My Sewing Room (aka “There is Hope After All”)

This is the saga of my sewing room. For the longest period of time, I have been content to drop things in any open space – floor, shelf, under a table, on the steps, on the back of chairs. You know the drill - anywhere. And I just kept on sewing. If I couldn't find something I needed, I'd fret and fume and waste tons of time (is there such a thing as a “ton” of time – since when did time weigh anything? I found it weighs a lot when you can't find something!) looking, looking, and looking some more.



So easy to pile up your treasures

Another "before" picture

 

Somewhere along the line, I read articles about pristine sewing rooms. How could anyone sew in a place so neat and orderly? It just didn't seem right.

Then I spent a weekend with my sister Jeanie and her husband David in Colleyville, TX, located between Dallas and Fort Worth. My sister is an excellent needleworker and has made the most amazing pieces of needle art. She also is a dynamite seamstress. And she is very organized. Everything is put away in labeled clear boxes and looks so nice.

I admit to excessive drooling.

Then, we arrived home from a couple of NOMADS projects. Of course, I brought home some more fabric and books from our travels. And could not find a clear place anywhere in my sewing room to put them. Nowhere, and I mean, absolutely nowhere. Not even on the floor.

This had gotten out of hand. Plumb beyond ridiculous.

I started researching blog articles on how to organize a sewing room. Sure, many of the ladies who wrote the articles had bank accounts far larger than mine and the companies who promote organization want you to buy their products. You can spend a fortune in rearranging your treasures.

Nope, not me. I insisted on using what I had. Except I did learn about foam board. What a wonderful product. But in my tiny mountain town of Hayesville, where was I going to find foam board? Guess I could order it, but it would never arrive before we left on the next project. 

So back to the computer. Aren't computers great tools? Yeah – I found the Dollar Tree chain sold foam board for $1.00/sheet. Now that was something I could afford. But would the only Dollar Tree I knew of anywhere near home (in Murphy, 15 miles to the west of Hayesville) have foam board? I could not believe my eyes when I walked into the store and there was my prize foam board. And it was even made in the USA. Wow! What a find!

Now, you are probably wondering what I needed foam board for? It's great for wrapping your longer pieces of fabric around. In essence, I made my own bolt boards. How? Oh, that's easy.

If I had thought about it sooner, I'd have taken pictures showing how I cut the board. But I used up every piece I bought so I'll try to explain it. 

You will need:

Foam board 30” x 20”

Razor knife (I used the knife I use for cutting drywall board – with a new blade in it)

Or an Xacto knife should work
24” Quilt ruler

Lay the board on a cutting mat with the 30” side in front of you. Use the 24” quilter ruler and measure 23” from the left side. Cut the board from top to bottom at the 23” mark. That will give you a piece 7” x 20” on the right side. Take that piece and cut it in half to made two 7” x 10” pieces. With the big piece, cut it along the length to get two 6 1/2” x 23” and one 7” x 23” pieces. I used the smaller pieces to wrap fabric that was less than two yards long (lay this fabric out and fold into thirds along the length then wrap on the small foam board). Fabric that was longer than two yards was wrapped on the larger pieces. Pin the ends to keep the fabric in place and, with a pencil, write the yardage on the upper right corner. When you use any of the fabric, you can erase and write the new yardage in the corner. Yeah! No more wondering how long a piece of fabric is!

A "during" picture - many of my containers were
gone through, fabric put aside for donation or
folded on foam board

"During" - looking into the computer
alcove with everything trying to find a new
home. The big containers in the middle hold
my Quilt of Valor fabric - I need lots of that!

 

Then, of course, I went through all the remnants and supposed fat quarters. Amazing how many of what I thought were fat quarters were not fat quarters but some weird size. True fat quarters were all folded the same way and put in a drawer. The weird pieces were either put in a container for “Odd ball cuts” or thrown in the basket for really weird pieces. Where else should they go? Certainly not into the trash! I might need them someday.

And since I love apparel sewing along with quilting, all the many and various projects were put into containers that I already owned and labeled. At one point I became horrified at the number and variety of the things I have bought over the years and put on a shelf with the idea of sewing it up some day. I will have to live to 150 years old in order to have enough time to finish all these projects. 

Then the containers were stacked on top of my bookshelf or on shelves I cleaned off for this purpose. With everything labeled, it's easy to see what project is where.

Wow! Four days of work paid off. As my pictures can attest, I now have a neat, clean, and organized sewing room.

The final result!  I am sooooo happy!

Two of my bookshelves - the large is duly
utilized for books and fabric.  All the
containers are labeled, the small bolts hold
shorter fabric pieces, and the large bolts hold
fabric longer than 2 yards.

 

Another view of the other large bookshelf.  The blank
wall will eventually hold a big bulletin board and pictures,
all of which I already own.

 

The computer alcove and a Quilt of Valor
waiting for binding (on tomorrow's list).
Another blank wall waiting for
who-knows-what.

 

So what did I do today? Stopped at one of my favorite quilt stores, A Stitch in Time in Franklin, NC, to wish Courtney many happy days for her upcoming wedding. And came home with a tunic top pattern and a couple of fabrics I could not live without.

Do I feel guilty? Overwhelmed by it all?

Heck, no!

I tell everyone that before I die, I'm going to leave my sons a big note here in my sewing room that reads: “Remember what mama said about pay-backs?” And laugh all the way to Heaven.

 

 

More later . . .

Here Now, There Then

Four weeks ago we arrived in Wichita Falls, TX to an area like none we had ever worked before. Whispers of Hope Horse Ranch targets children with disabilities and disabled vets by teaching them how to interact with horses. The ranch started over twelve years ago by a lady who had a love for horses and a vision of how her love could be used to help others. Mary Elizabeth Pearce is a small bundle of energy and her vision has grown by leaps and bounds. 

The uncompleted barn - notice all the red dirt.  After all
the dirt that blew around us, I'm surprised there was
any left to be on the ground!



The barn almost finished - you can barely see Barry
on top constructing the copula

The interior office framed out with the wood walls installed.

The reconstructed Wichita Falls waterfall.
The original falls disappeared years ago.
This man-made falls was a gift to the town
from the people of Niagara Falls, NY.

 

We were there to help with a huge new barn. It was a steel building that houses 20 horses and the new offices. We were the second team to work on it and should have been putting up drywall. Unfortunately, weather and numerous changes delayed the construction and it was nowhere near completion when we got there. I have no idea what the previous team did but we spent the first part of the project staining boards that would be installed for the stall walls and painting a fence. Halfway through the second week, we were able to start framing the office walls inside the barn.

By the time we left, the offices were completely framed and all the wood installed on the walls. I also helped stain the framework and deck around an above-ground pool that is used for the disabled children. We were both happy to finish the project and get on the road.

Wichita Falls must be the windiest and sandiest place we have ever been! Everything is covered in dry red dirt and it blows by in huge billows of clouds that gets into everywhere – eyes, ears, mouth, windows, doors, everything! Then one day it poured rain and turned all that red sand to red mud. One afternoon after the rain, we were driving away from the barn and as Bill backed up the Jeep, we started sliding sideways. Four-wheel drive solved that problem.

Me in front of the Gano cabin

 

While in Wichita Falls, I took advantage of being close to Dallas and drove down to spend a weekend with my sister Jeanie and her husband David.  Jeanie took me over to a really neat fabric/quilt shop, Sew It Up.  Jeanie introduced me to this shop's website and I've bought a number of things from there.  The owner is a darling person and, of course, I found some fabric I couldn't live without.  Saturday, David and I went to the Old City Dallas Park and went into the cabin built by Gen. Richard M. Gano, a very distant relation of mine.  Originally, the cabin was located on the grounds of the new Dallas-Ft. Worth Int'l Airport and was moved to the park location for preservation.  Gano descended down a different branch of the Gano family than I did.  Too bad.  His granddaughter was Howard Hughes's mother!  Then David and I went through the 6th Floor Museum, the site from which Oswald shot Kennedy.  Super crowded that day but still bone chilling to look out the windows of the book depository.

Drywalling the bathroom.  Work in progress.
Nancy and I are doing this room.  Not bad
for two beginners!

Now we are in Ripley, MS (about 70 miles southeast of Memphis) and about ready to start

St. Paul's Methodist Church, Ripley, MS.  We are
working in the portion of the building on the right.

our second week of work at St. Paul's Methodist Church. The old original church had been closed years ago and not opened until last year. This is the second year of renovations to make it into a children's education center for the community. Our job was to get the framing done so the stained glass windows can be reinstalled in the sanctuary once the windows are ready. We don't think they will be ready before we leave but at least the framing is done. We are also working on the second floor where the Sunday school classrooms were located. All the old plaster walls were taken out last year and new drywalling and mudding started. We are finishing that part of the project and hope to get the wainscoting and the new walls painted before we leave in two weeks.

We are camped a couple of miles away from the church at the First Monday Trade Park. It is the oldest continuously operating flea market in the country. Started over 105 years ago in

Some of the merchandise available for sale at
the First Monday Trade Park.

the town as a trade fair for the local farmers, it evolved into a huge flea market. Recently, though, the numbers of participants has fallen drastically. It took place this past weekend and, as we wondered through it, we saw all kinds of stuff being sold – chickens, ducks, goats, rifles, dogs, t-shirts, outdoor furniture, tools, all manner of clothing, birds, junk, and more junk. And you saw every kind of person wandering too. We enjoyed just sitting there watching people go by.

This past Saturday, the whole team took a road trip and drove up to Corinth and then onto Shiloh Battlefield. In Corinth, we had lunch at Borrum's Drug Store, famous for their hamburgers and milk shakes. It was founded by a Civil War veteran and is still run by his descendants. I would go back there any day for another cheeseburger. Too good!

Lunch at Borrum's - Nancy, Bill, me, Bill, and Meredith.
Nancy's husband Dennis took the picture.

Corinth has a very good Civil War Interpretative Center. I didn't realize Corinth was a vital railroad center for the South and seeking to capture it was the original intent for Grant landing at Pittsburg Landing that precipitated the battle at Shiloh. What was really neat about this center was the walkway leading up to the building. Inbedded in the concrete sidewalk were all kinds of things a soldier would have carried into battle – rifles, ammo, backpacks, hats, canteens, cups – and other pieces of battle equipment. It was meant to demostrate what a battlefield looked like after the fighting was over. What was heartrendering about it was a replica of a letter a young soldier had written home.

Shiloh is, without a doubt, one of my most favorite battlefields to visit. It is so far off the beaten path that it takes a real effort to get there, but when you do, you are very glad you made the effort. It is so quiet. No airplanes flying over, no super highways with noisy trucks and cars whizzing by, no shopping centers cluttering the roads. It's a privilege to visit. And it is immense. The National Park Service grounds don't encompass the entire battle grounds. We drove by monuments and info markers placed among the few houses built in the area. And, like when I drove along Cemetery Ridge outside Chattanooga with all the houses perched along the battle line, I certainly wouldn't want to walk out of my house early one foggy morning and come face-to-face with the ghost of lost soldier! That could be conceivable at Shiloh – losses amounted to 23,746.

The battle was fought over two days in April 1862 in dense oak thickets and deep ravines where it was hard to distinguish friend from foe. The first day, the South prevailed but with tragic consequences because General Johnston was shot in the leg by a stray bullet and bled to death. He ended up being the highest ranking general from either side that was killed during the war. The next day Grant was reinforced and ended up winning the battle which led to Corinth being taken in October of that year.

We happened to be there while the park was observing the 152^nd Anniversary of the battle. There were some reenactors present and I met Generals Johnston, Beauregard, and Grant

Generals Johnston, Grant, and Beauregard

with their ladies at the Visitors Center. We missed the cannon barrage but arrived in time to see the last showing of the film. It was a very well done film that showed the battle from the viewpoints of two young soldiers, one from the north, one from the south. It brought home the fact that the war was a dirty, tragic affair and that Shiloh opened the eyes of this country to the horrors of a war that was tearing this country apart. Too many died and too many were maimed because a different solution to this country's problems could not have been found. A beautiful place it is and should continue to be remembered for what happened there.

Okay, it's getting far too late and I need to get up in the morning to work on the drywall I started last week. So for now, this is all I have to say.

More later . . .

My Precious Mom

My young mom

Mom loved her plants

This picture was taken long before any of
us were a gleam in her eye

Mom & my brother Richard

Margaret Ellen John Gano

1916 - 2013

What can you say about a little lady who was always a pillar of your existence? No matter where you went or what you did, you knew she would be there somewhere routing for you. It feels strange that after all these years, she isn't here anymore. Well, maybe not here in person, but I know her spirit lives on in all of us.

I guess the best thing you can say is:

Thank you

Thank you for sense of humor you instilled in us

• Mom used to say that whenever things look their worse, think about how funny this story will be one day.
• Mom found herself in any number of situations that if it hadn't been for her sense of humor, I'm not sure how she would have coped. Traveling across the country and oceans with children of varying ages would try any reasonable person, but mom took it in stride and laughed a lot about it later
• Mom could see funny parts of a movie coming long before they occurred.  
• She would start laughing when everyone else in the theatre was silent.    
• Once it embarrassed my brother Jim so badly that he got up and moved to another seat far away from us. 
• Another time, she and I went to an afternoon showing of “My Fair Lady”. The theater was packed to overflowing and the opening segment showed a screen full of beautiful flowers. Mom leaned over to me and whispered “Boy, Kathy, this is a dark movie”. I looked over at her and said “It wouldn't be so dark if you took off your sunglasses!” You could hear her laughing throughout the entire place! Good thing Jim wasn't with us or he would have had no place to move.

  Thank you for the love of needle art and fine fabric

• Mom loved to sew and do needlework.
  • She made most of the clothes I wore to elementary school and you could normally find pieces of odd fabric and remnants in boxes around the house. This is one trait I definitely inherited.
  • The first time she went to Callaway Gardens for the needlework school, she told me she was envious of a lady who had her daughter with her. So the next year, what did mom do? She outdid that lady when she paid the tuition for Jeanie and me to join her there. She was so proud to have both of us with her that year.

Thank you for the love of good music, theater, and especially ballet

• As we were growing up, about all we heard mom and dad listen to was classical music and show tunes on old 78 rpm records. Then dad built a stereo system and the very first record they played on it was the Broadway musical “Camelot”. One year as an anniversary surprise, I lured them to Miami without telling them why. I was able to get tickets in the orchestra section to see Richard Burton do “Camelot”. Mom sat there with tears in her eyes when the show started. At least she didn't start laughing.
• Mom put me in ballet classes at a tender age. I was never quite sure why but I know Jeanie took ballet when she was about the same age. It may have been to get me out of her hair for a little while or to try to make a young lady out of an incorrigible tomboy. Oh the hours she spent waiting at ballet studios – I will ever be grateful. She also found ways to get to tickets to see any of the touring ballet companies that came our way. But mom was never a pushy “stage mom” and I am ever thankful that she wasn't. She allowed me to dance on my terms and that may be reason I love ballet to this day.
• Besides ballet, whenever a Broadway musical touring group came to town, she would get tickets and we would all get dressed up to troop down to the auditorium to see the show. Without a doubt, her favorite musical was “Oliver” and, of course, we had the record and knew all the songs. I can distinctly remember her putting dinner on the table singing “Food, glorious, food” and if you asked for seconds, the first thing out of her mouth was “Mooooorrre? You want some mooooorrre?

Thank you for the love of history

• I was always awed by mom and dad telling us about their experiences during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I used to ask “Did you really see Japanese airplanes flying over your head?”
• And being in Pensacola was a neat place to live because mom took us to all the old forts where we ran wild through them all.
• Then when we lived in Norfolk, she took us to Williamsburg at least once a year and I think she found the old town as fascinating as I did.

Thank you for your culinary gifts

• Oh, how mom loved to make sweet things. She always ended a meal with dessert. Woe be unto he or she who did not eat their dessert right after dinner – you had to become adept at hiding it! Memorable treats – raisin-filled sugar cookies, Christmas danish, but most of all, cherry pie.           
• Mom also fixed colorful meals. She always said all the foods on your plate had to be different in color. None of knew why or cared, but our plates were sure pretty.
• Another thing mom insisted on was that the television could not be on while we ate dinner. Maybe that is the origin of the “Seven minute meal”? Let me tell you about the “Seven minute meal” - mom worked hard to prepare a very nice dinner, called us to the table, and when everyone got up to leave the table after eating, Jeanie noticed it was only seven minutes from the time she sat down. The “seven minute meal” joined the ranks of family lore.

Thank you for the faith I carry

• One Sunday when I was about eight years old, I went to church with a friend. The service really bothered me and when I came home, I asked mom if we were all going to hell because we didn't go to my friend's church. Very patiently mom looked at me and said, “There are lots of good people in this world and I simply can't believe God would send them to Hell just because they don't go to your friend's church.” Mom was so wise when it came to answering questions from her young daughter.

There is so much more that I can thank mom for but the best thing I can thank mom for is for loving us unconditionally and for allowing us to grow up to be the individuals that we all became. Please join me in wishing mom “God speed.” 

Love you lots, mom.

Move to Gore, OK and The Boys's Ranch

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Rainbow over our RV camp at The Boys' Ranch

Rainbow over The Crossings Building/kitchen

 

We finished the project in Tahlequah on Thursday afternoon and moved ourselves 30 miles south to Gore, OK on Friday morning. Temperatures in the 70s and 80s yesterday, beautiful blue skies. Early this morning, a storm rolled over us and seemed to forget to move off. It rained on and off the entire day. While Bill went to try his hand at fly fishing on the Illinois River, I hung around the RV doing laundry in the building next to where we are parked and sewing down a quilt binding. The quilt is getting finished just in time – temperature right now is 52. Quilt will feel nice while I welcome fall.

Fall also brings other changes to our lives. My mom is not doing too well right now. Most people do not make it to age 97 and it's been amazing how well she has done over the past few years but time and infirmities seem to have finally caught up with her. Not long before we left for Tahlequah, Bill and I went down to Gulf Breeze to see Staci and our granddaughters (Eric was overseas) and also to see mom. The first day I went to see her, she had been up all night and all morning so was asleep when I got there. I sat with her a while and she woke up some when I chatted about her great-granddaughters but I worried about getting her up for fear of her falling. The next day, she was awake but not moving very much. She had become so unstable on her feet that she had fallen a number of times so the staff was keeping her in a chair. Funny, though, she kept trying to get up and showed the spirit I remembered my mom always having. The little lady in that chair was my mom and I loved her but she had moved off to a place I could not follow.

So here I am in OK getting ready for three weeks of working at a boys' home. I am bound and determined to do something worthwhile that I know she would be proud of me doing.

It finally quit raining late this afternoon and I happened to look out the window to see one of the prettiest rainbows I have ever seen. It was a complete arch that reached from one side of the sky to the other side and was so bright. I grabbed our camera and tried taking some pictures through the window. The van was smack damb in the way so I decided to run outside, even though it was still misting rain at the time. Eventually, I took some really good pictures, one of which I will try to add to this message.

Friday – October 11, 2013

Oh, the joys of playing on a computer. I just erased half of the above message, couldn't get it back, couldn't remember what I wrote, so I ad-libed the best I could. Gerrrrrrr!!!

Today the guys went fishing and the ladies went into the metropolis of Gore (population – 900) to have lunch in a cute tea room and stop in the few decent gift shops. Then we wandered down to the quilt shop. For a town this size, it was not a bad shop. Fairly decent selection of fabric with good prices. I found a pattern for a small purse that takes fat quarters then a cute fish fabric grabbed me so now I have the stuff to make it. Too bad I left the sewing machine at home. Lunch was good – had a piece of quiche and salad. I'm not hungry anymore.

We finished our first week of work here. Amazingly, I started the week without a paint brush in my hand! Next weekend is the 50^th Anniversary Rodeo at the Boys' Ranch so we areD spending most of our time helping get ready for it. I helped take some old splintery boards off the bleachers and add some 2x4s to other seats to add support to them. I was all ready to help put the new boards up on Tuesday when (1) the boards had not been delivered, and (2) my edging expertise was needed in one of the houses. Soooo, back the paint brush went into my hand, and back to up the ladder, paint, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder, etc., etc., etc. I'm getting so good at this, I may just repaint our bathroom when we get home.

Oh, on Thursday, Elizabeth, Phyllis, and I were asked to paint the 24' bleacher boards. Easier to paint before they are bolted to the bleacher frames. We decided to paint them in the morning before it got too hot. Need boards needed priming so we did that then started with the dark green paint. That first coat of green paint looked awful. Of course, we had to put a second coat on. Stupid boards took us all day to do! And we ended up in the afternoon sun afterall.

The bleachers are down this gravel road right next to the rodeo ring. There are a number of pole barns and closed in barns where the ring is. At the end closest to where our RVs are parked is a swinging gate with a cattle crossing in the ground. There are well over 20 horses at the ranch and people are always donating unwanted horses. Two painted horses were dropped off a few weeks ago – one brown spotted and one black spotted. Larry, our main contact, told us that they weren't sure how the other horses were going to take to these two new ones, so they left them roaming around on their own around the ring and barns and all up and down the road. Elizabeth started calling them Frick and Frack and decided the brown one is the leader. Wherever brown-Frick goes, usually you will see black-Frack following. Sometimes they are in the tractor barn, sometimes around the bleachers, and then other times you see them up the gravel road by the gate. When we were painting yesterday, Frack started over towards us. We've been told they are gentle but curious. Great! The closer Frack got to Elizabeth, the more she moved down the boards towards the other side. I just wanted him to be curious on her side of the boards, not mine. Just like me, she likes horses, as long as they are on the other side of the fence. These two act like two lost puppy dogs, except BIGGER.

I'll have to take some pictures of them and post them next time.

And speaking of lost puppies, the team has adopted this poor lost dog. The guys are working up on the hill top (they call it a mountain here, but it's an awfully low “mountain” in comparison to NC mtns.) on a cabin. Yesterday this young dog wandered onto the site during lunch time. What did the guys do? Feed it, of course. When they left at the end of the work day, they noticed the dog running behind the truck. They stopped, opened the door, and the dog jumped in and made itself comfortable in the back seat. Next thing we know, she has made herself part of our group. Question is – who's going to take it home? She is so friendly but so pitifully skinny with ribs showing and hip bones protruding. But she has clear blue ice eyes and wags her tail at everyone. Larry thinks she's mostly Australian terrier but she looks just like a dingo. Phyllis has a friend in Texas who would like to have her so now she's trying to convince one of our other team members to take her to Texas when they leave here.

The poor-lost-puppy-dog – to be continued.

Nice thing about this project is all the cooking that's going on in the kitchen to get ready for the rodeo. One non-NOMADS couple has been coming to the ranch for 20 years to do the cooking. Donna is this dynamo of a little Oklahoma woman who can cook anything. She and two of our lady team members have made tons of cookies and dozens of cobblers, some of which they ask us to sample and critique. And, of course, there are always cookies that fall apart that need to be eaten. Makes for yummy break times.

Ok, enough said. Bent your ears long enough. Now to try to get this whole message from the word processing program to the Internet blog site and download a picture. Patience, Patience, Patience.

More to follow later . . .

NOMADSing in Tahlequah, OK



Here we are in Tahlequah, two thirds through this project.  My goodness!  Where did those two weeks go? 

 

When we started this project on Sept. 16th, it was down right hot.  Temperature on my little thermometer read 95 degrees one day.  I was never so thankful to be painting inside an air-conditioned house and living out of an air-conditioned RV!  Yesterday, a good rain came through with a cold front - this morning we woke up to temperatures in the 50s and right now at 6:37 p.m., it's 72.  Much nicer.

 

We are working at the Methodist Children's Home in Tahlequah.  It's located on a beautiful piece of property just a block or so from the main high school.  Every morning we wake to the sounds of the high school band practising.  They are a dedicated group of kids to be up playing their instruments at 07:00 a.m.  It's a large dynamic school - they are rated first in football in their class. 

 

The buildings here at MCH are arranged in semi circle facing a huge park setting that has a pool, pond, basketball court, and sidewalks.  It's walled in with a short stone wall and has stone arches at the entrances.  Guess I should take a few pictures of the grounds.

This is our little neighbor - Good Friday.
She's a six-month-old filly who comes over
to the fence whenever we walk that way.
Look at those clear blue eyes!



Evening cloud formation over Tahlequah - we missed
getting this picture with the brilliant gold that was
shining in the center

Belle thinks she's a people - wondering where
her dinner is













                                                                                    And Lexi in her favorite place on my side of
                                                                           our bed


Let's see - what have we done so far?  As is par for the course, a paint brush has become part of my right hand.  Helped get rid of some hideous yellow walls in the director's house and currently painting in one of the homes.  Bill has put in a new toilet, new faucets, fixed a roof leak, repaired gable end of a house, repaired leaky pipes, etc, etc, etc.  We never worry about running out of things to do.  The list grows and grows.

The only thing I had known about Oklahoma before now was driving through it on Interstate 40 and the musical "Oklahoma".  Yes, there are some wide open fields around here but mostly it's forested and green.  This is the area where the Cherokee settled after they were forced to leave the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee and Tahlequah is the capital of the Cherokee Nation.  It is a pretty area and reminds us a bit of our home in N.C. except for the lack of peaked mountains.  There are loads of forests and a huge dammed lake called Tenkiller Lake.  We'll be right next to this lake when we move down to Gore, OK next week for another three weeks of work.  We'll be at the Boys Ranch there.  Lots of fishing, hiking trails, and other outdoor activities.  Bill went fishing the other morning and caught a few fish.  Gore is known as the Trout Capital of the OK.  I'm sure he'll do more fishing while we are there.

About twenty miles from here is a big resort called the Fin and Feather.  It's perched on a hillside that overlooks Tenkiller Lake - gorgeous view of the lake.  This past weekend they had a big craft festival so while Bill went fishing, I joined other team members and went to the festival.  Some interesting crafts and some of the usual stuff.  I bought a red oak woven basket that a man had made by taking a plank of wood and cutting in into strips.  Then he wove smaller pieces of wood vertically down between the strips.  Beautiful work.  I can add this basket to my few other unique baskets.

Last weekend, Bill and I drove over to Fort Gibson State Historical Site.  I was thrilled to see this fort - it looked just like the western forts of cavalry and Indians that I remember playing with as a kid.  Tall spiked wood square walls with high watch towers in the corners, big parade ground inside with buildings surrounding the ground.  Fort was established in the 1830s to facilitate the resettlement of the eastern Indian tribes.  Also played a role in the Civil War with Federal troops stationed here.  There are rock buildings scattered outside the walls.  One two story building was used as a barracks and the officers' dining hall.  Beautiful wide porch was relatively cool even on the hot day we were there.

 

Outer wall of Fort Gibson
 

 

Barracks and Officers' Dining Hall



Officers dined in style

 

Has anyone out there in my blog world ever worked with this blog program before?  As you can tell from the ragged condition of this entry (and some of the others, for that matter), this program and I don't exactly get along!  When I work in the composing section, the Fort Gibson pictures are right next to the text but when I look at the "Preview", there's a huge space between the text and pictures.  I can't get rid of that huge space.  And I can get captions under the first two pictures, but the program won't allow me to put captions under any other pictures.  Computers are so nice when they work right but at other times, . . . well, I'll leave that to your imagination.

 

More later . . .



 

Accident Looking for a Place to Happen

I think I need to stay home, locked in a safe place!

Remember how Bill smashed my hand while putting up drywall?  My hand was doing pretty well until I ran that very same knuckle into the door jam of the RV.  Now, really. I had four other perfectly good knuckles that I could have rammed into that lousy piece of metal but, no, I had to re-injure the same poor knuckle that was trying so valiantly to heal! Boy! Did that hurt. I could feel it all the way up to my elbow and my hand again looked like the Dough Boy.

Okay - I made it through another hand episode. Everything was okay until we reached Sioux Falls and I had to take the sway bar off the RV hitch so Bill could back into our site. It was hot and rainy and, my first mistake, I was hurrying in order to beat the rain and to appease my darling Bill who was drumming his fingers with my slow motion. Any RVer or boater or whoever knows the joys of getting ready for a trip in the pouring rain or dealing with an inpatient spouse. That morning we had pulled out of Custer, SD in the rain. We had dried out on the trip across SD (did you know that SD is a very long state driving from the SW corner to the SE corner?) and I had no desire for a repeat of the wet performance in the evening.

Then my second mistake. Not paying attention to what I was doing. Well, actually, the hitch stuff is Bill's MOS. I take care of the inside stuff and he takes care of the outside stuff so I do have an excuse when dealing with the hitch business. Anyway, I pulled off the wrong securing pin first. When I pulled off the other one, the stupid and very heavy piece of equipment fell on my right ankle. Now that really hurt!

I could have said a few choice words but instead I spent the next few moments hopping around on one foot and swearing under my breath that I would never again in my whole life touch that lousy sway bar. Originally, I thought about swearing that I would never go anywhere again with the RV but I knew I would not live up to that oath. Not touching the sway bar was a better bet.

In the meantime, the running van with Bill still drumming his fingers was sitting in the middle of the road, blocking all traffic, and the campground host was waiting to direct Bill into our site. No sympathy from either one of them.

The RV finally got situated in our space and I limped around getting my jobs done. It wasn't very long before my ankle looked very similar to my hand – except that my ankle was a much darker color.

Today we drove down from Sioux Falls, SD to St. Joseph, MO. I kept my ankle up on the dashboard and admired the scenery as we drove down I-29. I really like this interstate, especially the part of it at the lower part of Iowa into Missouri. You can really see the bluffs off to the east with the flat prairie to the west. And again, lots of green fields.

But there is one thing for sure – tomorrow we are going to the old section of St. Joseph, MO and no swollen hand or purple ankle is going to keep me from wandering around the historical section!

Oh – one neat thing did happen while pulling into the campground in Sioux Falls. With all the airplanes flying over, I realized we were at the end of the airport runway. Then the overhead sounds changed so I looked up – in time to see an osprey fly over in helo mode and banked hard to the left. Obviously, it was coming in for a landing. Bill looked up in time to see it. He told me later that he had never seen an osprey flying in helo mode, only in airplane mode. I quickly called Eric to ask him if there was an AF base up here that had ospreys but he was busy chasing our two little granddaughters out of the parking lot at his squadron building and couldn't talk to me then. Oh well - it was fun seeing the osprey fly over.

This is all I have to say for now. Keep your fingers crossed that the pictures I'm trying to download will load okay. Or else this post will have only words.

And then – more later . . .

P.S. - I tried to download pictures.  No go.  WiFi is too slow.

Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota

A view of the Needles at the top of one of the mountains
and the location of the narrowest tunnel I have ever
driven through - it was 8'4" wide & 12' high

Bill and I arrived here in the Black Hills and Custer, SD a few days ago.  Our original plan was to stay for two days but we were so impressed with the area, we decided to stay an extra day.  Oh for the joys of traveling when you don't have to punch a stupid time clock or answer to some idiotic boss!  I love it! 

This area is truly one of God's gifts to mankind.  The scenery is absolutely unbelievable.  It is another area where you look across rolling green hillsides and the land just goes and goes forever.  Most of the trees are of the pine family and, unfortunately, a pine beetle has invaded the forests and you can see large patches of trees that are brown and dead.  Mixed in with the pines are aspen.  I've never seen them in person in the fall, but I understand the aspen turn a gorgeous yellow.  Anyway, the forests flow down some of the hillsides and run into vast open pasture lands of green, green, and more green.  Breathtaking!

One day we took the famous Needles Highway Scenic Drive.  The map is very specific in warning you about the tee-tiny tunnels that are part of this drive.  The first one we had to transverse was only 8'4" wide by 12' high.  The other one was bigger at 9' wide by 12'3" high.  So Bill pulled off at a trailhead parking area and got out his trusty measuring tape (thank goodness we carry our NOMADS tools with us all the time!) to measure the van.  He decided if we folded in the outside mirrors, we could make it through the two tunnels.  By the time we reached the first tunnel, there were cars parked everywhere and people were milling about looking towards the tunnel.  I heard someone say that a bus was trying to go through the tunnel and it looked like it was stuck.  I thought to myself "You've got to be kidding me!"  Since we were stuck in a traffic jam in the very narrow roadway leading to the tunnel, I got out and looked where everyone was pointing.  I honestly could not believe my eyes - sure enough, there was a huge vehicle in the tunnel completely blocking any and all light from the other side.  When I first looked, all you could see were headlights; the rest of the tunnel was dark.  As I stood there for about ten minutes, I could begin to make out the shape of a bus.  A bus!  Not just a little bus, but a full-sized commercial bus!  I stood there dumb-founded as I watched it finally come out of the tunnel.

This is Bill measuring the van to be
sure we could make it through that
ridiculously tiny tunnel

This is the stupid commercial bus that
almost got stuck in the tunnel

Then we sat there for another twenty to thirty minutes as the long line of cars behind the bus followed it through the tunnel.  They must have been backed up for a mile down the mountain road.

And, we thought we were worried about being too big to make it through the tunnel?

This is a picture of the tee-tiny tunnel from the exit side

 

 



Custer State Park is known for its bison herds.  As you drive the Wildlife Loop, you can see some of these herds off in the distance.  The first day we tried to drive the loop, bison had traffic backed up quite a ways so we turned around and decided to try the loop the next day.  Was a good decision because the next day there were very few cars on the road and we saw three or four herds of good size.  I could not help but think about what these small herds must have looked like four and five hundred years ago when the bison were so numerous they completely blacked out the prairies for as far as the eye could see.  What a magnificent sight that must have been.  Then I got to thinking about the Native Americans of the 19th century and the fury and pain they felt as they watched their mainstay of life be destroyed by greedy men.  Apparently, greed was the same in years long before what we have recently experienced.  Regardless, thanks to a number of people, the bison survived and continue to fascinate those fortunate enough to see them in the wild.
 

Bison are not only large animal that lives free in Custer State Park.  We saw lots of white tail deer, many were sprouting fuzzy antlers.  And we saw a fair number of pronghorns also.  One crossed the road right in front of us and Bill got a couple of pictures of it in full gallop.  Pronghorn (aka antelope) are native to the west USA. 

 





Another animal that lives a good life in Custer State Park are the donkeys.  They were once used to pull wagons through the mountains and carts out of the mines, but after they out-lived their usefulness, many of them were left to their own.  They survived in the Black Hills and now live in the state park.  We found a small group of them and watched a couple of them walk up to a car coming the other way.  The two donkeys went right up to the SUV's windows and seemed curious to see what was on the inside.  Then the same two whose picture is just below began grooming each other.  We think the dark one was the mother and the gray one was the colt.  They were definitely familiar with each other and enjoyed each other's company!

 

One of the main attractions in the Black Hills is Mount Rushmore.  As we had been there six years ago, we opted out of repeating that adventure with mass humanity and concentrated on driving through the southern part of the Black Hills.  The picture below was typical of what we saw - these huge rocks sticking up out of the ground with houses built right next to them.  That is some backyard rock garden!

 

We made it down to Hot Springs.  And hot is not an adequate word to describe the temperature down there.  I know the entire nation is suffering under a brutal heat wave.  It definitely was hitting Hot Springs the day we went there.  It was so brutal, I didn't have the energy to investigate the town or even take one picture.  I will probably regret that one day.  The town, though, was interesting.  Most of the buildings were made from red sandstone and had that typical western feeling about them.  Unfortunately, the town seemed very run down and even seedy in places.  I did get into a really nice quilt shop and bought some bison fabric to make a wall hanging with.  I always like to buy one piece of fabric that's indicative of the areas we visit.  One day I will do something with all this fabric.

 

One thing I did learn about Hot Springs is that it was the area where the Native Americans spent their winters.  The warm springs and mountains sheltered them from the brutal cold winds that swept the plains.  And the whole Black Hills was their winter home until gold was discovered in 1874.  You can guess the rest of that story.

 

I can't figure out how to move this stupid picture up a few paragraphs to where it really belongs.  Sometimes this blog site is not very user friendly.  It is an exercise in agravation control.  I think I'm funking that exercise right now. And it's getting very late on Thursday evening and we leave early tomorrow morning for Sioux Falls, SD  so I think I will just say -

 

More later . . .