Last Day at the Homestead

Tuesday, August 10th - I woke up first and headed to the kitchen for a little tea and Bible reading while folks were sleeping. However, Lea Ann called while I was fixing tea and in order to get a decent signal without waking Kent, I headed into the backyard in my nightgown with the cell phone and a Pennsylvania Gazetteer to help Lea Ann with directions. While we talked about her coming to visit, I saw the delivery truck from Home Depot coming down the road with the new riding lawn mower on it. Just after it came into view, though, they stopped and started backing up. I began trotting to the front yard. Oh no! They were backed up to the next driveway down and were preparing to turn around. Now imagine a crazy woman with humidity fluffed and curled hair carrying an atlas and jumping around on the lawn in her nightgown. Don’t you think you’d notice? Took the driver and his helper a bit of me arm waving to stop their turnaround procedure and come back down the road to the house. By this time I was so humiliated that I tried to wrap the atlas around me and rush into the house while Stephanie, with much more clothing and dignity on, came out of the house to take over. Since we woke up from the warmest night of our stay and the excitement of the riding mower loomed, we decided that cold cereal would suffice for breakfast. By the time the dishes were done Kent was firing up the mower. He gave it a tryout. Then I had a few rounds on it. And then Kent instructed Stephanie on its use and she set to work looking like an old pro.

Mindie and I visited and worked at bagging Costco-sized cheese and large packages of meat into small packages for the freezer. Kent finished up his list of things around the house that he wanted to check or do before we left. Kent decided to give Stephanie a break after a couple hours of mowing. As he finished the last of the yard, we ladies cleaned up the house.

Just after Kent finished the mowing at 12:30pm (~ 3 hours and 1.5 tanks of gasoline), Lea Ann arrived for a visit. So good to see her and so nice that she and Mindie overlapped to see each other also. It was like old home days. Mindie left in time to go home for a short nap before working third shift and with much assurance that Stephanie could call on her for anything at all. I found it very reassuring and I so appreciate that she is someone I know I can count on.

Lea Ann stayed on for dinner and Steph did all the cooking. It was delicious. We really enjoyed the fresh produce while we were in PA. We had fresh green beans, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes and chicken sautéed with mushrooms, onions, and sweet pepper. A summertime feast! While the visiting continued, we moved to the back deck to watch for Bitty Bat, as it has been named, to emerge from his sleeping spot next to the back door. We were also treated to a praying mantis and a tree frog that peered down at us from the edge of the roof over the mudroom. We ate ice cream, watched fireflies and listened to crickets and peep frogs. It was very peaceful. We were so glad to have Lea Ann with us for the evening. We have the nicest friends!

Before we got too tired, Kent and I gathered up our things and prepared for our departure in the morning. Stephanie baked fresh zucchini bread and we looked forward to the loaf she was sending on the road with us. I hated to go to bed knowing that when I woke up it would be a very short time until I was on my way and would have to say goodbye.

This puts the size of the yard in perspective. Stephanie actually did at least 1/2 of the mowing that day but I didn't get a pick of her...


These were some of our evening visitors...