PROVIDENCE UPDATE

Congratulations to two family members with significant milestone birthdays this past week!

"I'm loving 40, it's great!! .. and at 18                     voting adult Hannah says,                      "Rats, I'll never be a child again!!!!!"
                 (That was soooooo easy).

The trek 2 1/2 weeks ago through WY I took with Lance, Becky, Lonnie (Becky's brother and his wife Marsha was great and really gave me the essence and pictures of what my great grandparents and papa's great grandparents went through to come across those desolate plains and mountainous trails.

Becky and I pulled Lonnie who played the part of great grandfather, Hopkin Matthews (first land owner in Providence) because he was ill and his wife, Margaret and daughter, Elizabeth, had to do it for him.

At Martin's Cover, after I watched a large rattle snake crawl right in front of me.  Then on the way back Lance nearly stepped on another one while pulling the cart.  Such excitement!

Here's Lance and I at Independence Rock where another great grandmother,Mattie, gave birth to Peter who lived only one month.  He made the 7th child she and Mads had buried:  three in Denmark, one at sea and and two others who died of diseases after they arrived in America.  I'm in awe of her as she had been raised in a wealthy home and wouldn't have had to do any physical work.  She was remarkable that she could still keep going - must have been in her strong will.

The flat tire on Lances's car surely threw a wrench into our well oiled trip schedule.  But, it happened where he could get off highway on level ground and spare put on just before it got dark.   We had to cancel hotel reservations (too far) as spare requires only 50 mph on highway and the place we were going for  best deal in USA to get huge ice cream cones for little money was closed.  Found famous Little America had rooms and they all ate at midnight.  Next morning he had to drive about 30 miles and bought two new tires and returned to pick us up.

Oh, oh times up - canning of pears is calling.  To be continued.....

Providence Update - finally

Good afternoon family,

This wonderful photo of me "a few years" ago  describes perfectly how I felt two weeks ago when the computer hardware dogs ate all the work I had done on Grandma Dooie's history that I'd done soooooooo much work on.  The BB head Geek couldn't locate the latest one with all the photos, illustrations embedded, but fortunately came up with the test in another form along with 3, 635 pages of code, commands and gobbledygook.  It took me hours just to carefully delete it without touching the text.  I've been glued to this chair for the past two weeks cutting, pasting, reformatting text and arduously finding and added all those great inserts that were lost.  Pretty much everything else has been put on hold so I can achieve this goal that I've had for so long.  No problem with dad's.  His history was saved during computer snafu, but alas not mom's.  I'm pretty close to the finish line now and Holly is doing the proofs for me.  That's been great as I'm bleary eyed as it is.

Yea, it's official.  Holly's condo is now the property of a retired Air Force officer in New York who bought it for an investment property while his daughter is living there and attending USU.  Roger was delighted about the connection with Holly's dad and that he is probably smiling the way the whole thing worked out.  She's quite comfortable down stairs and is sorting and filing all those papers that tend to pile up from year to year. 

Lately though, we've both what's wondering  about these crazy birds around our house.  For the past three weeks 3 of them have flown into the south window (my office area) and died.  Another one was tougher and after 2-3 min. got up hobbled over to west deck and then flew away for another try.  This morning one hit the west window downstairs right behind where she was sitting and got dead also.  Maybe they're trying to torment the cats....who knows.  Strange..........

I had and phitzers removed on the north side of house.  They were getting old and ugly but so large it took two guys all day to remove them since Jared couldn't get his machinery around to that side.  I'm also planning to do some other unscaping so make the yard easier to care for.  Things do grow out of control after 19 years.

 We finally have a  garden this year.  All those amendments and better soil really paid off as the yield has been great with beets, cucs are really coming on, kale, lettuce and spinach doing well.  I've done 14 pints of pickled beets so far and a few dills.  Holly loves grilled beets also.

 Holly's grape tomatoes are so prolific that she can hardly keep up with them.  My low acid tomatoes are starting to produce more than I consume also.  The strawberries are about gone, but I've been eating fresh pears and peaches this week with other trees about ready.  Apples are getting close with limbs so full Holly and I had to prop them up so she can mow underneath.

The zucchinis are blooming out all over and Holly uses some nearly everyday in her breakfast smoothie.  Last one she did had about 7 different fruits and vegs in it.  She shares some of them with me each day to try out.  Tons of squash this year as we both love it and I can take some to Brooke this winter also.

One of her projects she's been working on for several weeks is to refinish Dooie's buffet that I inherited.  It was that white/gold one downstairs that she cut the legs off and refinished for the home I grew up in.  Holly's doing it bing cherry red and black to match her dining set.  She's a darn good painter like her mother and grandmother.  


Well, that enough for today - it's back to the history now.

Debt Thermometer

One more stinkin' credit card to go!

On my way to debt free!

Howells Reunion 2014

Hi ya'll,

Here are some photos from our time in San Diego.  Please feel free to post any photos you have.  Thanks rock stars!

Turtle selfie

Comfy Hidey Hole

With the bathroom cabinet now serving as a kitchen pantry, I had to find someplace to put the towels.

Wait! One of those towels is alive!

PROVIDENCE UPDATE

The farewell party I hosted for Ryan and Rachel was a big success so I was very pleased about that.  I feel so much more alone now that there's not those little noises wafting up from below.  It's been three years after all that they lived with me and I'm sure I'll adjust.

They don't have moving experience so didn't think they would need to reserve a U-Haul for the move last weekend.  Ryan was able to borrow his former boss's truck BUT the only free time was between 6:00 pm to 8:00 am.  So after his parents went to a birthday dinner for Grandpa Sequin they drove truck up here by 10:00 pm.  I stayed up to tend Asher while they packed truck and cleaned basement.  They left just before midnight and R&R spent all rest of night driving to Orem and unpacking truck. 

Dear Bro Lance spent Thur and Fri with Holly and I helping to move heavy furniture up, over and around house as Holly's moving in sort of stared a domino effect of changes to be made.  The rooms look a little different but good and they are clean and ready for guests as needed.  I used this opportunity to further clean out, organize and make another DI pile or garbage dump.  Next time you all come to visit, please bring a U-Haul with you.  I'm going to look into Craig's List and other sites to sell some items that your probably don't want or need.

Lance tilled, planted with my help, trimmed shrubs, checked sprinklers as I turned on each site and he adjusted them for proper usage.  His back, right knee, leg were killing him, but he downed the Advil as he's doing a lot and kept on keeping on to finish the jobs.  He's looking to more surgery in future.  We had shopped for plants that Holy and I both like and can eat and we both slept very well both nights.  It's so good to have it all done and very happy with this birthday service gift he gave me.  My single friends want to sign him up also.

R&R left a lot of stuff here.  So with Holly's help Lance loaded his small truck full with Ryan's recumbent bike (in two pieces) and rest of things they had missed or forgotten and took it home with him.  Over weekend they went to pick it all up and see Dustin's new baby William.

When Holly was unloading her stuff yesterday she found they had also forgotten a guitar chord chart that was taped to the back of their bedroom door.  Wonder what else will turn up?

Who's is this?

Cleaning out closet in Americana Room at Moms. Where did this come from? Who owns it???? Do you still want it?