HIGH BUTTON SHOE

December 15, 2006

Generally when I sit to write you a letter I have no notion of what I will write before the letter begins. Today is no exception. My mind is a blank. Although Ronnie would tell you I suffer from that malady on a daily basis. I think for many of us, this time of year is stressful, more than usual, and we just mentally shut down. I tend to function better with my body 'medicated' with chocolate, but I am really trying to stay away from that. That of course, never lasts too long, so perhaps I will be soon be my old self again, properly medicated with traces of chocolate lingering on my breath.

 
Today is a gloomy day, void of sun, but most importantly void of snow. I am merely whispering the word snow to you, as Mother Nature always hears me and quickly remedies that. In my last letter to you, we were in a blizzard. All traces of that piled up snow are gone and the ground is bare. Loving it, I know it won't last.  The snow shovel sits in the garage and my exercise regiment of shoveling snow is temporarily shelved. The arctic packs and my red ski cap remain by the door, however, for the inevitable return of snow. But for the moment, my heart smiles.
 
Yesterday, as I drove literally 5 miles per hour down the last leg of our dirt road in holes that can only be defined as crevices (which could devour dinosaurs) , I remembered thinking often that if I were ever to live anywhere else I would live on a paved road. I have started my "road journal", to show to the county road commission, which consists of incompetent boobs, just how rarely they blade our road. I know. That won't work. But I am recording when we got the 12 inches of snow and how many days later, they plowed the road. In this case, it was 7 days later. In the summer, this 1/2 mile of road often gets 'road work' done by any of us living on this road. Most of us own tractors (in our case 3 of them), and we have welded up things to drag along behind the tractor and blade the road ourselves.  Incompetent boob myself, I have driven the big Masey tractor for years (love that tractor), and I am confident that I could do a better job with the drag blade behind the tractor than they do with that big road equipment! So this may be a new occupation for me. Road worker. Ok, so maybe not.
 
Work on the shop/house is coming along. The enormous task of moving, while I knew it would be that, is beyond even my wildest dreads. I know people move all the time. I never have. How can you possibly put a lifetime in boxes and move it to a smaller house, especially when that smaller house is already full of your other lifetime?  I am so totally thrilled with the shop/house however.  You note I have not come up with a suitable word to denote that house yet. I suspect until we are fully moved it will remain "the shop".
This week, while my house is fully decorated for Christmas, I now have boxes and big stacks of things sitting around in the middle of my tasteful decorating, completely reeking havoc with being' tastefully decorated'. I am cleaning closets! Deciding that I probably won't lose those 50 pounds to fit back into those clothes, and spurred on more by the fact that the shop/house only has one closet and I believe Ronnie has already laid claim to that one, I need to get rid of clothes. It now appears I probably have not cleaned closets in 20 years. I am throwing away several shirts (one huge garbage bag full) that has paint from whatever project I was working on, on them.  I kept a couple for when I fry bacon. As bacon frying always and I mean always seems to  splat grease on me, and ruin whatever decent top I have on.  So I had to keep a bacon shirt. Try explaining that one to Ronnie. Eyes rolled to top of head, he just smiled. But he is thankful I am cleaning closets so said nothing. I, myself, am wondering why, when I am barefoot as many months of the year as possible, I own so many pairs of shoes? They are not really dressy affairs however. They all serve a purpose. 2 pairs of sandals, (one pair with toes enclosed in case my toe nail polish is chippy and I don't want it to show....), my arctic packs of course, my dress boots when I have to be dressed up, my work boots, my swamp boots, and one or two pairs of heels, that I will be throwing away.  The downside of going barefoot is that gradually you can not tolerate heels any more. I last wore one pair to a funeral 2 years ago and ended up before the luncheon end being barefoot, as my feet were killing me.  I fear I may be becoming eccentric!
 
Remember Beulah and me and our trip in September to Tennessee and Kentucky. We did that show at Primitive Homeplace. http://www.picturetrail.com/primitivehomeplace
(October 5, 2006 newsletter) Told often that primitives are on their way out, a statement I find totally untrue, we toured Ruth Rochelle's house in a private tour with Ruth serving as our southern guide. Oh my! Her home is featured in the November issue of Country Sampler. I find the photographs didn't do the rooms and collections justice as the colors are brighter or faded more than I remember. She is true primitive. There are many of us who love the primitive look, the worn cupboard, the original paint, crocks imperfect from years of use, quilts threadbare in places from decades of wear..
I had given some thought to running down state to Jane Wallace's Christmas Open House this month, but always fearing being that far away in winter weather, I opted not to go. I wish I had. Here is a link to her house
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=12&uid=4432446&gid=14240896&
I have done several shows with Jane and her folk art and her antiques are always a favorite booth of shows.  She often has little left in a matter of only a couple hours!  Also we have done shows with Robert and Steven and here is a link to their house. They are primitive, but more refined than Jane.
I thought you might enjoy looking at them.
 
Update on Mrs Seeley. She is home from the hospital, still recovering and still knitting. I visit at least once a week, and come away with her red mittens tucked into a bag. I picked up 4 large skeins of red yarn for her last week, and dropped them off when I got the mittens. Her thoughts? "You expect me to live thru the summer and use all this yarn?" I surely hope so!
At 80 years old, her mind is sharp, and our visits are enjoyable. I thank all of you for buying her red mittens. I have sold 280 pairs since October when we first put them on crow soup!
She is absolutely DELIGHTED with this. I tell her she is famous!   I made up cards using the picture of her mittens on the table and gave them to her. She called this week and decided after years of not sending cards, she needed these cards to send out. The back merely reads 'Mrs Seeley's red mittens  High Button Shoe. I still have mittens for sale, and she continues to knit. They can be displayed all winter, or as I do leave them out all year on the fireplace mantel on a twine rope with clothes pins. Although I have 'used" mine to fill orders when I didn't have enough, so my display is down to 3 mittens at the moment!
 
Crow soup will be released sometime today. We can be found at www.crowsoup.com/Market586.php   We are having a sale on our wood door trim picture frames, perfect for old ancestor pictures; molasses sugar cones; a vintage crochet bag sitting on an old metal egg box that holds 36 eggs, comes with two old wood eggs (I have other pictures I can send you of the metal egg carrier), and to use the most impressive collection of old silverware I have...we are putting pieces on old boards.  Ronnie made me a spoon board, using some of these old spoons and used an original paint door, that I got from my grandma's familys old homestead before they destroyed the house several years ago. Learning it would be burned, I asked if I could take some of the wood from the house. I have used it in several things, but this old door with the hardware still on the side is perfect for my spoon rack. My grandma was born in 1881, and I remember visiting this house with her when I was a very small child and she was very old. Beulah put a picture of my painted door board spoon rack up on our website last night, in the Byers home icon. OH!  AND I must tell you....  www.highbuttonshoe.net/byliving.htm  (for spoon board and chair)
you will recall Ron's and my 'discussion' of getting a new chair to replace the one with holes in the arms, that he steadfastly refused to replace.  Duct tape was a word used often.  There was no way I could even put a throw on it to make it look presentable. I was determined to have a new chair before we move in the spring to the other house! I can be most persuasive!  The new chair is in the Byers home icon too! It proved to be more difficult than I thought. AFTER getting him to agree to a new chair, I could not find the type I wanted. Like eye glasses, the producers will make what THEY want you to buy and you find yourself looking at all the same type of furniture. Oddly I found this one, and it is the only one of that type I found after looking at many many chairs. I bought it on the spot.  So I can stop agonizing over taking that beat up chair over to the new house.  This will cost me dearly however, and Ron already has his list of paybacks for me. I, of course, am ignoring him!
 
I know the holiday season gets crazy. But be sure to check us out at the first of the year. We have something special planned for you.
 
AND I must take this opportunity to  again thank my goodest friend Jana in NC for the most wonderful box that I got this week. Having been so thrilled to see cotton when we were in Tennessee (okay, so I am impressed easily... but I had never seen cotton growing before..) I unwrap stems of cotton. I LOVE IT!! But beneath the cotton wraps was the jewel. A book called For the Love of Old by Mary Randolph Carter, the most impressive book with pictures and carefully worded descriptions of old, tarnished, rusted, threadbare, weathered, faded, chipped and beloved things. Another goodest friend, Miss Elspeth, www.pineberrylane.com  writes like this. A true old soul, she often writes me passages of books she is reading, and takes my mind off to other places with her words. The words in this book reminds me of why we love primitives. And I am renewed.
 
Update on rosemary.  www.highbuttonshoe.net/farm.htm  Still alive and kicking! I know. Unbelievable. I have been thinking of adding some food to her water, but afraid that might jinx the growth.  It has grown about 4 inches in each stem since I took the picture. I will have to take another picture to show you.  But she is seen on the farm icon. You know I keep the old dead ones, as I find beauty in them after the last green and the fragrance is gone. And of course, I never have a live one long enough, so I might just as well enjoy the spiney remains of a dead one. Kind of like my dead Christmas tree.  I have them sitting around in pots. Ok, so maybe I am really getting eccentric!
Thanks for asking to be a part of our farm.
I appreciate all of you who write to me, and who have become friends. Thank you for sharing your lives with me.  If you don't hear from me, have somebody check a closet. I may have fallen victim to the remote vastness of endless closet clutter and without my chocolate energy may not be able to fight my way back out.  Perhaps I should just slip some into my pocket now, just in case.....
Merry Christmas!
in fond regard and thoughts,
Tilda
keeper of the rosemary
owner of new chair
the closet cleaner
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