From day one of this disaster I’ve felt a sickness deep in my soul. How much worse can it get, how long will it take to recover, and at what cost to Mother Earth?

This is a link to a site with many photographs that BP, local law enforcement, and even our own Federal Government would prefer that we do not see. I have to warn you, they are heart breaking. As much as I’ve been frustrated by the lack of coverage, I almost wish I hadn’t seen these.

I’ve been frustrated by cake frosting for several years. I bake a special cake, wrap it up to keep it fresh, and return to find the frosting has turned into a sloppy mess. My solution was to serve it in pieces with ice cream tossed on, and figure that no one would then notice the frosting trying to ooze away.

This always sat in the back of my mind but never seemed earth shattering enough to warrant a full on contemplation.  For some reason it came back to the forefront recently and I decided it was finally a problem that I had to solve. I know our memories tend to wax poetically about our childhoods, but I was positive that the cake frostings of my youth really didn’t sweat and drip all over the plate.  So, what was different now? Had frosting changed, was high fructose corn syrup to blame? Or was there something else?

I remembered how my mother, and all the mothers of that time, had cake keepers or stored the cake on a plate with a mixer bowl inverted over it. And I thought about my new and improved ways of preserving freshness with Saran wrap or Tupperware. It occurred to me that I just might be preserving too much freshness and trapping more moisture than the frosting could handle. I decided that I needed a dedicated cake keeper to test my new theory. So I went eBay shopping.

Actually, I did look at new items on the websites of several stores. I considered metal as well as glass. I found that cake keepers can be a bit expensive, at least for an unproved theory. So back to eBay it was. I decided to sit back and wait until I could get a good one at a low price. I sat for a day. As it turns out, most people are on the Saran/Tupperware band wagon and are selling off these old work horses. I had my pick of many lovely old keepers, and very little bidding competition. I selected one that was a dead ringer for the one of my youth. It is in such good shape that I doubt its owner ever used it. I was able to pick it up for a small fraction of what anew one would have cost me. Even if the experiment didn’t work, it wasn’t going to be a big loss.

The final step was to make a cake. It was Father’s Day so I catered to Recliner Man’s belief that the only good cake, is a chocolate cake.  I made it a day ahead of time and secured it in the new keeper. The next day it looked perfect! Success was mine! Then, the next cake I made was a sheet cake and my shiny new keeper was banished to the top of the refrigerator. Go figure.

I’ll end with a picture of another one of my vintage treasures. Who remembers seeing these little darlings on their birthday cakes?

My thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on the blog and in email. I think I have figured this one out. Lets look at the full photo as I explain how I came to my answer:

This photo was marked as being my great-grandfather and his family so I worked on the assumption that all of the kids were his. From that point I looked to the photo for clues.

The trees seem to be in full leaf and not looking too stressed from a long hot summer, that makes me think this was taken in late spring or early summer. As I looked at the ditch and the long pipe beside it, I remembered reading something in my grandfather’s memoirs about a farm they lived on when he was a child and how they had brought plumbing into the house. I re-read the writings and learned that they had moved to the farm in Kansas when he was almost 10 years old in 1908. Soon after moving there, they dug a new well and installed a windmill over it. Then they laid a pipe to bring water to the house and near by barn. I also read how Grandpa’s mother had kept him inside as her helper from the time he was ten until he was 14.

I decided that all of that work would have been too much for one year, plus all their regular farm work. I think they dug the well and erected the wind mill the first year and laid the pipe the second year, when Grandpa was going on 11 years old. I guessed that this was the type of job they would do in the spring, after crops were in, because the ground would be softer and it still wouldn’t be too awful hot out.

I also noticed that the whole depth/size thing was a little deceptive in this photo. Notice how the dad doesn’t look all that much larger than the boy, and how the girl looks huskier than her brother behind her. I shrunk the girl until her head was about the same size as the boy’s head, then I placed her level to the boy. Turns out that there is a greater height difference than you might think.

The final clues were the birth dates of all the children. Putting it all together I come up with this: It is early July 1909 in Allen county, Kansas.  Father, George, age 35 1/2 is in the trench. The toddler, age 21 months, is Everette. Oldest son, Francis, is 12 1/2. He is in the background turned away from the camera. The little girl is Eva and she is 4 years and 3 months old. The boy in the hat is Chester and he is actually almost 9 1/2 years old. The only child missing is 10 year, 10 month old Russell, and we know where he is – in the kitchen helping mom.

We finished painting the living/dining room and I love the new color. It’s a light tan. Light enough to make my color timid husband happy, but warm enough to please me. The nice thing is that once it was all done, Recliner Man actually thought it looked better. I may convert him to the color side yet!

This is what it use to look like. Blah, blah, blah. We took our fair share of breaks so this project pretty much took up the whole weekend.

This is a before shot of the dining room. I guess the white wasn’t all that bad, it just didn’t have much to say to me. It always felt kind of empty and unfinished.

Here is the dining room now. It was a little difficult to get the color just right with the camera. Without flash it was too dark, and with flash a little too light. This is fairly close to it though. The real color is just a wee bit more intense. (Wouldn’t you say so, Boy?)

I had a friend who actually wanted every wall in her house white. She wasn’t content with Builder’s White either, she wanted bright, bright white. I never could understand that as I feel like bright white is kind of stark and lacks comfort. I guess I’m just a color gal and she wasn’t. She probably couldn’t understand why I didn’t want the white. What are your thoughts on white walls?

Seeing these rooms finished has told me two things. First it makes it very clear that I need to paint my hallway next, and second, it has made me more convinced than ever that I want crown molding in here. Where is that Honey Do list and my pen…

I remember going to a state fair once and seeing a little old man who would try to guess your age for a quarter. He was tucked away behind the grand stand with nothing more than his folding chair, a box of prizes, and a small sign. I watched him for a while, snickering each time he guess someone’s age wrong and handed over their prize. I gave him my quarter, smiled as he made a guess about 5 years off,and walked away with my prize. The prize had probably only cost his about 10 or 15 cents, but that little business gem went right over my head at the time.

The only thing that story has to do with the picture is that I can relate to how difficult it was for him to guess a person’s age. I was pretty good with childrens’ ages when my own were young and provided me with a point of reference, but I was always bad with adults. Now that my children are grown I just suck at guessing ages. Period.

Right now I am trying to guess the ages of the children in the photo. I’ve recently discovered a third cousin, and she shared this photo with me. The only thing she knows about it, is that it is of my great-grandfather and some of his kids. Knowing the birth dates of all the kids should make it fairly simple to sort this out, but is hasn’t. I can’t figure out how old they look, so I can’t figure out how many years apart they might be in age. If you are good at this sort of thing I’d love to hear your guesses. It would be nice to figure out if one of the kids is my grandfather or not.