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Old Order Mennonite Memoirs

Tomatoes from our gardens, unless they are preserved, will rot. Sometimes, though, the small amount of ripe fruit doesn't merit the messy setup to can them. Learning from my daughter's friend that one can wash and cut up tomatoes like usual before storing them in the freezer, was a time saver. There they wait, safe and cold, till we get time to 'do' tomatoes.

After my husband and I came home from helping to houseclean Piney Creek church in Wednesday's sun and wind, I got busy with thawing tomatoes, the last pickings from my daughters' gardens and mine. After cooking and dripping them, I cranked them through the Victoria Strainer fastened to the picnic table on the patio. Dipping the redness into pint jars was the best part. Or perhaps it was setting the jars all into neat rows on my sink counter.

The last peppers were also picked and chopped for the freezer last week and from my husband's fields came the last load of golden corn. But the harvesting of golden corn kernels in the Cove continues as does the gathering and baling of corn fodder. We cleaned out gardens and flowerbeds on the lovely, sunny days and on the rainy days we cleaned cobwebs from corners and clutter from cupboards. Finding time to sew seams for little dresses or comforter tops was rewarding.

At the home of Lyla, age 2, her rejected crib was disassembled and removed to make room for a toddler bed. She and her brothers were helpful in cleaning endeavors, even defrosting and organizing their freezer. I enjoyed my time at their home which never has a dull moment.

From three other grandchildren came surprise letters in our mailbox. We were delighted with the letters written and the pictures drawn, but I was most impressed with Dana's language lesson his mama shared with us. It began with a poem by Thomas Carlyle, titled TODAY:

"Here hath been dawning

Another blue day;

Think, wilt thou let it

Slip useless away?

Out of Eternity

This new day is born,

Into Eternity

At night will return.

Behold it aforetime

No eye ever did,

So soon it forever

From all eyes is hid.

Here hath been dawning

Another blue day;

Think, wilt thou let it

Slip useless away?"

Besides comprehension questions, he was asked to write two parts. One was to tell how a boy/girl let a day "slip useless away" and the other how he/she did not let it slip useless away. The composition written by our 11-year-old grandson reminded me of Daniel of the Bible who had a purpose of heart. Was it with a purpose of heart also, that we gathered at Piney Creek church on Saturday for our semi-annual Preparatory services? In the name of Jesus, two sons were baptized: Matthew Zimmerman (Luke) and Abram Nolt (Paul Ivan) and one daughter: Christine Martin (Jere).

It wasn't raining in the morning but the rains came, gently at first, as Rammy took our son and his girlfriend in the buggy to the singing along Hickory Bottom Road. The rains were steady through the night and still drumming strong when I gave the new twin calves their first bottle drinks the next morning before we attended communion church services. I ran to the buggy with an umbrella and it was gloomy inside the church house. We were listening to Bible stories of long ago when the sun suddenly flashed in the windows, brightening our world. The yellow leaves shone, washed clean by the rain. As imagined by S. S. Hagar, "The wondrous shine on autumn leaves must be the golden notes That beat on them the summer through, From songbirds' rapturous throats."

In the afternoon, my husband and I, despite powerful western winds, biked to Seldom Seen Road for our annual trek to look over Morrisons Cove from Lock Mountain heights. It was warm enough for cricket songs and katydid buzzes. Birds flitted, leaves twirled and a deer bounded away.

Writes Nora M. Bozeman:

"I'd like to capture autumn's crown

Of leaves in red and russet brown

Before her splendor's laid to rest

Inside October's treasure chest."

 

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