He also did some pruning of lower branches off the trees near the cabin and we burned them in the fire pit that Michael and his friends made for us. It worked out really well to have that fire pit so close by. The weather was so nice, just right for outdoor working and playing.
I picked some wild flowers and put them in these little vases that I have at the cabin. Love those little vases!
Here's the cat in a bag...totally random but I thought he looked cute :)While I was up at the cabin, I painted a picture of the old Paradise, Utah house that my grandfather grew up in (it was sold after he grew up) and that my grandfather and grandmother purchased back later in their retirement years. They remodeled it and lived there for ten or so years during my teenage years. I had promised my grandmother a painting of it if I could get it right...This is my attempt! My grandmother is pictured at the moment she opened the package containing the painting.
August is a working month for me. No real extra time off except for weekends. We've been golfing a few times though and working on the house here. We are going to be building a deck off the back of the house with a covered patio. That way, I can hang mosquito netting all around it and put in some nice patio furniture! I will take pictures of it as it progresses.
We also have a spare bedroom that the cat has taken over. I can't do anything with it until we move some of the furniture out but I want to get a murphy bed in there...the kind that has a table attached underneath so that when you fold it up, the table can then be folded down and you have a work space. The cat won't be able to get up on the bed and we can use the space more efficiently.
4 comments:
LOVE the view of the meadow with wildflowers. I want to go to there!!! And your painting of the Paradise house is great!
Thanks so much for your painting of the Paradise house. Just to clarify one thing...Mama and Papa lived in that house when they were first married. Pop and Grandma Bahen owned the house for a long time, even when they weren't living in it. I can't remember what family they sold it to eventually, but when Mama and Papa bought it back, it was still owned by the same family who had originally bought it from the Bahen family. Your mom was born while they were living in the Paradise house. It was 1934 and Papa was still going to USU. They didn't have a refrigerator or a washer, so they'd put some food outside in the winter to keep it cool/frozen and get ice for the icebox at other times. Also, Papa told me that he used to wash Pat's diapers in the bathtub. The house had high ceilings and lots of doors and windows, so it was quite drafty and cold. That's why they changed it around a little bit when they bought it in 1971. They were so proud of lowering the ceilings and building the wall that formed a hallway and one side of the master bedroom. Mama always commented on how much warmer the house was:) The new owners now, have completely renovated and restored the high ceilings...undoing all that 1970's decor. I remember at the time how in style the wallpaper, couch, paneling was. It was a total 70's remodel. I'm sure the newest owners wondered what the heck people were thinking doing that to an old house! If you get a chance to drive by, the house looks wonderful now...although a little different with the new back portion and garage that they have added. Yours is the one painting that we're hanging in Mom's room. She loves it:)
Thank you for the background! I always thought mom was born and raised in Logan. They must have moved to Logan during her childhood. I'm glad the painting has a wonderful room to surround it. The new digs sound great and I'm happy you are all back in the continental US!
Your mom, Pat was born in Logan while Papa was in his last year of college at USU. They were living in the house in Paradise while he finished school. After graduation, eventually he got a teaching position in Lyman, WY. After that they went to Star Valley, WY and taught school there. Then Papa was hired as an agricultural agent at the Crow Indian Agency in Montana. They really liked it there. They had a place on the second story above the garages used by the agency. The garages were heated, so their floor upstairs was always warm. That's what Mama liked so much. It was while they were there that Papa was called into active duty Army (he was a reserve officer upon graduation from USU) at the beginning of 1941. He had to report for duty and sometime during this period of time they bought the house in Logan where Mama would live during the war with the kids. There were a lot of moves during the war, etc. I know at some point they lived in La Jolla and Encinitas and Riverside, CA....I think those postings were before they bought the Logan house, but I could be wrong. Dennis was born in Dec 1942 and was 6 wks old when Papa was posted to Virginia to prepare to be sent to Europe. That is when Mama left Pat and Gary at Oneida with Gma and Pop Bahen and rode the train to Virginia. Gordon was 3 yr. old and got the mumps while they were traveling. I've asked her what she did with the wet cloth diapers, etc. and she has no recollection. She's blocked all that from her memory:) When they arrived, Papa saw this sorry looking little kid get off the train and wondered whose poor kid he was, and then it was Gordon. Mama made the trip thinking it would be just a few weeks before he was shipped out and then it turned into months. She always says she would have never left Pat and Gary if she had known how long it was going to be. Your poor Mom moved so many times because of the Depression and the War. After the war, Papa worked for the VA in LA. I think she had attended 9 different schools by the time they moved to Escondido when she started high school at Escondido High. Thankfully, she was able to attend just one high school and then our family became very stable. Papa made the decision to go back to teaching school just to give the family stability. It was quite an adjustment after being a Lt. Colonel and being shown a lot of respect to go back to dealing with high school students. I hope that clarifies some things.
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