BONNIE’S STRIP TWIST

Finished up this double quilt top this morning - I’m not certain about the black borders, but am thinking they’ll grow on me. It’s not gorgeous, but it is presentable for a scrap quilt and may someday keep someone’s toes warmer. I do like the games the contrasting colors play on diagonal lines. (I can resist anything but diagonal patterns...) Besides that, now that it’s done, I’m thinking this winter may not be a total waste after all.

Back to the "woods," just have to share with you a note from my Aunt Luanne. She wrote this in response to all the logging and firewood stories of recent weeks.

I can remember when a wood fire in the fireplace was our only heat and it kept the brothers busy almost full time keeping enough wood. We burned a lot in the cook stove, also. Sometimes when the wood box for the stove would be empty, your Grandma Oe would go out and split some wood and carry it in. But not when your Grandpa Grover was around! He thought she ought to teach the sons that if there was no wood in the box there would be no supper.

I can almost smell the wood from your oak tree.

Love, Aunt Luanne

See what I mean? Aunt Luanne's excells at love of family and story telling. I'm thinking no one can tell a tale as clearly and concisely as a first grade teacher...even in retirement. Every note from her is worth sharing/saving. Thank you, Aunt Luanne

Seems to me there are quite a few good story tellers in this family!

KICKIN' UP DUST

...SAWDUST, that is.

DH had the chainsaw going about all afternoon. About 4 p.m. I saw him bending over with hands on knees (the usual angina recovery position), so I popped my head out the back door and asked, "Are you O.K.?"

DH: *turning with big smile* "I'm fine."

P:*with skeptical brows, "I think you've done enough..."

DH: "...but I'm not done yet."

P: "Look at all that sawdust; you've done enough for one day."

DH: *continues on, tossing firewood over stream out of the way for another hour or so; but does not restart the chainsaw.*

------------------------------------------------------------------
It occurs to me there's an epidemic of denial within the Teel clan these days.
------------------------------------------------------------------

DH says just now: *moaning as he gets out of the recliner* "I overdid it."

Shh-h-h-h-...he thinks I wasn't listening. :)

PERSPECTIVE

Just could not resist this shot as I was recording the felling of the mighty oak.

That oak stood a lot of years. GF has often asked, "What has that oak seen pass beneath it?" We imagined Indian spirits remaining beneath it's outstretched arms from former seasons. Surely more than one farmer used it for a fence post - GF's metal detector rang barbed wire up to four feet. I'm thinking all 17 of our grand-angels used the swing that hung from its lowest branch. Dear friend Casey provided the cedar swing seat and built the bridge coined 'the bridge to the oak.' Over a hundred generations of birds and squirrels found shelter there in summer; while deer chomped on acorn mast in autumn.

It was a thing of beauty and we'll miss its mighty presence. Still it may lend warmth through many coming winters. For this winter it has warmed a relationship between GF and GS, while warming their muscles and tools.

Perspective - it's all in how you look at it. In God's eye that 100+ years is but a blink. I won't see 100+ years, but I'd do well to remember He yet controls the centuries, the world ... His arms outstretched in mercy (for even me).

Nor does the gift of a tree compare to the gift of the child (and his counterparts) who seems dwarfed in the photo. What potential for good rests in the hands that held that maul and split that wood. God bless him!

MOVIN' RIGHT ALONG

Grandfather's Guardian "Angel"

...with this 'new leash on life' - 2007.

DS & DDIL do not have dial up, so I'm getting new lessons in computer addiction. It's so much fun to browse around with instant response. I've even been looking at many-photo blog sites I click past at home because of the time it takes to pull them up. And I confess that sometimes keeps me from writing here. It takes 10-20 minutes to configure and add images, and bald stories just aren't as interesting.

I have nothing on my mind today. We've been floating day to day and I'm concerned the week will pass with little in the way of lasting remembrance. Typically the kinds of things I do when I visit are not long term. I choose the easy chores - dishes, sweeping, laundry. And the older I get the lighter those chores become. Yet no small contribution goes without thanks. That's nice if the job doesn't last.

DS has a freezer door full of Gevalia coffees. This morning I tried the European blend. Yummy. Yesterday's Costa Rica, a nice mild blend, was so smooth it hardly registered on the tongue as coffee. I do feel a bit guilty, though, because my coffee measures are double what his would be, so that black gold diminishes at an alarming rate...on his tab. Not that he'll notice or complain.

As for the photo and caption: GF always called his grandbabies angels. It gives them a lot to live up to, but I must say they are managing quite nicely.

A FEW DAYS AWAY

It is pretty hard for me to slip away from GF. I don't think it 'bothers' him as much as it bothers me; but we seem to be joined at the hip in our (dare I say it) decline. Decline is not such a bad word in light of 2 Cor.4:16-18. I'm presently in GA with DS David's, family. We're having a good time, of course.

It was easier to leave this time because I left GF in capable hands. DGS Jonathan is there to keep him out of overmuch mischief. GF cut down the giant oak by the Barn last Friday. He said it lived a long time to fall in 20 minutes after taking the chain saw to it. Jonathan helped him tie it off with a lumber chain (to a large tree up on the bank). GF cut the lowest heaviest limbs that were stretching toward the Barn, so that left the weight up hill. It fell nicely - opposite the Barn - [thank you, Lord!] It will take a full week of muscle to get that giant dissected and split into firewood. DGS was opining about needing to build his strength for a similar feat when he gets back home. He is a good hard worker, though, and he and GF will have a great week, I'm confident.

(The picture is DS on his own cut oak stump.)

There is some question about menu plans back at Teelside. Rumor has it that yesterday's lunch was Snoodles (ramen noodles) and Treet Meat sandwiches....we may be in trouble.