Mudday... I mean Wednesday

We woke up Wednesday morning to rain... It wasn't pouring, but it was definitely wet out. I made myself wait until 8:30 to call JM (my cousin)... I was hoping she'd remember my phone call of a week or so before, and have time to get together with us.

She did, and she did... so the kids and I quickly packed up and headed back to Greeley Center.

JM gave me directions for getting to her house (she lives in town) and they were definitely not what I'm used to pulling up on mapquest... The directions I wrote down went something like this: "Follow the highway north to the old Scotia Road, turn there, go up a hill and turn again on the other side of the curve. My house is the first one on the other side of the trailer and the empty bins."  The directions included only one highway number,  and no road numbers, street names or her address.

I was confident as I set off though, and except for a little confusion about which "Scotia Rd" I should turn on (she wasn't talking about the road identified on the highway as leading to Scotia, she was talking about another one...) I found her house easily. JM was lovely, warm and welcoming, and since M and R had been forewarned earlier about the need for "best behavior", they sat quietly in her living room giving JM and I the opportunity to look over the wealth of information she has about our family history. She has MUCH more than I had and several times I had to ask her to stop and explain how certain people were related, or what year we were talking about.

Before long it was lunchtime and we all went to a great little cafe in town for lunch and more conversation. JM, who has lived in town all her life, and is descended from pioneer families on both sides, knew everyone of course... there were a couple of curious glances toward us, but no one asked who we were. (I was guessing though that us being in town was "news" to a minor degree... While we were at JM's house, she got two phone calls... each time, after saying hello, she answered in response to a question the caller asked "Yes, they are here now..".)

I'm pretty sure we were "they".

After lunch we headed over to the sheriff's office to make copies of some of JM's family history papers... It took a long time so M and I (R didn't want to come in) visited with the dispatcher (I'm guessing that's her job) and her brother, and one of the deputies, and a few other people who wandered through. When MM, the dispatcher, heard that we were going out to the homestead she told us to be careful not to get stuck in the mud. She asked if I was used to driving on dirt roads... and I said yes, we live on a dirt road and would be fine.

My mother would have called those "famous last words".

After finishing up the copies and looking at a small historical display in the courthouse (where the sheriff's office is), we decided to make a quick trip to the cemetery and then head out to the homestead. JM joked that we'd better visit the cemetery first, just in case we got stuck trying to get to the homestead and couldn't get back.



The cemetery was quiet and beautiful, and the rain had stopped some time before, so we all got out and visited my great-grandparent's grave.

(This picture was taken on a different, sunny, day.)



My great-grandparents had 11 children and all lived to adulthood except one... Augustine... who only lived 10 months. I was especially moved by the stone they put up for him. It's, by far, the oldest one in our family area of the cemetery and I was glad I got to see it and make a rubbing.





Next stop was the homestead, and I couldn't wait to get there! We headed south from town a ways, then west on a dirt road. My car was doing fine, there was gravel on the road and it really wasn't all that muddy (our neighborhood gets much worse during rain storms). I was feeling pretty good (and somewhat underestimated) as we turned south... the car was still moving along well... and JM pointed west and said we might be able to see the homestead across that cornfield. We looked carefully and did find what looked a tiny gray building (or buildings) a mile or so away... It was so foggy though that we couldn't get a good view of them.

(Here is the homestead as seen from across the cornfield, it's the tiny gray building just to the left of center. This picture was not taken Weds, it had been too foggy to get a good photo of it then.)



We drove south for a mile or so (going around the perimeter of the cornfield) then JM told me to take a right onto a different dirt road. Unfortunately, this road didn't have any gravel on it... and it was down in a bit of a hollow... and there were two pieces of barbed wire laying across it. As soon as I turned the corner, I knew this was too muddy for my car, and started to tell JM that I thought we were going to have to turn around. At the same time I saw the barbed wire and tried to steer around it (BIG mistake)... I realized how big a mistake this was when I felt my back tires slipping in the deeper mud on the side of the road and we slid sideways off the road and the car stopped.

I wasn't too stressed at first, I'd just back up (or pull forward) or something and get moving again. The mud was just a couple of inches deep... it couldn't be that hard to get out.

I tried to go backwards first. I tried so hard to back up that the tires were flunging mud all the way over the top of the car and splattering it on the windshield and hood.

Then I tried to go frontwards and only managed to slip closer to the newly plowed cornfield I was sitting on the edge of.

Hmmm... now this was a problem. M was falling apart in the back seat, and I was trying to calm him down before he did something that scared JM. (Being stuck in a vehicle with M when he's out of control can be VERY scary!) I considered walking out, but JM uses a cane and there was no way she could walk, through the mud, the few miles back to the nearest road (that is traveled)... and I didn't think anyone was likely to drive by for days... at least.. so sitting and waiting for help wasn't a good option either.

I picked up my cell phone and asked JM who would be a good person to call. At first she didn't believe I was really stuck, but finally told me I should probably call the sheriff's office and get D's number and he could probably pull us out.

She gave me the sheriff's number and I picked up my cell phone only to find I had no service. (A pox on verizon, it never has service when I really need it!) Luckily JM's phone had service, so I called the number she gave me.

Unfortunately, it was the bank... not the sheriff.

I asked for D's number anyway... (It's a small town, I figured they knew him).. but they didn't have it. They did give me the sheriff's number though.

I called the sheriff and MM answered. I told her who I was and said that we were stuck in the mud.

She said, "You're kidding, right?"

I said no but I wished I was...

She said she wasn't sure where D was but she'd see if she could find him and she'd send him over as soon as she could. Then she asked where we were...

I'd only been in Greeley a few hours but I already knew I could answer that question without knowing a single road number or street name. I told her we'd turned off on the road that goes to H's place, then headed south and were now on the south edge of a newly plowed corn field.

She said she knew just where we were, and that D would be there shortly.

Sure enough D was there within about 15 minutes... with a big Ford truck and an even bigger grin on his face as he looked at my poor minivan stuck in the mud.  He pulled us backwards, then pulled us forwards, and the mud flew around like crazy...and finally we were out... with the only damage done being the churned up mess that had been the road.

We followed D's truck back to town to his shop. I asked what I owed him and he said nothing.

I had to talk him into taking anything at all...



It was getting late in the afternoon by then, so we dropped JM off at home with plenty of thanks and sorrys (for putting her through such a wild afternoon!) and we headed back to St Paul.

I was very disappointed not to have been able to make it to the homestead...  I'd come so far to go there, and to be so close but not be able to get to it was hard. My mood was a perfect match to the gray and overcast day.

We grabbed a quick dinner in St Paul, went back to the motel, and the kids got ready for bed and settled down for a Hannah Montana marathon on the Disney channel...

I fell asleep long before they did.

The beginning of the trip...

... was dicey, and honestly... the trip itself almost didn't happen.

I always have to work around M's weekly blood draw, I must be at home for that, so I'd planned to draw blood on Monday... our regular blood draw day... quickly get his prescription refilled (which can't be done without the blood draw) and be ready to leave first thing Tuesday morning.

But the weather wasn't looking good... We were under a winter storm watch with up to 18" of snow possible Tuesday night into Wednesday. I knew we could beat the snow if we left Tuesday morning... but was it fair to Joe to leave him to take care of all the animals, with a big snow on the way? The snow was supposed to be heavy and wet, and Joe would have to shovel his way out to the barn to be able to feed. The thought of him here, alone, shoveling a ton of heavy snow made me nervous.

He reassured me that he'd be fine... but we decided he'd feed Murphy and Tucker extra Tuesday night, and... if need be... wait until the worst of the storm was over before going out to the barn on Wednesday.

(I don't normally advocate not feeding my animals regularly... but thought it was a better plan than Joe dropping dead trying to shovel a heavy spring snow!)

Something else was making me nervous though too, and wondering if we should stay home... It was M. He'd been not-so-stable the week before the trip, and his stomach still wasn't right. I wondered how he'd ever manage all the hours in the car, the new places, different foods, etc.

After thinking about it though, I decided I had to go. If I waited for the perfect time for the trip, I'd never go. So come hell or high water...or snow storms, tornado warnings (yes, there was one of those along the route too), psychiatric instability, or GI problems... we were leaving Tuesday early.

The trip out was long... I was trying to beat the bad weather, so we just drove straight through...  stopping as little as possible. It was hard to speed right on by all the neat little museums we passed along the way... and I tried to remember the ones that looked especially interesting, hoping we could stop on the way back home again.

We took highway 76 through northeastern Colorado, then picked up US 80 heading east. It followed the Platte River for miles upon miles, and it was just beautiful... everything looked so green compared to home. Our pastures are just now starting to green up, and nothing here was blooming when we left.

We had originally planned to stay in Kearney that night, but things were going so well that we decided to just keep going. We made it to Grand Island by early afternoon and turned north... heading for St Paul (Nebraska, not Minnesota), the closest town to the homestead that had a motel.

As we drove through Grand Island, I talked to the kids about their great-great-grandfather walking all the way there from the homestead (about 50 miles), to work. It was hard to imagine making the 50 mile walk he made to see his family back at the homestead... sometimes he even stopped in St Paul, about the halfway point, to pick up a bag of flour... carrying it the rest of the way home on his shoulder.

Once we got to St Paul, the plan was to check in to our motel, find some dinner, and just relax for the rest of the evening... I thought we'd wait and go the rest of the way into Greeley the next day (Weds.).

It would have been the sensible thing to do...

But I'm not known for being sensible, and I just couldn't wait... We were only 25 miles from the homestead, and although I knew I couldn't find it by myself, I really, really wanted to drive up there... to see the land and the town.

So...after we found our motel and checked in, grabbed something to eat at a little diner in town, and with M grumbling and insisting he couldn't manage another minute in the car... we got back in the car and headed north again.

It was still light, and the evening was overcast.. and there was a soft mist in the air. I thought a lot about my great-grandparents as I drove. They were both immigrants from Ireland, my great-grandfather arrived in 1870, married my great-grandmother in 1871, and they lived in Boston for awhile before deciding to head west in 1877. The land I drove through was exceptionally beautiful... soft rolling hills, some partially hidden in fog, tiny ponds dotting the low areas... with deep green patches of trees keeping them company...



I wondered if it had reminded my great-grandparents a little of Ireland.



I wondered if that was part of the reason why they stayed... working so hard to farm the land and help settle the area.

As we got close to the town (a village really) I wondered if any of the land we were passing through had been part of the homestead. I took pictures, but didn't stop...

We got to the town, and as we drove through the village of Greeley Center, I was impressed by what a nice tidy little place it is. It's still a living, vibrant community... I was happy to see that it didn't have the gray, small-town-on-it's-way-out atmosphere that so many tiny towns in the midwest seem to struggle with... with their blocks of boarded up buildings, vacant lots overgrown with weeds and soda cans, and an almost palpable sense of hopelessness about the future hovering over it all.

No, Greeley Center was different, and the difference was clear from the first sign on the highway...



I was hoping JM, my long lost cousin, wasn't one of the "crabs" ;).

We didn't stop anywhere, or stay in town very long (M was still griping about how he couldn't stand one more second in the car, and I know not to push my luck tooooo far!), so after just a few minutes in Greeley, I turned the car around and headed back to St Paul and an evening of endless, mindless, motel-supplied Disney channel. (We don't have cable, so the kid's tend to OD on the Disney channel any opportunity they get!)

So.. that was Tuesday... all in all a nice, if somewhat uneventful, day. Wednesday ended up being a lot more exciting.

making plans...

When M and R were younger, we took awesome field trips...

On our Oregon Trail field trip, we drove into central Nebraska and followed the Oregon Trail west into Wyoming... stopping at all the places of historical note along the way. We liked that field trip so much we did it twice... stopping at Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, Register Cliff, Fort Laramie, etc. On another field trip we headed south, through the Great Sand Dunes, then on to Mesa Verde and Four Corners.

We really loved road trips, and the kids always learned so much from them...

Anyway... we used to take these great major field trips a couple of times a year, but then M's schizophrenia started getting in the way. He needed weekly blood draws (still does!) but even more importantly, he'd become so unpredictable... and his pdoc just threw fits every time we left town. And she was probably right to worry, we did have a couple of scary situations... being hundreds of miles from home, just me and the kids, and M's sz would start thrashing it's ugly self around... forcing us to drop all our plans and scurry for home (and psychiatric care!) as fast as we could go.

So we stopped taking our wonderful field trips... The kids and I missed them, but M was too unpredictable to make it through even a two hour car trip, so a long trip seemed impossible.

Then, about a month ago, my beloved 17 year old Toyota Previa died (at 200,000 + miles!) and I had to buy a new (to me) car. I bought a Kia Sedona, and it came with a DVD player.

Hmmm... a DVD player in the car opened up all sorts of possibilities... like M being settled enough (compliments of DVD induced-sedation) to really go someplace.

To go on a field trip like the kind we used to make.

I knew just where I wanted to go...

I wanted to go to Nebraska and find my great-grandfather's homestead.

I'd done my research and knew *approximately* where it was... but I knew I would need help if I was ever going to find it's exact location.

Fortunately, my sister knew of a distant relative who still lived in the part of Nebraska where great-grandpa homesteaded... and happened to have her phone number.

I called "JM" (who, as it turns out, is my cousin many times removed) and she said she thought she knew where the homestead was... and could probably take me there.

(I can't tell you how excited I was to hear that!)

So I made my plans... The primary purpose of the trip was to visit the homestead, or whatever was left of it, and bring home a shovelful of dirt... I wanted just a tiny bit of the land that meant so much to my great-grandparents. The land they worked with almost superhuman strength and endurance, raised 11 children on, and grieved the loss of one child on. The land that took care of their family for decades, even as they, and later their children, took care of it.

I also wanted to see their house in town (the one they built after they retired from the farm), and visit the town cemetary and make some rubbings of the old family gravestones. I'd originally planned to follow my family's "generational trail" west from the homestead... visiting the town my grandfather moved to after leaving the farm... the town my dad was born and raised in. But the weather report was HORRIBLE for that part of Nebraska (rain and cold for the whole week) so I decided not to extend the trip... We'd spend more time at the homestead (just outside Greeley Nebraska) and save the rest of the trip for later.

Any free time we had would be spent at little museums or historical sites we ran into along the way...

The kids and I (and R's dog Cody) left Tuesday and got home yesterday, and the trip turned out to be quite an adventure.

My next few blog entries will be about family stuff and our trip. They might not be very interesting to most people, but I thought my siblings would enjoy it... and it will be a good record for me too.

If you don't want to read all about our trip to a town of only 500 people, you might want to skip reading my blog for awhile.

I'd understand... ;)

Woodstone Prairie will return to it's regularly scheduled programming in a few days.

Where we are now...

Out of town.

This trip was my Mother's Day gift to myself...

More later.

 :)

Where are we?

Sheila left a comment on my guest book page yesterday asking where we live..

She wrote: " I don't know that I've noticed if you've mentioned where you live. Do you mind revealing the state?  I always tell my husband how it snows there allllll the time. Something we don't get here in north Florida"

I do try to avoid saying exactlywhere we live, ever since I had some (minor) problems with a blog stalker a few years ago (when I blogged on Xanga). I do believe my "stalker" is long gone though, and don't mind telling you we live in Colorado. We are east of the mountains, on the far north edge of the Palmer Divide area. Our elevation is about 6,300' (which is why we get all that snow. :) )

Thanks Sheila for stopping by and "signing" my guestbook!

****************************************************************

So... guess what I spent way too much time doing yesterday?



Yeah, I got the guitar out (for just a few minutes, of course)... and then I got the banjo out (I had to... to see how/if something I was doing on the guitar would translate to the banjo)... and then I wanted to try just a couple more things... and then I needed to practice them (for just a few minutes)... and one thing kind of led to another.

One of the wonders of the internet is all the free music online...

 I did get dinner made though. ;)



I guess it could be worse... At least I'm not wasting endless hours watching daytime TV! :)

It's a medical sort of day today... We have to be at Children's Hospital this morning for an MRI, and M sees the pdoc later in the day.  I'm going to put the banjo and the guitar back into their cases, and hide the music away so I'm not even tempted...

I've got too much to do today to get sidetracked.

Oh deer!

It's been warm and sunny so far this week, and my perennials are growing quickly...

The deer have also been around though, which means I have to protect my flowers or they'll eat them all!

The ate all the blooms off my pansies a week ago or so, but luckily pansies are tough little flowers and are already blooming again. (See the stem with no flower in the foreground of the picture? ...a leftover from last week's deer "pruning".)



I try to remember to spray my flowers frequently with this...



... the deer really don't like the smell and it keeps them from eating the flowers down to nothing.

I do love the deer though, and never get tired of watching them...



They are still shedding out the last of their winter coats and look a little shaggy.



In about another month it will be time for this year's fawns to be born.



Last year there were two set of twin fawns born close by. Sadly the mother of one of the sets died just a few months later... the babies were old enough that they survived... following the other twin mother around. I'd watch that doe, with the four fawns following her, crying...trying to nurse... and feel sorry for her...



I can't imagine trying to nurse quadruplets!

*~*daybook*~*

FOR TODAY

May 3, 2010

Outside my window... the day is warm, with little trace of the snow, wind, hail, and fog we had last week. I've been watching a couple of pigeons (mourning doves?) sitting on the wire outside the window, grooming themselves and each other.

I am thinking... about the "field trip" the kids and I are taking next week, and hoping it goes well.

I am thankful for... what's been a good day so far, and the return of the sun and warmth.

From the learning rooms...I was so excited the other day when R used the word "din" correctly in her conversation. Picking up new vocabulary  is a difficult thing for her, and we've been using Wordly Wise for a long time, hoping it would help with her vocabulary skills. It was amazing to see her take a word she'd learned in a recent lesson, and transfer it into regular conversation!

From the kitchen... I'm still having to be very careful about what M eats (which means the rest of us are on a somewhat restricted diet too), but little by little I've been able to add some foods back. I'll be so thankful when he can just sit down and eat the way he used to!

I am creating... still playing around with my banjo. I practice a little each day, working on the banjo until it gets too frustrating, then picking up my guitar for awhile.  I'm not sure which one I like the better... I think it depends on the day.

I am going... to stay home this afternoon and get school done, regardless of how much the kids would rather run around town.

I am reading... all sorts of things. :) I've picked up Undaunted Courage again (Lewis and Clark have met up with the Shoshones, traded for horses, and are starting what will be the last leg of their journey to the Pacific). The kids and I just finished our read-aloud The Penderwicks (a wonderful book!) and are starting A Wrinkle In Time this evening. I'm also blasting through Not Lost Forever, an quick, easy read about a young girl who survives a horrific crime.

I am hoping... we get through Thursday's MRI without any trauma (or drama)

I am hearing... the quiet murmuring of the book on CD M is listening to. The kids are in quiet time...

Around the house... the focus has moved outside. We got the pasture harrowed yesterday, and Joe started rototilling the big garden. I need to get fertilizer on the grass in the back yard, turn the soil in the little kitchen garden, and re-do the fencing out there so Lili (the chicken) can't get in and peck my plants.

One of my favorite things... new buds on the fruit trees, lilacs getting ready to bloom... springtime in general.

A few plans for the rest of the week... same old stuff, blood draw, pick up meds, riding lessons, and PT for M. We also need to be at TCH on Thursday, and are looking forward to ending the week with a long overdue, much anticipated, lunch with Granny.

Visit Peggy's blog for more about The Simple Woman's Daybook