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Hi Everyone,
Laughter is good medicine . . . and if you continue to read this journal I will give you a good dose of medicine. Full warning though—if your bladder is full please empty now for laughter and a full bladder do not mix.
March 1st arrived last Sunday and by Tuesday the spring weather was overpowering us that we couldn’t wait another day to pack up the winter décor and bring out the spring décor. The red, white and greenery of winter with its hollies and snowmen were replaced with pinks, blues, mint greens, antique doilies and china. Yes, come spring we eat our lunch on china that used to belong to my Great-Aunt Gladys and her sister my Great-Grandmother Street. It is all a breath of fresh air.
Changing décor was not the only thing I did on Tuesday—I also spent a few hours cleaning my bathroom and bedrooms for I had company due to arrive Wednesday evening. My dear friend Lydia had taken a few days off of work to come and spend some time with me on the farm. Lydia is a ball of laughing energy, eager to help and full of fun. Thursday morning after breakfast we headed to the milking parlor to milk the cows—but first we had to take time to make a short video introducing my new “Cow Chef”. Lydia’s job was to mix up the food for the cows, bring cows in, let cows out—and occasionally catch the cow poo. Our video was a hoot, and I told her that if we could make three of those a week we would make it rich on YouTube. Sorry though—it isn’t for public view, just for good laughs and precious memories. After the cows were milked Lydia and I spent an hour looking for the perfect Key Lime Pie recipe. Our Key lime tree had blessed us with an abundance of key limes and I so badly wanted to make a pie with the juice. To my dismay every recipe called for sweetened condensed milk or pureed cashews—to which I had neither. I finally decided to make a creamy lemon (but using lime juice instead) pie with an oatmeal flour crust that resembled a graham cracker crust. Lydia juiced all the key limes while I made the crust and the pudding. Once the pie was all made and cooled I saw that I still had three egg whites sitting in a bowl and decided to turn them into meringue to top the lemon—I mean lime pie with. In the end it was a most delicious pie. After lunch we cleaned up the kitchen and then we headed upstairs to the sewing room. We worked on a new jumper for Mama and I worked a little on a jumper for me that I have been working on for the past two years (a little here and a little there). No, it doesn’t take me that long to sew something—I can actually sew a jumper in an hour, but finding time and using my time wisely isn’t always easy. We came downstairs in time to cook dinner: Fried cube steak, broccoli soufflé, potatoes and our mock Key Lime Pie.
Friday morning, we climbed out of bed dark and early—at 5:00. We were milking the cows early so that we could head south to Lydia’s neck of the woods for 24 hours. We had dreamed of this day for years, but never knew how to make it happen until this year. We milked the cows and ate breakfast and then I fixed us a picnic lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches stuffed with sautéed onion, chicken and prepared brown mustard. Then I served up two pieces of the pie. Once her car was packed we headed south. Lydia has been learning how to yodel—so we listened to some German yodeling for a while. When I had my share of yodeling we changed to BBN radio (a Christian radio station we really enjoy) and listened to it in different languages. Our first stop was to meet her Mother at a thrift store to drop off some milk and eggs so we didn’t have to carry them around with us all day. Then we headed to the Grumbles House in Dunnellon, Florida. There were lots of garden décor and plants on the outside of the old vintage house, and there were all kinds of antiques and house décor to be found in the many rooms downstairs and upstairs inside the house. We spent a little over an hour in that store and I came out with some dragonfly stepping stones and some lamb’s ears plants for my Mama and some rose pruning gloves for me. We then went next door to a clothing and jewelry boutique—but found nothing. It was then going on 2:00 so we decided to head down to the local boat ramp behind the City Hall and enjoy our picnic lunch at a picnic table overlooking the Withlacoochee River. Next on our list was another view of the Withlacoochee River. Lydia was hoping to show me the Rainbow River—but it was too far away for our schedule (maybe next time). We then headed to a little antique shop called Crazy Chicks. In the back room we found a collection of antique hats and old clothes. We began trying on all the hats and we got a good case of the giggles and were laughing so hard that the ladies who worked there and owned it came back to see what all the laughter was about. They didn’t come back to scold—they came back to join in. They encouraged us to try on this hat and that hat. Lydia had her phone available at all times—taking pictures or making videos. When she showed the ladies some of the pictures of us in our fancy hats they asked if we would please share them on their Facebook page—and we said yes! I so wanted to play dress up too with their old fancy ball gown—but I (we) decided that it was probably too small for me. When we were done trying on hats we jumped in the car and headed to another antique store—but we didn’t stay too long because it wasn’t that grand. Then we drove down the road to Crystal Springs. We stopped at a little tourist boutique, and then we headed to Fort Island Gulf Beach because I wanted to put my feet in the water. When her parents asked me later when the last time I had visited the gulf was, I told them that this was my first time to visit the Gulf of America. I had visited the Gulf of Mexico years ago. We walked in the water from one end of the beach to the other end of the beach. There were very few people there—but there were a lot of seagulls. I called them beach chickens. I was fascinated by them taking a bath in the gulf bouncing up and down with its waves. We then sat down on one of the dunes and watched the waves, the seagulls and a little flock of Grackles and a red-winged black bird that landed about ten feet from us. It was getting time to leave and Lydia wanted to show me the boat ramp and dock—so we walked down to it and when we walked out on the dock a fisherman said that he had just seen a manatee heading our way. We never did see it. We walked out to the end of the dock and sat down on the floating dock that rose up and down with the waves. It felt like we were on our own personal boat—going nowhere, but enjoying every minute of it. With our backs to the land and our eyes to the water it really did feel like we were out in the middle of the gulf floating along. It was after 5:30 when we started for her home—dinner was to be at 6:30. I hadn’t had the opportunity to spend the night at a friend’s house since I was a teenager. Her parents were very welcoming with her Mother going out of her way to make meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad and cookies that I could eat. When you have to read labels it makes shopping for groceries a little challenging. I was very grateful for their kind hospitality. We told all about our days adventures as we ate dinner—which meant dinner lasted a long time. We were relieved of dishes duty so Lydia gave me a flashlight tour of their “gardens” and her Father’s barber shop. Then she styled my hair for a little while and when we could no longer hold our eyes open we retired at 9:30.
We got up at 5:30 Saturday morning and got dressed and sat around the table and sipped a cup of Hot coco. Lydia loves hot chocolate and just about every year for her birthday I get her something related to hot coco. Last January I bought her a container of hot coco mix that only had two ingredients: cocoa and sugar. Lydia said it was the best she had ever had and couldn’t wait to share it with me. We had decided not to take time to eat breakfast at her house—but we did take time for a cup of hot chocolate. Her Mother was nice enough to start it for us while we got dressed. It was 6:30 when we headed outside to head back to the farm—and to our dismay her dear “Annie” had a flat tire. Thankfully her parents had an extra vehicle and we swapped everything to it and headed home. We arrived just in time for breakfast (around 8:30) at my house. We shared pictures and videos and the treasures that I had bought—and then we headed out to finish putting together the milking equipment and began milking. Yep—I could only leave the farm for the hours between milking since we do not have someone else to milk for us. The cows didn’t welcome me home very nicely though—well, shall I say “Sundrop” didn’t welcome me back very warmly—or maybe it was a little too warmly. Sundrop decided that she had to go poo, and Lydia was very gracious to attempt to catch it—BUT Sundrop would not stand still and she kept swinging her tail back and forth. It was like her tail was the bat and her poo was the ball—and she had some good aim hitting it here and there and then she made a home run right on top of my head! I wasn’t sure that something had hit me, so I put my hand on my head and found a nice size pile. I laughed and Lydia squealed in disgust—but she kindly cleaned up my hair the best she could. The rest was taken care of when I got my shower later that night. When the milking was done we had to pack orders and take care of some customers—then we relaxed for a few hours and dozed off and on for we were so tired. Around 4:30 we headed upstairs to my sewing room to finish the jumper we had started for Mama and my jumper. After dinner we got our showers and then she pulled out her violin and I played the piano. We played hymns for about 20 to 30 minutes—and then we headed to bed. It was the worst weekend for a time change—but it happened anyway. We got up this morning at 5:00 (old time 4:00) to milk the cows in order to get to church at a reasonable time (which never seems to be on time). With Lydia’s help we got done in good timing and we rode together to church. After church Lydia headed back to her home, and I rode home with my parents to mine where we will dream of the next time we get to hang out and be “girls”.
My parents got to spend 24 hours by themselves—well almost, for Micah worked with them until 4:30 Friday afternoon. They spent the day cleaning out the rain tub, and making a new river bed of rock for the overflow. The rose garden is coming along nicely—but some of the plants we transplanted will have to be replaced because they died. When Mama asked Papa if they would do anything special since they would be home alone Papa said, “Yes, we will pretend to go out to eat and go and watch a movie.” They ate some of Kalacrow’s frozen pizza for dinner and sat on the sofa together and watched a movie.
I had a lovely week, and an enjoyable vacation spent with my dearest friend. It was nice to take some time off and “smell the roses.”
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare