OOps

This isn't what I intended to put on here. These are pictures from a CD of our recent family reunion. Oh well, they're cute so I guess I'll post them. Martin in front of his house and Lisa with Keith and Aaron in the other picture. Some day I'll get the hang of this computer stuff......

Gratitude and tar babies

Russ and Ammon made it safely across the country with the rental truck. Four young missionaries, along with our ever-faithful, ever-hardworking daughter Angela, came to help unload. We were so grateful for their help. Most of the things went into the garage we have been working so hard to make more weatherproof. Some came into the house, filling a formerly empty living room and adding more life and homie-ness to this big old house.
This picture is Russ and me on top of the garage, tarring the metal roof. We have found some really interesting things as we have worked on this property. As a matter of fact, as I cleaned out the garage floor before filling it with stone, I was reminded of a song Russ used to sing regularly- the only "Thanksgiving carol" I've ever heard of: Alice's Restaurant. Only instead of putting garbage in a church where the pews used to be, someone, or maybe many persons, collected it in the garage, along with other areas of this half-acre. I found lots of glass- enough to make me wonder if there used to be a glass shop in there, lots of miscellaneous tools (not surprising in a garage, even bones (fortunately none big enough to make me suspicious of their origins) and lobster claws (someone here ate well!). Among the toys, food wrappings, broken pottery, and old pens there have been even larger strange objects, one of which was actually a "tar-baby". In an area along the driveway we found a very heavy, black, cylinder which puzzled us at first. At this point I can't remember exactly who it was that realized what it was but we found out it was a tar-baby. It could have been put into some sort of melting device then the liquid used to tar something. We took the tar-baby to the dump because we had no way to actually make use of it and went to good old Home Depot and bought our tar in liquid form in cans which we carried up the ladder to the roof and sloshed a good thick coat all over, to make sure the inside of the garage stays dry and the metal no longer rusts. Our work on the property continues but at a blessedly more leisurely pace.

End product of our society

Today the odor at the dump was quite pungent. I was glad my pregnant daughter-in-law hadn't accompanied me. Russ and Ammon are in Utah loading up Ammon's household goods to drive them here to Ohio. Victoria was tending her two boys so I loaded up the piles of construction debris into the truck (3 hours worth of picking up old wood, roof parts, pipes, etc), drove to
Angela's house on the other side of Dayton to get a few odds and ends she had to contribute, then drove to the "waste management facility". Many eastern cities have had to resort to these facilities. When we live in such close proximity to each other there is no place to put what used to be called a "dump" because no one wants the pollution in their vicinity. So they erect a huge steel building and everyone piles their garbage in it, then it gets hauled away.......to somewhere. People who have known me for very long have probably tired of hearing me say that I think every citizen of the earth should visit a dump at least once in their lifetime. It's a rather rude but pertinent awakening for those who carelessly throw unwanted things away easily because they were piggish about taking more food than they needed or they don't want to bother repairing something or taking it to Goodwill. I really don't think it is truly civilized to not think about the end product of our society. We can put on airs and think we're too clean to deal with garbage, but, let's face it, we all create it and should all be responsible in dealing with it. Our garbage most likely far outweighs our works of art at this point. It's what we create.

The Amazing Race

We didn't quite have the resources to have individual camermen following each family but here are a few shots from one of the reunion highlights for the week. We held our own version of the popular tv show "The Amazing Race". It was a little more localized, being all in the Dayton area, and considerably shorter and cheaper. However, it was fun for everybody and gave everyone a sense of happy competition and satisfaction of completion. Each family was a team and was armed with a Dayton map and given their first clue. After that, they had to complete a challenge to get their next clue. They had to find things, climb a rock wall, put together a large geography puzzle (the fastest time, despite the young age of the contestants was an amazing 1 minute 10 seconds) and there was an obstacle course. The youngest in the family had to pull the oldest in a wagon, then they had to each swing a hammer at a nail until it was driven home in the board, then climb a step ladder to transfer beanbags from a pile on one side to a bucket on the other, and last of all, they had to hit a target using a slingshot for water balloons.
Now we're going to start working on plans for our next reunion, 2009 at the soonest. But with our family spread all over the world and moving constantly, planning ahead is essential. But now we'll be back to working on the house. Siiggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............................

Awesome Reunion

As with most gatherings of human beings, one of the highlights of this past week of the Fellows Family Reunion has been the meals. Each night a different family was responsible for planning and preparing dinner. We had a pleasant variety and everything was fully appreciated. Although it was mostly every man for himself as food was being served, no one went hungry and there was much of caring and sharing outside of specific family lines. Cousins helped cousins, aunts and uncles comforted and cared for nieces and nephews. We had several full-family activities and lots of free time to just chat or run errands. We practiced a song and sang it in Angela's ward for sacrament meeting and it went very well. There is something really rewarding about being hearing a lovely well-blended choir that is all your blood relatives. We had originally hope to perform a service project but what with little ones who needed naps and pregnant people who needed to be careful and not all being in the same house all the time, it just never worked out. But there was lots of service done within the 27 members of the family.

Satan's weed

When we helped Angela's family move into Ohio a year ago we had our first up-close experience with poison ivy. We had grown up with the saying taught to scouts and at girls camp "Leaflets three, let it be, berries white, take flight". That makes a nice, easy-to-remember saying but you still may not be able to recognize the plant in real life. Despite the fact that I handled lots of poison ivy- in fact, I bagged it all in trash bags after several members of Angela's family were stricken badly enough to require going to the emergency room twice- I never had a reaction. So a couple of weeks ago, I was working out in the garage area and determined I would pull out a huge poison ivy vine that had been sprayed with Round-up but was tenanciously growing back. My concern was mostly for our grandkids so they wouldn't be affected by it. Apparently, younger skin is more tender and reacts more easily. About a week later, I had a couple of strange spots show up on my forearm. I didn't think much of it because Russ and I have gotten numerous injuries since starting this house project. As the days went by, I got more rash spots and swelling. I don't know if you can tell by these pictures by my left hand/wrist is swollen quite bit and I have numerous rash spots all over my arms, face, neck, chest and ankles. It is even spreading to my legs. The original reaction is to whatever part of your body is exposed to the actual oil in the plant which is the worst in the roots and stems. After that, your body can go into a larger systemic reaction resulting in huge, itchy, eventually oozing welts. (The last picture is an attempt at a close-up of the welts on my swollen wrist.) It is not at all attractive but the worst part is the itching and swelling so you can't sleep, your eyes get all puffy (not that my old, wrinkled face didn't have problems before), and you basically feel miserable. I have so enjoyed having all my family here for our reunion, even with the poison ivy reaction. But I'll be glad when it's over- the poison ivy reaction, I mean.

Another before and after!

The ladder nearly takes up the whole downstairs bathroom. We're pretty sure it was originally a closet under the stairs to the second floor but was later made into a tiny "necessary room". Russ and Dad are shown here replacing the plumbing underneath the floor, in the cellar or basement (whichever you want to call it). Then you can see the after results! The bright yellow is supposed to make it look bigger and brighter. It's actually a sloped ceiling but it may be hard to tell in the picture. The ceiling is the underside of the stairs to the second floor. I will work on the specific decor later.

No age discrimination here!

Warning! If you come here you are very likely to be put to work. We don't care if you are 2 or 4 years old like our grandsons here, or 81 like my dad working on the garage roof. The work continues and isn't likely to be done for several years. We are learning skills we didn't even know existed! The garage that was a falling-down shack with a leaky roof is gradually becoming a weather-tight building for about a tenth of what it would have cost to tear it down and build a new one. The painting and window repair will be really far in the future, though. We have a sincere, specific prayer for a blessing on this house that all who work here will be protected from harm. So far the Lord has blessed friends, missionaries, family, and us. We have had numerous slivers, aching muscles, and other minor injuries but compared to what might have been, it is truly a miracle.

Life still goes on.........

There will be pictures tomorrow. I need to download more from our camera. Ammon and Victoria's family managed without their luggage contents from their arrival Thursday evening until late Saturday. Victoria was much relieved when all 8 pieces were deposited on our front porch. Our truck is still out of commission which will put a crimp in our transportation plans for the reunion. We spoke to Lisa on the phone yesterday. She and Keith are visiting Keith's sister in Arkansas. They are traveling safely, however, their car is having some kind of electrical problem so they will have to take it to a dealer when they arrive. We'll be down one more vehicle! It's a good thing there are at least a couple of vehicles in the family that can hold several passengers. And we can be grateful we aren't all on foot...........

Life goes on..........

We are about to start our family reunion here in Ohio. Ammon and Victoria and their two boys arrived from Utah yesterday, without their 8 pieces of luggage. The airline has promised repeatedly over the last 29 hours that they would be finding it and delivering it. In the meantime, we got them some toothbrushes and Victoria went shopping for pajamas and diapers for the kids and a change of clothes for the adults. Yesterday our truck went on the fritz so we took it over to our son-in-law who diligently examined it but to no avail. Tomorrow morning we're going to take it to a repair shop and hope they can get it running again. So we have all of us here with just the car when we had planned on having both of our vehicles because Ammon and Victoria's car won't be here until after the reunion when Russ and Ammon fly back to Utah to drive the moving truck here. Oh well, we have been praying that everyone would be healthy and travel safely. I guess we neglected asking about luggage and vehicles.................

Overcoming fear

I have never had a love of heights. I'm also not really swift on ladders. The garage with this house is rather delapidated having been neglected for a very long time. Someone at some time drove into the back wall in one place and the roof is tin, rusted through in a couple of places. In order to determine whether the roof was salvageable all of the accumulated debris had to be removed. Russ has had enough stress to keep him busy trying to work on the technical aspects of the house so my specialty has been tearing apart, cleaning, refinishing wood, spackling, plastering, and painting. He has been working on the little downstairs bathroom (thankfully with my Dad's help) so I volunteered to clean off the garage roof. I must admit, I had a really sincere prayer on my lips most of the time, with a frightening image of crashing through the roof in my mind. I managed to get the roof cleaned off so now it can be repaired and I am safely back on the ground- until I have to spread the roofing gook on the metal. I'm certainly not looking forward to that!

More house pictures

I can never figure out what order the pictures I select are going to publish in. Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of the dining room. I had wanted to wait until Angela finished all of the stencilling and we got everything set up the way we want but that is going to be awhile yet. Our family reunion is about to start so work on the house will slow down for the next week and a half. So here is what we're currently living with. It's not too bad, huh?

Graduation!

The dog training class has finished. Here you see the dogs all decked out in their official 4Paws bandanas ready for the short, simple graduation. Those from Michigan, California, and Tennessee are looking forward to finally going home- and those who lived closer by are happy to finally be going back to a normal schedule. The training is far from finished, though. In fact, it will never end. Angela, Martin, and Mystic are now a team with a card on Mystic's harness proclaiming her as an official assistance dog and thereby admitting her to places not usually open to "pets". The Orme household is going through the adjustment to having this pet/helper. One interesting note- Angela broke her little toe on Mystic's foot. She was trying to retrieve her when Mystic reacted to the neighbor dogs barking at her and ran into Mystic's foot which bent her toe severely. Who needs tatoos? Angela's toe is a nice bright bluish-purple which will probably turn to the nasty yellowish-black bruising turns to at some point.