Girls...

Big day at the pool...

Stayed about an hour and 20 minutes and no one got burned.  The shirts worked, but we put on sunscreen too, JIC.

Daddy tightening the ladder.

Saturday, day of work

I am really tired of Helen saying Betty and Larry's garden looks so much better than mine so I tilled and hoed the entire garden this morning except for the tomatoes and potatoes.  The potatoes are too big to till and I have already put the hay around the tomatoes for mulch.  I did everything except the okra which is just coming up.  I would have plowed a lot of it up if I tried to till it because I can't tell exactly where the row is.  I do not make very straight rows.  I had it all done by 10 this am.

HELEN, Emmy wants an apron.  Probably just for looks cause she is not a cook because she is not much of an eater.

Oh, and it is just me and grandpa here right now. Son George had to work, Robert and Daddy went to buy parts for someone's truck [Uncle George's I think], Emmy and Hannah took the little 4 wheeler to visit Sam. BTW, Sam is a girl.

Taken through the back door last night.  He had been writing in the dirt on the back of my truck.  He did not know I saw him. Later, I said something about someone writing on my truck. He said Uncle George did it and he wrote something about grandma on it.  Something about Grandma did not know much.  Robert really thought it was funny getting Uncle George in trouble.

Garden after all the work.

Betty does not have pretty flowers like these.

Daddy's old wheelbarrow with petunias.

The wash tub Helen got out of the cave and the old milk bucket I got from Hampton's dump 20 years ago.

Patsy's pink rose by the lilac.

My raggedy herb garden.

Patsy's pink rose by the corner and some my mint.  I bought 2 bee balm plants and put in here this spring.  I like mint because it looks pretty, smells good, is easy to care for and comes back year after year.

My yellow rose and pink knockout roses.  This is really pretty when the iris blooms because they are yellow also.

Lettuce, onions, potatoes and a few squash and cukes.  I never plant but 4 to 6 squash and cucumbers because we do not care much for either after the first few picking.

Corn in the middle, 3 rows with 1 row of okra after it just coming up a couple of days ago.

Tomatoes all staked and mulched with a few pepper plants in the second row an a few melons.

The corner with my wonderful water faucet.  I can sit in this chair in the evening in the shade and watch my garden grow.

Emmy and her shadow.

Patsy's pink roes down by the road.

The first starting I got of Patsy's pink rose.  It does not get enough sun here, so it is not nearly as big as the others.  The non blooming plants are rose of sharon I got from Patsy's yard.  The start blooming around the first of July and bloom for a couple of months.

Emmy's planters in front, or maybe back, of the RV.

Blue bird and butterfly bush.

Going to Sam's.

Friday, a good day

I went to Harrison to get groceries and to look for sunscreen shirts for Robert.  I went by Erin's house to get my pot holders and she had toys on the porch for Robert.  She said she only had boy toys.  Robert really, really likes toys and he was very pleased.  He did not quite understand how it all came about, but he had fun playing with all the cars.  It had army guys and army tanks and a town scene painted on a floor spread.  Him and Tyler had fun playing army with all that.  Daddy will be really pleased when he gets home, because all the new toys and some of the old toys are on the floor in the bedroom.  I guess the boy will have to put them all away before bedtime.

I did not know Erin was not going to be home this weekend and I left Betty's birthday present on her door step.  Someone may come along and get a surprise present.  I guess Betty of Harrison could go get it.  The name on the outside is just Betty.

I bought Robert 3 sunscreen shirts and 2 sunscreen swim trunks.  And, got Hanna a new swimsuit with a sunscreen shirt and sunscreen shorts.  I guess they can go swimming tomorrow.  Maybe Daddy will take them to the creek tomorrow.  They could have a picnic.

Beautiful day today and tomorrow is supposed to be about the same.  I need to till the corn and hoe around the squash and melons.  But, I have the grocery shopping done and that is the most disagreeable chore for the weekend all done.

Blue Skies

But cool for June.  We have had a good week, except that Robert got a bad sunburn Monday and they have not gotten to go swimming since.  Hannah took it pretty well, but Robert pouted for 2 days.  I told them they could go swimming again Saturday.  They keep asking how many more days.

George is not going to get to be swimming instructor after all.  Robert can already swim.  What he lacks in technique he makes up for in fearlessness.  And, Hannah is afraid of the water.  We will just work getting over being afraid this summer.

Tomorrow, I am going to look for a couple of rash guard shirts for Robert.  They are  made to wear in the water and have added sunscreen protection.  He sure burns easily. 

This has been an easy week and tomorrow is go home early day.

Some of my favorite dead people stories...

To wit:

One of my very favorite, written by Fleta and Betty together, is the story of Jacob Goldman and his mother, referred to again and again as ‘The Widow Goldman.’  Here http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~powell/jacob.htm 

You will find that story.

In 1996, I was working alongside many friends that had only recently journeyed here to start a new life. I sometimes heard the locals say these people should go back to their own country where they belonged.  This always made me think of the many stories I had found about my own people coming here from a far off land.  I wrote the poem Born On the Side of Right, expressing my feelings about being and accidental American.  The poem is here http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~powell/right.htm

And then there is the poem about Charles Powell, our Revolutionary ancestor here http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~powell/freedom.html with a link to his story. It has been a great source of amusement to me that many of Charles Powell's descendants have been made members of the DAR on the strength of the document listing Charles Powell as a member of the Halifax County VA militia, as a deserter.

Sunday's Happenings...

Chickens in the Garden.  I got hay down around the tomatoes and Greg and George helped put the cages around them.  The chickens thought it looked like bug world.

I bought some plants for the tub planters by Emmy's RV.  It is red saliva and rock moss.

Bathing beauty.  The kids kept wanting to go to the neighbor's pool and no one wanted to take them.  I sent Greg to get them a small pool for them just to play in.  They had fun but it was a little cool for water play today.

Hannah dancing because Emmy said she could stay with her in the RV tonight.  She told me the other day she really loves Emmy.

Emmy is a really good baby sitter.  She is going to stay here for a few days and help Grandpa.

Our Grandmother, Ann Catherine Tate Slover Maples

This is Ann Catherine Tate, grandmother of Gertrude Maples Powell and great grandmother of Gilbert Willis Powell.

This photo was taken in 1917, probably in Berryville Arkansas at the home of her son, Judge Joseph Maples.

Ann Catherine Tate was born in Tennessee on 11 September 1830 and died in Green Forest, Arkansas on 21 February 1925.  Sometime in 1848, Ann Catherine Tate married Alfred Slover in Madison County Arkansas.  Ann and Alfred Slover had one child, Louisa Jane Slover born in December of 1849.  With news of gold in California, quite a group from Madison County went there, including brothers John Slover, Enoch Slover and James Slover along  with James's son Elbert and Alfred and a son in law, John Jackson. An explosion in the mines on 16 December 1851 killed all of them except Enoch and John Jackson who was blinded. Going by boat from San Francisco, Enoch and Jackson left for home, but the ship wrecked off the coast of Mexico and Enoch led Jackson home. 

After the death of her husband, Alfred Slover, Ann Catherine Tate married our grandfather, James Gunther Maples.  Ann and James G. Maples lived near Carrollton Arkansas the remainder of their lives. They were parents to six sons and 4 daughters.  Both James and Ann are buried in the Carrollton Arkansas cemetery.

Sons of James G. & Ann Catherine Tate MaplesLeft to Right

Back William Burl (Bee) our grandfather, Benjamin Crittenden (Crit), Henry Clay

Front, Russell Reno, Jesse Thomas, Joseph Seaman

Taken about 1911

William Burl Maples is father of Gerturde Maples Powell.