BREAKS AND BLOOMS
As you will read, we had another unanticipated repair to make. And after Rebecca wrote this the kitchen disposal gave out. And we decided it is time to powerwash the house again, an every five year maintenance item. Ah, the joys of home ownership.
COVID is somewhat under control, so social life has returned to a quasi-normal state. We have attended a few events and have had some visitors as you will read. We expect with vaccinations that this disease will become one of our routine health hazards; it probably will not go away but can be controlled. Get your jabs if you haven't had them.
On to Mrs.T's account:
It was my fault, I admit. I was overcome by an urge to clean and I decided to mop the bathroom floor. (Not a normal urge. -dt) I took everything out and gave it a good scrub with Fabuloso. I even rinsed it well so that it wouldn't smell purple. I looked at the little fuzzy rug. Normally I give it a good shake over the edge of the porch.
"I want you to wash it," I told Dan.
"Are you sure?", he asked.
"Yes," I said, "and wash the rug for the other bathroom with it."
It must have been years since they had been washed. Dan (laundry man -dt) cooperatively deposited the two fluffy rugs in the complicated washer and pushed lots of buttons. Things went well for a while until the washer started beeping and lights started flashing an error message. It seemed the drain on the washer was clogged. This was not too surprising, the rugs being so fuzzy and all. We'd just open the door and clean out the -whoops- the computerized washer would not allow you to open the door when the drain was clogged. Well maybe if we just turned it off we could open it. No not that way. Surely if we unplugged it - no not that way either. In the end we had to pay $89 for a repairman to come plus $75 per hour (The normal rate these days -dt) - ½ hour minimum - for the repairman to open the door and tug out the recalcitrant rugs. (And disassemble to remove the rugs rubber backing from the filter; this was the real problem. -dt) Do not wash rugs in the washer; take them to the laundromat the repairman advised. We had already figured that out. In fact I"ll just shake them over the porch.
We now own four new rugs - two for the bathrooms and one for each of the outside doors. Thank goodness for Ollie' s - "Good Stuff Cheap" is their motto.
I am always planting stuff. (Therapeutic apparently -dt) Dan's rule is if I buy it I have to dig the holes. As our soil is very rocky you would think that this would discourage me but it doesn't seem to. You might wonder why Dan gets to make the rules. (Th editor wishes it were so. -dt) There's no reason he should but in general he makes the rules and I figure a way around them. I am always trying to interest him in plants so I was quite excited when, several years ago, he said that he thought a magnolia tree would be nice.
I looked in several plant catalogs and found that magnolias were pretty expensive and came in two-quart pots. I didn't care about expense but a tree in a two-quart pot is nothing but a twig. I looked at a couple of nurseries; either they didn't have magnolias or they were too small. But then it happened. Dawes Arboretum was having a plant sale. As we are members we get to go to the presale and we get a discount! I looked at the plant list and a big-leaf magnolia was listed. I asked Dan and he didn't really care what kind of magnolia so we were all set. We had to go early because sometimes they only have one of some kinds of trees. The competition is often quite fierce. I figured if I rushed in and grabbed the best - or only - magnolia. Then Dan could get a wagon and we could buy it. It worked like a charm. There were others who wanted the tree but I had it and possession is 9/10ths of the tree.
These trees were mostly extras that the arboretum had grown and were in great shape, healthy, and larger than most you could buy. Also they were of special types not readily available. The big leaf magnolia was about four feet high and in a four- gallon pot. It looked quite healthy and had, not surprisingly, very large leaves. Dan was talking with the botanist who told him that the tree was healthy and should do well but it would probably not bloom until it was about 12-15 years old.
We took the tree home and had a long discussion about where to plant it. That decided, I began to dig. Four gallons does not sound too big but in our stoney soil it is quite a bit. And you bury a nice bit of pottings soil around the root ball. In any case we got the magnolia planted and waited. It grew nicely except twice it fell over and we had to prop it up with stakes. The last few years it has been growing rapidly except it is still a bit spindly. We never knew exactly how old it was when we got it. Dan and I both have been getting impatient for it to bloom. Dan said he doubted it would bloom before he died.
But this was the magic year. This year Dan's magnolia tree bloomed for the first time. It had the biggest blooms I have ever seen. These blooms were enormous. This was not merely a big leaf magnolia, it was a big flower as well. I think the individual blossoms were 8 or 10 inches across. Dan and I are both extremely proud of our tree.
This summer we have had lots of visitors. Nick, and Marla and Rik, our beloved children, have come down. We also were visited by my sister Ruth and two of her children and nine or ten of her grandchildren. (She has 25 -dt) Ruth wanted to show everybody where we grew up and the sights. They saw three different places where we had lived. Dan and I are living on the oldest property but in a new house we had built. (The first ancestral home is on another piece of property we do not own. -dt) All the nieces and nephews, etc., visited Cedar Brae Farm, Cedar Hill Farm in Scottish. Also they visited the house on Route 339. (A.K.A. Tick Ridge. -dt) Both the current owners were extremely gracious, letting everyone look around.
Some local sights like Big Bottom State Memorial Park were visited. I remember when I was young I thought that name was hilarious. This park honors several young men who skated down the Muskingum River to warn the early settlers of Indian attacks. It must have been very cold because the river seldom freezes over. And if you imagine the young men whose families had been killed skated some 30 miles through the night surrounded by hostile tribes, grieving and afraid, I suppose they deserve a cenotaph some 200 years later.
The Sellers and Peach men - our grandfathers, uncles, great uncles, and part of the time our fathers - were coal miners first in England and then in the United States. (MrsT's paternal side. -dt) It was dangerous; Ermanual Peach - 'Back broken by fall of slate in a coal mine' - his headstone reads. The men were often union organizers and threatened by the mine owners. There is a mining park in Morgan County that the children visited. But since it was subsidized by the coal company it gives a biased report of the history of the industry.
However, the park has a bucket of a huge dragline machine called Big Muskie. The machine peeled away layers of earth to get to coal when they were strip mining. (Our property was strip mined. -dt) I remember when I was a child they closed a road so that Big Muskie could cross it. The machine had two huge feet and they shook the earth when it took a step. Our Father took us out so we could watch it walk across the road. At that time daddy was working in the mines. He was not a miner; he was a mechanic working on the huge coal trucks called Ukes. I think the young ones were impressed by standing in the bucket. Later Dan and I went out to see it once more. As so often happens it seemed to have shrunken over the years.
(Mrs. T waxing about growing older. -dt):
I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
In knowing I'm further off from heav'n
Than when I was a boy.
Thomas Hood - I Remember, I Remember; fourth verse
Of course no trip down memory lane would be complete without visiting cemeteries. We visited two, the one where our parents were buried in Beverly, and Deerfield. In Beverly we decorated our parents' graves with roses and thought happy / sad thoughts. All in all our lives were very good. Then we went to Deerfield Cemetery where Mama's parents are buried. Not only them but generations of McDonalds before them clear back to the Revolutionary War. (Mrs.T's maternal forebears. -dt) We decorated our grandparents' graves, and Aunt Blanche's, and Aunt Norma's and gave the children roses, one each for all the other McDonald graves reaching back across the years. I thought of them, clearing land in the wilderness. Fighting in America's wars. The children dying young. The small part of their lives the grave stones told.
Then we left this part of the past behind and went to the old mill in Stockport where Daddy used to buy seed and Mama flour. The flour came in printed feed sacks and Mama would cut them up and make us pajamas. The mill is an inn and restaurant now, and we all ate peaceably together as families should, even the children except for one glass of spilled ice tea. Then we went home. (All these visits were a two-day event. -dt)
Where do we put all these relatives? (We would have been challenged to house all of them at our place. -dt) Well most of them rented a very nice cabin by Dillon Lake. Ruth, Andrea, and Mary Heather stayed with us. They were very low maintenance guests, taking care of themselves. Andrea and Mary Heather helped with my flowers. I finally have all the paths of my labyrinth planted with violets. Keep your fingers crossed; next year it may be beautiful, And a peaceful place for me to meditate.
In between all of this I do have lots of medical stuff of various sorts including cancer treatment. No cancer recently, thank God. And the stroke still has its effects - a little slow with my speech and weakness / imbalance on the right side. I would like to trade in for a new body but I suppose I must be grateful. But one thing is the flowers this year have been fantastic! And we seem to have lots of wild animals; I am especially fond of the fawns. (Except when they eat her flowers. -dt)
Here are a few photos:
(Thanks Andrea for the tombstone picture. -dt)
(The mention of Fabuloso and Ollie's does not constitute endorsements. -dt)
And so Mrs.T has another endoscopy and possible burn in her esophagus. She might need another inspection in October. When we hear the outcome of the upcoming exam and plans for the next tests, then we can start planning for the winter.
It is cooler at the condo right now than here in Philo. We hope that you are surviving the heat wherever you are.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
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