Cowfeathers Christmas Continues

Our living room is where we open presents on Christmas morning, and is where the family gathers in the evenings. This is where we put the tallest Canaan Fir we can find at the tree farm.

 On top of the old gun cabinet ( which holds our meagre and out-of-date electronic offering), Middlest has brought down her doll house for us all to enjoy, and has decorated it for Christmas.

And our tree. The "Family Tree". I has the traditional glass balls and such, but also features all the accumulated ornaments of our life experiences and stages. Trips to places near and far, mementos from the various states we've inhabited, and the ornaments from a box that showed up, randomly, with all my ornaments 20 years or so ago, and I hang them each year, wondering where they came from. Crocheted snowflakes made by Gram, ornaments gifted and made by friends. It has the ornaments made by the kids, each one sooooo precious to them at the time, and still holds a bit of their hearts. On the left side, towards the bottom is one made by Youngest. It looks a bit like a white question mark, with brown flames. This is "Rudolph", with hand shaped antlers. Most kindergartners had antler sized hands, but not Youngest.

 The preschool years collection also features pictures of the kids in hand-made ornaments; Eldest as an Angel in a cloud.

And Middlest in a puzzling ornament.

 About eye level is a clay rendition of "Oklahome" at Christmas. Oklahome was the first house Huz and I purchased in Oklahoma. My sister in law, Yvonne, sweetly made us an ornament of it in, maybe, 1997? and I've treasured it ever since.

 Towards the top of the tree is a little wooden sled, made of Popsicle sticks. I remember my mom, and her friend, Betsy, making hundreds of these one summer at our beach house. This was, likely, 1974? When I started decorating my own trees, I was bequeathed one, and each time I hang it I remember watching them repeat each step, over and over to create these little sleds. I think it was a good childhood lesson in persistence. I'm still not clear on why they created so many. Craft Fair? Fundraiser? Lots and lots of friends?

 Off near the fireplace is a sheep, made with the wool from one of our first ewes, a Suffolk named Fanny. She wears a collar of jingle bells, and makes so much less trouble than the real deal.

And, at the top? Our Angel. Huz and I were married on the beach in Hilton Head. A secluded area in Sea Pines, our wedding party had the beach, mostly, to ourselves. After the ceremony and reception right there near the water, the guests and participants built sand castles and flew kites on the beach. A curious resident asked me what was up. I told her we'd just been married and this was our party. She got very excited and said she had something for us, and she'd be right back. She dashed off down the beach, and came back shortly with a box, wrapped. Inside was this Angel, for our tree, she said. She made the Angel with shells, and sea oats and bits she'd found on the beach.

And there she has been each year for the past 18. Thank you kind stranger-lady! It is a wonderful memory each year.

Hoarders- 11 year old boy edition.

 The Christmas preparations continue.....and I could ignore no longer the disaster that was Youngest's room. Christmas presents should not be given unto a child with a room that horrid. This is how even he felt about the mess:

So, the trauma of yesterday was announcing to him that is was time to put our courage to the sticking place and ATTACK!!

                                                 It was easy to be alarmed by this notion.



Youngest's room is a dark place in our home. It is, well, apocalyptic. He is completely overwhelmed when it comes to reparations of the mess, and completely lackadaisical about creating it. And, this time, it had gotten well beyond even my fortitude. So, instead of trying to clean it up, I employed my stall cleaning talents and helped him shovel the mess into black plastic garbage bags- the big kind. 10 of them. Full to the top. The plan is to unpack one bag a night, making piles for Goodwill, keeping what is relevant and trashing what is left. In all this, we did manage to pull out two kitchen garbage sized bags of trash that was quite evidently- trash. I think if CPS saw his room, he'd be repo'ed.
Frankly, by 7 pm we were both driven to drink.

From preceding paragraph, you can intimate that I am not a "cleaning mother". I don't clean up their rooms. I don't even do their laundry ( that stopped when I realized that if I had another stack of folded shirts and matched socks end up in the laundry bin, I'd be in the loony bin). They have to do their own laundry and keep their own rooms. Only, it sounds more effective than the reality.
So, braced by a libation, (well, he had a tuna boat) we persevered, scrubbing the walls (how do his feet get so high on the wall so frequently?) and the floor, and sweeping out the fireplace, he now has a not-quite-bare room, and I have a laundry room stuffed with black plastic garbage bags.
Darn- looks like I moved his mess to common space. Ugh.

Chicken tree!

The "Chicken Tree".
Back before we had electrified the barn, the chickens had their own large evergreen tree, decorated with stars and balls the kids and I had made. Now, I miss the tree for the chickens, but leery about leaving the lights on a tree all day/night in the barn. So, comprimise with a tuturre covered with lights in front of the barn gate. Makes the nighttime walk to the barn warmer! Julia saw me setting up with my cell phone to snap a picture, and put herself in the shot - the dog's a natural.

Christmas mantles.

Mercury glass candlesticks, frosted grapes, white roses and soft, fragrant Canaan Fir.

Yesterday I promised to share pictures of Cowfeathers as it gets decked out for Christmas!

Middlest and I decorated mantles over the weekend. Three of the 6 in the house. The two upstairs are out of my purview. (One in each of the kid-rooms, I can barely even walk past let alone venture forth. And with the mess, who could tell anything was decorated atall?)

But we had fun with the living room, dining room and kitchen mantles. Still to be done is the study- called "the redroom" even though it hasn't been red for years.

In the kitchen, a room where I spent a lot of time putzing around, I placed a wreath of peacock feathers, because it is pretty and makes me happy. A mixed balsam and pine garland smells wonderful!

 

And in the dining room, the mantle that gets the stockings, silver reindeer-pulled sleighs are surrounded by colorful balls and striped candy sticks. Youngest hasn't eaten them yet!

 

Fall has fallen away!

Fall has fallen away, and "The Holiday Season" has begun. This is such a fun, frantic time! Halloween has come and gone, a brief Trick-or-Treat for Youngest- he's 11 and that is still a magical experience. Of course, we have to drive to a place where there are homes that anticipate trick-or-treaters!

 4-H has kicked off for 2013, closing a wonderfully successful 2012 year for our large club.

 And Thanksgiving was again a major feast for 5. Huz created a huge spread, largely with the help of Youngest. My cooking boys! Eldest and I worked most of the day on her college applications and then after the late afternoon meal, Middlest and I went for a ride. Just in our front field, as Thanksgiving in rural Ohio- for many- means shooting stuff that moves.

 My great grandmother would be pleased to know another generation is using her gold rimmed glasses for Thanksgiving fruit cocktail. I remember my grandmother sitting at the counter sectioning grapefruit and oranges in preparation for the big meal (we also had fruti cocktail on Christmas). Now, Youngest- 5 generations later, is making the fruit cocktail and enjoying it before the turkey and trimmings.

 Thanksgiving weekend, we picked out a tree. My Middlest Sister started the tradition when her kids were itty-bitty, to raise their hands to show how big the tree is (and in effect watching the kids grow). My Eldest's hands are getting pretty close to the top of the 8 foot tree!

Our perfect tree being neatly cut off by Huz, assistance by Middlest.

We hunted in the blue spruce section for tree #2. This one is a Germanic looking tree with layers of branches- perfect for lighting candles! Youngest conquered this one.

Then, the spruce went onto a cart- too prickly to pick up! And the soft, 8 foot Canaan Fir was hoisted and walked back, a long way, by Middlest. In Kendra-speak, she "beasted" the tree. Funnily enough, after the trees were put on the shaker by the teen-boy workers, one offered to carry the fir back to the truck while Huz hauled the spruce. The same tree Middlest carried about 5 times further, without putting it down once, had the worker,sweating, grunting and resting about every 20 feet. Poor kid.

So, on to Christmas, with it's trees, parties, decorations and music. Presents to make, wrap and send, cookies and treats to make and eat! I'l start posting pictures so you can all share in Christmas at Cowfeathers!

Huz makes a mean pie.

Hamilton dumps his backpack and climbs the into the horse pasture to come see me on Chaser. My friend, Eileen, shoots a photo of that, our beautiful old home and a glorious Ohio Autumn sky.

Here, in Ohio, there is little chance of ignoring the march of time and season. This is no "Always sunny!" or "It's always 73 degrees!" kind of place. Indeed it isn't even a "Come play in the snow!" destination. I think Ohio is rarely considered a "destination" at all. At least not a vacation one. Sure, we have Amish country -"Come buy a quilt and drive behind a buggy!" and we have Lake Erie - "It's green but you can drive a boat!" If you stretch, we have the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. But do people around the country, around the world think "Boy, I wish I could go to Ohio for spring break/the Holidays/summer vacation!"? No, I think not. Unless....unless it is home. Because, Ohio is hot and humid in the summer, cold and unpleasantly windy in the winter (here at Cowfeathers, windy is a norm). But it is a great place to call "home". We suffer and relish the seasons in equal measure. There is no forced feeling about a wintery Christmas...unlike Arizona it always feels like Dickens' Christmas when December 25 rolls around in Ohio. And spring bursts upon you with it's unerring stirrings of hope somewhere in late March. Summer warms you up in June- from sweatshirts to sweaty shirts in a trice. And, fall descends along with the leaves, ready or not, here it comes in slippery-grass frosted mornings, visible breath and ice-topped water buckets in the barn.
And here we are, in that fall, will it be 20 or 50 degrees today? Sunny or bleak? Will the wind make it pitiful to be outside? Or will it subside and give me enough peace to ride? The Ohio seasons do keep you guessing. But I am home, and pleased to be so.
My calendar tells me next week is Thanksgiving, and the season here agrees. Huz will soon be brining turkeys (multiple? yes.) and making pies. My food aversions subsiding some in the past year might even allow me to participate in the preparations. Corn and carmelized onion souffles sound nice. Wilted greens, and I think something with beets. We have our sweet potatoes and blue, red, gold and white potatoes harvested (go Huz!!!) so, definitely potatoes for our Thanksgiving feast. Out here in the country, we are a rare species; a family without family. It will be just us again for the Thursday evening celebration. Every few years we've been fortunate enough to have family make the trip to see us for a Holiday(we rarely leave because of the animals), a reason to make Ohio a destination! They have braved the season, maybe cold, icy, snowy, or dry, and merely Carhartt weather, because even though we have no buggy, no boat and no ski hill, Huz does make a mean pie.

Chasing Catie.

My an' my Can Chaser! My friend, photographer, Eileen Nixon stopped by last week when I was riding, and got out her camera. Amazing to live in such a beautiful place, and thankful to have a new equine pal. Plus, such a gift to have a friend that will her share her gifts with me! No, it is not a fake backdrop.