Yesterday was Hallowe'en. I am fully aware of that, but the fact of the matter is, I live in the boonies where no young costumed treat-seeker will EVER meander by. So, it seemed appropriate to take advantage of a glorious weather day to get some much needed yard maintenance performed at the "pond house." The evening before, as we pulled away from a CraigsList pickup, we witnessed the beautiful red sunset, and determined Hallowe'en would dawn a beautiful day.
Sunset, Hartfield, VA
Sunset Hartfield, VA
We planned on getting an early start, and, as seems our norm, managed to get over there oh, around 1PM... (well, that's early afternoon, anyway).
Beautiful Autumn Day
So, before we headed over, Joe got together some "supplies." Yes, these supplies included some tools for the tasks at hand, but they also included some empty bins, and some plastic bags, you know, the kind we get a million of every trip to the grocery store. It was obvious from the inclusion of these items that we had ulterior motives about our "work day" at the pond house.
This is, after all, HICKORY NUT SEASON. For those of you who are not aware of this spectacular season, at least at the pond house in Gloucester, VA, this is the season during which I typically tromp through the woods for hours on end, collecting fallen hickory nuts that haven't already been consumed by the copious local wildlife. Last year Joe joined me for the first time in this activity, and together we collected well over 1000 lbs of hickory nuts.... I sold them all on eBay, as I had for a couple of years.
Road to Pond House
Still, I normally start this activity the last week of September, but work travels dictated I would not be around to enjoy the nut season until late October, so late October is was. The fall leaves are brilliant right now, and the woods' canopy, with the bright blue sky peeking through the red, oranges and yellows, creates a beautiful environment in which to "exercise."
Hickory Nut Collecting
Exercise is the best way to describe this activity, because the 7 1/2 acres of hickory trees are not laid out in orchard-like arrangements, where a rake or something mechanical could be used to collect the nuts. We literally walk MILES as we stoop to spy the nuts hiding amongst the fallen leaves, and stoop further to pick each one discovered. We stoop to crawl under and through lower growing brush that hides our treasures. We climb up and down the short but steep "hills" that are the embankment to the pond. And we duck to avoid the ever-falling hickory nuts. We get a workout.
We thought we should do the maintenance work first and then start nut collecting. We tried to fire up the lawn tractor and the battery was dead (darn it... NOT!) So, Joe set the battery on the charger and off we went nut collecting.
Hickory Nuts Amongst the Fallen Leaves
Judy,
Pregnant with Hickory Nuts!
From Pockets to Bags
We were not disappointed with the crop this year. By the time the light was waning and we returned to complete the maintenance work, we'd collected 67 lbs of the nuts... that weight AFTER removing their hulls. Well, OK, we obviously are not going to catch up and reach or exceed our last year's record of over 1000 pounds sold, but the squirrels got a serious head start on us this year!
Showing off HEAVY Bag of Hickory Nuts
Nut Collectors at Day's End
One Day's Haul = 67 Pounds
While Joe finished up the yard work, I took the nuts inside and gave them their "bath." There is a reality about hickory nuts grown naturally in the woods. They are subject to the nut worm. The nut worm enters the nut during the time the nut is forming, and they feed on the nut until it drops from the tree. At that point, they bore a hole through the shell and hull (if it is still on the nut after falling) and go into the ground where they do whatever nut worms do to procreate for next year. So, before selling the nuts on eBay, I do my best to ensure what I am selling are worm-free, delicious nuts. Hence the "bath."
Nuts, Bathed and Drying
I fill the kitchen sink with hot water and dump the collected nuts in, cleaning them of the forest floor dirt and removing all "floaters" from the batch. Floaters indicate an empty shell... nut meat usually eaten by the worms, but sometimes just never formed. Once bathed, the "good nuts" are put on towels on the counter to dry. From there, after they are sufficiently dry, I load them into sacks (multi-use Judy uses knee high pantyhose for her hickory nut sacks.) These sacks are stacked on the shelves in a temperature controlled environment, where they await shipment. I like to give them about a week on the shelf before shipping, lest a nut or two which passed the bath test still contain the worms... they make their way out within the week and I can separate those nuts with the holes from the sacks. The mesh contains the worms sufficiently and, as it turns out, these nut worms make wonderful fishing bait!
Fall Fishing Anyone???
By the time we left the pond house, headed home past the now-quiet homes that earlier hosted hundreds of trick-or-treaters, passing by the group of four Sheriff's deputies in the subdivision between the pond house and the main road (very colorful, and when asked what was going on, the deputy said, "we don't know yet,"), we were exhausted. It was a glorious fall day and I guess you could say we did our own kind of trick-or-treating!
Anyone who has raised children can attest to the fact that it is not simply ALL wonderful, sweet moments, strung together like some lovely set of pearls that a mother can wear proudly as she joins other similarly adorned mothers in a tea party or such. No, there are many more, "Mommy, I'm Ready!!!" which, loosely translated, means, "I've cacca'd in the potty like you wanted, so now, please come WIPE me," or "Mommy, Jennifer is LOOKING at me!!!" (the unpardonable sin of siblings).
Sometimes, in, fact, it seems impossible to think of these little creations of ours as sweet at all, despite the promise that "what are little girls made of? Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice, That's what little girls are made of!" Even little girls, at least MY little girl, was not ALL sugar and spice and everything nice.
Still, there were just enough of those sweet moments to hold the rest of the not-so-sweet ones together, to give a better valuation to the sweet moments, I suppose, a better appreciation. I was looking through old photos this morning (again) and laughed when I came across some of the scenes I felt camera-worthy. Back in those days, the film and developing was not cheap, and the cheap cameras at my disposal certainly produced a less than quality product. Still, the focus of most shots was something "pleasing," -- no need to waste money on something displeasing, yes?
Well, sometimes I just could not restrain myself. I have shots of my two, "hiding" from me, seriously thinking they could avoid the bath that was their daily routine, if Mom could not find them. Of course, the fact that they chose to hide AFTER getting undressed for their bath rather limited their hiding places, then, didn't it? Oh, what terrible mother I was... I snapped their picture and STILL required they take their bath.
Please don't notice the EMPTY TP!!
Yes, back in those early days, they bathed together... not so much for the "green" aspect of it, but I needed to be able to keep my eye on them and together was easier than separate... I only have ONE good eye, after all!
But also in the mix of photos I found some very sweet ones... candid ones where the children had no idea I was capturing their actions. And these photos are my favorites... they are not necessarily smiling or "pretty" for the camera... they are just doing what they did... natural.
Stephen, 6 Reading to Jenn, 4
Of course, they also had their posing moments... the moments they worked hard for... and for these I obligingly also snapped their picture. Hallowe'en was always one of their favorites for such posing.
I have no idea who this is!
On this Hallowe'en 2010, my children, now 29 and 27, are, I imagine, prepared to give candy to the little angels turned terrors for the night (or vice verse), in their own neighborhoods. I will have no such trick-or-treaters out here in the boonies, but I have photos of sweet moments with which to remember those days!
Wal-mart did away with their fabric section a couple of years ago. I remember feeling sad that they had decided to take away the little "dream" section, where I could find the fabric I needed for any given project. Now that is not to say I have done a great deal of sewing in the past few years, I have not, but I still enjoyed having the "option" of whipping something up, without a long drive over "across the water" to the real fabric stores.
This afternoon I went to do some much needed grocery shopping. While in the one-stop-shop Wal-mart, I spied a table laden with bolts of fabric. Each bolt had five yards of fabric, and each bolt was priced at five dollars. Now, the fabric was gaudy and very poor quality, to be sure, but I still stopped and looked. I swear, had there been a single acceptable pattern, or a decent piece of fabric, I would have bought it, JUST to encourage them to keep offering it. But there was nothing I could find on that table for which I could imagine a use.
Disappointed, I moved on, no bolt of fabric in my basket, thinking about those very early days when I would use ANY fabric, just to afford myself the opportunity to sew. In those days, I rummaged through the attic, nabbing ancient and hideous black and white floral design curtains with which I made an equally hideous blouse. I walked the mile and a half to the fabric store where I could purchase three yards of "something" for a dollar. And those purchases of "something" became shirts, skirts, blouses and such.
Now, admittedly, the early works were only acceptable to me because they were "done." They were not pretty. They were not well made, but I had finished them, by George, and I was determined to wear my creations. Thankfully, that was back in the day when there were a fair number of kids whose mothers still made their clothes... so mine did not stand out too badly (at least that is how I saw it.)
Always more of a "giver," I was anxious to share my work with my family. I made shirts for my four younger brothers -- shirts which, I am fairly certain, they wore to please me, not because they liked them. My poor mother, a home economics major in college, had to bite her tongue numerously as I, frustrated with some zipper or dart or something, asked her for help, and then declared she didn't know what she was doing.... Mom and I never did see exactly eye to eye. She'd want me to baste my seams -- I'd want to just pin and stitch... I wanted to be DONE -- she wanted me to have a decent product.
As much as I really struggled in those early sewing days, I persevered, for I had a dream of getting a sewing machine my very own one day, nevermore to have to share the old knee-peddle Singer with Mom, or pay my sister for buttonholes on her new Kenmore. And so I sewed and sewed and sewed.... One day, one of my brother's friends was over and asked me if I'd make him a shirt. That was the day I was confident my work had reached an acceptable level.
I continued to whip up shirts and skirts, dresses and blouses, shorts and pants for several more years before, on Christmas of my senior year in high school, I found in the Christmas tree, an IOU from SANTA... I'd get my sewing machine when they went on sale after Christmas. By this time, I was really sewing because I loved it, and I loved the creations I made. In fact, when I started dating my first serious boyfriend, during my senior year, I made him several shirts. He wore them, and I continued to add to his homemade wardrobe over the several years of our relationship. When we eventually parted ways, the shirts went with him, but I kept sewing. In fact, when I met the man who was to become my first husband, my brothers asked him, upon meeting him for the first time, whether I had made him any shirts yet. I imagine he must have thought that a rather odd question, but to my brothers, if I really loved a guy, I would be making him clothes!
Over the years I continued to make a good portion of my own wardrobe, add my husband's wardrobe, and to make a LOT of the clothes my children wore, until they reached middle school. By that time they were less impressed with the "Mom made this for me!" and were more interested in getting their clothes like the other kids did. I was finding also that to make the clothes was becoming more expensive than purchasing them from the store... not designer brands, of course...just the basics.
Jenn in Mom's Creations
Stephen, sporting a Mom-made shirt
So, my sewing machine was used less and less... sure, I made Christmas stockings, mended holes in pants, and made the occasional dress for a "special occasion," but I was not living in the fabric stores as I had done for years. I was happy Wal-mart had a fabric section with reasonably decent selections, so that when I DID have the desire to get creative, I could do so on the spur of the moment. But those moments became further and further apart, and I suppose Wal-mart just couldn't justify continuing to offer all of that fabric, if everyone was like me... less and less.
Everyone Except MomMom,
wearing a homemade shirt!
Still, today, when I happened on that table piled high with bolts of cheap, gaudy fabric, I could not simply pass by without HUNTING for one bolt that I could take home... but I suppose it was not meant to be. Oh well, I still have a cedar chest full of fabric I have yet to use. And the fact that the sewing machine is at the Pond house and her electric cord and peddle are here at the Farmhouse.... well, you get my point... I'm not exactly prepared to sew a new creation then, am I?
Yep, My Maternity Clothes and
Mom's Wedding Dress -- Homemade
We returned the Penske truck today. I can honestly say, despite the fact that the cab did leak in the heavy downpours she was subjected to enroute, and despite the fact that the cargo area ALSO had a leak (minor damage to only one box as far as I know), it was a very good truck. I am mystified as to why there was such a huge difference in the cost of renting the Penske versus the U-Haul version. I'm telling you the truth, U-haul wanted three times what Penske charged us, for the same sized cargo area.
Maybe Not Exactly Water Tight?
I was a little sad to see the truck go. We were supposed to return her by 11:26 AM today, but, due to work schedules, etc., we pulled into the lot at 11:31 AM... they did not charge us the late return fee. The folks here in Gloucester were just as pleasant as the one in Fresno, CA where we rented her. All in all, it was an excellent experience.
The trip was definitely a good one. Spending that many hours in the cab of a truck with another person can sometimes result in getting on each others' nerves, getting in bad moods, etc. But I can honestly say, Joe is an ideal travel companion... he does all the driving and never gets in a bad mood!
Close Quarters
Over 3000 Miles Traveled
Me, I snooze when I want, and fool around with the camera and the computer... if I have to get some work done, I can do it while riding in the passenger seat of the cab. My biggest complaint is, I suppose, a factor of age... after sitting for such long periods, I can barely move... I look like an 80 year old when I take my first steps after carefully climbing out of the truck.
Judy, Prepared for Anything!
One of the things I love about driving across the country, besides the pictures of the sights we see, is the opportunity to share stories. We each come from a different set of experiences and every now and then something happens, or we end up in some town that triggers a memory... and so we share our stories.
One of these moments happened when we found ourselves ready for a break in Gallup, New Mexico. To me, it was just another town I'd never seen, with ample food offerings and fuel choices. To Joe, it was a trip down memory lane. He told me of a time more than 30 years ago when, helping his sister and brother-in-law move across country to CA, the rented truck he was driving broke down. This being in the days before cell phones, he had to wait until the police "discovered" him, hanging out in the shade under a bridge.
It was a fun and interesting story, wherein Joe remained in Gallup, NM for several days while the truck rental company found another truck, and reloaded his load onto the new truck so he could continue his journey. Because the process took several days, he was put up in a local motel and he made friends with some of the locals. And he discovered "blue corn." The story was of a young man with big dreams ... dreams of fields of blue corn. I had to laugh when he told me he'd wanted to be a farmer all those many years ago. Funny, I did too...as far back as my teens, I wanted to live on a farm.
For typical reasons, neither of us ended up having a farm. Until this year when we bought the old farmhouse. We haven't really started the "farming" part of the whole deal just yet, but we have tried growing a few things, with some success. Watermelons, tomatoes, and sunflowers were great successes for us this first season on the property. Next year we will try some other crops, just to see what works well for us. I'm doubtful that blue corn, that grows well in the New Mexico climate will do so well here, but I am tempted to try it, just because. I have this vision of Joe, standing in amongst the blue corn plants and the sunflowers, just smiling at his successful crops!
So, yes, it was truly a "fond farewell" to that Penske truck today. She inspired old memories, and she helped make new ones.
What were we thinking? I mean, seriously, what WERE we thinking? On paper it seemed so "doable." We would fly out to California on one way tickets, rent a 16 foot box truck, load up a couple of tons of "stuff" and drive back to VA. Our trip would span more than three weeks, but the first two weeks of that time would be devoted to my work. On paper, then, we had ten days to pick up the truck, load her up, make the drive 3000 miles across the country, unload the load and return the truck. And that sounded completely OK to us.
Dreamers
Now, there were some additional constraints that potentially could make our goal a little tougher to reach. For instance, even though we did have the truck for 10 days, I had to be back at work two days before the truck was due back. And, since we rarely get to see family and friends in CA, while there, we had to incorporate a couple of get-togethers, setting us back further from our originally intended start date for truck loading.
So it was that we were really NOT prepared when we picked up the reserved truck, and we spent the next two and a half days loading her up. (Our plan had been to "stage" everything on pallets so that when we picked up the truck, we could load her straight up in a matter of 12 hours or less... Oh, well. And then we were on our way....two days after our intended departure, and three days after picking up the truck.
We literally moved that truck along the highways and byways as quickly as was realistically possible, with bad weather chasing us, catching us, -- playing with us all along the route. We stopped twice for sleep, and stopped five additional times to eat meals. And, having left the Yosemite area of CA at 2:15 AM on Thursday, we arrived back at the old farmhouse here in the Gloucester area of VA at 12:30 PM on Monday. Of course, we still had loads of chores to do, but we napped first and then completed our chores, finally calling it a night around 2 AM Tuesday morning.
The plan for Tuesday was for me to work during the day while Joe caught up on much needed sleep and then to work together in the late afternoon to unload the cargo from the box truck into the semi trailer we are using for storage here at the farmhouse. It was a decent plan and rather well executed... at least until we started the unloading process.
In life there are many ways to accomplish one's goals... some require preparation, some allow for "seat of the pants" executions. Since this was a rented truck, and the ground was "spongy" from recent heavy rains, and the access area to the semi trailer was iffy at best, we opted for the "preparation" model approach. We started the preparation at 4:30 PM.
Semi Trailer, Swept and Ready to Receive Load
By 8:00 PM we had managed to sweep out the semi trailer to allow for storing the cargo in as clean an environment as possible and had managed to create a new driveway from the current driveway to the semi trailer, laying first road dirt and then a light sprinkling of gravel to reduce the possibility of getting the heavy box truck stuck in the wet ground.
Joe, making temporary road
Next we'd tried backing up to the deck leading to the semi trailer, using the ramp on the box truck to make a gangway to the semi trailer... that did not work. So, eventually, and through much careful maneuvering by Joe, we manged to get the truck backed up to another deck onto which we would make our ramp into the semi trailer.
Load to Unload
Ready to Unload
And then we decided to take a break, come inside and have some supper, and then try complete the job. I also had a report I needed to complete for work...
At 10:30, with our appetites sated, I completed my work assignment while Joe returned to the work site to continue preparations. By 1 AM, when I sent off my completed work assignment and return to the work site, Joe had successfully hung additional lights in the semi trailer and the back of the cargo truck, and created the ramp to get the boxes from the truck to the semi trailer.
Extra Lights Hung in Semi Trailer
For the next three hours we worked like crazy to get everything offloaded, our desire to complete the task fueled not only by the countdown of days to the required return of the truck, but by the weather predictions of more torrential rain, tornado watches, and generally bad weather approaching.
Halfway through -- Semi Trailer
Halfway through Truck
Wrapping up the Offloading
We finished unloading at just after 4 AM this morning. The air felt very suggestive of rain and, though we'd originally planned to wait until morning to move the truck out of her unloading location, Joe became nervous that heavy rains would result in a truck stuck in the new, temporary driveway... so, despite the early/late hour, and the amount of work required to actually MOVE that truck, we decided to finish the job.
Sweeping up
Road Dirt Pile
In the final backing of the truck into the unloading location, the front wheels had pushed through a pile of the unused road dirt. Joe was reluctant to try to drive back through that pile, so decided it made better sense to move the dirt. He fired up the tractor at about 4:30 AM, thankful that our neighbors are not within earshot! Thirty minutes later, with dirt moved, temporary driveway widened further and gravel sprinkled on top to aid in driving the truck over the fresh dirt, Joe was successful in getting her out and onto more "terra firma."
Early Morning Tractor Work
Joe Raking the new Temporary Road
Adding a Sprinkling of Gravel
Inspecting the Clearance to Get the Truck Out
We're in a Tight Spot (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou)
Safely Back on Solid Ground
Then it was just the cleanup of the tools and such, closing of doors, turning off of lights, and by 5:30 AM, we were finally able to go to bed. I DID set my alarm, something I rarely do, concerned that I might oversleep my 7:00 AM "must be up" time.... I'm glad I did. I was still tired when I arose, making my way to my office to start, once again, my work day. I am very thankful my office is only about ten feet from my bedroom! I would NOT have wanted to drive in that tired condition.
So, tomorrow we will return the rental truck on time, and without any damages during our use. And with that, we will have completed the move of more than two tons of "stuff" from the west coast to the east coast of these United States.... I am still scratching my head and wondering, "What WERE we THINKING???"
Out next cross-continental trip will be a relaxed one, without hard deadlines, and without huge cargo hauls.... maybe even with good weather the whole way??? Well, I can dream, can't I?
