Journal: Independence Day

 

It was sunny and warm last Tuesday, getting up to 92° in the afternoon.  I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, and dusted, then headed upstairs to my quilting studio.  There were four more blocks to put together (or so I thought), and the pieces for them were all cut.

I had just time enough to get one block put together before Hannah and Levi arrived, so Levi could tune up the new string he put into my piano a few weeks ago.

Below is a picture Levi took at a job he was on last Monday.  The Yellow Labrador puppy belongs to the property owners where he and the crew were working.

“Awww, a little Helper Pup!” I said, seeing that the puppy was pulling on the big straps they use to secure their loads.

Levi told me, “My coworkers dubbed him ‘Levi’, because he’s a very small puppy and he slowed everyone down.”  😆

While we visited, I edited the rest of the photos I had taken the previous week.

Hannah was in pain from the stitches in her mouth, remnants of surgery she’d had a couple of weeks ago.  The removing of them had been delayed because her dentist was on vacation; but she would get them out Wednesday and begin feeling better.

That evening, our supper was ground venison meat loaf, fresh corn on the cob, and watermelon peach Alō Aloe Vera juice.

I put together another quilt block, and then it was bedtime.

It was raining early Wednesday morning, so I didn’t get the bird feeders rehung right away.  But at 10:30 a.m., I saw that the sun had come out, and there were birds all over the rebar where I hang feeders, and they were all looking straight at the patio door, tipping their heads this way and that, and chirping!  They were obviously placing an order.  I scurried out to hang the newly-filled feeders.

I turned on my Merlin Bird ID app when I went out, and here are the birds it heard:  House Sparrow, Brown Thrasher, Baltimore Oriole, American Robin, Blue Jay, Northern Yellow Warbler, Gray Catbird, and Chipping Sparrow.  A House Wren sang lustily two split seconds after I stopped the recording, and House Finches and American Goldfinches were landing on the feeders before I ever got the patio door shut – but they must’ve promptly filled their beaks with seeds, because they weren’t making a peep.  Less than a minute later, I heard both Mourning Doves and Eurasian Collared Doves.  I didn’t leave that app recording long enough, did I?!

At noon, Levi texted me:  “Have you noticed anything interesting at your house, particularly by your piano?”

“Yep,” I responded.  “Somebuddy fergitted sumpthang!”

It was his big, wheeled, tuning case.

“Grandpa found it yesterday shortly after you left,” I continued.  “He was heading through town, so he was going to drop it off – and then I found it, shortly after he left!”

Numerous personages in my family should’ve been named Hansel or Gretel, as they often leave a trail wherever they go.  😄  (Having said that, I’ll doubtless be the next to forget something.)

I promised Levi that we would bring his case to town that evening when we went to church.

The first order of business that day was to take pictures of all the blocks for the Crinoline Ladies quilt, then convert the pictures to black and white in order to sort them according to value.  It’s at times like these that I wish I had a giant design wall, so I could get blocks arranged like I want, by light/dark values! 

Ah, well.  I have a floor, and I have a king-sized bed.  The bed would have to suffice, as it’s bigger than any floor space I have available.

I spread out the center panel, and began placing the blocks.

I was short one block!

How in the world did that happen?!  I counted them numerous times, put them in stacks of ten, and kept a running tally with paper and pencil.

I cut and pieced together one more block.  After putting it in place, I took pictures for reference, so I’d be sure to sew the blocks together in the right order.

I ran out of time before church to stack the blocks and pin labels on the stacks, so I left all those loose blocks and the center panel on the bed. 

Larry, running late as usual, went rushing into the bedroom to dress after his shower.  The turbulence took one block sailing up into air, where it flipped over before coming back down to land upside down and out of place. 

Larry stopped in his tracks, carefully picked up the wayward block, set it into the space it had vacated, and then spent the rest of his ‘getting ready’ time tiptoeing and trying not to exhale too lustily. 

“I just about got me into trouble!” he said, as he told the story later.  🤣

After church, we gave Levi his case. 

There were fireworks going off all over town.  We drove with the windows down, the better to hear them.

Home again, we had a late supper. 

When I went out to get the bird feeders, there was a big raccoon out there chowing down on the sunflower seeds.  He scampered toward the deck stairs when I opened the patio door, but, since I just stood still in the doorway, he stopped, turned around, looked at me for a while, and then walked toward me.  Halfway between the steps and the doorway, he paused and stood tall on his hind legs, the better to look me in the eye.

Deciding I appeared entirely benign and benevolent, he turned around and trotted straight back to the bird feeders.  I walked on out the door, and this time, he ran for the steps and didn’t pause when he got there, but skedaddled right on down them, ka-bumpity-bumpity-bumpity-bump.

I carefully stacked all the ‘I Wish You Well’ blocks in order according to rows, pinned a paper on each stack telling which row it was, and carried the whole works upstairs.

Thursday morning started as usual:  I made the bed, rehung the bird feeders, picked up my tablet and turned on the Rural Radio, grabbed my clothes, and headed for the shower.

I brush my teeth, first thing.  After I shower, I apply a peroxide-based whitening gel to my teeth and then insert the LED teeth-whitening mouthpiece with both blue and red lights activated.  The blue light is used to accelerate and activate the whitening gel, breaking down stains faster.  The red light is designed to reduce inflammation, soothe tooth sensitivity, and promote overall gum healing during or after the treatment.

I leave the device in my mouth while I brush my hair, apply lotion and powder, and suchlike.  It’s supposed to be left in the mouth for 15 minutes, but it only takes me ten minutes to accomplish the usual tasks before I need to remove the device in order to apply face cream; so... ten minutes it is.  I don’t like to loiter about doing nothing more than waiting for an LED light to signify its stint is done by beeping at me.

Nevertheless, the tooth shade guide that came with the kit shows that my teeth have lightened from about 4 down to shade 2.

Anyway, like I said, I only have the LED device in my mouth for about ten minutes each morning.

So how does Larry manage to pick that very time to knock on the door and ask me something?!  Regardless of the question, I answer (and I quote), “Grmblgnbmpln bnghmmlg!”

By a quarter ’til ten, it was 75°, on the way up to 89° that cloudy day.  My weather app informed me that it would probably be raining in a few minutes.  I ate breakfast, then headed upstairs to trim all the ‘I Wish You Well’ blocks and start sewing them together.  Doesn’t matter how carefully I cut, when there are curved seams, I almost always need to trim blocks; I apparently stretch them slightly when I’m sewing them. 

Most were pretty close to 8 ½” square, so there’s not too awfully big a pile of trimmings.  Next, to sew them together!  (The blocks, not the trimmings, heh.)

I have to admit, there have been plenty of times in the making of these not-too-easy blocks when I was thankful fabric is pliable, stretchable, and flexible!

Things always seem to really speed up at this point, sewing blocks and rows together – shortly before slowing back down when I start on the custom quilting I intend to do.

I made myself a tall mugful of Southern Pecan cold-brew coffee, using up the last of it.  Time to make a fresh gallon.  What kind of coffee beans would I pull out of the freezer next?

Annnd... the answer is... Blueberry Crumble! 

By 9:30 p.m., the quilt top was together.

I headed for my recliner, where I watched a YouTube weather news channel showing the terrible flooding Kentucky has been experiencing.  The announcer called this ‘a heavily damaged church’.  A bit of an understatement, ay?

Daughter Dorcas’ birthday is on the Fourth of July.  I ordered a Hummingbird Feeder & Nest Builder Wind Chime for her.

She got it Thursday, and texted me, “Thanks for the hummingbird feeder; I love it so much!  I’m putting it on the back porch next to my other feeder.”

She sent a picture of it hanging near her rosebush.

She then sent a video and pictures of the schoolhouse she and Todd have built, where she will homeschool Trevor and Brooklyn.  They found furniture (desk, table, chairs, blackboard) on Facebook Marketplace, which saved them quite a bit of money.

Trevor will be in fifth grade, and Brooklyn will be starting Preschool.

Dorcas was baking for her farmstand that day.  She sent pictures of Banana Chocolate Chip quick breads and larger yeast bread loaves.

By evening, I had all the quilt blocks sewn into rows and attached to the central panel.

One of Larry’s cousins, several times removed, asked, “Will you ever be done quilting?” 

I wonder how many times she’s asked me that?  I should’ve kept track.

I answered, same as usual, “I hope not!”

At least she qualified it this time:  “It is a good hobby, and many people have received beautiful quilts.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “that’s one of the pleasures in quilting:  giving the quilts away.”

It rained overnight; the thunder and lightning woke me up at about 2:30 a.m.  It was still damp outside Friday morning, but the temperature would go up to 89° that afternoon.

I made myself a tall mug of Blueberry Crumble cold-brew coffee, and sipped it as I blow-dried and curled my hair.  Mmmmm, mmmm!  Those beans from Aroma Ridge make scrumptious coffee.

Here are Dorcas and Hannah at ages 4 and 5, in the summer of 1986.  My mother-in-law Norma made their dresses.

Friday afternoon, I sent Dorcas an excerpt from an old journal: 

The year Dorcas turned four, we were at our church picnic at Pawnee Park, making our way through the buffet line, filling our plates as we went alongside the tables of food.  It was 1986, and we had five children.  I was helping Joseph, 14 months; Larry was helping Teddy, almost 3, and Keith, Hannah, and Dorcas were (theoretically) fending for themselves.

We got a little ways down the table, and I realized one child was missing.  It was Dorcas, the birthday girl, having her fourth birthday that very day.

I looked back down the line.

There she was at the far end of the table.  She had collected one yummy-looking piece of fried chicken before abandoning her place in line and going to the end of the table, where there was a small space between big bowls, pots, pans, and platters – and there she squeezed her plate between things, and started scarfing down that piece of chicken.

People were grinning and laughing, but just walking around her and leaving her to her happy eating.  One man even added a small wrapped hotdog bite to her plate, which garnered him a big smile from Dorcas.

I went back and collected the child, and gave her a more in-depth explanation of the smörgåsbord process.  She was old enough to be a bit embarrassed.  Only a bit, mind you!  😆

After the picnic that year, we watched the local fireworks show at Ag Park.  On the way home, we drove slowly through various neighborhoods in town, enjoying all the fireworks displays here and there.  

As we finally turned onto our own street, Dorcas sighed happily. “Isn’t it nice everybody is celebrating my birthday?” she asked.  She turned palms up and added in wonder, “And they don’t even know me!”

Dorcas wrote back, “LOL, I remember feeling that way.”

My father would have been 110 on Friday, July 3^rd.  Here he is in about 1955; he would’ve been about 39 years old.

One of my blind friends asked me about a hat that a friend had given him, that seemed to get a lot of laughs.

Ah, yes, the hat!  It all started with Mr. Wright (Bobby’s grandfather, one of Daddy’s best friends) giving Daddy a hat, one of the dress fedoras Daddy liked, that he thought would be perfectly fine and dandy.  But he waaay overestimated the size Daddy needed.

Daddy put it on – and it covered his ears and eyebrows.

He would make matters worse by pulling it down farther, until the downwards crease at the top popped upwards, so then the hat came clear down to his nose.

“Just how big of a fathead do you think I am?!” Daddy would demand.

Mr. Wright would try to apologize – but then they’d both get struck so funny they couldn’t even talk.

Daddy never let him exchange that hat.  He kept it on a bookshelf in his little office at the old church, as long as I can remember.

I ordered the groceries I needed for our annual church picnic Saturday, Independence Day.  Each family brings enough food for their own family (all manner of main courses, lettuce and fruit and vegetable salads, desserts, drinks), and then we combine it all on two long tables, and everyone can choose whatever they wish.  To tell the truth, it looks more like everybody brings enough for two or three families!

I planned to take Ciabatta sandwiches (spread with Miracle Whip and filled with cracked black pepper turkey breast, lettuce, Colby Jack cheese, and slices of Beefsteak tomatoes), cranberry-orange muffins with cream cheese frosting, a box of individual Doritos varieties, and fruit salad.  We always take a 5-gallon Thermos of our well water with ice, too.  Our well water is quite pure, according to the checks I’ve run on it.

After kids (and adults) play on the playground toys, or play volleyball, football, or softball, they’re always thirsty.

I soon discovered that I had to switch to French Steak rolls.  The Ciabatta rolls were too expensive, as they were only available directly from the Walmart bakery, and in huge quantities.  Maybe a bunch of my friends had already bought them out!  😃  I ordered a bag of 24, and I found some cute toothpicks to hold the sandwiches together.  

Last year before the picnic, I ordered what I thought was a yummy-looking watermelon – and wound up with a watermelon plant.  haha  I made sure not to do that, this time.

Soon everything was in the online cart.  I chose the pickup time – and noticed that there was a $4.79 ‘delivery fee’.  Huh? 

I checked through the order – and discovered it was those fancy toothpicks causing the charge, as they were scheduled to arrive, all by their ownselves (as Victoria used to say), sometime between July 16 and July 22.  🙄

I had to switch to plain bamboo toothpicks; there were no other fancy ones to be had.  Again, I’ll betcha my friends bought Walmart all out of fancy toothpicks!  😅  (And I did indeed see a whole lot of fancy toothpicks at the picnic:  some were in sliders, some in cupcakes and muffins, and some in little individual cheesecakes.)

That afternoon, Victoria sent pictures of the kids under an airplane propeller at the SAC Museum.

I’ve never been there, except outside, when there was an airshow.  I should coax Larry into going one of these days.

By suppertime, the last border was on the Crinoline Ladies quilt top.  I have no idea where this fabric came from; it was probably in one of the big bins of fabric and things my late sister-in-law gave me.  I’ve been saving it for this quilt – and then when I pulled it from a fabric bin, I realized it’s not 100% cotton.  I’m sure it has polyester in it.  I used it anyway.  I’ll just quilt it thoroughly, and if the cotton shrinks more than this fabric, it won’t matter.

I pressed it, took a couple of photos, and hurried downstairs to make the cranberry-orange muffins.

Soon the muffins were cooling on the stove.  I put some bags of frozen fruit – peaches, mango, and dark sweet cherries – into the refrigerator to thaw.

A little after 7:00 p.m., I received a notification from Walmart:  there were substitutions in my order.  Did I or did I not accept them?

There were Roma tomatoes instead of Beefsteak tomatoes (booo), smoked mesquite turkey instead of cracked black pepper turkey (booo, hiss), and a package of only eight French Steak rolls instead of 24 French Steak rolls. 

Couldn’t they have just given me 3 packages of 8?!

I suspect, as with the other items I’d ordered and couldn’t get, my friends, who were going to the same picnic we were, had beaten me to it!  😄

We theoretically live too far out of town for delivery service – but every now and then, someone does indeed bring us something straight from the store.  Today, for instance, they brought me two 40-lb. bags of black-oil sunflower seeds shortly after I ordered them.

We picked up our groceries a little after 9:00 p.m., when there usually are not very many others picking up orders at all.  When we got home, I put the cream cheese frosting on the now-cool muffins – and we promptly ate two of them.  😅  (Yeah, we meant to do that.)

Saturday morning was spent getting ready for the picnic, which would start promptly at 12:00 p.m. with food and song.  That is, the brass band would play patriotic songs while everyone filled their plates. 

As soon as my hair was dry and a few curls were put in, I made the sandwiches.  Larry cut the watermelon, and then we combined the fruit.  Larry put more ice into the five-gallon Thermos, and then changed his clothes (he’d been outside working on some vehicle or another).

I was just thinking, Wow, we’re actually going to be ready a wee bit early, when Larry sauntered calmly through the kitchen and said, “I’m just going outside to pick up my tools.”

AAAaaaauuuuuggggghhhh.

Well, we got there on time, baaaarely.  There were not minutes to spare; there were only seconds to spare. 

I was appreciative when a flock of young girls happening by as we parked offered to help carry things.  I gladly accepted their help, with many thanks.

Scarcely had I stepped into the shade of the pavilion than several of the horns said “BLATTT!” and everyone hushed up to see what was about to happen.

A prayer was about to happen, that’s what.

(That “BLATTT!” worked even better than when one of our late Sunday School teachers used to traipse hither and yon amongst the parishioners “Sssshhhhhhhhhhhushsh”ing everybody when it was time for a prayer of thankfulness before a meal or luncheon.)

My nephew Robert prayed, and then the band played while we collected our vittles.  

(Reckon the players had a hard time, refraining from drooling into their horns?)

We sat across the table from Andrew and Hester and the children, and one of Larry’s cousins sat next to him.

After we ate, I went around taking pictures (199 of them, to be exact).

Hannah, Joanna, Levi, and I went for a walk around the lake, a distance of about a mile and a fourth.  Both Hannah and Joanna have the Merlin Bird ID app on their phones.  The phones don’t always pick up the same birds.  Both, however, were recognizing a Dickcissel.  Joanna calls Dickcissels ‘Discount Meadowlarks’.  🤣

It was a perfect day for a picnic.  The temperature only got up to 85°, and there was a nice breeze.  In fact, Keira announced that she was cold while we were eating.

I told her that so much hail had fallen in western Nebraska the previous night, it looked like snow.  When I got home, I sent Hester a picture for Keira.  This was on Highway 20 between Hay Springs and Rushville Friday evening.  They got 4” of small hail.

Sunday morning at a quarter after 9, it was 66°.  The high would be 90° on that sunny day.  Before the morning service, the brass band played America the Beautiful and God of Our Fathers, and then the congregation sang God of Our Fathers with them.

Here we are, singing away.  Larry and I are about in the middle of this screenshot.  I’m the li’l ol’ white-haired lady in the lavender suit jacket, and Larry is beside me.  Those empty spots in the pews would fill, as soon as the choir sang at the end of the song service and walked back down to their seats amongst the congregation.

Below is a wide-angle shot photographer Jamie Willis took last night near Phillips, Nebraska, 66 miles to our south.

This morning I took three quilts to Ag Park for the Platte County Fair.                         

I went in the main door of the Exhibition Building at Ag Park, pulling my red canvas wagon, which, big as it is, was nevertheless plumb full with just those three quilts in it.  They were folded pretty-side-out, because... I’m conceited.  (I guess that’s why, anyway.)  This is part of what was showing on top. 

As I was heading toward a rear inside door that leads into the room(s) where they display the quilts, an older lady and a slightly younger one came walking out of it.  They smiled at me, and we all said ‘hi’ to each other.

As I walked past them, the older one peered down into my wagon --- and then, after they got farther away, she said to the younger woman, “That’s why I can’t get first place.”

(I marched on; Ah’m deaf; Ah cain’t hear nuttin’.  heh)

There was a Red-Winged Blackbird on one of the feeders a few minutes ago.  Their red wing patches are so bright this time of year!  I watched it for a little while – and suddenly realized that the smallish brown-streaked bird jerk-walking along the railing was not, as I had thought, a sparrow; it was, in fact, a juvenile Red-Winged Blackbird!  That’s possibly the first time I’ve seen – or recognized, maybe – a Red-Winged Blackbird fledgling.

In this picture, grandson Oliver is the little guy in the middle, walking toward the end of the dock.  

Bedtime!

Tomorrow I’ll piece together enough batting for the Crinoline Ladies quilt and load everything on my frame.  I’ll attach the Ladies’ skirts after the quilting is done.

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,