Grandma's notebook

While Dad was cleaning out some more of Grandma's stuff this summer, he came across this little notebook. In it, we found Grandma's travel diary notes from her trip to Little Rock for our wedding. As always, Grandma was meticulous about the details.


January 14, 1988 flew to Little Rock, Ark.
Left W. Palm on Delta at 2:20 P.M. and flew to Atlanta. Had 2 hrs and 40 minutes wait and ate early supper there.
Plane left half hour late and was dark. We enjoyed the lights of cities from the air. Amy was waiting for us and she & Rick took us to our Days Inn room. Jim & Louise had got in at noon. We all stayed in Days Inn and Dave & Jan came Sat morning.

Friday Amy, Rick, Louise, Jim, Noel, Harvey & I went in two cars out west of Little Rock to Petit Jean State Park. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a very enjoyable day. We ate dinner at night at Bennigens in Little Rock.


Saturday it was rainy but the wedding was a pretty ceremony at 4 P.M. Amy's dress and her bridesmaids' were made by a friend. We went to Jacksonville Country Club for the wedding dinner. Fourteen people were there. Wedding meal was chicken breast [tossed salad first] over wild rice, carrots & broccoli, rolls & drink. Two tiered wedding cake was spice with peach color flowers.

The left for Hot Springs for the weekend.

Sunday was cloudy and some fog. We went to Parkplace Reformed Prysberterian [sic] church and enjoyed a good message and friendly church.

Dave and Jan left soon after we got back to fly home. We snacked a little and took a nice nap.

About six Louise & Jim and us went to Bonanza for dinner and we spent the evening reading and watching TV. Monday morning we went with Louise & Jim to the Waffle house for breakfast.

They left for the airport about 10:30 AM. It was a cloudy partly foggy day.

Amy & Rick stopped by on their way back from Hot Spring at noon and asked us to come to their mobile home for supper.

Amy took us to the airport the next morning. It was overcast but we left on time. Had a lot of turbulance and went around a thunderstorm and arrived back at Palm Beach airport safely. Ed and Ann Van Wyk met us there. We traveled by Delta Airlines.

What Grandma and Harvey never knew was that a bunch of our friends had stopped by the trailer while we were honeymooning in Hot Springs and "decorated" the trailer for us. We got home and found yarn wrapped around doorknobs and lamps, toilet paper taped everywhere, chocolate sauce and edible undies arranged carefully on the bed, and condoms - with a little bit of dairy product - taped to the doorknobs. And Grandma was due to arrive in 45 minutes.


Luckily, I was able to get Noelle on the phone and scream for help. I think she was just leaving with the last of the incriminating evidence tucked under her arm when Grandma & Harvey pulled in.



I miss you, Grandma.

Because I wanted to.

The Grandmother Oak has towered over our back yard for much longer than we've been here - perhaps 200 years or so. She is absolutely massive, and beautiful in a weathered, experienced sort of way. She really ought to have the services of a professional tree surgeon to trim out some deadwood and offer support where necessary - but the estimates I got were all in the $8,000 range, and so we decided she was going to have to muddle through on her own.

Recently, on a beautiful clear day, she suddenly dropped a huge limb. The limb (which had held our tree swing for the last 8 years or so) appeared healthy, and we found no rot or other internal reason for it to go. It reminded me of an elderly lady who suddenly breaks her hip.

Rick got up there with his ladder and not only cleared off the splintered remains of the limb in question, but did his best to trim an equal weight of dead wood from her other side so as to keep her as balanced as possible. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it will be enough.

The party details for today:

1. The tent guy can rig for lighting, and is ready to finalize his set-up.
2. The church is not booked up on the 8th, other than a Historical Society tea in the early afternoon, so the meeting hall can stand in as "Plan B" in case of rain.
3. George, the guy raising the pig, is going to call me with an estimate. (I was going to go actually see the pig, and perhaps name him "Orville," but Tasha feels that it would be in bad taste.)
4. Tammy wants to see a picture of our wedding cake. She's already making the party cake the same flavor, but now she's also considering copying the actual style of the original.

Stop And Smell The Flowers

Thanks for the reminder, Lydia.

A week from today will be my last day in my current job - and then 10 days after that will be my first day in the new place. So, there will be office packing stress, unpacking "where-did-I-put-my-notary-stamp" stress, and "new guy" stress. But my new office has a nice East window overlooking a pond, so I feel a celebratory container garden coming on. Something textural - I wonder if you can grow lavendar as a house plant?

A Walk In The Woods

It's a beautiful day . . . okay, hot and sticky, but still the kind of bright and sunny day that we'll be wishing for in six months. So I finally did what I've been meaning to do, take a walk in the woods and photograph some of the places I'm hoping to introduce to you during our party in September.

First, Meadow Valley. Our neighbor, Sybil Winter, has owned this property since sometime in the 1970's, and has been slowly rehabilitating it from farm field to woodland. In the process she has added fire lanes and done some tree trimming, so what we have is a woodland with wide open paths, pretty in any season but largely wheelchair accessible. And at the very back of the property is a little open air chapel, looking out over the river. Sybil has very kindly agreed to let us use her chapel for our renewal ceremony, and I can't think of a more perfect venue.





The Meadow Valley chapel is about 1/4 mile walk though the woods, and (since I don't imagine we'll be back there more than 15 minutes) I was planning for us to simply stand in the clearing. But if for medical or other reasons you don't think you can make the walk there and back again, or if you need to sit while we're back there, please let me know and I'll make the necessary arrangements. Otherwise, enjoy the stroll. The path is clear and even, but I still wouldn't recommend high heels. Personally, I will probably be in sandals.






Next, Pine Ridge Campground. As you can see, Pine Ridge is within an easy crawl of our house, and although it's a private Lutheran campground they are willing to accept reservations from party guests. It's a beautiful facility, and I can't believe I never really looked it over before! They appear to have a few cabins with power and other amenities, but they also have plenty of camping spaces and pull through camper spots. For reservations or questions, you can contact the caretakers directly: Eric or Cindy can be reached at 920-528-8307.








That's it for now. I'm scratching a brand new mosquito bite on my left ankle. Did I mention that each guest will receive a souvenir bug bracelet?

Time to get to work!

It's high summer now, fully six months since I last updated this. My bad. But we've made it through a long weekend in Michigan and a short week in Connecticut, and now my main focus can be to get this anniversary show on the road!

The manager from the church camp ground across the street stopped by the other day to make sure we knew that our guests were welcome to stay on their property in September, if they chose. I understand there are quite a few camper spots, and a cabin that would sleep a large group comfortably. I'll post his phone number later this week, so any interested parties can make their arrangements directly. (There are also places on our land where a tent or trailer would be welcome - - but if you wanted land that was actually flat, you're better off across the street.) :)

Anyway, Rick and I took a new picture over the weekend to use on the invite, and I'll be chatting with the printer as soon as I am sure exactly how the verbiage inside will read. Then I just need to:

1) address & send out the invites;
2) confirm the location and status of our pig;
3) confirm rental options for the tent;
4) get speakers and wiring in place for music;

oh, and finish knitting that sweater I wanted to wear! Hey, we still have 7 weeks, right?

Welcome to winter

I mean, really winter. None of this "60 degrees in December, did you hear the cherry trees are blossoming in DC, maybe I'll wear the grey sweater today" kind of winter. More like a series of January and February weeks where zero degrees sounds delightfully balmy and the weather website shows dire warnings about hypothermia and frostbite. For the first time in my memory, the kids got out of school for two days straight because the school district thought it was too dangerous to have them out of the house. Oh, and now that it's warmer again (and we're talking 16° here, folks), we're supposed to get snow every day for the next week or so. Uh HUH.

Anyway, all this is to say that I haven't made much progress on planning things since my last post. All the people I have talked to locally who raise pigs either aren't doing it this year or already have their pigs spoken for. (Dan, we may have to resort to the butcher after all.) And I was going to walk down to the Meadow Valley outdoor chapel and take a picture, so those of you who haven't been here before would know what I'm talking about. But, uh, well, please see description of recent weather trends, above. So you're going to have to be happy with a picture of the walk down to the river, taken last year under much more civilized circumstances.

Further plots and plans

I should have expected this from Dan. He did some research, scratched his head a bit, and suggested that we just have him roast the pig instead of a caterer. He figures he can get here a few days early, build a roasting set-up near or on our fire pit, and be ready to serve it up by Saturday afternoon.

There's also the thought that instead of buying a pig from a butcher, we commission a 4-H kid in the swine project to raise one for us. Dan processes his own meat on his farm in Maine, and figures he can do the same here. My next task will be to contact some 4-H families I know and see who wants to raise a pig.

In terms of food, we have the afore-mentioned pig - - and with a portion of the budget that will be saved by having Dan act as butcher and roaster, perhaps we should include some fresh rainbow trout from the local trout farm (for the non-meat eaters in the crowd). I hope to track down a corn roaster, and arrange for fresh bread. Beyond that, I'm mulling over a suggestion that side dishes and/or drinks be supplemented on a potluck basis. Finally, I have a neighbor who makes a damn fine caramel apple cheesecake, and a friend who can do a beautiful version of a classic decorated cake.

Now, about the entertainment: instead of a DJ, there is some thought about organizing this shindig as a ceilidh (KAY-LEE) or irish house party. Anyone who has an instrument and would like to bring it along would be welcome, and music can be provided on the spur of the moment by those who feel inspired to make it. The possible drawback of this is that I don't know how many potential guests actually play an instrument. I'm pretty sure Dad won't want to cart along his accordian (although Dan will have his concertina). I have friends who play the trumpet and the tuba - - but I don't think that's quite what we're talking about. Maybe I just need to pro-actively seek out new friends this summer who play the fiddle?