Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tea for Fourteen


My mom visited last week and we decided to finally get the china out of storage and display it in our new china hutch. While we bought the hutch over a month ago, I hadn't quite gotten around to this step. That said, we only recently put the final touches on the new/old hutch as it needed a bit of work when we brought it home. 

We knew one of the doors rubbed a little, but upon further investigation the problem was more than just planing off the bottom millimeter of the door. We found a cracked middle support and the entire bottom of the hutch wasn't quite square. The Farmer couldn't quite figure out what had happened to it to create these issues until he recalled his days as a three-year-old climber. Yep...the bottom doors had been used as a stepstool from a youngster in previous days. So we took the back off. We re-squared it. We re-nailed it. We re-glued it. We added in another support in the middle. And we did plane off a millimeter from the bottom of the offending door.

And by "we" I mean The Farmer. I just held things. 

By the time we finished the hutch my mom was visiting in two weeks so I just waited for her to help me figure out what to do. Because, well, I have just a few pieces of china...



Disclaimer: Images may appear larger than in real life, but they really are this large.


Let me explain the drama around the "family" china.


My mother is the keeper of the actual "family" china. It is a cream design with raised scalloped edges and was a part of her father's family. Quite pretty. My mother remembers them from when she was little.

Until...

My great-aunt Jean visited from Texas one summer and she and my grandmother, Lottie, got into some sort of argument. My mother doesn't know what the argument was about - my grandmother never spoke of it. But the result was all the china was packed up and shipped to Texas. My grandmother wouldn't speak of the incident and no one was allowed to mention it. So the family china that was used for special occasions disappeared from the house until aunt Jean died and the china was shipped back.

It was stored in the back attic and never touched again.*

So where did this china come from? 


My grandmother bought it at an estate sale in the 1980s when she was in Arizona visiting her sister for the winter. 


I remember when this happened. Grandma made a big deal about it. While they were special dishes she didn't preclude anyone from using them on those special occasions. So yes, while I was merely a pre-teen I got to use the fancy plates. How fun!

She wanted them to be used, and while she knew she had 11 grandchildren (and a number of adult children) that might break them she wanted to enjoy them. So my grandmother declared that the first person who broke an item would inherit the china; an exciting yet scary proposition. You didn't want to be the first one.

My cousin Angie dropped the gravy boat the first celebration we used them. 


She inherited the lot. 

It was one of the few items specifically spelled out in my grandmother's will. 


Now the original set my grandmother purchased at that estate sale was not as large as what I have now inherited from Angie, courtesy of her daughter, Jennifer. 

But when Angie inherited the dish set it was missing a gravy boat and this was just around the time eBay started to emerge. And a lot of people were selling their gravy boats online.


The end result was a few more items that just a single gravy boat were purchased. 


Such as two gravy boats. (Just in case.)

So last week my mom and I unpacked:

41 dinner plates
26 salad plates
46 dessert plates
34 saucers
27 dessert bowls
17 large bowls
19 coffee cups
14 tea cups
2 butter dishes
3 covered dishes (1 slightly broken)
5 serving bowls
3 large platters
3 small platters
1 oval serving bowl
2 gravy boats
1 salt/pepper shaker set
2 sugar bowls
2 creamers
1 set of candlestick holders

and 

1 dinner bell


Lest you think I am greedy I decided to keep a reasonable number of these items as my china and the rest was packed up to be given back - as single items or in small sets - to family members. 

But thank goodness my mom was here because who knows how to arrange 27 dessert bowls in a china hutch?



My mom does.


So here's to you, grandma Lottie...



We're even using the correct cups.


And here's to you, dear cousin Angie.


We'll use the gravy boat and think of you every time.


*The mysterious argument was confirmed when my mom found the china in the attic after my grandma passed away. The boxes of china were all marked in my grandpa's handwriting, which was odd as they were the only items in the entire attic in his writing. And...all the dinner plates were missing. Hmm. I like to think those dinner plates never made it to Texas. 


Sunday, July 21, 2013

A**less Chaps Have Returned!

Now the fascination may have come from reading too many Little House books, but haying season really is something to behold. You watch a field go from lush green grass to rich dry hay in a matter of days. You watch it be cut, tedded, raked, baled, and stored. It is a process, but one that allows you to see progress before your eyes. 

The Farmer started with a single bale being put into the calf barn last week. By the end he will have 4,000 bales stored in every crevice of his barns...all a product of his (and the crew's) hard work. 

Now that is a sense of accomplishment!



As the first load from the field came in last week it is the start of a tough evening of unloading this monstrous pile from the bale wagon to the barn.


While a number of things are automated on the farm (including milking cows, in case you are wondering...and yes, The Farmer still gets that question with frequency), "putting in hay" is not. The bale wagon delivers the bales in a nice tall stack, reminiscent of a huge Jenga game. 


Our job is to move these bales into one of the buildings.

One by one.

And to do this job, my favorite outfit of the year comes out of storage. Yes, my (girl)friends, the a**less chaps have returned!


Be still my heart.


The smiles that come with them ain't so bad, either. His smile is one of the things I love most about The Farmer.





OK, enough a**less chap photos (for now). There's a large game of reverse Jenga that must be played.

While I did help bring bales into the barn (through the door on the left), my job (fun!) also included pulling down bales from on high, using whatever means necessary. This often meant I got to climb atop lower bales and use a pitchfork to topple them from above. You can also pull loose bales from the middle of the pile, hopefully dislodging that bale along with a number of others around it. Amazingly, sometimes you'll pull down a whole section with one strategic bale choice, and other times that single bale just pops out without taking any of its neighbors with it. 

I should be really good at Jenga by the end of haying.



This photo seems appropriate to end on. It's my favorite view.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Look Who Came To Dinner


We grilled out the other evening.

Look who stopped by for dinner...






We didn't have the heart to tell them what we were grilling. They might not return.

Ever.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Grass Is Greener


This is Dotty.


She has the entire field at her disposal...


And yet she proves that yes, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.



Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Road Trippin'


The Farmer and I went on a road trip last week. It was a honeymoon-moon of sorts, as it was our delayed escape from the Farm after our White Dress Party, Part Two (aka one year wedding reception). Originally we planned a road trip honeymoon-moon for the week after the party. Then we decided that since we were having 225 people in our backyard for the festivities we might be a bit tired to actually leave the premises. Plus, we had done all this work on the Jungle House...why not enjoy it? So instead of a May road trip we had a June road trip. After silage season, of course.

So last week we took a road trip to Oregon. And we freestyled.

Freestyling = no hotel reservations.

I think The Farmer was trying to raise my blood pressure.

My mother said it would be good for me.

At one point when we decided on a tentative direction for our trip I stated - rather calmly - that I was going to look up hotels in that area. The Farmer replied he was going to call my mother.

NevermindIWillStayCalmAsWeAreHeadingToPopulatedAreasThatAreSureToHaveAPlaceForUsToStayThatIsNotOurCar.

I did, however, bring my file folder of travel magazine clippings along for the ride. You can take the girl away from her file cabinet but you can't take the file cabinet away from the girl...

I'm happy to report that we have returned home and did not have to sleep in our car. And three of the four nights were big successes in hotel-land. The first two nights were compliments of Hilton (The Farmer has stated more than once that he married me for my Hilton points).

The fourth night had an amazing view...



The third night? Well, let's just say it was fine but a bit of a "keep your socks on" sort of place. It also was a former smoking room - based on initial smell - but we fixed that by ordering pizza and having a picnic. That said, The Farmer would like you to know that it had the best water pressure of all the hotels.  

You can't win 'em all.

As we drove through Central Oregon we came across the Crooked River and the bridge(s) that go high over it. These pictures don't do it justice...we are 300 feet above the bottom of the ravine.




I'm sure more than a few Oregon pioneers used a few choice words when coming upon the Crooked River. Because, dang, that is deep!


This bridge behind The Farmer is a train trestle. Yes, The Farmer was in heaven.



After two days of rain (a theme for any date The Farmer and The Brunette seem to take) the blue sky and white puffy clouds were a welcome sight. We have zero pictures of Day Two, driving over the Cascades, because, well, we couldn't see anything through the thick clouds and fog. 



And then later in Day Three, we came upon this lovely mountain...


Hello, Mount Hood!



And then we crossed the Columbia on what I think is the world's skinniest bridge. The Farmer insists semis can cross the river here. I'll believe him, but am rather glad we didn't meet an 18-wheeler during our trek across the river. 




After our morning view on Day Four of Mount Hood from the north, we got to drive along side her for the ride home.


Oh, and no road trip would not be complete without the "take it quick...now!" photos of grain silos and/or other farm buildings for The Farmer. I think he takes road trips to just get ideas for his latest model train design. 




We'll see what he comes up with in The Train Room. Until then, I'm going to go peruse the hilton.com website to reassure Paris that I still like her hotels...we just had to go freestylin' for a few days.

I think my blood pressure has returned to normal.