Saturday, March 23, Helen Lied

I did not say I was cleaning house.  I said I was cleaning out the closet in the back bedroom.  One closet, not the whole house.  I did not even do anything with the rest of the room except straightening  Hannah and Roberts clothes I keep in the dresser back there.  I threw away a bunch of junk and some books that had been in the top of the closet for a long time.  They were the kids books that came with the World Book Encyclopedic set from 1979.  Anyway, the closet has some room in it for clothes now.  It still has several totes because most of them are pictures. And then there is a a couple of totes of Christmas stuff.  Anyway it looks a lot better now.  And, when I quit, Jr. cleaned and straightened the rest of the room.  It looks much better now.

Tomorrow, I am going through the old chest in my bedroom.

We had deer at the end of our driveway today.

I looked at Winnie's pictures and thought again that we have been lucky weather wise this winter.  I am ready to plant garden.  The goats had stayed in the pasture since George worked on the fence.  Baby goats are doing fine.  Mama stays with them at the barn most of the day.  She is a good mother after all.

Friday, go home early day, with Ice

We did not get any accumulation last night and it was just right at freezing this morning so the roads were wet instead of ice.  I went on to work with no trouble at all.  But, by noon, there was freezing fog all over the trees and wires.  It is now 3pm and it has all melted, but it looked bad for a while.

Babies and Mama in the barn.  The others were out and about, so I took her some feed.  She is the only goat we have that will not come to us when we have feed.

If you enlarge, you can see the goats in the distance.

At about 1 pm today.

Thursday, March 21, Second day of Spring

...A snow day.

Goats are out grazing as the snow falls, so they must think it is not going to stop.

Earlier, as it started snowing, we had dozens of robins in the yard.

It is not supposed to accumulated much, but it is snowing like crazy right now and has been since around 3 PM.

Winnie's Cousin

Patsy has said before that Marla Maples was our cousin, but I had never been interested enough to try to check just how we were related until today.  Maples is an unusual name, so I figured we were likely related some way or other.  Thinking Winnie Jo needed some cheering up, I spent some time this morning searching for Marla's Maples just so I could tell Winnie of her connection to The Donald.  I found that Winnie and The Donald's daughter are sixth cousins.

Winnie's line goes like this:

1. Winnie

2. Fleta

3. Gertrude Maples

4. Wm. B. Maples

5. James G. Maples

6. Jesse Maples

7. Josiah Maples

8. William Maples married to Prudence

Marla's Maples goes like this:

1. Daughter of The Donald and Marla Maples

2. Marla Maples

3. Stanley Edward Maples

4. Roy Edward Maples

5. Willard Edward Maples

6. Robert William  Maples

7. Thomas Redmond Maples

8. William Abijah Maples

9. Wilson Maples

10. William Maples married to Prudence

So, checking yesterday's chart, that makes Winnie and the daughter sixth cousins.  Now, Winnie will be bragging to all her friends about her new found family ties.

Big Mama had the babies down on the pond bank this afternoon soaking up the sun.  We will keep both these goats, I think.  We will either have to sell the other two billies or de-billy them.  And, if the little black nanny does not do well again this year we will sell her.  If we need to downsize more than that, we will get rid of the two big brown goats.  I like the little goats much better than the big brown one.

So far, George's fence repair has held, and the goats are all inside today.

It is supposed to get cold and blow in weather tonight and tomorrow.  I am ready for cold be be over.

And more cousins

Monday, March 19, Cousins Chart for Betty

Betty wants to know how she is related to Lloyd.  The first step is to find their common ancestor, a person that is a direct line ancestor in each of their pedigree charts.  That would be Samuel Gaddy.   Then count the generations of each from that ancestor.

For Betty it is 1. Samuel Gaddy, 2. George Ellis Gaddy, 3. Wm. Solan Gaddy, 4. Elijah Huston Gaddy, 5. Mama, 6. Betty.

For Lloyd it is 1. Samuel Gaddy, 2. Mary Gaddy, 3. George Gregory, 4. Samuel Gregory, 5. Bessie Gregory, 6. Lloyd.

So, Betty is the seventh [no 6th]  generation from Samuel and Lloyd is the sixth generation.  Now, you find 7 one way and 6 the other way and see where they cross on this chart. You will probably have to click to enlarge the chart to see, but it says they are forth cousins once removed.  But, it is 6 both ways because Irene should not be included.

Well, as Betty pointed out, Irene should not be in her line, so removing Irene, this makes 6 generations each way, so Lloyd and Betty are 4th cousins, not removed at all.  Lloyd and Erin would be 4th cousins once removed.  But, yes, you would count Samuel as generation one.

This week's obituary column

Jimmy Bishop, from Betty's class died.  He had cancer and had been really bad for a few months.  Here is a link to Jimmy's Obit  He was Von's brother, and was not Betty Deweese's new husband.

Also, Joe Rowlett's wife [Bud's mother] died.  She was 97.  I had no idea she was still living.  Her Obit

These two obituaries are nicely written.  I am sure the families wrote the obituaries instead of letting the funeral people write them.  I have read many obituaries from this funeral home that I did not care for.  I especially do not like it when they write 'she married the love of her life,' because I think it should be up to each individual to name the love of their life, not the obituary writer.  I also do not like it when they list hobbies and numerous life interests of the deceased. especially when I know the people and know the things they list are just minor interests that were not that important in their life.  I guess what I really do not like is that they try to write as if they knew the person's life in detail when all they really know is the day the person died.

To save everyone a lot of trouble, here is my obituary.  When I go, Betty can copy and paste it to Nelson's.

Fleta died Sunday evening of natural causes at the age of 102 while riding a camel into the sunset on the Gobi Desert.  She was born to Willis and Hazel Powell on her father's farm on Dry Creek near Coin, Arkansas.  She had a long, productive, active life and spent the last two decades traveling the world over.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her wonderful husband, and several siblings.   She is survived by 2 brothers, 2 sisters, 15 nieces and nephews, 2 sons, 4 grandchildren, a dozen great-grandchildren and a half dozen great-great grandchildren.  Her family and friends will miss her, but know that she died doing what she loved so much, riding a camel.

Pat and Patsy

St. Pat... [this is an edit.  George says he has racing strips on his face and we should call him Hotrod.  I think we will probably keep him for our Billy and Hotrod it is.]

and Patsy...

They are doing fine, already playing.  George locked Big Mama in the pen because she was up on the hill eating.  He was afraid she was not going to take good care of them.  We will leave them locked up for a few days.

The James Gang coming to see what's happening.

In the money now...

We think we may have one nanny and one billy, born between 3:30 and 5 pm today.  Maybe we will name them Patrick and Patsy.

Sunday, March 17

St. Pat's day, not Patsy.  Today is Sharon Rohde's bday.  Don't remember how old she is.  I think about 2 yrs younger than me.

We have had beautiful weather until today.  Eighties yesterday, forties today and I think big white goat is having babies as we speak.  They always seem to pick bad weather days to have babies.

Yesterday, I took the girls and one neighbor boy on a picnic down on the creek.  My boy did not go cause he went with Papa and Uncle George to sell junk.  He really, really enjoyed that.  He got to see 'the Claw' pick up a car.  The girls had a great time at the creek.

Taken with the new camera, 50X like Betty's.  If you enlarge you can read the writing.

Water was cold, but sunshine was great!