Two Silos Farm

Christmas on the farm.

I remember Christmas, the wonder of the tree and how presents seemed to overflow the room on Christmas morning.

I had 10 siblings in a five bedroom – one bathroom farmhouse. We had central heat – one big heat register in the middle of the floor of the main room that served as living room on one end and dining room on the other. I remember getting up on cold winter mornings and running downstairs to huddle over the only source of warmth in the house, along with several siblings. It was fun to watch the nightgowns puff out as the warm air filled them.

It didn’t take long to get the chill off, and then we’d be out and about, only coming back to that source to warm stiff toes and fingers. I remember the smell as the snow melted off the wool mittens laid on the grate to dry. It was about 2’ square – I don’t remember for sure, and it was heavy. It was dark when you looked down, and I remember being afraid that I would fall in when someone opened the grate to retrieve something that had fallen through to land on the screen right below it.

I don’t ever remember believing in Santa, but we always got a few presents with that name on the “from” part of the tag. We all knew they were really from Mom and Dad, or the Grandparents. When I was little, only my Mother’s parents were still with us, so for me there was always only one Grandma and one Grandpa. They were both very industrious, gardening and crafting. So it wasn’t uncommon to get a gift that the Grandparents helped out with.

We also made gifts for each other. Money was always short, so shopping included buying supplies to make gifts. I remember one sister giving a half made scarf one year, with a note saying to please return it so she could finish it.

My mom and Grandmother baked, and baked, and baked. We may not have had expensive fare, but it seemed there was always fresh bread, or a kettle of soup on the stove.

We lived in a harsh world, though I never knew it. Our toys included sticks and boards nailed together, things we built ourselves or made from the assorted bits and pieces that collect around any working farm. I loved my Dad’s shop, probably more than my mom’s sewing room. We knew what pretend was – pretend. We could yell “bang, you’re dead” as we aimed our sticks at each other, but we knew that Dad’s real gun caused real death, and it was not a toy. We learned to have fun and learned to be careful. Actions had consequences, and hurting, well, it hurt!!

I remember waking up on Christmas morning. The night before, there had been only a few presents under the tree, but we all expected to find tons of them in the morning. We’d whisper to each other, and see who was all awake. I remember sharing a bedroom with four sisters, then someone would go and see who was awake in the other three upstairs bedrooms. We knew we could not open presents until Mom said it was ok, but we would sneak downstairs and the lights on the tree would be on, and there would be presents all over the place.

I’ve looked at pictures as an adult, but I know when I was little, the room just overflowed with packages in my eyes!

The older kids would get the younger ones to peak at the packages, looking to see who they were for. Then we might start stacking them in piles, one for each of us (and there were plenty of us – so that took a while). Sometimes there would be a big present, and we were all excited wondering just what might be inside. We tried to be quite, but my parent’s bedroom was just down the hall, and my Mom never slept through anything – I swear she could smell it if you lit a match anywhere on the property! Some of you may have had Moms you swear had ESP – I’m sure mine was one of them.

It seemed like hours, and finally Mom would get up and tell us it was ok for us to open presents. Then the paper would fly as we tore into our gifts! Sometimes you would get so distracted by someone else’s special present that you’d momentarily forget yours.

One of my favorite gifts was a sewing basket filled with bits and pieces of trim and ribbon, left over from my grandmother’s projects. There were bits of rickrack and grosgrain ribbon, needles and thread in assorted colors, bead and baubles. To this day, I love stuff like that!

We never got a lot for Christmas, but it seemed that each year there was a special gift, something that made you amazed and full of wonder. And I always wondered how Mom and Dad managed to pull it off – where had they hidden all those wonderful things that just showed up under the tree that morning. And most required time and thought – a hand made toy barn, or bead loom. A collection of fabric and patterns for doll clothes. And most of the presents require imagination to bring to their full potential.

I knew the ones from “Santa” weren’t really from “Santa”, but instead I learned that the “from” part of the gift was not the important part. You gave gifts to help share the joy of Christmas, not out of some desire for recognition or reciprocity, or obligation.

And then we would get dressed in our Christmas best, and head off to Mass, then home to play and eat – and eat - and eat! Chores had to be done, but they were just a daily routine, so you did them with minor complaint, and then returned to the wonderful world of Christmas as a child.

Already have an apple pie in the oven. Maybe the smell will get hubby out of bed.

Since we weren't home much for Christmas, I didn't get a chance to cook up a spread. So I'm making up for it over the next four days. It's too bad I only have me, hubby and son to cook for. Maybe some day I'll have grand babies around, but for now everything seems to get eaten somehow anyway. May mean dogs/cats/chickens get a share, but they are sort of family.

Got a chicken for the stew pot and I may try Hollie's noodles. I usually make dumplings, but those noodles looked so good!

Had to get the pie crust scraps out of the oven - good thing because I had forgotten to put slits in the top pie crust, and it was ballooning up. It's all better now!

Hubby and I plan on driving to Sioux Falls today. Looks like we will be dodging the worst of the storm that was forecasted. Might still get something later today, but it looks like we will be fine for our shopping.

Have to go to Sam's club and pick up stuff for Hubby for work (he stocks up on stuff he can easily eat while working outdoors without break room.

I will also pick some things up for work (accounting fills the vending machine). Work pays for the membership; otherwise I probably would not have one.

Of course, since we are in town, we'll have to stop at the gun shops - just to look, of course. Might get a few things for my aquarium too. Air pump is shot so needs to be replaced. Don't have any fish - thinking of waiting until Petsmart has their grand opening on the 7th. I really want to get butterfly koi to raise for my future garden pond. Still can't decide about the fish tank - but I can always move it when we get the last part of the house done.

Gonna start working on hubby about a new bed. I want to try an air bed - anyone have one? But that can wait, at least until we have to move the water bed again. I don't plan on setting it up in the living room while we are remodeling the bedroom. But that is a ways in the future - going to work on the green house for a while.

Hope you all have a decent New Years.

Cathy

This weekend, we brought my daughter's bed home for my son. Son (25) has slept in the same bed since he was about 12, and he's real excited to finally have an adult bed (queen size).

Only problem is it didn't fit up the stairs. Had to remove the door and frame, and then cut out a section above the door. Wasn't a big deal as there had once been a vent opening right above the door, so the only thing there was cheap paneling. Keep in mind we had already removed the lath/plaster from the kitchen side of the wall long ago. Nothing a rip saw couldn't handle!
The problem is the stairs are so steep that the bed needed to go almost straight up. But we got it done! Now son has a real bed in his bedroom. Was worth it cause he had to clean his room up real good first LOL!!

Now we need to find a home for his old bed. The mattress is still in very good condition, so we hope our neighbor with the four kids will have a use for it.
Wasn't worried about cutting a larger doorway, as some day that whole wall will be replaced - and so will that ladder/stairway!

It's way past my bedtime, and I have to go to the dentist in the morning. I have a cavity, have not had one of those in ages! Ickky

Ok, if anyone is reading this, I posted a bunch of blank blogs as "holder" spaces. I need to catch up on the remodeling stuff on the home, but don't know when I'll have time. I sort of got behind.

And because I want to keep things chronological, I didn't want to post anything "new" until I got caught up, so I kept getting farther and farther behind. So I added the "spacers" so I can go back and fill in later.

I'm thinking I should get planning on my greenhouse. With hubby working so much, I should be able to afford the plastic panels. I'll be using the corner of Bug's shed. Wonder what she will think if that? She won't be able to sit on the front shelf and look out the window anymore - but she'll still have the window in the west end of the shed. I've found cats and trays of dirt for starting seedlings just don't do well together.

Daughter is in Vegas now, hope she is doing fine. She's sure run everyone through the wringer the last month, now maybe things will settle down. Hubby has to ship her stuff down to her, as she changed her mind at the last moment and decided to ship everything instead of coming back and renting a Uhall to get it from MN to NV. Not a bad idea, but a bit more notice would have worked better. We found out after we were half way to her place. Had we known, we would have brought the trailer. Only expected to be hauling a bed, so we only brought the truck. At least between the back seat of the truck and her car (an old cavalier that probably would not have made the drive even if she had wanted to keep it) we managed to get all her boxed stuff loaded and hauled home. Tried but could not figure a good plan to haul the dresser - no good way to strap in on top of the mattresses. Unfortunatly we already had the drawers loaded under everything else. So the dresser will end up in the trash. It's just a keep one, that came in a box and you assemble. So it's not like we were tossing a nice peice of furniture. If we could have easily gotten to the drawers, we'd have left them. I'm sure my MIL would have found a use for it. Daughter left a few other things (shelves) and told them to toss them, but my MIL can't toss anything, so I expect she'll hang on to them.

She asked the next day, asking if we wanted her to hold on to the dresser for us , even though we told FIL to toss it. It's not worth $120 in fuel and 10 hours of driving to come one get. It had already been through three moves, and wasn't super sturdy. I feel bad about the dresser, and if hubby had not been so stressed out from his Dad trying to be "helpful" he may not have blown a cork over it all. Given a bit more time, we may have figured something else out. We were already running almost two hours behind, so I said enough is enough, and we left it there.

I just wish there was a way I could tell FIL that he is only in the way, and the best way for him to be helpful is to sit his butt down and let us get the work done. He has health issues so he really should not be trying to help anyway. And FIL makes hubby so upset that hubby ends up physically ill over it all. At least once we hit the road, hubby's stress level started to drop, and his headache started to go away.

But we got the obligitory visits over for now.

ok, I lied, on more

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