Penrose Mornings: Blood Family Blog

Family gathering at Wasdens July 15 1951.

2012-01-27T15:54:00.002-07:00

I resurrected this one a bit. Priceless image. Norman must have taken photo. Taken just after I left Penrose to go back to Laramie and try to replace all my jobs I lost when I went home in March to help get the field work done. Grandpa's granary and tractor shed in back on the left; high corral pole gate in the background; Oscar's prize Chrysler by the fence. Three Wasden sisters: Elna, Minnie, Lucinda.

Three Bloods on a Fence Rail

2012-01-27T15:33:00.002-07:00

I've been working on old picture files for want of anything new to photograph. I didn't take this photo but fixed it a bit.

Down by the River

2012-01-21T10:32:00.002-07:00

We are getting boring and hard up for new things. And I haven't contributed for a long time.

So here is Louise all grown up - pre-marriage, and she and I and Judy went down to the river (Shoshone) in the middle of winter to see what we could see. Was this supposed to be a pin-up pose? I don't really know, but sitting ont he ground in the snow had to be uncomfortable. Enlarge this one.

Time for Garden Catalogs

2012-01-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Kemp and Sonja found this gladiola cataloge inside a book that Dad had given to Sonja's family.

I couldn't find the year, but look at those prices! I had a good time looking through the colored pages and trying to make some choices if...........I were going to plant some this spring.

Happy New Year: Something Bright and Beautiful, Something Frosty and Beautiful

2012-01-01T11:51:00.001-07:00

I decided to freshen us all up a bit for the New Year. We all have problems and issues, but we can now put 2011 behind us, remembering the good and forgetting the bad. Today and tomorrow are what count. Happy New Year and much love to all.

Look Who I Found!

2011-12-21T15:39:00.001-07:00

I took an aimless trip to the mall to see if I could get inspired. And indeed it happened. It was not in the way I had ever expected. I cut back through Penneys on my way back to my car. There was this woman standing in line that sure had a familiar look. And then she made that "Louise" expression. I waited until she had made her purchase and then quietly said, "Diana". I can't tell you how our hour visit revitalized me.

So much so, that I stopped on my way home, to take this picture of the boats in the bay with a dark sky. It is a good day.

Christmas Posies

2011-12-19T17:50:00.004-07:00

With all of the fun Christmas stories, I am hesitant to interject this post, but thought it might be appreciated. Who can resist a beautiful flower, especially this time of year.

Penrose Christmas Chronicles December 17 2011: A Tiny Bag of Candy for Louise

2011-12-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

The Penrose Church house was in use until the mid 1930s for various activities, and remained in use for occasional activities like elections, dances, community meetings and the like until the 1950s when my Dad and Uncle Norman dismantled the building. For 13 years or so our Grandpa Wasden was Branch President and Bishop. Some time in the mid-1930s, a Christmas party was held in the Church house. A large decorated Christmas tree was set up at the front of the meeting room. I don't remember if a program took place. All I remember is how excited I was waiting for Santa, because I knew he was going to pass out little bags of candy to each of the children. Instead of just going around and passing out the candy, Santa had a list of names. How could Santa get the names of the Penrose children? And finally Santa called my name: "Dwight." How could he know my name was Dwight? I eagerly went to the front to retrieve my Christmas bounty, so very, very rare in those dark days of the Great Depression. As Santa handed me my bag, I said, "But my sister Louise is home sick and couldn't come tonight and she won't have a bag of candy." And, lo and behold, Santa retrieved another tiny bag of treats with the name "Louise" written on it. So I took our two little sacks of treats home and gave Louise her own candy sack, feeling relieved. I was sorry she had not been able to go to the Church house and see the tree and have it personally handed to her by Santa, but at least Santa had not forgotten her, and I was glad. I have never forgotten this event, another enduring childhood Christmas memory that has stayed with me forever.

Penrose Christmas Chronicles for December 16 2011: The Twenty-Five Cent Christmas Tree

2011-12-16T11:45:00.004-07:00

When we were very young, we all continually pestered Mother to get a tree so we could put it up, decorate it, and turn on the magic colored lights a couple of weeks before Christmas. But Mother never relented, and we always had the tradition of putting our tree up and decorating it on Christmas eve, then all of us sitting in wonder at the magic of the colored lights. I wondered all my life why we had to wait until Christmas eve. Then one day, just a few years ago, one of my sisters told me the reason for our late tree. "Didn't you know," my sister said, "that Mother waited until Christmas eve to get a tree because she could go to town and buy one from the Boy Scouts for 25 cents, and that otherwise she could not have afforded to buy one?" A tearful recognition set in as I thought about all of those Christmas eves when we finally got our tree and decorated it in time for Santa. Not to mention my memories of Dad, who, though he could build houses, barns, cabinets, desks, make incredible inlaid wood marquetry works of art, and anything else, struggled each year to nail a couple of strips of wood together for a Christmas tree stand. But ultimately he succeeded while we some times worried how we were going to ever get the tree up. And thus, Santa was spared coming each year to our little house on another Penrose frosty Christmas eve without a Christmas tree to greet him. Or was it her? We would never know, and still after all these years, Christmas eve remains a mystery to be cherished.

Letter to My Siblings: December 15 2011

2011-12-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

I told Judy last night that I have a theory about why we six have always managed to stick together despite some being fabric store fanatics, some being spendthrifts, and the like. My theory is this: We were isolated. We had no other playmates. Mother built a safe haven for us and Dad protected us. We had to depend on each other, look after each other. Like the time the schoolbus driver kicked Louise (Louise? are you kidding?) off the bus for something she didn't do, and we all dutifully and loyally trooped off with her. The girls had no choice but to be close since they shared a room, all crammed cozily together, while I luxuriated in my private room, until Steve came along and started annoying me. I never had a male playmate. I had four sisters for playmates. I never learned sports, how to throw a ball. But I learned to make up fantastic tales in my imagination, to invent games with my sisters, to lead Liz astray who believed everything, to play annie-annie over the house, to throw rocks on the galvanized metal outhouse roof when someone was in there, to play school, road, build forts out of sagebrush, to haul Mother's Children's Literature book around the yard, to dig holes in the orchard to hide from Mother, to play our imaginary family sagas. Louise taught me to read, I tried to teach Liz how to read but she couldn't understand ditto marks. Sad.

It wasn't just that we were isolated and had no other playmates. Our home was a safe haven. We never felt threatened. We were never hungry. We stayed warm in the winter with coal and cottonwood. We were lonesome for Dad and watched for the little Model A roadster on Saturday nights when he would come bearing the Denver Post funnies and maybe make a kite and fly it for us. We ran in the country lanes, climbed on the snowdrifts in winter, played in the leaves in autumn. We lived in close proximity to one another. We pretty much knew everything there was to know about each other. My sisters tattled on me. Other than little spats, I don't every remember any serious animosity that ever existed among any of us. We teased, we played pranks. We never talked about fairness, how tough life was, or why we had so little. We grew up together, and we have continued to live life together, no matter how far apart or how much our lives diverged. We have never, any of us, ever really left Penrose.

Students and Teachers at the Penrose School early 1900s

2011-12-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this page from Mother's original photo album has been posted before, but after posting the photo above (I don't know where it came from), I thought it appropriate to show the two photos on the left of the students and teachers in the Penrose school. Where did all these kids come from? There aren't a half dozen people living in the Penrose valley today. The school was a tribute to pioneer resourcefulness and emphasis on education, largely fostered by early farmers who had little, if any, education themselves.

The Penrose School House at the turn of the Century

2011-12-15T12:12:00.001-07:00

This blurry photo may well be the only one we will ever see of the original Penrose school and school yard in the early 1900s. The school was located only a short distance from the home in which we grew up, but the evidence of its existence had long vanished when we lived there. However blurry, the photo evokes memories of a barren school yard, an outhouse, home made swings, and children at play. Where did they all go?

Ann and Liz

2011-12-13T15:47:00.004-07:00

I was going through old photo files today and came across this one. I thought it appropriate even though it may have been posted before.

Christmas Chronicles December 9 2011: When Santa Forgot to Come

2011-12-09T16:29:00.001-07:00

When we were very young, probably in the 4-6 yr. old range or thereabouts, Mother informed us one wintry day before Christmas that Santa would be late that year. She also informed us that Santa had found it necessary to recruit Ezra the Mailman to deliver our package that Santa had arranged to be sent from Monkey Ward. We were disappointed, of course, but full of wonder and anticipation over what bounteous gifts we would get when Ezra delivered Santa's package from Monkey Ward. I don't remember what we actually got on Christmas day. Usually our stockings were a wondrous treat since Christmas was one of the few days of the year in which we received a bright big orange, bulging out in the toe of our Christmas stockings. Of course, my short boy's stockings were so much shorter than my sister's much hated long brown stockings, which were valuable only on Christmas day. Then we always got a few peanuts and a few other nuts and some hard candies. We savored these priceless treats and stretched them out as far as we could

Then, day after day, I and one or two of my sisters perched eagerly on the roof of our tiny pine slab barn, more of a shed, where Mom milked old Spot, the black and white Holstein that gave us our milk, during the days when Dad was gone seeking work during the Great Depression. We waited and waited and waited until we could see Ezra coming down the frozen dirt road toward our mail box. Nothing today. Our spirits sank again. Nothing the next day. Would Santa ever get Monkey Ward to send his package with Ezra? Then one magic day we saw that Ezra had delivered a package by the mailbox. Hurrying down from the barn roof, we ran to the mailbox, filled with excitement and anticipation and wonder. Taking the package to the house, we opened it, just knowing of the treasures which it contained.

I remember only one gift I got from that magic package: An aviator's style cap with long ear flaps that buttoned under my chin. All other memories of that Christmas have vanished. But forever pressed indelibly on my mind and in my hopes are the eagerness, the wonder, and the joy that we children felt during our scanty Christmases. Times were hard. Mother was often by herself. We had no money, no car, no telephone, no inside plumbing. We navigated the dark with kerosene lamps until I was nearly eight years old. But today's extravagant piles of soon-to-be forgotten luxury toys and bounteous gifts can never be a match in wonder and excitement as we awaited and opened the brown covered package from Monkey Ward that Santa had forgotten to leave us on that cold Christmas eve so long ago.

Background Picture

2011-12-09T16:20:00.001-07:00

After much trial and several tribulations here is a background picture. Ann informed me she was tired of autumn leaves and it was Christmas. Why is she always the instigator of everything? Anyway I more or less figured it out. First, convert to "blogger in draft" a sort of beta form of blogger. Which I did in case you notice the format is a tad different. Go to Design.>templatedesigner>background image>upload image.
The image is supposed to be no larger than 1800 x 1600 pixels but I had to get this one down to 500x333.
It's a bit much but the only other choice is to put the picture in the upper left or upper right corner and then have a plain yet-to-be-determined color for the rest of the blog. Feel free to vote. Or find a better Christmas picture. At least it's better than solid black. We'll do better as we figure this out. L, D.

Penrose Christmas Chronicles

2011-12-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

When I was six or seven, I told Mother I would like a book about Jesus for Christmas. So on Christmas morning here was my wondrous book. The book was a cheap one, marked 29 cents inside the front cover and I am sure even the 29 cents was hard to come by in those troubled days. I was so proud of this book. I took it to Sunday School in Byron and showed it to my teacher. She looked at it and told me "These are such poor pictures of Jesus. He doesn't look kind." My day was crushed and my heart sank. Forever after, I have never forgotten my sad feelings when my precious new book that came from Santa Claus was destroyed by an unthinking and careless Sunday School Teacher. So ever after I have thought, "Be very careful what you tell a child." And I have never forgotten this incident, seared permanently in my heart. But I know that Mother loved me enough to honor my humble Christmas request with the best that she could do, and my heart goes out to her even now for this treasured gift after so many, many years.

The Importance of People Who Touch Our Lives

2011-12-03T10:20:00.001-07:00

My old school chum and Sheep Barn roommate Felix Bessler is in hospice in Cody with terminal lung and liver cancer. For each of us, we can think of one or more people who said something, did something--an act of love or kindness, a word of encouragement, a suggestion--that altered the course of our lives. For me, Felix Bessler was one of these persons.

Felix grew up in a large family in a tiny house on Willwood, the farming community south of Powell WY. He slept with other children in the unheated basement of their small home. Somehow, he had saved enough money to start school at the University of Wyoming in Laramie the fall after our graduation from Powell High School in 1949. Louise and I started college at Northwest Community College in Powell. During Christmas break, I saw Felix, or "Red" as he was then fondly called, at a Powell High School basketball game. He said, "Blood, I've got an extra bunk in the room in the hayloft of the sheep barn at the UW stock farm. Why don't you come down with me and go to school there?" Great question. I had no money. I had no job. I had a scholarship that would pay most of my tuition, only a thimbleful at the time. Dad cashed the $75 check I earned at my job at the Park County Sentinel, a weekly paper that was about to fold, when we made a quiick trip to Powell where the K Bar was the only place open to cash a check. I packed my meager belongings in a cardboard box and in my FFA Samsonite suitcase. Mom and Dad never said, "How do you think you can do this? You have no money. You have no job. You have no clothes." Instead, they waved goodby on a frosty January 1 as I headed for Willwood to pick up Red and head for Laramie.

Fifteen miles north of Laramie, Red told me that his girlfriend, Dolly, had a cute little blonde girlfriend named Velna and that I should call her when we got to town and go on a blind date to a square dance. Three or four days later, I knocked on the door of 615 Flint, knees trembling, fearful, What would she look like? Would she turn up her nose when she saw me? Would she think she had made a big mistake? Off to the square dance we went. Three years later we got married. Fifty nine years after that, 62 total, we are still together, though neither of us can square dance any longer.

So Felix was responsible for me going to the University of Wyoming and for finding the girl who would be my lifelong companion. How much more can one person affect your life than that? We have stayed in touch over the years. But I have never forgotten, nor have I ever given Felix enough credit, for the ways in which he changed my life forever. Thank you Felix (Red), and may you be at peace.

Photo of the Sacred Grove

2011-12-03T10:02:00.002-07:00

By the way, the photo I posted on the Blog banner is of the Sacred Grove. I thought it was appropriate.

December 3, 2011: A Letter to My Siblings

2011-12-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Ann:
Two days ago Velna reminded me it was your birthday. Of course, I knew that already. That was the day I walked downtown to urban Powell and noted Dr. Coulston's Cadillac was gone behind the Coulston Clinic where it always was parked. I put two and two together and when I got home, sure enough, there she was. I never could figure out why anyone else ever thought this was such a big surprise. Anybody could have figured this one out. I do remember you made a lot of racket, but we didn't seem to mind since you were somewhat of a celebrity.

I am proposing that on the 1st day of each month you post the stuff you have bought during the previous month, or that you are thinking of buying this month. Explain the reasons why everyone else should also buy it. Then make sure you buy it yourself instead of sending us all of to the store while you laugh your head off at home at how gullible we are. The lastest: My $30 nucular powered S&P shakers. Ann offered me a free lunch, not knowing how expensive it was going to be. Then she hustled me off to Costco and headed with warp speed to the location on the shelves. Now she is peddling dirt. Listen up. Or better yet set up your own Ann's Terribly Interesting Infomercial Network." But what would we do without you?

Dear Liz:
You may be the most gullible among us, I thought, until I heard Judy actually forked over a boatload of cash to buy a book Ann recommended. Are you kidding? I couldn't ever get her to part with a $20 bill to give to Robert. But you have the most melodious laugh and the longest and most involved phone answering message. And you do use big words once in awhile to remind us you were an English teacher. Or something.

Dear Steve:
How much stuff have you bought that Ann talked you in to? You may be the wisest one amongst us since as you say, you are not here to get personal pressure and influence to part with your hard earned cash so you will have something later for garage sales and to store in your store room. We're all happy you are making stuff again. Send pictures. Tell Mary Lynn you are sorry. She'll know for what.

Dear Louise:
We're all happy you got new shingles on your roof and that the storm didn't blow them all off. Do you remember when you learned a naughty word at school and brought it home and you and I repeated it millions of times in the front yard of the original Penrose house and laughed and laughed and laughed? I still laugh every time I hear or see that word. We're all happy that you are happy. We just need to hear a word or two on blogs once in awhile. Like, "Good morning. I am fine? How are you? Love, Louise." Stuff like that. So we know you're o.k.

Dear whoever is left. Let's see. Ann, Liz, Steve, Louise. Oh yeah, Dear Judy:
Last but not least. What can I say? I'm living in shock at what a spendthrift you turned out to be. Thank you for checking up on me and Velna so often. I try not to commit any egregious sins in between your calls. And we're all amazed at all the things you do--RS, gardening, kid tending, phone calling, doing good works of all kinds and manner.

There we are. All six of us. Can you imagine how empty our lives would be, each without all the other five?
Love, Dwight

Happy Birthday, Ann!

2011-12-01T00:55:00.001-07:00

You couldn't scare anyone if you tried. Not even your sweet little face would keep the birds out of the strawberries.

Please have a very happy day. And I am so glad that you are my sister.

Who could resist loving this little girl?

Are You Missing A Key

2011-11-30T11:59:00.003-07:00

I am sorry to be so slow on this one. I have been "bumping" into these keys for several years as I have gone through stuff trying to figure out what to do with some of the little odds and ends I have. Today it finally dawned on me that perhaps those of you who have some of the little chests from Mom and Dad just might want a key that goes with a lock. So, take a look at these keys and if you think they might fit a chest you have, please let me know and I will send them around. I have even wondered if one of them goes to Grandpa's rolled top desk.

THANKSGIVING

2011-11-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

No photos, just a Thanksgiving wish. Lots to be thankful for this year, hope everyone else feels the same way. Love from NY

Another Look at Grandpa Working in the Beet Field

2011-11-15T08:59:00.004-07:00

I don't have time to try and play with this photo, but thought it would be worthwhile posting the companion photo to the one Elizabeth just posted. Does it look as though Steve and I were driving Mother crazy and so she sent us out to "help" Grandpa in the beet field? Or maybe Dwight wanted us to pose for this photo op. Hopefully you can enlarge the photo and see the facial expressions on these "angelic" looking children. I suspect once Grandpa got bent over it was really difficult for him to stand up straight - at least as straight as his frail body could stand.

Sugar Beets

2011-11-14T14:38:00.003-07:00

The month of October has come and gone, as has the sugar beet harvest. In the "olden days", the beets were dug up in a long row, then the workers would come through with the curved, sharp beet knife, pick up a beet with the hook on the end, hold the beet in the left hand, and chop off the tops on the right hand. The tops would go on one row, and the beets on another. The beet loader would come through and pick up the beets, and the tops would be picked up to be used for cattle feed for the winter. In spite of his age, Grandpa would go out and top beets with the other workers. There is another picture of Ann and Steve posing by him - but this is the only one I could find in a hurry. I assume that Dwight took this picture? You recorded a bit of history here.

Preston, like many other farming communities, once had a sugar beet factory, and it was a favorite money crop. However, the company that owned the factory moved away, and it now stands, tall pipes against the sky, and windows broken out - an eyesore on the countryside. On the other hand, the sugar beet farmers in the Big Horn Basin banded together, purchased the factory, and have successfully run it during this time. I'm still glad we don't have to thin, hoe, and harvest sugar beets anymore.

Ann is Always Right

2011-10-28T19:18:00.001-06:00

After a Sunday dinner of fish, which was yummy, I put one last uncooked piece on the stove to cook and promptly got distracted downstairs. Bob went to the kitchen for a drink and found the kitchen in stinky smoke. Yes, the smoke alarm, even with new batteries, had failed. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but the oder has lingered with us. Today I called the expert: Ann. She said to put white, not red, vinegar in an open glass, not plastic and not metal, container. It sounded like the routine Grandma used to tell us when we wanted to get rid of our warts, but I followed Ann's instructions to the letter.

That was 4 hours ago. We left for a couple of hours and just came back home. Opened the door.............and you are right if you think that it worked! Thanks, Ann!

Mary Lynn's Kitchen

2011-10-25T00:22:00.001-06:00

Except for a little of this and a little of that, this beautiful kitchen is almost done. With a lot of hard work (how many different times did Steve stain the wood for the floor?) and amazing craftmanship, the result is this showcase kitchen. Let's all go for dinner, what do you say?

Penrose, Mid 1960's

2011-10-23T15:59:00.002-06:00

This occasion in Penrose when my little family was there, at the same time as Dwight and Velna and their children. There were some choice pictures that came from this time. You have to excuse my hairdo + cat-eye glasses, but remember, it was the mid-60's.

We must have gone to church.

Another Long-ago Picture

2011-10-19T14:21:00.003-06:00

The names written on the back of this fuzzy, out-of-focus old picture says "Russell Blood & Jack Riddle". Dad's stance gives him away - you couldn't miss him. Just thought this was an interesting picture - taken at the ranch in Sunlight? Who knows? More history to this? Since no one is playing these days but Steve, we might never know any more.

Dad and the Lilies

2011-10-15T08:59:00.003-06:00

This picture of Dad among the lilies, dahlias, and astilbe in my Tumwater garden was always a favorite. Dad was always willing to have his picture taken to make the subject more appealing. I was a little unhappy this morning when I really looked at this picture and saw how blurry it is. I watched a short feature yesterday on a new program that Photoshop is developing that sharpens impossibly blurry pictures. Don't throw them away yet. We're waiting for that one.

A Person from Dad's Past

2011-10-08T10:31:00.003-06:00

I found this picture of Paul Hineman (sp?) in my folder of old pictures. Evidently, he was a friend of Dad's from Cody High School. Remember Dad talking about having to move the rocks off of the football field so that they could play football? Dad never finished high school, being more homesick for the ranch in Sunlight north of Cody than he was fond of learning. Dad did talk about having a letter sweater, and it looks like Paul had one, too. How about the striped pants? I remember Paul Hineman from when we lived in the little brown house, because he came to visit a few times. I was fascinated, because he smoked cigarettes and blew smoke out of his nose. We didn't see people smoke, so that alone seemed strange. I always wondered if the smoke could come out of his ears, too, but it never did. His voice was distinctive because of a slight cleft lip.

Here's a Gem

2011-09-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

Look at what I found this afternoon! Name the year, the place and which Tanner for the big prize!

Mary Lynn's New Kitchen

2011-09-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

Steve has talked about this kitchen project for awhile. It was no simple task. Look at that flooring! Ask Steve the story on that. He built the cabinets from cherry and maple, and the hardware is his personal creation. What a showcase kitchen! Steve, write the rest of the story......

Happy Birthday, Brother Dear

2011-09-17T10:12:00.002-06:00

Dwight was the picture taker in our family - pictures of him in his youth are few and far between, but I always liked this one, probably taken by a buddy - note the FFA jacket.
This is sort of a professor-type picture - family reunion in Orem.
And, we're only missing Steve - Sweet memories of laughter and tears shared over the years.
Love this picture from the past. We always look forward on our birthdays - sometimes the scenery looks a little uncertain, sometimes we know the path. Life is always throwing us a curve, and we often go into uncharted waters, but it's important to know that family is always there to support and love us on.

My New Recipe

2011-09-12T14:01:00.001-06:00

We ate every crumb so there is nothing left to take a picture.
So easy and so good if you like peppers. Enjoy!

3 Pepper Quesadillas
1 cup each thin strips peppers: green, red & yellow (or whatever you have)
1/2 cup thin onion slices ( used more)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 t. cumin ( didn't use any)
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese
1 cup (8oz) shredded cheddar
10 flour tortillas
thick & chuncky salsa (forgot to use that)

Cook veg in butter for 4 min. Drain . Save butter.

Spred 1/2 tortilla with soften cream cheese. Sprinkle grated cheddar. Top with cooked peppers and fold in half. Place on cookie sheet. Brush top with remaining butter.
Bake 425 degrees for 8 mins. Don't burn your mouth

Get Cookin'.

POINTS OF INTEREST

2011-08-29T08:27:00.000-06:00

We all remember these two points of interest when we were growing up. First the stories of the bridge that Grandpa worked on in Yellowstone, then the narrow road of the canyon that took us up the North Fork. We also probably remember how much Father did not like the canyon drive.

Elizabeth and Ron Came to Olympia!

2011-08-26T12:36:00.000-06:00

We had so much fun. Not many somber moments, not even for the camera.

Giving each other advice.......the hands, you've got to watch the hands!

While the ladies watched the new Jane Eyre movie, the men escaped to the shade in the yard to get a little reading (and sleeping) done.

What an event to have the Gages traveling to Washington again!

New Technology To Watch

2011-08-24T10:52:00.008-06:00

"A company in American Fork has announced the release of its M-DISC, which is the first permanent file backup disc technology that will protect your information for up to 1,000 years." This is quoted from an article in Tuesday's Daily Herald. Two BYU professors came up with idea. I have included their web site so you can research this on your own. Can you imagine someone coming across this disc in 1000 years, looking at it and wondering if it was just a shiny frisbee? However, the idea of being able to preserve photos and genealogy and whatever else we have, without the data deteriorating would be wonderful.
The projected cost of the discs in a 20 pack is $26.95. I suspect there would be an additional purchase of the drive to burn the disc. At least that is what I gathered from their web site. Happy learning and let us know what you find out.

http://millenniata.com/

Penrose School: Page from Mom's Black Photo Album

2011-08-23T10:41:00.001-06:00

Apologies if this has been posted before. What is amazing is how many people and children there were in Penrose once upon a time. The picture on lower right is, if memory serves me, Lucinda Wasden.

Mother's Tatting

2011-08-19T17:10:00.004-06:00

Oh, yes and something else that should be included. And do you recognize the scarf?

The Penrose School

2011-08-19T16:19:00.003-06:00

This is a very poor photo but I think it is worth adding to our history. This is the Penrose School. The photo was in an old photo album of Uncle Brooks that I was able to borrow from our cousin, David Wasden. There wasn't much of interest in the album, except for this photo. There is one of a young Uncle Brooks that I will post later. Hopefully you can at least get an idea of this little country school that Mother and her siblings attended.

What A Difference a Year Makes

2011-08-18T12:06:00.008-06:00

Ok, I know, I need to have my own blog, and I just may surprise you one of these first days. However, it is important to put the next chapter on the blog to follow up on a post dated Wednesday May 12, 2010.

The photo above seems to ask, "who needs a garden gate?". The squash and melons have a mind of their own.
The flowers across the front of the family room windows have been beautiful this year.
One days' harvest. It is time to make catsup and beet soup, maybe even some dilly beans. Work to do, work to do! The tomatoes are a jungle, the squash and melons (including 12 watermelon) are merrily filling in any empty space they can find, and life is good. This has been a great team effort this year, and feels really good.

Russell M. Blood and Friend, Denver

2011-08-14T15:18:00.002-06:00

This copy of a picture was in my files - hope someone has the original. It is a picture of Daddy with his friend, Dwight Tabler (whom brother Dwight was named after). Wasn't he the one whose father helped Dad make connections with Elsie and Dewey? Sorry you can't enlarge this picture well - the pixels just break up. Nevertheless, the dress, which was everyday school dress for Denver schools, seems quite formal. If we could see the whole picture, I think these were short pants, with knee socks. This is one of the few pictures we have of Dad in this period of his life.

How We Got Through the Great Depression

2011-08-04T21:56:00.000-06:00

During the 1930s our Dad was gone much of the time looking for a day's work here and there leaving Mother alone with first, Louise, then me (Dwight), then Liz, and a bit later in the decade, Judy. We lived in a two-room uninsulated home that would probably be called a shack today. Here are the resources Mother had to get us through that troubled decade:

Maybe three or four pans and a cast iron skillet.
Two coal stoves, one for heating the bedroom, one for cooking and heating the kitchen.
An enamel dishpan, which sprouted a hole midway through the decade.
Two kerosene lamps.
A can of kerosene.
A stash of coal and green cottonwood for burning in the stoves.
A cellar full of canned peas, beans, tomatoes, corn, peaches, pears, apricots, strawberry jam, plus some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and a few apples.
Mustard for mustard plasters.
A water bucket for carrying water into the house from the outside pump.
A scrub board.
A galvanized metal bathtub for laundry and baths.
A big garden and an apple orchard in the summer.
Two beds, one of which my two sisters slept on, and the other, a cot, which I slept on, and a sort of couch that Mother slept on in the other room.
A rolling pin and bread pans.
Irons Mother heated on the stove for ironing clothes.
Surely I have left something out.

What we did not have:

A car.
A telephone.
Electricity--until 1939.
Inside plumbing and bath rooms.
Washing machine.
Many toys.
Many clothes.
Store bought groceries of any kind except for a few staples.

But what we did have that got us through the Great Depression:

Love in great abundance.
Warmth.
Great imaginations for inventing things do do.
Mother's indomitable will, perseverance, mustard plasters, and lonely days and nights.
Dad's sacrifice in looking for a day's work anywhere and everywhere and showing up some Saturday nights with the Denver Post with its "funny papers" and making a kite for us that flew and pulling us around in our red wagon and playing his harmonica for us and giving us hugs. And then he was gone again.

That is how we learned to get by on our own throughout our lives, to tough out the bad times, and to stay close to one another. So we really came out ahead, didn't we?

For Sale: Roncoe Rotisserie, Pressure Cooker, Bread Maker. Make an Offer

2011-08-03T19:00:00.000-06:00

My sisters are just like sheep. If one of them says, "buy this!", they all march out and buy it. Except Ann is usually the one who propagates this mania and gets everyone else to buy some worthless piece of merchandise, and by the time everyone else has all gone out and bought it, Ann has decided she doesn't want to buy it after all.

Let us take the Roncoe Rotisserie of Set it and Forget it fame for example. For a brief period, chicken rotisserie mania set in. I remember when Velna and I went up to Preston to see Liz and Ron and they proudly presided over two properly trussed birds as they rotated themselves into splended states of rotisseriness. Judy dissembled for years claiming she had one when everyone knew she didn't. Some where she will pay for this dissemblement. I suckered into this epidemic and bought one, with splendid visions of perfectly rotiserried chicken, steaks, salmon, kabobs, etc., etc. As far as I remember, we may have rotisseried three fowls. It took half an hour to truss them up properly, haul the monster machine out of the pantry, and turn it on, watching the spit turn round and round and round. The chicken itself was fine but then it took two hours to scrub up the rotisserie. I figure my three Roncoe rotisseried birds cost a mere 75 bucks apiece or some such amount. The solution? Pay 5 bucks at Costco for a perfectly wonderful rotisseried chicken and put the rotisserie in the store room. For five bucks, two people can eat for weeks. First, you pick a little chicken off for a couple of sandwiches. Then you chew on the thighs, drumsticks, and wings. Then you make some other dish like chicken enchiladas. Then you berl up the carcass for broth, chuck in some frozen noodles, and eat chicken and noodles for approximately two weeks. All for five bucks and you don't have to clean up the stupid rotisserie. But if you are enamored with the Music Man con man who peddles these things with his adoring audience chanting "set it and forget it," I will sell you mine cheap. As far as I know, all of my sisters' rotisseries have met a tragic fate. But maybe we have all been too dumb to see the potential here.

Now my sisters didn't connive to get me to buy a pressure cooker and a bread machine. I did those deeds myself. I pressure cooked one roast and one batch of pea soup. My wife kept saying, "What is the advantage to that?" "You can roast a roast in a short time and berl some pea soup in a jiffy anyway, and besides, what else do you have to do that is so important that you need your roast or your pea soup in a few minutes instead of an hour or two? I just took my pressure cooker down to the store room.

We did use our bread machine quite a bit when we had more family at home. Bread machine bread is wonderful when it is first baked. But after three or four fresh slices, the loaf sits around and turns to stone and no one ever eats the rest of it. So the bread machine is now headed for the store room. Maybe I'll try one more loaf first.

I know Ann has been like Eve and the apple on several other occasions of sending her sisters scurrying to the stores or to Amazon.com or to DI to get something she has had a current inspiration about, but my brain has fogged in these regards. Perhaps others can fill us in on these multitudinous details. Why is it we have never learned, however? Irregardless [sic] of how many times we have listened to Ann peddle something to us, we still go out and buy whatever her current fascination is? Why is that?

Currently we have the Vintage Sewing Book Saga. A sad story beyond all human imagination. Ann finds this book about how to sew 100 year old underwear and convinces her sisters to all buy the book. Then someone paid for them and mailed them out and now nobody is smart enough to figure out how the heck much anyone owes anyone else or who mailed what to whom or who paid postage. Meanwhile we have burned up 41 comments on what is supposed to be a dignified family history blog with total, utter nonsense. No wonder Congress is so screwed up if we highly educated Blood family members have no idea how to do addition, subtraction, and long division. Why would anyone want a vintage sewing book? What if I suggested we all buy an economic analysis book so we could correct all of our mistaken notions and understand Supply and Demand? How many would buy it? Besides, there is an element of gender discrimination here in spending so much time, energy, computer space, and continual click click clicks to see if some robot has added the next comment to an inane list of previous comments about a book about old ladies underwear. What a sad commentary. Mother would be appalled that her children do not have anything better to do, that they do not know how to do arithmetic, and that they don't buy a treadle sewing machine to make real stuff with. I have worn myself totally out with the effort required to write this epic piece. I hope I have shed light and inspiration on these important subjects.

Siblings of Russell Blood

2011-07-31T17:19:00.000-06:00

Kathryn Blood - a half sister

Paul Blood - a half brother.

Birthday Party

2011-07-26T09:26:00.007-06:00

The special entertainment was a bagpiper. I was so caught by surprise and loving bagpipe music the second I heard the sound from the hall I broke down and cried. It was so amazing what my kids thought of for me.

As you can tell, I enjoyed it immensely.

Kevan's group, Lattigo, entertained throughout the evening. Here they are playing Happy Birthday.

Kevan getting into Orange Blossom Express. He is amazing. (Does my motherly pride show?)

Here's Whatcha Do

2011-07-23T01:44:00.001-06:00

Dear Louise, This is the whole story about your book on vintage sewing. I found the book on line right before Judy's birthday. Called Ann, and asked her if she thought it would be good for Judy and for your birthday. We looked at some of the pages on Amazon (I think), and then decided that all four of us should have the same book. So, Ann was already putting in a book order at Amazon, so she said she would order her own birthday present (why wait until December 1st?). I proceeded to put in an order (I thought) for the other three books. A couple of weeks went by, and I realized that no books had come. Back to Amazon, My Account, and there was no evidence of an order - what hadn't I done? So, naturally, the thing to do was to place another order, which I thought I did. (Note: I order books from Amazon all the time, and never had any problem. In fact, two other orders came from them in the same time I thought this order should come.) Again, no books, and Ann had had hers for some time. Soooo - the third time is the charm, right? The books finally came - in time for my birthday, two months after the intended first order should come. The upshot was that now we had to figure out who owed who what for what book. Your book, Louise, was to be your birthday present from the three of us. Judy was gang-pressed into paying her fair share for the three gifts. How do you figure this out? Ann finally came up with the following solution, which is pretty darned good, I think. However, Judy had to mess the whole thing up by sending me too much money, so now I owe her something like $3.64. Sigh. We're just sorry that you couldn't have been laughing with us while all of this nonsense was going on. The one thing I'm struck by is how simplified the sewing and fashions were in the late 1920s. Love, Elizabeth

Ann came to the rescue with the following solution.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ann Tanner

> Date: June 1, 2011 11:30:35 AM MDT

> To: Bob and Judy Petersen , Gage

> Subject: Here's Whatcha Do Maybe

> This is a story book problem at its best.

> Major accounting issue:

> 1. Louise's book $20.00 divided by 3 = 6.35 paid by E. J. A.

> 2. Judy's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by E. A.

> 3. Elizabeth's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by J. A.

> 4. Ann's book $20.00 divided by 2 = 10.00 paid by E. J.

> So, now, who owes what to whom, you ask.

> Well - here's whatcha do.

> Elizabeth bought three books, Ann bought one book.

>

> Elizabeth, Judy and Ann send Elizabeth 6.35 each for Louise's book.

>

> Elizabeth and Ann pay 10.00 each for Judy's book.

>

> Judy and Ann pay 10.00 each for Elizabeth's book.

>

> Elizabeth and Judy pay 10.00 each for Ann's book.

>

> So each one of us owes $26.35 somewhere, somehow.

>

> Now, this is where it gets tricky.

>

> Judy sends Elizabeth $16.35 for Louise's book and Elizabeth's book. She sends 10.00 to Ann for her book (that she bought for herself, so does this qualify? If so, I can see a small business with potential. Shall I let you know when I buy more books?).

>

> Ann would normally (Is any of this normal????) send Elizabeth $26.35 for Judy's and Elizabeth's and Louise's books, but since she got in a hurry and bought her own book (yes, some of us remember to click on "place order" on Amazon so it doesn't take forever for an order to arrive), and paid for it herself, she really complicated matters. Elizabeth would owe Ann $10.00 for her (Ann's) book, however since Ann paid for it herself, but owes Elizabeth money, then this will balance (?) out. Ann will owe Elizabeth $16.35 - just wait - it will work out, maybe.

>

> Elizabeth would normally (? ?) send Ann 10.00 for her book and pay $16.35 for Louise's and Judy's books, but since she already paid for the books, that is Louise's and Judy's books, Elizabeth won't send anything to Ann, which will, in turn pay for part of Ann's portion.

>

> Now, the question is, does this balance out?

> Judy will pay $26.35. (She owes Ann $10.00 and Elizabeth $16.35)

> Elizabeth will pay $26.35, which she has already paid (she owes Ann $10.00, Ann owes her $26.35, so subtracting the $10.00, Ann now owes Elizabeth $16.35)

> Ann will pay $26.35, however see note directly above. So Ann owes $16.35.

>

> So - the total ins and outs should/will come to $79.05.

>

> Now, if Judy sends Elizabeth $26.35, then Ann will need to send Elizabeth only 6.35, because instead of Judy sending money to me (Ann) that I would then send to Elizabeth, it would definitely simplify ??????? the situation.

>

> And that's whatcha do. Whew, I am going to play in the flowers.

Birthday Party

2011-07-22T10:51:00.008-06:00

Yes, there really were 80 candles, but we were outside and there was a breeze so they didn't all get lit at once, even with the connecting trail. It did make quite a flare-up for a second.

There were some trick candles that wouldn't go out so I was getting some help.

Louise Blood Celebrates 80th Birthday

2011-07-18T09:11:00.000-06:00

This beautiful formal portrait of our sister Louise, must be part of our blog record. Her birthday party was held on Saturday, July 16 with her children honoring her in meaningful detail. We hope to bribe those who had cameras to share their photos for all to see on the blog.....

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER ?

2011-07-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

Hotter than the shades of Haiti's so I helped Mary Lynn get her hammock up. Lily recognized at once that this was the place to be. (It's really to early to call them the "dog days of summer'" but it just made a good title.

Happy Birthday to our Dear Louise: Big Sister, Loyal Friend, and Companion Through Our Shared Adventures

2011-07-13T23:30:00.000-06:00

Frosty Tree in Penrose Winter

2011-07-13T20:28:00.000-06:00

STEVE BLOOD FAMILY GATHERING

2011-07-11T08:29:00.000-06:00

Mark and Debbie's three

Ryan, Mike's oldest

Mike, (my oldest)

Mark

Shannon and her son Nathan

Mary Lynn and Mark's wife Debby

(word has it that Mary Lynn shaved strokes off the girls team)

Cindy, Mike's wife

Erika, Mike's youngest

Lane, Mark's oldest

This is a very quick add, It was a marvelous 4th, one we will never forget.

MATURITY

2011-07-08T08:28:00.000-06:00

If you could just get Ann to have a serious conversation.....

SIBLINGS IN THE WEST

2011-07-07T17:08:00.000-06:00

THREE VERY CLASSY LADIES

IF HE DOESN'T GET HIS HAND OFF MY LEG I'M GOING TO SMACK HIM

COLOR COORDINATION IS ESSENTIAL

HONESTLY RON, I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'D GROW BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

YA ALL COME BACK AND SEE US YA HEAR

Would Mother Think This Job Was Good Enough?

2011-07-06T18:58:00.000-06:00

One time while I was assigned to mop the kitchen floor on my hands and knees I thought I was finished after working on it. Big mistake. Mother, the eagle-eyed inspector, thought I had done an awful job and told me to do it over again. Ever since then, I have had a subliminal prompting when doing similar jobs that asks me to ponder: "Would Mother think this job is good enough?"

Mother always expected no less than our best. When I was in the fifth grade, I missed school from December 1 until late March with mysterious after effects of chicken pox and mumps. Louise brought my assignments, lessons, and materials home for classes. Mother, who had taught elementary school before her marriage, was my teacher. I can guarantee that I got straight A's (we were graded 1's, 2, 3, 4, 5) in every subject. I wonder what I might have learned if Mom had home schooled me all the way through school, much of which was a waste of time. I could have learned more in two hours a day than I did all day in school. The main thing I learned in sixth grade, for example, was to draw and color a map of France. I have disliked France ever since and, especially, when I had to pass a reading knowledge of French for my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. I thought then of that map of France I spent so much time on in the sixth grade in between pestering the girl who sat in front of me. We learned to color inside the lines in the first grade and, besides, Louise taught me to read before I went to school so there wasn't much to do but piddle around. I got expelled (promoted?) out of the second grade. By Junior High, I discovered I had a "bad attitude" which kept me out of the National Junior Honor Society even though I had one of the highest grade averages in the class. Problem was, I had no idea I had a bad attitude until I got my report card.

I still wonder as I mop the tile on the kitchen floor if Mother would think I had done a good enough job, or if she would tell me to do it over. "Any job worth doing, etc., etc., etc., is worth doing well." It wasn't worth trying to put anything over on her again. Another teaching ingrained for life.

Views of Heart Mountain

2011-07-05T12:25:00.000-06:00

These grain storage elevators were built a few years ago just a short distance from where the Blood family lived just west of Ralston about a mile during the years 1941-1944. Heart mountain was the ever-present icon of the landscape.

Mystery Picture: Who Can Identify this Little Log Building?

2011-07-02T11:41:00.000-06:00

Who can identify this building? (Hint: Only the older, more mature siblings will stand a chance of remembering what this is). You must write a 100 word essay on a new post rather than a comment on this one if you know what it is. First prize: 50 cents.

Visitors from the East

2011-07-02T10:22:00.002-06:00

The discussion began.
Everything resolved! (Perhaps?) After a riotous afternoon at Louise's house, with Ann, Paul, Cheryl and Lynn, Steve and Mary Lynn came our way to stay the night. Steve and Mary Lynn are great examples of sense (Remember Sense and Sensibility?) There doesn't seem to be any room for hurt feelings in their relationship - just an airing of both sides that takes care of differences. (Do any of us have those?). It was wonderful to see these two after a 4-year gaposis. Thank goodness for the phone and this blog that keeps us in touch over the many miles that separate us. Sorry that the six of us can't manage to be together all at once. Now, that would be an occasion.

What I Learned on Wednesday

2011-06-30T12:31:00.006-06:00

Wednesday was one of those days when I learned how much I didn't/don't know and how good it is to keep working on "stuff". The day started with a load of bark/mulch being dumped in the middle of our driveway. Thankfully we had the cars already parked on the street so we avoided one major challenge there. Lesson no. 1 - try to stay ahead of the "what if's".
Then there was the quick trip to Costco to finish buying stuff for Steve and Mary Lynn's Jackson adventure. While there I saw the red velvet cake, which seemed to be the perfect way to finish off lunch at Louise's - who could resist? Evidently not me. Lesson no. 2 - do not look in the dessert cases at Costco. It is way to easy to justify buying something yummy - at least I didn't buy the pineapple upside down cake!
I had called Dwight's house on Tuesday evening and then again on Wednesday morning trying to see if we could talk with him in the afternoon while Steve, Louise and I, along with Cheryl and Lynn Styler, Paul and Mary Lynn were together, but there was no answer. I was honestly concerned. And then Dwight called me and said I had been leaving messages on Velna's cell phone for the past little while, and they don't use that phone very often, and therefore didn't know I had been calling. Lesson no. 3 - when reprogramming phone nos. into a new phone system, do not confuse cell phone nos. with home phone nos., otherwise you may start to think sad thoughts when you don't get a return phone call. Problem corrected!
When we got to Louise's, Steve and Mary Lynn were already there, having driven up from the SLC airport, with their flight arriving at 12:30. I was concerned that we had kept everyone waiting (we had a lot of the food with us), and Steve told me they had been there about an hour. Lesson no. 4 - Do not believe Steve, check with Mary Lynn.
And then, as things started to wind down, after a lot of chatting, Steve talking with Dwight on the phone, all of us talking about everyone who wasn't there, it was time to get out the cameras. Lesson no. 5 - always check the setting on your digital camera. Taking photos as though the setting is on Automatic exposure, when it is not, gives the above results (blurry photos) - and I can't go back and have a do over.
And then my almost final lesson for the day needs a little background. When Patsy Sorensen and I were visiting the first part of June (she is cousin Julian's wife), she talked about how Cindy hated to have her picture taken, and I believe she was referring to Cindy in her later years. After I looked at the photos of me from yesterday, there came Lesson no. 6 - I'm tempted to join Cindy in my lack of enthusiasm for having my photo taken. If my hair cut looks like a stack of loosely stacked gray straw, I have to either learn to accept it or change the hair cut - this lesson remains to find a conclusion, other than to say "Oh, well!".
However, the final lesson of the day came as I crawled into bed, and this is the best lesson of all. The six of us have our own families to focus on, worry about, cheer on and above all to love. And along with that, we have been blessed with a relationship that just picks up when we get together as though time and distance is non existent. Penrose Mornings has been such a great connector - we have shared memories and every now and again we have shared our struggles, as well as our joys. So my very final lesson for the day was a reminder of good things and blessings in my life that help to make it all complete. Whew! It must be nap time.

Letter To Liz

2011-06-28T13:04:00.001-06:00

June 28 2011

Dear Liz:

I recorded the movie "Lili" with Leslie Caron and Velna and I entertained ourselves by watching it last night. Do you remember when you went with us to see Lili at the Wyo Theater in Laramie a week before we all went to Penrose together in August 1953 when Velna and I were on our way to Bozeman where I would start my master's degree studies in agricultural economics? I hadn't seen that movie for 58 years if my arithmetic is approximate, yet it brought back so many memories of that summer with flashbacks of scenes I still remembered from the movie. And who can forget the lyrics to the lilting "Hi Lili"?

That was the summer I rescued you from hoeing beets with your siblings so you could move to the big city and tend the wonderful children at this home, which I took a photo of when I went back to Laramie for my 50th college graduation reunion.

You may even have wished for a return to the previous summer when I celebrated my high school graduation and my past tenure as state president of the Future Farmers of America by hoeing beets with you for weeks in the hot sun, swatting deerflies, horseflies, and gnats. What did we talk about all that summer, up and down those rows, waiting for the water jug by the ditch at the end of the row?

You remember the trip to Penrose from Laramie. We had our 1948 black 2-dr. Chevy we bought with a down payment from Velna's savings. Velna was very pregnant, the day was hot. We had a flat tire about 15 miles south of Lovell on the Greybull highway. I hitchhiked into Lovell and got my brother in law Phil Reasch, who married Velna's sister Joyce, to come rescue us while you and Velna suffered by the side of the road for an eternity. Finally, we made it home to Penrose. Velna and I stayed for a week since I was supposed to be the substitute teacher in vocational agriculture at Powell High School while the two regular ag teachers went to the state fair in Douglas. I had completed all of the courses necessary for a life certificate in vocational ag teaching at the University, but I had forgotten what ag students were like. They put someone's arm in the power hack saw to see how close to the skin they could get without breaking it. I passed out rope for knot tying, a skill which I had demonstrated in high school by making the most outstanding knot board in the history of the Wyoming State Fair. After about 10 years of winning the blue ribbon at the fair, my teachers were told it was illegal to keep entering it. I never did get the knot board back. And the rotten kids had lost track of what they did with the rope pieces to practice tying knots. So after a week of treading water with juvenile delinquents, we were happy to be on our way to Bozeman to begin an unknown future to get a master's degre in ag econ. I was 20, soon to turn 21, when we started that year. We were expecting our first baby in November. My assistantship paid about $70 per month. Rent was about $17. Velna worked part time. We covered our new baby with Velna's coat when she came home from work since we couldn't afford a blanket.

So, Liz, how did you get back to Laramie? I never thought I would ever go back there, but go back there I did, for another nine years of teaching. The University Stock Farm sheep barn, where I lived the first year I was at Wyoming while working there as a student, and Old Main remain icons of my life. Whatever happened after that, you and I had an opportunity siblings rarely have, even if we were spending our time in forced slave labor, to get well enough acquainted to stand us in good stead for the rest of our lives. I find it difficult to insult you or make you angry, since you always agree with all of my insults. But all of these memories came flowing back while watching sweet little Leslie Caron sing "The song of love is a sad song. . ."

My home was in a room fixed for student workers in the second floor of this sheep barn. If you are wondering what you smell like after your clothes, your hair, everything you have is reeking with sheep lanolin, I can refresh your memory.

Old Main where, among all the other buildings on the UW campus, I was student janitor one summer.

So that about sums it up for this letter. Love, Dwight. (sorry you never understood the word ditto, or you could have learned to read even sooner than you did).

Six Blood Offspring at Dad's Funeral in Cody WY 1993

2011-06-27T16:58:00.000-06:00

Ann, Judy, Steve, Dwight, Louise, Elizabeth

Our Dad: Russell M. Blood

2011-06-19T08:26:00.000-06:00

Powell Ward 1954

2011-06-16T00:27:00.000-06:00

Who can you find in this group?

Paul and Kathryn Ann Tanner Family

2011-06-10T18:35:00.000-06:00

“Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3).

A Letter

2011-06-05T19:30:00.002-06:00

Perhaps this will explain why I asked the question about when we were born. The following is a letter that was shared by Patsy Sorensen which was written on Uncle Norman and Aunt Cindy's 50th wedding anniversary. I loved what he wrote and as I read it I could hear him telling the story in his own unique way. I guess I longed for a little insight into life when I was born, as he had shared here. I also realize it was another time and another place when we came along, but here is what he wrote. It is delightful to read and adds another bit of insight into the lives of our Wasden family.

(Note from Patsy to me/Ann - Brooks letter to Lucinda. This is not dated, but it was with the 50th anniversary stuff, so I am going to assume that it was sent about that time.)

AUGUST 20, 1913
Let's keep that date in mind --for some reason or other--

In the beginning, things were different!
Now, since that hurdle is passed, may we settle down to good--yes good constructive thinking? Whew! This wears me O-U-T.

The above day started about the same as any other August day. There were calves to feed, hogs to prime their grunts, horse barns were always reserved for my kind attention for sanitary purposes, by which time Father (or Papa; NEVER Dad), and David had the cows milked! Time out for breakfast. We had rolled oats; oatmeal hadn't been invented yet. Cream and sugar--"now don't try to heap up your spoon-full". There would be Mother's baked bread; trowel on a smear of butter, or honey, preserves, or eggs with home-grown bacon or ham, and fried potatoes? Lets see--what else? "Brooks you take the cows down across the river-bridge to pasture."

On my way home I will detour from the established trail to find a little gulley that has been washed out at about where the corner of our LOT used to be. The irrigation lateral had departed its true course and allowed the stream of water to wander whither it wilt. This little gulley was born from this laxity; it was not very deep not very long but it had two banks which provided the necessary challenge for my skills to build little roads, dugways, tressels, tunnels, bridges, for the conveyance of my wagon!

My wagon? Yes, it really was a caster--an off-cast from a bed-stead. But, my, how nice it worked to make tracks on the soft dirt! Not the scratchy kind when you drug a stick, but a nice, flat-pressed, beauty. I carried this little jewel in my pocket for any opportunity to apply its pretty initials anywhere. But this gulley was a real hang-out. Usually I could just get interested when the alarm was sounded throughout the realm and my presence was urgently needed to turn the washing machine, pull weeds, get in hay and get going. Consequently, I had learned to not bobble my head too much above the limits and quietly attend to my important business.

But--this morning wasn't working out as usual. David, my big brother, had visited my project and completely erased all past construction. This saved me the agony of having to do the same thing because the joy of doing and building is more a pleasure and invites new ways of doing.

But--besides this--I wasn't being interrupted! Sofe would usually be dispatched to bear glad tidings that I must be doing other things of no consequence to me but better to pay attention! But this day, she would come and ask "Was I alright?" Had I heard anything? Well, don't worry." and she would be gone! However, I did see Sister Jones come.

And she left. Years later Edward Jones will teach me to ride his bike.
Then came Sister Shumway. She was our neighbor to the west.
Then, she left.
Came next, Sister Carroll. She was Irish. So was her husband. He had an awful loud temper. He would yell at his horses like thunder coming out of a tunnel. Some said you could hear him clear to Byron, eight miles away. I don't know about that, but he could sure wake up the chickens early in the Penrose mornings.

By and by, Sister Carroll left. She walked straight and determined. She once had rescued me from a gang of big boys who had tied a diaper around my head and arms and would hoist me over their heads and play toss the baby. Of course my joy in this pleasure was measured in decibels of lung capacity which brought Alice Carrol out of the church; her eyes blazing fire and her voice the thunder of Mount Siniai! I was gracefully deposited in the weeds by the fence while Israel fled in 20 directions.
By and by, Sister Carrol left.
Shortly afterward, Sofe came "triplingly" over the "terra" of the "firma" and announced:
"You may come into the house! You have a new baby sister."
"I do? Where did she come from?"
"Heavenly Father sent her."
"Heavenly Father? I thought we got everything from Montgomery Ward."
"Oh, come in and see."
Sofe tootled me along and sure enough--there in the cradle was this squriming, not quite snarling. little fist fighter! Oh, dear me. "What will we do with her?" was my first worried concern.
"You won't have to do anything about her," was Sofe's welcome reply. "Just wait and watch and you'll see her grow up like Minnie and Elna and Orvile."
Now--that was hopeful! More pals like them? Ah, Heaven came awfully close, right then.
But--you took so much time to grow up. Why, the next morning you weren't a bit bigger than you were yesterday. Good grief if you took so much time would you ever grow up before we were old and feeble? But it seemed everybody just relaxed and waited--come what may.
One thing you had done most admirably though was to fill in that gap between July and September with a birthday which reconciled Mother's pre-determined schedule to have a separate month for each child's birth. I learned later that she was downright provoked that Orvil had got in a hurry--he should have came in June! That upset her approved calculations and she must study the stars and the phases of the moon more carefully and your ticket did much to relieve her anxiety for error. All ready, you rated an A+, so the rest was easy sledding.
And so--you were named "Lucinda." NOT Cindy! Oh, NO!

Now that we've got you that far along, what can I add next? I sit here in a kind of dreamy trance, trying to put together the years that followed. School in the winter times and working with Father in the summer times, left only a few short periods of time to hatch-up or bring to pass the real actions which made up the growing years. YOU were were my first convert to the church? At least our Father Bishop did arrange it so that I baptized you, just before I left on my mission to Texas in July. We had the usual 'font' --the Elk Canal which snaked its circuit along the foothills above the valley. It was the same spot where my delayed (?) immersion did come to pass, but only after I had convinced my reluctant bishop that I needed to repent of my sins! The occasion did not seem to have a lasting effect--maybe because the water was too cold?
Anyway we were gathered at the bridge across the canal where the road to Burlington disappeared into the lava hills beyond the Penrose farms. I took the lead by feeling my way over the bottom of the flowing pool--bare-footed of course. The bridge, I was sure, would be my steadying point in case the flowing current intended to move everything downstream! Brother Berthelson steadied my faltering nerves and my fluttering shivers by grasping my right arm and teaching me how to make it square from the shoulder for the ordinance. By then you were cross-wiggling your way towards me, arms above the water and that perpetual grin of greeting which break into a full-fledged smile on the instant!
And so we complied with the ages old instructions for this honored privilege. There may have been one other person baptized at that time--it kind of seems that way, but I don't remember. You were the main one.
Edward Gwyn had came up with me from his home in Cowley, Wyo. where we had labored diligently in the cause of truth and righteousness the Saturday night before. Sounds --er, mysterious? Could be!
I had driven Blizzard (you guess what that was), on a little ditch rider's two-wheeled cart, over to his home-base, on Saturday morning. During the morning's chores we reckoned this cart might be a new adventure for Beaulah Carlton and any friends she may have gathered around. Umm, well now, did it work out that way? But we did arrive in Penrose before the time for the service. With Sunday School being dismissed at 12:00 noon in those days, and Sacrament Meeting beginning at 2:00 p.m. this time was planned for the baptism. Now it was time to change to dry clothes, eat lunch, feed the horse and get to meeting. Didn't make it. By the time all was ready the meeting was 2/3's gone so I took Edward home. A few days later I boarded the train at Powell, Wyo, and was on my way to Salt Lake City and my mission. Twenty-six months later, I came home and found you had grown up! Yes, you had grown up and pretty as a picture! Then there followed some years of hither, thither and gone. until I landed up in Long Beach, California. Then one day the news was received that you were married to Norman Sorensen! Now--the Normans were recorded in history in a very commendable way. And Sorensen? I have written an appraisal of his choir's singing elsewhere and if I find it, it shall be sent along.

Now I know that if we could get together to prompt each other, we could knock our beanie heads into endless schreechings. That is what they made milleniums for? So--I must get busy to sort and pile up enough what-cha-ma-call-its for who-it-may-concern!

Brooks

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

2011-06-03T09:54:00.000-06:00

Powell Ward 1950?

So - What DO You Remember?

2011-05-31T19:14:00.004-06:00

Elizabeth's birthday note for Steve gave me an idea - a reallllly good idea. At least I think it is. For those of us who are younger it would be fun to know what memories any of you have about when we were born. I realize that Elizabeth wrote some about Steve, Dwight added a quick note, but is there more? Dwight has written a little about when I was born, i.e. the Dr's. car being gone from the clinic on Bent (?) St. so he figured there would be a new baby when he got home. Was it ever discussed at home that a new baby was on its way? Etc. etc. What was going on at home? Where did we sleep? You know, just some of the real things that we don't know.

Now, lest this suggestion be misunderstood, I realize that some will have no memory (of the newly arrived siblings, that is) because they were too little or weren't born yet, so that lets Steve and me and perhaps even Judy, off the hook. And that would mean this would be an opportunity for Elizabeth, Dwight and Louise to delve into their memory banks and "share". So - what do you remember about when Judy was born? When I was born? When Steve was born? This has the potential of being journal writing at its best - you write and we will read.

Happy Birthday, Steve!

2011-05-30T12:17:00.005-06:00

These two pictures of Steve were taken a few years ago during the only visit we ever made to their upstate New York home and shop. I like them, because I think they reflect his great attitude toward life. I'm sure that he has perhaps aged a teeny bit since these pictures were taken, but it couldn't be too much, right, Steve? Steve was always the pesky little brother who had so much fun in life. The one grumpy time I remember was when he was nine, and Dad lowered the weight of the hay bales to 25 pounds each, so that Steve and I could build the piles. He did grumble a bit, and I suspect that the work was hard for him. It was for me, and I'm just a girl. I remember the day he was born. Mother was wearing the bright flowered smock (one of my favorite tops), and Aunt Sofe and Aunt Cindy came by the house with flowers, trying to talk Mother into going to the Penrose cemetery with them to put flowers on Uncle Orville's and cousin Lois Johnson's graves. Mother refused them, and later, in a practical manner, said that after all, they weren't really there. Later in the afternoon, things began to stir, as Mother sent Daddy to Grandma's house to call Dr. Coulston, and instead of asking us girls to make her bed, she was busy doing that. (I had been unaware that another baby was on its way - I just loved the prettier tops she wore.) As Mother was getting the sheets down from her closet, Dwight told her that the baby had to be a boy, as he was tired of so many sisters. He certainly wasn't thinking - there was 11 years difference, and he didn't really get to know Steve until in later years. All of us but Louise trekked across the field to Grandma and Grandpa Wasden's house. Louise stayed behind to bake the bread that had been rising, and then came, also. I don't remember what time Dad came across the field to announce Steve's birth, but it was almost dark when we got home. Steve was lying on a pillow, and I can still visualize him filing the length of the pillow with his lanky body. Mother later said that he weighed a little over 12 pounds at birth - quite a feat for such a tiny woman.

I always think of Steve and Ann together, getting into all sorts of mischief. Later, Steve was a buddy - someone interested in art and drawing, as I was. Then there were the difficult years, the years of not being available to each other, etc. But we've been back on track for a long time, and are so thankful that Mother and Dad had six children to make our family complete. You may be the last, but you're certainly not the least. Love you, and hope your day is a good one.

Liz and the White Cat: There's More Here Than Meets the Eye

2011-05-29T08:58:00.000-06:00

I ran this photo through several filters to try and figure out what was in the background through the screen door. I deduced that this back step was for the original two room house where the kitchen was where Dad later had his shop. Thus, the image through the door must be the stove. Study the picture carefully and tell all the stories.

Go, Elizabeth, Go

2011-05-28T17:23:00.000-06:00

Dwight had titled this photo file, "Liz climbing". It seems appropriate on this, her 76th birthday, to note her non-stop attitude. And may it always be so. I hope this was a good day for you and may the adventures ahead be taken in hand just as climbing to the top was a few years back. We love you! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Liz in Case Tomorrow is Your Birthday

2011-05-27T19:07:00.000-06:00

ENJOYING A GIFT

2011-05-18T13:34:00.000-06:00

Feel free to delete this without hurting my feelings, I just wanted to share this for a brief moment. Last year I was given a gift, a miricle if you will. In my enthusiasium for this gift I abused it. I blossomed to the point that I couldn't use the bathroom scales anymore but I had to wiegh myself on the frieght scales at the shop to get any accuracy.

In February I decided that I was at a turning point that I didn't like and went on a diet. For the first week I cut out bread, potatoes, pasta and milk. I also cut out all snacks except for an orange quarter or an apple quarter. Then I set my limits. I went from about 6 slices of bread a day to one slice of sour dough, ( sour dough is great for diets,) I went from 4 glasses of milk a day to a cup, I eat yams for the most part instead of regular potatoes, I eat a good variety of meats and fish, lots of vegetables and northern beans.

This is kind of a brief account of the change in my diet but the upshot is I have lost 40 pounds and 5 inches off my waist so far. The benefits are enormous, my ankles no longer hurt when I walk, I haven't had heartburn in months, I can bend over and pick things up off the shop floor, my energy level is sky high, my noon nap is back to five minute instead of forty five, I don't get winded when I look at a set of stairs. In short I am enjoying my gift more than ever now.

I think that I had to tell you this so that I will continue with the program.

Fun Notes about Orvil Wasden and Wasden Family

2011-05-16T09:07:00.005-06:00

I received this email from Patsy Sorensen (at least I think it is Patsy because Julian always says he doesn't like computer stuff!). It has some neat insights into Grandpa Wasden, Orvil and Aunt Cindy. I will hopefully see Patsy and Julian in June and am thinking I may invest in the little page scanner that is portable, so I can scan the pages of the Family and Temple Records book they have. Wouldn't that be fun for everyone to have access to? Cousin Newell Sorensen was good enough to drop off Grandpa Wasden's missionary journals and a couple of notes that have been carefully preserved in the little wooden box he has kept them in. I will get those copied/scanned at BYU and get them on the sharing list. What fun it is to have access to all of these treasures.

"I am going through totes that have been ticked away for too long. Found a half sheet of paper where Lucinda had written a couple of memories of Orvil. Unfortunately, the last experience doesn't have an ending. Thought you might want to share this on your blog and maybe someone else can tell us about 'breaking up the setting hens.'

Also there is a wonderful book here called Family and Temple Records. It has lists of all the Wasden children - birth, baptism, confirmation, endowment, missions and patriarchal blessings. I found it interesting that the 3 oldest Wasden children all received their partriachal blessing on the same day 18 Feb. 1906 by Jas. C. Berthelson. The younger four all had their partriarchal blessings on 5 August 1928 by the same patriarch.

I will bring this book when I come to Lehi in June, if you would like to see it. The handwriting is beautiful, what a change from our current use of keyboards. I also have a letter that Grandpa Wasden sent to Lucinda in 1932. I am going to re-type it, hopefully today, and will send you a copy.

I love being a voyeur on Penrose Mornings. I 'stole' the picture of the 4 Wasden's (Brooke, Elna, Sophie and Lucinda) and posted it on our family web-site. Hope you don't mind. By that point Lucinda was starting to balk at having her picture taken at family events, so it was a great find!!!"

(This is a letter that I found in a tote from Norman and Lucinda's house. It is a letter from Grandpa Wasden to Lucinda when she was living in California with her brother Brooks and his wife Lorraine. The date indicates that it was during the depression and James indirectly refers to that. I have left the spelling and punctuation in its original form)

Garland, Wyo Dec. 23.32

Dear Lucinda,

Just a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. How are you and all the folks by this time? Just one year yesterday morning since we left you in that far away with your brother and sister. And how that something swells within me with gratitude for I have never felt uneasy as to your safety, and my gratitude go out to Brooks and Lorraine for the part they have taken. For as I see the picture of a year ago I compair it with a picture of menny years ago when a little shaver went to heard sheep for his uncle for $16.00 per month, wearing one boot and one shoe. And when we left here a year ago we all felt that if we could slide by the first year, the second year would see some relief, and so you have gone to without a murmur, and now only to realize aditional disapointments await us. But these are things that faid (while they are good as a means to an end) But things as I have mentioned are things that live on and on, and while we may be put to the test I know we shall not be forsaken as long as we remember to keep and do His biddings He whos birthday we celebrate on the 25th So when we see the real things of life predominating had not the Xma Spirit permate the very air we breath. How I wish the little groop down there could join us at Elna, Then it would seem compleet -But self desires again must step aside. And as I supose mamma told you all that is new I must close for this time with a Merry Christmas to all; and dont forget to write soon.
Im as ever your father,

Jas. B. Wasden

(Note written by Patsy Sorensen, wife of Julian Sorensen) By way of explanation, Orvil was Grandma Lucinda's brother. He was three years older than Lucinda and they were very close. He died in a house fire as a young married husband and father. These are a few of the thoughts that Lucinda wrote down.)

"Orvil liked good books, good music, good movies and any thing that ran by motor. One Sunday afternoon, out of sheer boredom and with Dad's grudging permission, we drove the old Model T to Powell. The tires were thin and the trip turned out to be a hilarious race to see how far we could go between blow-outs. The tubes were well covered with patches and our supply of patching almost depleted by the time we got home.

Many winter nites when the moon was bright and the temperature often as low as 40 degrees below zero, we would hitch Jack and Mike to the flat sled and go visit some of the neighbors - or if that was too much trouble, we set off on foot across the fields.

During haying season, if Dad was not able to help, we would get up about 4 a.m., harness and hitch up the horses and get a load of hay - Orvil pitching on, and me on the wagon - before chore time and breakfast. Those early morning conversations covered a wide range of subjects (including an appreciation for the beautiful sunrises), serious, frivolous and I'm sure - even silly, punctuated with a fair amount of giggling.

One of our favorite sports was "breaking up the setting hens." If you remember the long bridge across the ditch at the corner of Grandpa's lot - that's where the deed was done - and surprisingly with Grandma's blessing, though she didn't expect us to go quite as far as we did at times. In the early summer the laying chickens would decide that one of the nests in the chicken coop was their exclusive property and would sit there indefinitely, laying an egg each in hopes of satisfying their maternal instincts by hatching out their eggs. Needless to say... "
(unfortunately the tale ends there and I haven't been able to find the 'rest of the story' as Paul Harvey used to say.) Maybe someone from the Blood family can finish the tale for us.

Six Blood Children of Russell and Minnie Blood: at Dad's Funeral 1993

2011-05-15T16:27:00.001-06:00

The resolution on this camera isn't very good, but the photos might have some historical relevance. From left to right, Steve, Ann, Judy, Elizabeth, Dwight, and Louise

Mother's Day Remembrance

2011-05-08T15:35:00.001-06:00

I see strawberry runners in the foreground, gladiolus to the right and in the far distance next to the tractor rows of summer garden vegetables. And Mother with her home sewn jeans with elastic around the waist for a classy fit, and a long sleeved, tail out shirt is surveying her world. In this garden in Tumwater, WA or the gardens in Ralston, or Penrose what plant would dare not to grow under her watchful eye.
For that matter, which of her children, dared not to grow and achieve as we lived, also under her loving care. I find it harder to grow without the gardener, but comforting to remember earlier feeding and pruning.

James Preston Hawkins

2011-05-05T09:50:00.001-06:00

This unidentified photo has been in the "unknown" collection of old family photos. A year or so ago, strictly by deduction, Shannon and I came to the conclusion that it "might" be James Preston Hawins, our g-g-g-grandfather, (Roscoe Blood, Sarah Batty Hawkins Blood, James Preston Hawkins). Yesterday, Steven Lukins, also a direct line of J.P. Hawkins, forwarded the same picture with the following: "The picture was labeled by Myrtle as James Preston Hawkins her grandfather. " Now we have positive identification. Welcome, James Preston Hawkins to the family gallery.

Giles Hawkins and the Revolutionary War

2011-04-25T09:43:00.000-06:00

Shannon found the following information concerning our direct line (gggg-grandfather). Something good to read.

On 2 MAR 1833, Giles HAWKINS went before the JP of Jessamine CO., KY and stated that he was born inFrederic Co., MD on 15 MAR 1755. An Act of Congress had been passed the previous year to grant benefits to veterans of the Revolution.

He stated that shortly after the Declaration of Independence had been signed, the government learned that there was a preconcerted plan of the British with the Indians. They planned to distress the frontiers of the US. with a combined chain of hostilities from the west side of Georgia on to the outer or northwest edges of the Carolinas, the western part of VA and the NW part of PA., to the lakes oif Canada, and had actually commenced hostilities by the Cherokee Indians and others who were at that time distressing the people living on Holston River in the state of VA.

So the government ordered an army to be raised to go against the aforesaid Indians, by draft or volunteers to serve as militia or soldiers. He moved from the state of MD to Bedford Co., VA, and on 1 SEP 1776 he was called on by his captain to serve a tour of duty in the militia. for six months, and turned out a volunteer in the militia, and served the tour under Capt. Christopher Irvine, Lt. Jas Rupert and Col. Christian, commandant of the regiment, he went in and marched with Bedford Co., VA, against the Cherokee Indians and others along the SW part of VA on the Holston River.

On their march, while still 3 -4 miles from the Holston River, they passed the battleground where the Indians and their men had a skirmish, and saw the remains of several dead Indians on the ground. After passing the Long Islands, they joined with NC militia or troops. Then they marched on the Indian town and burnt up everything. The commanding officers offered the Indians terms of peace, but only some of them would accept the terms, so after waiting some time, the army received orders to return home, and started out.

They proceeded on the march until arriving on the Long Island in the Holston River. There they were overtaken by an Express bearing a flag from the Indians who had before refused the terms offered them. The army was stationed there until peace was ratified with the Cherokes and the US. On his return home to Bedford Co., he was discharged, which discharge he has either lost or mislaid, and could not find it.

He further stated that he removed from Bedford Co. to Botetourt Co., VA, where he was again called on in the fall of the year, 1781 - 1782, to go against the British , and turned out as a volunteer in the militia of the US to defend the Lead Mines on New River, in the state of VA. They marched toward the mines, and when they arrived near them, they received intelligence that the British had withdrawn their forces from the community. So they returned home and were discharged.

He then moved to KY until the time he appeared in court. He relinquished every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the current one, and declared that his name is not on the pension roll of any agency of KY or any other state.

Jacob Rohrer, a clergyman living in Jessamine Co., KY and James Noonan certified that they were well acquainted with Giles, that he is 77 years old, that he had been reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he lives to have been a soldier of the Revolution . Then the JP, Thomas Butler, certified that Rohrer was a clergyman of Jessamine and that Noonan was a respectable citizen of the county and that both had sworn to him for the county.

Sounds of Home

2011-04-23T14:35:00.001-06:00

Sometimes it is a sight, sometimes it is a smell and sometimes it is a sound that takes us back to the love of our Penrose home. I captured this sound this morning to share with you on this lovely sunshine day.

Do Not Disturb: Wisdom is Incubating Here

2011-04-23T10:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday. You are being made well to take care of your flock.

Happy Birthday, Judy

2011-04-23T09:20:00.002-06:00

The pictures taken of Judy at Ralston are the earliest that I know of. I always loved this picture (there are two of the same subject, but this one shows more of Mother). The saggy brown socks, which Louise and I suffered through, the helmet cap (warm) with Judy's blonde hair peeking out, the happy grin on Judy's face, which reflects Judy's sunny outlook on life, all are a reflection of this time. I don't remember much of anything negative about Judy - and I was five when she was born. Her ability to have fun helped me to lighten up a lot ("I know a dark secluded place - It's called Hernando's Hideaway), as we sang and played through a lot of situations. She was the guardian of the troublesome (sometimes) duo of Ann and Steve, who could be full of mischief.
The big wind almost blew Steve away, and also blew over a huge cottonwood tree at Emmy's. I got out Dwight's old Baby Brownie Kodak, and took pictures of kids climbing on and sitting in the tree. Doesn't she look innocent? I put a "halo" around her just to prove that point. Now, Judy, you have grown up to be very wise about many things, and to know how to get answers to questions by your patient insights into the rest of your family and our extended family. You do make our life more complete and joyful. Love to you on this birthday.

Elizabeth and Ron

2011-04-22T09:02:00.000-06:00

Another delightful couple. I stole this picture from Sonja's Facebook. The photo was taken at Denton's wedding in March at Bosie. They are cute, aren't they?

Love This Picture

2011-04-21T20:13:00.000-06:00

Just wondering who these two kids are. Pretty good looking couple who are far from beet fields and coal cinders. This was buried in the pictures that Dwight shared with me some time ago. I'm stealing it now.

Going After the Cows and a Lifelong Munchie Habit

2011-04-20T17:03:00.000-06:00

Has anyone besides me acquired a lifelong habit of needing a few munchies or goodies to take with you when you go on a walk or for an errand? My wife asked me where I got this compulsive behavior of thinking I needed something to suck on, chew on, or eat when I leave the house. I explained that it came from going after the cows. When we lived in Ralston during WWII, the cows pastured on a boggy field by the canal just above our home. We had to go up the lane near the ditch rider's house, open a wire gate, collect the cows, and drive them home. Since it was summer, we found a lot of what we took with us to eat from the garden. At various times, I remember plums, sand cherries, and carrots. We didn't have much candy in the kitchen cupboards, but usually there was a bag of hard lemon drops and maybe another variety once in awhile. In Penrose, Eliz was promoted to chief cow collector and she became the expert, although I do remember going a few times. Before I went, I had to find something to eat on the way. Now I have a bigger variety of options for goodies, but every time I go I remember going after the cows. And that is why I look for something to munch on before I leave the house.

Family pictures in Olympia in 1981

2011-04-19T09:41:00.001-06:00

Tanner family

These pictures are the end of the pictures I took in Olympia on the day of Mother's funeral. We all searched within ourselves for a shred of humor and lightheartedness to ease the burden we all faced that day. I had to fly home immediately afterward because I had to start teaching at BYU on the first day of school the next day and we had just barely accepted the position there and moved to Utah. I still have many questions to ask Mother and even a gripe or two. She wrote me a letter every week of my struggles to get through college working nights and going to school days. These letters bolstered and supported me more than any financial help they might have given me but were unable to do. Some times her pen or pencil drifted off the page of the letter late at night while she was writing but it was always waiting for Ezra the mailman the next day to begin its journey to Laramie and help me keep going another week. And then another. And then she came to my graduation from the University of Wyoming in 1953 a degree she earned no less than I.

Bloods and Wasdens in Olympia 1981

2011-04-18T09:47:00.000-06:00

Shannon and Ross

Sheryl, baby, and Dad

The Wasden siblings, minus David: Sofe, Brooks, Elna, and Cindy

Steve

A contest for captioning this photo

More Family in Olympia 1981

2011-04-15T10:14:00.000-06:00

Lorraine and Brooks

Lorraine and Cindy

Louise and Verne

Dwight, doing what he was trained to do

Petersen Family Photos 1981

2011-04-14T20:19:00.000-06:00

Just a few more of these photos from Olympia in 1981.

Polly Hawkins

2011-04-14T09:55:00.000-06:00

Polly is very possibly a sister to our Giles Hawkins. Shannon discovered this info in her "search". It is located on Wikipedia. It is good to know that the women were courageous and did good work.

"Bryan Station (also Bryan's Station, and often misspelled Bryant's Station) was an early fortified settlement in Lexington, Kentucky. It was located on present-day Bryan Station Road, about three miles (5 km) north of New Circle Road, on the southern bank of Elkhorn Creek near Briar Hill Road.

The settlement was established circa 1775-76 by brothers Morgan, James, William and Joseph Bryan from North Carolina. The occupants of this parallelogram of some forty log cabins withstood several American Indian attacks. The most important occurred in August 1782 during the American Revolutionary War, when they were besieged by about 300 Shawnee Indians and British Canadians under Captain William Caldwell and Simon Girty. The attackers lifted the siege after Indian scouts reported that a force of Kentucky militia was on the way. The militiamen pursued Caldwell's force but were defeated three days later at the Battle of Blue Licks, about 60 miles (100 km) northeast.

The Lexington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a monument in August 1896 to commemorate the importance of a nearby spring in helping preserve the fort from the attack by Indians and Canadians. The pioneer women, led by Mary "Polly" Hawkins Craig (wife of "Traveling Church" patriarch Toliver Craig, Sr.), fetched water from the spring to defend against the use of burning arrows by the attackers. If the fort had burned, the attackers could have reached the women and children sheltering there.

WHAT IT WAS

2011-04-13T05:54:00.000-06:00

Judy was kind enough to post the finished piece, this is what we started with.

Steve's New Work

2011-04-12T19:02:00.000-06:00

I am hoping that if I post the first picture, that Steve will post the rest and tell the story. Isn't this BEAUTIFUL?

Family Photos from Olympia 1981

2011-04-12T10:12:00.000-06:00

Verne and Elizabeth

Aunt Lorraine Wasden, Elizabeth, Louise, and Velna

Elna, Dad, Cindy, Norman, Sofe, Joleen: Mom's album held many memories

Aunt Lorraine and Louise

Judy, Louise, Robert, and Benjamin, Olympia 1981

2011-04-11T12:47:00.001-06:00

Family at Olympia 1981

2011-04-08T07:33:00.000-06:00

Four Wasden Siblings: Sofe, Brooks, Elna, and Cindy

2011-04-07T10:55:00.000-06:00

Elna and Russell Olympia 1981

2011-04-06T17:36:00.002-06:00

Elizabeth and Judy 1981 Olympia

2011-04-05T16:07:00.000-06:00

Tanner Family, Olympia, 1981

2011-03-31T12:16:00.000-06:00

See? I was right!

Kristen and Laura Tanner 1981 Olympia

2011-03-31T00:19:00.002-06:00

Kristen Tanner 1981 Olympia

2011-03-30T13:01:00.000-06:00