the farm update
High Button Shoe
Tilda Collection
crow soup
...so, I was sitting on the
closed lid of the toilet this morning at first light, crying. And wiping blood
off my face, with toilet paper that was not wiping as fast as the blood was
falling....aided I suppose with the tears. Crying with contact lens in makes
vision difficult, but probably no more so than crying when you have glasses
on.
My plans for the day included no
coffee or breakfast, as I was off first thing to the doctor office for a full
blood work up, a fasting blood sugar, so I was not at my full potential
anyway, with no coffee. Then going in another direction to the recycle
center. My truck was completely loaded from last night, full of cardboard and
newspaper to take to recycling. And I had to get groceries. We all know how
fond I am of that chore. I worked all afternoon yesterday at the Gundrum
Mercantile old building staining the window panes, inside. It was of course,
raining outside, as it has been doing a lot of lately. And indeed still is
today. Relentlessly.
Loading my truck in the terrible
winds of yesterday, we watched the sky turn a wicked rolling dark clouds, with
the sun making gorgeous streaks in it when it could break thru. Beulah walked
over and mentioned that we had tornado warnings out. I hadn't had any media
on, but was only judging the sky. Un-huh. Like I am a great sky watcher. But I
DID know, these were wicked clouds and the wind was terrible. I got myself
into the house when it started thundering and lightning. And turned on the TV,
and started supper.
From just north of Grand Rapids,
the entire state north was under thunderstorm and tornado watches. We rarely
and I mean rarely get tornado activity up here. If we do, it is very isolated.
So I paced around for a while, which is my storm activity practice, which thru
the years, I have honed into quite a frenzy sometimes. And there is no room
left under the bed, because my underwear is stored under there. So while I am
now thin enough to get there, there isn't room! The wind howled around us and
things fell on the porch. My old red/white quilt top and the 2 pairs of long
underwear were still hanging on the line as they always do, and were flipping
around so hard I feared the lines would surely break, and not going out to
rescue them I thought I would find them perhaps back in the woods this
morning.
Our son Steve and wife Cheryl were
driving home from Mt Pleasant, which according to storm news, was where the
storms were headed...so naturally 'Mom worries' kicked in. Anyway, they got
home, and Steve, whose new house is west of us on this country road, past our
barn, chicken coop, sheds, and corn cribs, called to say they were home and
that big trees were down in the road almost completely blocking it between our
house and theirs. Sleeping with one eye open, (my storm sleep), I got up this
morning to watch the school bus backing back up the road this morning before
light, as of course, they could not get thru. Ron left, and got the tractor to
move the trees out of the road and went to work. As I could not have coffee,
and it was too early for the blood work, I settled in to watch the news to see
what damage had been done. There were confirmed tornadoes last night about
1-1/2 hours north of us in Kalkaska. Having sat about 5 minutes, son Steve
walked up from his house and came in with his camera. And put his media chip
in the computer. Thus the reason for my tears. Where the trees had come down
in that path across the road, it followed north east and the shed that sits
there is now only one wall and some timbers going up into the sky, with no
walls or roof attached to them. The rest of the shed is in pieces in the back
hayfield. Oddly, one wagon of cut wood sits "in" the shed still, with all the
cut wood on it, but the shed itself is gone. Normally there would be more in
the shed, but we hadn't done it yet. I know the baler is there and we just
sold it, so I hope we still have something left to sell. The GOOD part of this
storm, was that is came thru the absolute BEST part of the farm, if it had to
come. It came between Steve's brand new house and pole barn, and our big hay
barn, which is decades old. And completely full of antique furniture and box
upon box of our household stuff. This is the barn I have been working in for
months. The shed stood literally only 30 yards from the big old barn.
A practice I have long done, and
realize how stupid it is, but during storms, I always pray for both the
houses, the huge white birch trees that are over 40 years old, all our trees,
the wild turkeys IN those trees roosting, and the barn. I have never added the
shed to my prayer list. Obviously I should have. Or perhaps my prayers were
simply answered in the path the storm took. So this was my crying of this
morning. Also stupid, I realize, as people have SO much worse happen in storms
than this. I so love these old outbuildings of ours and it just saddens me so
that one is gone. I am however, extremely grateful that all the important
buildings were spared.
And I suppose it would be inhuman
of me to hope that during all this ruckus, that Fritz, the resident barn snake
(my anaconda size snake!!) might have moseyed over to the shed to take refuge
and got hit by some flying debris and is now flattened under part of the shed.
I suppose that would be too much to ask.
I still plot his death daily as I
work in the barn, but am reduced to just carrying my hoe with me to chop him
up as Ron thinks I will probably cut my leg off with my axe. That brings me
to my blood. No I didn't chop my leg off.
As my life is lived without
estrogen, in the past few years, I have experienced the body changes of no
hormones. Probably some of you know of what I speak. The most annoying and in
deed most evident would probably be, I could easily grow a moustache to give
Ron a run for his. Early on years ago, I plucked the few annoying hairs out.
And occasionally used that moustache creme remover. Which always left me with
a red skin moustache and LOTS of pain.
As the years passed, the hormones
depleted, I found it much easier to just shave them off. Yes, I know.
However, it no longer matters how often you have to do it! So this morning,
with NO coffee, and blurry eyes and a very sad heart, I shaved off my
moustache to put on makeup over my swollen eyes to go to the doctor. Only made
a deep gash an inch long in my face which bled like a stuck hog. That may be a
Michigan saying, I am not sure. But translates to...a lot of blood that won't
quit. So I am sitting on the toilet, with toilet paper that is quickly filling
with blood and crying all the harder. Finally I find one of those butterfly
type bandaids. I told you years ago, bandaids don't stick to me, and I am good
for maybe 5 minutes tops. I put makeup on the rest of my face, trying to hide
the bad eyes, and leave for the doctors office. So I walk in, with big bags
under eyes that have obviously been crying, this idiot band aid stuck on my
face, makeup here and there, and blood here and there. And tell the
receptionist, who I don't know, that I am there for blood work. She merely
looks at me, trying NOT to look at my bandaid, which is QUITE EVIDENT I
suppose as it droops my face down, as I tried to pull it together to keep the
skin together. And I didn't realize I had touched it, and then had blood on
the other side of my face, the side with makeup. So they take me to the room
to draw my blood, which they can't get in FOUR attempts, and I am telling them
about the shed, the trees, and my face, when my friend Sue, the doctor, comes
in. She checks out my face, and determines I don't need stitches, and cleans
the rest of that makeup off and puts on liquid bandage, which hurt like
....heck!
And trys my other arm for the
blood work. After such a morning, I told her (she knows I just lost 75 pounds)
I needed coffee and chocolate. I have no chocolate in my house BUT I am
afterall going to the store. Sue gets me coffee (with hazelnut creamer which I
haven't tasted in SIX months) and drags me off to the closet for her stash of
Halloween Candy for the office, and I get two candy bars and 2 hugs from her.
Then I am off to recycle, and the grocery store. Still looking like I have
been in battle, and swollen eyes, but at least have coffee and chocolate
running thru my veins and the bleeding has stopped. It is still raining. And I
had the insurance company to call yet.
So this is my day today.
You may have noticed you didn't
get a mid month newsletter on time, which is because I don't know if crow soup
is up yet or not, as it wasn't the last time I checked...and of course, you
see I am definitely 'not up'. "UP" is about the last thing I am....
But Beulah uploaded what I was
GOING to put on crow soup to the website. The links are available at
We have Christmas cards, old wire
Christmas ornaments, what is remaining of Mrs Seeleys mittens, the two CD's we
are offering of the farmhouse and the old house, and my poor frazzled brain
doesn't remember what else. I sorely need to put a pot of coffee on. AND keep
out of the bags of Halloween candy I bought. Which my bad day is screaming
....candy, oh yes.... to me.
So while I am off to make me some
coffee and perhaps 'smell' a candy wrapper.... you can check out the new
stuff. And rejoyce with me in that our farm damage was slight. It could have
been SO much worse. You know how much I love the trees and the old buildings.
But I do realize they are only things...and the important things are still
standing.
Oh, we will soon be putting on a
list of shows you should consider. I will not be showing at any of them, but
do KNOW them to be GREAT shows. They will be listed as shows. Check them out.
One in Nashville Michigan, the Pig in the Poke. Candy and Max's in Mt Vernon
Ohio and the Breckenridge show down by Saginaw. All either November 3 and
10th. More on that in a day or so.
Thanks for asking to be a part of
our farm. If you decide not to, let me know and I will remove you from the
newsletters.
in fondest regard, Tilda
weary of boxes,
scab face
old quilt and 2 long underwears
still on the line thru the storm...while the shed is gone..
very lucky, indeed.