McKillipKlan

blogging

Well, my poor blog is neglected.  I'm so sorry.  With Facebook and email and blogging I'm a bit overwhelmed.  As well as trying to keep up on the family business website, I'm done in.  My husband has his own business and I have mine.  My business looks to overtake my life right now, so postings here will most likely be slim.  Sorry about that.  I have a few short months to teach my kids school, as much as they can get in the winter months before our small farm gets swamped again and I need all hands to apply themselves to the work at hand rather than book learning.  I suspect that was the way it used to be in days gone by, but in order to run this place I need myself and one other adult to work full time every week, come March or April.   No other adults are here, so it's me and the kids.  While John runs his business of landscape maintenance/snow removal/big game hunting, I'm in charge of plants.  Starting seedlings, planting gardens, weeding gardens, and harvesting.  I'm hoping to be at market by mid-May this spring.  I'll keep you posted! 

Rest in Peace (or never overlook the value of prayerful relatives!)

My brother Jim posted this to my comments yesterday after the funeral, as always he is much more eloquent with words than I.  Love you Jim.  Uncle Paul will surely appreciate your fervent prayers for his soul.  May he rest in peace.  I enjoyed my day with my brothers, sister, and cousins, aunts and uncles, and little nieces and nephews.  I hope one day to have so many prayerful relatives who are as committed to my eternal soul!  God love you guys, you're the BEST! And Jim, someday we have to publish your modest works of poetry. 

Dear Uncle Paul, The distance belied by your amazing wit and unrelenting smile always made me wonder. All:
The funeral today, 11/14/2009, was beyond words. If choirs of angels have more beautiful voices than that assembled in love today then the majesty of God is most assurdely beyond our comprehension. I must first and foremost thank our Lord Jesus for blessing my uncle with the gift of a holy death. He received last rites and holy communion. Not long after he became virtually unresponsive and a bit more than 48 hours later he died. ...
The day was gray
Overcast and heavy
Leading to the
Funeral mass. Broken hearts cried
Again the remembrance
Of the calvary Sacrifice. If not for He then
There would not be
The joy beneath
This sadness of parting. Proceeding from the church
We walked.
A snow had started.
Gentle, soft, like a kiss from God. The somber procession
Quietly marched to the cemetry
Next to the church. The world was quieted.
Snow thick and soft. There in the stillness,
'midst the others,
Monsignor said the final prayers.
The honor guard folded the flag
And presented.

Taps was played...

Home sweet home

After being gone for two days in Boulder, CO for my uncle's funeral, it is certainly good to be home.  And to be reminded of our short days here on earth.  The church was packed, there was an outpouring of love that was amazing.  U. Paul sang in the choir at Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church for over 30 years.  The choir did a beautiful job of singing.  The monsignor was lovely in his Mass and homily.  And it snowed at the cemetery.  A gentle, big-flaked, white puffy snow.  U. Paul's young grand-daughter wore his hat from Vietnam.  Evelyn, a little red haired child of four, spoke most eloquently at the reception.  She said, "This is my grandpa's hat, he wore it in the war.  And I miss him very much."  Not a dry eye in the place.  I saw cousins that I haven't seen in years, people who couldn't make it to our annual family reunion found the time to drive/fly to the funeral.  The most sad part of the day, was that his brother in AZ, my dear U. Tom was too ill to make the drive up.  He, too, is battling cancer.  Somehow 60 something just ain't looking so old these days.  I do love this odd, crazy family.  It's like coming home after a long trip to sleep in your familiar bed and see your faithful dogs....when you walk in the room and see all those family members laughing, drinking, smoking, telling bad jokes and smiling, you KNOW you're home.  I hope it's like that in heaven.  I want a huge room reserved with all my dear family waiting for me when I get called. 

Veterans Day

Today is Veteran's Day, a day to remember all the sacrifices made by our men and women in the military and to commemorate the ending of WWI. 

It is also appropriate that my wild uncle decided to leave us today.  He passed away just after midnight.  He was a Vietnam vet, flew three tours there, flew helicopters in and out of the jungle.  You had to really know this guy to appreciate his mad-man like approach to life.  Does life on the edge of death in a war really do that to a person?  I don't know.  Is it in the genes?  I don't know that either.  All three of the boys in my father's family are/were wild to a fault.  Hard drinking, smoking, hard living, fun-loving fellows.  If they were in the house a serious party was going on.  Except that my dad never drank, those boys did enough for him I guess.  I'm going to really miss my uncle.  He taught me to ski when I moved to Colorado in 1986.  Took me to the top of the mountain and said, "see you at the bottom!"  Well now.  Scared the shit out of me.  I made it down, but I never really learned to ski.  He helped my buy  my first Colorado car and taught me where to go and what to do in Colorado. 

The parties, the family reunions, and him trying to teach the latest baby of the family to say "shit" all come to my mind.  That was his name for all of us, "you little shit".  No matter how old we got.  He was hysterically funny, but sometimes I don't wonder if that was to hide some of his emotional pain.  I'll never know.  His three children and two of his grandkids were there at his side as he left us.  Charlie his dog was faithful till the end.  I was fortunate to be able to get up to Boulder to give him one last kiss good-bye.  And I had the last word this time U. Paul.  Love you lots, see you soon.

Paul Francis Enright 1940-2009

Lord grant me the strength

  to accept the things I cannot change. 

  This week has been one of those weeks.  My cousin has had her breast cancer return, she is 35.  Yesterday I got word that HER father, my dad's brother, has inoperable lung cancer, and today I got word that my dad's other brother has extremely advanced leukemia and is facing imminent death.  My family is exceedingly close.  I grew up with my uncle who has lung cancer.  My poor cousin has to face her own health crisis while her father is far away facing his own crisis.  I am burdened with the enormity of it all. Today is certainly a gift, and tomorrow is not a guarantee.  Family is so important.  Hold tight to all that is dear.

USDA hardiness map

Map of my area for hardiness.  So if you are in this area, you might find this helpful.  We are 5A zone and parts of Elbert county are 5B zone (a bit warmer).  Just trivia for you this am.

Finished!

The high tunnel is done, done, done.  Talk about a project from hell.  Totally took over our lives for months, and now we have conquered the monster.  I hope.  Here's praying that it holds up to our high winds we get here at 7100'.  But the tomatoes and cucumbers are happy.  After I harvest all the seed from the lettuces and spinach, I'll replant spinach and some other hardy greens for winter salads. 

Ducks are my new favorite critter, an hour watching ducks play could be as effective as an hour of expensive therapy or prozac, not positive, but just saying they make me feel mighty good inside. 

Funny~

  I needed a laugh today, really quite badly and this nice lady made my day with her posting.  A video from Tim Hawkins.

 

I do blog, honest I do...sometimes

  We have been taken up with the duties of daily life around here.  We cleaned out our basement and got ready for our homeschool.  Today we are playing hookie from our chores and driving up to the Denver Zoo.  I have two young boys who have never been there!  Can you possibly believe that?  Child abuse or mommy burn out, one of the two.  Pictures to follow later!  The weekend should be one of relaxation, and a mini-family reunion with all my siblings and their families, I'm looking forward to a nice few days.

Margin

Long ago I read a book on margin in life.  The premise was to find areas that were taking up too much time and not allowing one for time to simply breath and recharge.  I scoffed at the idea then.  Because, who could really afford "time" for such a luxury?  I'm NOT laughing now.  We, as a family, are in desperate need of margin.  I think I need to go find that book and re-read it.  We had a nice family meeting, which I always love because it allows to to all talk about how things are going and what changes each member would like to see or make.  We all agreed, we need more time and the head of this household needs to spend more time on himself and less time on work.  He fits every singe definition of work-a-holic.  bummer.  But we are working on change.  So that is progress.  I hope that we can stick to our plan!