Native American Week

It's been a very eventful week, partly because of Native American Week and partly because things are still unsettled at school. I took this picture this morning after it had been raining. They set the tipi up yesterday and explained a few things about how it used to be done by the women. The opening is facing east as is customary for the most part.

The corn on the hillside is was planted by the FFA club and is quite good eating.

Indian Summer

It seems that the warm afternoons of Indian Summer are over and the cool days of autumn are here. It has been cold and drizzling all day. I think a few snowflakes sneaked in among the raindrops. It got so cold that I had to bake some cookies to warm up the kitchen;)

Things at work have settled down to a routine. Not very many patrons dropping into the library, but then the computers have been down with a virus, and most of the patrons are digitally oriented, makes me wonder why I'm spending so much time trying to get the books in order. My new bookshelves are supposed to be shipped this week. Since it's also Native American Week, if they do come on schedule, they probably won't get set up for another week or two. There's talk in the lounge that we're going to switch from a 7 period day to an 8 period day. Seems to me that decision should have been made before school even started, not 5 weeks into the 1st quarter. The longer I work here, the more amazed I am at our students. They have learned everything we've shown them about school. Teachers dropping out, no long term plans, talking back to supervisors, they've seen it all, and copied it.

As I said, Native American Week is coming up and I intend to enjoy it. It used to make me stress a lot to think of the interuptions and kids all wound up. But now that I know it will all settled down again, I enjoy learning what I can about the heritage of my students. Some of them get a little hostile towards school and "white" teachers when they spend a week hearing about the way their ancestors were treated. I can't say as I blame them.

Bird Soup

A few moments before this picture was taken, there was a small flock of birds waiting to take their turns at the birdbath. Guess who took cuts? He seems to want to drink out of anything but his water dish. I'm guessing it had the delicate flavor of feathers and bird droppings.

Project Organize

Here's what the top of my dresser looks like. I know it looks messy, but if I hide (store) my jewelry in a box I never wear it. I've got to have it out so I can see it every morning when I get dressed. Also, a lot of it was given to me by either mom or Bill, or by Dad after mom died. So when I see it, I have to smile. Sometimes I pretend it's my armor, like in a video game I play. I have a bracelet of good health +25 or a ring of invicibility +47, somedays, I wish it really worked that way.

Anyway, I saw this cool earring holder that Natalie had and I finally found one like hers, just where she said, Claire's. It makes it a lot easier to pick out a pair of earrings for the day. The rings fit nicely on the red, glass hand that Andrew gave me a long time ago, but I've got nothing for all the bangly bracelets. Any one got any ideas? The just sort of sit in a heap on the dresser.

This & That

This
In spite of the fact that our school's computer network broke down this week due to a massive virus infection, I had a pretty good week at work. We got all of the books on the shelves sorted and weeded, the noxious weeds at least. Weeding is what librarians call pulling outdated, tattered or unneeded books from the collection. I've had the books placed on tables so that people can take them if they want. After all, one man's weed is another's flower, right? After two weeks, I still have quite a few books on the tables. A staff member asked me what I was going to do with the books that no one wanted. I said that I would start taking them to the dumpster on Tuesday, after the long weekend. She got a pained look on her face. I mean, in my eyes it proves I made a good choice to pull the books. No one even wanted to take them for free. Chances are really good that no one would check them out of the library, right? I keep explaining that we can't get new books if there is no place to put them. I do believe that our students deserve to have at least a few books in their library that were written in this century, and now we'll have some place to put them.

That
After a few weeks of brutal heat, the weather has turned mild, downright chilly at times. What a relief. It's starting to feel like fall weather, cool mornings and warm afternoons. I've even seen a few trees that are starting to turn yellow and birds that are starting to gather in large groups. Fall is probably my favorite time of the year.

...and 38 to Go!

Well as I figure it, that's one week down and 38 to go. We just finished our first week of school and it wasn't all that bad. I had a few classes come in for the first time and a few of the students even checked out a book or two. I'm reorganizing the library: consolidating the old jr. high collection with the high school collection and moving the whole thing to another wall while at the same time weeding out library books that are old enough to have been on the shelves of my school library when I was in grade school. It doesn't make any sense that a library that's less than 10 years old should have so many old books, but someone (probably a penny penching principal) collected old books from other libraries that threw them out. Don't know why anyone would want to start a brand new library of the 21st Century with a lot of old books, but it happened.

Anyway, all that moving of books has really inflamed my bursitic shoulder. It's a good thing I have some student assitant librarians. Now that I've got a pattern going I can get them to help me move the books and spare my shoulder and wrist. Did I mention that my wrist is starting to fall apart? Did I mention that my library assistants are amazing? I watched one of them check out books while entering new patron names at the same time. She was as smooth as I am and I've had 5 years of practice and she's had 5 minutes. Just proves to me that kids are as comfortable if not more comfortable with computer stored iformation than old-fasioned print materials. Gives me a lot to think about when planning the future of our library.

Busy Week

I just finished my first week back to work and I'm really tired, but righteously tired. I worked hard! I was attempting to learn where things are and get what the teacher's needed to start teaching next week when the students arrive. Also we had numerous meetings with staff and administrators, but I barely remember those, thinking too much about other things. Jimmy was never far from my mind and as long as I kept my hands busy I could keep my memories of him from becoming overwhelmingly sad. I can't say that the library is ready for the students yet, far from it, but I'm hoping to enlist their help to get it ready.

I suspect our cat has fleas. He's never had them before that I know of, but we're getting some mysterious looking bug bites. So today, I go to town to get some flea stuff for the cat and then spend the rest of the day vacuuming and washing bedding. Better get busy.

Playmate, come out and play

I've lost my childhood playmate. He never forgot how to play like a child. I need to remember.

God Bless

We just got some sad news about our brother. He has returned to the hospital to fight another round with the cancer. He has been fighting the cancer with valor and with love for his family. We are all in his corner for this fight and are here when he needs us. Just let us know what to do.

Library MEss

This is the state of my libary as of today. I just found out that the new shelves won't be coming until the end of Septmeber. So probably, this will be the state of the library until Halloween. I'll post some new pix then.

Family Ties

I've had a very good week. Andrew came to Ashland for an over night visit and brought his girlfriend. She must have good luck because the sky was clear and she got her first taste of the night sky through a telescope. She said she would never look at the sky in quite the same way again.

It was good to see Andrew as we'd lost touch for a few weeks, which tends to make me worry, especially when I've not got much else to think about, summer being a slow time for me. Then on MOnday, I went into Billings to visit family. Brother Ken was down from Helena and brother Pete is off on Monday nights so Monday dad took us out for a nice family dinner. Then Pete and I sat up too late watching a movie that Andrew had recommended to me when he was here. There's a six degree separation going on here somewhere if I could figure it out.

Tuesday I just hung out, ran a few errands and made a salad for dad and me for dinner and then came home. Very relaxing and enjoyable company.

Today, Wednesday, I got a letter from my school district with the agenda for our first days of school which start on 16 August!
There are 3 laws I would lobby to get passed. 1. No Daylight Savings Time 2. Elect the President by popular vote instead of the Electoral College 3. No School starting before Labor Day. (and maybe a 4th - No politician may mention their opponent by name or inference in any campaigning)

Look! No Cavities

I went to Colstrip to see the dentist today and had lunch with one my friends from Lame Deer Jr. High. Those were some of the best years of my teaching career, good friends and the feeling that we were personally making a difference in the education of the students. It's not that I don't like the people I work with now, but its just not the same. Anyway, NO Cavities! and I won't say I liked it, but it was air conditioned and even the canned Muzak wasn't too bad.

PS...the hygenist had to spend 30 minutes just cleaning my teeth and she wouldn't lecture me, but I need to FLOSS!

Kitchen Design

I'm slowly putting my kitchen design together. I started with the curtains which are a pale golden color with a red/green trim. Since a rooster is featured in the curtains, I got some other rooster stuff to try to make it look designed instead of thrown together. I've tried to find a small plant to put in the rooster planter, but so far nothing. I'm afraid I'll have to leave it empty or go with fake plants and so far I don't have any fake plants in my house. (A few very unhealthy live plants though) I found some rub on decals to trim the cupboard doors a little, but not much; I have a tendancy to go overboard, so I'm trying to be "understated." I also bought silver trimed salt/pepper and also a dish drainer that is silver. Anyway, it's not finished, but it is not quite so bland. 

Blow winds, crack your trees!

ON the right is a picture of a tree that got topped in last night's wind storm. On the left is a picture of another tree that was uprooted in the wind storm. We didn't spot it until later this afternoon. It had very shallow roots just sittng on a square foot of soil in a rock outcropping. I suppose you could call it an ill wind that brought no good. It didn't bring any rain, which we really need, and it fanned the flames of fires that were burning in the Billings area. Our house still has that smoky smell that you always take away with you after sitting around the campfire. Only this smell brings with it the knowledge that the campfire could have been someone's home. The sky is clear this morning though and promises to be a very hot day again. (see yesterday's post)

PS. I'm adding to this post the next day and we are now surrounded by smoke from local fires. When I drove back from Lame Deer this afternoon, I saw a house in flames and dozens of people in their cars watching the flames. They had no where else to go, they'd been evacuated. Hope there are enough firefighters to go around; this side of the state seems to be on fire.

To Quote Cole Porter

It's too darn hot!

PS. Happy Birthday little BRO!

Finished for Now

Well, I decided to call it finished for now. There's still paint in the seams on the glue, but I don't want to try to get all the paint for fear of losening the glue and making it fall apart. Can anyone tell me what kind of wood it is? I'm guessing walnut or maple, the lids are veneer and the sides are solid. The brass on the feet polished up real well, maybe too well. I'll keep my eyes open for a finishg that will make it a little darker.

I think that if you click on the picture, you get a larger view. 

Happy 4th

We woke up to blue skies and a light, cool breeze, perfect flag flying weather. Hope you all have a good day with your family and friends. 

Sewing Box

Ken was gathering some things from the garage to take home with him when I saw this "workbox." I immediatly recognized it as a sewing box that mom had when I was little, or as my students would say, "Don't you mean littler, Ms. Taylor?" Anyway, I remember playing with it a lot. When I brought it home, it was painted with a faux finish of brown streaks over a coat of dark yellow. I stripped the paint off and am now down to the bare wood in places. It's in pretty fragile condition, some cracks, some repaired , some not. Any way I have had some good memories and sad memories of mom as I've worked on it and am anxious to finish taking off the old "finish" to put on a new finish. I'm thinking of hand rubbed tung oil.

I had noticed right away the brand on the bottom and thought that there should be a way to trace the patent and find out more about it. It is a tribute to summer vacation laziness, that I, a librarian took 2 weeks to realize that I just had to look on the US Patent Office website to find it. http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html If you use this link and the number 1707806, you can find a picture of the patent papers. It was given a patent on April 4, 1927. (on the search page, change the date box to 1790 to present) It was patented because of the unique nature of the now missing hinge feature that automatically closed one lid when you opened the other lid. I remember playing with the lids quite a bit, that's probably why. And come to think of it, that's probably why the hinge is missing now.

I haven't been able to decipher the chalk marks on the bottom though. I'll post a picture of the finished product. Don't wait up for it though, I'm working on the legs right now and it could take a while longer than I think. Lots of turns with lots of paint stuck in them. 

There's a Tomato Tale in Here Somewhere

OK, first of all this is one of those trick pictures that Picassa let's you do called a multiple exposure. There are two pictures blended into one. There's a close up picture of a tomato plant and a wide angle picture of a curved, arc structure.

Here's the story. A lot of years ago, I thought it would be neat to have a hammock in the back yard. I could lie in the hammock in the evening and read my book and enjoy the balmy breezes..or I could lie in the hammock at night and watch the stars come out. Good idea, right? Not really as it turns out. The sun is still to bright when it's light enough to read and the skeeters get you when the stars come out. If I sit in my recliner chair by the widows with the door open to create a cross draft, I get the same effect. And I just lie on the porch to watch the stars come out. Well, after years of putting the hammock up each year after school lets out and putting it back in Andrew's room under the bed or in the closet or somewhere before the first snow flies, I mentioned to Bill that we might as well take the hammock to the dump. It was in the car before the next sun set. All that remains in the yard is a metal arc that is very well made and has sturdy construction and will outlast our house, I think.

Now to the tomato part.

At either end of the hammock frame are round rings on which to hook the hammock. (Please notice that the preceding sentences does not end with a prepostion) I had a notion that a hanging pot of flowers might brighten up the yard and could be hung from one of the hooks. As luck would have it, the grocery store in town frequently gets plants and cut flowers delivered and they had a nice big pot of flowers with petunias, alyseum, pansies and a few other unidentified flowers. I brought it home and hung it from the hammock frame, but then it looked unbalanced. You can kinda see the pink petunias in the picture. So on Mother's Day weekend when we went to Miles City, I was looking for a pot to balance out the arc. I saw a nice, bushy looking pot with these puny, yellow flowers. I read the little stick they put in the pots to tell you what the name of the plant is and it was a . . . . have you guessed by now? A Tomato plant! And today, I picked my first tomatoes!!!!!!

PS. Does anyone know how to format these pictures in the blog so you can have the text surrounding the pictures?

PPS. I just added a second picture to the blog without using PIcass!

Aunties and Uncles at the Battlefield

Another beautiful summer's afternoon was spent at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. We'll have to make Uncle Lee and Aunt Irene stay the summer to make sure we don't get the hot weather that's coming. I drove out to the Battlefield to meet up with my aunties and uncles and spent the afternoon taking the tour. I've been several times already but one can always learn a little more each time. Our museum lecture was presented by a Ranger from the Crow tribe, which was a first for me. It gave the story a slightly different slant than the one I've heard in my Cheyenne history classes. We went to the Trading Post shop across the highway and I was in for another suprise. I've only been to the shop in the off season and it was quite crowed on a June afternoon so close to the anniversary of the Battle. I stopped by the Kentucky Fried Chicken at the gas station stop to bring home supper and got home just in time to put it on the table.