As Our Life Goes On

Today marks our 51st wedding anniversary. Who knew when we met on a blind date over 53 years ago we would end up with this lifelong joy of being together. His best friend and one of my good friends were dating. His friend met me and thought that Russ and I would be a good match.  A blind date was set up. We were to meet at a local teen center. It was almost not fair because if he looked at me and decided to escape he could just leave and I would have never known that he showed up. He liked what he saw and so did I and here we are!

A few of the shrubs along the driveway still retain some colorful leaves. It was a joy to be able to get out and work in the yard and just walk around and enjoy the warmth of the sun. The bike and hike trail was a popular place but people who use it should look up before they take a bathroom break. They seem to look up and down the trail and then just do their business. I often walk for exercise on the hill which is high over the trail along the perimeter of our property. Even though many people run alone on the trail I don't feel secure in doing that. Of course I walked away from the edge of the hill so that the person who just pulled their pants down would not be embarrassed to have been seen. Russ stacks wood along the hill and has encountered the same thing. If you go hiking it is OK to relieve yourself near the trail if you have to BUT please look everywhere where a person might be.

This picture was taken years ago at the Greentown Community Center in Greentown, Ohio. You might question why Russ and I are dressed funny. Years ago a group of us played Irish, Old Time Appalachian and French Canadian or Cape Breton style music at a Contra Dance that was held there about once a month. We really loved doing this. We could take a break and join in the dancing from time to time. The hall had what could be called a good floor. It was wood and it resounded with sounds from the feet of the dancers.   The entrance fee for dancers was quite reasonable so a good crowd of dancers usually showed up. Refreshments were also what could be called cheap. Cider and cookies always seemed to please the dancers. The band group never really made a profit on these dances. After paying the caller and buying the refreshments and renting the hall there was little left over. It was just FUN. Once a year we would have what we called the dress up dance and the band members would dre...

You can help to support literacy in our area by casting your vote for our library. The winning library will receive a $10,000 prize. Stow Monroe Falls Library is one of the most used libraries in Summit County Ohio. Please use the link below to get to the website where you can enter your email address and vote for our local library. THANKS VOTE FOR STOW MONROE FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY

A buck rubbed on this tree. The bark is scarred all around this tree and there are no low branches as they have been broken off by the deer. November is the month when the rut or breeding season for whitetail deer starts. The deer are less cautious than usual and they are more active during the day. The number of deer in urban areas has increased substantially so it is even possible to encounter a deer running through a parking lot in a busy area. Deer cause many traffic deaths each year and lots of property damage to automobiles. Do not approach an injured deer. In fact don't approach one that is not injured. They are wild animals. We saw a group of does in our front yard last week. When they saw us they ran into the middle of the road and just stood there for quite some time. They seemed nervous and unsure as to which way to go. Fortunately it was not a busy time of day on the road that usually has plenty of traffic going much too fast. Perhaps they were being chased ...

It was a rather cool day and the chill in the air was enhanced by a brisk breeze at times. When the drizzle started after lunch it made the day even more gloomy. It was a good day to stay inside and keep warm. The airtight woodstove that is mounted in the living room fireplace is keeping things toasty and comfortable. The radiant heat feels so much better than the forced air heat from our oil fired furnace. The above picture was taken on a sunny bright day. It was dark and cloudy most of the day today.

We place brush and leaves from the yard into piles in the wooded areas behind our house.The piles can provide important cover for wildlife. The decomposed matter adds to the richness of the soil. Rabbits don't seem as common in our area as they used to be because of increases in the coyote population. Chipmunks, birds and other small animals use these natural hiding places. I did scare a rabbit from the pile one day while taking a walk in that area. I was glad to see that it was being used as intended.

 Last week we underwent the time change from daylight savings time to standard time. My brain and body have not yet adjusted to this change. It takes me at least 10 days to 2 weeks to not feel hungry at the wrong time or want to go to bed earlier or later than usual. I feel lethargic, listless and downright tired. By next week this should subside and maybe I will feel normal again.

I didn't see this large squirrel get up into the bird feeder but he was enjoying picking at the seeds that the birds had left. This one had no trouble jumping out to the ground. Another smaller gray squirrel that arrived later kept sliding down the pole holding the feeder as it tried to get into the feeder. It tried at least a half dozen times before grasping the ledge at the bottom of the structure. When it was done feeding it looked all around the sides for a good way down. It jumped up on the peaked top to to survey the situation.  It finally figured that the big jump off was the only way. It is fun to watch these antics from my window. The pictures were taken through the window and they are not quite as clear as I would like.

A preliminary chimney cleaning had been done a few weeks ago but after pulling the airtight stove out of the fireplace it was determined that a bit more cleaning was in order. Tomorrow will probably be the last of the nice days that we have this week. Indeed it may be the last nice one until Spring. There is still lots of outside work that remains undone.

I dragged and rolled the heavy base to one of our bird feeders to a spot just behind the room where I do my computer work. It is not too far from the back door so it will be easy to fill when the time comes. Russ found the top stored in a shed and placed it on the pole and adjusted the height. Though the pole is slippery squirrels can get to the top also. Some have made amazing jumps from the ground to get to the food. There will be other spots near the house where bird seed is placed but this is one that I can watch while I work.

The day was warm. A lot of work got done. Therefore this blog is very brief. Enjoying this great weather!! I noticed that the person that created the gif picture of a buckeye shown above put 7 leaves on the stem. The very similar Horse Chestnut tree has 7 leaves. Buckeyes usually have only 5 palmately compound    leaves. Read more by clicking on the link below. Buckeyes

We may be having our Indian Summer for this year. We are having a week of cool mornings and warm afternoons. It is a good time to finish outside chores. Natural things have always interested me. The bright green insect in the first picture did not like it when the camera came so close to take the picture. The oak leaf gall is in the second picture. We leave the insects alone unless they challenge our buildings and sheds or our health and safety. You can read more about Indian Summer by clicking on the link below. INDIAN SUMMER

Scratchy labels sewn into the backs of garments at the neck are a pet peeve of mine. I use a seam ripper to cut them off. Great care has to be taken doing this as it is easy to put a hole in your favorite piece of clothing. I don't care whether is is a famous designer label or not. If it scratches or itches it has to go. Some of the labels seem to be sewn on with nylon thread that is very similar to fishing lines. Those are the ones that really stick the skin. I have noticed lately that some manufactures are putting the labels near the waist or on the side where they would be less likely to irritate the skin. This is a very good thing.

It seems that this squirrel was either very hungry or it just likes those maple seeds. It stretched precariously across some very small twigs to reach what it wanted. It got very nervous when it saw me on the other side of the kitchen window but kept coming back to find what it wanted. We usually put shell corn and black sunflower seed out for the wild birds and other animals after the snow cover is deep enough that it becomes more difficult for the animals to find food. It is relaxing to watch the antics of the squirrels, birds and other animals that come for the daily handout.

The wind, rain and light snowfall have combined to bring most of the star shaped leaves from the Japanese Maple to the ground. Some have found a resting place in the greenery below the tree. Consider this our holiday decorations. We have no lights to put up. If you have watched National Lampoon's Christmas you know the extent that Clark Griswold went to when it came to lighting.  The new neighborhood across the street will soon be decorated for Christmas. There is usually one very brightly lit house.  I will be certain to write a blog about it when the lights go up. We don't need any night lights in our house during the holidays because of this lighting display. Need I say more. Keep watching my blog.

Standing Rock is in the Cuyahoga River in Kent behind the Standing Rock Cemetery. When I was a child on Wolcott Avenue in Kent we would go in small groups riding our bikes or walking through the cemetery to see the large rock. We lived only a few blocks from the cemetery so it was a short trip. We never worried about going through the cemetery alone.  A bypass for the Cuyahoga River now flows around the dam on Main Street in Kent to speed up the river to improve the water quality. The level of the river has been cut down drastically because of the bypass. Ripples of water now flow over rocks where the river once was deep. It was deep enough years ago so that you could not see the rocks on the bottom.  Back then the water rose up under the jutting ledge near the top of the large stone. It would sometimes be higher when there was heavy precipitation and flooding. There were sometimes white spray painted graffiti and other marks on th...

This is the sign on the Metroparks bike and hike trail just behind our home. Our property is on the Portage/Summit County line. It seems like a senseless thing but someone probably got a kick out of doing this and costing taxpayers more money. The view of the wetlands area next to the sign on the trail is quite beautiful.

Today I packed an 8 pound parcel post package that is going to a state in the South. The box ended up being 29" long and 16" high.  It seemed like it should have taken a half an hour or less to get the fragile items packed and ready to go. It took at least 2 hours to pack this large package. First of all the contents required a larger box that first anticipated so it was off to the box building to see what was available. The first number of tries were futile. Finally this large heavy box that once held golf course mower reels surfaced. The fragile contents of the box are packed in smaller boxes inside to protect them on their long journey. I really should stick to selling merchandise that can be wrapped in a little bubble wrap and put in a small envelope. A large number of small packages could have been packed in the time this one took. After 12 years of selling on Ebay I should have learned that the fragile items take a lot of work. I have more of the breakables listed now ...

I voted today! So why should you vote? It is your democratic and constitutional right in the USA to cast your vote. This should be a source of great national pride to all who can vote. You can make your choice known for local, regional and national leaders known. You can vote for or against issues that you support or don't support. Voting supports the democratic way of life in our country. It sets a good example for your children and others. I not only feel that voting is a right I think it is a duty.  Your candidate or cause may not prevail but at least you recorded how you felt. The sticker that is passed out to voters says that I made a difference and that is something I believe.

Some of the odd shaped wood that we burn in our basement wood burner remains in the wheelbarrow ready to be carried to the basement. I do feed the stove and keep the home fires burning but all the cutting, splitting and carrying are done by my husband Russ. He works very hard at this and feels that it is good exercise. Sometimes that good exercise causes him to have aches and pains however. The radiant warmth that the wood fire gives is so much nicer than the forced air heat from our oil fired furnace. Our source of firewood is not likely to run out so we'll just keep on doing this. Each year Russ says he doesn't know whether his strength will hold up to doing the hard work required but here we go again.

We have only the basement auxiliary wood stove keeping us warm right now. Odd sized wood that will not fit nicely in the upstairs airtight is being burned. It stays plenty warm as long as the outside temperature does not dip below about 20 degrees. The other chimney for the upstairs fireplace and wood stove has been cleaned from the top but the wood stove has to be pulled out and the debris from the cleaning will have to be removed and new metal pipes installed above the stove. We will have fuel oil delivered soon. The smoke seemed to be going downward when I walked around the front of the house. My clothes now have that nice wood smoke odor. The sky varied between light and dark today but it was mostly a dark Fall sky. A single marigold still blooms in my little garden. Marigolds never seem to do well in the heavy clay soil in our yard. I don't think that we will plant any next year. 

The last few days I have been cleaning out my closets and drawers. I am not done yet as many garments have to be tried on and looked at carefully to decide whether or not they should be kept. So far three bags like the one shown below have been filled. There are many donation bins at shopping centers so those can be used. I like to pull up to the back of the Goodwill Store as they will either give you a tax receipt or a 20% off coupon to use in the store. I personally like the discount coupon. Very useful household items and clothing can be found in the store at bargain prices. Goodwill and other thrifts generally do offer 10% off everyday to people with Golden Buckeye cards, military service cards and some others. You have to ask for the discount. The 20% off coupons are particularly nice if you are making a larger purchase. I used one of these 20% off coupons last week when I got the nice mountain bike shown above. The bike was marked $20.00 so i...

I realize that a temperature of 50 degrees will feel warm next Spring but today it feels very cold. The wind makes it seem much colder. There were only a few people on the bike and hike trail behind the house. A small portion of the trail is now visible from my back window. This was all well hidden when the leaves were present. A walk once around the yard was all that I needed to convince me that catching up on some work inside the house was a good idea.  It is a good day for checking the Winter outer clothing and making sure it is easily accessible. We have made it through October without having snow on the ground. That is something to be thankful for.

You can see by the cracked earth around this little blue spruce just how dry the ground is. We have had to water this small tree a lot this year. During the holiday season small potted trees with tiny bulbs and decorations are sold at nurseries, big box stores and many other places. We received this little tree from our son and his wife a couple of years ago. It was even more tiny and spindly and all green. We put it outside after Christmas was over and it actually lived until we could plant it in the Spring. We were a bit surprised find that it was a blue spruce. It is still less than 2 feet high and odd shaped. We expect it to grow into a beautiful tree. It is in view of my room where computer work is done and it is a nice reminder of gifts and giving. The time of the year is coming when more people give gifts but how about giving all year long. Gifts don't have to be material. Giving your time to another can be a gift to both the giver and recipient.

The same person in Richfield,  Ohio that sold us my favorite shed sold us this one. The $450.00 price was much higher than the $125.00 price that he charged for my favorite shed but we had to look. New storage sheds are pricey and not as sturdy. This old chicken coop has been used for other things besides birds. It started as a home for chickens. There was a small drop down door on the side with all the windows. The flap is nailed shut. There was also a large flap on the end opposite the door that could be propped up. That flap is also nailed shut and the hinges were removed. There are large bolts on all the sides of the building that hold the sides together. This coop was also used as a portable construction field office and it could be dismantled for moving from one site to another. It was later used for parts storage. When we acquired it the floor was littered with greasy oozing oily automobile engines and car parts. The oil had impregnate...

It has been very dry here for the last few months and at last today one of the promised rain storms panned out and gave us some precipitation.  Severe weather was predicted. We did get some high winds but our area did not seem to be in the path of the worse of the storm. The rain may replenish some of the ground water.  The leaves were flying when the wind came through this area. There is something about that leafless state of the trees that we really don't like. When developers built the large allotment across the street they cut down nearly every tree in the woods except some that are right along the road. All Summer the leaves on those trees hide the back sides of the huge houses from our view. Now that the leaves are gone the lights from cars coming down the cul-de-sac across from our living room window are now able shine directly on us unless we close the curtains. The residents of that allotment probably don't like to look at our older and smaller hom...

We had great fun at our Halloween parties on Wolcott Avenue in Kent Ohio. This one was in 1946.  Local children donned homemade innovative costumes. That is me at the second from the right in the first row. I had a hand made gypsy costume. Flattened bottle caps were sewn around the bottom of the long feedbag cloth skirt. The caps jingled when I walked. I was actually misidentified in the picture when it was published in the Back Then section of the Kent newspaper a few years ago. My older brother is in the second row, second from the left. There was apple bobbing and other games to keep us busy and out of trouble. We did go from door to door in the traditional way but I always looked forward to these special parties. If you lived on Wolcott Avenue or nearby you may recognize yourself and remember the great times that we had.

I had planned to work on my ebay pictures and listings this afternoon but when Russ came home from his morning trip he wanted to go for a ride and look at the last of the leaves and visit a friend. That sounded like much more fun that working around here so I took him up on that great idea. We went to an antique shop  in Parkman, Ohio where we found nothing to buy. We only went there because we like to choose a destination rather than to ride without a plan. We then surprised our friend Jim in Mantua, Ohio with an unannounced visit and sat for a while. It made for quite a relaxing afternoon. I'm really glad that I started a crockpot of chili earlier so that I don't have to cook after the nice ride in the country.

We have been known to stop along the road and pick up discarded items on clean up days in Kent. Above is the corner of an odd sized latticed door that may have been used as a garden gate. When we stopped and loaded it we were absolutely sure we would be using it. Many years have gone by and it is only being used to cover another piece of junk that we don't wish others to see as they walk around the yard. This Spring a couple of men came through the neighborhood collecting junk metal. We did let them carry away a lot of the metal that had accumulated. Our neighbor did this also so the whole area is cleaner. There was one thing that they could not lift so it remains hidden from sight under the old door. We did use the door!

  I watched a morning show on local TV this morning. There was a report on blind and sight impaired children. It showed their trip to the circus in Cleveland. They were petting, hearing, feeling and smelling the animals that would perform later in the day. One small boy stated that he was so happy to "see" all these animals today. He may have seen more than I would have.

The red Japanese Maple outside of our back door has a red-orange glow and the leaves are falling like rain. All the leaves will fall off this tree within a few days. Granddaughter's tree displays a beautiful orange-red color.   Today was spent on catch up work. The floors needed swept and scrubbed. Leaves had to be cleared from around the doorways so that fewer would be tracked in. The leaves that drifted into the open garage door were swept out. The sun seemed to intensify the dust that has accumulated on the table tops. This afternoon it clouded over so I can't see that dust. It will have to stay there until it is really visible again. The setting sun seemed to set these trees ablaze.

This large old half of a metal wagon wheel was not a needed item. In fact I have never used it. It was purchased at a garage sale in Pennsylvania many years ago. The plan was to buy flower pots that would fit into the welded on circles and have a gorgeous display of some type of flowers. That plan never materialized so the heavy iron piece just leans against a tree. Maybe I could reclassify the area as a sculpture garden. There is some other junk around the yard that could be added to lend credence to the new designation.   A carpet of colorful maple leaves covers the ground behind one of the small sheds.