Ho Hum

No news is good news. Unless of course something bad has happened. But tonight it's just no news. All olds. You want a good story? Talk to the story teller. She is always in the know.

Quote of the Day

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln

SICK

I am sick, my mind doesn't work anymore, I am under attack! Or at least my computer is--it keeps showing a warning that I cannot close saying I have a virus (actually 2) and a bad pool header (I don't even have a pool), and line 4 access denied. I try to restore and it says I have no uncorrupted restore points. Everything seems to work except that I can't close these messages. I have tried safe mode, virus programs, restorations, resets. . . I hope opening my blog doesn't make you sick. I guess I will take this little beauty in to a coputer doctor. HELP.

Names, Names, Names

The top picture is the young Berta Woolley. Isn't my mom cute? Right below her is Mette Marie Eliasen, Mike's grandmother as a young woman. I think he looks like his Danish relatives!

This stern faced woman is Esther Blackmoore, Ruth May's mother. How long ago was this? They must have used the first camera ever made. I think she must have been afraid to get her picture taken. (maybe the photographer was afraid when he looked through the lens!)

Above is Calvin Hopkins, Mike's dad at the start of WWII! Hopkins are Scotch Irish, which gives new meaning to the expression, "To really be Irish you have to have a fifth of scotch in you!"

And below is the young Edwin Evenson. My grandpa. These are all different lines and this isn't even the tip of the iceburg. Oh, brother!

Well, I have been doing family history for awhile. I have been going along and finding names and building a pedigree file and family groups in a Personal Ancestor File (PAF). I have been finding and submitting names on line. So, when I passed 2100 names in our file I was pretty pleased.

Now though there is a new program called Get Your Ancestors. It will automatically search, find and download names into a PAF file from new familysearch that are linked directly to me, or to whoever you put in as the starting name. I decided to use this program and then compare the on line information with what I have already found with my diligent searching.

I put in 20 generations in the search list. I figured there wouldn't be any names past there. The program started up. It ran all morning. It ran all afternoon. It ran all day. When it stopped there were more than 22,000 names! I was shocked. I saved it onto the computer and opened the program. There were all these ancestors--on pedigree charts, in family group sheets, in alphabetical lists. I have to tell you. I was boggled.

But that wasn't all. The names only followed my parents, grandparents, etc. Just Evenson/Woolley and ancestors--NO Hopkins.

So I started over again yesterday with Martin's name. The program found us another 11,000 names. Oh my goodness. I think I will be busy all winter. And I love it!

Happy 100th Birthday

Today is Tumacacori National Historical Park's 100th birthday. We went over to the ceremony to eat good tortillas and enjoy the festivities. We also went to take a look at the newly built museum with a new mural on the wall. The mural is about 8 feet high and about 15 feet long and curves around the wall. Very nice. It depicts the jesuit missionary expulsion from Matape, Sonora. No one knew what the church in Matape looked like, or even exactly where Matape was, when the artist was ready to begin the project 3 years ago. So Martin, Steven, Graham and I jumped into the car and went exploring, finding the town of Matape, other historically interesting sites, some new insects, and incredibly bad roads. We photographed the church inside and out and the artist used our photos in his recreation of history. We were introduced this morning as the photographers. I am sure both Steven and Graham remember taking some of the photos, as well as pushing the car in pouring rain and deep mud. I wish they could have been there today to see their handiwork! This is a small version of the mural (above.) Michael, I think would have enjoyed seeing everyone as well--he worked at the park for awhile. (We said hello for you to one and all!)

For pet lovers everywhere

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Karne, Karne quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Does that look peachy or what? We have been eating peaches for weeks, drinking peachy, icey drinks, eating peachy warm desserts. I am afraid we are coming to the end of the peach season. Who knows though, if the rain keeps up atnight and the sun stays warm in the day we could be eating peaches all year!

Isn't it great what the rain will do for a garden?? Plants are growing everywhere, across the yard, up the wall . . .

A giant gourd plant is growing across the yard and up into the mesquite tree. Mostly it is giant plant. I am waiting for the giant gourds to grow up and hang like mesquite fruit from the branches. Like I said, if the rain keeps falling and the sun keeps shining . . . there is no telling what might grow!!

odds n ends

Mike's sister Charlene and her husband Brad came to visit. Now they're gone. We hadn't seen them for a long time. We caught up on what the kids are all doing, visited Tombstone and stood in the exact spot where Morgan Earpp died on a pool table. Took the mandatory walk across the border and back. Brad broke his leg badly when he was hit by a car some time back. But he limped around with the rest of us gimps. So a good time was had by all.

Weeds, weeds everywhere

It rained a little yesterday. So taking advantage of the damp earth I pulled weeds on the front hill this morning early, before the sun was really up and the heat of the day came upon me. I think I am about 2/3 of the way to the edge of the wall. Who could believe what a lot of work weeds can be. Now all the weeds that I pulled inside the yard are trying to grow back. I have to snatch them up whenever I go by. But, my pumpkins are growing, the giant gourds are beginning to form, there are tomatoes on our plants, and tiny bell peppers on my enormous pepper plant--The plant put all its energy into leaves for the first 4 months of its life. Luckily we have a long growing season. (Unluckily when it comes to weeds.) Oh well.

How do you move a tortoise?

Did you know that tortoises are very territorial? They like their own space. They measure out their own space, pace it off, and defend it from intruders. Yes, the Tortoise Wars are real. But, when you move or decide to send the tortoises off on vacation, say to Disneyland, they become very disoriented.
When we brought Fred and Wilma home it took them a year to pace off the backyard and really feel at home. It took them a year to mate even. I mean that is disorientation. Unfortunately Wilma died before we moved down here. We added 5 more tortoises to Fred's area to keep him company--including 2 females--but he has never recovered. He hates all the intrusive tortoises who are trying to share his space. And he weighs over a hundred pounds. . .
Oh well. After five years here I thought he would adjust. Do you know a tortoise therapist?

My how time flies!!

We are back in Rio Rico. We left Flagstaff on Tuesday morning at the same time that Megan left for class. It is gorgeous here as always. We stopped in Phoenix and had lunch with Charlie, then stopped in Tucson to see Graham and Elysse before finally arriving home.

I was soooo tired today. I don't know why. But I couldn't even sit down and read a page without falling asleep. I did figure out how to make our old scanner work and scan our negatives from the last 20 years of vacations--No, that will not be a one day job, but I was really excited to see how well it works. The monsoons are still with us thanks to the constantly recurring hurricanes. And my pumpkins are growing big, my peaches are turning peachy, I actually love it. That's all from here--Have a wonderful day.