My Roots Run Deep

 

Stories From My Family History

Little ONe by Pond

Canoeing

As a kid one of our favorite things to do was go on canoe trips with family and friends. My parents had several spots we could put in and several we could take out. How long the trip was to take determined the in and out spots on the river.  We usually had at least...

Trespassers

One of my favorite places to go and walk through nature is some property we own by the river.  There used to be a bridge that my children had named the Dangerous Bridge, it was old with holes working their way though the floor so that you could look down as you...

Fixing a Car (Not so conventional)

Watching a neighbor work with a backhoe in our field trying to find an old well (that's a completely different story), I was talking to one of my dad's friends about my dad. All the things I know about fixing cars comes from my dad.... though none of it is...

Meal (the one that shaped me most?)

I have the Becoming journal and have slowly been working on it. I was just faced with the question about the most memorable meal. Of course over time I've had lots of family meals that meant a lot to me, and I can remember getting together with friends and family....

Memories from the Table

After moving we stored things we couldn't use in a shed until we could figure out what to do. One of those things was an antique Duncan Phyfe dining room table from my aunt Kate - my Grandmother's sister. My aunt Kate had been married twice and couldn't have children....

Too Much or Not Enough

Every so often I wonder if I did enough or too much for my kids and I think back to how much my parents did when I was growing up. I frequently think about what my parents didn't do.... but there are things my parents did. When I was in school one of my desires was to...

The Honey Bear

Our families first deer, Bambi, came from a man in Danville who had collected animals. He had a wild array of animals and had decided to get rid of them. I still remember going to his house and waiting in the house seeing his monkey and others while my dad went out to...

Buffalo Escape… Why have Buffalo? (Others escaped too)

Buffalo who have escaped in the next county have been all over the news this week. A family that farms has been raising them for meat and a herd broke the fence. The school bus was driving their route and happened to come upon a herd of buffalo and alerted everyone....

4th of July and Building

We are still keeping costs as low as we can, but of course unexpected costs showed up.  Things that the builder didn't mention - I wish I could say they were small - and a couple smaller things that we really wanted added.  The home arrived without wastewater...

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Building a shoestring so far….

I can honestly say that building has been eventful so far and I do fill a little alone, as the one with the past history of having lived in the country before.  This isn't helped though by the fact that I moved off to college at 18 and have lived in a populated area...

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Vaccines! and Nails!

Looking up the coroner's inquest data for Vermilion County Illinois in the historic data - last name McArdle, I was able to find 3 records.   One was my 2nd great grandfather Uriah who was run over by an oxen team saving his granddaughter. One was Charles: MCARDLE,...

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So lucky to have strong role models!

On both sides of my family I've had women that were pretty amazing as role models.   Some are still around and others are just in my family history, but had an effect on the formation of who I am.  If you divide my family into my four grandparents, you will find that...

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Schools and Moving

There are a lot of scary things going on right now with schools for sure ! We've looked at the small school district that I've been seeing a story about an isolation room in a classroom in Loudin County that was  captured by a special needs students iPad.  It's not...

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