Thank You to Those That Have Served

On this day we remember and honor those that have served and died for our country.  It is fitting and right we do so.

Though I didn't serve in the military, My family has a long list of those that have.  I have no proof, but family anecdotes tell of a relative that stowed away on a ship from London to the New World (illegal alien?), and then fought under Washington in the Revolutionary War.

I have a Great Grandfather that is buried in a town south of here that fought in the Civil War.  A great Uncle that fought in the Aleutians during WWI.  My father served in the Army just after the ceasefire in Korea.

My father-in-law joined at the end of WWII and made a career of being a Navy pilot.  Eventually he died of Agent Orange poisoning while serving in Vietnam.   One of his sons was a Marine officer for 12 years and was in Kuwait City on Day One, and his daughter, my wife, was a Marine until God intervened and we met and married.  Our son in in the Army and has served in Haiti and Iraq.  He has a cousin that has served in the Marines in Afghanistan.

I never served in the military.  I was in that strange zone just after the Vietnam War where the draft was halted, but we registered.  I think that is the beginning of the disservice our leaders are foisting upon its citizens.  That was a strange time in this country and many had the feeling that people should be able to make choices for themselves.  Especially when it came to serving in the military.

But we are losing something when we get to do what we want, when we want.  Some call it spoiled, some say it gives a sense of entitlement that hasn't been earned.  As I was sitting in church yesterday listening to the pastor talk on Romans 5:1-5, it hit me that we have demeaned the gift of serving.  We as Christians are called to serve, but how many really do?  I looked at the people making the service happen.  Most of them served in the military. Some fought in wars.  But the act of giving two years of your life to something and someone else earns them a confidence that is rare today.  A confidence that life can't do much to them.  Life may be painful and unpleasant, but they will get through.  I don't see that in many young people.

I may have not served, but I grew up in the first generation that didn't have mandatory service.  I grew up and was taught by those that did.  They didn't let us forget that we were fortunate and others had served to give us that fortune. Today youth don't have that generation reminding them,and if someone does remind them the young scoff.

That is the disservice to our young and to our country.  We are making life too easy and soon the piper will have to be paid.  Just as those who served did and those serving are doing.

"The Times They are a Changin'," Part Two

About a month ago I mentioned I was going to teach  a new class next year, one I'd never taught before.  I can now say the class is Crafts.  A wonderful man is retiring and the admin wanted to keep Crafts so students would have an elective.  That is somewhat interesting in that they have dropped woodshop, autoshop and cooking/home economics from the curriculum in the past when those teachers retired.  But I digress.

Crafts.  I know a bit of woodworking.  I repair most things around the house.  I've built fences, walls, replaced windows and done some remodeling here at the 'Zoo.  But Crafts implies some fine motor skills and precision.  I'm more in the realm of gross motor skills and jobs that can be covered in sheet rock and paint.  I tend to adapt what I have to fit the job.

This will involve starting from scratch. Crafts will entail plastic, metal, clay and paper mache.  I'm still scarred by my 3rd grade teacher who wouldn't allow me an extra minute on my finger painting project.  I had an idea, but it never came to pass as I envisioned it because the line of class mates was growing antsy behind me.  ope I won't scar a student in pursuit of art when I just want the project finished.  And more so, I hope a student won't lose a digit in the process.

The reality is this is going to be a good thing for me and I intend to make it a class I hope students want to take.  I have some ideas that may be a bit outside the "normal" Crafts offerings.  I'd like to do some practical projects.  With the loss of Woodshop, I'd like to teach some woodworking skills that many students may not be getting elsewhere. How about a 5 panel toolbox they could use? I would like to do a paracord braiding unit.  Paracord bracelets are showing up on our little campus, why not teach them something the students want and may help them in the future?  I'm interested right now in leather pouches and sheaths.  We could explore that.  There are many things that could be done.  And I've been blessed with the chance.

I am more than a bit worried about some things though.  I've never taught in a shop setting.  The photography lab won't help here.  I am overwhelmed with the storage issues.  There are materials, tools and equipment in three different rooms across campus excluding the actual shop.  As much as I can tolerate messy and disorganization, I can't let this happen here.  I'm a packrat, and what I've seen makes me think the previous two Crafts teachers were also.  Not that it's a bad thing.  I'm sure I will be collecting as many materials as I can with the budget given.  I just hope to get it organized in a way to appear less messy.  I've sort of been promised a shipping container, and I hope that works out.  What about older tools and machines?  I don't know pottery, but that doesn't mean I want to get rid of the wheels.  Some need work, so maybe fix up 4 or 5 and use the rest for parts.  But where to store the parts wheels?  Those are the questions I will be answering this summer.  And in some ways it will be a good task.

Don't we all have to "clean" ourselves up from time to time?  This change wasn't my choice in some ways, and certainly not on any radar I was watching.  But it is being viewed as a kick in the seat of my pants that I have needed.  It will be a ride and a hoot for sure.  I guess it also shows that if you are average at enough things and stick around long enough, you will asked to use those skills sometime.

Strange Event at the 'Zoo

Look what Maureen found in the nesting boxes.

This is actually a web copy until I can download our own pictures.

We were both surprised, though we shouldn't be, at the egg found in the nesting boxes.  Soup, our turkey hen, is now laying eggs with her chicken pen mates.  From what I read chickens start laying around 19 weeks of age. turkeys wait until about 32 weeks.

Guess this means I shouldn't have waited so long to process her.  She greets me each morning with a waddle-run cross the pen and a few chirps.  She the expects a back rub as I feed and water the "Girls."

Baseball season is over for the Monarchs. It was a strange year on many levels.  There were many expectations of good things happening, and those things did happen, but in ways and at times that no one could foresee.

We started by winning 8 games easily.  Too easily at times.  The pitchers joked about who would be the first to have a run scored against them.  Baseball isn't played that way.  We lost the 9th game, a tournament championship game 4-3. We played well, never realizing what would happen the next few weeks.

Then we lost a shortstop to a drug bust.  Yes, the undercover bust that rattled the school and made news across the country.  My son called from North Carolina to ask about the story.  We had moved up our first league game to avoid a potential rain storm.  That was the day of the bust, and that was the beginning of seven more losses before we winning again.

The first four games of league and three games in the Easter tournament. Some were close, tantalizingly close.  Some were embarrassments.  One was played entirely in the rain.  Never had done that before.

Then we won against a larger school.  Spirits were rising.  Then an out of character loss with many more errors than runs.  More strange news and loss of another shortstop, this time to grades.

Now came the roller coaster of a win, then a loss.  But something else emerged.  The boys were playing better.  They were playing baseball and there were more wins than losses.  Beating teams by catching and throwing, making no errors, pitching well and getting hits when needed.  Everything the coaches had taught was working.  Confidence soared.

Then an injury to one of our most energetic players.  He had been playing hurt most of the year after fouling a ball off his shin.  This time another knock to the shin and it was a stress fracture. Done for the rest of the year.

A heartbreaking loss to end league and then the playoffs loomed.  The young man with the stress fracture was cleared by his doctor and another chance.  The problem though is that the other team doesn't really care about how you have overcome adversity.  We lost our first playoff game to a team that out hustled us and did the one thing many of our team never learned this year.

If you put the ball in play, sometimes the defense makes mistakes.  Baseball is a game of failure and learning to deal with failure.  It is better to fail as a batter by hitting the ball and making the defense make a play to get you out, than to strike out and only force the pitcher and catcher to catch and throw.  We didn't learn that.

It was a successful season though.  We won 4 league games, up from 1 each of the last two years.  We ended up 13-13 for the season.  .500.  Average.  50-50.  Isn't that what we all really are, good at times and not so good at others.  Again, Baseball is a lesson in life.

Mother's Day Always Reminds Me of Gardening

Here at the Garverzoo Mother's Day always evoke memories and thoughts of gardening.  One year I strayed just a bit and gave Maureen a hammer and pizza scissors.  The main gift was as always, me taking the children and leaving Maureen at home by herself.  So she could garden alone in peace.

I come from a line of mothers that gardened.  Both of my grandmothers, being young marrieds in the Depression, had vegetable  and fruit gardens.  Some of my first memories were going to Grandma Wineman's and eating the fresh berries off the vine.  With Grandma Garver it was the cherry tomatoes and the green beans.     Grandma always had a cellar full of canned vegetables and I can remember her in a gingham apron "snapping" green beans before dinner and me getting to help.

My mother wasn't a vegetable gardener, but her flowers and greenery were always a pleasant sight to behold. The cool summer days spent in the lushness of the backyard that was created by Mom will always be remembered.  Her roses, iris' and azaleas made walking around the house a treat.

With that background it should be no surprise that Maureen and I started gardening just after we were married.  Our first vegetable garden was at the house on Paradise Avenue, carved out of a corner of the back yard.  When we moved to Exeter it wasn't long before we started here.  First flowers, then vegi's.  The first vegetable garden set the tone for much of our gardening here.  We learned that the previous owners like to cover bare ground with rock when they didn't want to grow anything in that place. That first garden involved the process of digging up 4" of sod and then sifting through 5-6" of 3/4" rock to get to soil.  I guess it makes for well drained beds, but each time we expanded our garden, we knew there would be more rock to sift out. After more than 20 years I think we have most of the rock out.  Although we did find a bit more when we removed our last patch of grass this past winter.

So Mother's Day this year?  Spent in the gardens.  Our youngest is going to graduate this year from high school so I don't have to take the children away to have peace.  I did occupy an adult child a bit, but I got some work in return.  It was a day of pruning trees, planting tomatoes and talking to far flung children wishing the two mothers in this house a wonderful day.

The hammer and scissors?  They are garden related also.  The hammer was Maureen's first, to be used and left where ever she wanted.  The pizza scissors make for a wonderful way to cut homemade pizza with fresh tomatoes and cheese.

The E's Have It

Recently the Napa Derr's traveled south to see Grandma and were able to see a game.  I have two nephews called Eli.  One is Elijah and one Elias.  Often the Eli is shortened to E. Even though they come from two different sides of the my family they have met a few times.  This is the first time I think they have been photographed together with Uncle Steve.  And we all have our E hats on.

I've been blessed to have coached my sons and now one of my nephews.   When we travel north Elias always makes sure we play catch, so that counts too.  Always  fun like a barrels of monkeys.


P.S.  We won the game, which we haven't been doing much of lately.