Another Postcard from the Past

This one was post marked Jan 24, 1911.  It is from Ruth B.  Ruth most likely lived in Waterloo from where this card was sent.  Lucy lived in Waterloo on 1129 Randolph Street.  Lucy had sent Ruth a little guest book.  Ruth was thanking her very, very much for the cute little guest book.

About yesterday's post card.  It is sent from San Diego, CA. It is rather hard to read and is from someone that only put their initials on it and I thought they are C.B. Later I found another post card from San Diego from an Archie Beekley.  The name was rather hard to read as the post office stamp is over that spot. At first I thought it was Archie Beekly.  I did some investigation on Ancestry.com. Now I would guess that it is a G.B. and that it is from an Archibald Gordon Beekley born in 1894 in Waterloo, Iowa. He must have been a friend of grandma’s.  He died after a flight training accident at the age of 26.  Archie is listed as born in Waterloo, Iowa so my guess I have located a friend who had moved away. 

 

HAPPY 2013

This is a postcard from my Grandmother Lucy's collection.  It was sent to her in 1911 from San Diego, CA.  It is signed with the initials C.B. - I think.  The writing goes all around the card on the left side.  It tells of visiting different folks so I would guess it was a friend on vacation.  Lucy was born in 1896 so she would have been 14 years of age when she got this card. 

Wishing everyone a happy 2013!!!!

It looks a lot like Christmas

Mom painted the bell ornament.  The blue and pink ones are from my Grandma H's tree.  Each grand kid had one.  Mine was the blue and my sister, Sarah's was the pink.  Or maybe it was the other way around.  Sarah died when she was 4 and after Grandma died I was given both ornaments.      

Slightly different arrangement on the Butler's tray table this year.  Most of my pictures were taken last year but I really have not changed things much.

 

New candy this year but same dish. 

 

I cover the coffee table arrangement so it does not get dusty and have reused it for the third time.

Warren gave me the snowman and snowlady a few years ago.  

Santas - all hand painted by Vaillancourt. 

My two Swedish items.  They were given to me by the relatives when they visited years ago.  I will never burn the candles as they are so close to the wood.  I break the candles from time to time so the box they also gave to me slowly empties.

How it looks today.  I still have a couple of gifts to wrap.  I wrap most of the gifts sitting on the floor while watching TV.  I am hoping the last two orders will be delivered today as the family get together is tomorrow. 

Last a view out of one of the eating area windows.  They are still mostly covered with snow.  I will knock the snow off when I go out to feed the birds.     

Busy or Lazy

It has been ages since I have written anything. No real reason but...............

I have accomplished a few tasks on the "to do list".  Every year or so the front door needs a repainting.  This year both the front and back doors are sporting a different color.  The paint went from a dark red to a orangeish brick color.  I like it even if it was not the exact color I was wanting.  We took out the overgrown evergreen bush by the front door and replaced it with a burning bush.  I love the color in the fall look.  As almost all our bushes seem to grow well we went with a smaller planting. 

We did something we should have done a long time ago and planted an apple tree.

We are looking forward to someday having some Honey Crisp apples to harvest.

 

One of our trees out front got sun scald and fell over this spring.  It was replaced with this lovely red Autumn Blaze Maple.  We planted a tree for each of our grand kids.  Kelsey's and Sage's trees have done well but this is the second we planted for Sam.  Hannah's tree has been replaced 6 times.  Her tree is now doing well.  This last time we planted a slender oak.  It is three years old so we are hopeful it grows and thrives for many years. 

 

I enjoyed watching Hannah run cross country this season.  She usually placed third on her team.  Running to keep in shape is her main goal.  Soccer is the sport she loves the most.

 

One weekend when Kelsey was home from college she harvested the honey from the hive.  This year it looks like she will have around 100 pounds.  Last year was about half that so we think the bee hive is a success.  She did get rid of her chickens before she went off to school.  No one wanted the responsibility and the egg production had dropped off to the point of needing new hens.  I miss the fresh eggs but not cleaning them. 

Mediterranean Chicken

http://www.marthastewart.com/355368/mediterranean-chicken

I tried this recipe tonight.  We have lots of small tomatoes in our garden so when I saw this on the blog classic casual home I figured it was worth a try.  We both liked it.  It is a bit different recipe for us and it will be one to add to our keeper list.

Saturday night we had friends over, and if I do say so myself, our meal turned out well.  My friend brought a wonderful dessert made with a blackberry wine.  Warren smoked a pork loin and I  made the rest of the meal except Matt had made some of his great focaccia bread that afternoon that he kindly shared with us. We dipped the bread in reconstituted sweet tomatoes and spices my sister and her hubby had brought back from Italy.

The potatoes I made are some we like but had not done in a while.  The grocery store had new red potatoes.

3/4 cup of fresh bread crumbs - some of my bread was the crust on Panera's three cheese bread
1/4 cup or one on finely grated Romano cheese - I used Parmesan
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano - I had some that was picked from my garden about a week ago
1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 garlic clove minced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
24 small red potatoes - 3 pounds - washed and cut into chunks

Combine the first 8 ingredients in bowl and set aside.  Combine the oil and potatoes in a zip lock bag, seal, and shake.  Toss the bread crumbs mixture in the bag and mix some more.  Place on a sprayed jelly roll pan and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.  The left overs warm up well.

A Bit of Summer

We had Samantha and Sage here for a couple of fun days.

Samantha and her Aunt Malissa made some decadent cupcakes. 

They rivaled any you can buy at a fancy cupcake shoppe.

There was a lot of cousin time and when we were outside

the dogs often got in on the activity.

When we returned the kids on Saturday evening I made

them pose by their front door.

One thing we do not have enough of is pictures of all four of us when

our kids were growing up.  I thought it was time to take another one of our son and

his lovely family.  Their new puppy, Pretzel, made it into the photo too.

Memorial Day

From what I could find out the picture was taken in July of 1918 at Camp Dodge, Iowa.  It was taken by Englishman Arthur S Mole and American John D Thomas.

"Arthur's great nephew Joseph Mole, 70, says: "In the picture of the Statue of Liberty there are 18,000 men: 12,000 of them in the torch alone, but just 17 at the base. The men at the top of the picture are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom"."

From the Columbus Telegraph I found this: "Beth Johnson of Columbus brought in a photo of a “Human Statue of Liberty” that her father Cory Hartford was part of when it was taken.
Sharing it with you seemed appropriate on this Memorial Day weekend. The following information about the photo came from the Iowa National Guard:
Eighteen thousand soldiers of the Camp Dodge, 163rd Depot Brigade formed the silhouette of the Statue of Liberty for the renowned shot by Chicago, Ill., photographers Mole and Thomas on Aug. 22, 1918, at 2:30 p.m. Col. William Newman, commander of the 163rd Depot Brigade selected the statue of liberty as the formation for the brigade picture.
Beginning at 1 p.m. companies were assembled and by 2:30 p.m. the proper formation was completed and the photograph taken. The ground was marked out by blocks, in the shape of the statue, which facilitated getting the soldiers into correct formation. From the goddess’ feet to the tip of the torch the symbolical statue measured 400 yards. The picture was taken from a tower 40-feet high, constructed for the occasion. On account of the mass formation and the heat, 12 men fainted and were carried from the field. The high temperature reported for the day was 92 degrees.
The photograph was taken with an 11x14 view camera following several day’s worth of work by the photographers to set up the image on the ground using thousands of yards of white tape. In addition, substantial coordination was required between the photographers and Col. Newman’s staff to ensure the various folds of the gown, the bible, the left hand, and the crown was properly outlined by soldiers wearing white shirts.
The design for the living picture was laid out on the drill ground at Camp Dodge, west of current building S 34 and Maintenance Road. The large photographs were on sale for $1 at all the exchanges in the camp.
The layout at the reported 400 yards was nearly four times the length of the actual Statue of Liberty and the viewer will note that the correct perspective is maintained. The number of men in the various parts include: flame of torch, 12,000 men; torch, 2,800 men; right arm, 1,200 men; body, head and balance of figure, 2,000 men.
This photo and others can be seen at the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, which is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from 830 to 1630 hours (closed holidays and holiday weekends). The museum is located at Camp Dodge near Johnston, Iowa, just off I35/80. For more information, please contact the curator at (515) 252-4531 or email the goldstarmuseum@iowa.gov."


Read more: http://columbustelegram.com/news/local/human-statue-of-liberty/article_3519fbde-a7ab-11e1-b230-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1wC7uhlfY