Today is the last day of April and the final letter for the April A to Z Challenge. Our back acres are a mobile zoo of sorts. The animals come and go as they please. The birds fly in and out.
There are a few other animals and birds who come and go into our backyard zoo that I haven’t managed to get a photo of. It’s always a treat to see someone new show up for a visit. Our yard was totally fenced in when we first moved here but we’ve taken a few sections of fence out for Dear’s shop project so the four legged variety of animals have easy access now.
And that is the finale for the April A to Z Challenge for 2020.
Hope things are well with all of you on this last day of April. Will May bring good news of loosening of the Stay at Home orders? We are hoping for that. We did hear our Farmer’s Markets are opening and that fishing and hunting are also okay with social distancing.
On the letter O today and I’m using an old saying to show our tree service chopping or felling two trees we were concerned about on our property. Two Douglas Fir trees came down in a jiffy with the right equipment. The grinding of the stumps took a bit longer.
We didn’t like how this tree was leaning towards our bungalow.
Timber!
Our experienced tree service guy said it was a really good choice to take this tree out as the base of the tree was rotting on the side of the trunk towards our house. We were thankful for that decision. We were only going to have the one in the back taken down until the tree people offered to do this one for half the price since they were on our property with all of their equipment already. They got in a full day of work with good pay and we got two down for the price of one and a half! We are counting our blessings!
There are more photos I’d like to share from the grinding and the chipping but my country broadband is acting up again. I’ll have to also show the wide open spaces we now have with these two trees gone. Dear and our son chain sawed the logs into manageable rounds that have been hauled up to our sons place to be stacked to dry. Our son will have enough wood to keep his place warm next winter from these two trees and then some. We haven’t had to burn wood to keep warm at our country bungalow.
Today is Friday y’all. I know some of us need to remind ourselves each day about what day of the week it is!
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 (ESV)
L is the letter for the day and my bandwith is low, low, low so I can’t upload any new photos right now. I’ll have to look to my archives and decide on a subject for the letter L. I chose my Labors of Love post from 2016.
I love Easter and all that it holds and all that it means. I like the idea of new Life, a resurrected Life. The greatest Love that was demonstrated on Good Friday and the Life that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.
Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations 2016.
This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday 2016. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.
First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.
The rest of the laborers arrived and donned their aprons and head scarves.
At one point in the process of mixing the dough I thought I made a big boo boo so we prayed over the dough and Lana and I laid hands on the KitchenAid. I didn’t want to start over again. All turned out well…
Lana showing how her slippers match her apron.
The other photos in the collage are of kneading the dough and shrink wrapping the boiled eggs. While the dough was rising we enjoyed lunch together. Home made tamales and beans with guacamole, chips, and Dan and Jamie’s home made salsa.
After lunch it was time to prepare the cans and to punch down the dough after it’s first rise. The Peter Rabbit bunting was completed by Katie and hung by Laura and Katie. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit for my birthday last week.
After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.
The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.
The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.
When the baking was done and the cheese mold was in the refrigerator setting up for our Easter Sunday meal the kids went out to dinner with their aunt and uncle. Dear and I stayed at home and crashed…
All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!
We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation. I’m happy to report three of our nephews wives took on this labor of love alone in their homes and had very successful outcomes!
We are on the letter K and I’m choosing Keepsake for my post.
This is a quilt my mother in law made before Alaska and Hawaii were part of the United States. It was in 1959 that Alaska and Hawaii became states so Verna made this quilt well before 1959. Rex and Verna got married in 1945. Verna was a one room school teacher in Kansas during World War II.
Each of the 48 states were represented with the state bird and state flower.
Verna’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren live in the states of Washington, New York, California and North Carolina as of this date.
Verna with my hubby long before we met. This is probably 1966 or 1967.
Dear’s Parents, Rex and Verna with their 4 grandchildren in 1982. Two more granddaughters were born in 1985 and 1991. Rex passed away in 1985 before they were born.
Rex, Verna, Dear, Josh me and Dan in 1982.
This photo was taken in 1988 or 1989 at our first home in Washington State. Verna was living with us at this time. My folks, sister and her girls were visiting from California.
This collage is of Dear’s only brother and him and Rex and Verna. I put this collage together to show the similarities the two sons have with their parents. Terry with Verna and Dear with Rex.
We had an unusual social distancing gathering on Easter at our kids home to exchange Easter meal goodies and to see JJ and Addy at their Easter egg hunt. It was a different but good Easter celebrating our Risen Savior! Later in the afternoon we had an extended family Zoom meeting sharing our highs, lows and buffaloes with each other. It was so good to see many of the family units from Texas, Indiana, California and Washington and sharing some prayer requests. I trust you all had a good day.
As soon as my broad band lets me upload my photos from yesterday I’ll share them.
For A to Z challenge and the letter G scroll down below Wednesday Hodgepodge!
1. How will you celebrate Easter this year?
This will probably be the first Easter in my whole life that I will not be inside a church building celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with other Believers in a jammed packed auditorium.
This year Dear and I will enjoy our church service online. We plan on delivering Easter goodies around town beginning with our kids and grandchildren staying at a safe distance. We won’t have our traditional meal of lamb or our wonderful Easter Bread (Paska/Kulich) or the delicious cheese spread, Seernaya Paska. Sigh…
My dining room table will not be set for a crowd.
2. Is it easier for you to receive grace offered or extend grace to another? Explain.
Definitely easier to give than to receive. It is a humbling experience to receive grace, to be forgiven. Pride likes to rear it’s ugly head. It’s easier for me to help than to be helped. Sometimes we are laid low and we can learn the lesson of humility in having to receive instead of being able to give.
Acts 20:35
35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
3. Do you say grace before meals? If so do you have a standard dinnertime grace or is it more ‘off the cuff’ ? Do you say grace when dining out? Do you have a favorite grace? Any special memory associated with ‘saying grace’?
We say grace when we have family around the table. When it’s just Dear and me we usually will say “Thank you Lord for this food!” Our grace changes as the season warrants. If we are having a meal around someone’s birthday we’ll include thanksgiving for them and what they mean to us. We always end our prayers with, In Jesus Name we pray, amen. Sometimes we say grace when dining out but not always. Lately Addy has been interested in saying grace and those are memorable. Our dear Pop’s prayers at special gatherings are very memorable as well.
Our father shared in this video that our mother thought this might be the last year they’d be having Christmas together and that did come to pass as she was ushered into heaven in September of 2013, on their 70th Wedding Anniversary. Our Pop followed our Mom to heaven in June of 2018.
4. What are some challenges you think the next generation will face? (Generation Alpha-born between 2011 and 2025)
Generation Alpha will have a very hard time honoring the purpose for which God created Man, Woman, Sex, Marriage and Family because of the twisted deconstructing of family and marriage that this world is legislating and forcing on us now. Like generations before they will be duped into believing it’s okay to kill a baby in the womb. May God have mercy on us all.
5. Share a favorite quote or lyric featuring the word faith.
Current favorite quote about faith:
Faith is not a power which you possess to create your own future. Faith is a God-given ability to trust the future that God has promised you. ~ John MacArthur
6. Insert your own random thought here.
My sister Lana recorded our Dear Pop answering some questions about prayer and fasting. Note: Our pop has a familiarity with the disciples. He calls John, Jack and Jacob and it might be in this video where he calls Peter, Pete. Our Pop wasn’t perfect by any means but he knew what was important and that his righteousness came from Jesus.
Thank you to Joyce for posing the questions and thank you to all of you who visited my post. The link to the Hodgepodge is HERE.
For Wednesday April 8th we are on the letter G and I’m choosing grandchildren and grandmothers for my theme.
Both of our daughters in law are the cream of the crop. During this distancing time Jamie had Addy and JJ’s hand prints made for the sweetest hugs I could get when hugs are out of the question. This is the note that came with the handprints connected with yarn:
Here is a hug with a handmade touch. Reminding you I love you this much!
So sorry but the internets at this country bungalow are not uploading my photos of my handprints. boohoo. As soon as I can I’ll add them to the post.
In the meantime here are the latest photos of the grands that I have from our DIL.
We’ve had some beautiful sunshiny days and the grands have enjoyed the sunshine. Addy is enjoying painting rocks and JJ is supervising.
The whole family have enjoyed some walks in the sunshine.
Addy received her birthday present from Uncle Andrew and Auntie Katie and this is one of the creations from these magnet blocks.
This little guy is 9 days shy of being a year old! He will not have his epic 1st birthday party on his day or anywhere near his day. It was going to be a lumberjack birthday with ax throwing and log rolling for the adults!
Here’s the latest photo of me, the paternal grandmother/baba of these two…
Here I am in the mask I made from my Beatrix Potter fabric that is from my stash. It’s over 40 years old.
The following photos were posted randomly as they showed up in my media library. They are not in chronological order. With my internet issues right now this is the way it is…
This is a photo of me with my mother and maternal grandmother. We called her our little Babushka. This is in the early 70’s. April 8th was our mom’s birthday. She would have been 97 today.
After our little babushka had an apartment of her own that was just a few doors down from the Russian Baptist church that we attended we’d enjoy Christmas breakfast before church services at her apartment. The photo above is of her with our sister Lana.
Photos from our wedding at the end of 1974.
My paternal grandparents at my sister’s home in Huntington Beach in the 70’s.
Our maternal grandmother with all of her grandchildren in the mid fifties. She would enjoy 5 more grandchildren born in the late fifties and early 60’s. Our mom only had one brother who survived into adulthood. Our mom’s only brother, Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina had 4 children. Our parents had 4 more children after the time of this photo which happens to be an Easter photo.
Our little babushka is in this group. Can you find her? This was taken at our second home in Huntington Beach where our 2 sons were born. Our little Babushka Vera died in March of 1980.
These photos with me and my babushka are at my 9th grade graduation and 12th grade graduation, 1965 and 1968.
Our maternal babushka had a more hands on relationship with all of us but that is not to say we didn’t have a relationship with our paternal grandparents. We honored them and loved them but we didn’t enjoy as close a bond with them as with our dear little Babushka. Since she immigrated as a widow she was more free to spend lots of time with us.
I’m sure all grandmother’s are looking forward to spending hands on time again with their grandchildren. We are missing those sweet hugs and face to face interactions.
Today is the letter F and it took a while to settle on a theme or a word starting with F. How about Favorites from Easter’s Past or Flashbacks from Easter Past. These photos were from a cooking class the Mennonite Girls Can Cook taught at Lepp Farm Market in Abbotsford, British Columbia in 2014. The class was for Mennonite Heritage (Russian/Ukrainian) foods we enjoy at Easter especially Paska (Kulich-Russian Easter Bread), Seernaya Paska (Sweet Cheese Spread for the Paska) and other Mennonite foods.
Paska (Kulich) a very traditional Russian/Ukrainian Easter bread that is frosted and sprinkled!
Our daughter Katie traveled with me to Canada for this cooking class and took most of the photos during the class. This will be an Easter where our family does not gather to bake Russian Easter Bread together.
This is what our family’s Easter bread looks like. We bake the bread in old coffee cans we’ve saved from years past.
And here’s a flashback to the fifties, a family photo in our Easter finery. I’m in yellow with my classic Buster Brown haircut!
Back to the present. Today is Tuesday April 7, 2020. Yesterday I started the process to try to make a couple face masks. Pray for me because sewing has gotten me into so much trouble in my past. I was sent to detention in 7th grade because of something I said to my sewing teacher. OYE! My sisters are more talented in the art of sewing than me. My mother was a great seamstress, too. Me…not so much! I hope I can finish a mask today!!
Elastic is so hard to come by these days and look what I found in my sewing bin! A new package of the right kind of elastic for making masks!
I can’t remember why we bought this sewing machine but there it is and here I am hoping the threading is right and the tension is right and the stitching will go without the bobbin thread getting all backed up, etc. etc.
But…look at my delightful fabric that I’ve kept in my sewing bin for over 40 years now! Our firstborn’s room was themed after Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter and I bought this fabric thinking I’d sew curtains or something. Now I’ll be able to use it for Covid19 masks!! Who would have fathomed!
Forging Forward full of faith forever founded in Father God the author and finisher of our faith!
Looking forward to fun family and friend fellowship in the future!!
Do you sew? I’m sending my excess elastic to my sister Vera who has received requests for her to sew face masks for them. Eeek but now I have to make sure and finish a mask before I head to the Post office to mail that elastic to her!
We are on the letter E for the A to Z Challenge and my choice for the letter E is Easter Week.
This Easter Week will go down in history as the Corona Virus Holy Week of 2020!
Our church will be celebrating Easter together in the flesh once the Stay at Home orders are lifted, sometime in the summer. We will have an online celebration this coming Sunday, on Easter.
Part of Easter Week (Holy Week) is Maundy Thursday, The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet.
The Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples Feet are both remarkable events.
While in Milan in March of 2013 I was able to see Leonardo da Vinci’s mural of the Last Supper. The original mural is on a wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. No photos allowed.
Dear and I were in England in 2014 and we saw two amazing paintings of the last supper, one in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist in Windsor and one in the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford.
From the Lectern, look down the centre aisle and observe in the West Gallery a painting of The Last Supper. This is a national treasure. The picture was originally presented to the Royal Chapel c. 1660 by Brian Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the Order of the Garter. It was “bought by him beyond the sea”. Another tradition ascribes it to Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), Rostock, Mecklenburg, Court painter to James I. It was rolled up and buried “in the plumery” (plumbers workshop?) in the Great Rebellion. It hung over the altar at St George’s, Windsor in 1702, and can be seen there in Sandby’s drawing dated 1786.
Above the stalls in the chapel hangs Giampetrino’s remarkable 15th copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, on permanent loan from the Royal Academy. In view of the bad condition of the original fresco in Milan, Magdalen’s copy on canvas is a piece of increasing historic and artistic significance.
This next sculpture of Jesus washing Peter’s feet is at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California.
Excerpts from John chapter 13…
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Thinking of all my friends and family during this time of “Social Distancing”. Hoping you all are holding up under this time of unrest. It’s a good time to heed Jesus’ words and love one another and care for one another and wash one another’s feet.
This song is one that our Russian Community sings at funerals but it is a song with words that are relevant in this time of being apart. I am looking forward to that time “till we meet again”.
C is for Colville. Colville is our newest hometown. We’ve lived here since September 2018. Between hubby and me our first 37 years we lived in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura County, California. Dear and I were both born in Los Angeles County. We lived our years through high school and college in Los Angeles County. After we were married we ended up in Orange County where our first two children were born. Before we moved to Washington State we lived in Ventura County where our daughter was born. Our next 30 years we lived outside of Seattle in Washington State. And now for our retirement years we are living in the outskirts of the city of Colville still in Washington State.
Here’s a little history about Colville:
The first white man in the area that is now Colville was David Thompson, who came in 1811 to explore the Columbia River for the Northwest Fur Company. A few months later a water route was opened from Astoria up the Columbia through Canadian waters, and overland to the Great Lakes or Hudson Bay. During that first year, nearly 11,000 pounds of furs were reported shipped to the fur markets of London from the Colville area.
In 1825, Fort Colville, named for Lord Andrew Colville, a London governor of Hudson’s Bay Company, was built at Kettle Falls, a few miles west of Colville. The fort functioned as the center of trade in the Northwest. A large farm supplied wheat, oats, barley, corn and potatoes to sustain the personnel at the fort. (Today, both the fort and farm sites are under water, covered by Lake Roosevelt, a part of the Coulee Dam National Recreation Area.)
By 1840, the Hudson’s Bay trading post was processing 18,000 furs a year. When the boundary of the northwest was drawn at the 49th parallel in 1846 and the territory of Washington was established in 1853, Hudson’s Bay Company, being a British company, withdrew from Fort Colville and moved to Canada. The War Department in 1859 ordered a military post built just northeast of the present townsite. The post was called Harney’s Depot at first, then Fort Colville. Four companies of the United States Infantry were stationed there. (This second Fort Colville, located at different places at different times, sometimes confuses visitors.)
The town of Colville was founded in 1882 when Fort Colville was abandoned. The first school, a hand-hewn log building, built shortly after the founding of the town is presently located at the Keller Historical Center within the city limits.
Colville is the county seat for Stevens County. Stevens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington along the Canada–US border. At the 2010 census, its population was 43,531. As of July 2018, the population was estimated to be 45,260. The county seat and largest city is Colville
These are backyard views of our Country Bungalow in Colville, Washington. We do not live in the city limits of Colville so we don’t have the same services that the City of Colville offers within the city limits.
Colville is a city in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The population was 4,673 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stevens County.
Here are some random photos that I have of the Colville area (Stevens County).
Our favorite grocery store.
We have a Super Wal-Mart and I’m bonding with this store that has most everything we’d need for living in the country.
The Country Store can fill in the gaps for farmers and other property owners.
This is our road. We are up this road about 2 miles.
We get some interesting creature visitors in the country.
The view out to Colville city limits from our kids’ driveway.
This is Colville mountain with our huge C for Colville and a lit up cross.
Highway 395 coming north into Colville with one of our local farm/produce shops, Front Porch.
When we come down our road to town we have the choice to go south to Colville or north to Kettle Falls.
Welcome here to our Country Bungalow in Colville, Washington. Colville is pronounced, Call-ville!
I could have used the letter C for the COVID-19 epidemic but I decided we are getting enough information about the Pandemic. Diversions can be good when we really have no power to change the big picture. We do have the power to change the little picture by keeping our distance and compliance to the mandates set down to slow the spread of the virus. We will continue at home keeping the faith and praying for the end of this. Looking forward to better days or better yet the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our part of the country we do not have any yard waste pick-up. There are times during the year that we can have burn piles. When the fire danger is high there are burn bans. There are limits to the size of our burn piles. We were in compliance.
There are different methods to get the fire going. Before we start we connect a hose and we make sure the water is turned on and ready to spray if the fire gets out of hand. I’m happy to say we’ve never had a fire get out of hand.
Once we get the fire going we watch it all day long and keep feeding it with the rest of our gathered brush. If you look behind back to the fence you will see the pile we hope to get through.
For several hours we added limbs and cones and anything else we trimmed around the yard. We made it through the big piles we had. It was a good productive day and we did not have to worry at all about social distancing. We were bushed by the end of the day!
We hope to borrow our son’s tractor sometime and take care of more brush on the property that needs to be cleared.
Life in the country is very different from life in the city. My life went from City mouse to Country mouse in September of 2018 and so far it’s been a joy.
We are complying with the President’s guidelines, 30 days to Slow the Spread.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 