Monthly Archives: July 2013

31 07, 2013

One Word Wednesday – PICKLEBALL

By |2013-07-31T06:12:13-05:00July 31st, 2013|one word Wednesday|0 Comments

Not a word I made up.

Not a game played with a pickle.

Pickleball is a racquet sport which combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis.

It’s not something new, though it is sweeping the country today.

According to Wikipedia, the game originated in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington at the home of Congressman Joel Pritchard, U.S. House of Representatives for the State of Washington.

He and two of his friends returned from golf and found their families bored one Saturday afternoon. They attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock. They improvised with a whiffle ball, lowered the badminton net, and fabricated paddles of plywood from a nearby shed.

So why is the game called PICKLEBALL?

The popular story told today is that it was named after the Pritchard family dog. As the story goes, the whiffle ball belonged to the dog. Whenever an errant shot happened, Pickles would run and try to get the ball and hide it. They named the game for their dog’s ball, “Pickles’ Ball”, then it became Pickleball.

The truth is the Pritchard family didn’t get the dog until 1967 according to Joan Pritchard so actually, the dog was named after the sport.

Pickleball offers great exercise, but it’s not as strenuous as tennis. We have a little “league” here in the San Luis Valley and play several times a week.

A great diversion from sitting in the chair at the computer. The exercise clears my head and stimulates my creativity.

Here’s a video of Pickleball action. (Not our league)

YOUR TURN:What do you think? Is Pickleball a game you’d like to play?

29 07, 2013

Beyond and Behind the Story

By |2013-07-29T05:51:39-05:00July 29th, 2013|Beyond and Behind the Story|0 Comments

One of the question authors are most frequently asked is where do ideas come from.

Today, I’ll be sharing the background behind Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise These two books tell the love story of Alex (Ace) Cabot and Lily Reed Johnson.

Though not a series in the true sense of a book series, Love in the Morning Calm is the Prequel and tells how Lily and Ace met and fell in love. The Pendant’s Promise picks up the story twenty years later.

The idea for Lily and Ace’s story came from my personal experience at Eighth Army Headquarters in South Korea. What was I doing in South Korea at Eighth Army?

That’s a story in itself.

My husband is a retired Army Reserve officer. He completed R.O.T.C. during college and at the height of Vietnam War received his commission when he graduated.

With a military background – my father was an Army Air Corp officer, I was proud that my husband joined the Army Reserves…until his first unaccompanied assignment.

The thought of being stateside while he served at the Korea Procurement Agency, Eighth Army, South Korea, was not appealing.

It was so unpleasant that I sold our car, purchased airline tickets for our toddler daughter and myself, and followed him.

Jerry-SaraE7-2

During our time there, I worked as a Department of Army Civilian (DAC) at Eighth Army Headquarters in G3. 8th army HQ

That’s why, in the story, Lily is a DAC at G3. I knew what it was like. You might recognize the picture from the cover of Love in the Morning Calm.

lbj-in-korea-12Both novels are fiction loosely based around Lyndon Johnson’s Southeast Asia in 1966.lbj-in-korea-4

The characters in Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise are  figments of my imagination, but I confess they have some traits of people I met during my time at Eighth Army G3. (That tee shirt saying, watch what you say or you might end up in my novel, is actually true.)

The setting is accurate though I’m sure that Yongsan Compound has changed dramatically since we were there.

If you’re read either Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise, you might recognize some of these places.

The parade field in front of Headquarters, pictured here from 1966.2276276862_8th Army hdqtrs

Korean busThe PX 2240085375_ PX Yongsan

                         The military buses

Next week, I’ll be sharing more photos of places around Seoul that I incorporated into both stories.

YOUR TURN: Do you like seeing “real” pictures to compare to what you imagined when you read books?

26 07, 2013

Missing Eggs – Miller Farm Friday

By |2013-07-26T06:40:03-05:00July 26th, 2013|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Rachel came into the house the other day saying, “Mom put some shoes on and come with me.”

I’ve learned not to question, but just go. We went into the neighbor’s yard while I tried to guess what lie ahead without asking aloud, “Is there a chicken next door?” or “Have more quail escaped?”

I followed Rachel through the fence in the back of the neighbor’s yard, and there in the corner was a little “nest” with five eggs.

missing eggsIt seems the younger chickens, who had just begun to lay, were unsure exactly where they were supposed to put their eggs.

We do have three very nice nest boxes complete with wood shavings, but sometimes the nest boxes are occupied so I guess the younger chicks gave up and went elsewhere.

We briefly considered giving the eggs to the neighbors as rent payment for the chicken’s use of their yard, but realized we had no idea how long they had been there and did not want to inflict rotten eggs on anyone – especially our neighbors.

This does solve the mystery of why we were getting so few eggs. We assumed it was the hot weather, but clearly, we just weren’t looking in the right place.

Silly humans forgot–chickens don’t always do what you want.

24 07, 2013

One Word Wednesday – Storms

By |2013-07-24T06:43:03-05:00July 24th, 2013|one word Wednesday|3 Comments

storm quote from Edie

Storms.

They  come in all shapes and sizes.

They’re not just about the weather.

Relationships can bring on storms.

Storms can also be about the times of stress and strain in our worlds.

Good storms like building an addition to our homes or moving to a new place.

Scary storms like a wildfire near your home.

Edie Melson shared this great graphic recently on her blog. I think St. Francis de Sales sums up the best way to address any storm, any time, any kind.

What do you consider non-weather storms in your world?

Do you have any secrets to share about weathering all kinds of storms?

22 07, 2013

From fires to holes

By |2013-07-22T06:32:17-05:00July 22nd, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

The fires are dying. Firefighters are moving to other locations or going home to wait for their next assignment.

You’d think after all the drama of living in a wildfire that we’d sit back and enjoy the calm.

Nope. From one adventure to the next.

We began the garage addition to our new home that we’d planned to start in June.

The very large shovel (I have no idea what its technical name is) arrived one morning last week at 6 a.m. to start excavating.

???????????????????????????????I was so excited for two reasons.

One, the equipment meant we were actually starting what we’d talked about and planned for the last year.

Two, my son and his family were here. My two grandsons got to watch heavy equipment wipe out concrete and dirt.

mikemulliganEven my son was excited to be so up close to a steam shovel at work. He remembered I read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel  when he was young.

We both knew that the machine in the front yard ran on diesel not steam. For that matter, so did the entire neighborhood. Diesel exhaust stinks! And big machines are noisy.

The steam shovel in Virginia Lee Burton’s story was named Mary Anne, but our shovel looked like a male so I named him Stanley. Our driver was Steven, but he told us to call him Digger. ???????????????????????????????

Digger and Stanley worked hard for two days. Down came concrete retaining walls. Crunch went the steps to the house. Large stumps were no match for Stanley and Digger.

rock2Even a ginormous boulder rolled into Stanley’s jaw like a fly ball to center field.

Our contractor Jeff brought his backhoe to shift dirt around, but Stanley’s wide jaws were no match for the little fella. He couldn’t keep up!

???????????????????????????????We’re excited about having a garage before the snowfalls and during the cold winter months of mountain top living in Colorado.

The lovely walkway with steps from the driveway is gone. ???????????????????????????????

But we never considered we’d trade fires in the backyard for a major hole off our front steps.???????????????????????????????

We can only enter the house through the back door by walking around mountains of dirt.

dirt2It’s going to be a long project adventure!

Have you ever began a much anticipated project and been surprised by the reality of the process you had to go through?

19 07, 2013

Silly Chicken – Miller Farm Friday

By |2013-07-19T07:15:24-05:00July 19th, 2013|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

Another blog from Chicken Wrangler Sara

Saturday morning I went to let the chickens out and discovered this:

hen in with chicks

A giant quail or a silly chicken in with the chicks.  Upon examination, I determined it was the latter.

The day before I noticed the cage door in the roof was open, but since this is the cage that requires a step up to reach, I’d left it open.   Oops.

A group of hens roost on top of this cage at night and apparently, this hen had fallen in.

I was headed to help with a garage sale at my school and so I didn’t have time to figure out how to get the chicken out. I left her there hoping she would not die of a heart attack.

She didn’t.

In fact, when I returned, she had managed to get out on her own.

I discovered that by using a stick, I could close the door without getting a cinder block to use as a step. Since then everyone has been where they are supposed to be.

I’m hoping that continues to be the case.

15 07, 2013

Life in a Wildfire Conclusion – I hope!

By |2013-07-15T06:12:26-05:00July 15th, 2013|Life in A Wildfire|3 Comments

Last blog I ended with a cliffhanger-

Rio Grande County Sheriff Brian Norton gave the all clear for residents of South Fork to return to their homes, but because the fire was ACTIVE, we’d remain under in pre-evacuation status.

???????????????????????????????If we chose to return, we should leave our cars packed and backed into our driveways ready to pull out again on a moment’s notice. The shelter would remain open for those who did not wish to return.

Tough decision.

Buster and Toby thought we’d moved permanently to the motel in Monte Vista. They’d climb in the car with us and wait patiently while we took our meals at the shelter for evacuees.

Undecided about what to do, after the Friday update, we made the trip to South Fork to check on our house. Smoke greeted us.

Heavy, mask-wearing smoke.

smoke on way home-leftWe left the dogs in the car and did a preliminary inspection. On the hill behind the house, we found a firebreak created by the firefighters.

The black area is the firebreak.
The blank path is the firebreak.

We also realized how many trees and how much dead vegetation we had around our house.???????????????????????????????

Wouldn’t the wise thing be to stay where we were until the fire was more contained?

We took the dogs and went inside. Once we opened the front door, both dogs rushed to sniff around familiar surroundings. Toby jumped on our bed and watched as we discussed what to do.

After eight days in hotel rooms, the place seemed huge. With the windows closed, there was no smoke indoors. We had plenty of room to walk around. A kitchen to prepare healthy meals. Our own bed and pillows.

We decided to wait until after the a.m. briefing on Saturday and make our decision.

But once we returned to the motel, to living out of our suitcase in a cramped space, we knew we’d go home no matter what the report said the next day.

We arrived home around noon Saturday, June 29th, nine days after we’d been told to evacuate. The smoke had lifted some.

By Sunday morning, all smoke had lifted. The dogs and I went on our usual five-mile walk. I was amazed at how normal things looked. You’d never know behind the mountain peak beyond our house nearly 60,000 acres of the West Fork Fire burned. walking 1st wk-left

We were glad we’d come home.

Then just to remind us who was in control, lightning struck a tree two streets away and caused a small fire.

lightning treeA scary sign that, while we might have a roaring inferno behind us, a small lightning strike could start a closer fire.

For two weeks, we kept one car packed with what we wanted to save. The other car ready to be loaded with our clothes, food, and dogs when (if) the next evacuation call came.

Smoke came and went. Aviation planes flew overhead dropping retardant and water buckets, weather permitting.

Now the July monsoons have arrived. The fire crews are shrinking. Few planes are flying.

Yesterday containment was up to 66%.

Today a Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) team arrived to begin their initial assessments of the after effects and develop a strategy for emergency stabilization and rehabilitation.

Same as the BAER team we’re creating defensible space around our house.

We do live in a forest. By choice, our lives center on living with the fire possibility same as we live with the bears, turkeys, and deer.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

We love it!

Fires, bears, squirrels, deer, and all.

12 07, 2013

Dr. Seuss Chickens – Miller Farm Friday

By |2013-07-12T05:53:47-05:00July 12th, 2013|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|6 Comments

A blog by Guest Blogger Chicken Wrangler Sara

Somewhere in our family history there must have been an expert in animal husbandry. That is the only explanation for our fascination with having baby animals.

We started with a leopard gecko-breeding colony complete with incubator in the closet. There was even a thermostat on the incubator to control temperature, which determined the sex of the baby lizards.

After the reptile phase, we moved into a rodent phase – the rodents being guinea pigs. We had around 30 of them at one time and even won some awards at local guinea pig shows.

Now we are in our fowl phase, and we are hatching eggs regularly.

The latest batch is the offspring of Samson and assorted chickens. Samson is our feather-footed rooster.

It was no surprise that the chicks have feathered feet.  The crown of feathers on their head is what makes them interesting.

seuss blog2-edseuss blog1-ed

I think they look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Do you agree?

10 07, 2013

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY – Finished!

By |2019-01-08T21:21:25-06:00July 10th, 2013|one word Wednesday|1 Comment

hemingway quote on finishing

All I can add to Hemmingway’s quote is AHEM!

I finished the prequel to my debut novel, The Pendant’s Promise last spring. The sense of relief – wonderful. The shout of hallelujah probably heard round the world.

Then my publisher took over. I waited to see my FINISHED baby released to readers.

Somewhere in the midst of all the smoke and fire that has consumed our lives these last few weeks, that release happened.

Caught up in that living fire story, I didn’t get to promote the much anticipated release day.

Today I’m spreading the word…

LOVE IN THE MORNING CALM, Prequel to The Pendant’s Promise is now available.

MorningCalm_7_dUse these links to get your copy.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/186U8IG

Apple: http://bit.ly/188Ob1n

Nook: http://bit.ly/10MYQJC

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/14ITsaW

If you’re wondering why the prequel comes after the story, you’ll find the answer in a blog soon!

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