birthday gifts abound

With my birthday on June 29, my daughter's on the 10th and my grand-daughter's on the 18th, here's a few of the gifts flowing through the house.   The box my fitbit zip arrived in.  About the size of a silver dollar, this computer chip rides with me in my pocket to count all the steps I take--that is, literal steps with my feet.  It tells me how many calories I burned.  I can log in what I eat, etc.  And my health should sustain a while longer, maybe decades longer.  Thanks, family, for the gift.  Hunch:  probably cost pretty much.  Two-- how to shop these days?  Order two shoulder bags online and send back the one you don't want.  I kept the bottom one, and used it daily already at the Hymn Society conference in Richmond.  Three, and most exciting--one of Leah's 2nd birthday gifts.  Art work by Dorcas

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tap the maple

Yesterday Joel came out after work and helped me tap the sugar maple. We used grandpa's brace and bit. As soon as the spout was tapped snug the sap almost flowed. Here's how you can do it.

grandpa's two-man saw fells oak

L. to R. below--Ryan, me, Joel, and Milton gathered today to bring down the oak. It never truly lived since it left the nursery. It must have suffered poisoning at the contruction site before we got it for free. For two years I had hope. My father's two-man saw takes it down and then slices the trunk into short logs. Think of that, cutting up a tree without any imported materials such as gas! Then it was hot chocolate with marshmallows in the kitchen.

boldly on to e-bay

Cupboard raids can yield treasures, too. Dorcas found the creamer and sugar bowl with lid on Good Friday.

No cracks, no hidden defects. Showing some use on the gold trim. She acquired this set when the girls home in Long Island was closing down. Let me guess about 1978. They were left behind and she rescued them.

We used them in the era when grandparents, Ivan and Della, Lester and Elva, visited our home at 542 East Orange. Mikasa Rosetta, if you like names. Give them to re-uzit?

I put them on e-bay kind of for the fun of it and to keep in practice. It's been a year and a half since I put something on e-bay.