On the Death of a Sister

I wrote this poem when I heard of the death of my Aunt Fleta. I was thinking of Aunt Fleta and Aunt Winnie when I wrote the poem.

On the Death of a Sister

We shared a bond of time and place,
Our lives entwined like threads in lace.
Her mother, my mother, her father mine.
We shared a room, a space in time.
Same time and place in the Universe,
All things were shared with sister first.
Who will I share with from now on?
Sister’s gone, Sister’s gone.

January 29, 1994
Fleta Aday

Week End Project

Well, actually 2 week ends. The covering for my swing was fadded, frayed, and in general looked very worn. I recovered the seats and top over the last 2 week ends and now it looks better than new. I looked for an before pic, but could not find one so you will have to take it on faith that it looks 100% prettier. Emmy even said it was pretty!!

Heart Healthy

Patsy asked about making health food into heart stopping food. Saturday morning I took heart healthy strawberries (see the heart healthy logo), put them on pancakes along with butter, sour cream, Mrs. Butterworths syrup and cookwhip. They were really good.

We were raised poor, but we had rich food. Real cream, real butter, whole milk, lots of fat back pork. Remember Mama's homemade syrup made with real cream and sugar. For breakfast she sometimes fixed fresh biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, and homemade hot cocoa all at one meal. I do not like any diet food. 

Grandpa got a new toy!

Greg and Jackie got him a compressor a couple of years ago. It died a few days ago. Now he has one bigger and better. Costs more too. He has spent his toy allowance for a while.

My babies have flown the coop

They are off to Oklahoma. I hope Greg did not make her walk all the way. I just called them and they are about 40 miles from where they are going. I am really going to miss them, especially that boy!

Old Yellar

Grandma Yellar is a good mother. She started out with 5 babies, lost one and found one so she still has five. Little Blackie started out with 6 babies and now has 3. Grandma Yellar took one of Blackie's babies into her brood while Blackie was not looking. So, we had 11 babies and now we have 8. That is 70% surival rate so far. Since all the chickens roam free and have to fend for themselves, we get a very low rate of survial from year to year. This spring we had 3 pullets left of the many chicks hatched last year. We hope just to stay even from year to year. Three years ago we had 1 rooster and 6 pullets. Today we have one rooster, 5 hens and 8 baby chicks. Only Grandma Yellar is left of the original 7 chickens. As in our own lives, the lives of our chickens are full of threats in the woods and sky.