Most people up here intimidate me. Not because of anything they say (they are the most unassuming group you ever met) but because of the things they can do. They clear land and build gardens and then they throw together a deck before they go to bed. I get the feeling I'm surrounded by those socialist propaganda people, rosy cheeked and bulging muscles. But they don't look anything like that. Most everyone is over 70. But they still are doers. Not super good at talking mind you, but wicked good at doing.
We came up from Ms. Kate's trail down to the swimming hole to find she had put her cane to the side of the shed and was throwing wood onto her pile that her 78 year old husband was cutting. I asked where they had gotten the wood and they looked at me a little strange. "You can cut a tree provided it is 15 feet from the road and you have a permit." I guess I knew that I was surrounded by firewood. It just never occurred to me that anyone I knew would know how to fell one--certainly not Charlie and Kate.
It isn't just manual labor either. I've never seen a group of people who are better at crafts than this bunch. They take them seriously too.
Every week, rain or shine, ladies get together to quilt for five hours. They donate the quilts and the baby cloths they crochet during the time. I joined them this week. I walked in and they looked up from the two quilt frames they had laid out. One lady set down her crochet hook. After a beat of them trying to figure out who I was, a lady in a blue track suit asked "Can you tie a square knot dear?" I could so I was put at the quilt that was being tied not stitched. I somehow managed to make the quilt frame fall down twice but they were patient and didn't betray what I'm sure they were thinking. How does a grown woman not know her way around a quilting frame?
They asked me what I did for work and I explained my job. They got a little concerned look on their face and said "Well...I think they are hiring at the hardware store. Do you know anything about paint? That is like chemistry." I think I told them twice during the hour I was there that I already had a job. It could be that they were just forgetting. But I think my job just didn't fit into what they thought of as work. So they kept trying to find me a something real.
She Ra
The kids were done trowing rocks off the bridge so we were heading home when a living incarnation of She Ra started to run toward me. She had long blonde hair and stood just over six feet. She was wearing cut off shorts and was so muscly that she totally could whoop Skelator" But she wasn't yelling that she was yelling "Emily!!!!"
This was Amanda. We would play together when I came up to the cabin. She is a fire jumper now. She literally jumps into forest fires out of helicopters. Although, as she told me, "most of the time I just repel in. So it isn't really that cool." "Yeah" I agreed, "totally not cool at all" We went back to her cabin that she had built with her own two hands. On the land she had cleared, with her own to hands. Next to the garden that she eats out of all year and the barn (again of 'own-two-hands' variety) I told her how impressed I was by her ability to do things. "Well" she said, "I'm actually really bad with car repairs. Don't ever give me an engine to fix" Yeah. I'll try to remember that.
We came up from Ms. Kate's trail down to the swimming hole to find she had put her cane to the side of the shed and was throwing wood onto her pile that her 78 year old husband was cutting. I asked where they had gotten the wood and they looked at me a little strange. "You can cut a tree provided it is 15 feet from the road and you have a permit." I guess I knew that I was surrounded by firewood. It just never occurred to me that anyone I knew would know how to fell one--certainly not Charlie and Kate.
It isn't just manual labor either. I've never seen a group of people who are better at crafts than this bunch. They take them seriously too.
Every week, rain or shine, ladies get together to quilt for five hours. They donate the quilts and the baby cloths they crochet during the time. I joined them this week. I walked in and they looked up from the two quilt frames they had laid out. One lady set down her crochet hook. After a beat of them trying to figure out who I was, a lady in a blue track suit asked "Can you tie a square knot dear?" I could so I was put at the quilt that was being tied not stitched. I somehow managed to make the quilt frame fall down twice but they were patient and didn't betray what I'm sure they were thinking. How does a grown woman not know her way around a quilting frame?
They asked me what I did for work and I explained my job. They got a little concerned look on their face and said "Well...I think they are hiring at the hardware store. Do you know anything about paint? That is like chemistry." I think I told them twice during the hour I was there that I already had a job. It could be that they were just forgetting. But I think my job just didn't fit into what they thought of as work. So they kept trying to find me a something real.
She Ra
The kids were done trowing rocks off the bridge so we were heading home when a living incarnation of She Ra started to run toward me. She had long blonde hair and stood just over six feet. She was wearing cut off shorts and was so muscly that she totally could whoop Skelator" But she wasn't yelling that she was yelling "Emily!!!!"
This was Amanda. We would play together when I came up to the cabin. She is a fire jumper now. She literally jumps into forest fires out of helicopters. Although, as she told me, "most of the time I just repel in. So it isn't really that cool." "Yeah" I agreed, "totally not cool at all" We went back to her cabin that she had built with her own two hands. On the land she had cleared, with her own to hands. Next to the garden that she eats out of all year and the barn (again of 'own-two-hands' variety) I told her how impressed I was by her ability to do things. "Well" she said, "I'm actually really bad with car repairs. Don't ever give me an engine to fix" Yeah. I'll try to remember that.
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