If you can identify this object then you know it is a major necessity in your home and can greatly improve your life when it works as it should. Possibly it’s not on the cutting edge of technology but it can noticeably cut down on your water bill.

Do you know what it is called?

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If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around does it make a noise when it falls?

If someone is around it assuredly makes a sound.

While out for her hike Little Lucy heard an unfamiliar sound, rather scary since she was hiking alone and the timber area is secluded. As she hurriedly continued on her hike this is what laid across her path.

If Lucy had not been there would it have made a noise?

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May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

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Last week we received our 1st snow of the season.

Other areas received far more but we got just a whisper of what is ahead for us.

We have been taking our daily hikes.

While driving to an errand along an unfamiliar road I found not one barn in disrepair but did find this old barn that has been well cared for.

Note the line of old iron wheels placed along the base of the barn.

I hope you  have a nice week. Other than taking more hikes I have few plans for this week. Do you have any major plans?

Thank you!

Even if you didn’t see Fritz and Lucy in person face to face you could easily guess their age. How’s that you ask?

Easy, it’s in their mail box. Once upon a time they received ads in the mail for things like this:

 Now they get these ads:

from the Scooter Store.

Once the ads for ski resorts

now mail such as this land in their mail box weekly.

Catalogs with this foot wear

have been replaced by this

Ads for investing this

replaced by ads like this:

Their mail box contents reveal their age for sure. Does your mail box tell your age?

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Unless you live in Arizona I think all other states in our country will be turning their clocks back tonight…or early Sunday morning…whatever… I am confused enough without this change twice a year!  We have umpteen clocks to turn back an hour each fall and forward each spring. Not to mention each and every wrist watch and pocket  watch Fritz and I have ever owned in our lifetime, running or not running, that may need winding, just a little shaking or new batteries or whatever just in case they have returned to life since last spring. We have at least one clock in each room and 2 in others not to mention those that automatically adjust the time like our computers  and phones. The stove, microwave and the radios etc have to be fumbled around with and set correctly. It is not like we belong to the space program or are involved in train or bus schedules. We are retired or semi retired, and we have no time clocks to punch but yet we have this need to be able with a simple turn of our heads to see at least one clock at all times in every room of our house. We have 2 large faced patio clocks and work shop clocks and vehicle clocks. As if we are so split second important and need to know the time at all times like the CIA or Secret Service. We must be delusional concerning our importance. My mother told me when she was a little girl before her family had saved and managed to by a mantel clock her father kept his gold pocket watch on a shelf. In order to check on the time they had to reach up and carefully take the watch off the shelf to get the time. Mom was born in 1908 so that was many years ago. How times have changed. Then you looked at the sun when out in the field working or outside playing to tell the time. Not so anymore. Who can do that now?

It has become my habit, since the changing of the clocks appears to have fallen on me, to begin this dreaded time changing early Saturday morning and living all day Saturday in the surreal world of being out of sync with everyone else but to avoid the weariness or jet lag feeling that changing the clocks brings, whichever applies, with the time change when we wake on Sunday morning. I like that feeling of being one step ahead of this evil disrupting thing called Daylight Savings Time. It just might be a conspiracy of some kind, who can know? LOL.

Since I have been so open and opinionated I think I am on a roll. i have a confession to make.

I love old barns, yes I do! I love old abandoned house also but I really really like old barns and see them as a thing of the past now that metal buildings are more practical. Nevertheless the beauty of these old barns intrigue me. I recall my grandfather’s barn. It was the hub of the farm with it’s oat bins, hay loft, milking stalls and the cats that hung around waiting for a squirt of milk from the cows as G’pa aimed at them. They also kept the mice population down. There were corn bins, a tool bin and many compartments to investigate. I am old enough to remember the loose hay that was loaded into the hay loft and on at least one occasion I walked Old Bird, the work horse back and forth as the hay was lifted into the loft, by means of a large hook, ropes and a pulley. G’pa’s barn also had the open run way where tractors and other machinery could be parked out of the weather. This barn I have pictured is much as I recall G’pa’s barn to be, his is long gone under the bulldozer of time.

Having digital cameras and having the time has opened an entire new hobby for me. I seldom overlook an old barn or an old house while out and about. If I can not stop right then I make note of it. If it is way off road and on personal property I find out who it belongs to and call for permission to enter the area for pictures. Often times my request is met with amusement,”That old thing? We’re planning on burning that old thing down, sure go ahead if you want”. Or with “we have cows in there be sure and close the gate behind you and watch out for the bull”. Or “There is a well off to the east of the barn so be mighty careful”. Never have I been denied access, after all this is Iowa and people are usually very friendly and accommodating.

This makes for an interesting hobby as I put together my album of old barns and houses.

Do you have a hobby you enjoy?

I try to be upbeat and non-controversial on my blog although I do broadcast my opinion in comments I leave on other sites. The last I knew we still have the freedom of speech and the internet is certainly a public forum. So here goes.

If I could find it easily I would post the one photo of the house I was raised in from the age of 5 until 12. A very humble abode to say the least, never finished, 3 rooms and a loft. No running water. 3 of us girls to a bed, wood stove in an uninsulated house,the chimney of the pot belly stove rose through the floor up to the loft and out the roof. So much heat was lost that you could warm yourself by huddling around it. My siblings may have a different take on this and maybe based on their birth order things were better for the younger ones than for the older ones. But history is in the mind of the teller and right now that would be me.

I recall cardboard placed in my shoes to cover the holes and we did indeed walk a little over 2 miles to school and 2 miles back often without adequate winter clothes, rain gear or boots. It was not uncommon to have only bread and butter or cold biscuits in our lunch sacks. Once in a while Mom would make a simple frosting of powdered sugar and milk and spread it between saltine crackers as a lunch treat, oh yum, what a great treat it was. My older sister and I still make these once in a while. I do know hungry, believe me I do. I still recall the lovely clothes my aunt sent to me that her daughter had outgrown. Each item freshly washed, starched, pressed and folded.  I treasured each item of clothing which even included a “can can” that was all the rage in the 50′s. My aunt’s kindness and the care she took of each piece of clothing gave me a lifetime of love and respect for her.

I was very ashamed of our little unfinished house and very afraid someone from school might see the hodgepodge ladder we scurried up to our loft. Our older brother had one side of the loft and we girls the other side. Little brother when he came along shared a room with our parents. Rarely, but when I did have school mates stay overnight we shared a room at my grandparent’s home.  Truthfully claiming there was no room for guests in my home but more so because I was very ashamed of our very humble home. So different from my friends’ homes. Some people claim they were poor but happy and sat around singing “So The Circle Won’t Be Broken” each night. Not so us. For whatever reason we were poor and I now marvel that Mom was able to put a meal on the table.

Why am I saying all this, why reveal all this history? Because when I saw the other kids’ sack lunches I didn’t begrudge them their baloney sandwiches, potato chips and cookies. I recall thinking someday I could also have nice lunches. Time spent in the homes of my classmates delighted me to see running water, scented soaps and a nice clean bed for everyone. Homes that appeared to have laughter, peace, hugs and attention. Homes like I wanted when I grew up. When I noted how the other girls dressed I could attempt to follow their styles and with my hand me down ‘can can’ slip and cousin’s skirts I thought I did pretty well.Guess I learned that imitation was the most sincere form of flattery rather than to feel jealousy and think they were the ‘haves’ and I was one of the ‘have nots’.

I will close with this and wish I could post pictures of  my and each of my siblings’ homes today in contrast to the humble shabby house we were raised in. Each of us have nice homes, each of us earned our educations, through the military, working our way through college or on the job,and have had excellent jobs and raised our families. Four of us rented when we started out, bought homes we could actually pay for even though they were not big lavish and new we all managed to avoid the trap of being heavily in debt(if at all). Our children are all hard working and earning their own way with our strong work ethic and it appears the grandchildren are following this pattern also. Oh my, how different it would be for the 5 of us and our families if we had sat back and envied those who had better lives than we had. Or just as bad begrudged the success of others rather than reaching and working for our own success. Or how different if we had held our hands out waiting for Uncle Sam to give us the money taken from others. Or if my parents had put us on the welfare train to ride through our childhoods to the point of perpetually looking at others and wanting them to have less so we could have more.

I know the Lord blessed each of us and kept us safe and reasonably healthy and that we all 5 married good spouses who were like minded and we married for life. Actually I imagine our great grandmother who saw our poverty and who had a strong faith in the Lord and a love for us prayed for our futures and maybe it was more the Lord than our hard work that resulted in our situations today. But I like to think the harder we worked the more the Lord blessed the 5 of us and our mates.

Fritz and I spent most of our married life being self employed. We scrimped and saved and paid the quarterly estimated tax, we paid our own health insurance and the full Social Security tax, we lived off of what was left over and saved for our retirement. My husband worked harder than any man I know and went without and made do to support his family. We are not “the evil wealthy” but we worked and saved and expected nothing to be given to us. We know many who have struggled and have far more than we do and we admire them and yes they are the “rich” but they earned every dime and it is none of my business to question their motives. Socialism has been tried and has failed every where it has been practiced. Class envy will not only destroy our country it destroys the individual.

So there you have it I think this is what shapes my world view and leads me to have little tolerance for those who want to heavily tax those of us who have more than they do. Success is  something to strive for not something to be jealous of.

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