Puttering at the Farm

Saying for the day: There is no coffee like egg coffee.

My sister going to Ellis Island this week got me to thinking about my grandfather John who came from Finland.
There are some memories I have of him that I want to share.

First I remember him coming out to the farm ( that’s what they called where we lived) and puttering.
He had a little garden where he planted potatoes every year and he puttered in that.
Then on Friday he would chop wood and haul it down to the Sauna.
After that he hauled water so that it was ready to be heated on Saturday morning.
It took many pails of water to fill the Sauna barrel. ( When he no longer could carry the water my dad put in a water pipe and plumbing)
Then on Saturday morning he would come and light the fire.
He would go back to town and come again just after noon for his sauna.
The entire family followed in groups all through the day.
He really enjoyed that sauna .

I remember him wearing the same hat you see him in in this picture and dressed pretty much in black.
He was sharpening the axe to cut sauna wood.
It was done on an old grinding wheel that was turned by hand into water to keep it cool.
My dad did the turning.
I also remember him making coffee every morning in the “other house”.
The log house next door to us on “the farm” also belonged to the family and was the old family residence from years before.
Gramps would come early in the morning and put the big coffee pot on the stove.
He put the grounds right in the pot.
When it was nearly ready he would break an egg into the pot which pulled the grounds to the bottom.
I would tell my mother I was going to have egg coffee with grandpa.
He always had a good supply of Trenary or Finnish toast.
Which is a small hard toast.
You soaked it in the coffee.
It was so good having coffee with Grampa.

I also have a movie of him sharpening his axe but no way to transfer it to video.

I am so lucky to have these memories.

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News from Pigeon Falls– The little town in my garage where the trains still run and the kids make the laws– Tonight they will swear the 8th grade class in as the council. Tommy , the undertaker’s son, will be sworn in as Mayor. Nobody in town knows what to think. What kind of governing group will they be? What plans do they have for the town? It would seem some people are even a bit afraid. Just suppose they declare every other Friday to be a school holiday or some dumb thing like that.
Mrs. Trumble says if Tommy pushes that stupid White Rabbit law she is going to circulate a recall petition and get him removed. Tommy says that he isn’t afraid of her and will do the right thing. Besides he never asked to be elected so if they throw him out he loses nothing.
Most people in town are Democrats so they are happy over the national election. This political affiliation rises from the days when most of the men were connected to the Iron Mines. There are a few Republicans but they saw the loss coming and don’t seem too upset. Nothing really changed since the local representative was already a Democrat as was our state senator.
The White Rabbit was seen this morning close to the train station. He was waving at the milk train which had one passenger car. Mrs. Trumble was seen in the area soon after in her truck . You could see the dragon slayer (her shotgun) on the seat next to her. Somebody must have tipped her that the White Rabbit was around.
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Today's Link: The Truth be Told- Please remember to put Dr. John in the comment to get those poetic JCPOINTS. Check HERE for your totals. I am extending the Marathon until noon because I can't start counting until then. It looks like people had a good time.
Betty went to the bank and made arrangments for our loan payment to be transfered from our account automatically every month. ( Now all we have to do is keep money in the account0 Betty also did a little gracery shopping. Mr. Sandstrom stopped by with a videotape of last Sunday's service. I spent the afternoon working on the marathon but blogger gave me so much trouble it will be late tomorrow before I finish.( I can't count comments if blogger won't let me get to the comments) . We had some good news. Pennie had an offer on her house. It was low but now she can make a counter offer. If it sells then it will take some pressure off. We will have mortgages on only two houses instead of three. Well I need a breathing treatment and I have a new breathing mask for tonight.
GBYA