January 1971

This was taken in January 1971 at Larry's Mom's house. In 40 years, we have change quite a lot.

End of the road.....

for 2010.

Best Host

I was thinking how much Daddy loved company. You know his sisters never had to wonder if he would welcome them or if Momma would be mad because they came. What a couple. He talked and she had to scrap something together for supper for them. I do believe she liked having folks come too although she was the one who had to do the work. Daddy was out on the porch by the time company drove in his yard ushering you in the front room and when you left back down the lane he watched usually until you were out of sight. What was he thinking as we left. I know it was not 'glad you are gone'!

Coyote

This looks like a wolf...but it is a coyote. They are getting larger just like the human race. I wonder if it's from eating all those chickens and turkeys and cows that have the hormonal additives in the feed.

Loop de Loop

Study of Genes

I always think I look like Momma, but I really think if I were not so chubby, I would look like Grandma Powell's family. We have the same face shape. Study these faces and tell me who they look like. Need pictures of Grandma Renfroe and Grandma Gladys Garrison, but I am too tired to find them and size them the same size. I tried to get all these the same size.

Erin's Bunch

Erin does not usually get in the picture. This was taken at her Aunt Rhonda's in Branson. I found it on facebook and stole it. What a nice family!

Engineering Minds

Astrid stayed all night last night and she and Pop worked on one of the gifts Santa brought to her house for Ingrid and her. Now, they are not finished, but almost there. They worked way into the night. Gigi went to bed at 9:00. I can't stay up very late. But I wake about 3:30 or 4:00...so it all averages out.

This thing is a roller coaster. After they finish, there is a car that will zoom down the track. Putting this together was a feat. Every connector and beam had to be in the right place. It starts with a package of sticks and joiners. Just looking gave me a headache but it is just the thing Astrid and her Poppa enjoy. He was in the floor with her studying the book of diagrams and they were linking it all together.

I will try to make a video of the car zooming down the track when they finish. I am impressed even if no else may be. As I don't have the patience or skill to study a diagram and then do as it says. But now I can read a big book fast.....so there.

Christmas on the Galla

Here is Laura and Eric's tree. Beautiful is all I can say. You see in the background that we are enjoying a good dinner. Everything was so delicious. Both my girls are good cooks.
This is Mesol (surely I spelled it wrong). She is my niece. Larry's brother Roger Garrison (brother on Dad's side) has a son Dustin who served in the Navy 20 years. He just retired and is going to college to be a teacher or maybe a lawyer. Who knows....but the government is paying him to go and the retirement is not enough to live well. The US Gov pays him a little more each month and will pay for the schooling too. I am his proof reader for English Comp. He told me "WE mad an A!" Meesa (as we call Dustin's wife) is the most interesting person. I truly love being with her. She took a little piece of paper and figured out what animal we all were by the year we were born. I was born in the year of the Tiger....grrrrrrrrrrrr! Laura, too! Erin was a ram. Larry an ox. Dustin was a boar. Eric a monkey. Meesa is a dragon! Oh, Patsy, 1938 was the year of the TIGER, too.

The boys are playing with Clayton's lincoln logs. l to r--Roger Garrison, Larry, Greg and Eric...Clayton in the middle. Old toys are always still the best. Clayton loved the building!

Fleta, I know Greta's eyes look dark, but they are blue just like my other girls. She is beautiful with dark hair and blue, blue eyes! Greta is 2 months old today. Her mother returns to the work world Jan. 15. She would love just to stay with the children...but she is a nurse living to make a living!
Here Clayton is dreaming of going outside and playing the Princess, Astrid's dashhound. He is a great boy. My prayer is that no one dashes his dreams and spirit. He is going to the bathroom and wearing the underwear I bought him. Erin and Greg are only changing one child's diaper!

Merry Christmas to All

Older and Wiser?

I don't usually comment on news I read but I thought this was interesting. Pat Robertson--80 years young--said this on The 700 Club! Robertson is or was a Baptist preacher.

Robertson, during a Dec. 17 episode of "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network, said criminalizing all marijuana possession is costly and ruins young lives.

"We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they've got 10 years," the former Southern Baptist minister said. "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs -- don't get me wrong -- but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people."

Sigrid Stays Overnight

The last thing Siggie's Mom said was "if you play outside WEAR YOUR CAP!"

True Confessions

Ingrid stayed all night with us Monday night. Then Tuesday night she had a friend from another city stay with her. That is Ingie and her friend, Abbie Grace in the tree. The girls always bring their over night visitors to see the novelty (Poppa and Gigi). We have dogs, chickens, tree swings, ladders to help little girls climb trees. I am sure the girls tell their friends that Poppa and Gigi are really OLD! Ingrid likes staying all night because her Poppa does not think the girls should be made to go to bed when they are here. He will stay up as long as they want. Siggie and Astrid get sleepy fairly early. Siggie by 10 o'clock and Astrid might stay up 'til 12:30 or 1:00. Ingie can watch tv all night! She and Poppa did not go to bed until 4:00. She told me that when she was little and stayed all night on Galla Creek Lane. I would tell her she could watch her little movie (Cinderella, etc.) on the little tv in the bedroom and then turn it off and go to sleep. You could not get cable in the bedroom. Well, Ingie, told me that she would watch the movie in English, then in French and in Spanish. Staying awake way into the night.

Eclipsing

Our squirrel hunting friend took these pictures of the eclipse. I could not stay up that late to see all this! The eclipse fell on the same date as the 2010 winter solstice. The last lunar eclipse to happen on the day of the winter solstice was in 1638.

Tuesday was the last chance for those in the continental United States to see a total lunar ecllipse until April 15, 2014, according to NASA.

My Tree--All Lit!

For Greta

This is what I ordered for Greta, Erin. I found it at Amazon with free shipping but it may not get here by Saturday, but she will not use it for a while anyway. It is to help learn to crawl, I think. I could have gotten pink, but I like the frog. It has a mirror so she can see herself as she lies on the stomach.

Chef Larry

Larry has started using his grill/smoker we got on clearance last year at Lowes. His first trial was a tuckey and boy, did it turn out good. He watched videos on you tube to see how it should be done. He used apple wood chips. You can see he is getting the garden ready to plant.

For the Birds

Filled up my bird feeders today. This was the only one with any food left in it. Fleta and I don't think the birds care for this little seed. I put black sunflower seeds and corn out today. I hope the red birds find it soon. I know they are hungry. The poor crows were trying to eat the walnuts I put in the drive to hull.

Pan Handlers

Everyone is a pan handler now days. They are doing it all in the name of good will. On every tv show, in every store, at every door, someone waits begging for your money. Do you want to give to St. Jude's? Teen Challenge? Would you like to give your change to help someone learn to read? I made up my mind to always say no! I would rather give where I know my money is going. Teen Challenge gets reformed druggies to beg. Each store has a pet. K-Mart is St. Jude, Dollar Store wants to teach someone to read? Many of these groups go forth bragging of their good deed when actually a poor old woman checking out in the store gave the money. I don't like to give money to any group that has administrators...for that is where most of the money goes...into the pockets of the folks running the goodness!

I really think if you want to do something good for someone say for Christmas go find them yourself and do the good deed and just keep your mouth shut. The Lord will see what you have done!

Must TRY Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Great recipe...just crack it open and cook!

Greta the Genius

Greta is going to learn things early. Clayton is already teaching her to crawl.

Friends

I met this friend in 1969. In 1973, we got a job at the same school. She retired last year. If you look closely you will see her hands are resting on her cane. All the kids who we have taught think we are sisters. She came last Friday and we had lunch together.

Blood Ties

Perryville, Kentucky! The Chaplin River flows right through the town. One fork of the Chaplin is called Doctor's and there on a farm our own Charles and Sarah grew old.

The Chaplin River is a tributary of the Beech Fork of the Salt River, Kentucky.

The name comes from Captain Abraham Chapline, an early explorer of the area.^[1]

The river's headwaters begin on the knob edges of the Cumberland Plateau near Parksville, Kentucky and the Parksville Knob, flow in parallel with the Salt River proper through the hilly Eden Shale belt and ending at the Beech Fork of the Salt River near the town of Chaplin, KY. The river flows through the counties of Washington, Mercer, and Boyle.

The river flows through the middle of Perryville, the site of an 1862 American Civil War battle. The stream was a strategic natural resource used by both the Union and Confederate armies, though the river is but a large stream at this point in its journey.

I pay $10.00 each month to keep the email address I have had for 20 years. brenfroe@ .....

I get mail once a month or so referring to our Powell pages and yesterday I received an email from a 69 year old retired fire fighter from Taylorsville, KY. They never left he said. He sent his phone number and we talked and I enjoyed so much finding another cousin. His grandmother was Mary Powell, daughter of Lewis. She married Thomas Martin and came to Mo. and died there. He knows all the spots and names well. Not as we do as names in our history but places he has visited and has kinfolk still living. One of his grandmother's was a Young. Related to the one who married Matilda Hilton's sister. One of his Young's of this family settled in Mo. One of the daugher's married a Truman...and had a son--Harry S.

Our cousin's name is Bobby Smith. He is just now learning to use a computer. I could have told him there was hope for him to get it down...because Patsy is now a pro!

Cold Here

All the animals are looking for something to eat. It is so cold.

Galla Gulch

We are thinking of renaming our Feist Kennel--Galla Gulch Feists--as you can see our beautiful Galla Lake is about dry. You can also see the defined channel of the old Galla Creek before the earth dam was constructed and the Lake filled with water. Bonnie and I walked the shore yesterday hoping to find treasures folks had dropped in the water from their boats. We found some poor chap's rusted glasses complete with case, a bunch of mussel shells, and sody cans and beer bottles, but no retirement riches!

Book I Enjoyed

I read this book last week and enjoyed learning of this author's life. She did not have much joy in her life and her father was a nut. The book was really interesting.