Projects

 My desk is full of projects.  I brought a number of things from upstairs to my desk to be worked on.  I am adding old photos every day to the facebook site for my Maternal Grandparents...I hope to finish that up soon.  There is a gathering this summer for that part of the family.  I went down a couple of rabbit holes adding photos to Find A Grave...and I know that there are more photos I could add...and oh yes a pile of obituaries to scan.  

One by one the projects will be dealt with and put in the proper place.  I have my Great Grandmothers funeral book...she died in 1968.  Also my Maternal Grandparents funeral books...if my siblings don't want them ...then maybe I will take them to the gathering and give them to my cousins to fight over...ha!

More yarn projects have been added to my desk since I took the photo.  Far Guy winds my yarn into balls for me as he watches music videos. 

For a break I am Spring cleaning the drawers in the kitchen...there are 17 drawers and 8 are done.  Isn't is funny or not how weird stuff is saved...especially in the one kitchen junk drawer. 

Our weather is cool and a bit dreary.  The high on Friday was 43 F or 7 C eh.

This week our company was friends Joel and Jackie and their dog Buddy, my other baby brother and she who sees robins first.  

Far Guy got the old car Tilly started up as next Monday she has an appointment for a new boot.  (It is something that covers the drive train ...I think...I know it is something important that has been bugging Far Guy.)

Far Side

Projects

I finally finished up my ongoing greeting card project for now.  I think I made about 75 cards.  I did not count.  I made a list of what photos I am out of and some ideas for new photos for future cards. I would never remember what I needed… hence the list.  I use two or three cards every week. 

As I was organizing the last of the left over photos I found a pattern for a baby blanket.  Guess that must be a sign that it should be the next project.  Yarn shopping is on my list of things to do!

I can see the top of my desk again.   I have a couple of cards ready to write in and a photo to hang on the wall someplace.  The photos in that big black box and the little red box  need to be double checked for names and dates… 

I got an email the other day, it was from Staples.  I had been to their website looking at computer chairs.  They had the sister chair to a chair we had that was getting real worn.

I told Far Guy, he said order them, they were half price and delivery was free.  No  trying to figure out how the dog and boxes with chairs would fit in the vehicle.  I held the door open for the UPS driver and he put them inside on the landing.  In an hour we had the new ones put together without too much cussing and the old ones went to my garage to be sold.  Far Guy said “I hope those are the last chairs I have to deal with for a long time.”

These are a lighter brown than the old ones and the back is shorter…but they sit just fine.

I started two new projects that were kinda on my list.  Cousin Verniel is sharing a bunch of old obituaries that she has, I will transcribe them and enter them one by one at Find A Grave.  I began a new carving project, a gift for someone special and Far Guy is working on a new flower design that is just breathtaking. Someday I will share the results.  As with any new design we work together to see what will work and what needs to be tweaked.

Our daughter Jen says my projects are all “self induced” …I suppose they are.  Winters are long in Minnesota.

Nuts

I cleaned out part of a cupboard.  Found some old peanuts in the shell that tasted horrible they were so old.  Far Guy sat them on the bench outside.  The gray squirrels must think we will poison them but the brown/black squirrel is not afriad.

One by one they disappeared.

He would grab one and take off and be back about three minutes later, he must have taken them to his nest in the trees on the east side of the house.  He entertained us for quite some time.

It was 49F here yesterday, we are melting!   You can see the ground at the edge of the road and black spots in the fields. 

I am certain that winter is not over, this is probably just a lull before a big storm that will jerk us back to reality.

I happened across my Aunt Elenor’s obituariy and entered it at Find A Grave.  Luckily I maintain that grave.  The local Find A Grave gal has been taking the last six months year off so nothing is getting updated.  Really frustrating for me.  I can still add photos but obits are just sitting in her emails as are requests for tranfers…NUTS.

Wistful Wednesday: A party 30 years ago

April 26, 1983.   Far Guy left every morning about 6:30 for work.  Shortly before he left the phone rang.  He answered..oh no.  His Grandmother had died.

Tracie was 87 years old, she had been diagnosed with Liver Cancer and had died in the hospital.  It was a good thing.  She did not want to go to the Nursing Home, that was one of her greatest fears.  I was happy for her..happy she escaped “the home” ..but sad..because we would miss her.

Both of Far Guys paternal grandparents died in the same hospital, on the same floor, fifteen years apart.  They had been married for 54 years..just six weeks shy of 55 years when Grandpa died in 1968.

The past two winters I have transcribed Tracie’s diaries from 1911, 1912 and 1913.  I have poured over family history, scanned photos and all the things she kept and treasured for years and years. 

She had quite a sense of humor.  This was one of the newspaper clippings she kept.

Just a few nights ago, I finished entering the last family obituary..it seems I am a collector of “things” too.  Obituaries are wonderful sources of family information. 

I am left with 13 years of farm journals from 1916 to 1929, written by Far Guy’s Grandpa and some entries are by his Grandmother too.  They are in a manila envelope in my desk drawer.  They are written in pencil, it will take some time to transcribe them.  I have not decided if I will scan them or transcribe them..or both.  They belong to cousin Bonnie, if she allows me to keep the farm diaries for yet another year perhaps I can wrap up this project.

So that all family members could follow this project I started a private family blog.  So it is online, safe and sound and someday when I am finished with it, it will be a book.

Grandma wrote on the back of this photo “Our youngest kid.”  This pump stood right outside the front step and the porch on the west side of the house that was covered in vines.

She had one of those old photo booth photos taken sometime in the late 1940’s when ladies still wore hats.   I imagine she sent some of those photos that come in that long strip to her sisters.

Are you wondering about the party yet?  Grandma always told me “When you get to heaven, there is one big party and I am looking forward to it.”  She always loved a party:)

Obituary Project

I  have had two projects in the works..the first one has two parts.  Far Guys Mom saved Obituaries, I went through them and paper clipped the newspaper clippings inside the funeral programs, then I grouped families together.  I also wrote on the outside of the funeral programs who the people were and their relationship..if I knew it. The oldest funeral pamphlet I found was from 1944, from Far Guys Paternal Great Grandmother.  The oldest Newspaper Obit was from 1943, I may have one older than that but I have to traipse down to the cemetery and look at the headstone to make sure. Why hasn't someone written this info all down..just a little road map to make things easier???   Far Guys Mom had lots of friends from the Apartments and from the Nursing Home and anytime there was a funeral the little old ladies tended to gather together and go as a group, safety in numbers. She saved all these obits, twenty years worth..names I vaguely remember, people she had coffee with occasionally, little old ladies that she would talk to when she went downstairs to get her mail. Anyway they would go to the funerals as a group, who ever had the biggest car would drive, they would all pile in and go to the funeral. It was like an event.  Afterwards they would talk about the food served and how it could have been better.  Up here in the North, the food served at the funeral luncheon or dinner in your honor is a BIG deal.  These little old ladies had their own opinions of what was good and what was bad...in fact Far Guys Mom said "No Mac and Cheese" at her funeral, she left a recipe and a name of someone that made an excellent hotdish.  I hope all the little old ladies were very impressed with the food that day, Far Guys Mom did everything she could to make it a memorable meal other than cook it herself. The second part of the Obit project will be easier..It will be sorting through all the Obits that I have saved over the years. I should know all the people..so no guessing is necessary.  I have tucked them into my little white bible for years..it is now a bulging little white bible.

My second project is for my high school class.  I am trying to locate obituaries for classmates that have croaked.   Far Guy did this for his class, now he is helping me with mine.  Yesterday he showed me how to work the microfiche machine at the library, we were able to locate three obits and last night I entered them into our class web site.  Without the dates of their death it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.  You have to have someplace to start.  I have put out a plea to my classmates..the Class of 1969 to share any info they have.  I have a really weird class..they are not real communicative.  If I have time I would like to research a story I heard about one of my classmates..Wilma B. was a nut..she was always acting out..I was surprised to find out the she was in the Unites States Marines, I bet that was a challenge.  Anyway I heard that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time one day in Minneapolis, she was acting out and would not put her hands in the air when directed to do so and was shot and killed by a police officer.  Back in 1969 if someone had said "Who is most likely to be shot by a Police Officer?"..she would have been almost last on my list.

The newspapers and or funeral homes don't write obituaries like they used to..I have found some blog fodder in this obituary box, I will find some old photos and then traipse down to the cemetery to take a photo of their headstones.. another project that will keep me busy.  I seem to finish up one project and then add two more:)