Corn Day

Last Saturday was "corn day." Each spring we have the guy who plants our field corn for us, plant several rows of sweet corn as well. Then we choose one day when we think the majority of it is ready and invite family to help. We spend the most part of the day, picking, husking, silking, cutting, and bagging the corn for the freezer. At the end of the day, each family goes home happy with enough corn to last them for the coming year. Of course it is a lot of work, but I really like getting it all done in one day. Corn is sticky and messy and I would just as soon have all the mess contained in one day, so I only have to clean up once.

 

Family members that helped this year were Dad & Mom, Shawn & Awstin (Melissa was working), Jay, Kristen, Alexis, Lydia & Mark, and Megan, Steve and myself. Now granted, the grandkids didn't help but they were all really good and entertained themselves very well. Unfortunately, my hands were usually sticky, so I didn't take many pictures. Looking back, I wish I would have gotten some of us cutting the corn off the cob. Mom, Kristen, Shawn & I did that job. Megan and Jay took care of boiling and cooling the corn, and Steve & Dad picked, husked and silked most of it.

 

We didn't count but we figure we did between 80 and 90 dozen. We filled the wagon (pictured above) twice and guessed that each wagon load held about 40 dozen. It was a busy day, but with so many people helping it went smoothly. It always feels good to put the containers and kettles away and know that I won't need them again for another year.

 

Nothing makes men happier than to figure out a more "efficient" way to do tasks that we women have done the same way for years. Here, Steve is setting up a cooling system for the corn. Why would you want to use the sink?

 

Dad and Steve faithfully silked most of the second wagon of corn. I don't think they enjoyed it, but being able to discuss and solve many of the world's problems made it bearable :)

It was a fun and productive day and I now have plenty of corn in the freezer to last me until next summer when we do it all again.

2014 Denlinger Reunion

On Sunday we hosted a reunion for my siblings and their children and grandchildren. This reunion is one that I wondered how well would be attended since it is the third one since Dad died and it always seems that once the final parent dies, the reunions tend to fizzle out as well. To my surprise and delight everyone that lived within driving distance and that wasn't on vacation came. We had a total of 28 adults and 24 children for a grand total of 52 people! As you can imagine it was quite lively and everywhere you looked there were children running around with adults keeping an eye on them. The oldest great-grandchild is 16 and the youngest (twins) are nine months. There were nine children between the ages of 6 and 12 (and 2 older ones) and thirteen between the ages of 0 and 5. Another fun fact for our family is that we now have three sets of twins!  My two oldest siblings (Les & Lois) are twins and my nieces Kate and Carrie both have twins (ages 2 1/2 years and 9 months, respectively).

 

Since there were so many children, Megan and I put together some games to do with them. We did the traditional "drop the clothespin", "throw the beanbag", "ring the lollipop", relays, and peanut scramble. She also organized a scavenger hunt for the older children and I planned one for those five and under. Well, mine didn't really turn out like I had planned, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the games because it is a little difficult to take pictures when you are the one leading the activity, but by all appearances the little ones seemed to enjoy themselves. Probably the biggest hit was the barrel train which as long as there was a willing driver, there were kids waiting in line to ride.

 

I tried to get pictures of as many people as I could, but in my zeal to snap ones of relatives who I don't see very often, I missed taking any of my own children! The only one of my children (and daughters-in-law) who is on a picture is Megan. Alexis and Lydia show up in one of the barrel train and Mark made the corner of another, but there is none of Awstin. I promise my family was all there, I just don't have the pictures to prove it!

 

The boy in the red shirt in the yellow car and the one in the blue car are twins (Drew & Colten) The other two children are their brother and sister, Gavin & Angie. They are my  niece Kate's children.

 

My brother Gene is in the red car with his grandson Isaac. It looks like the children are enjoying the ride more then Gene!

 

Here are the 9 month old twins, Micah & Naomi. They are the children of my niece, Carrie. Isaac is their big brother.

 

My nephew Chet with his daughter, Claire. My sister-in-law Marilyn is on the other seat.

 

We named the pavilion in memory of my parents :)

Red barrel - Zachary (Duane's), yellow - Sierra (Duane's) & Katie (Brian's), green - Kira (Brian's) & Jayna (Duane's), Blue - Clara (Rachel's)



 

 Driver - Joseph (oldest great grandchild (Rachel's), red - Katie & Sierra, yellow - Alexis & Lydia, green - Jayna, blue - Kyle (Brian's)

 

What are you doing Jeremy?



 

I guess whatever is was, Megan didn't like it :)

 

My niece Rachel and her daughters, Emma (looking in bag) and Clara (in pink chair). Steve is talking to my nephew Brian. My nephews Duane and Steve are in the back.



 

Left to right - Kristina (Duane's wife), my niece Kendra, my niece Kate, Renita (Brian's wife).  The two children are Kate's

 

My two oldest nephews, Duane and Steve catching up with each other (Duane is 2 weeks older). Emma (Rachel's daughter) is in front.

 

Zachary shows us how to use a hammock!

 On the left are my nephew Steve's sons, Ethan and Lucas. On the right is Abigail (Rachel's)

 

Alexis is carrying the bucket, Gavin is following. Mark is off to the right pushing the swing.

 

My siblings decided the barrel train looked like fun. They discovered it wasn't easy to get in and out!

Lined up according to age - youngest to oldest, Me, Glen, Gene, Les, Lois

I really like this one

I didn't get the memo that I was to wear red :)

 

With our spouses (l-r) Marilyn, Glen, Lois, Jim, Marian, Les, Rhoda, Gene, Me, Steve

It was so nice to see everyone. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, the laughter was contagious, and the smiles of the children were priceless.

My Secret Weapon

I am going to confess a secret: I do not like gardening in any way, shape or form!  I have always felt guilty about this. When other women write on their blogs about their beautiful flower gardens and their bounteous vegetable gardens and how they love the feel of the earth on their hands, I cringe. I hate the feel of the soil on my hands and when it gets underneath my fingernails it actually makes me shiver and I can't wait to get to some water to wash the dirt off. I have often wondered how the same activity can be loved by some people and loathed by others.

As you can imagine, growing up among Mennonites, this is not a popular side of the fence to be on. Mennonite women are renowned for their spectacular and immaculate gardens--both flower and vegetable. While I do not mind the canning and freezing part, the actual planting, weeding and harvesting of the produce, is something I dislike immensely. Of course, I love and enjoy beautiful flowers and look with envy on woman who so easily throw this and that together and come up with a gorgeous display of lovely annuals and perennials that take your breath away. But, it just doesn't come easy for me and I have often despaired over my weedy gardens and lack of flower knowledge.

Over the years I have learned to compensate for my gardening shortcomings. I keep my flower gardens very small, I use gloves to weed so I don't feel the dirt, and I really don't have a vegetable garden. I just plant a couple tomato and pepper plants. I have reduced my flowers to just a few around the side and back of the house. Here is a picture of one that I have this year. (I didn't notice that piece of plastic when I took the picture.) As you can see, it is quite simple and I like it that way.

However, the best thing that ever happened to me was three years ago. That year I was introduced to what I refer to as "my secret weapon." Usually several times throughout the summer, Steve would hook up his big sprayer on the back of the four wheeler and spray weed killer on parts of our property (a catch basin, a drainage ditch) that always grow up with unsightly weeds. As I struggled to pull the weeds from my gardens, I wondered if I could just eliminate the flowers, put mulch down and spray weed killer on it to keep anything from growing. Steve obligingly gave me my own little sprayer and filled a large container with the deadly Roundup and marked it "death by Mom." I was delighted. Now instead of pulling those irritating weeds, I just spray them and in a few days they are dead and unless you look really close you can't see that anything ever grew there. Over the past couple of years, I have eliminated most of my previous flower plots and have just mulched and sprayed them instead. Here is a picture of the fence that goes down our lane that I used to always try to keep lined with flowers.

I imagine that a lot of people look at that picture and think, "what a shame. There should be beautiful flowers the whole length of that fence." But you know what? I am happy. It's as though a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. My family sees the difference and remarks about it. They are always making fond comments about "Mom and her death bottle," and how they see me about the property spraying this and that. The truth is, they love it because I am content. Other years they put up with my complaining and whining about all the weeding I had to do, and how nothing looked nice around the yard and now they have a satisfied mother and wife. You know how the saying goes, "if mom ain't happy, ain't no one happy."

 

I suppose I will always look at other people's lovely flower gardens with a slight tinge of envy. However, I no longer try to keep up. Instead I am satisfied to enjoy the beautiful landscapes that others create and to compliment them on their creativity. I know that God has given me other gifts and talents and instead of being miffed about the green thumb that I wasn't given, I will cheerfully pick up my little spray bottle and head out with my secret weapon that allows me to keep ahead of the never ending battle of weeds.

Awstin Is One Year Old!

Today is Awstin's first birthday! What a cute and fun little guy he is. I really enjoy keeping him every Wednesday and even though I've seen it plenty of times in my life, it still amazes me how much a little person learns in one short year. He is almost walking and he likes to try to mimic words that you say. Right now his favorite word is "uh oh." He is a busy little guy and loves to clean out drawers, play with anything that has tires or makes noise and he is thrilled when he can climb stairs. He has even learned how to turn around at the top and come down backwards.

We celebrated his birthday last Saturday when we were together as a family. Melissa bought a cupcake for him and he was a little puzzled with all the attention and unsure at first of the sweet that was placed before him. He started tentatively but as you can see from the pictures, he gets more aggressive with it and is soon covered with sticky frosting. The funniest thing was when Kristen asked him, "where's Awstin?" (When anyone asks him that he puts both hands on his head--I think he is trying to cover his eyes, but he misses and just smacks his head.) He promptly put both icing covered hands on the top of his head. It was hilarious!



Here is the happy birthday video. I stopped it a little early, but I wanted to get some still pictures of him too, so I elected to cut the video short.

 

He's not sure what to think.

 

He's wondering why Mommy and Grandma keep taking pictures of him.

 

Here is where Kristen said, "where's Awstin?"

 

Covered!

Happy sticky boy!

 

With his presents

 

I took this video last Wednesday of him and Grandpa.

Happy birthday Awstin!

2014 Family Day

Each summer we try to find a day to just be together as a family. It certainly gets to be a challenge to find a date that suits everyone, but we all managed to make it work this past Saturday.

 

We started out the day with breakfast at the house. After that everyone but Kristen and me and the grandkids tried their hand at golfing. While they were honing their golf skills, Kristen and I took the kids to Cherry Crest Farm. This is such a great place to take small children and we had a wonderful time.

 

Around mid afternoon we all met together again back at the house, and had a birthday party for Awstin who will turn 1 on the 12th (I'll post some pictures on his birthday). Then we just relaxed until late afternoon. Quite a few went down to the "park" and the children had a great time splashing in the creek. Alexis and Lydia were excited to inform me that they caught one black salamander. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of it, as I used this time to clean up the house a little bit :)

 

In the evening we went to a Lancaster Barnstormer's game. We purchased picnic area tickets and I would highly recommend this for anyone that takes small children to a game. There was plenty of room for them to run around and they didn't have to sit in a small seat. Instead we enjoyed eating Hess' Barbecue at picnic tables with a fantastic view of the game. The kids also loved the play area that the ball park has for children to enjoy.

Here is the day in pictures:

 

I love family days!