A thousand fibers connect us

 “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” 

                                       ~ Herman Melville

On Wednesday, childhood friends of mine, a brother and sister, lost a very small but important person in their lives; his first grandchild and her great niece. This baby had been so highly anticipated.  Their whole family looked up on this little girl as a happy new beginning as they had been devastated by the loss of his wife a couple of years ago.  They knew there might be problems but hope reigned eternal but it was not to be.  She lived 17 short hours but the joy she brought during that time was insurmountable.

Even though my daughter keeps busting on me I hadn’t been posting anymore as it all seemed pointless, writing about the same things year after year as I live a very mundane, by most standards, life.  I don’t believe I know enough to tell people how to do things, I am not trying to sell things and the blog an extension of that;  it was just my ramblings, an online journal of sorts, and until Ravelry a central place to post pictures of projects.  But today I was thinking of the baby and I remember reading the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven where Eddie learns that there are no random events in life and all individuals and experiences are connected in some way.   This baby came into the world for 17 short hours, impacted people’s lives and although she may be gone, her story is not yet finished.  If the premise is true that we do just randomly touch another life, that we say or do something that unbeknownst to us effects others than I guess I can continue to throw words on paper (or screen).  Maybe when I get to heaven (fingers crossed)I might find out somebody found something in those words.

So a quick round up of life from April when the trees were starting to leaf out until today’s walk to the barn where I was walking upon fallen leaves every other step….

Toddler O turned 3 and is amazing.  I have heard it said that they get that from their grandmother and who am I to argue!!!  Oh and I am not one bit prejudice.

We hatched out our own chickens for the first time…what fun.  The second hatch was tampered with and the temperature got up too high so we will try again next spring.  We also got three pigs to raise.  It was hard finding them and costly when we did but with the prices rising we were told we will come out ahead.  Time will tell I guess.  We plan to butcher in late September or October.  And after losing four turkeys to a raccoon we finally found four more so Thanksgiving dinner is still on!

#2 daughter graduated and is now a licensed CNA.  She was offered a job but it was taking care of 36 people, alone.  A daunting task for even a more mature experienced individual and so she turned it down.  Yesterday she got a call from the place she did her residency at with a job offer so fingers crossed all works out.  Her training did come in handy when she was walking by the neighbors and he had caught himself on fire.  She was able to get the flames out, call 911 and help his wife take care of him until the ambulance got there.  

Our efforts, feeding the deer this past winter paid off with some awesome little fawns.  I have seen two sets of twins and #2 daughter saw a set of triplets. 

 

#2 son graduated from high school and has been going to Marine PT every Wednesday night to lose weight so he can officially join the Marines.  If all goes as planned he leaves in March.  This means that come September when school starts I will not have any children in school for the first time in 27 years!  No more backpacks, notebooks, pens and pencils and no more packing lunch each and every day!!!!!  Part of me is happy and part of me sad.  But in two more years Toddler O starts school so I can take him school shopping.

#1 daughter and Sir T moved closer!  He accepted a job and they now live 40 minutes away! Although he took a cut in his gross pay moving from Philly he actually brings home more because of less taxes and the company pays his insurance!  They are renting for now while they scout the area for a house to buy.  It is wonderful having them so close.  We have family (all my children together!!!) dinner every Sunday and I am usually up their way once a week.  We even got to take the grandkids to their first county fair and Toddler O loves rollercoaster’s!  Baby B was too small for most rides but did get a go on the little race cars and was ear to ear grinning the whole time.  He also indulged in some chocolate covered bacon, peanut butter covered bacon, fries and cheese and a blooming onion.  I have to say those kids love to eat and will try anything.

I turned the big 50 and the kids threw me a surprise party.  Rotten children…actually it was nice, I didn’t have to do any of the cooking/baking or the cleanup!!!   Then the next day I was told we were going berry picking and we ended up at a dog shelter where I acquired a new puppy.  They thought it was time and I had been looking.   He is a mutt that was returned supposedly because the man lost his job …or could it be puppy has some bad habits… but he loves kids (good for the grandkids).  He is four months old so we can work with him on his bad habits.  Mom was a boxer/beagle and dad was a lab/hound.  His name was Buddy but a neighbor has a dog with the same name.  While they don’t live close if they call their dog I can hear it and I didn’t want him to run across a road to them by mistake or vise versa so his new name is Huckleberry since that is what we were supposed to be picking.

The man bought himself a tractor!  He has been wanting to buy one but I didn’t want the debt.  So I asked him if he would rather a newer truck or the tractor thinking he would say the truck but he didn’t.  Then he got a raise at work and it covers the cost so he has a brand new Kioti and his to do list just got longer!  And every time I think of the tractor the song "She thinks my tractor's sexy" runs through my mind.

Ancestry sent me an email with a great offer so I am back to working on my genealogy.  It is something my mother and I started but most information was lost on an old computer.  It is a huge time suck but I figure I will work on it and if any of the kids are interested later on, it will be there for them.

My garden is abysmal this year...well maybe that is a little harsh.  I had lots of Nanking cherries after I covered them from the birds, the peppers are doing good, the beans are just coming in, the winter squash/pumpkins look like they will be awesome, the cabbages look like they will need to be shredded for kraut soon so they don’t split from the recent rain, the potatoes are going strong but the tomatoes were awful.  Tomatoes are a huge staple for us.  They are our spaghetti and BBQ sauce, soup, V8, salsa, stewed tomatoes, etc etc etc so their loss is a huge hit to my canning totals.  

In the fiber arena not much is happening.  I did get my wool back from a local processor.  I love the way the roving comes back and it is a dream to spin but she leaves a little too much lanolin in for my taste.  And although it was costly I did get some spun into worsted and dk weight.  It is nice to be able to knit and not spin my own wool.

Work continues on the house and yard, an endless process as I change flower gardens around.  We had some lumbering done on our property so all the tree tops are lying in the woods to be pulled out (with the tractor) cut up and stacked for firewood.  Thankfully we will have enough for us for a couple of years and be able to sell some to a friend.

And I guess that about sums up the missing time. I have to get out of my knitting funk as fall seems to be coming early this year and winter is sure to follow.  As a matter of fact only 19 weeks until Christmas, YIKES!