CARMEN LEE--LIFE IS NOT A VACATION, IT IS A JOURNEY

Day 109, "Every picture has a story"

We moved into our house at 710 3rd street in the fall of 1971.  The owners had a large shed in the back yard and said they would pay us $XX if they could leave it there until the spring of 1972.  With $$ in our eyes we said yes.  Early in the spring movers came and the shed was removed.  There in the back yard near the alley was a bare spot about 15X25.  Ah, a great spot for a garden.  I purchased a tiller from Ace Hardware and went to work.  BUT the ground seemed to be not so great.  As grandson Henry would say when he was little, "I idea".  I asked Chet, the custodian at the school, if I could borrow his pickup as I had found out from another friend about a person in the country who had an old mature manure pile.  I brought in 2 loads of manure and oh my gosh!  Did our garden grow!  In the summer of 1973 I went to grad school in Grand Forks.  I would leave on Monday morning and return on Thursday afternoon as I had scheduled all my classes Monday-Thursday.  Sunday night Gail would fill the cooler with produce from the garden and that was ALL my meals for the next 4 days.  It could have happened but I want to say I did not eat out once.  That probably is true as our summer finances were about as tight as Grandma Saunder's leather pants!!!  The garden gave us much for a long time and as one can see it also provided a lot of fun for the kids.

Yesterday was kind of a vanilla day.  I played tennis at 10:30, Terry had a meeting at 9:00 and then she went on a walk after that.  We gave the roofers $20 and they cleaned out the back gutters which was great.  I am not crazy about climbing on the roof and then lying on my stomach near the edge to clean them out.  Actually Terry may get VERY upset if I did that.  I started a book as I have not had my nose in a book for a couple of weeks.  I need not say the name but it is one of those books that is not for the intelligent "for sure".  

This afternoon we will take in the play.  It will be one more step in the road to culture for me.  

No tennis today as a day off is always good.  There will be league on Tuesday and on Wednesday with a morning match on Monday for a tune up!

AND

The year is 1957.  Dave and I have finished our chores in the barn.  We have cleaned the gutter behind the cows, the water tank is full without running over and there is plenty of hay in the hay barn for the cows as we bring them in for milking.  Dad has gone to town today and we were able to avoid him before he left.  That meant NO work had to be done.  We knew we could not drag the fields as the wheat and barley were starting to emerge on the land east of the farm and also to the west.  We were afraid Dad may ask us to disc Jim's land but Dad did not look for us before he left so maybe that is work for the next week.  What are we to do?  We talked about finding out if Ricky could play ball but that usually was a NO.  We could ride up to the lake but that usually was for the late afternoon.  Finally, after talking for a while, we decided a game of tag on the rafters in the barn would be fun.  It was not unusual to climb above the calf pens on the east side of the barn and run around.  That meant we were about 8-10 feet about the barn floor and the beams were 2X8's so were good footings to run on.  Well we got up on the beams and Dave said, "Your it".  He was above the water tank and I was to the west above the stanchions where we would lock the cows in for milking.  I ran to the south, leaped over the walkway and then headed towards him going north towards the hay barn.  As I got close to him by the last calf pen I kind of lost my balance and headed, head first, towards the pen below.  That was one time we were lucky that the pen was NOT clean and had a cover of manure at least 6 inches deep.  My head hit first and I crumbled to the pen floor with no breathe.  I thought, Lord this it it.  Dave helped me to my feet as I gasped for breath.  Dave helped me slowly walk to the house where Mom took over.  I spent the better part of the day in the house but of course there was no after effects but wait--did I ever fully recover?!

The FP is now almost gone and it is not hot anymore.  I did, because it is Sunday, put a bit of Irish Cream in and of course that made it REALLY good.