Labor of Love

As children, we don't always appreciate what our parents have sacrificed for us.

All the years I was growing up in Mobridge. South Dakota we had big garden to help nurture our large family.

Only now do I realize what a labor of love this garden and it's fruition really was. My parents labored long hours there, Dad in the vegetable section and Mother in the flower gardens, and as a result, we eight children dined on wonderful summer produce, and experienced the beauty and fragrance of old fashioned flower gardens.

Dad was an avid hunter and fisherman, and we often had pheasant and grouse dinners, not to mention many varieties of fish caught in the river and local lakes.

At the time, Carol and I were totally unappreciative of all of this bounty, preferring instead to head down the street to Krause's Drive Inn for a malt and burger. Our younger brothers, and baby sisters probably were more enthusiastic about the full meat and potato dinners and fresh produce, but we were totally oblivious to these blessings. We were thin then, very thin, and maybe that was why.

All of these years later, Dad has passed on, and Mother is no longer able to work in the garden. We are no longer "whisps of girls", but I, for one, appreciate all that they did, and suffered for us, especially now that natural, uncontaminated food is no longer readily available in many grocery stores. How could we have known when we were young, that the day would come when

the food on the store shelves would be largely unlabeled genetically modified versions of produce, and that the meat would come from Confined Animal Feeding Facilities.

Now more than ever, we need to work to plant heirloom seeds and reap the bounty of pure and natural foods for our families, and somehow, instill these homespun values in future generations. They, like we were, are preoccupied with frivolities and their peer group, but they need to be involved in grass roots efforts to preserve our natural food supply, GMO free, even if it takes hard work and dedication to the cause.

It has only been a few generations back that all food was local or home-made. In a future blog, I will detail my Grandmother, Erma Juelfs hard work in getting food on the table, (from scratch) during the Great Depression in South Dakota. Despite the incredibly labor intensive

food preparation processes, people knew the source of their food and clothing in the past, because they raised it, grew it, collected it or made it with their own hands.

We need to return to Local Foods.

Thank you Mother, Dad, Grandma Erma, and all of your predecessors for your hard work and devotion, and thank you for helping us form home grown values.

THE MOVE TO SOUTH DAKOTA

The sorting was the hard part of preparing to move to South Dakota. I say that because it is a temporary move for a stay of around five months and we still have the house in Puyallup.

The Washington house is in the care of family, so it is in good hands, but the delema was what to take and what to leave for the caretakers.

We plan to stay here in South Dakota from June through October, and that is a good chunk of time. If something essential is overlooked in the packing, it has to be replaced on this end.

For some reason, I prioritized my office stuff over everything else. Maybe I have some miserable need to surround myself in clutter, (here we go, peddling around that issue again).

At any rate, we had to limit our possessions to the confines of the same three horse slant trailer that we used on the first trip to S.D. in April. On that trip we brought furniture for two bedrooms, and living room and kitchen, and felt very comfortable with what we had. This time however, with a longer stay in mind, we brought a few things for a downstairs family room, and most of my office files, and of course this Mac that I love so dearly, and Jim's computer desk and hutch, lamps and so forth.

What stayed in Washington was the good office furniture. There is not room enough for it in this house. And there are other things that stayed, because that house is more deserving of them than this one. All of the yard furniture stayed because this place doesn't have a yard.

This is a transitionary time for us. We are trying to decide what we really want.

We were lucky to have family here in Mobridge that helped us find this house, which has a beautiful view of the water, and a reasonable rent with option to buy, but the house has one issue that I can't overlook. The elderly (now deceased) owner sold at least half of the back yard to the next door neighbor. Now his three sons own the house and have used it as a rental property since their father's death.

Now, there are two ways to look at this. The first is that we have the acreage in Dewey County, and we don't really need a back yard here in town. The second is the outrageous situation of seeing the lot split and cut off from alley access. Some one else's garden is in the back yard that should be part of this property. and their garage has a back door that opens onto what used to be this yard.

Jim is comfortable here, but I don't want some else's trouble. What about resale? What do you think?

So, we will rent this house for a year, and my plan is and always has been to live out on the property in Dewey County. It is beautiful, especially now. We had two more inches of rain last night and everything is green. We have also heard from FSA office that one of our projects, the wildlife conservation plan has been approved. And that is exciting. I have been ill this week but we need to go back over and discuss it further.

But, I'm getting off the subject of the move itself. We left Puyallup in the truck with two dogs and a cockatiel, and pulling the horse trailer with our furnishings. Jim commented that all we needed to complete the picture was granny in a rocking chair strapped on top of the cab.

One of the dogs is our silver poodle, Oliver and the other is a little "foster dog" which belongs to my nephew Casey Fischer, who is deployed with the Navy. This little white fur ball goes by the name of Grover, and he is a mixed toy breed, maybe poodle and yorkshire terrier or maltese. Grover has been under the care of our daughter Steph and family, but came with us on the move. He is cheerfully waiting for Casey's return from sea. and has attached to me with all his little heart and soul until then. I actually enjoy grooming him with a little slicker brush, and telling him how pretty he is.

Because we have virtually no yard here, the dogs must be walked on leash several times a day. They look forward to these outings and I wish I could say that we feel the same.

We drove straight through from Washington to S.D. with a stop for a nap at a road side rest stop, as we didn't want to stop with a load full of critters.

We arrived in Mobridge just in time to unload the furniture, and then left for Rapid City for a family wedding at the Baker ranch. We experienced the joy and festivity of the wedding on Saturday, June 6th, and then returned for a funeral of another family member, baby Graycen, who lived only 48 hours, and was as beautiful as an angel.

We feel blessed to be able to be here with our families during times of joy and sorrow. That's what life is all about, wouldn't you say?

The first project we started when we returned from Rapid City/Buffalo Gap, S.D. area was my mother's garden, and what a project it is, but that is a separate blog.

HORSE TRAILER DOES DOUBLE DUTY

In early April of this year, we loaded some of our furniture and bedding and housewares into our three horse slant trailer and along with our daughter, Stephany, and grand-daughter, Keeley, began the 1,400 mile trek to move into our summer home in Mobridge, S.D.

The weather was wild in the Dakotas and Snoqualmie Pass in our own state of Washington was closed due to snow only hours before our departure, but we left on schedule.

North Dakota was experiencing record flooding and record snow fall, but we found the roads to be clear and dry all the way to Mobridge. We were in awe of all the snow in the fields and heaped in huge piles along the streets of the towns along the way, and were grateful to the road crews who did an excellent job of clearing the highways.

Besides our family, we had two canine travelers in the truck, my dog Oliver, a silver poodle, and a dear little poodle/yorkie mix, Grover, that is the care of Steph while his owner is deployed.

Grover's owner is my nephew, Casey, who is in the Navy and out to sea. Fortunately for us, the two dogs were very good and cheerful travelers. We did have to look for motels who accepted pets, (for a fee), though, and I wondered if the rooms for people with dogs might have been second best, but other than that, things went very well, and the dogs loved the pet place adventure at the rest stops.

We arrived in Mobridge and with the great help of our daughter and other family members, unloaded our furniture into the house we had rented, sight unseen. We were very comfortable there and Stephany purchased and cooked a wonderful family dinner for Grandma Hardcastle,

my brother Bill Hardcastle and sister, Carol (Hardcastle) Fischer and her husband, Dennis Fischer as well as for Jim and I and Keeley in this house. We were a little short of serving dishes and used paper plates, but didn't feel at all deprived. It was all very good.

Stephany brought all the furnishings for one of the bedrooms, a set of twin beds, with bed clothes, and matching curtains. They (Steph and Keeley) also brought a bedside stand and a lamp and some wall hangings. So, that room will stay just as it is, and will be known as The Teffy Bird Room. For those of you that don't know, Steph has been the Bird since she was a newborn, our own dear little Teffy Bird.

The trip was short; we could only stay a week. We had an appointment at the Ag office and got moved in to the house with great love and support from our daughter and grand-daughter, Keeley.

Stephany felt really good about helping us because she knows we really needed her and that she made a difference.

And we are blessed to have such a wonderful family.

THIS IS JUST TAKING UP SPACE

My size 9 shorts.

EXCUSES AND CONFESSIONS FROM MARY CAT

I am surprised at the amount of time that has elapsed since my last blog entry. There are many

new developments to describe, but for various reasons I have avoided doing so.

First packing and moving some of our house hold furnishings to South Dakota has been a bit

overwhelming. But I must confess that some of the reasons I have been away from blogging have more to do with playing and entertainment than working or other noble endeavors.

I discovered facebook and it's applications and have been quite fascinated with it all. In some ways this is a good thing, because for most of my life, I have been unable to play or entertain myself. And now, there is change. It's difficult to stop playing, and I'm really having fun. Maybe the excitement of realizing life dreams has lifted a dark cloud of depression, and a tendency to be introverted.

Hours slip by very quickly and reality dims as virtual avitars and habitats are created. Social networking with relatives and friends is also very uplifting. I so love being retired and having the time to enjoy life, and all of it's beauty.

There is very little time left today for me to blog, but in the next entries, I will describe our trip to South Dakota, and moving into a rental house in Mobridge, SD sight unseen, (fortunately, that was a good experience), and filing our land use plan for Dewey County.

Our plans are for organic farming and sustainable living are on track and now that we are home in Puyallup, we're preparing for the next phase of 'Operation Heirlooms', the return to the land to dig the well, plant the trees and native grasses for wild life habitat, and plant heirloom, organic crops and flowers.

More on all of that later.

ONE DAY I'LL ROLL IN A......

My dream ride is a truck.

If pot is legalized, I expect ......

If marijuana is legalized, the biggest benefit would be increases in tax revenue. It would be taxed just like cigarettes and alcohol.