Early October, a warm day: Stopped on the way back from Warm Mt. School with Jeff so he could watch the loader clumping logs into the mill pond. He really liked the big splashes. Even Clarke was straining from his car seat to see what was going on.
I put in a picture of the Upper Ranch just to have some fall colors~
The previous weekend, when I was picking grapes out at the ranch, I heard squeaking near my feet and found a baby meadow mouse with its eyes still closed. I took it down to the house to show the children and the two older ones each took a turn holding it. When I put the little creature back in the grape leaves the mother came and got it.
I talked to my dad on the phone. He’d brought my mother home and was managing so far. He said he had had a cup of coffee with Leonard when he left here and then stopped to see the Hislops in Redding. When he got to Castella he talked to Joe Ammirati and called the McLeod’s so he didn’t get home to Nehalem until midnight. I talked to my mother for a few minutes but she could only say “I know” and “well”. So tragic. My dad said she was trying to write with her left hand. He had ordered a wheelchair for her.
One Sunday I took Eric and Linda Ohde and Rebecca out to the ranch to pick apples. I dropped Clarke off at Linda Lindsey’s and when she asked whether any of my kids wanted to go on a picnic with them Jeff opted to do that. They went out to the Canyon Creek cabin where they played in the sand and ate watermelon. After we picked apples we stopped at Big Bar Station for milkshakes on the way home.
Clarke had words for foot, bird, clock, ball and daddy.
October 13th: Bob went to a school board meeting. John Underwood called and asked me to be a judge for the high school float parade.
On a Saturday Bob went looking for the store truck so he could haul culvert. It turned out to be in Lewiston at Dick’s and Dick had hidden the key someplace in the house. Bob ended up hot-wiring it and going to Redding to get culvert, hauling it out to the ranch, then returning the truck. The next day he drove our pickup and Mike and Tim Quinn, along with Marlen Lee to help put in the culvert. He put a dam across the upper end of the culvert, just below the house, and extended the downspout. The boys were good workers and he was pleased with the results.
I went out with the children around noon and built fires in the stoves because it was cold outside but no one came in. I did heat up water for tea for them though. I picked two boxes of red apples and two of green. Rebecca and Jeff wanted to help so I let them go up the ladder and pick some toward the end. We got home around six but Bob not till nearly 8. About 8:30 the fire siren went off and when I went outside I could see a red glow out West Weaver toward Hooper’s. Their guesthouse burned.
I subbed Friday afternoon at the high school .
Bob left for Victorville again. He drove to Sacramento and then flew from there and would be gone all week. Gilda Sanders called to tell me about two service award dinners that were coming up the next week.
Called my parents again. My mother was starting therapy two days a week at the general hospital. Her leg was hurting a lot.
The high school called and wanted me to sub and I said no. The next day Lewiston called but I couldn’t teach because I was committed to judging the parade. Marne Wilkins, Walter Miller, Mike Harris, a woman I didn’t know, and I were the judges on Friday. Rebecca and Jeff watched from near the Joss House with the Warm Mt. school group and I picked them up there. Clarke was at Linda’s.
Bob got home late Friday night. We went to the cabaret Saturday night, put on by the Republican women. I wrote that I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time.
It was almost the end of the month. We went to Florence and Leonard’s for Cheryl’s 18th birthday. One afternoon I took care of Matt Hooper for an hour as Jan had to make a sudden trip to Redding. That evening we got Christy Forero to babysit so we could go to Cedar Stock Resort with Del Williams from Victorville (picked him up at the airport) for a Service Awards dinner. The next day Bob, Del Williams and I left for Garberville for the Service Awards dinner for that area at the Benbow Inn. Gilda Sanders, Barbara Dewitt and Jim Barrett were there too. The children stayed with Florence and Leonard. The next day we flew back in the company plane.
We were both really tired that day but Bob went down to the office that night.
It started snowing October 30th around 9 a.m. By evening there was just a skim on the ground. I took the children over to see the Great Pumpkin Contest. Rebecca and Jeffrey stayed to eat lunch, then went out to Warm Mt. School and Janet and Mike brought them back about 4.
I made Jeffrey a sheet ghost costume. Rebecca wore an Indian costume that Cheryl had worn. Sunday I took Robin Meyer, Rebecca and Jeff trick-or-treating, then to the Parish House where we met Peter, the exchange student from Switzerland. The children crawled through a spook tunnel and watched a little puppet show.
November 2nd—went to Redding to do a little Christmas shopping, leaving Jeffrey and Clarke with Linda Lindsey. Got back about three in time for a conference with Meg Challis and Pat Nunn (from Weaverville Elementary School). Bob had gone to Garberville the night before and wasn’t home yet at 11 p.m.
A couple of days later Jeffrey had a temperature of 102 and I was hoping he’d be well enough by the next night to go to a marionette show in Redding. He was, and I left Clarke with Linda for an hour—then Bob picked him up—and took Robin Meyer, Rebecca and Jeff, and Bev and John Forero. We met the Meyer family there and saw Mike and Janet, Mary Ann with Susie and Scot, Mrs. Parkan and others. The marionette program was excellent—“Hansel and Gretel” this time. Afterwards our group went to Sambos for sundaes, getting home around 11. Jeff slept going down and coming back; John and Rebecca coming back. That was a Thursday.
Saturday we went out to the ranch, meeting Bob at the creek for lunch. He cut the big log in the creek into three pieces. We stayed until he was through using the chainsaw, then went up to the house. Brad Miller came out with his boom truck to try to lift the logs out of the creek but all he succeeded in doing was breaking the boom. Bob went with Brad when we left so he could give Brad a key to the gate so he could get his truck out.
It was warm in the sun but chilly when the sun disappeared. I stayed warm because I was picking apples and hauling the ladder around but the children got chilly and quarrelsome so I hurried through with it. The biggest and best apples were up on top of the trees, out of reach. The doe and her fawn were in the orchard with us.
Sunday Bob worked putting molding and the door sill in his shop. He had two coats of varnish on the walls, the molding on and the floor tiled.
Both ducks disappeared. They either just took off or got eaten by something.
Jeffrey washed most of the breakfast dishes one morning.
November 10: Bob had gone to Garberville the day before. He was supposed to come home on the 10th but I called Gilda that afternoon and she said he’d be home the next night. That evening Teresa Blair called and told me the same thing—he had gone over with Ray. He was supposed to meet some PUC people but the weather was too bad so they were going to try again the next day.
That afternoon I went to pick up Jeff but left him there because he wanted to participate in making bread sticks. I decided I might start leaving him out there for a whole day since we got charged for a whole day for him anyway. “I am still concerned about the fly situation and noticed the restrooms weren’t clean. I hope no one gets the public health people out there. They are so good with the children.” (reading this now I can’t believe it’s me! I’m such a germ freak.) Clarke had a cold and had been “following me around for three days, fussing.”
November 17th: We left the children with Florence and Leonard and drove to San Francisco, eating dinner in Redding, arriving at Candy Fields’ cousin’s around 10:15. They lived in one of those old brown Victorian type houses with narrow rooms and high ceilings. The cousin, a building contractor, had painted the house in bright colors; his wife had done a lot of decorating and had collected a lot of old furniture. (I have trouble believing we actually arrived at the home of someone we didn’t know at 10:15 p.m.) The next day we went to Stacy’s Bookstore in S.F. and a bookstore in Sausalito. We went to dinner at a place in Oakland that was made from an old railroad station and railroad cars. From there we went to the opera. “Our seats were grand tier and we were in the front row, right in the middle—Il Trovatore. It was great—ponderous, grey, gloomy sets, etc. We especially enjoyed the gypsy.”
We left S.F. after breakfast the next day and got back to Weaverville about 5:30. Picked up the children at Senta Moore’s. Florence had taken them to Linda’s and she had taken them to Senta’s. They were fed and ready to go home.
I got sick at 2 a.m. and was sick for the next two days. Linda took the kids Monday so I could rest.
“Bob had to be in Covelo Monday night and back here Tuesday morning so he could meet Bob Powell and another man at the airport. They went to Hayfork and Hyampom Tuesday afternoon and to Trinity Center Tuesday night. He got back at 8:30 Tuesday night with no dinner yet and wasn’t feeling very well. Ate soup and crackers. I’m really getting worried about him with this frantic schedule he is on. Today he left at 7:30 and was going to Willow Creek, Hoopa, then flying to Garberville. He’ll be back tomorrow night. “
I was supposed to substitute Monday and Tuesday but I called to say I couldn’t. Bev Forero worked instead. Jan Hooper wanted me to watch Matt on Wednesday but I told her I wasn’t feeling up to it plus I had Rebecca home with a sore throat and swollen tonsils. “Rebecca asked me tonight if I’d be alive when she got married. I told her I hoped so…that both Bob’s and my parents were alive when we were married and are still alive. She has discussed the death of the Nichols boy’s father with him and this may be bothering her. Plus she may have been reading some things about death in some books like the Nancy Drew books, etc. “
Rebecca stayed home Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She went to school the following Monday but Pat Nunn called and said she wasn’t feeling well so I went to get her. She took a nap and then went to piano lessons. Bob was in Garberville Monday night.
“Friday night I went to Redding with Candy Fields to see the Yugoslavian folk Dance group at the Civic Center. It was an excellent performance and, even though I was still quite tired, I enjoyed it very much.”
Bob spent most of the weekend working on putting the supports in for his bookshelves. Saturday I walked downtown with the children. Took the wagon and pulled Clarke once in awhile. We went to the library. Met Bob at the Brewery for lunch. Jeff rode home with him and Rebecca, Clarke and I walked. Sunday we drove to Lewiston and back so Bob could look at a building there that someone in Garberville might have wanted to use for a plastic furniture factory.
Jan Goodyear babysat Monday night so I could go to my music class. I substituted Tuesday. Bob spent most of the following Friday on Oregon Mt. and that Sunday afternoon went up to work more on the translators. It was after 10 pm when he called and was on his way down—still hadn’t had dinner. He said there was about six inches of snow up there.
We invited Chuck and Pat Hamilton and their two children, Linda and Paul, for Thanksgiving dinner. “Bob spent most of the day cleaning up things in and out of the house—driving me frantic! Rebecca had an apple drying for a doll’s head and that ended up in the garbage but was rescued (later Clarke picked up the doll, chewed on the head and nearly swallowed a straight pin that was holding the eyes (beads) on). Anyhow, we put two tables together, used the linen tablecloth and everyone seemed to have a good time. We had a 21 lb. 14 oz. turkey. “
Called my dad and he said my oldest brother and family were on their way down to see them Friday.
Bob worked in his shop putting up shelves and Florence and Leonard told him they had a desk he could have.
I was reading a book called Teaching as a Subversive Activity and wishing I could teach that way.
Monday the high school called and wanted me to substitute for a teacher who had had her wisdom teeth removed and wanted me to be there by 9:20. I got dressed, washed dishes, gathered Clarke’s stuff together and took Jeffrey and Clarke to Linda’s, Clarke still in his pajamas. The teacher had her roll book at home so I had a time with that. Tuesday I took sheets of paper around and put names down but received at least one fictitious name. I subbed Tuesday and Wednesday also. No big problems except for one World History class that really gave me a bad time. Monday night I went to my music class and gave Dick DeRosear the book Teaching as Subversive Activity.
Bob went up on Oregon Mt. Tuesday night again and finished up there. I typed a letter for him to the Translator Company so he could get paid for his efforts.