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Yes, once again my cousin's wife has produced her Christmas letter. She finally admits that she uses her calendar from the past year to jog her memory. It's long! But you don't have to read it all, just skim through it. The best part is where they expected to grow 30 cabbages and it turned out to be 96 cabbages. She used to write these things out long-hand but over the past 20 years finally evolved to emailing it. I am always amazed at how hard this woman works to help supplement her husband's income to support their family of four. I added some comments in square brackets.
Season's Greetings from our house to yours this time of the year. I'm looking over my pocket calendar and photo album to help me out with writing this year 2008 letter. It looks to be a very eventful year.
In the middle of January, I was fill-in housekeeper for training a new housekeeper at Edgewood Vista of Spearfish. This gal left on March 27 for Alabama. So in April for three weeks I was fill-in HSKPER due to her leaving. Then from May 16 I started working on Fridays each week instead of Saturdays at Edgewood Vista. On August 11 week had two more housekeepers that quit at E.V. So was fill-in housekeeper for another five weeks. The last four weeks I worked Tuesday-Friday since another Housekeeper worked on the Mondays. Then starting September 15 the Monday Housekeeper went full-time and they hired another full time housekeeper. Since September 25 and 26 I work every Thursday and Friday now. But I miss working by myself on Saturdays now, plus I am getting tired of the HSKING job. I'm still a correspondent for the Butte Community paper called Butte County Post. Since October 22, 08 the local paper Valley Irrigator was changed to Butte County Post. [What a name for a paper.]
On February 11, I was to be on my first day at work at Superior Ammunition east of Sturgis for my part time job from noon till 4 P.M. but I made it only half way due to blowing snow, poor visibility, and icy roads. In the mean time my husband called Superior Ammunition and told the business for me to drive back home, anyway while he was talking to the bosses wife I arrived home thank goodness safely. I did work the next four days and my usual day Saturday at Edgewood Vista and the following all five days of next week at Superior Ammunition and Saturday again at Edgewood Vista. The following Monday, February 25, at 9 A.M. the boss of Superior Ammunition called and said I didn't need to come back to work. Boy did I cry as I couldn't believe the job of mostly wrapping bullets and packaging was all done with. [It sounds like they didn't like her work.]
[The huband] sold our five year old female border collie “Roany†to Paul S[name removed by me] of Marcus, SD in March. Roany had nine puppies born on November 4, 08. She had six males and three females. She had three red and white in color and six black and white in color. We've heard that Mrs. Laurel S has four or five puppies already sold.
C [their oldest son] flew home from Flagstaff, Ariz. during his spring break from NAU [Northern Arizona University] studies in March. We and C helped load and clean brother/young son Ws' apartment at Harmony Heights in Rapid City on March 17, 08. [The younger son was dropping out of college.] W accompanied his brother C in the U-haul the next morning to Scottsdale, Ariz. Since Ws' Cadillac car was not working right and was put in the repair shop at Rapid City. W phoned home and wanted to know if Dad could drive his car to Arizona. So guess what Mom's dream came true that Pa and Ma got to travel to Arizona after Ws' car got repaired. We left on March 25 forenoon and were gone on the trip till March 30. We did stop and stay overnight on March 27 at N's mother's house and other guests were N's youngest sister D and J B___ and their three children [look up in-bred, dysfunctional, and/or weird in the dictionary for a family portrait]. I love the arches at Moab, Utah, Monument Valley, and the red rock formation before Kayenta, Ariz. Arizona was a very scenic state. I also love Ws' rented four bedroom home. [The older son has a Master's Degree in some kind of engineering, and the younger son doesn't like schooling (although he's very intelligent) so he's making lots of money playing poker on the Internet. He and his brother traveled around the USA going to hockey matches.]
In April, N [her husband] planted he thought 30 seeds of cabbage which turned out to be 96 plants. But only 92 survived in the garden with the late cool wet spring they did wonderful. N made three batches of sauerkraut, a couple batches of picked relish. He also froze some for soups. We are enjoying reuben sandwiches and brats in sour sauerkraut. N didn't have very good luck with selling many cabbages just mostly local residents and around a half a dozen at Spearfish Farmer's Market. We also canned 96 quarts of canned apples off of our two apple trees and froze some, too. I was very grateful for a friend who took the windfalls as I was too busy to take care of them due to work. [And all the other chores she does.]
On April 24-May 6, I night lambed for only eleven nights. [This means she stayed up all night helping lambs to be born.] On May 1, had a blizzard during the night of a total of 16 inches of snow. I called Follette's and said I was not going to night lamb that night as poor visibility and it was starting to come down the snow. I was blessed to stay home as I probably wouldn't been able to walk to Follette's barn or get back home by car in the early morning. The county roads was not open on May 2. So I didn't night lamb that night either. Also my hours changed from 11 P. M. till 5 A.M. I liked the hours better as I got my storage room cleaned or boxed up better in the shop. I'm hoping to get a little more spring housecleaning done in the shop this spring or April.
On May 8-11, 08-N and I departed from the Rapid City Regional Airport to fly to Phoenix, Ariz. where our youngest son W met us. [the gambler] We stayed at an Little America Inn for three nights. Ch's graduation from graduate school was on May 10, 08. What a lovely graduation ceremony! N and I flew home on Mother's Day. I got to read most of the book†The Devastatorâ€. It is about the Fall of October 1996-April 1997 when their was a bad blizzard that lasted all winter long. I finished the book during the blizzard on November 6, 08 and the following weekend. We had no electricity for four days and on phone service for two days.
My lambing of my four out of six ewes in May and June was as follows: On May 25 my four year old ewe had twin ewe lambs. That ewe had no milk plus my two year old ewe on June 14 had no milk. So had bottle lambs to feed most of the late spring and summer. The first ewe's babies both died. The go getter “Jessie†died the following Tuesday morning due to we think ecoli. Then the second lamb died on August 21, 08 during the summer. “Jessica†which was 60 to 75 lbs. had died in front of the shed door in the early afternoon due to warm humid day, spoilage hay, or had something wrong from birth. I guess I'll never know. I was so upset as I had planned to weigh her that weekend. As I had plans to sell Jessica and another bigger wether lamb coming up soon. Well that changed everything. Here I had struggled to keep “Jessica†alive on the bottle and her Mom for a good week and most of the summer. She was like a daughter to me [yes, we're still talking about a sheep]. So on September 18, 08 I sold three four years olds, three wether and one ewe lamb, and two two year old ewes at a Breed Ewe Sale at Newell Livestock Exchange. I did keep a two year old ewe and two year old ewes plus a young buck that I purchased the last day in December 2007.
The Belle Fourche River and Horse and Cottonwood Creek flooded the first week of June. As had rain the last week of May into the first week of June with a total of 14†rain plus the blizzard moisture from earlier.
On June 25-29 and July 2 and 3 I worked as Housekeeper at Rodeway Inn of Spearfish. But I quit as to hard of work with to many beds to make and clean in only 30 minutes time and I'm 54 years old. I mentioned to ones that I'd have arthritis before I'm 55 years old if I kept that job.
On July 9, my cousin Ruth and her friend Gene arrived at our house. Ruth wrote two weeks in advance to say she was going to surprise us by coming to SD in July. They had dinner with us and looked at photo albums before driving to Ruth's uncle, aunts, and cousin-John and Mary J, Hazel and Andrew J. Ruth, Gene, N and B [she's talking about herself in the third person] dined in Newell for supper that evening. The next day I accompanied them for a drive on my route to work, to tour Spearfish, Spearfish Canyon, dined at Spearfish Canyon Lodge, and tried to climb Bear Butte but humidity and temperature in the higher 90's or 100 degrees. Ruth and Gene left on July 11 for Minnesota. I had not seen my cousin other than photos for fifteen years.
C [the older son] was home on September 17-20. He helped clean out storage boxes, totes, drawers, worked on our computers, and visited while home. It sure was nice to have him home. We miss them both, but they are old enough to have their own lives. C moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. in August and is presently staying with his brother W. They have done some traveling together in the states [this is where they went to about 30 pro hockey games]. C plans to be teaching at a college near Phoenix, Ariz. in January 2009. W plans to be moving in the near future out of Arizona. He keeps busy with his computer work. [That would be the online gambling. His dad told me about it, I wonder sometimes if his mother knows about it.]
This November I finally started on one of my New Year's resolution which was to work on some of my crafts. I've been making gifts for some of the residents at Edgewood Vista plus have most of our mending done. [Note that mending = 'crafts' because she doesn't know the menaing of the word relax.]
The upholstery business has been slow and steady for this year. I believe March was a busy month. [This is how her husband makes a living when he isn't growing cabbages.]
N and I had a quiet Thanksgiving and think a quiet one for Christmas, too. Unless our sons surprise us!
Have a blessed Christmas and New Year from our house to yours. I hope to hear from you all.
Love, [your cousins]
I was wishing he'd send me one of those cabbages.
