It will soon be a year since my Dad has his stroke over at Centre County Grange Fair. There have been so many changes in his life and in ours. It is so sad to see how he can't do so many things he used to do. He would spend hours on the computer and could figure difficult things out in minutes. Now he can no longer even figure out how to get on the computer.He used to go to the basement and work on his jewelry . He made beautiful pins, earrings and necklaces with his gems and rocks. He tumbled stones and has beautiful slabs of rock.Now he can't get his left hand to work right . He can't do the fine work to fashion a wire wrapped gem or fit the small beads on the wires for a pair of earrings. ( The loss of his left hand is worse because years ago , when they lived in Florida ,he cut his hand with a table saw. His hand was terribly cut and required months and months of surgery and therapy. It was unbelievable how they were able to sew his hand back together . So he never regained full use of his left hand even after all the therapy . It was already weak and the stroke made it worse. )So in about a month he will be selling all his many, many gems, rocks and equipment. It has made us so sad for his sake that he can no longer do something he loved. He has collected so many rocks from so many places.He always loved showing people the many rocks he has . He could tell you where they all came from and what they were called. My Dad was a very, very smart man . He was in the cable industry for years and years . He could tell you anything you wanted to know about cable . Now, he can't even figure out how to work the remote for the TV. He can't push the right buttons . Now , since the stroke , his brain does not work the way it used to. If you sit and talk to him , you would never know there is anything wrong with him. But when he has to use his brain , it just isn't there anymore. He tries to put a large pot inside a small pot. He has trouble with dressing himself.It breaks our hearts to see this man, who was almost a genius , now at a 2 year old level of thinking. A stroke is a terrible thing to happen to a person. The person they were is lost . But we are lucky that he knows who we all are and can still function to a point.But it is very hard on Mom to deal with her husband being like a 2 year old sometimes. Dad always did a lot for Mom. He can no longer drive. Which is hard for Mom . She has to drive all the time. We try and drive them places to give her a break now and then. He can't be left alone for very long. So friends or family stay with Dad to give Mom a break. Our Dad was never an affectionate person. He never showed you he cared. The stroke has made him very emotional. He gives us hugs now. And he cries very easily now. Other people have told us that happens when someone has a stroke. Dad's life and ours have been changed in many ways. But we all do the best we can and keep going .
My husband was talking to our Amish neighbor yesterday. He is getting only $14.25 a hundredweight for his milk. He told Jim they can't even afford to go to the grocery store and get groceries. It makes me so mad to know dairy farmers STILL are not getting a decent price for their milk. All the work a farmer does , the endless hours of chores and fieldwork seem even harder to deal with when you are not getting paid a decent price for the milk you produce.
As many of you know , we sold our dairy cows last May after 39 years of dairy farming. It was a sad time for us. But I remember all the many , many times of constant stress and fear of how will we pay our bills ?? How will we pay to have our gas tank filled for our tractors so we can do field work ? When there wasn't even enough money to pay for feed for our cows. It makes me sad to think of the many farmers struggling with low milk prices and wondering .... are we going to be able to hang onto our farm and land ? The politicians just say they will investigate , they will hold hearings. Those hearings will really help me hang onto my farm and land ! While you all discuss everything and decide what to do , more and more farmers are losing their farms . The costs of running a farm are rising and the farmer is getting less. I wish I had the answer to the situation many farmers are facing right now. Some people say the farmer should stop whining . Well I say to them, we are not whining !!!!! We just want a fair price for our milk and to know all the hard work we do is worth something !
We took a day while my niece was here from Florida and drove to Ricketts Glen State Park to walk along the falls . My niece , her friend , Mom, Dad, my one daughter and 2 of the grandaughters all went. At the start of the trail it says....Dangerous Trails and can be very slippery. At 2 pm we start . Only my niece, her friend , my daughter and the grandaughters started down the steep trail. Dad did go a short ways , but then turned around and went back to sit with Mom. There are 22 falls along the trails. they range from 11' to 94' . My niece and her friend only went part way and had to leave. They had to leave in time to get to the Allentown airport for their flight home. So the grandaughters and my daughter and I kept going on the trail.( That was our mistake ... we should have turned back too ! ) But , we kept on going. Lots of dirt paths , then stone steps , some that were 2' high to step down to the next one. My daughter had to help me numerous times. We see lots of beautiful falls and huge, huge rocks. The trail kept going down and down and I keep thinking on the way back it is going to be UP and UP ! Not good ! We reach a point where the trail splits and we rest awhile. Up we go now , more paths and more 2' rock steps ! More falls on the way back up. By now it is about 5 or 530. Soon we see a sign that points this way towards the parking lot. So , of course we think oh good we are close !! NOT !! We keep going up and it is really steep . We go awhile and there is a huge rock. Good place to sit and rest . Thank God, we sit and let our heartbeat get back to normal and we can breathe ! On we go . More steep trails , more 2' steps and more falls. By now I could care less if I ever see another falls again !!!!! Rest , Breathe , Climb , Pant , Rest , Breathe , Climb , Pant and on and on ! My daughter and I sit there gasping for air and start laughing and laughing . We say to each other I think I am having a heart attack ! On we go...Finally see a sign that says.03 miles to the parking lot.YESSSSS ~ almost there !! Do you know how long it takes to walk .03 miles ??? a long time !! Next sign says .01 miles to the parking lot. We tell the 8 and 9 year old girls to run and tell Grammy and Papee we are coming and are ok ( alright, we ARE not ok , but we are still alive !! ) And of course they go running off , full of energy still. About 6pm or so my daughter and I stagger into the parking lot and collapse by Mom and Dad . The next time family visits and wants to walk the trails at Ricketts Glen I will pass !!!!!!!!!!!
I was at Musser Farm Market in Bellefonte, PA today. Thought I would share some pics of my goodies I have there . My Mom and I have a stand there and we are side by side, which works out really well. She does purses, pillows, signs , pot holders, table runners, tree skirts and more ! I also took up some prim items I had here at home. I took up a HUGE old, primitive box that could be used on your porch or deck as a table. It is that big ! Also took some old candle boxes , a barnwood tote and shelf. There are also two hand made Amish buckets. Inside I have primitive candle holders, tarts , grubby candle sticks, grubby doilys, a prim distressed wood shelf, a primitive bee skep with a berry ring , an Americana bucket and lots and lots more ! If you are in the central PA area , stop in at Musser Farm Market and check out my booth !
Well , it has been a year since we sold the dairy cows. Our life has changed a lot. My husband is a Township Supervisor and now works full time for them. He has adjusted to his job, I think. He says he doesn't miss the cows anymore. We both did at first. But we do not miss all the headaches , heartaches and stress of dairy farming. Being a dairy farmer is also very hard on your body. His knees don't hurt like they used to from bending up and down to milk.His back is better also. The other week he has a really bad cough and I ended up taking him to the ER at 3 in the afternoon. A lady we know ( who are dairy farmers ) works at the ER . She saw us and came into my husband 's room and talked to us. My husband told her if we still had the dairy cows he would not be up here , we would have to be at the barn milking and feeding. He would just have had to suffer through the cough and illness. We don't have to worry about what we will do , if the bottom falls out of the milk price that farmers receive.I really hoped by now milk prices would be better for a dairy farmer. But that isn't the case. I think our one friend told us he is getting $ 16.?? a hundredweight. I sure hope the price does not keep falling for all the farmers! We still crop farm and my husband has been busy planting corn. We have been selling hay and corn to neighbors. We just sent out 4 bred heifers on Friday. They were hauled over to the same sale barn where we sold our cows last year , in Centre Hall. We decided to go over and see how much they brought. And as I sat there I thought , how funny , here we are right where we were a year ago.But a year ago our feelings were much different sitting there . Feeling a sadness watching our cows all being loaded on the trailer to be taken to the sale barn . Feelings of sadness seeing our cows brought in and sold. Knowing when we went home the barn would be empty . That the next morning there would be no cows to milk. But this year it was different. We had started a different life. One that has made my husband less stressed. One that if we want to go away for a day , we can. One that if we need to go the ER at 3 in the afternoon , we can. We have adjusted to our new life, I think !
Well , I think spring has left us ! We had such great , sunny and warm weather . And now it is windy , cool and some nights pretty dang cold . We still have a coal and wood fire in our furnace. This time of the year our old farmhouse gets pretty chilly without a fire going. Hopefully soon it will warm up enough to let the fire go out. My husband got home from work at the Township yesterday and we went down to the brush and cut and loaded a big load of wood . We unloaded it by the cellar door. We also stacked some down in the cellar . It should keep us going with the coal for awhile. We had a Wonderful Easter . We all went to my Mom and Dads and ate way too much. The older two grandsons helped me hide the Easter eggs for the other three. Sure didn' t take them long to find them all. Then it was dessert time.The weather stayed nice long enough for us to sit on the deck and enjoy the sun. But by later afternoon it started to cloud up an got chilly.It was so nice for us all to be together and enjoy the day !
