A Town the Boys Built

Lori's son & our grandson, Adam decided early last evening to make
himself a Gingerbread House.  He called a friend and they looked over
the task ahead and decided it would take too long to bake and wait for
all the gingerbread for construction.  So Lori sprinkled some Christmas magic dust on their heads and they started dreaming.  Graham Crackers was the solution! and one house was not enough.  So Adam and his friend called all the elves they knew and the crew of 8 began to plan their house. . .then another house,  then a skyscraper, an airport, a church, a hospital,  a casino, a river, roads, cars and even a poor part of town.  If you look close you will find all these places plus many more ingenious touches these Elves created last night until about 3 am this Christmas Sunday morning!  What a delightful village and all eatable!  I wanted to drive down the streets and taste some gumdrops, M & M's, sprinkles, nuts and jelly beans!  If you look close,  Adam still has his eyes open but barely!  When you build a town,  you either live in it, eat it, move it or tear it down!  I wonder . . .what its future will be?

Snow in Ashland

One inch of snow today and all the schools closed! Since we save all the snow for the higher elevations,  it disturbs everyone when it lingers!

All these years in Ashland,  I have never purchased boots!  But, last year, we all spent Christmas at Lake Tahoe in Nevada. . .so I broke down and purchased winter boots, with zippers and heavy linings which required two pair of double thick socks to fit my narrow feet! (reminiscent of shoe store days in Wakarusa, Indiana)  I went to Tahoe prepared!!  And last year and odd thing happened - no snow at Tahoe!  The mountains were bare!!!  Only artificial snow for skiing!  So, I didn't get to wear my new $40 boots!  This morning,  I was delighted to see the snow and rushed to put my new boots on to be sure they still fit my narrow feet!  And as you can see, my brand new boots are great with my Oregon Shovel!  The push broom is all we have to remove this enormous snow fall.  I have refused to purchase any snow removal equipment and seldom have to drag out this broom.  And yes,  there is still snow on the ground this evening! but most has melted on the roads at our elevation.  But if you coming to visit from California,  you'd better have chains for your car or fly in between storms!  Just maybe,  we'll have some snow left for Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Texas

 Our 10 day adventure in Texas over Thanksgiving was delightful.  As you can see,  the weather stayed between 60 and 80 degrees most of the time. Even the beautiful Passion Flower reminded us of the Creator's touch!   Roly and Candy live on a reservoir about 15 miles outside Corsidana, Texas.  Their lake is down 5 feet.  If rain waits too long,  their boat will be dry docked!!! Fortunately,  we toured the lake several times and were aboard to pull in the 40 pound blue catfish which was released back into the lake!  Joe,  Holly's husband had his hands full for the above photo!  Soon after we arrived,  Ashley, Zack and our new great grand daughter, Alice, arrived for the week-end!  She was an immediate hit!!  This was our first touch with Alice!!! Our babies are special! and Alice delights all of us! After everyone returned home but us,  Roly's bought their 10 foot tree and I helped  him wrap nearly 2000 lights around the Fraser Pine.  Just before we left,  all the lights danced to the tune of our child memories!  Christmas trees touch the tender spot in us all and each year we add to those wonderful child memories that we share together with family & friends!
This is in process and will be continued!!!

Indiana Michigan Trip

Traveling to Indiana and Michigan this summer seems like a long time ago and as you can see,  I've inserted other important Freed clan events in between.  We started our journey by having a brief memorial for my sister, Joan and Bud at the cemetery in Osceola, Indiana.  Al Beutler, a long time friend, led us with memories and inspiration.  Larry & Jane stayed with  us overnight in Wakarusa for a grand visit! After a 1949 class reunion the next day,  we visited numerous folks in the Wakarusa, Elkhart area including a wonderful Freed gathering with Tammy, Rick, Kim and Tom.   Then on to Michigan for a week of non-stop gatherings! Do you recognize Scott and Rose,  Judy and Doug, Gary & Linda and Mark's kids?  Jim and Wanda still occupy the old home farm!  Everywhere you look, great memories jump out and grab you!  Everyone is doing ok with reasonable aging miseries.  We were not surprised to find a warm welcome with lot's of great food and conversations.  It's always a blessing to renew family ties. Even though age is creeping up on all of us,  we are thankful for strength to make this trip and hope we have the stamina to make another one soon!

Lori's BIG Move

1065 Hillview Dr.    Ashland, OR  97520
is Lori's new address!
And she has all her stuff at this new
address. . .what a relief!
But as you can see, the work continues re-arranging and Salvation Army trips. You can see her dining area and back porch. We were glad to have Dan, Sheila, Jana and Brady join in the fun of moving!  And would you believe,  the owner allows Lori's 2 dogs and cat,  the legal limit for any resident of Ashland!  The collie's are extremely quiet perhaps they know they are now renters!  In the midst of all the stuff we uncovered some treasures. The middle photo with all the boxes,  front left,  is my mother's green lazy boy chair!  all the way from Wakarusa, Indiana!  The trunk photos were also hers and you will remember it contained all the Halloween costumes you could imagine from an elephant suit for two to a Sadie Hawkins outfit, the mother of Lit'l Abner in the comics.  This trunk must have come from the old country brought to North America on the Mayflower or some later vessel perhaps early 1800's.  It's a classic trunk with lift out drawer.  The high chair treasure is not as old but has lots of memories.  My folks,  Joy and Edgar Freed,  bought this for us when Dan was born.  It was the latest in high chairs made by the Kroll Manufacturing co. It was not only well built, but it was a convertible!  With one simple adjustment,  the bottom flipped and it became a toddlers desk which worked for all our kids!  Imagine,  Dan,  Roly, Lori and Jana as toddlers eating their baby food in this chair!!  It was then loaned out for their kids and we have lost count of those who lived in this high chair since!  As you will note,  the blue original plastic is tattered and torn so the last user made a cover to keep it's beauty!  There are many wonderful memories in this chair and after all these 60 years,  it still looks pretty great and all the parts work including the removable tray!  Our treasures often get pushed aside and forgotten. . .at least for awhile.  But these memories are forever a part of us embedded deep within our soul.  Sometimes it takes a move to uncover those memories that made us who we are today!  We have a great family and we salute Lori who has made a tough move with courage and dignity!
PS.  Wait till Adam and Amanda see their new rooms!!!

Dan's BIG One

In the middle of Lori's move,  the family gathered in Ashland to help lug lots of stuff to her new home about 1/2 mile from Tolman Creek.  Jana and son Brady joined in the fun along with Dan and Sheila.  In the middle of all the cleaning and carrying,  Dan managed to have his BIG 60th BIRTHDAY!  Of course,  Mom made his favorite cake,  a moist yellow cake with meringue and cool whip topping topped with fresh strawberries!  If you enlarge the photo you'll notice 6 candles!  You could imagine what 60 would look like. We probably would  have had to call the fire department with all of Lori's stuff surrounding us!  The girls came up with 60 positive characteristics that Dan has contributed to all of us over the years!  Dan even got a drum roll as he blew out all 6 ty candles!!!  Sixty years is a long time from Brady's view but not so long from my view and we're all glad to celebrate this milestone in Dan's journey on God's great earth!!!

Adam's Big Move

With a room full of stuff,  clothes, shoes, posters and drawers full to overflowing,
what do you take to an unknown dorm that will be your place for the next year?
You start whittling it down to basics. . .very few basics!  Then you begin to think
you don't care, you'll just go and leave it behind,  but maybe, Adam thought,  I will need a few things and maybe I'd better start with a haircut!

Wednesday, Sept. 19 was the BIG moving day to Portland State University, downtown Portland.  The adventure has started!  And Lori, Grandma and I followed along to help.  We were soon reminded what the big city is like:  construction everywhere,  one-way streets, stoplights, people everywhere,  no parking places unless you get a paid permit.  Concrete is everywhere!  In the middle of all this is Portland State.  And at building 625 on the 4th floor is a small room that has become the home of Adam and his roommate.  Most of you have left your children somewhere under the watch of someone else but college is different.  It's the first push towards independence and the safety and comfort of home.  As we left Adam in his new 8 X 16 foot home,  aloneness set in for all of us and a deep sinking feeling as we walked down 4 flights of stairs towards our car, prolonging our departure as much as we could.

Texas in Florida

Who would guess that a bunch of Texans would go to Florida in August?  But here they are in the middle of 100 degree heat, basking on the beaches of Florida! If you were in Oregon on the coastal beaches, it would be 20 degrees cooler than interior temperatures!  I suppose there were some cooler ocean breezes blowing in from Newfoundland!   Roly & Candys  extended family decided to celebrate 3 of their August birthdays in far away Florida!  Of course, Alice from Austin with proud parents, Ashley and Zack stole the show! But birthday cakes and beaches made this event a grand memory!  Blake, Joe and Zack all added another year to their aging process and probably hardly noticed!  We all join in congratulating the birthday people and the family for giving us a glimpse of this wonderful occasion.  And, as you notice,  I, old man Freed,  managed to figure out how to transport photos from Picasso albums on the Web to my Blog!!! But had to settle for limited tweaking on the Google site and if all the folks from Texas will look at the album, you will see what I did. Click on photo to enlarge.

Hummers Are Back

We have a pair of Hummingbirds that stay at our place year round.  Most hummers migrate to warmer
climates during our winter.  Since we only have the two,these feeders last a month without refilling.  BUT, this summer,  all the Hummers in Ashland have found our feeders and the two feeders are lasting about 2 days!!  I can now stand almost directly under this feeder and they buzz around so I can feel the wind of their wings!  A neighbor joined me today but was frightened away because they came too close!!!  These little flying machines are very territorial and actually peck a bird to chase them away.  They are like a squadron of airplanes fighting each other for the right to sit and drink!  There are usually at least 12 zooming in and around at 60 mph,  stopping in mid-air and zooming out of sight in 2 seconds flat!  These Hummingbirds are a marvel of our Creators handiwork and very fascinating to watch!!

Texas Fish Story

Deep in the heart of Texas, near the quiet village of Milford, a suburb of Corsicana, lies a small lake about 10 miles long and a mile wide.  Lurking in the shallows are monster fish just waiting for the juicy toes of swimmers unaware of these nibblers who enjoy such morsels!  The usual bait is worms, minnows, grubs and a variety of spinners, divers and plastic scented worms.  Now and then you nail a 5 pound largemouth bass or what Texans call hybrids, a combination of bass with silver skin that glimmers in the moonlight and usually weigh 3 pounds and up and fun to catch!!!  But the catfish and gar monsters don't come along very often and are usually wise enough to avoid these common baits. Their looking for a chicken or duck, any big meal!  With a 5 foot catfish with a mouth big enough to eat 1 pound crappie,  you have to go prepared to hook this monster!  Then what do you do after being hooked?  We'll have to ask Tyler how he landed this 30 pound sea monster!  And we need to ask Joel and Blake,  Holly and Joe's pair,  how they managed to get that gar on the dock?  If that gar was chasing them in the water,  I'm sure they would have made it to the pier before the gar!  It looks like they were having lots of fun!  You know that they say,  everything is bigger in Texas.

Derrick & Paul in the BIG APPLE

When Payton was 8 years old, Jana and Paul decided it would be a great adventure to take her to visit Paul's sister on the East coast.  Over the years, Payton and Brady have enjoyed this trip to Boston and New York City!  This year it was finally Derrick's turn!  When school was out for the summer, Jana and the other two kids came to Ashland and Derrick & Paul headed East. Of course, they had to visit the Boston Red Sox which turned out to be one of Derricks favorite memories!  Then on to New York City and Times Square, The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building!  They arrived home with lots of photos and grand memories!  We all congratulate you and only wish we could have been with you!

Jaime's World Travels

Jaime,  Dan & Sheila's daughter,  has been in the Navy for several years and presently is on duty in the Mediterranean.  She has seen Rota, Spain, the pier in Jordon and the coast of Africa.  The USS Iwo Jima is an amphibious assault ship and can carry 1897 Marine troops along with a crew of 1009 enlisted personnel and 73 officers.  The ship is 844 feet long and 110 feet wide!  What a way to travel around the world!  When your in the Gulf of Mexico or cruising down the West Coast,  be sure to let us know!!!!

With Jaime's computer training,  she is being promoted to work center assistant supervisor.  Congratulations, Jaime!  You are a credit to our country and we're delighted to have you in our family!