More Stuff

Got some pictures of my 50th class reunion that were sent to us by a classmate Joyce Holley.

Amazingly, this cake accurately pictured our old high school building in Kinmundy, Illinois, a town with the population of about 900 in 1964.

Our School colors were purple and white.

That's Cathy, my wife, on the right sitting next to classmate Patsy Rose.  Between these two gals you can see my cousin Junie (John) and his wife Juanita.  I hadn't seen Junie in over 10 years.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 This be my sister Diane and I.  We sat just across the table from Cathy and Patsy.

 Me shaking hands with classmate Eddie See.  Eddie and I were at our last class reunion.

 

This is Junie again.  We were asked to stand and give a brief history of our lives since graduating.  Naturally everyone was reluctant to stand and talk, yours truly included.  But good ole Junie took care of that.  As soon as he had finished - he pointed across the room at me and put me on the spot to be the next victim.  So - we always obey our elders, right. 

Yup.  I did and kept it mighty short. 

This is our entire class gathered for a picture.  Out of a class of 42 there were 30 of us attending the 50th class reunion.  There was one guy, Marvin (Butch) Barbee who was there but he's not in this photo.  It was really an enjoyable afternoon of renewing old acquaintances and reliving some old memories.

Now for more mundane things.

Yup - more canning.  This is about 30 lbs or a half bushel of Romano tomatoes that Cathy specifically uses for her tomato sauce.  They're meatier and have a lot less juice than the regular tomatoes.  We wound up with  7 pint jars and 3 quart jar of sauce.  That should see us through the winter months but we'll probably can another batch just to give to the neighbors. 

 

Check another off the Honey-do list

Firstly - I figured it was about time to update the blog photo of the house.  I was up around 5am so thought it was as good a time as any.  Everything looked nearly perfect - the sun was just breaking the horizon and had a red glow to it,  the front of the house has light shadow across the porch area and the background mountains showed the typical lifting fog that gives them a smokey look.  But - by the time I got what I thought was going to be a good shot the sun had moved up farther on the horizon and the lighting was starting to overpower the picture.  I took it right quick before it got any worse.  So there you have it - 5:30am on our mountain.
I finally got Cathy's high priority item checked off the Honey-do list.  She wanted her living room done over and that's what we did.

 

It took about 3 days with both of us working together.  We moved all the furniture into the middle of the room, took down all the wall decorations, removed all the wooden trim from floors, doors and windows, and filled all the holes in the walls and sanded them smooth.  This wasn't just the living room cause this house is an open floor plan.  So it included the kitchen, dining room, and utility room.  Cathy had already decided she wanted a chair rail, crown molding, two tone walls and darker trim, and that's what she got.  She painted most of the trim and moldings while I painted all the walls.  I cheated on the crown molding cause I hate cutting the compound miter for the corners (upside down and backwards) and at my age, I'm easily confused.  Actually age has nothing to do with it.  Anyway I used the quick corners from Lowes.  All you do is run the molding up to the corner then set the corner piece that joins both pieces of crown molding.  I never realized just how out of square/plumb walls and ceilings could be until I started this project.  I even added some new words to my vocabulary.  Got a little more touch work to do and we'll be done.  NEXT!!!!!

And the beat goes on - -

More canning.  It's the thing to do when the time is right.  We're just now finishing up all the canned goods that Cathy put up last year and it really saved on our grocery bill.  We still have some of the frozen fruit left.  Went back to Somerset, Kentucky and got more corn and green beans to put up.

That bag holds about a bushel of corn which we shucked and then cut the corn off the cob.

 Joe, our neighbor, had also brought us about a peck of cucumbers so Cathy processed them also.  Found this dude in with the qukes

 

Two growing off a single bud.  Still cucumber though.

 

And there you have the results.  Fourteen pints and 4 quarts of corn and 8 qts of dill pickles.  Ah - so now we get to rest - right, Uh uh.  Next week it's peach season.  We get a bushel of peaches from South Carolina and process them also.  We can mostly but vacuum pak and freeze some for that really fresh flavor.  We only have 2 qts of peaches left from last years canning season.  Thank God it's been cooler lately or we'd be sweltering with all the heat this canning gives off.  Now I'll take them down under the house for storage.  It's not actually a basement.  The house was built into the hill side so the land slopes under the house and there's a fairly large space underneath that stays the same temperature as the inside of our house.  Excellent for storage.  I even have a potato ben for long term storage of potatoes and onions. 
Been doing more research on the family genealogy.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we had stopped in Olney, Illinois to research the county records.  I found a bill of sale for the grave site of Lewis P. Elston.  It conveys the grave from John B. Porter, who appears to have been the Funeral Director in Olney at the time.  So this piece of paper confirms the burial spot for Lewis.  Now all I have to do is confirm his Civil War record and I can petition the government for a military marker for his grave.  Currently, his grave is unmarked.

His grave is located just to the left of the pink granite marker in the upper right side of the photo. 
 I hate seeing unmarked graves, even though I understand that not everyone can afford the prices charged for stones these days.  I was sexton for a 50 acre city cemetery for over 6 years and remember so many graves went unmarked.  I tried to ensure that our records were current and accurate so that everyone buried there was accounted for and could be easily located, even without a marker.  Next trip up that way I'm gonna try to talk to the caretaker of the Olney city cemetery to see how they manage and who installs their monuments.  Oh well, onward and upward. 

 

Busy Times

It's been really cool here lately so Cathy decided she'd start canning.  Our neighbor, Joe, has a rather large vegetable garden but they're not quite ready to harvest yet.  He did bring Cathy a bag of cucumbers and beets that she's gonna can.  So we headed up to our favorite farm in Monticello, Kentucky and bought corn, tomatoes, green beans and squash.  I usually help with the blanching which allows Cathy to sit at the kitchen table and process for canning.

 

So - yesterday she canned 11 pints of Salsa, 8 pts and 8 qts of green beans, 6 pts of beets (pickled and plain) and 4 pts of corn.  She had already canned the blackberries that I'd picked the other day and made blackberry jam.  It's terrific stuff.  I already had some on a biscuit with my biscuits and gravy for breakfast. 







 

 

So did I sit around and watch her work all day - Nah - I worked on her HONEYDO list.  She wanted a lattice surround on the street side of our hot tub so that was my project.  I figured it'd take about an hour or so since we already had all the materials.  But ooooooohhhhhhh nnnnoooooo.  There's nothing straight and plumb about this place and that includes the porch and deck.  The corner 6 x 6 post is twisted and the other post is shorter.  I had originally figured I'd build the lattice frames on the ground and lift them into place.  Uh - Nope.  Had to cut each piece separately.  The top 2 x 4 is grooved in the middle to accept the 9/16" lattice.  Anyway - it took about 3 hours to complete but it didn't turn out too badly. 

 

And now - - if you have a few more minutes  -  - I made this video of our Moon flowers blooming in the evening.  Most people probably figure it's time lapse photography but it ain't.  My camera will film a 10 minute movie and I only needed about 4 minutes.  I know - it's kinda boring, like watching grass grow but it's neat to actually watch the buds unfold into a full blown flower.  There's a Hummingbird moth that finds these flowers and helps with the pollination.  My neighbor, Joe, told me about them and I said Yea - right!  So he invited us up to watch his bloom.  Then this spring he gave me 4 plants.  Ya gotta control them cause they spread like wildfire.  I'm hoping the mulch will control that.  Here goes:  Hum - don't think it's gonna work.  It's taking forever to load.  I'll check on video uploads to this blog and try again later.  But, in the meantime, here's a pic of what it looks like after it blooms.

Sorry about that.  Oh well, back to work...

 

It's That Time of Year Again!!!

Yup -  It's amazing what a little sun, rain and cool weather can do here on the mountain.

That entire hillside is loaded with

Oh Yea!!  They're better this year.  A whole lot bigger than last year.  It only takes about 45 minutes to get a gallon.

I'm tellin' ya these are terrific.  Cathy made me some Blackberry Jam, about 6 pints worth.  I can't wait to dig in.  Even the seeds won't bother me.   My neighbor, Joe, came over about 7AM and away we went.  It was in the high 50's and we didn't even break a sweat picking berries in the full sun.  After we finished filling our buckets, we parked our backsides in the shade and swapped sea stories for about 30 minutes.  What a way to begin a day.  I've picked about 2 gallons and there's sooooo many more out there.  I watched as deer were taking their fill of them right next to the house.  I never knew they ate blackberries.  They have to compete with me and Joe, the turkeys and black bears up here.  It's a wonderful life!!

We're Back

Well - it's been awhile since our last post, just before our trip to my 50th class reunion, I believe.  Anyway we went and what a trip.  We both really enjoyed the respite.  We stayed with my sister, Diane in Troy, Illinois.  The reunion was held in Salem, Ill and we had quite a turn out.  The only way I remembered my fellow students was by nametags.  I think we all suffered from the same "old timers disease."  Many of my classmates have remained in or near Kinmundy, Illinois and therefore knew each other but those of us who had moved away were stymied.  There were 42 in our graduating class and about 12 have passed on. 

The top picture was the first school I remember going to.  There was an add-on behind that two story brick building that housed the elementary school  class rooms but in 1955, a new elementary school was built about a mile outside town.  That left the middle (7/8 grades) schoolers attending the old school.  My classrooms were in the lower story, with 7th grade on the left and 9th grade on the right.  They were single rooms for each grade until you reached freshman year then you changed rooms with each subject.  The middle picture on the left is the old gymnasium which was ultimately replaced by the newer gymnasium in the lower picture in 1956. 

 These were the cakes that were specially made for our reunion.  The lower cake shows our school name, "The Hornets."  We had a catered meal, typical of Midwestern fair with Ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, hot rolls, mixed punch, coffee and iced tea.  Ya can't get any more Illinois than that - meat and taters.   One of our classmates provided a photographer who continually took pictures which are to be put on dvd and given to each of us free of charge.  Prior to the actual reunion, our classmate Robert "Bob" Ingram opened the "Ingram's Log Cabin Village" just outside of Kinmundy for visitation. 

His Mom, Erma, started this project about 1959.  I remember working with Bob and another classmate, Jackie Mulvaney (now deceased), on reassembling the first 2 story cabin onsite.  We would go out to the original site, where the cabin was located, and number each log from the base log up.  The numbering system was based on the direction the cabin was facing so that we could reassemble the cabin facing the same direction after it was relocated to the "Ingram's Log Cabin Village."   If you look closely you can see the numbers on the logs at the corners.  Anyway we had the 2nd story of the log cabin up and it collapsed.  Jack was the only one to suffer an injury, he had a nail puncture through his ear lobe, lucky lucky guy.  I mentioned this to Bob when we were touring the village and he remembered it.  That cabin's logs were rotted through the middle and would not support the weight of the upper story.  Bob said it was still located where it fell in, just beyond this cabin in the wooded area. 



 

Even after Erma's passing, Bob has continued to maintain the "Village" and equip the cabins with artifacts from the era.

 

Even though most of the cabins were actually used by locals as homes, some were used as business, such as the one pictured above.  This was a cooper's cabin or a barrel makers workplace.  It is equipped with all his tools of the trade.  All total there are 15 cabins and they are open for visitation during the summer.  During the fall, they sponsor a festival where people occupy the cabins, in period dress and demonstrate early American skill and crafts.  Bob has a website www.iplcv.com for Ingram's Pioneer Log Cabin Village.  We had a really great time walking down memory lane with Bob.  So we returned to Diane's house for some leisure time.  We also visited with my youngest sister, Phyllis Jean, who we call PJ for short.  Diane and her son, Robert, took us out for a father's day dinner and boy what a meal it was.  We had prime rib that was absolutely delicious and served to perfection.  I sampled a bourbon that I normally wouldn't try due to the expense (Woodbridge select).  But I can understand why it costs more.  As the saying goes "you get what you pay for."  I was sooooo smooth and easy.  When we got back to Diane's, Robert presents me with one of his prints that his father gave him.  It was a 17" x 20" signed print by Doc Tate Nevaquaya, a renowned Oklahoma Comanche Indian who was an artist, flute maker, musician and native craftsman.

I was absolutely blown away.  I would never have expected Robert to part with one of his prints.  It found a new, prominent home on the living room wall of my home in the mountains.
Now I know what you're thinking - does this guy ever run out of wind and the answer is Nope.  Ain't posted for awhile so's hang in there, only one more item to go.
On our way home, Cathy and I stopped off in Olney, Illinois so I could do some genealogy research on the Elston clan.  That area of Richland County was the bedrock of the Elston's going back to the early 1800's.  We stayed at the Red Hills State Park just outside Olney.

We rented a cabin for two days and really enjoyed ourselves.  I found that there is an Elston cemetery in Richland County.  Since the files that I was looking for were pre-1848, the County Clerk was extremely helpful and directed me to other resources that would be available for genealogical research.  Apparently there was a fire in 1847 or 1848 that destroyed all the county records so hopefully there were duplicate records maintained that were not destroyed.  I'll have to return another day and do some more research.  AND that about covers it for the past few weeks.  Been a little busy but finally got the pontoon serviced and back in the water but will wait until after the July 4th holiday to go out on the lake.  Til next time - TaTa