Square Dancing

August 6th - Friday Sunny and Cooler

On Wednesday night square dancing was a bit different. We started out with a picnic at 6:00 pm; however, Lou and I were not able to attend that portion of our evening. He has been working with the mechanic at our garage trying to install the new towing hitch on our new car and they have had one problem after another. This project started on Tuesday and isn't completed yet. Hopefully, today will finish up the project.

Back to square dancing, there is a group of square dancers throughout New York State that like to camp and they met at Ives Run to camp for the week and this group of retired people joined our group for an evening of dancing. Some of the square dancers belonged to groups that had closed and no longer dance on a weekly basis, others still belong to active groups. We all joined in and had a really good time. Their colors are red shirts and white pants and for summer our colors are just "casual" some of our seasoned dancers do wear the Canyon Square green shirt. We had three to four squares dancing at all times and a good time was had by all that attended.

I wished I had remembered that I had my camera with me earlier, as the pictures I snapped quickly was as we were all preparing to go home.

Yesterday, my granddaughter, Michelle called me and asked me if I would join she and her mother for lunch at the Native Bagel, I was baking at the time she called and I quickly finished up that job and went into town with them and spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the two of them. Michelle is getting excited about going off to college at the end of this month. In fact, we are planning a trip to Elizabethtown in several weeks so I can see her campus. This also should be a fun time.

Tonight is square dancing here and I need to get things cleaned up a bit before everyone arrives. We are having sundaes for our snack tonight. One of the girls have the recipe for Gus's Candy Kitchen hot fudge sauce and she is making that to bring along. For those of you that don't know about Gus, he was the gentleman that owned and operated The Candy Kitchen in Wellsboro when the majority of us were in school and what a treat it was to have $.25 to stop in at Gus's and have a hot fudge sundae and a fountain Coke. The shop is gone now as is Gus, but the memories are very vivid in all of our minds.

Garden Produce

August 2nd - Monday - Partly cloudy 85 degrees

Here we are back to Monday and back to the jobs at hand. We had to run into town to do some errands, after doing the laundry and getting it on the lines.

We had fired the kiln on Sunday so was anxious to see what everything looked like. This is a hobby that Krista and I share and with her treatments for cancer last year, she has not been up to the task at hand; however, she feels like she wants to get back at it and Lou also wants to get his hands into the task also, so Kris has poured and we are awaiting the greenware to dry enough to be cleaned.

We have been driving into Wellsboro each morning to walk and then to Lou's house to check on things there and pick up his paper and mail and with the bridge being out this takes us the majority of the morning, so by the time we return home it is lunch time and that really doesn't allow us much time to do the tasks that come with each day.

The garden is growing great and we are harvesting something each and every day. I am in need of time to do some canning of beets and green beans and want to make some pickles, also have yard work that needs to be done so every day seems full to the rim, like everyone else this time of the year.

You can see that the Kentucky Wonder Beans are just that, and we keep adding string for them to climb up. We had green beans, beets, cucumbers and summer squash for dinner last evening, and as Lou said, who needs meat with all of this; however, I fixed some fish and a baked potato for us.

Today, he is off to Mansfield to have the hitch installed on the car so we can haul the car behind the RV. He has a gentleman that will do this for him and Lou helps him do the work, so hopefully the hitch will get installed today and the wiring will wait for another day. We are planning on going to a SMART Muster next Thursday, so time in running out for that also.

I am off to cut the grass and trim off dead heads from the roses, as they are soon to bloom again. We have not been troubled by Japanese Beetles this year, for which I am thankful for.

Dinner with Friends

August 1st - Sunday - Showers off and on

Lou and I were up bright and early on Sunday and quickly did up what we needed to do as we knew we would be gone for the majority of the day.

We attended our weekly church service and due to the fact we have a bridge out between our house and our church we need to travel about 12 miles to go the normal four miles to church. Seems like we forget about that until we are about to leave, then find we must hurry once again.

Our sermon was on "stuff" that we gather here on earth and our pastor told us that she didn't think she had ever seen an U-Haul hooked to a casket, thought that was food for thought. After cleaning out several homes, after a death, I try to be very careful about the amount of "stuff" I hold on to and my new husband has a problem with the things I take to Goodwill, as he thinks I might need it sometime!! I just remind him that my kids aren't going to have the mess to sort through, if I can help them while I am alive I intend to do so. This became very clear to me after the death of my husband and after his body was removed from our home and I looked around at everything we had both worked hard to achieve and all of a sudden it no longer mattered, the one thing that did matter was what was awaiting him in Heaven and I knew God in all of His goodness had a special place prepared for him. The "stuff" no longer mattered and I went through my things at that time and gave away many things that I thought the kids and my friends would enjoy using now, not after I was gone and I am ever so glad that I did. I have seen first hand how estates, money, belongings and treasures bring out the worst in people and if I can do anything now, to prevent this from happening while I am alive I intend to do so.

After church, we drove to Lamb's Creek Inn ( a wonderful restaurant in Mansfield owned by Nell Rounsaville, a special friend of mine from Wellsboro) to meet one of our SMART couples and their son and his wife from Troy for brunch. I had not met their son and his wife, but soon found them to be as delightful as their folks. I don't know where the two hours went, but we sat and chatted the whole time, as we enjoyed all of Nell's special foods. This is a buffet that is served each Sunday and it consists of many foods for breakfast to a full dinner. The desserts are to die for and I always save extra room for them. I kidded Lou about coming back the first time with creme puffs, and his comment was he wanted to make sure he got at least one.

As we were telling each other goodbye, we walked through Nell's unique gardens and enjoyed her water displays and flowers that are so expertly maintained by her staff. It is truly an enjoyable place to visit, but do plan to stay and see all that is available.

Dinner on the Tioga Central Railroad

July 31st - Saturday - Beautiful day

August 12th is my husband's birthday and it is very difficult to plan something for him that he has not done before so once again I was faced with a couple of challenges. The first being we will be out of town on a SMART Muster on his birthday and what to do special for him.

I came up with the idea of dinner on the train. This is something that Lou had not done before; however, riding the train is "old hat" to my children and me. The boarding depot to the Tioga Central Railroad is approximately one mile over the hill from our home. The railroad was built in 1872 to carry coal out of Antrim, PA. It no longer carries coal by regular freight service between Wellsboro,PA and Corning, NY is maintained by the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad.

The train is equipped with two dining coaches, a coach that houses a fully functioning stainless steel kitchen, where all of the food served on the train is prepared. The only exception to this is the dessert that is served and that is purchased from a local concern.

The train also has other coaches for open air sight seeing, a coach that is named Canyon Club, which is the Snack Club that serves light fare and refreshments including beer and wine. Two locomotives are used on each train, one for moving the train north and the other for the southbound trip. A baggage car comes along for the ride and it is equipped with a diesel generator to provide head end power for lighting, heating and air conditioning.

The Train crew are all uniformed and each know their responsibility of seeing to their riders. The owner of the train, which resides in Downingtown, PA was very hospitable and stopped at each table to chat and answer any question that came up and simply to share information with each of us.

We boarded the train at 6:00 pm and were shown to our table that was complete with white linen tablecloth, napkins, gas oil lamp and fresh flowers. We dined with a couple from Ulysses, PA that were also celebrating a birthday. The gentleman was also a pilot, so you all know that Lou and he had much to talk about. His wife was a wonderful lady to chat with and she was so grateful for the "surprise" her husband had planned for her.

We were immediately served a cold drink to enjoy while the rest of the folks were seated. Once underway we were served a delightful light pasta salad and fresh homemade rolls and butter. It was not long before our main course was served with included fresh locally grown sweet corn, twice baked potatoes on their delightful crisp skins, barbecued ribs and a grilled chicken breast. It was a meal fit for a "working man", and we all had difficulty finishing our meal. For dessert we had our choice of fresh strawberry shortcake on homemade biscuit or a cheese cake tart.

The ride and the view was wonderful, and we had fun using the map provided to show each other where we were and what was coming up. Lou was astonished at how close to route 287 the train ran, he had not noticed it before, but you can bet he will now. Hammond Lake was a busy spot, many campers and boaters taking advantage of the perfect weather and evening. Many Wood and Mallard ducks were seen, some deer and a variety of birds.

We arrived back at the Depot at 8:30 pm and all agreed it was a wonderful evening and an experience that we would all remember.

I had mentioned that riding the train and eating on the train was old hat to my children and me and the reason for that is after we moved to Ohio, we came back and forth to Pennsylvania by train. It was a wonderful experience traveling with three small children for the twelve hours that it took for our journey. Mother and Daddy would come to Elmira, NY to pick us up and the kids had many stories to share with Grandpa and Grandma of their adventures of eating, sleeping and playing on the train. In fact, we rode the last train from Ohio to Pennsylvania prior to the flood in 1972. The end of an era.