I love history. I am not a huge buff or anything, but sometimes I find myself wanting to know more about a certain time or event. I read lots, whenever I can, until the desire is satiated. I live in an area that is rich in Civil War history. I find myself rather fascinated by it all. One thing that I never fully understood though, was re-enactments and such. I always thought it kind of funny.

This past weekend, our town hosted a WWII Living History weekend. I was asked to go on down and take some photos.




I got WAY more than I bargained for. It was AWESOME. There were no re-enactments to speak of (not that I witnessed anyway), but these people were dressed in clothes from the time period. They had tents and Jeeps and guns and other goods from the time period. They had small fires burning and they answered any questions we had.




What I found fascinating, were the stories behind the loot. Some of the weapons and artifacts that these people had were of a very personal nature, as they had been passed down from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. A lot of the stuff was found on eBay, or in a back shed in someone's yard, long forgotten.




We talked to this one man for a very long time. His name escapes me now, but his story was fascinating. He has been a long time history buff, traveling far and wide to see sites of past battles. He is a huge collector of anything to do with WWI and WWII. As we looked at his guns, T asked him about a particular one. It looked a bit different from all of the others.




This gun was found in the shed behind the New Jersey house belonging to his nephew's girlfriend. It had been sitting in a corner for almost 60 years. The girl was a bit of an anti-gun freak and told her boyfriend that it had to go. He called his uncle, and shipped it to him. It had belonged to the girl's grandfather. He had shot and killed a Japanese soldier and then had taken his gun.

There are blood stains all over the gun. You can actually see where the soldier had been holding on to the gun. It was a somber moment. After he pointed that out to us, T and I got really quiet for a moment. The guy just said, "Yeah.....", as he let the reality of it settle in to our heads.

We talked to another man who was a Desert Storm vet. He had dual citizenship in Australia and had served in their armed forces as well. The guy was fascinating. He had his son with him, who seemed to be really enjoying himself.

There were 'German' soldiers there, as well as a tent with 'Russian' soldiers (some of them female) and they were all extremely friendly and informative. There were a lot of vets walking around. We only got to talk to one or two of them. We thanked them for their service and sacrifice, but asked few questions. I find that I just do not know what to ask them some times. *sigh*

I am SO glad that I had the opportunity to talk with these people. T and I really enjoyed it and I look forward to the next time they come around!

M has allergic rhinitis... or.. allergies. Both of her ears are good to go, but she is to take Zyrtec in the morning if needed, Benadryl at night, and we have to saline flush her nose at night. THAT is going to be fun. Oy. I also have a nasal spray for her if she needs it. We need to get her a warm-air humidifier for her room too. Not sure how we are gonna do that though. *sigh*

Since moving here, T has slept upstairs in the bedroom, and I sleep on the couch. He has severe sleep apnea, and while he uses a CPAP machine, it is not working very well for him at the moment. He needs a sleep study and we have to go to Pittsburg for that, over night. Again, no money to get a hotel and stuffs. So.. not sure when that is gonna happen. Also, the bed up there is a full size bed. Not nearly enough room, as he also has restless legs. He keeps me awake so I just sleep on the couch. Well, THAT has been KILLING me. I do not sleep soundly, I cannot get comfy etc.

So last night I dug out the air mattress and set it up in M's room. I was going to sleep on it in there but she decided she wanted to 'camp in'! We put her little tent thingy on it and she had a ball in there with her books and her flashlight! And momma got to sleep in a bed. All.night.long.

Seven hours of uninterrupted, glorious sleep. I feel like a new person! WOO! M slept all night too, for the first time in weeks. She did not wake up coughing. She slept soundly and is a ball of boundless energy this morning!

I left the kitchen a mess last night, which I never do.. because I was too excited to crawl into bed! So this morning, I came down and made coffee and cleaned up the kitchen. Then I sat outside with the Pea and watched/listened to the birds. It was about as perfect a morning as it gets. My momma being here could have made it truly perfect though. :)


How was your morning??

Years ago when I lived here as a kid, there was a row of blackberry and raspberry bushes along the cemetery, on the backside of a neighbors fence. They had the biggest, tastiest berries EVER. My friend L and I used to pick them and take them home. My mom would make jams, pies, muffins, etc. We would eat and eat and eat them, until we were ready to bust.

So, just now, on a Facebook page for our little town, a few of us were messaging back and forth about stealing fruits and veggies outta gardens when we were kids, and my friend D says "just do not plant anything in the cemetery!" An aside? We are all going to get together this spring to try to give the cemetery some love, as it is in major disrepair. Okay, so back to D's comment. All of a sudden it hit me..

The bushes! Were they so big and do so well because of the, uhm... well-fertilized ground there??
Oh man. I cannot tell you how grossed out I am right now!! Eep.

Funny though, no matter how gross. We never ever thought along those lines as kids. If you could have seen my face just then, when the thought crossed my mind! I am quite sure it was priceless...

I know that most of you who read here, follow me on Facebook. Which is why this place tends to get ignored. There is more interaction on Facebook. That is why blogging kind of irritates me. Yes, I blog for me. But knowing there are people reading... well.. COMMENT all ready. LOL All you have to do is use your gmail login. If you don't have one, you can sign up for one in about 3 seconds. It is free and you never have to use the email addy for anything but SHOWING ME LOVE. Hah.

Anyway, I went out the other day for a drive, and spent some time watching my river. :)
It really fascinates me. It was moving so fast, and there were these HUGE sheets of ice floating by...




They were crashing into the pylons, shaking the bridge. I was glad to get out and get some air. I sure do look forward to a clear, friendlier river this summer!! It was very windy and cold and so I watched for awhile, but when I could no longer feel my face and hands, I figured it was time to call it a day and head home.

All in all we ended up with about 10 inches or so, I would guess. This morning, we got another 3 or 4 inches. It is very beautiful. I do not mind it much, but I AM counting the days til spring. This place is so beautiful in the spring and summer. I cannot wait!

We have real grass here! I cannot wait to be able to run around in the yard with no shoes on!!
The grass in FL is prickly and hard and WEIRD. Won't miss that!!

Missing my brother today. He has chosen to remove himself from our lives and we do not really know why. It is a bummer.. today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Bro.. I miss you...

It snowed a little bit today. ;)

That would be M using her sled as a shovel. That child was determined to build a fort. I need to find one of those block igloo maker things so we can make a REAL fort the next time we get a good snow. *sigh* I love her. :)

Where do I begin? Ugh.

These are the stairs leading down to where we park. Or, leading from where we park up to the house. :P

In this photo, you can see the rock wall in major disarray, the gutter hanging off of the back of the house, the un-tilled garden mess to the left there. A few things that you cannot see, are the toppled-over grape arbor which causes me GREAT distress. I do NOT want to lose that thing. The stairs are crumbling and need massive repair. The windows need replacing...

The yard needs LOTS of work. I think we are just going to clear it all out, turn up the dirt, and leave it til fall, then I will plant some bulbs and leave it be. The house itself needs a good power wash. Too bad that whore sold our pressure washer. Grr.

I am not sure HOW the grape arbor is going to get fixed. It is not something that T and I can handle.. we have NO idea what we are doing. The garden just needs to be tilled and raked over, we can burn all of the crap in there. I guess I need to do some gardening research because I have no idea when to plant what. LOL.

Of course, we do not have a tiller, so that should be interesting.

The sheds down back need to go as well. One is about to fall down, the other is in ok condition, but will look odd as heck once the other one is torn down. (can you say BONFIRES?)

I am starting to feel overwhelmed. T says he will help with all of this stuff, but really? I do not see it happening. *sigh*

p.s. Notice that a few windows are open? LOL. It was 45 degrees that day. We were having a heat wave! :)

These are some of our neighbors. They are a quiet bunch. Thankfully, we do not ever see them. *grin*

This cemetery is very old, mostly Civil War era, although it is peppered with souls departed from later dates. What always struck me as odd about this place, is it's... haphazardness. There is no rhyme or reason to the plots and to the layout of the place.

I can see how it has sunken in spots over the years. The hill on one side is far more drastic now than it was when I was 8. And on the back end by the river, well, there are several missing graves from the flooding and the embankment giving way. I will have to go take some photos of the grave stones along the edge where I am pretty sure the occupants no longer rest in peace.

It was a creepy place to me as a child, not so much now. I often wonder about all of those people. Who were they? Where did they live? Were they happy? What did they look like? Although some of the graves have photos on them of the departed and THAT is creepy.. even though I often wonder these things.. More photos to come, when it is not buried under a foot of snow.

That is an icicle that is hanging off of the front porch roof. It goes all the way to the ground. I am starting to get concerned because it is causing the gutter a lot of stress. We tried to break it, whacking at it with random stuff before it got this big, and we could not make even the slightest dent in it. I am thinking of running a garden hose from the bathroom sink, out through the window to the roof, and just let the hot water flow. LOL. I am not sure what else to do. At this rate, it will still be there in June.

Notice that the Christmas lights are still up. That is only because they are encased in ice. Next year, they get hung underneath the overhang! It is making me crazy that we cannot get them down. Argh.

One of the things I have always loved about this place, is how the fog comes up off of the river. I used to love sitting outside in the early mornings with my coffee, watching the bands of fog rise and lift slowly towards the sky.

Year in Review!

It has been a LONG year, yet it has sped by at ludicrous speed. Does that make sense? Most of you know the deal. Living with my mom, needing to somehow get back on our feet. We now find ourselves in WV, in my grandparents old house. We are settled in nicely. M is in school. T is working, I am trudging away with school. I love it here. Being here feels normal and right for me. T is still adjusting, but doing very well.

So I have to apologize. I promised everyone I would blog regularly, and I don't. You can thank Facebook for that! Hah. I am going to try to post each day (ha!) and I would like to post a picture a day too. I have attempted this before, and failed miserably, but we shall see how it goes. I have also decided that it has been way too long since I had my very own blog design, so I am thinking that is something that I need to do as well. I just use templates because they are easy peasy, and my creativity went out the door years ago.

So, some photos, yes?

We moved up here the day before Halloween. M was a witch, courtesy of my friend Penny, who brought the costume up for us to use!




We got to spend lots of time outside when we first got here. The weather was PERFECT!

















Then, we got our first snow!! M was just LOVING it!!








Then, it snowed again. And again. Aaand again. :)








Our humble abode...





Our neighbors... LOL.





Before we knew it, Christmas was upon us! We had Christmas Eve here, and Christmas day we were lazy. We went to my cousins for dinner. It was a really good few days, although I REALLY miss my mommy...


We also got legal. :)




Awww...





M and her cousins...



Petie and T ...






M got a sled from Santa. Best thing EVER. She had SO much fun!




She is such a ham, no?





And that is about where we are. Rebuilding. Living. Being happy. Adjusting.
So, blogging and photo daily..? Hah.. we shall see.

Happy New Year!!