I am testing Andriod on my site. It seems it doesn’t like pictures! But it does post!
Remembering Grandpa Bancroft
So, grandpa Bancroft reminded us last week that we are all mortal, even him. We put him in the ground at a family started cemetery in Duchene, Utah, where one of the ancestors buried a young child, so the story goes, on his own property rather than the city cemetery. Now the cemetery hosts mostly family graves, and is filled in like a small, but proper place. It was the first time in many, many years that I have stood on this particular plot of ground, and in fact remember the last time as being around 1975, after my mom’s cousin, Nancy, lost her four year old son, and he was put in there too. Nancy seemed surprised and pleased that I remembered it all, and showed me Mark’s grave and explained several of the others and how they were related to me. I cannot thank Nancy enough for the time she spent on that memory lane with me. By the time we finally left, everyone else was gone except the gravedigger, who had just finished filling in grandpa’s grave.
The graveside service was a small affair with a 21 gun salute from the Disables Veterans, and a flag ceremony from active enlisted Army. It was simple, and short, and suited the man we had gathered to remember. His standard metal coffin lay shut in the middle of it all while a few of us shared some memories, his son Rusty, who lived with him and cared for him requested it stay shut because he did not want to see a dead body. Rusty is so obviously Autistic, but in the days he was brought up, there was no such diagnosis, so he has lived a simple life, in mutual benefit with his dad. Now he has to go it alone. My mom was the oldest in that family, and is staying with Rusty to help him adjust to the new circumstances, and my brother, Kerry, and sister, Kristina, spent some time after the funeral painting the inside of the house for Rusty, so he would have a fresh, clean environment to live in. My thanks to them for that was to insist for the two days they stayed here after that they rest, and not do any work. You have to understand that whenever any of my siblings travel, they demand work to do where they stay. They left this morning, relieving me of the duty of keeping them from being busy. It’s a lot of work!
Now, only a voice from upstairs carried through the house; it’s my wife upstairs on a work call, and I sit here with one of my young daughters in her high chair while my mind reviews flashes of light which amount to memories of grandpa. My daughter is smashing toast in her hair as the memories defog into me in similar activities at a similar age. I remember things like George, grandpa’s now deceased son, just after his service in the Army, going to live in the back bedroom with his new wife, Jeannie, who happened to have the same name as George’s sister, who is also dead since 1976 from Cancer. I remember when grandpa was going to put an addition onto the back of that bedroom, and a foundation hole was dug by hand, only to remain devoid of any cement, or any addition whatsoever. That finally served as a place for some garbage to be dumped before it was filled in many years later. I remember how grandpa used to call his neighbor girl my girlfriend because I would go over and play with her, in her yard, on her swings, in her room, running through the sprinklers on a hot summer’s day. I remember too how at nights, when I lived in that house with him as a very young child, his snoring would fill the whole house, even with the doors closed. It was there that I attended Kindergarten when I was five, and mom and I slept on the couch in the living room, her feet towards me, and mine towards her, because she could not afford anyplace of her own. All of these memories are soft, muted, and carry through my mind much like that voice from upstairs right now, barely audible, but there, to be sure. The one memory that is clearest above all though, was grandpa’s laugh. I can mimic it, but I cannot describe it, and I am going to keep it, all to myself, as the greatest gift he gave his family. Laughter was important to him. I am sure that laughter is why he made it past 90, despite his humble living, and the losses of two of his children in his life.
There will be many thoughts of him, and many memories that will echo in my mind till the day I join him in the earth. Those will remain mine alone, and all I will share with you is that they are all good. There are no secrets to hide, just happy moments that hit me like the water from the neighbor’s sprinkler as I dance around in the sunlight!
I love you grandpa! Farewell!
Kelsey J Bacon
The memory I shared at his funeral was of calling him once many years ago, when I still attended church, and asking him if he was ever going to go (there was one next door to his house). He replied, “I live close enough to one to throw a rock through the window. That’s about as close as I’m ever going to get.”
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A Haunting Evening
I was out for a drive earlier this evening, and there was a haunting mist over the landscape. Some of the lights on distant houses were only pinpoints, and others were a little less clear with an aura around them, glowing softly under the greasy blackness of night and a waxing crescent moon. The mist seemed to follow the hilly horizon like a thick blanket which lay over the form of what lies beneath it. In some places along the drive the mist was engrossed by the sooty smoke of a fireplace heaving up heat to warm some family in the cold night. In one of those places the smell of Maplewood burning was strong, and hung in my nostrils beyond the smoky environs as the lights of the truck pushed further as it reentered misty air. If there were ghosts, then this is the kind of night that would bring them out to dance! It is the kind of night that would conjure ghouls as merrily as any old Halloween!
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Musings For A Spring Workday
Today I am working on the lighting in Grandma’s bedroom. She has been using floor and table lamps in there since the days when she owned the house. But she complains of her eyesight going bad, so as part of redecorating her bedroom, I am wiring in new ceiling lighting. This is not like, “Hey there’s Kelsey, the Master Electrician!” It is more like, “Hey Kelsey, you still alive?” So far, the work has been easy though, is it is all installing, and the last step will be to wire into another terminal just outside the room.
When this job is all done, there should be a lot more light overhead as I am installing two fixtures, both rated for a max of 60 watts for each of their two bulbs. All the bulbs are CF for now, rated at 19 watts, but outputting equal to 75 watts each. Her total lighting from the ceiling will stand at 300 watt (equivalent)! Of course, to lower the actual cost of operation, I will eventually replace the bulbs with LED, but that will come after the living room lighting is done, which will almost complete the rest of the house for LED installation. Granny’s room will be the most expensive because it will require all high output lighting, with 75 watt equivalent bulbs costing $20 a piece. But, when those are in, I will then be able to replace her switch with a dimmer, for an added level of comfort in there.
After the lighting is installed, this weekend we will be stripping all the wall paper and priming and painting the walls, to lighten the room up even more. She will keep her old carpet, which is a bit of a shame, but it tones in with her new color scheme, and what she is trying to accomplish in there. The big thing is that right now, the room is very dark, and when we are done, she will be able to see in there just fine! And if all this does not do it, then the white furniture she ordered will!
Yesterday I got a couple of Amazon deliveries. One was a replacement battery charger for my Nikon D300. The other was a 1/2 mile roll of electric fence wire. The wire is too narrow of a gauge, so I will be using it this side of the road for the animals here, and to keep the neighbors cows from reaching over the fence to eat our grass and garden. I picked up a heavier gauge wire from Valley Ranch which will be much better for the cows, horses, and llamas across the street.
The next step in the fence process is to get corner posts, which have to be much heavier grade than the straight line posts because of the tension that has to be on the wires. I also need gate posts! We will never mind the gates for the time being, and make out own because of the price of gates! Shelters and feeders will be more important!
As for the camera charger, I am excited to be able to use my baby once again. It is not the camera that makes the photographer, but the photographer that manes the image. The camera is a valuable tool. I only have so much patience for cameras that have light or resolution or focus or clarity issues. And that’s none.
Well, it is almost 9AM, so time to get at it all.
Kelsey J Bacon
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Lemons and Honey
I am sat here with a cup of hot lemon and honey in front of me. The yard outside appears as if in a spring thaw, birds fluttering about, and the snow almost melted completely away. Yet, it is only February! Despite all the precipitation we have had this year, there is not nearly the snow I’d like to see on the mountains to supply the irrigation and make this desert bloom. Worrying about the irrigation is what to do on a day like today.
It is also a good day to make lists. It is a day to make lists of things that spring to mind. It is a day to list the things that need to be done, and the things that should be done today but will not be done because of how I feel. Okay, there are some things that still have to be done, despite how I feel, such as making a couple of phone calls, and maybe doing some cleaning and some laundry.
The items for the list for spring, the real spring, include building a fence, putting in a garden, setting up the irrigation, and building beehives, so I can get some honey. Yes, I must remember the honey!
Stuff came by UPS today from Amazon. I love when stuff arrives from Amazon! Today I got 250 clips to connect electric wire to T-Posts for my electric fence. I have to contain cows and horses and even a pair of llamas on 6.5 acres over the road.
I also got a monitor cable and an Ethernet cable which was too short, but will be kept because they are ALWAYS useful!
I love Amazon!
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At Parting
The fifth bell has tolled, and away she has gone. I sit in the living room, the lights dim, a soft heat radiating from the embers of the fire, the lick of a few flames to punctuate the atmosphere, my thoughts try to escape the void that will hold fast to the next ten days of my life. It is strange to think back thirteen years, when I was last in America while my darling was in the UK, before we were married and all of my dreams and hopes hinged on the sheer determination that one day we would be together, and such distances would only be at will. Now, thirteen years later we are in the heat of that romance and her professional responsibilities require her in the UK, affording her five days visit with her family after five days of workshops. So ten days we will trudge along without her. I have my grandparents and my children here to look after, and I am certain they will look after me as well. Parting is only bearable in the knowledge that she will return, but it still dims the colors, which are already under winter’s blanket.
For the next few days I have responsibilities to attend to, including keeping expenses down here so Katrina can afford a budget abroad. Dollars do not translate well into Pounds Sterling, so our riches here give little benefit there. She has staples to purchase, travel by train and by taxi, and other sundries for day to day costs. I know that will start out with a “full cooked English Breakfast.” Enjoy my love, enjoy. My boys will have to be paid their loading fee for the cord of firewood that now rests on the front porch. I have found a good price on inch thick Angus steaks that will settle the bill. It’s a small price to save my back! So I will get those from Sam’s Club today, along with soy milk for the girls, and hay for the horses, cows, llamas, and goats!
The days that follow will be more or less routine, at home days, keeping warm, cleaning house, doing laundry, reading with Kirynie, feeding and changing the baby, keeping the boys in line, chauffeuring grandma on occasion, and reminding her that she does not need to go to Logan every day of the week. In the mornings and evenings I will continue reading Hitchens, and filling my mind, which I have found, has filled my nights with memorable and vivid dreams as I consolidate memories from my reading.
Since lighting the fire a bit more than an hour ago, the flames have intensified a bit, despite the low hiss from the slightly wet wood. This wood is certainly burning better than soft pine has been for us. We should have better heat from the wood as we burn through this cord. The logs in the fireplace are still full, and may hold out for another hour or so before they require replenishing. As long as they are positioned so none rolls from the grate, I hope to spend the better part of that hour finishing my sleep, perhaps on Katrina’s side of the bed.
Kelsey J Bacon
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Snow, A Dead Chicken, A Funeral, and the Joy of Furniture Arranging
Snow’s been falling today, which around here means that the temperatures have risen! It’s been too cold to snow for the last week and a half or so, but finally the temperature has come up to the high twenties and the low thirties, which of course means lots of the white stuff! Don’t get excited! This is Idaho, not Los Angeles!
I went out to the woodpile today to get some firewood, which Jordan has kindly been bringing in for us quite a lot this winter. A couple of weeks ago he said he had found one of the chickens, dead, in the pile. After that stint where the mink had killed all of our 35 birds in three days, and Jordan cleaning them up, I really thought he would have sorted out the bird he found in the woodpile without any trouble. Nope. There is was, laying amongst the logs, like it was waiting for me to bring it in and throw it on the fire. Nope again! And I definitely did not have Chicken Soup for lunch after that either!
After lunch, which I will remind you, was NOT Chicken, the lady came by from the funeral home to discuss funeral arrangements for my aunt, in the event of her death, which, like Chicken for lunch, HAS NOT HAPPENED. She might though, as she is in Hospice Care now, which by definition means that she could die anytime in the next six months or so if she carries on as she has, unless she improves. Whatever the case, if she survives longer or not, I have put the wheels into motion as far as getting her funeral paid for, covering more than half the cost with a check today. She has a box, a plot, and a digger arranged. There is to be nothing more than simple services, and no embalming. Her mom does not want it, as she feels my aunt has had a hard enough life without someone messing about with her when she is dead too. So Amy has to be in the ground 2 or 3 days after she dies.
For my part, I don’t care if the coffin has frosting and a cherry on top, so long as my grandmother is happy with the arrangements, and everything is sorted out for her piece of mind. We have different views on death, grandma and me. Granny thinks of angels floating around pushing clouds across the sky, and I think of stardust, with the biggest differences being our views on continues consciousness. These beliefs inform our views on what to do with dead bodies, apparently, with mine allowing a lot more flexibility in the options, such as cremation, sky burial, and green burial. Grandma thinks we all will have our bodies again, and I think that, like a glass of water, there are likely atoms in my body that have passed through other creatures such as dinosaurs.
So, the upstairs living room idea is dead. We arranged furniture tonight, giving up on that for a craft studio area for my wife, saving her several thousand dollars in the costs of building one of her own, or buying a prefab building. This means we have a sofa in our bedroom now! It is so cool! I can sit on it, as I am now, and put my feet onto the bed, making the bed the biggest Ottoman the world! I am so comfy! My desktop PC is finally in a useful position close by, and of course I still have my Netbook, which I am writing this on. I have my Kindle at hand too, and place to keep it here. I think I have found myself a lovely little nest to keep me till winter’s end. Then summer shall find my in a nook on the front porch, with a table, a chair, and a computer, in view of the gardens, the cows, and the other animals. All is right in my world right now!
Kelsey J Bacon
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All In A Night’s Sleep
Time for sleep. No problem. Count some sheep. That ought to send me right off to sleep.
One.
Two.
Three…
I wonder what kind of sheep we will get in the spring? I have got to get that fencing done by then, or they will all get out of the pasture. They will overgraze it for sure, just like the goats have done, so I cannot leave the goats in there, can I? If I send the goats out to work the sides of the road, they ought to stay pretty well fed, if it is a rainy summer, that is. Of course, if it’s not, then I’ll be lucky! I will enlarge the area along the side of the road when I put in the permanent fence, so that should help them. But I don’t want to cut back too much from where the cows will be eating on the other side. What will I charge the guy who leases from us for his cows this year? Is that a mouse running around the room again? Oh yes, there is it! I have got to reset that trap! Is there no end to them? Must get poison! Get your furry little ass out of here! How am I going to afford fencing for the pasture where the cows are AND for the other pasture for the sheep to live in? I also will need some places for young cows to live and feed for their first couple of months! Oh, I wonder if the feed for the cow’s bottles is till $75 per bag? I am going to need a lot of those if we are going to try to start five or ten cows this summer, or more… How many cows will we try to start? I sure don’t want any of them to die if we put all that money into them. Plus there will be redecorating to do this summer. I have got to remember to have the second installment of property taxes ready for June. Irrigation bills will come due too! When is the insurances due on the house and the truck? Stupid mouse is back! How many times is it going to show its head? Wait a minute, wasn’t I counting something?
Sheep!
Four
Five…
I cannot believe my little girl is five years old. How quickly they grow! Just like that damned mouse again! Maybe we need an indoor cat! Where did that mouse trap go that I emptied out earlier today? I need it so that mouse can climb into it for me!
Six…
Is she really going to turn six this summer? All new winter clothes for next year. We’ll need jackets and gloves, and missus can crochet hats and scarves, but all that wool costs so much!
What was I counting?
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What’s With The Weather?
I hear it is set to be mighty damned cold starting this weekend, and into next week over much of the United States. Of course, I live in Idaho, so I am safe from the worst of it, which is shocking! Last year at this time I could have scrapped the ice off the glass inside my house, but not this year. This winter is quite a bit warmer, so far. But the arctic blast that will cause the entire state of Michigan to close their schools nest week will miss us completely! We might get a little brush with a satellite cell, so I should go check the woodpile, not that I can afford to top it up in the next few days!
It has been warmer in our house this year! I am not sure why, apart from the fire in the fireplace. That would seem an obvious answer, were it not for the fact the fireplace is pretty inefficient, and really only heats two rooms up, and since the thermostat is in one of those rooms, it actually fools it into thinking the house is warmer than it is, and causes the rest of the house to be colder. So I am not sure the fireplace is a positive contribution in its current configuration!
What does seem to be a help here is the mice! There have been so many mice crawling into our traps that I have begun to think the walls are lined with so many of them that they are providing insulation and keeping the house warm.
Okay, the thought of that many mice is pretty disgusting!
In other news, I did go to Lowe’s today to pick up an internet order that my wife made early this morning of Christmas sale items. When I got there, I was told to wait a bit while they located it. After about fifteen minutes, they concluded that the order was not picked, and I was asked to wait while they did. I wish I was joking when I tell you that this part of the process took about an hour and a half, and was followed by another half an hour of returning items from the internet order that were no longer in stock because they were on sale and were grubbed up by eager sale shoppers in the store. After returning those items, we added one more of something, and then had to return ALL of it in order to ring it all up again and apply a 10% discount that I was promised after I had been there an hour because after all, I ad waited so patiently, and for so long. If you lost track of the math, that was two hours and fifteen minutes in the store to pick up an order that should have been ready for me to just pick up and leave with.
Maybe secretly, the people at Lowe’s control our winter weather, and they are going to wait, then hit us with it.
Kelsey J Bacon
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Lately
The Holiday’s are officially over! We have two family members locally who are in failing health, and a very dear friend far away who is also, so with such a pall over us, we made this Christmas about being with our little clutch, and enjoyed it all we could!
Happy days for me! I got a Kindle for Christmas, and have it loaded with a bunch of books from Project Gutenberg. I have already finished Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, and am now working on Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which despite being largely made up of newspaper ads from the era, I find it immensely interesting. It has even answered questions about some of our goals here on the farm.
So, for the next couple of months, my pocket money is earmarked for fencing for our pasture, to hold in the cows, horses, and llamas we have over there. AS the fencing there now belongs to the leaser who has been putting his cows there the last couple of years, I want to assure that he doesn’t need to take it one day, and leave us with nothing. I need to get everything in order before spring so we can get some investment in cows for this year, and work towards many other things we will need in the future.
Plans for this year in the form of resolutions? I am reading more already because I want to, and have made no such resolution. If there is to be one, it is around improving my general health, which I can feel is in decline with association to my age. I need to lose a bit of weight, gain a little strength, and especially give more attention to my cardio health.
This year would like to see the pantry finished, electric to the outbuildings, and some outbuildings started, such as a workshop for missus and a greenhouse. It would also like to see as many cows as we can afford across the road to help pay for the things that will come in the next couple of years.
Propane is a swear word around here. We have just paid a $430 bill on it for the last fill up, which has just run out, and based on the current price, I think this next fill up will run us a bit over $700, and as the tank has less in it than I have ever before seen, it may be easily over $800. And to think, winter has just begun! It is probably the sole reason I am so excited for spring!
One thing I have decided on is that there is a reasonable space for me to run a bit of duct work through and install a couple of vents into to channel some of the heat from the downstairs furnace to the upstairs. Maybe it would be enough to shut off the upstairs furnace for good? That would probably cut the heating by a load! It would also set us up so if we ever do install geothermal, our ducting would be set for it. The only problem is that it would not allow the ducting to reach the boys’ bedroom. Everywhere else I could hit from the attic above the pantry.
Lighting is still moving along slowly. I have LED in many of the fixtures in the house so far. Of the 9 bulbs in the bathroom, 2 still need to be changed. There are four in the pantry, one in the little pantry, two out back, and three in the boys’ bedroom to do before I get into my grandparent’s room, the living room, and the chicken coop and tool shed. The living room is too dark even with its lights on, so some fixtures will be changed in there to brighten it up a lot, and to allow for appropriate mood settings and such. Eventually we see that room becoming a library and more of a parlor, and a room for listening to music.
Well, there’s sort of a summary of where things are at around here. There is still a lot of work to be done to get to where we want to be. We are getting by, and have not yet had to eat the horses. Let’s see how this year goes!
Kelsey J Bacon
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