A Halloween Tale

 

With Halloween almost here, I have thought all week of writing down for you one of my tales from Mohawk Road. I went back and forth with myself and I decided since it keeps waking me up in the night, it really wants to be written. So pour yourself a cup of tea and settle in for a story, told by the fire with the wind tossing  the branches on the trees looking like ghostly galleons out upon the seas. The winds moan around the house, as  leaves go running down the street.

In 1963 my parents with my grandparents moved out to Mohawk Road. Back then it was farm land and  dairies. At that time there was a Old farm house that had been moved here in the early 1920s. My brother and sister were babies and I was four years old. My grand parents lived in the Quonset hut and we lived in the old farm house. The place was a treasure trove of things that the people before us had left. My Dad and my Grandpa decided that they needed to get up in the attic to check the wiring. The house was so old that the wiring was cloth. The house had those huge 12 foot ceilings and getting in the attic was a challenge.

 

The things I remember them bringing down was a very old doll, a beanie with a propeller and a very old Ouija board. My Dad just freaked out about that. Being only four, I had never seen my big strong Dad be afraid of anything and I had never seen him react like that. I wanted to look at it, but he grabbed it and took it out to a big, deep pit that was on the property and threw it in and thew boards on top of it. Since I had been threatened with death if I went near that hole I didn't think too much more about it, but to ponder my Dad's reaction. When I was four, at my house, people didn't explain much.

 

A year or so passed and my parents bought a house that was going to be moved and brought it out here. It was now about 1964 When they moved the house in they kept it up on blocks and my Dad poured the foundation under the house as it sat there. I can still remember that feeling of crawling under that house with it above me and the silence. I would stay under the house with my Dad while he put in wiring and plumbing. I must have been at school when they took it down off the blocks as I have no memory of it. It was way up on the blocks and I must have been about five. I couldn't get in the house and I don't think anyone else did.

 

After the house was finally on its foundation. We could go in the house. In one of the front bedrooms in the corner was a Ouija board. Just sitting there, I stood there and stared at it. I remembered my Dad's reaction so I went and got him. He came and started yelling at me." Where had I got that! Had I gone down into that pit!" He went crazy again. I was crying, telling him I had no idea where it came from. He grabbed that one and took off with it to that pit that was now covered up with big boards. I still didn't really know even then what made him get so mad or what one was used for.

 

The years passed, In 1969, my Dad remarried. My step Mom was not like my birth Mom. She was always interested in the Occult and things like that. One night, she brought an Ouija board to my room and sat on the bed. I about fell off the bed trying to get away. It wasn't the same one as I had seen on the other two occasions.This one was cardboard while the other two times it was wooden. She said she was going to show me how it worked. She has a rhyme that she said to it and placed her hands on the board. It began to move as she asked it questions and I was so afraid, about this time my Dad walked in the room. I really thought he was going to loose his mind that time. He started yelling and grabbed that cardboard and began to break it into little pieces while stomping the pointer thing into bits of plastic.  It was quite a ruckus.

 

 As  I have thought about it this week, I have let my mind wonder. Is that Ouija  board still down in that pit? I could take you to it if you were here. The old boards are still on top of it like when I was little. How did that second Ouija get into the the house and how long had it been there? The old house always creaked and you could hear the sounds of steps on the porch at night. My Mom was afraid of that house and wouldn't stay there alone.  My grand mother once she moved into it, she said all of the ghosts were friendly. I wasn't sorry though, when they tore it down.

I guess sometime I should write down the stories about the people who would look in the windows at night. Maybe next year.

I hope you have a very Happy Halloween.

~Kim~

 

--- A Old Scottish Prayer---
. "From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"

Talking with My Phone

 

Since I got my I Phone, I admit to being mesmerized. Since I am not a tech sort of person, there has been lots of error more than trial. I have accidentally made phone calls, or just forgot how to answer the phone, or even taken lots of pictures of my shoes. Just yesterday, Ron showed me some new features on my weather app. I was so glad because it kept asking me to leave feedback, and I was thinking of telling them it was a dumb app because it only had two screens. I just found out you have to pull the screens up. I also got a stylus which makes using the I Phone so much easier for me. I am sort of all thumbs.

 

  This morning, Ron had sent me a text and I texted back and then for some reason, Siriy showed up. I have yelled at her quite a bit, and she has had this hurt tone.I have said things: " Oh gosh, you again, go
 away!" Or Oh, you stupid phone!!" She always says, something like, " But, I can't go away or I don't understand? "

So this morning, I thought what happens if I say, Hi Siriy, How are you today? She answered, with a shocked sound in her voice, " Oh, I am fine." I then said, " Siriy Where do you live? She said, " I live where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney tops."
I said, " Oh you live Somewhere above the rainbow? "
Then she found pages about rainbows for me.

 

I started feeling funny, because for one thing Sasha was watching me with this look in her eyes as I talked to my phone. So I told the phone to go to sleep. She said, " I don't sleep." I said, then go away I will talk to you later." She told me okay, in that hurt tone, as one of my sons walked by and also gave me a look like,
" Mom is loosing it early this morning, she is talking to her phone again."
Oh, what Maxwell Smart would have done with an I Phone instead of that slick one in his shoe.

 

I know that I was slow about coming around and it still drives me nuts that people walk around with their heads down looking down at their phone but now I understand a bit better. Even Ron said the other day that he never thought in a million years he would see me becoming obsessed with this silly phone. I didn't either. I have to make myself have lots of time outs and I turn it off and leave it in another room. I have always thought the computer was distracting. This phone kicks it up a notch. I am hoping that the new wears off pretty fast. I keep telling my books, " Don't give up, I will be back, I will hold you and read you and you can tell me stories again." This phone is not going to change my life.

 

I say that as it sits here on my desk as I write this post, beeping and chirping and vibrating away. Wanting attention. I call it to myself, "my little idol I can hold in my hand. I keep reminding myself, to keep my eyes open to how easily I can entertain myself to death. Something I never expected. It really is like magic.

Have a lovely Wednesday, as  I find ways of running away from my phone today.

~Kim~

 

" You can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing."

---Meryl Streep---

Only The Cat Saw

Every morning when I open the blinds there is a kitty that sits and watches every thing that is going on at our house. She sits under the tree in her little box shape, her little arms tucked neatly under her tummy.

Can you see her glowing eyes? I liked that shot. She watches the traffic, she watches Ron leave for work. She watches me open the blinds. I always look for her every morning as the sun comes up.

We have rain in the forecast. I read this morning. "

BAKERSFIELD HAS NOT
RECEIVED A WETTING RAIN OF 0.10 OR MORE SINCE APRIL 26 2014 WHEN
THEY GOT 0.18 OF AN INCH. SO IN THE MIDST OF AN EXTREME DROUGHT
THE RAIN WILL BE A WELCOME RELIEF AND WILL BE A TREAT FOR MANY IN
THE AREA AND HOPEFULLY NOT A TRICK."

There will be 4 to 8 inches of snow in the Sierra Mountains and the snow levels will drop down to 5500 feet which means we might get to have a fire in the stove. Just in case I cleaned it and got it all ready yesterday. Last night when I took Sasha out, someone was burning a fire and the air had that crispy October smell. The one that smells of wet leaves and wood smoke and just enough cold to be so thankful for the beautiful weather of Fall.

 

One thing that I love about this year verses last year is being able to see clearly. Every time I look outside, or look at the sky or watch a hummingbird or spotting Mr. Flicker, I am reminded of how last year I couldn't see any of that. I was looking out at the sky and the colors of the leaves. My whole life, there has been that moment in October, when it is as if I catch my breath at the beauty of it all. Last year, I kept looking and waiting and trying to see it. I of course, in October last year, didn't know that my eyes had got so bad. So I couldn't understand what was happening. So this year as I watch it is like I have been gone and now I am back. I keep being reminded at every turn. I can't even being to voice how thankful I am this year.

 

I think this year getting to experience fall, is like having the best Christmas present, and birthday present all wrapped up into a perfect gift, that I couldn't have ever imagined. Going from feeling my world getting smaller and smaller, to this year of watching it being returned to me but better and more glorious. I think that really life is like that, I think having to take that next step, through a new door can be scary, but walking though that door and seeing new things and being in new places is a great gift, that can only be experienced though trusting in God who promises to never leave me nor forsake me, and who whispers quietly in my heart, (because I am after all a coward.)
" Will you trust me?"
I hope your day is a beautiful day filled with joy.
~Kim~

 

" Surely it is cruel to cut down a very fine tree!
Each dull, dead thud of the axe hurts the little
green fairy that lives in its heart."
---The Fairy Caravan, Beatrix Potter, 1929

Gourds, Lots of Gourds!

We are trying to get the garden put to bed for winter. Since we are finally having fall like temperatures, it seemed like it was finally time to harvest gourds. We waded in yesterday and harvested gourds, and pulled out vines. Here is a few shots of the many, many gourds we picked.

Wheelbarrow

Wagon

Both together

 The brown, crunchy looking ones are the Luffa gourds.

All dry now and ready to use.

Do I have any clue about what I am going to do with all of those gourds? Nope not a single clue. Some of them still need to dry but others are ready to be scrubbed and painted and the luffa's need to have that brown skin taken off and left in the sun to finish drying. Oh and now the seeds need to be shaken out.

I finished my last rug, It is dark today so I am going to post a picture with the flash. I really think it looks like a fall rug.

 

 

At least today is a beautiful fall day. With clouds!

Have a wonderful day,
~Kim~

 

" I don't know when I'll be back.
But back I will be."
---Dominic, William Steig, 1972

Racing Through October

 

My flowers are so tired now. I think the last of my zinnias will be coming out today. The weather has been hard on the flowers too. I have never had much luck with zinnias reseeding. I will save all of the seeds I find today.

 

I have some roses in my backyard, and every year I say I am taking them out. Then they bloom like this and I keep them. They are a odd rose. The are so pretty, but when you cut them and bring them in the house, they droop and drop the petals by the next day and then they go pale as soon as they are cut. I have lots of rose bushes but none that do that. Not much smell either.

 

The lemons and the oranges have made it through this Hell of a summer. I have watched the trees and now that they are starting to turn a bit yellow, I know we aren't out of the woods, but I think we will possibly get a crop this year. Our routine for these lemons is the day we decorate the house for Christmas, one on my sons will eat lemons off this tree like candy. That is when we know the citrus is starting to get ripe. We always decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. Funny Tradition isn't it?

 

I hope you have a lovely Friday.My friends in Canada in the path of the Nor'easter stay safe. You are on my heart and mind. 
~Kim~

 

 " Help me to live this day quietly, easily:
To lean upon Thy great strength trustfully,
restfully;
To meet others peacefully, joyously;
To face tomorrow confidently, courageously."

---Taken from the book Secure in the Everlasting Arms, Elisabeth Elliot."

Just Thinking

 

I hope you have had a lovely week. I thought really I should entitle this, " Another Ole Boring Post."
I was listening to a Pod cast the other morning as I walked and the person was talking about how in the 1930s when the Great Depression hit that people were able to make it because of self-reliance and we still had an agrarian society. He mentioned that if the power grid went down how people would just die. I thought about that all week, because I know just in simple power outages, I have to work hard at getting my mind to figure out cooking and all of that on my BBQer.

 

 I was talking to my lovely Meg yesterday and she mentioned about Ben her husband, hunting and talking to the ranger. The ranger was telling Ben about a lady he talked to who had been hiking. She remarked at how dry it was and how the streams were dried up. The ranger said, " yes it was very dry now." The women said, " Well, why don't you just turn the steams back on?" The ranger told Ben "he was so stunned, he didn't really know what to say to that, so he just said, " Budget cuts Ma'am, budget cuts." 

 

Did you know that there is a problem in National Parks? People don't go visit like they once did. You know why? No wireless connections, or cell service. Here this year because of the ongoing drought. Bears have come down from the mountains to town. People rush over with cell phones to take photos instead of thinking about it being a cornered wild animal.  In the mountains, the mountain lions have reproduced in such numbers they are running in packs. I am afraid, that the Disney mentality had invaded the culture so bad that even if people do decided to go hiking and whatever, they will get eaten because the animals they have seen on T.V. are nice and don't eat people. Oh, and don't forget the pot growers. Ben saw a pot farm when he was hunting too. 

The news here in California keeps talking about that earthquake that could hit at any moment. I try to keep myself prepared in case of a disaster. But what happens to people who aren't? Anyway, been thinking about that and pondering.

~Kim~

"It often takes more courage to be a passenger than a driver."
---The view from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg, 1996

Clouds

 

I woke today with lots and lots of clouds. Lovely cooler weather. October weather. Before the sun was up I kept staring at the sky because I thought it was a cloudy day, as soon as it got light enough to go traipsing around I did. I feel like my brain finally came back online. I don't think we will get rain, but clouds are such a nice change from all of that sunshine.

 

 It is starting to look like fall around here. Here is a secret that I just told Ron the other day. I don't remember growing up, really thinking much about trees. I knew where all of the good climbing trees were and which trees tried to kill you if you climbed them, but that was about it. For the record, my favorite climbing tree was our fig trees. This tree that is now the favorite climbing tree in my yard, when I was a kid it was a killer tree, limbs would just break off for no reason. It has aged gracefully.

 

After we got married, we lived in town and the places we lived, planted ever green or other landscaping trees, or I was so busy, I just never noticed. That first year we moved out here, when it was fall, I got myself in a panic. I couldn't understand why all of the trees were dying. I took to dragging the hose watering every tree that just kept loosing its leaves. Finally, about November, it dawned on me. They were supposed to do that. I felt really silly. Oh, and look, I write a gardening blog. How funny is that? I still found myself even this year, pointing out to Ron our  "dying" nectarine tree. I am glad today finally looks like a fall day in October.

I finished my rug yesterday.

 

I like this rug, but then I say that about every thing. I drew out a couple more rugs this weekend. I am anxious to start them. I think they will be so much fun to hook. My oldest daughter, Kessie, sent me three patterns that she was dreaming about the other night. I can't wait to get those drawn out. I love how she draws and they are my favorite rug patterns. She has an art degree. Not to mention those years of art classes I took the kids to, I am so glad I did.  Now I can have a ready supply of rug patterns. I just wished I hooked faster. I sold my third rug this weekend. I love getting to do what I had only dreamed about for so long. 

I hope you have a lovely day as well. I shall enjoy this cloudy day very much. 

~Kim~

" A good detective is always in demand. "

---Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Hidden Staircase,

Carolyn Keene, 1930

xxxooo Kisses and hugs for Alex, " I love you. ---Grandma---

Saturday Photos

Gift from the season.

Morning Glories

The last of the crabapples

 

My sweet hen

White Pumpkins

Regular pumpkins in my wooden pumpkin basket

Sunlight captured in the Morning Glories.

My favorite tool (rug hook) of choice.

Here is hoping I get to spend some time in the garden, visiting with the hens, playing with pumpkins and then
maybe a little hooking this afternoon. Just a perfect kind of day.
I hope you get to have time to do what you love today.

~Kim~

 

"Little things have big results sometimes."
---Willie Without, Margaret Moore, 1951