Memorial Day

As long as I can remember, my mom has planted flowers on our relatives' graves for Memorial Day. I used to go with her, and since I've had kids, we all go with her.

We have a lot of relatives buried in our little church cemetery, including my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and my great-great grandparents.

Just last week an article caught my eye in one of our many farm magazines - 'Living the Country Life.' Brent Olson wrote about how Americans are so mobile now that their ancestors are buried everywhere, but his family's lived in the same place for 130 years, so he's planting flowers at five different cemeteries.

My mom planted some lilly of the valley on my grandma's grave and told us grandma always had them by her back door. I told the boys about the time I was a teenager and planted some flowers for grandma at her house - and wore my bathing suit to do it. She thought it was so funny she took my picture. (A rarity! Those days we had FILM!)

I never wanted to live where I grew up. Now I can't quite remember why.

&&&&

Two calves born today. We had friends over. Their daughter really wanted to a see a calf being born - we saw one in the pasture right after it was born, and that was good enough for her. Kris later pulled one, but he didn't call us because it came backward and he was afraid it wasn't going to have a positive ending. But it was alive!

My friend's husband told his wife, "I don't know what women are complaining about. She was in a barn, having a backward calf, with Kris pulling on it, and she didn't even make a sound!"

Ah, the human/cow comparisons never get less funny ...

Happy Memorial Day!



Anna with her calf and pigtails