WASH DAY

Until I was three years old, we lived in a house with no indoor bathroom.  In the 40’s that was still pretty common out here in farm country.  The privy was about fifty feet from the house and I have toddler toilet memories of sitting in there, feet dangling, watching spiders in the corner. On wintry nights trips to the outhouse were replaced by mom’s pulling out the chamber pot from under the bed and waiting patiently for two little girls to finish their business.

My sister and I were totally potty trained as soon as we learned to walk.  I’m sure that tending to that chamber pot and washing all those cloth diapers was a very good incentive for mom’s working hard on the training those first 9 or 10 months!

Thankfully we did have electricity and kitchen plumbing, but mom’s old wringer washing machine sat on the screened in porch.  I can’t remember how she got water to it, but it was noisy so I think there was a little gas engine that ran the motor.  When mom lifted those wet clothes out of the tub and put them through the wringer, we always got warned of the dangers of smashed fingers in there, but it still held a dangerous attraction to us.

With no dryer, there were lots of trips to the clothesline so RoJean and I got to play outside a lot on Mondays when the days were warm enough. We thought that was a treat.

Then there were the wash day smells. Ham and Beans simmering and bread baking; a typical wash day lunch.  The sudsy clean odor of the bleach, bluing, and detergent on that steamy porch was another powerful combination.  

When there weren’t too many dirty clothes and mom had enough afternoon energy left, RoJean and I often laid down for our naps sniffing the cooking starch and watching her sprinkle the clothes. She put them in an old apple basket and covered them with oilcloth till they were ready to iron. 

Typical clothes sprinkler

Often when we awoke there was that warm clean pressed clothes smell coming from the kitchen and we could hear mom harmonizing with Tennessee Waltz, Sentimental Journey, Goodnight Irene or one of the latest songs playing on the radio.

For me these are all just pleasant childhood memories, but for mom it was just lots of hard work.  And for all the women who’ve gone before… who spent so much time and back breaking labor saving animal tallow, burning ashes to make lye for making their own soap, carrying wood to boil water,  scrubbing, drying, using sad irons, and trying to keep their families clean out here on the dusty plains...I SALUTE YOU!

Lye soap

I’m so thankful for my laundry room and its automatic washer and dryer!  It may not be the latest stacked or front load system but compared to earlier times, it’s almost like having my own personal laundry maid.  She ‘s on call 24 hours a day,  the weather outside doesn’t matter at all, and I can run around or do other more fun jobs while the clothes get cleaned and dried!




 

Too German

I decided to make a German Chocolate Cake this week.  Cooler weather always brings out the baking urge, I'd seen a magazine photo of some of that yummy frosting and I guess I got a craving. I hadn't made one from scratch in a long time and now I remember why. 

One look at the long list of ingredients on my old recipe card should've been enough for a normal cook to stop the process, but since I happened to have all of them on hand, I forged ahead.

These are the ingredients for just the cake!

By the time I had the 4 eggs separated, the whites whipped and set aside, the whole box of the German Chocolate melted, and the butter and sugar creamed till fluffy, I was beginning to remember why I hadn't used this recipe for a long time!  Washing up the 3 different bowls, a pan, measuring cups, spoons, and spatula...not to mention the mixer, stove, and countertop, didn't improve my outlook either.

When this expensive concoction was finally in the oven, I began the frosting process.  Three more egg yolks, a cup of evaporated milk, another stick of butter and cup of sugar later, I'm standing stirring all this for 12 minutes as it cooks and realizing I could've made 2 whole chocolate sheet cakes and an angel food in less time.

As I added the cup of pecans ($8 a pound now, but who's counting?) and the cup and a half of coconut to the frosting mixture, a vision of how many calories must be in 1 small slice of this decadent confection was forming in my mind...probably my whole week's quota of carbs.

I decided that if I ever judge another cake contest at the county fair and there's a German Chocolate in the competition, I'll just give it the blue ribbon for effort and expense.

Oh yes, it is a thing of beauty and indescribably delicious, but the German in me is too busy counting the cost, time, and calories to properly appreciate it!

Hopefully some Sunday afternoon visitors  will enjoy it tomorrow and reduce the temptation for rancher Bob and me the rest of the week.

And the next time I get the craving, I'll dress up a cake mix and just make the frosting from scratch!

A Stickery Situation

A few evenings ago we saw a cow standing by the pasture fence who didn’t come in with the rest of the herd for pellets, so we drove down to investigate.  There was a newborn calf on the other side of the barb wire and she looked like she’d had a calf that day so we assumed it was hers. 

Bob had to put on his gloves as the baby was covered in stickers.   Then while mama pawed the ground and made threatening sounds, he pushed the little guy under the fence toward her.  Baby scrambled straight to the milk station, but then a strange thing happened.  The cow began butting him away and acting like he wasn’t hers.  After he’d been beaten into the dust a few times and given up, we decided we’d made a mistake.  Maybe he wasn’t hers after all? Maybe hers was somewhere else and she’d just become confused?



It was too dark by now to search, so Bob loaded and held him on the back of the pick-up as I drove home.  In our little orphan pen, Bob continued to remove more of the nasty stickers as I mixed up the colostrum milk. Thankfully, the little guy’s sucking instinct was still strong and he hungrily devoured the whole bottle.

Next morning we went back to search for another mother or calf. After finding neither we brought that reluctant mama to the pens and began the arduous task of trying to mate them back up. We felt so sorry for that baby who just wanted nourishment and a mother’s love and so disgusted with that rejecting cow.  But after several trips to the milking chute and liberal doses of ONOMO (a mothering up powder) on her nose and his body, that evening she finally decided she liked him again!



We have concluded that the whole problem was probably the stickers.  She had birthed him, cleaned him up, and then he got on the other side of the fence into the sticker patch sometime during the day.  She knew he was hers and became frantic to get to him, but then when he did reach her, she sniffed him and got a nose full of those irritating thorns. Her maternal instinct was evidently not strong enough to overcome that pain, so she pushed him away.

It made me think about God’s unshakable love for us.  He brings us into the world clean, pure, and soft but at some point we all go over the fence and fall into life’s sticker patches…maybe even wallow in them.  What a blessing that our Creator doesn’t give up on us or push us away when we come back to Him wanting love and forgiveness!

I especially like the Message translation of this thought in Eph. 2:4-5 

We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Thanks Lord, for taking us back, filth, stickers, and all!





Deviled Eggs: Labor of Love

Tonight is our annual Ladies Salad Supper at the Church and I just finished making 2 dozen deviled eggs for one of my contributions.  There will be about one hundred different dishes prepared by some of the finest cooks around and we will feast "in a ladylike fashion"!

Through the years I've tasted and tried lots of new salads.  Especially popular currently are Sparky Morgan's fresh grape/sourcream dessert and Vanessa Garvie's cornbread salad.  

I fell in love with hot chicken salad about 25 years ago when Nadola Tucker brought that one. Anything with strawberries always makes it on my plate too.

I've tried and taken some different ones myself but if I want to insure bringing home a clean plate, deviled eggs is the ticket.  I've never brought home a deviled egg, no matter how many are there.

Today as I boiled, peeled, sliced, scooped, mixed, stuffed, garnished and put the eggs in the tupperware, I thought about what a time consuming process this dish is and how people like my husband can pop those little perfections in his mouth and barely taste all the trouble! 

I know some gals who go one extra step and put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it prettily back into the half eggs, but I've decided they don't get eaten any faster, so have never succumbed to that vanity yet!

Here's my recipe if your tastebuds are yearning for a deviled egg.

1 dozen eggs      1/2 cup Miracle Whip          1 T mustard      

1 T sugar           3 T sweet pickle relish             Sliced olives or pickles 

Cover the eggs with cold water in a big pan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn off heat and cover the eggs and let sit till slightly cooled.

Pour off water, replace with cold water, and peel eggs.  Slice in halves and scoop out yolks.  Add yolks to above mixture and food process till fairly smooth.

Stuff egg whites with about 1 T of mixture. Usually I garnish with thin strips of sweet pickles, black olives, or green olives. Some cooks like to just sprinkle paprika on top.

Refrigerate a few hours and enjoy!

Classic Colorado

Thought some of you might enjoy views from our windows in the California Zephyr train last week as we crossed the Rockies of Colorado.  There were some great sights in other states, but this route was my favorite!


Cool, green, and wonderful



Front of our train

The Colorado River was still deep and fast...

Sometimes it roared...

Sometimes it meandered...

Love those bridges!

Some snow still hanging on

Makes me want to wade in and look for trout

Lots of tunnels on this route...

 and other interesting sights

Cattle always interest us

Freight trains go the scenic way too

One of those spots you can only see from a train or by hiking

Hope you enjoyed the trip!



Travel Treats

We just returned from my first trip to California.  I know, at age 65, that must sound like I’ve led a very dull and untraveled existence, but we have lived in Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, and Colorado and seen all of that corridor of the US map. My sister and I did the Washington D.C. area at Halloween time several years ago where I saw my first hardwoods in fall color. Glorious! Our family visited Florida a couple times and we’ve driven through the southern coastal states.

Our vacations, however, have usually been influenced by agriculture. In the summers if we find time to get off the farm, we want to escape the Oklahoma heat in the Colorado or New Mexico mountains.  Occasionally we’ve gone to Arizona or South Texas in the winter, but beyond there to the west has been unknown territory to us.

 

The Southwest Chief arriving at Raton





Husband Bob and our Texas friends, the Fore's

So last week we met  friends at Raton, New Mexico and boarded the Southwest Chief traveling  to Los Angeles. 

Somewhere in New Mexico

We arrived in Los Angeles and the next day our seats on the Coastal Starlight train gave us a spectacular view along the Pacific Ocean up to San Francisco where we spent several days doing most of the touristy things.

Then we  caught the California Zephyr to Denver. Aren’t those great names for trains?

The trip was a feast for the eyes; so much grand and varied scenery, architecture, agriculture, and incredible vistas…and  now I can add California, Nevada, and Utah to my been-there-done-that list. 

Bob contemplating the vista from the observation car

Food is, of course, a big part of the traveling experience and we enjoyed some unique meals. But dining on the train is in a class by itself. The food and service is quite good and they practice open seating at the tables for four. This means that unless you are in a party of four, you are automatically seated with others so you get to meet lots of different people at each meal.  I imagine this could result in some strange and uncomfortable situations sometimes, but our experience has been good.

Because of this venue we got acquainted with a retired California man in construction who built homes for Cher and other movie stars.   When they learned we were farmers and ranchers, they had some interesting questions too.  At one point as we passed some grazing cattle, she asked how many barns we needed to put up our 400 cows every night?  Evidently there is still a need for ag education!

One night on the tracks across Nevada we dined with a first generation American from Italy named Primo.  He had risen in the ranks of the Caterpillar company from errand boy to mechanic to foreman.  His wife was from Switzerland and they were certainly a testimony to our land of opportunity.



Some cute younger diners across the aisle

Another time we shared steaks with a Presbyterian minister of 50 years and his delightful southern belle wife as we wound through the majestic Gore Canyon of Colorado.  Another lady we met was en route to visit her daughter who was a grip in Hollywood.  Once when the daughter was working on the Seinfeld show set, the mother was given a minor role in the episode. She told us some funny things Kramer did to stay limber on the sidelines between their scenes! Interesting conversations abound.

We also enjoyed cream puffs and cheesecake desserts with a school teacher and her retired printer husband while we were being mooned by rude rafters on the river below! This couple were on a month long vacation before school starts in Ohio and it wasn’t their first train trip. They had journeyed on nearly every Amtrak route in the USA and Canada!

                                       A few of the 300 shots I took from the train window. 
                                                            (Can you tell I like the Rockies?)

If open dining seems too risky or you or you just want more privacy, meals can be delivered to your coach seat or sleeper room, or you can buy something in the lounge car, but I recommend you try the dining car at least once.

                                           Julie relaxing in their roomette with her book

 
With the high cost of gasoline now, train travel has become a fairly economical alternative.  I had anticipated most of the other joys of riding Amtrak:  the Santa Fe depots (my favorite style!) the relaxed viewing vantage point (with no white knuckle driving on mountain precipices!) the desert sunsets, the coast and ocean, seeing the vineyards, orchards, and truck farms, as well as going through wild country accessible only by train or hiking.   But the dining car experience was an unexpected added bonus.

It is a real taste of America, I’m glad we savored! All aboard?

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

I have finally been putting most of my computer photo files onto CD’s.  It has been quite a revelation.  They say that the mirror doesn’t lie, but somehow I look better in my bathroom mirror than in photographs! Comparing those taken of us only five years ago to recent ones certainly proves that the aging process speeds up exponentially after age sixty.  Seeing less hair (where you want it at least!), more wrinkles, darker spots, and deeper sags can be a bit depressing. 

This was further compounded when the granddaughters came to visit.  For a fun activity we went online to do free virtual makeovers.  At these sites, you download a photo of yourself, and then you can apply all kinds of make-up, change your hair color, and try on a multitude of hairstyles. In some programs you can even plump your lips, do different eye colors, try on sunglasses and add other accessories.

While the girls liked seeing themselves in the most outrageous styles and colors, I was just in search of more flattering looks.  These instant makeover methods are much more appealing than the long process of growing your hair to a different length, spending big bucks at the beauty parlor, or suffering pain with a facelift to get a new image.

Befores and afters can be very enlightening!

In our youth oriented culture, most of us desire to look more like we used to look, but when you think about it, we probably weren’t very satisfied with our own images back then either!

The apocryphal stories of the search for a fountain of youth surely had at least a little bit of truth in them.  But there have always been more realistic search options for “painting the old barn”!

 I don’t even go to the field to drive the tractor all day without putting on make-up and fixing my hair.  Maybe that’s vanity, but it just seems right to look your best when you can. I’ve certainly contributed my fair share to the Mary Kay empire over the years!

Thankfully in our 45 years of marriage, handsome husband and I have aged together and accepted one another’s changes gracefully.  The way we see each other today is probably tempered by the memory’s picture of how we looked at twenty as well, and that’s a nice thought. 

With our oldest grandchild Haley age 12 recently

It’s just human to find ourselves lacking when we compare ourselves to others, but it won’t always be this way.  Aging, change, and dissatisfaction stops in heaven.  The tree of life that was once in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2 and 3) is now in heaven (Revelation 2). No need for makeovers, no more aging, no more worries, no more pain there.

A new body, a new outlook…I’m looking forward to drinking from that fountain of youth!

For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

Psalm 36:9