SNOW

Remember the parable about the woman who kept demanding justice from a judge until he finally gave in? The one that teaches about persistence in prayer? Well, I had been praying for snow for about four weeks, and this Wednesday, God answered my prayer! (I guess that makes me sort of a nag, but in this case, I don't care!)

Mr T measured six and a half inches when we visited the Tuppers for dinner that evening. That's a real snow! It snowed on and off all day, making everything fluffy and white and wonderful. Everyone blamed me for the snow, and I cheerfully took the blame. It was beautiful, and now my winter is complete

Here's what it looked like:

There are a few workcampers at the Settlement this week, and since they couldn't make it to their project site, Eric put them to work in the greenhouse. They were happy to be in where it was warm and dry!

Eric even had to break out his rubber boots to keep his feet dry on our walk to the Tuppers'.

Now my thoughts are turning toward spring....and warmer weather that will force the reduction of Eric's Giant Beard.

plan of action

Since starting at Henderson Settlement (or maybe since leaving the Scranton library), I have gained at least ten pounds. While some of you may not see this as cause for alarm, I am getting frustrated at not fitting into my pants as well as I could a few months ago.

I asked Abby what she does to motivate herself to exercise and eat right, and she said that she sometimes makes a chart and marks it for each day that she does well, and there's a prize at the end of the chart. This sounded good to me, so I'm going to try it.

I'm starting off small. Each day, the rule is that I'm only allowed to have one dessert, and I'm not allowed to eat after 8pm....or maybe 9pm....I've not quite nailed that down yet. If I get to the end of the day and I've followed the rules, I'll put a star on the lovely Hello Kitty calendar that I got for my birthday. When I get to the end of....well, I haven't decided how many good days yet....probably three weeks' worth or so....I will reward myself by getting a scrapbooking toy.

As far as the exercise goes, I don't need a chart 'cause I've got a walking partner. Lori and I have decided to walk 3-4 days a week for about thirty minutes on the path through the Frakes Community Park. We've been doing it for a couple of weeks already, and it's really great to be able to talk while we're exercising--it makes it an enjoyable experience instead of something I dread.

Hopefully this will get me on the right track for being more healthy and active. We shall see.....!

local news

Earlier, Eric had written about the murder of an elderly man (Bill Taylor) that occurred in Frakes. Well, two weeks ago, his wife Mabel passed away in a nursing home, before she knew of her husband's death. Last Saturday, a funeral was held for both of them at the Hope Church. Because of the murder, you can see press coverage from two tv stations--WBIR out of Knoxville, TN, and WYMT out of Hazard, KY.

What makes me especially sad about these news reports is that Mabel's contributions to the community are overshadowed by what happened to her husband. Mabel's father was Bill Henderson, the "king of the moonshiners" who gave the majority of his land to start Henderson Settlement because he wanted something better for his children than the life that he had. Mabel was one of the first students at the school started by Hiram Frakes and Bertha Riel in the 1920s, and she used her education to give back to the community. She taught English and music lessons, and she played the piano for the Hope Church for many years. Everyone who knew her talks about what a good teacher she was and how much they admired her and what a good person she was.

My hope is that somehow her legacy of goodness is what will be remembered as the most important thing many years from now.

new pictures

Howdy, y'all.

I just wanted to let you know that I put some new pictures up in our Kentucky album on our photo website.

recycling program

On the farm we are doing our best to get rid of junk that has been laying around for decades, old equipment, etc. Last week we had the joy of taking down two grain silo's that have not been in use for a long time. We have a "junk guy", Ben who is hauling stuff to the scrap metal place. He will cut these up and take them away, hooray for recycling.

my birthday

I think it's time to tell about my birthday.

I ended up having pretty much a week-long celebration extravaganza....lucky me! I started receiving gifts in the mail last Monday, and Eric persuaded me (although he didn't have to work too hard at it) to open them as soon as I got them, without waiting for my actual birthday. I really enjoyed my packages with all of the goodies and gifts. I especially liked the one from my sister, complete with a Hello Kitty calendar, Batgirl tattoos, and a miniature Alf comic book (remember Alf?).

On Tuesday, we had our weekly "transplants" dinner, and Lori had made a birthday cake for me! What a great surprise!

On Wednesday (my actual birthday), I was scheduled to read to Lori's first graders. Mike and Ellie walked over with me, and as I walked into the hallway, Mike said, "Hey, look at this!" He pointed out the first of a whole set of posters that the first-graders had made to illustrate the major events in my life!

As we got closer to Lori's classroom, she came out to meet us and said that the kids were waiting to surprise me. I walked in the door, and they all jumped out from under the desk, and yelled, "SURPRISE!!" I was VERY surprised to have such a wonderful party! The kids had helped Miss Lori write the story of my life, and Mike (known to the kids as Mr T) read the story aloud while the kids began to enjoy their cupcakes.

I did end up reading the stories I had brought along, but I think that it was anticlimatic after the surprise party!

Here I am with Miss Lori.

Then yesterday, Eric surprised me by watching all five hours of the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice with me. He didn't complain at all, and he laughed in all the right places. He's a good sport....and a wonderful husband.

Thank you to everybody who sent me cards and packages and emails and messages! And thank you again to Miss Lori for my surprise party. You ALL made me feel wonderful and special, and you made me have one of my best birthdays ever. I am very blessed.

the story of my life

For my birthday, Miss Lori's first graders did two different interpretations of the story of my life. The first was sort of a Mad Lib--Lori made up the basic outline, and she left some details for them to fill in. The underlined and italicized words are the ones that the kids supplied.

A Silly Story for Sarah

By the Frakes School Center 1st Grade Class

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sarah. She was born in a barn. Her mother looked at her and said, "I think I will name her Sarah because she is so sweet."

Sarah grew fast. Her favorite food to eat when she was a baby was rocks. When she went to Kindergarten, her teacher told her, "You remind me of Elvis."

When she was in first grade, her best friend was a clown. When Sarah graduated from high school, she went to college.

When she grew up, she wanted to be a doctor. Sarah met Eric and he said to her, "Will you marry me?"

Now Sarah lives happily in a clown school, doing tricks.

The Frakes First Grade class loves Miss Sarah and wishes her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Isn't that great?? I especially love the idea of Mrs Kaufer telling me that I remind her of Elvis. Hahahahaha!

The second interpretation of my life story was integrated with the kids' math lesson. Clever Miss Lori taught timelines that day, and each student was given a piece of my life to illustrate. I think that these amazing pictures speak for themselves.

trying out local crafts

When we were getting ready to come down to Henderson Settlement in the fall, Christie said to me "I want a cornhusk doll for Christmas.....made by you." At first I laughed it off as something I couldn't possibly accomplish, but as Christmas got closer and closer, I figured that I might as well give it a shot!

I thought that I'd better consult some resources, so I checked three books on country craftsmanship out of the Henderson Settlement Library (The Cornhusk Book by Esta Z. Fehrenbach, Corn-Husk Crafts by Margery Facklam & Patricia Phibbs, and Traditional American Crafts by Betsey B. Creekmore). I believe that I also checked out a couple of websites, but I don't remember which ones they were.

I started with some dried cornhusks that Eric brought to me from the farm.
Then I soaked them in water for about half an hour.
I cut the nicest-looking leaves from the husks to make the doll. Following the instructions provided to me in one of the books, I was able to fashion a recognizable, although not quite symmetrical, head for the doll. (You can also see in the picture below the materials that I used.)
The books provided me with two ways to make the arms: weaving three pieces of husk into a braid and the more simple method of rolling a piece of husk into a thin cylinder shape. You can see that I decided to go for broke and make braided arms. (It really wasn't that hard.)
After I secured the arms, I then needed to fashion the bottom half of the doll. Since I wasn't sure I wanted to attempt legs on my first cornhusk creation, I chickened out and made a skirt by wrapping pieces of husk around the doll's waist and securing them with the yarn. The books suggested that if I made slits in the skirt, the strips would dry into attractive curls.
Not brave enough to try putting hair or distinguishing facial features on the doll, I left her bald and hung her to dry in the kitchen.
After checking back on the doll the next day, I realized that I had positioned the husks in the wrong way (curling in instead of curling out), so the doll didn't end up with the impressive full skirt that I had expected. Oh well. I didn't have enough clean cornhusks (or enough patience) to make another doll.

I wrapped my creation carefully in tissue paper so that she didn't get damaged on the long trip home from Kentucky.

I'm not sure that Christie really expected me to follow through and actually make the doll, but she was happy to receive it on Christmas Day!

Although my first attempt wasn't the most attractive piece of craftsmanship, I was overall pretty pleased with how it turned out. The whole process, from soaking the husks to the finishing cuts, took only about an hour. I think I'd try it again......but I really need to finish our wedding scrapbook first.....

morning of prayer

This morning the Hope UMC hosted a morning of prayer for the Frakes community in response to the violence that occurred a few weeks ago. The local news station was there to record the event, and the story led this evening's six o'clock news.

You can view a video of the story here.

trekking through the wilderness

This past Sunday, we had a chance to revisit the trail at Henderson Settlement that we had previously hiked (or tried to) with Mark and Mike. Mark and Mike and their [grown-up] children had been able to finish the trail while we were home for Christmas, but this was the first time that Eric and I hiked the whole thing. There were five of us this time: Mark, Mike, Eric, Ken (from church), and I.

For those of you who are interested in maps, here's what the trail looks like
(I think that if you click on it, you can see a bigger version):

We started on the right side of the map, at the reservoir that was the scene of the crime. You might be able to tell from the picture below, though, that on Sunday there was a layer of ice on the water, so there was no danger of a repeat of that event.

I'm not sure who staked out the trail originally, but there are some areas that are named. We saw some evidence of something that had rustled up the dead leaves on Sasquach Blvd--Mark said it was just turkeys, but who's to know......?!

Here are the guys (from left to right: Mark, Mike, Eric, Ken):

There were some pretty amazing views once we got around to the back of the ridge--the rocks were enormous! I'm not sure this picture does it justice, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

The trail continued, though, and to get back to the Settlement side of the ridge, we had to do some tricky maneuvering:
This picture was taken after we climbed through this crevasse. At one point, I couldn't have fit between the rocks if I weren't walking sideways...my shoulders were too wide to walk normally!

When we got to the top of the ridge, we were taller than the trees! (No, my bangs aren't THAT terrible--it was just very breezy.)
Then we plowed pretty much straight down the mountain and ended up in the cow pasture in the valley below most of the Settlement buildings.

According to Mike's hand-held GPS, we hiked about two and a half miles. It was a beautiful day and a great way to enjoy God's creation! Maybe when it gets warmer, we'll venture out with the tent and spend the night on the mountain...who knows?