I used to love UPS, too. But after Donny retired we have had a series of new people – a training route they call it. And although we have a 16′ x 20′ sign at the end of our drive the google default for our 235 WEST is the Verizon store which is technically 235 US Hwy 8 and Hwy 63 , that is EAST of town. When Verizon gets our packages, they open them, …
This photo was taken September 19, 1993 at our wedding. Saturday marks 27 years. It also marks 33 months since Ken’s death on 12/19/17. My life is filled with fond memories and gratitude
Yesterday the roofers came. There had been a leak before Ken died around one of the skylights. Ken’s quick fix didn’t hold. I asked around and found a very good roof guy. He was clear about price and possibilities of what he might find under the old metal roof I held off until after Loyal had done the bat remediation. Bats pup in spring and then around mid August they establish their winter homes. So …
This book resonates with both my dance and zen experiences. We need to observe both the thoughts and physical reactions in life situations. The author writes of healing our bodies from extensive, multi- generational trauma. He quotes recent studies that demonstrate how we carry and react in different ways to trauma. As a healer he wants to work for both physical and spiritual healing rather than only the cognitive work. As someone who has worked …
Today we went to an attorney’s office. The attorney had drawn up a trust. The land here is now in that trust and protected from being sold out from under me to pay for a nursing home or medical bills. Instead it will go to this man, Loyal Hunter. Who is he? Well, he came here and lived with us and learned from us almost a decade ago (photo from that time). He left to …
Loyal and I have been learning how much food we need to grow and preserve. We eat some meals together, some apart, and some shared with friends. I offered to freeze corn and he bought some from our friends Josh and Rama at Turnip Rock Farm. Then I got out Ken’s food preservation bible – duct taped together It has times for blanching, times for canning – so much helpful information. I last froze corn …
In sorting through old photos, I have been discovering who I was before I met Ken, who I was before I moved to Turtle Lake, who I was before most of the people who know me now as Mrs Keppers or the Widow Keppers had ever met me. I liked to dress up. I loved to tell stories and “hold court” as a current younger friend calls it And I loved to flirt. And dance. …
Here is what is left of photos from two apple boxes of photos and slides. There were so many because we took so many – photos of how we grew food and how Ken made pots – all for marketing. There were also photos from two trips. December 1990 to January 1991 early in our relationship. Ken and I went to Mexico. Looking at the photos made me remember the kindness of a man we …
In June I had to have this clarinet repaired. The rear register key on the section above in the photo was stuck and that meant anything above A in the G clef wasn’t happening. When I went to pick up the clarinet I asked Clark if there was something I could be doing for maintenance. He explained that the little metal joints that bend when I press the valves do need a drop of two …
I started a couple weeks ago when it was blistering hot. I decided that sitting near a fan and sorting photos would be a good project. I was right. Better to sort during those long cheerful summer days when it’s too hot to work outside than to sort in the long dark cold nights of winter when the darker Scandinavian side of my personality emerges. For the most part I felt deep gratitude for the …
