The unexpected

I didn't know for a while, but PaPa has spent some of the summer watching a Mama Cat and her 4 kitties.  Eventually . . . about the time I became aware of how PaPa's heart was leaning, there were only three kittens. 

I have thought about this quite a bit.  PaPa was pained and bothered having a cat in the house.  Of course, PaPa didn't bond with that cat as a kitty.   Also, PaPa is at home by himself much of the day and perhaps he is not such a loner as he would like us (and him) to think.  Perhaps these kitties give him someone to talk to and to keep him company.  (And especially, maybe he had someone to talk to that didn't sass back and wasn't grumpy ; ( 

PaPa went out and bought cat food and started to fatten Mama Cat and the three little kittens.  And today, they are gone!  Disappeared!  Vanished!

We miss them!  We want them to come back.  We'll pay the ransom!  

So many questions.  Did PaPa fatten them up and strenghten them, just to have them pack up and go home?  Did something get them?  Did Mama go away and tell the kids not to leave the big shed until she got back? 

Cross your fingers . . .

Send prayers for their safe return. 

I'll let you know immediately, if they come "home" 

Two Strikes . . .

I did. I did try again.  I took two photos to the County Fair.  I swallowed my pride and did it again. 

And, again, I struck out.  I can't get a White Ribbon.  I can't even get a Participation Ribbon!  lol 

I took the Amish buggy photo and the bleak Icarian landscape photo.  They were no shows. 

On a brighter note, I did get two blue ribbons in the Genealogical division.  I took my Uncle Lyman's old 1915 Sale Bill and I put together a collection of photos and items of my Great Grandfather George Washington Wilson's family.  They were very early settlers in Sand Creek Township, Union Co, Iowa.  They did welll.

My all time best at the County Fair still was to my display last year of Lanny's dad, Dale Gibson Hofmeister, WWII Army pilot. 

What do you think?

I'm thinking about County Fair time, about the photo contest.  I'm still stung by my first time entering two years ago when I didn't get a ribbon, an award or even a comment.  I'm thinking I should just stick to the Genealogical or Historical entries and leave the photos to the big guys . . .

 . . . but then I look at this Amish buggy trotting down the road, and I think again.  So I pulled some scenic photos out, dusted them off and I'm trying them on for County Fair size. 



This buggy one is one of my favorites. 

I love these scenic photos but there's too much road in this pic.  I needed to zoom in.  Way in! 

I really, really like the composition in this old farmstead and country roads but I need a good photo program where I could sharpen this photo, flip it all over to graytones or sepia and make the photo look as old as the farmstead.  I might work on this.  I wish I could brush the electric lines out of the pic. 

I like this photo, above, of the house at Icaria but there's a lot of sky and earth to the left and maybe not enough house.  I think it is a little off balance.  The clouds were so low this winter day it made it all seem bleak and forelorn.  How did the pioneers get through some of the winters without going stir crazy? 

Something about open country, clouds and big houses speaks to me.  The clouds in this one suggests that we might want to take cover.  Soon.  Very Soon. 

Here's another that I like but again, there's too much road and too much sky and not enough detail. 

This is a little change up for me.  It is brighter and greener and I like the hay mowed and raked and striping the ground but this pic is probably not as clear and sharp as needs to be for fair. 

This one is pleasing to my eye but too bad there's an electric pole right through the middle pole.  If I noticed it, a judge sure would. 

This one could be a County Fair entry.  I think I should tweak the contrast just a hair -- try to sharpen the grass and twigs.  I think the colors are good. 

This one should be in an environmental category -- not that there will be such a category at the Union County Fair.  The evergreens in Colorado are dying from some beetle or disease.  Mountainsides worth of evergreens up by Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park were dead 2 years ago when Dad and I were out there -- then this March when we were in Southern Colorado, we were seeing acres of dead or dying trees.  This photo has some healthy trees up front but do you see all the dying trees in the back. 

It is a testimont to Mother Nature.  Seasons, diseases, weather patterns all ebb and flow.  Temperatures and rain amounts change from year to year.  You can dig in gravel pits in Iowa and find sharks teeth left behind from oceans a million years ago.  In New England and "out west" you find huge boulders swept south by huge frozen glaziers from years ago.  Where pastures once were, now are desserts. 

Oh Wow!  how did this mutate into an environmental post when I started out showcasing some of my photos?  I'll stop!  I'm done! 

I welcome any and all comments and critiques on my photos. 

Vote, if you like! 

Up Yonder

"When all of life is over and our work on earth is done,

and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there"

Himself and I made our annual pilgrimage the other evening, to the cemetery to take flags and flowers and I took the roll call . . .

                    Dale and LaRene Sychra Hofmeister

                    Mary Gibson and Shorty (Clarence) Hofmeister

                    Eva Walker Hofmeister

                    Polly Maxedon and John Riley Gibson

                    Mary Keesler and Norman G. Walker

                    Clara and Joseph Maxedon

and many, many other cousins and relatives.  There are four generations on each side for Dale . . .  four on his mother's side and four on his dad's.  Lanny says we'll be the fifth but I'm still campaigning for Graceland at Afton.  However, with this kind of pull and all the history and census, I'm thinking Himself will win this one.

(I need to draw a map of this cemetary for future generations.)

 



1979 - 1980 Orient, Ia

This would have been spring, 1979.  I am expectant, sitting in the beautiful, favorite and favored Red Volaire.  I don't know who took this photo or why . . .  or what Lanny was doing.  We can only imagine! 

Here, Johanna is 3 days old.  We almost got her in the picture!  We did get her lovely round head in the photo.  We took Johanna home to "Helen Speed's house" on highway 25, across the street from the O-M School. 

Oh my goodness, what a welcome for this darling baby girl!  Kristy and Erica were of the "playing house" age and Johanna would have been a great baby doll!  The first couple of days, they held and petted and doted on the new baby so much, that Johanna was just exhausted.   Craig, too, was enchanted with the baby. 

"Helen Speed's house was nice sized.  It had a kitchen, good sized living room and it seems like the dining room table was in the south end of the living room?  There were two bedrooms down but you went in one room and on thru to another bedroom.  How did we get to the bathroom?  Where was the bathroom?  I can't remember!

Kristy, Erica and Craig stayed out to Gramps and Granny's while Mama was in the hospital.  I might have stayed in the hospital 2 night and 3 days but I was in a hurry to get home and have my three children with me!  Three children and a newborn baby girl : )

Little Johanna is sleeping in her infant chair inside a borrowed bassinet.  I'm sure this was to keep her up and away from Craig and give her some peace from her sisters --  but also, we didn'thave a crib right away and I'm pretty sure LaDonna loaned us this bassinet.  Soon after, we found a used crib and mattress and painted it yellow and installed Johanna in her new bed. 

Johanna was jaundiced as so many babies are, right after birth, but I had escaped the hospital before she got too bad and we used the old-fashioned remedies and gave her water in a bottle and parked her in the sun to sleep.  A few days or a week later and her complexion was back to pretty pink!  (You all had some jaundice, to some extent.  I think it is more common in nursing babies?  I nursed you all.  Nursed you each as long as I could.  Some I nursed longer, some just a couple of months before I went back to work.

There was a baby boom in Orient the spring of 1979.  The community had planned and carried out a surprise baby shower for Johanna.  Somehow they got us to the firestation under false pretenses and lo and behold, it was a baby shower!  The first one I had had, too.  So what a surprise and I just truly felt blessed;  Johanna received many nice things.  Let me see if I can name some of the other babies . . . Mandy Feick, which Killion, oh boy!  I can't do it!  I'll have to get Johanna's babybook out.  I might have written shower details in the baby book.  Renee David is here, probably Kim Feick, Ronna Ross and I see Craig at the right end of the table. 

 Yes, there's your Gramma a smooching on Johanna and Craig is in my arms. I don't know where Kristy and Erica are -- did you come to the shower at the Fire Station?    You are both probably outside with the older kids playing tag in the summer evening. 

Well, Blogger just won't let me work with photos tonight.  They are going to do just exactly what they want to so we will have to put up with the pics NOT being in chronological order.  I will . . . if you will! 

 I cannot separate these two photos above.  Blogger won't let me and they are turned around, in date order.  The one just above this was the first day home from the hospital.  Johanna is tiny; look at those tiny feet and skinny legs: )  Craig is pleased as punch . . . and a big sister gets to help. 

That gold "throw" on the back of the davenport was crocheted by me.  We had it for years and I had forgotten about it until now but guess at some point it got so worn or I got so tired of it that I threw it out.  The "throw" is made with huge Granny Squares, as they were called.  Then the squares all sewn together. 

June 1980

Johanna's 1st Birthday

When Johanna turned one, we were living in the Lobaugh House east, behind the grocery store.  The dining room was in the southeast corner of the house, I think.  Patty Wilson made Johanna's birthday cake.  Running shorts were in and Johanna's little cheeks are red with eczema.  It was shortly after this I started buying goat milk and within a week or two, her cheeks cleared completely up.  I bought raw, farmer's goat milk for Susan McIlravy for a year or so.  Would get it in a gallon glass jar and then return the jar when I got the next gallon.  After awhile, we gradually just put Johanna back on boughten cow's milk.  In the winter, she and Kristy might get some eczema in the fold of the elbow or behind the knee . .  then come spring and summer and it would go away. 

This is taken in the Lobaugh House.  It looks as tho Johanna is going to take off at a run!  but she can't be more than a year, here.

Isn't this cute!  Johanna sure seems to be laughing out loud!

This old green lazyboy recliner was bought new in Sioux City and got humped and bumped from house to house.  I cannot tell you how many times it was wet on, thrown up on and spilled on!  It was a good old chair though and cleaned up pretty well.  I will always be able to recommend buying Lazyboys!  I think we may have moved this to Creston?  But eventually, we got Gramma Sychra's brown lazy boy so maybe the two are mixed up in my mind. 

 This photo is on the front porch of the Lobaugh house, I think.  I am surprised that the porch needs painting like that.  I sure don't remember it as being run down.  Correct me if I'm wrong . . . but I'm pretty sure this is the front.  Maybe this is the back porch?  No . . . help me out!  Anyway, that summer Johanna gnawed on many a corn cob.  We probably didn't want her having too much corn so we'd let her chew on the cob. 

This is Erica's 6th or 7th birthday.  If I could find the photo, I could tell you for sure!  Another Cake by Patti Wilson.  I wonder if she is still making cakes for her boys and grandchildren?  What a talented woman she was . . . sewing and baking, anyway.  I don't know what else she created. 

1979.  Johanna is just a "sitting" baby, not walking yet.  She has eczema on her dainty little cheeks.  We are at Granny's house for Christmas, I imagine.  Craig has a Dukes of Hazzard car.  Granny's front living room "stepped down" two steps.  It was built on as an after thought.  Gramps and Granny built a 3 bedroom ranch and found out there wasn't room for the clan . . . so Gramps and sons and company, bumped out the living room and stepped it down.  That made for a really nice house. 


This is out front of Shagbark.  Erica was corraling the little girls.  This is just plain adorable of them all:  April, Terri, Erica and Laura. 

Well, there's a stack of photos yet to be scanned and many a memory to recall.  Summer gets a little slow in the story telling as every other week is off to the cabin but I plan on telling stories and scanning photos for another 20 years or more . . . so sit back, be patient and send in suggestions and questions! 

1977 and 1978, the Lost Years

Spring of 1977 was a busy time. We were trying to get the Orient Grocery Store bought and financed. Lanny was finishing his obligation to Zenith Corp in Sioux City. We had our Hubbard house on the market, trying to get it sold. We had meetings with the bankers and Mr Christy, the seller of the store. We were packing up the Hubbard house and looking for a rental in Orient -- and there weren‘t any! We couldn’t buy another hosue until the Hubbard house sold as we needed the equity to finance a purchase.

Christmas at Gramma's. 

It think this was Christmas of 1978 because I seem to have a maternity top on.  Although, you wouldn't have thought I would be wearing a maternity top yet.  Nor sitting on the stairs in a room of a bunch of children smoking!  My goodness!  how times have changed.  I wish I knew who that was in Grampa's chair, behind Kent.  Anyone know that gal? 

 

This is marked "Christmas on the Farm". 

There's the big time cowboy talking on the phone getting to round up a bean bag or two! 

 This photo is marked Yankton, SD zoo.  Erica, 5 years old.  That dates this photo to 1978.  I wish this cute little girl would turn around so we could see her face -- although her little derriere and long legs and curly hair are cute!



We were writing proposed business plans (oh yeah? Never done this before!) for the grocery store the bank and the FHA (Farmers Home Administration who would underwrite the bank loan to buy the grocery store). We were soliciting the Small Business Administration for help and assistance in starting our small business. And I was still caring daily for my three young children, one of whom was an over active little blond bomb shell. 

Christmas again!  We only seem to have had time to take photos at Christmas time! 

No wonder I have, like 6 photos for the years of 1977 and 1978! It is falling into place! How did we get every accomplished and moved to Orient and didn't leave any children behind!  Okay, I think I am now going to forgive myself for not having more photos from these two years! Hope you all do too!
　
　

　

　
　

Erica, Kristy and Kerry.

At Gramma Hof's.  Didn't you love her house? 

　
　
Orient!  <3  I loved being closer to family. 20 miles to Prescott or 30 to Afton. That was awesome! I liked starting up the store and learning my way around Orient and getting my children established in the school and with babysitters and preschools. I really liked being on committees and volunteering. We had good years and slow years in the grocery store but we always ate good! Also, our employer always let one of us off to attend school functions, art shows, athletic events, and tend to sick children, so that was a major bonus.    The down side was no Health Insurance nor paid vacations.  (Oh! if I had only known about Medicaid! : ) 

Dad and I worked 7 - 6 pm, 6 days a week and 8 - noon on Sundays (sometimes Sundays were our biggest days!) These were good days of physical activity, family activities, learning new skills, meeting new people, stretching and learning (city counsel, school board, starting a library, Preschool treasurer).

Lanny, all dressed up for Smyser's 2nd wedding. 

I sure did like Ellen, his second wife. 

They were married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale.

Then, sometime around Thanksgiving or Christmas, I found I was falling asleep every time I sat down. I thought, well, we are working hard but then after some thought and counting on my fingers, we were jubilant to figure out that we were “with child!” Yes, I was pregnant and although as regular as clockwork, I didn’t really know when this happened or when the baby was due. I hadn’t counted calendar days for two or three months. But that didn’t matter, a baby will come when a baby is ready. And we were ready for a baby!

Leftovers, 1975

I think I have misdated pictures and have published some out of order.  I've worked with the pics so much I can't remember where they are in the blog -- published or unpublished so here's some leftovers . . . and some never before published. 

Christmas 1975. 2 little girls' Christmas gifts were (homemade) robes and dolly bunkbeds.  (PS: this is at Gramma Hof's in Prescott.  I just discovered that!)  Kristy and Erica also got more stuff and toys but their Christmas sure wouldn't have been like today's Christmas even tho I bet it seemed like pure magic . . .

I don't have a date on this pic but we do have the custom "wild" drapes in this pic.  I bought that rocking chair at an auction before Kristy was born and rocked all my babes in it (with a cushion in the seat and on the back) and a squeak in a rocker.  It is in my bedroom today, as we speak.  This pic  is before the wall-to-wall carpet was put down in the livingroom.  Kristy, I think I have to apologize for those short pants and knee socks.  : (  oh my! 

Cousin Brenda and Kristy cruisin' Rebecca Street.  Even tho our house had those shingles for siding, wasn't it still kind of pretty all gray with red and white trim?  Dad and I are debating whether there is a Hofmeister sign hanging above the stairs or not. 

Dad is just pretending to spank (as was his habit) but Erica is reacting like he is really going to whallop her good!  It was about this time Erica was starting to be called Queen Josephine . . . which shortened to Josie. 

Isn't this cute?  This is a photo that we haven't seen much of (maybe due to the couch and the curtains? : )  The photo is date 12-18-1975.  Kristy's 4th birthday.  Look, the girls have their home-crocheted ponchos on their laps.  Kristy got a Family of dolls for her birthday.  They were like homesteader dolls.  lol  No, just down to earth, Mom, Dad and little girl.  I think!  I hadn't thought about these dolls for 40 years so  I'll have to do some thinking and research.  But I like this photo -- two little heads together checking it out. 

This also is dated 1975.  Setting is our downstairs kitchen @ 1503 Rebecca.  Kristy, Molly Duncan and Erica.  It is someone's birthday I think.  Is that a cake on the table?  Very cute!

1976 and 77 Update

 We lived in Sioux City, of course, when Craig was born at St. Lukes Medical Center, the same as his older sisters.  Lanny was sure glad to get a boy, being out numbered the way he was -- 3 to one.  Craig came fast and furious, rushing through those early years full-speed ahead without care or planning.  I see the same attributes in Bella : )

When we knew the third child was coming along, we started figuring out how I could stay home because paying a baby sitter and going to work wouldn't have been to profitable in those days.  We determined that after the babe came, I would do daycare.   I had gotten to know The Duncan's down the street.  They had two little girls, Mollie and preemie, Carrie.  Mrs. Duncan needed some respite and we determined that Mollie (and Carrie when able would come up a couple of afternoon's a week.  There were a couple of children that the State of Iowa paid for their care, there was a little preemie who only found comfort from the hum of the vacumm.  There was a precious little guy we would have adopted, Mark, who's Mama worked at a massage parlor and was often late to pick up her boy. 

At Hubbard, there was the little girl with the Cleft Palette ( I am going to have to look up the spelling!) and little red headed Jaime.  I could have bonded with her but we weren't there long enough. 

Bohemian Mama (did you read that "hippie" ?) was sure glad to have a new babe safely delivered, and yelling at the top of his lungs.  The babe, that is -- not the Mama!  There's that gypsy robe again.  I mean to have/make me another. 

It is always a good sign tho, when the baby squalls loud!  Back in the olden days, the doctor kept you in the hospital for 2-1/2 or 3 days.  (In my Mama's time, if they got you to the hospital, they kept you in bed for about two weeks . . . by the time they wanted you to get up, you couldn't as your muscles had atrophied!  No wonder Mama had 7 of her nine babies at home! 

Remember the Chinese women that worked in the rice fields . . . they walked over to the edge of the rice paddy, delivered the babe and then went back to work.  OR so we were told! 

This photo just won't "format" and it is so cute and shows that lovely old fashioned yellow shrub rose that we had in Sioux City.  This would have been late spring 1976.  Our last spring, so sad!  Kristy is a caring 5 year old and Erica a very proud 4 year old.  This is just a charming little photo -- maybe just a tiny bit blurred.  But I remember the day and the smell and the feel still.  To this very day. 

PS:  look at those big old 70ish cars across the street!

I believe this was taken before Craig's 1st hair cut in Hubbard, at about 18 months.  I only let these blond tresses get this long because your Dad didn't have the heart to cut them.  Really and truly. Look at his dimpled knees.  His nice tan.  The cloth diaper under that pair of hardened "plastic" pants!  You shouldn't dry plastic pants in the dryer but when you only have 3 pairs and the cloth diapers and the plastic pants leaked each time, you had to dry them in the dryer so as to have a clean pair to put over a cloth diaper.  I'm not griping about the cloth diapers.  I really didn't mind when I was a stay at home mom.  I liked bleaching them out and hanging them out on the line to whiten in the sun and I was thankful to have plastic pants.  The disposable diapers available weren't much better so I didn't know what I was missing. 

Which child remembers me singing "Valerie!  Valerrah!  ??

I sent this photo to school with Craig when they were doing a "this is me" bit at school.  When it and others came back home, the teacher had stapled about 25 staples in the pics, to hold them together.  I took them to school and showed Mr. Tussey because I thought it was pretty careless of a teacher to do such a thing (photos were more of a luxury in those days and if you wanted copies you had to find the negatives and send them off somewhere and order reprints -- obviously, I never did that with this one!)  Anyway, Mr Tussey more or less shrugged his shoulders like "no big deal".  I think the teacher was Mrs. White but may be wrong about that. 

Now Craig, if I have held a grudge against your teacher all these years and find out now they turned you loose with a stapler, I am going to have to take it all back! 

Craig was a climber.  In this pic, he had put the dishwasher door down, climbed on it to the counter, crawled across to the sink and was running water.  I swear!  I swear I never let the boy out of my sight for more than two minutes! 

Our kitchen window faced East, looking out over the backyard.  The dining room is to our right.  The door into the garage is to our left and before you went out to the garage, you could turn left and go down the basement stairs.  We had a garden here and as you can see, the tomatos did well.  I canned and froze out of the garden this summer.  I think dad might even have had a small patch of sweet corn. 

Becky and Kelly's mom called me up one day and said there's a real bargain down town.  A gunny sack full of potatoes for a cheap price.  (wish I could remember how much!)  so I went and bought some. 

Dad has never been fond of pototoes in quantities greater than 10 pounds because as a lad, he had to plant, hoe, dig, carry, tote, wash, sprout, cut into "eyes" and hoe again the very large 10 acre potato patch his dad planted and fed to the whole town of Prescott!  He and his brothers are still arguing over who had to hoe more potatoes than the others! 

Anyway, we had potatoes about every meal and we were slowly getting all the potatoes used up and then spring came and the pototoes started to sprout.  I think Dad must have started having dreams about cutting those potatoes up and planting them and starting the viscious cycle all over again because he got on me to use those potatoes up before they spoiled!  lol  So I pared and peeled and cooked and broiled and made potato salad and we used them up (or I threw away the squishy ones while he was at work! lol) but I gotter done!  I never was tempted to buy a gunny sack full of potatoes ever again!  The end! 

 

What a happy, little tow head, mostly.  Well, as long as he could be down and going and climbing and digging and running.  This is spring, with the tulips blooming and it must have been a warm spring with Craig's bare belly and legs hanging out.  Photo was taken on the south side of the house at 1503 Rebecca, on 15th Street.  

On the driveway in Hubbard.  Erica is helping ?? Craig in -- or Craig out.  I'm pretty sure that Mama wasn't encouraging them into the pool with water in the bottom, dressed in long pants.  I'm pretty sure those pant legs are going to be dripping water.  However, Mama must have thought this was "cute" enough to take their photo.  Erica, are you urging Craig into the pool?  so if you get in trouble it will be cut in half?  I made Craig's jump suit and Erica's polyester pants.  I love making those little slacks and sewing the crease in down the front!  The shirt is boughten.  I think Audri may have inherited Erica's curls.

Is there such as word as "boughten" anymore?  Do any of you refer to "boughten" clothes?  "boughten" shirt?  hhmmmm. 

I am pretty sure this is just inside the front door at Hubbard.  The door in the top right corner would have been the outside door, the front door.  The smaller door to the left was a coat closet.  I had forgotten that coat closet.  I am just now reminded of it.  Don't know where we got the coke box but we had two or three of them.  The coke boxes were "cars", toy boxes, storage boxes or building blocks -- we may still have one down in the crawl space here.  That yellow chest was in 1503 Rebecca when we bought it.  It was natural wood first, then yellow, eventually orange and Craig and Traci may still have it yet.

My beauty contest winners.  All three took first place in my book : )  I think Craig is looking to his older sisters for clues on how to react and behalf here?  Or maybe just wanting their approval?  love you little sweeties <3

This is another photo that we haven't used a lot. 

Look at this pretty girl and her sparkling eyes! 

Photo taken at Granny's, at Shagbark.

Erica, do you remember this shirt? 

It was a favorite.  This pic is a favorite. 

Fall of 1977.  Is that right?  This is the front stoop at Hubbard.  Kristy had her kindergarten year in Hubbard.  For awhile we all walked Kristy to school -- at least part way.  Then she got acquainted with LeAnn, down on the corner.  LeAnn had a brother about the same age and maybe a couple of older sibs so they made up a group, walking to school.  It relieved this Mama's mind, let me tell you.  I think they might have met up with the Collins' children too, at the corner. At the corner that went up the hill.

Craig at about a year holding this pup.  I do not remember this pup so hope he was the neighbor's!  lol  there is a swimming pool on the driveway and red lava rock in our flower beds under the casement windows.  These were good, busy, hectic days : )  I didn't have much time to take pictures nor much extra cash as I was a "stay-at-home" Mom doing daycare to help out.

ah, yes, the memories . . . good days!  Love, ur Mama