil and work up any stray weed seeds or weeds and then nature would take it's course and amend the soil.

 Ms. Molly was my make believe Grandmother, though I never told her so. She had all the qualities that I would think a grandmother should have. Physical affection was not her strong point but her words were like hugs to me . She would tell me about the farmer who was always fighting a rabbit because he was trying to steal his carrots and cabbages as she worked along her rows picking and weeding, she could squat down a garden row it seemed for hours. I learned a lot about the soil from her. She was my first garden guru and I was very close to her. I know when I tell my grandchildren some little tidbit of something I think I know I always hope that they remember and are able to use that knowledge when the time comes someday. So if I remember things I was told maybe they will remember, maybe there is hope, maybe they were listening after all.

As years went by I no longer lived the country life and gardening was far from my mind. I thought I would marry and stay in the Windy City but I didn't. Circumstances brought me to town life in Indiana, I didn't live in an apartment anymore, I lived in a house with a yard. I thought I would grow my first garden...

I just happened to be fortunate enough to live next door to another garden diva who would try her best to teach me the way in which my garden should grow, Mrs. Timmons.   Mrs. Timmons had been a school teacher, never had any children of her own and took care of her husband of many years who was bedridden from a severe stroke.  I became her project, or my garden did. 

She told me I must till down deeper into my garden so the roots would be able to grow freely. I learned that since my garden would be in new ground there would be no need to fertilize that year. I would also be told to water deep or I would cause the root system to be shallow and that wouldn't be good for leaf and fruit development.  I was told not to work in a wet garden, this could spread disease, to chop my weeds off at dirt level instead of stirring up the ground when I was weeding because I would kick up dormant weed seeds and just cause more weeds.  If I was to use any fertilizer at all it should be manure tea, she felt it did not burn the plants and was weak enough that you could almost water with it everyday.  We would go to our local zoo and load hubby's truck up with Zoo doo. It was like gold! They won't let you do that anymore however... I think they sell it now.  I used to wonder how much was monkey poo and how much was horse manure, what was the ratio.  I not only learned about vegetable gardening from her but also the art of raising flowers as well and she taught me how to can and freeze and not to waste.  I would come home from the store and my storm door would be open just a little and there sitting on the thresh hold would be a quart jar of beans and a clove of garlic sitting on top.  She wasn't just being nice she was saying in her own way that she was doing her canning now and I better get to mine.  Those years were so good. We canned everything we could. I took her to pick strawberries and blueberries, we made catsupTimmons had passed away and I cried all day... I expect to see her someday in another garden setting.

Well one day we finally bought some land and I thought I am finally homesteading. That first garden on our land was so big I worked in it from the time I got up till it was time for bed. Everybody in the family was hauling produce to work in the trunks of their cars to sell or give away. I canned 104 jars of grape juice of which our teen age son drank all but four I think. He called it the nectar of the gods. He'd stick one in the frig on his way out the door to school and drink it when he came home from school that day.

I remember doing 12 dozen ears of corn late one night. When the last kernel of corn was cut it was daylight.  But as time wore on the garden got smaller and I went to work. Eventually I went back to school and became a nurse. We bought a new house and with it dug a new garden. We were still in the country but on a smaller piece of land, much easier to take care of. It was that garden that I planted my first herb garden and learned what I could about their use.  We did that for seven years and eventually moved back to the city to be closer to the grand babies. I was selfish, I didn't want them to go to a babysitter while Mom and Dad worked, I wanted to keep them. And so I did and here I am now with my little primitive city garden and I am starting to can again and even used manure tea this year. My water bill is staggering however because we  have not gotten much rain. I figure maybe God is trying to kill out something in our area, maybe a pest or a plague, I certainly don't know the mind of God.  I guess that I think gardening is a good thing, a healthy thing. I know the Bible says that God liked to walk in His garden in the cool of the day, me too...

What is dirt poor anyway?

I heard it said a lot when I was little, "we are dirt poor."  Well, I knew we didn't have much. We lived in a 3 room house. Momma and Daddy, Aunt Berthy and Grandpa, my brother Bobby and then me all stuffed into those little rooms. I know we had a couple of dogs and always an old cat or two. Sometimes we had a car and sometimes we didn't. You could walk to town if you had to but it was a good long walk for sure and a real burden if you had to carry a sack of groceries or a bag of "commodities."  Wondering what the heck commodities were?  Poor folk food, gritty peanut butter, powdered eggs and milk and good old government cheese. I stood in line with my Daddy many times to get a bag of that stuff and we were glad to get it.

My Mother was known for always being able to make something out of nothing, she was like a legend for that.  She could take a can of mackerel and make a gravy that went with it that not only made it go farther but tasted like a million dollars.  She made biscuits three times a day, store bought bread was called lite bread for some reason and Daddy hated the stuff. When you got cake or some other sweet for a meal it was usually on Sunday and not every Sunday either.  Any scraps went to the dogs and cats, I remember the cats were fed on top of an old lean too shed right on the tin roof. Their little nails made a weird little sound on the roof while they were chowing down. Momma did this so the dogs would not run them off their food I guess.  I remember her making corn bread for the dogs when scraps were pretty lean, they called it dog bread. I always had to have me a piece of that dog bread.  Now that I am grown I make dog gravy for my dogs and our youngest grandbaby always wants to know if she can have some  dog gravy too...

The Avon lady still came around even though I am sure she knew my Mother couldn't afford much. I remember seeing all her goods in the trunk of her pretty car. Somehow Momma would manage to buy a dollar tube of lipstick every once in awhile. Then there was the little sample lipsticks that came in tiny metal tubes, the Avon lady never left without giving me one. I called them little girl lipsticks.

The garden was huge and had to be. She canned everything she could get her hands on so her family would have enough to eat during the lean Tennessee winter time, if there was no work on the farm to do Daddy didn't get paid. I remember those times and they were tough. In the fall Daddy and me would go pick up pecans and sell them in the next town, I always thought that was fun. He would carry them to a big office building and sell them to the secretaries there.  Other ways were thought of to make money too. My Daddy was the original picker, he would scrap year round. He also knew where a furniture company dumped its wood scraps and with this he would make lawn chairs and sell them in the summer.  I helped some too, I had a fishing worm business and we sold them down at the mailbox at the end of our lane to passing fishermen. They would toot their car horns and out I would run to get their order.  On one side of my playhouse Daddy had built a worm bed and he fed them coffee grounds and other trimmings. I would use an old coffee can and scoop out a nice worm box full and run them back to their car.  One of the customers would always slip me a tootsie roll and ask me where did you get head of hair girl, I always said I got it from Daddy, the man would laugh... (Daddy was about bald)

I also had a friend in the sky, a crop duster man.  This is going to make you cringe but nobody knew how bad that dust was back then, I would run along side the plane and could feel the wet dust hit my skin. One time he came in the fall and landed his plane in the field, he brought me a bushel of apples from his orchard. I will never forget that. There were a lot of older folks that were good to me too. Our neighbors across the road would always bring me something every time they did their grocery shopping. They pumped water from our well because theirs didn't taste good  and when I would see Mr. Elmer coming with his water bucket I just knew he had a big Zero candy bar in his shirt pocket with my name on it.  That was back when candy bars were big and they were only a nickel....

In the summer I hardly every played with other children. There weren't any around. So I filled my days with dogs and cats and my imaginary friend, Begal.  Begal came to me in the field. There was an ancient homestead way behind our house at the edge of the "bottom." They called it that because it was kind of a wetland and when the Mississippi overflowed it would hit there first. Anyway me and Daddy went back to that homestead to poke around, he was always looking for arrowheads and such. I guess there had been a large Indian encampment back there way back in time. The homestead had been burnt to the ground by them. I just remember Begal being with me from that day, she was quiet and big eyed and I led her around by the hand. I watch a lot of Ghost Hunters on TV and sometimes I wonder if Begal was imaginary? Our first grandbaby was about two and I gave her a little soft doll and it reminded me of Begal, we named her that. She carried that baby doll everywhere and one day she was lost for good. I went home and cried my eyes out. Not sure why, it just seemed so very sad to me. I think my daughter in law thought I had truly lost my mind.

As I said earlier my Aunt Berthy and my Grandpa Em lived with us.  Berthy was feeble and Grandpa was blind. I was either tying a shoe or cutting up some body's meat! lol I loved them both. When we eventually moved it was very traumatic for me to leave Berthy behind but she was very sick and needed to be in a nursing home. Grandpa went to live with his other daughter because he didn't want to go north...

We used to visit my Momma's older sister Vetra, she lived in Memphis in a big old Victorian with three stories. She was the most precious person. Her husband was Uncle Elbert, he always wore a neck brace and was going somewhere for treatments.  He liked to play cards and so did my Daddy. Uncle Elbert had a sister name Ethel. She was a little person, I loved her to pieces. All her clothes and shoes fit me and I was only about eight years old. She lived on the third floor. They would all play cards together and I would fly up the three floors, fling her bedroom door open and head for her closet. I would try on everything the poor woman had but I was always careful to hang it back up and put the shoes away. It was like fashion heaven! lol Aunt Vetra had a son who lived with them and he was a peddler, he had a pack he would carry on his back around town and sell from. I remember he sold a lot of little sewing items like pin cushions and needle cards, thimbles and thread. I think that may be one of the reasons I deal in domestics, he let me go through his pack on a regular basis. He was a dear, dear man. He taught me how to play the game of Solitaire...

At school I guess I was one of the poorest kids there but I withstood it and kept to myself. I actually was relieved when we moved north but I know there is a lot of the south that I miss and that I missed... I was lucky because I did have a benefactor not only for clothes but for church going and Bible learning, thank you Mrs Cannon, someday when we all get up to heaven I am going to run over to you and hug your neck and thank you for being Jesus with the skin on... you have no idea...  I always tell people at church that no matter the struggle of dragging somebody else's little kid along to church its so worth it, you have no idea really what you will be doing for that child.  When I hear the education phrase "no child left behind" I always think of that in another way, a Mrs. Cannon kind of way.

So I filled my days with raising worms, fishing, going to school, kicking up clods of dirt looking for arrow heads and laying in the grass looking for tiny little frogs under the Tiger Lillie's that grew in a circle around the tree. Momma was always afraid I would get bit by a snake but I never did.

I guess growing up dirt poor can mean many things, if it just means the house I lived in or the clothes I wore or the food I ate I guess you could say that I truly was dirt poor but not in my soul. My soul was rich with what the next day held...

We're havin a heat wave, a tropical heat wave.... DANG!

OK well, its hot enough and dry enough I suppose its maybe time for some rain? I hope the Good Lord has us on his list!  Anyway I have been watering the garden and trying to keep the weeds pulled now that Hubby is doing so much better. We are hoping he can return to work in a few weeks. This staying home and eating beans just ain't how we like to roll!

I have pickles by the bucket load and finally tore the ones out in the garden, them and "their powdery mildew" were just too ugly to look at anymore combined with the scorching of the sun adding to their plight... But the pickles were good, didn't seem to bother them too much.  We still have one vine that runs along side the house, its a different kind and it didn't get the mildew too bad.

The tomatoes seem to be doing just fine but I am afraid they are all going to try and ripen at one time. The elderly lady that I learned gardening from said when the green starts to turn a whitish color they are getting ready to ripen, lots of them look that way to me!

The flowers are holding their own but not doing as well if they would of gotten regular rain intervals. The yard grass is dead but the weedy grass seems to be twice its normal size.

  The other day we went to the Amish fruit market and its out in the middle of the countryside so I took a bucket and small shovel with me and stopped on the road and scooped up some horsie poo and made manure tea out of it for the tomatoes. I think it gave them a boost. The tea does not smell as bad like it does when you side dress the plants with the pure stuff, it usually does not burn the plants up either.

 The japeleanos are small this year and pretty hot but I still managed to make a few jars of jelly with them. My husband likes it with cream cheese and Ritz crackers, me too!  The plants are hanging on but the peppers are slowing way down in production. I keep wanting to pull them out but "he" won't let me...

The beans have taken over the arbor as you can see but some little buggy boo is eating the leaves. I do see some blooms but no beans yet. These are Kentucky Wonder pole beans and they are later producers.  I did can 7 quarts of beans that I bought at the fruit market. I also will be making pickled beets for my son soon. I would like to do some corn, hope its not too high this year.

Well I guess I better close this gate up and go on in the house and scratch up some supper. The husband is layed out in the bed taking a much deserved nap. He was able to mow and trim today but I think he over did it.  Tonight is my ghost hunter shows, I'll be watching the tube after supper with my feet up and swilling down sweet tea!

See Yall later!

5th of July 1953

My Grandparents

They lived on a cotton farm in rural TN and Daddy had sent for the doctor.  It was a 3 room sharecropper house with no running water or inside bathroom. The kitchen had a wood cook stove and a flour barrel, table and cane seat chairs. There was a refrigerator and an old baking cabinet. A makeshift counter stood in front of the window that held a water bucket, dipper and a wash pan. Above the wash pan hung an old medicine cabinet that held aspirin and shaving items.  The curtains on the window were made on her treadle and what baby things that awaited the arrival were made by her hands. The clock ticked on and the pain worsened. She was afraid because she was 41 and not in the best of health and would the Dr. Olds get there soon enough to help...

Down the road came a black car, a nice black car. Daddy knew it to be Dr. Old's car.  He pulled in the driveway and came in with his black bag.  He spoke softly with Daddy and told him the charge would be fifty dollars.  He and Daddy went in to Momma. She was covered in sweat and the pain had become different. She had bore 3 other children that lived and this time it was much more painful, worse that she ever could remember.

The room was dark and stuffy, the window was open but no breeze was blowing. The bed that held her and the unborn child was the same bed her own Mother had died in just a few years before. Grandmother died of sepsis from cutting up a rabbit that was sickly and cutting herself and tainting her own blood with the rabbits, she lasted only three days. That same window is where Grandmother had seen the white doves gathering just before her last breath.

 She told Daddy she had listened to the fireworks at the country park all night and she could here them having a big party. Sound carries out in the countryside when there are no buildings much to stop it, the park was about 3 miles away.  She tried to talk to Dr. Olds but was not making much sense, he took Daddy out in the front room. "We will have to give her morphine and I will have to help her because she is beyond helping. If I don't put her out her heart will give out on her I am afraid."  Sometime in the middle of the morning of July 5th, 1953 Dr. Olds brought me into this world with all his might and all his knowledge. Momma slept for almost two days and so Daddy named me, after his old girlfriend. I was supposed to be named Christine, not Gwendolyn... Momma never said one way or another if that bothered her, she was just smile.

That is the story I was told whenever I asked about my start in life.  I guess I am a true primitive, made when there was not much and brought into a house that was well worn. I have kept my story in my heart and am sharing it this July 5th, 2011.

update on my husband...& watching the garden grow

My old chickens from Tennessee

Well they had us come in for a CT scan of his leg and hip where he fell from the tree. He has multiple fractures of the pelvic region.   We go back in Friday to find out further details.  Our insurance is being really rotten, won't pay for the hospital bed even though it was a doctor's order. Won't pay for the special walker he needs (he also has a broken arm)... what else...

The pump housing my Hubby made just before his accident. I painted in rusty so it would look good with fall decor.

Anyway I am staying busy, trying to take stock of the kitchen and see what I have and don't have. Trying not to worry about money (that's a laugh). I find that I am way more depressed that I thought I could be about all of this.  Our summer is pretty much a stay at home summer which I don't really mind. I have the best looking garden I have had in years but now I wonder if I should have planted more so I could can and freeze.  The pickles are loaded, I have never seen so many.  I could already pick Jalapeno peppers but my bell peppers look diseased. Not sure what their problem is, I am about ready to rip them out and plant a quick crop of green beans in their place.

Maybe I will actually sew since I won't be running to and fro. I don't have the grand babies (15 and 11) on Wednesdays and they are picked up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I will have a lot of time, maybe I can finish some projects that I already have the material for.  I am thinking about getting a baby monitor so I can here him when I am on the back porch. He is in a hospital bed in my living room, the bowling alley affect living room is now just perfect to hold the bed and all the other rigamarow that comes with being down on your back.

If you think about praying for us, please pray that my back holds out (I have to do a lot of lifting with him) and that he heals properly and does not get any blood clots or bedsores.  That I can used to them bringing communion to us here at the house (we are Catholic). That I can learn to accept help and ask for it if I need it.  That I don't get aggravated with him when he asks me for the millionth thing today. And finally that my old dog Blue does not have to be put down while all this other stuff is going on..
 I sure would appreciate it.

OMGoodness, my husband fell from a tree...

Friday started as a normal day as housework progressed to garden chores and then back again to making supper... Husband came home from work and headed to a sweet little widow lady's home to set out her trash and see how her grass was, said he would be home after he finished and in time for supper. I just stepped in the back door from the garden to pop in my cornbread. The phone rang and a very upset lady was saying I needed to come quick, he had fallen from a tree and was asking for me. I seemed to go blind for a moment but then came to and turned the stove off, called the son and he rushed us over to her home.  Husband was laying on the ground with a ladder under his head for a pillow and was as white as snow... We called an ambulance and were soon transported to the ER.  After laying on a back board for over two hours a Dr. finally checked on him and ordered ex rays and some pain medication.  Husband's arm is broke and quite a few pieces right above his wrist, both hips are severely sprained and he has a possible pelvic fracture. He can't stand on his own, turn in the bed or walk.  Of course they sent him home about 3 in the morning and son and I managed to struggle him into to the house. Our home was built in 1921 and there are steps to go up just to get in the house. And per usual there is no bathroom on the main floor or bedroom... Our couch is way to soft to sleep on with injuries but we struggle through until he goes to surgery the next morning. Surgery over and a good report was given on how well the arm went back together but husband is in enormous pain, even vicodin extra strength is like baby aspirins to him. We struggle another night  with him on the couch, then Sat. morning a hospital bed was ordered for him, last night was better but still a struggle with a potty chair and a cane and me doing the lifting and flipping around. 

I sat this morning and thought of all the things my husband does for us, mowing and fixing and lifting and moving. Guess who gets to do all that now, this girl that's who... I not only have to do it I have to remember to do it plus the million things he needs. My world changed so quickly.  Ladies hug your husbands and tell them how much they appreciated because things change... more later as the story continues...

City "Primitive" Garden

Who has a prim garden in the city, this girl! I think I have stolen every prim garden idea I could find online! I am still looking for more and still have a few more things I would like to do to it yet. The chain link fence you see separates our yard from our neighbors. My garden sits right below one of my dining room windows and that is where I took the pictures from. I copied a bee skep house or I should say my Hubbs did for me that I saw on another blog. I have no rusted tin for the roof so right now its a faux rusty roof. I did my best making one of those cement bee skeps, I had a hard time with mine... I think I may have had the mix too wet. If I dare try to make another I will have the mortar mix a little more dry.

Planted in the vegetable garden are bush cucumbers, bell peppers, japeleno peppers, tomatoes, basil and sweet marjoram. Up and coming on the old arbor are the Kentucky Wonder pole beans.  In the flower bed is Cosmos, garden Sage, Pineapple sage, Zinnias, Sweet Annie, Cleome, Lavender, Holly Hocks, Zebra Grass, and a couple things I can't recall the names of! The tomato stakes are an idea I saw in a magazine a while back. I used the black plastic pots that the Lavender came in and painted some wood finials and fastened to the top and stuck them on the tops of the three wood stakes. I think they will look better when the wood weathers.

 My husband purchased the old tin tub for $2.50! I was thrilled with it to say the least! The old pump is still due a wood base and a paint job. I will post on that later. I have a couple of huge buggy wagon wheels that my husband found for me.  They will go against the chain link fence. All the plants are new, everything is new, this used to be where our pool was. So I hope they bush up, I still need to put two plants in yet. So more pictures will come later.  All the neighbors want to know what the heck a bee skep house is! lol Oh yes, the old wood barn star came from our March vacation in PA.  Garden Blessings everyone!

Painting in 90% weather! whew!

As some of you know I have been working on my stairwell but I had to put it on hold and get out there in that little garden of mine. Today I finally finished painting the old fence. My above ground pool used to sit in this area but hardly anyone swam in it the last two summers so out it went. This year I have put in a small veggie garden. I am getting ready to put in some flower beds so these are kinda the before pictures. When its finally done (hopefully not before I die from the heat) I will post some after pictures. Its been kinda fun!
PRIM BLESSINGS!

Happy Memorial Day to Mother Father & Brother

     Happy Memorial day to all my people who served our country, there are so many to thank. Let me start with my Father who served in WW2. This man came home married my mother who already had 3 children from another marriage and worked his butt off on a cotton farm in the delta region of TN. To my Mother who worked at an arsenal to help feed and clothe everybody and also her elderly parents. To my dear Brother who made his life's work out of serving his country, first in wartime and in peace. Once he retired he went back to school to head up an ROTC program... All gone now but never ever forgotten. SALUTE!  And I must not forget my nephew and cousins who have served in Irac and to all of the ones who served in peace time as well, SALUTE to them ALL as well.
Blessings to all!

Years Ago In A Country Living Magazine....

 Way long years ago in a Country Living magazine I was inspired by a flat iron collection display on a stairwell landing. I have a landing and I had 6 old rusty irons on the back porch. I am not much of a free hand painter but I gave it a shot. I guess I could have just painted them all black but the stairwell is having a theme of "domestics." There will be button collection displays, quilt rack display, old framed quilt blocks, needle collection and other sewing related items. Once its all done I will post some pictures.

Have a great day everyone and hope we all get some needed sunshine!

Blessings!

My Jack Russell Picked Me Some Flowers...really!

My little Jack Russell "Bitsi Boo" is such a little pixie.  My granddaughter and I were in the back yard looking at the Bridal Wreath Spirea and I picked a small branch to wrap in Riley's hair to show her how I did when I was a little girl. Well, Bitsi Boo thought "Mom needs flowers" and I heard this snap behind me and she had picked a big branch and was standing there with it in her mouth just as pretty as you please... It was the cutest thing ever.