Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Ellen's Missouri aunt made her a dress. She got the pattern from a co-worker, thought it was adorable, and made it for Ellen. It is so cute, but she had quite the time with it. For one thing...the MAIN thing...Ellen wasn't cooperative in the "let me measure you" department. So Auntie had to just make a guess at the size. The first time it was too little. The second time it was a tad too big, but I put it on Ellen while they were here so Auntie was able to measure it a bit better. So now it fits just right...for a few months anyway. The shoulder straps are unique in that they are just that; straps. You pull them through button holes in the top front and then knot so they can't be pulled back through. It made quite the sensation among the ladies at church yesterday.

gumption/gump's hen / 1 initiative, resourcefulness; 2 courage Her story isn't all that unusual, I suppose. There are thousands who go through it, for one reason or another, and they face it with the same determination and courage. But here in our corner of the world her story touched us all. Last June a lady at our church had to have the lower part of her left leg amputated below the knee. To a woman who is active and athletic this was devastating, as you might expect. But what was remarkable was that through the devastation, through the agony of loss and the pain of recovery...two things remained steady; faith and gumption. Faith that God had a purpose for her life, faith that He was still with her and would see her though. The courage and gumption to start over again, to make the best of what life had handed her and not complain about it. This was an inspiration to all of us. Last summer she said she wasn't going to be able to play at the church softball games...

Every once-in-awhile a day comes along that calls out for a walk in the woods. The weather is perfect; sunny, breezy, not too hot, not too cold...just perfect. Not to mention the cows were pastured in the upper fields. So I loaded Ellen up on the 4-wheeler and off we went down to the creek bottoms again. The creek was a little bit lower than on our last walk, so after we spent some time annoying the eensy-weensy schools of fish with our rock throwing, and chasing the little peeper frogs around I decided to go to ford the creek and check out the other side. We went all the way up to the top of the ridge behind us. When I type it out like this it all sounds fast, but keep in mind this is on some 100 acres of wooded land here, so the ride is rather bumpy in some of the pastures, and going through the wooded areas you have to dodge fallen branches (or limbs, rather...a branch in this part of the country is actually a body of water.) On this other ridge we find the old homestead. The or...

Blogger and I have some issues here. I have tried to blog but it keeps kicking me out. Argh! Anyway. There's not too much exciting going on to blog about, though I have a list of things I want to put down. (no time for all of it now.) But thanks to everyone who answered about the rag on the bush question. Now. How about the saying: "Too much sugar for a cent." Hubby and I have our own ideas of what this might mean. When I Googled it all I came up with was a book by that name. I wasn't of a mind to purchase it, so I am still clueless. Have fun.

Here's another saying to add to my list. Whenever Ellen is throwing one of her down-in-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming fits, hubby says; "She's really taking the rag off the bush." OK You tell me what that's supposed to mean. I guess it's just an old Ozarks saying that made sense a hundred years ago.

Q: How do you know when you've become a true hillbilly? A: When you bring a coon in a live trap to church. Here's the story: One of the guys at church...I will call him RR for convenience sake, is a rabid raccoon hunter. He has coon dogs and all the spotlights and gear and whatnot. Several months ago during coon season he went coon hunting over at the neighbor's place across the river but I don't think the dogs even found a coon to chase. Hubby told him that we have LOTS of coons, so over the course of the past few months RR has been over coon hunting several times. We do have PLENTY of them. However, apparently we breed pretty clever coons because he and his buddies have never been able to tree a coon on our place. They head straight to their den trees and that's the end of that. He has even come over the past couple of weeks in the off season. Now he loves to coon hunt and says he needs to train one of his dogs, but I think he is mostly bound and determined ...

Who's life have you toughed today? Ha ha. Have you ever read any of those church bulletin bloopers? Like: "Bless someone today, say hell to someone you don't know." Along those lines? Well, last Sunday our church bulletin advised: "Have a blessed day and tough somebody's life today as hopefully God has toughed yours." The author of the above line did not catch the blooper until she'd finished copying and folding them. She gave us all a laugh, and she is gracious enough to laugh along. (Obviously she meant to say "touch" instead.)