Thursday, July 11, 2019
It is summer in Tucson, today it was something like 107 degrees.
I escaped the heat for six days, flew to Traverse City to see the siblings and attend the 40th anniversary meeting of the genealogy society.
So green. And rainy. A pleasant change. The wild irises were blooming down at Susan's little pond.
Tombstone.
Afterward I stopped by the Almira Historical Society. They have a picture of my great great grandfather on the wall. He was the first postmaster.
Calico and Joey.
If I didn't have Ruby here I would have brought them back. They were so cute and their mother didn't seem particularly interested in them.
Dam remnants.
My brother has the barn that Grandpa and Uncle Ray made for us for Christmas in 1970. It survived the fire that he had at the house a few years ago.
Barn.
I had to say goodbye to the kittens.
Allen and the students made this room.
I discovered my air mattress has a hole in it. Very uncomfortable sleeping on the ground.
Flower.
I bought peaches and Matt bought a huge bunch of produce, including mangoes, and I made chutney. It came out good.
Peach-mango chutney.
And last Friday Ruby got her genitals altered, so no more messy periods! She has another week of the cone of shame.
Well that's the way it is, just like Walter used to say.
I escaped the heat for six days, flew to Traverse City to see the siblings and attend the 40th anniversary meeting of the genealogy society.
So green. And rainy. A pleasant change. The wild irises were blooming down at Susan's little pond.
Wild iris.
We stopped to remove a snapping turtle from the road near her house. It was not happy and I had to coax it off with my shoe. It really wanted to bite me.
Snapper.
I slept in the Jenny Lind bed that had belonged to Ebenezer and Harriet (Bessey) Fillmore. They died in the early 1890s.
Fillmore bed.
We went down to my Amish brother's farm and I got to collect eggs one afternoon. They came in various colors.
Eggs.
His oxen GMO was very friendly. He likes head scratches.
GMO
I went to the family cemetery. My parents' ashes are buried next to Grandpa and Grandma F. There are now four generations of my family there. I cried some. It just seemed weird.
Afterward I stopped by the Almira Historical Society. They have a picture of my great great grandfather on the wall. He was the first postmaster.
Elijah Leland Ransom.
In between these events I was at the area and college libraries reading through newspapers, finding stories about the World War II soldiers from the region who died during the war.
One day as I headed to the library, I stopped to remove another turtle from the road. As I lifted it up an immense stream of urine shot out, all over my leg.
Ungrateful.
My brother has two sets of kittens in the barn. The older ones are very wild. The younger ones are too young to know better. Susan and I got milk for them to fill their little tummies.
Calico and Joey.
I washed Joey's dirty face.
They were so sweet and little Joey would purr when I petted her.
Babies.
Susan and I went through the woods to see the site of Elijah Ransom's millsite, where he had a grist mill in 1866 through 1892. There are two dams, both busted through with Ransom Creek running past. In the creek bed in one area you could still see timbers from the mill.
My brother has the barn that Grandpa and Uncle Ray made for us for Christmas in 1970. It survived the fire that he had at the house a few years ago.
I had to say goodbye to the kittens.
Sleepy.
I got back to Arizona on Friday. On Sunday I drove to New Mexico to teach historical archaeology to the field school students. Ruby came with me.
Adventure.
The students enjoyed the lesson, which involved fitting broken dishes together and figuring out which household a bag of artifacts came from.
I discovered my air mattress has a hole in it. Very uncomfortable sleeping on the ground.
I bought peaches and Matt bought a huge bunch of produce, including mangoes, and I made chutney. It came out good.
And last Friday Ruby got her genitals altered, so no more messy periods! She has another week of the cone of shame.
Sexless Ruby.
Well that's the way it is, just like Walter used to say.
