Fifty Seven Years

Owls For Easter

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/owsls-for-easter/ 

Today is a bright sunny Wednsday and I have some laundry out on the line. I know WA state and am afraid to put all if it out in the spring! I tried something new this morning when I did laundry. My granddaughter told me she was making her own laundry detergent so I thought I would give it a try. We bought all the ingredients Saturday when we did our shopping and I made it that afternoon. There are only 3 ingredients and water in it and they are all very inexpensive. I will put the link in for anyone that wants to or needs to save money. You can find the recipe, etc. at: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm. It just costs penny's to use. I have heard that most laundry detergents are water and they are! My husband does a lot of mechanic work so gets some really grubby clothes and I haven't tried it on them yet, so am hoping! Today everything I washed came out nice and clean. 

Speaking of my hubby...we have our 57th wedding anniversary this week. We have been together for 58 years because we dated a year before we got married. I can't believe how things have changed in 57 years! We didn't have much money...he was beginning his career in the US Forest Service and I was just 18. He made $4,000 the first year we were married so things were tight but we didn't mind. We lived in a small cabin in the woods close to the ranger station the first 3 months we were married. We felt like we were wasting the $50 a month on rent so found a house close by that wasn't even for sale but the owner had been killed in a logging accident and his widow didn't live there anymore but rented it out. So we went to her house and asked her if she would think about selling it to us. We didn't have any money for a down payment or anything. We were young and dumb and didn't know how things worked! But she was a very sweet lady and after she thought about it, she decided she would sell it to us and she even arranged the loan through a bank with NO down payment. So we bought this small house in the mountains for $3,500.00. Our water came from a creek! And it was good clean, fresh water. 

Our son was born that first year we were married and how exciting that was for me. I was a mother! And had the sweetest, cutest, smartest little baby boy anyone could ever want. And the handsomest best guy in the world for my husband. He was and still is one of the most hardworking men in the world. It has been a fantastic 57 years and I don't and can't imagine my life without having him by my side. 

He hunted and fished, I baked bread, canned fruit and vegetables and even canned deer meat with onion, celery and carrots for stews. I made all of our clothes. We cut our own wood for heat. 

I am in the process of needing a new washer and I think back to my first washing machine! We bought it used for $35.00. It was an electric wringer washer and I had to keep it on the back porch so when I did laundry I had to pull it into the house and hook it up to the kitchen sink faucet to fill it. In the winter or bad weather, diapers, etc. were hung in the upstairs room where my husband put up some clothes line. Otherwise they were on the outside lines. 

Our sweet little girl was born the next year and I was in heaven. I didn't think I would ever get a little girl since boys run in my husband's family. He was one of 6 boys and 3 sisters. On the way home from the hospital I had to stop at Penny's and buy a pair of pink ruffled plastic pants. (My Mom and I had made all of the babies flannel diapers and you had to cover them with plastic pants!) Two years later we had another sweet baby boy. We almost lost him so he was very special. So that was 3 kids 3 and under, so I was very, very busy but I loved "most" every minute of it and would do it over again in a minute. I was young and had lots of energy.

It has been a wonderful 57 years! 

to be continued.............