Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Jan.13, 2009

This week is a first for me- I am going to Hays to help Jennifer get settled into her apartment. She is going to school there and working for Wal-mart. Giz helped get her moved in and I will be going to help put on the finishing touches. Jennifer and Giz are both more than capable of doing it themselves, but they let me come and put in my two cents. Giz will be home alone for awhile and Jennifer will come home when she is able. She is taking a full load of classes and working a lot of hours- I can tell that all of this is for the younger generation. She makes me tired just talking to her about her schedule.
My father-in-law called me bright and early Sunday morning to talk about the article in the Dodge City paper about the dairy farmer who is worried that he is going to be taxed for cattle gases. I know that people think that this tax will never pass- no pun intended- but we really do need to keep our eyes on this silly tax. If the EPA gets this through beef and milk prices will go through the roof and no one will be able to afford to buy these products. Does not look good for the ranchers and dairies.
The weather has been great for having baby calves- We had to help a young heifer Friday. She picked a good day to have her baby- everything worked just right and the calf and momma are doing fine- she was one of those heifers- who had problems understanding just how the calving process worked. After it was all done and over with she seemed happy with the outcome. She made me think of young people when they are to have their first child. They really want a baby but not quite sure how everything is going to work out after they have started the pregnancy. I love to hear new parents and their ideas of how they are going to raise their family. They have all of these ideas and the ideas are not much different than the ones we have before we had our first kids. When you start out you think that you are going to really change the world. Then reality sets in after you have bought the bundle of joy home. Instead of changing the world you just pray that you will survive the next day.

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Feb. 3, 2009

Mom and I went to the movies last Saturday. I always think that we will go to the movies more than we do, but it seems that something comes along and we unable to go. I must say that our theater is so nice and I think that most of the credit must go to Debi Sherman. I hope people let her know that all of her efforts do not go unnoticed. She puts in a lot of time at the theater when she could be doing something for herself. So Debi- Thank you for all that you do to make Coldwater a better place to live.
I received a call from my Tuscan, Arizona friend- He was telling me that the Gem and Mineral Show is going on in Tuscan this month. He said that there are vendors from all over the world there to sell their products. He was telling me about all of the different and beautiful rocks and gems that would be there. I think that it would be fun to go to something like that and take in all of the festivities. My family has a love for rocks as well. My Granddad Cary loved rocks. So much so that he bought a rock saw and polisher and he had a little building just for his rock equipment. The little six sided building was known as the ‘rock house’ He had all kinds of equipment. He made jewelry and a paper weights with a pen attached to the slab of rock he had sliced. He would always have a pocket full of necklaces and bracelets that he would give to children and almost anyone who showed any kind of interest in the rocks he had set. When he went to the hospital he would tell Grandma to bring a certain piece of jewelry or paperweight so he could give it to a particular nurse.
I do not know much about gem and minerals but he taught me all that I know about rocks, and he had a way of making you want to know more. Grandparents have a way of teaching grandkids things where no one else would have a chance. Thinking about sitting in Granddad’s ‘rock house’ brings back a flood of memories. He would let me pick out a rock and he would cut it and then he would let me shape it and then polish it. Sometimes he would bring in a rock that he had found out in the pasture or wheat field and say ‘come on, let’s see what it looks like on the inside’. Usually it was prettier on the inside than the out - some were not so pretty on the inside but then there were rocks that were the same inside and out. Come to think about it rocks are not all that much different than people.
Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Jan. 20, 2009
I was sad to hear that Diana Smith Bilyeu passed away. She was a little older than me and I did not know her well. In high school she was friends with Betty and Dorothy Gobel. Whenever she would go out to visit them she would have to go by our house. We had a little cocker spaniel named ‘Butchie’ and she loved to chase cars. As everyone knows if your dogs chase cars he will catch one sooner or later and that will be the end of him. We lost a couple of dogs to the road. Sometimes people would stop and tell you that they had ran over our dog and sometimes they would drive on by. Well, Butchie caught Diana. I can remember this so clear- Diana's car was pulled off to the side of the road by the barn and she was holding and petting Butchie. She had cried and felt so bad. I do not know how long she had been there but I think that it must have been quite a while.I know that it ruined her day and her visit with her friends. The worst thing was that it did not kill the little car chaser- it paralyzed she from the lower back down. The dog did not learn her lesson she still tried to chase cars. Instead of running from the house to the road she stayed closer to the barn as it was by the road and she would pull her hiney and try to catch yet another car. Dad hated to put anything down- his theory of ‘where there is life there is hope’ but in this case, sometimes you gotta do what needs to be done. But I always had a soft spot for Diana - she could have left little ‘Butchie’ by the side of the road, but she stayed and comforted the little car chaser. We thought that Diana must have had a really kind and tender heart.
We lost Mary Pierce, a good family friend early Tuesday morning. Her husband, Bob, and my folks were friends. We had many good times with Bob and Mary. Mary liked more sophisticated music than our family. I always she added a little class where ever she went. She taught music in Wilmore my sixth grade year. We had 17 kids in school; it was 3rd thru 6th grade. She had me sing a solo in the spring program. She had a way of getting you to do what she needed you to do without any pressure. It was not until the time of the program that I realized that I had to sing by myself. I remember being really scared but all you had to do was to look at Mrs. Pierce and all of your fears went away. Then she talked me in to singing to a ladies group in our church called the ‘Dorcas Circle’. I will never forget it- I sang ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth’. I was terrified but Mary got me through it. She gave piano lessons to many kids in the area.
Mary always had her hair fixed perfectly. Many of you remember the Wilmore Halloween Carnival. Everyone in the area came to the carnival it did not matter where you went to school - everyone that attended had a wonderful time. At the carnival you could buy little sacks of confetti. Dad loved to throw confetti on everyone he got near. Mary had just got her hair fixed at the beauty parlor. This was during the beehive hair style days. Mary’s hair was done just perfect-Dad dumped a whole bag over her. I thought that she might cry- there was confetti all over her and it went down in her hair. I bet she still had a few little pieces of confetti when she went back to the beauty parlor the next week. Needless to say that Mom had a talking to with dad. But if he had to do all over - he would have done it again. He loved getting reactions from people- Mary certainly gave him one.
Mary had Parkinson Disease-Parkinson’s is a cruel and awful illness, I guess most ailments are horrible. Mary was loved by many people, but we know that she is in a better place. I bet she is singing her heart out to the angels.




Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Jan 27, 2009
It is nice that the January weather has been kind to us considering it is in the middle of winter. I guess the Good Lord knew that we needed some sunshine. I appreciate that as we have to windmills to repair. I think that windmills must get a virus. It seems that once one mill has problems another one will quit working as well - it may not need the same repair but it will be needing some type of attention. Working on windmills in the extreme temperatures is not something I like to do. In the summer, the pipes and the wrenches get so hot that they are too hot to touch barehanded and you pray for a breeze to cool you down. As you pull a mill we normally get water on us which feels pretty good even though it may not be the kind of water you want poured all over you but when you are hot cranky you will take what you can get. I get really cranky when I get hot and I think that there are times that Jim either would like to drown me if he could find enough water or just hit me in the head with a hammer and tell God I died. There is not a jury in the world who would convict him as I am sure he could prove it was justifiable homicide.
Dad had almost every kind of you would need to pull a mill. He had a little set of pipe wrenches that we used for the jet rod. He was very particular about these tools- he just knew that I would drop one down in the well and that would not be a good thing. If Dad was worried about something like ruining a windmill he had his ways to letting you know that life would never be the same if you were responsible for dropping something down in the well. When we would get done with the well work he would make sure that all of his tools were accounted for and put in the ‘well bucket’. Dad was really organized in his own way- some might even say he had organized chaos- which was really the truth. But he did have some things that you would never even think about not putting away- His little well pipe wrenches were extra special so they were always in the well bucket.
In the winter the wind will not stop during the time you are in the process of pulling rope. Then when you unscrew the pipe -it is always full of water and you get soaked. The moisture that you get on you is not a blessing as it can freeze. Then your gloves freeze to the rope, the pipe, the wrenches and anything else that the devil thinks will make you cuss. Not to mention that your fingers and toes are so cold. Your eyes water, your nose runs, which is no help as it just adds to the freezing moisture on your face. and you are just flat out miserable. If it is at all possible we try to wait for a break in the weather. But I hate to haul water it is wet and cold and it is something that I would like to try to avoid. The strange thing is that all the while you are pulling the mill that there is a strong current of air - whether it is a scorching, burning, dry, chafing or bitter cold, frosty, and skin stinging wind. But as soon as you are finished and you want to see if you were successful in your efforts the wind stops. I mean it stops dead still and you cannot buy a breeze. It is just one to those things that make you go ‘huhhh’.

Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Jan. 06, 2009

We have started a new year. I cannot say that I was unhappy to say good-bye to 20008. I think that this year will be one of new beginnings for all of us. I will not go into the president issues as I think that topic is totally exhausted. I was listening to the radio and they were telling about how part of the ‘bail out’ was being spent. It just made me angry and that is one reason I do not like to listen to the news. I know that it is like putting your head in the sand- but I figure that there is nothing I could have done before and there is nothing that I can do now- so I might as well get over it.
I can remember going to new year eve parties when I was a growing up. When Bernard Plumb was our minister - his family liked parties. His wife Betty was a wonderful cook and she always had good ideas for throwing a party. Of course, the rest of the church helped out a lot. We had new years eve parties at the church and at midnight the adults would let the kids ring the bell at the church. I thought that was really ‘cool’.
Thinking about all of those who were involved with the activities at the church I realize how many have gone on before us. Many of them I miss even though they have been gone for many years. I will probably write more as our church will be 100 years old this year and we are planning on a whing-ding, Memorial Day. Bernard Plumb was one of the first to call to see what he could contribute to the festivities.
We have started the new year off with a new puppy- I know that I was going to wait but I found a pup that I have been wanting and the price was right so we took an excursion and picked up our new addition. ‘Gus’ is a Bernese Mountain Dog. He has just turned eight weeks old and he is adorable. He is completely different than any dog I have ever owned. We had to leave him home alone Sunday and I told Jim if something would have happened to him while we were gone I would have to search the world for another one and no one would ever be the wiser.