Learning to Drive

When I was 14 I was working on the farm and drove the tractor all of the time. Sometimes on Sunday afternoon I would take the tractor over to my friends house about a mile and a half away and we would just sit around and shoot the breeze.

But there was another way that I got around. My sister Peggy was living at home and working in the Sylvania plant at Brookville. She bought a 1942 Ford Coupe to use to get to work. It had a high speed differential which meant that it didn't have much power but once you got moving it would run like a sacred rabbit. Since we lived on the back road and I knew every road in the township I would ask her to borrow it when I wanted to go to a 4-H club meeting at Shanondale or to visit another friend somewhere in our part of the world. Several tmes I took the back roads to Summerville on Sunday afternoon, or to Limestone to go swiming.

I took my drivers test the day after I was 16 and the cop said it seemed like I had been driving for a while. I said yes I learned to drive on the farm.

Road work

Until 1952 the road past our house was dirt (mostly clay) and in the winter and spring of the year it got deep ruts whenever it was wet and the ground was not frozen. Sometimes it got so bad that we had to park the car up at the T (about 2/10s of a mile away from the house. For a month or more in the spring the only vehicles that got through were the mailman in his Model A Ford and the Milk truck that picked up the milk. Whenever the road dried enough we would hook the drag to the tractor and fill in the ruts so we could get the car in to the house.

In the wintertime the road often drifted shut with snow and sometimes the Township did not plow us out for a week or more. In 1944 we were snowed in for 5 weeks before they brought in bulldozers to open up the road. Dad had to park the car at the main highway, about a mile away,and walk out to get to work and he had to carry in groceries. My oldest sister had to walk through the snow to get to the bus to go to high school.

Things began to change in the summer of 1952. Dad convinced the Township Supervisors that the road needed to made passable in the winter for the school bus, mail, and milk truck, so they agreed to haul in sandstone to build a base for the road. That summer, in June my friend Roy and I were still 14, but old enough to get work permits, and the Township hired us to work on the road breaking the big rock into little rocks that the roller could crush in to the dirt. We worked about 4 weeks busting rocks on a little over a mile of road from Pumptown to the T. We got $1.00 per hour and worked about 8 hours a day. I was in pretty good shape when we finished. Of course we still had hay making and grain harvesting and chores to do but we were happy to have some money of our own.

With a solid stone base on the road the Township made an effort to keep the road open all winter and that made things a lot better.

Contractors In Iraq

According to an article in Harpers magazine over 1,000 private contractors(mercenaries) have been killed in Iraq and over 13,000 have been wounded. This increases the american deaths by 25% and wounded by about 1/3.

Emerson on Thinking

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-

Quote of the day

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."
Paul Fix

Age 13

When I was 13 years old my dad worked 8 hour shifts on the gas wells: midnight to 8 am, 8 to 4 and 4 to midnight. My brother was away at college so I had a lot of responsibility on the farm. Every Third week I got up at 5:00 am and milked 25 cows, then fed the calves, chickens, and pigs and then washed the milkers. I washed up and ate breakfast at 7:00 and then set the milk cans out for the milk truck and got on the bus at7:20.

The next week when dad had the 8 to 4 shift he did the milking morning and evening and I did the feeding and washed the milkers. When dad worked 4 to midnight, I came home from school at 4:20 and changed clothes and started milking at 5:00 pm. We ate supper at 6:00 pm and I was usually in bed by 8:30.

The Farm Bill Again

The Senate Side

The Senate Side Barbara Boxer wants to protect California Farmers.

Cute Kid

Here is a picture from a few years ago that I think is pretty cute.

Bonus Years

This morning I’ve been ruminating on life in general. I think that I am now in my bonus years. That is, considering how long my parents lived, every year I get now is a bonus. I plan to enjoy and live fully what ever time I have. To be able to enjoy my children and my grandchildren is the greatest pleasure. Every day there is a new surprise, something to look for, something to be thankful for.

Sunday Morning

It is very quiet here this morning. Very few people outside when I went for my 6:00 am walk. Kind of cool at 62 degrees. It felt like a Cape Cod morning, just right for summer. I've had my second cup of coffee and scanned the paper. Not much there that I cared to focus on. I made a few updates to my Shelfari page. I'll work on my reviews as time goes by. No hurry with that

If a tree falls

If a tree falls in the woods when you come out in the morning to take your walk and you hear it and then see it fall would you be surprised? I was this morning at about 6:15. I had just walked out of the house and heard a crack, crack, crunch and looked toward the woods behind the neighbors house. The tree fell with a whoosh, snap thump. Wow.

The air was still. Nothing moved. The tree just fell.

Being a somewhat curious person I walked down the woods path at the end of my walk to see exactly what happened. Maybe the tree fell over the path. Nope it didn't. It had been standing on the edge of the creek and the stream had undercut its roots. It just happened that it chose 6:15 as its time to fall.

Well that is life on the Court.

Bolivia in the Parade

Parade

Reunion

My family is planning a reunion of the offspring of my grandparents. This year it has been setup by my niece and nephew and it will be held in south central Pennsylvania.

All of the children of my grandparents are deceased as well as most of my older first cousins. At age 69 I am the 2nd from the youngest grandchild of the 39 grandchildren.
Of the 39, I believe that 16 are still living. The oldest grandchild was born in January 1911 and the youngest in February 1941.

There are 121 great grandchildren, that I am aware of. The oldest was born in 1942 and the youngest in 1975. There are 136 great great grandchildren that I have information on. I'm sure there are more that are not included in my genealogy data base. The oldest was born in 1965 and the youngest in May 2007.

Of the 136 great great grandchildern only 6 males carry the Reinsel name.

Golden Compass

Bernie's Daemon

Beaver Lodge

Most often beavers build their lodges in the water but this one built one on the court. Her odometer recorded 12 miles today. Mostly from the back yard to the street.

Bamboo

I've spent the last 2 days cutting dead bamboo and mom has been carrying it up to a pile on the street. Still have a bunch to cut and carry. The pile on the street is getting to be too high for mom to reach and it keeps growing sideways. I'll post a picture later.

Green space, ball fields and traffic

Last night the City Council held a hearing on a proposal to put two soccer fields on a tract of land that was purchased by the City for open space. The proposal included artificial turf, field lights on 70 foot polls with cell phone antennas , 100 parking spaces for cars, rest rooms, and several zoning variances. It would have required cutting many large trees and grading 8 acres of the area down by as much a 20 feet. In my view this constituted development of the space. I attended the hearing and spoke against the proposal.

I believe that the end result of the hearing will be that one field will be constructed, fewer trees will be cut and no lights will be put up and no cell phone antennas will put up.

I believe that the area is unsuited for even this reduced level of activity and I feel that the change in traffic flow will create problem for residents of the subdivision. However, the City Council seems determined to proceed with construction of one field.

“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got, till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got, till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot”

Lyrics by and sung by Joanie Mitchell

Stored things

Years ago we stored some things above the carport. I guess we thought that sometime some of our children might want what we had saved for them. Today I got the stuff down to inspect it. Most of it will get tossed but a few items may be retained.

There are 2 tricycles, 1 wagon, one potty, 2 potty seats, 1GI Joe jeep and trailer, 1 GI Joe, 1 play school shopping center, Several model airplanes, a broken high chair, part of a stroller, a small person step stool, and an old hall light.