'A Christmas Story' House

 Ever watched A Christmas Story? Every holiday my brother lets me know when the movie is playing on TV. We both laugh every time we watch it.

 Not familiar with it? Click here.

 Well, it turns out that the house where the movie was filmed is in Cleveland. Since Tom and I were there to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I looked up the location of the house so I could take a picture or two and show Bob. It's located at 3159 W 11th Street. More information can be found here.

 Yes, you can actually stay there. The third floor loft can be booked for an overnight stay. Check it out by clicking here.

 Armed with Google Maps, we found the place within fifteen minutes of our hotel, It's well-marked ...

 Those familiar with the story will quickly recognize the "Major Award Leg Lamp" in the window. Here's the scene on YouTube.

Across the street is the A Christmas Story House Museum. It was already closed for the day when we arrived.

 It was a fun side-note to a wonderful couple days in Cleveland. The city, by the way, has a beautiful skyline and we found the downtown streets incredibly clean and the people very friendly.

A Last Goodbye

Mom and Dad on October 15, 2007

Mom's birthday (82) and Dad was 83

 Those happy days as pictured above are over. It's up to us now to make our own happiness. But those two were the lights of my life and I know it's going to be a struggle. Dad died on May 25, 2011 and Mom died on October 29, 2017.
 We've had Dad's ashes here since his death. I always told Mom that we'd hold them until she joined him and then we'd bury the two together.

May 9, 2018

 I had to deliver both cremains to Jeff Sanner (Sanner Funeral Home in West Carrollton, Ohio) on May 9. I sat them both by the back door. Dad and Mom would have both had a laugh that their final hours at Pinehaven was beside the toaster,

 Jeff ordered a fiberglass box to enclose both cremains, left inside their wooden urns. He said he took this picture so I could see how they were placed. He then sealed the box.

 He took the box to Hill-Grove Cemetery in Miamisburg for burial. We held this gathering on Friday, May 11, 2018. Sadly it was Mother's Day weekend.

 I took this picture as the cemetery worker placed the box in the ground. He said the hole was dug to a depth of about thirty inches. That leaves the top of the box not far underground.

 Looking down into the hole a last time, the box was placed at a slight angle and favored Dad's side of the tombstone.

 Attending the burial were Bonnie (l-r) and Sam Owens, dear family friends, Bob, Jeff Sanner and Tom, my partner. Tom, of course, has been a great solace to me these past months since Mom's death.

 I was asked if I wanted to place the first shovelful of soil in the hole and I stepped up and did the deed. I'd rather have done about anything else. Here the cemetery worker fills the hole manually. He said the soil would be topped off and sod laid in the week ahead.

 Tom and I left before the others. We were standing at my grandparents grave when I took this shot.

 And so an era ends ...

Ceramic Archeology

 We leave such telltale clues to our whereabouts with our cast-offs. I often will dig a hole to plant a tree or simply till the garden or a flower bed and turn up bits of old glass, pieces of porcelain, even shards of ceramics with decorations still intact.

 Last week Tom and I were digging a hole to plant a dogwood when he pulled this chunk of dinnerware out of the ground:

 This was without any decoration. It was a thick, white piece of ceramic. The edge is smooth so it's likely a shard of a bowl or perhaps a heavy plate. These things always raise the same questions: how did it get here? who used it? when was it last seen?

 Tom stood and fingered this and asked those same questions. Pinehaven (the house) has been inhabited since the late  nineteenth century. That's when William and Susanna Sholly built the house. But the first owner of the property goes back to 1841 when Samuel and William Fisher bought the land. Which one of these owned this bowl?

 Tom wondered if this was where a dump was located. In those days things were discarded on the property. There was no handling of trash but for what efforts the property owner undertook. A broken bowl would have been thrown to the ground.

 But why so deep? Why was this found nearly a foot and a half down? And why beside Clayton Road? That would have been too visible a location for discarded trash.

 Same reasoning, too, for the outhouse. Surely it wouldn't have been located so near the road. Otherwise an outhouse was a common place to discard broken objects.

 We'll never know, of course. But an old piece of Pinehaven popped up again in 2018 and the answers, though buried in time, don't stop these questions being asked.

Two More ...

 Tom arrived Wednesday (04/25) with two more trees: a beautiful salmon-colored dogwood and a silver maple, not yet beginning to open its leaves.

 We managed to get both trees in the ground on April 26. Here's Tom opening the wrapper on the silver maple.

 The dogwood, a "Cherokee Brave", was grown by Gardens Alive Farms in Smithville, Tennessee. Tom purchased it from Lowe's in a 3.5 gallon container. I've always loved this color, far more than the common white.

 The silver maple (Acer Saccharinum) was bagged and the roots enclosed in a cheesecloth sack.

 We planted the dogwood near the northern end of our property, next to Clayton Road. The tree won't exceed twenty feet in height so I don't expect it will ever bother the overhead power lines. The next day we tilled the area and will plant a flower bed there in the weeks ahead.

 The tree is already in full bloom.

 Tom planted the silver maple just north of the wood pile. It's in line with the kitchen window and will be a different look in the meadow with its green leaves with their silver backs.This tree can grow up to 60 feet tall by 40 feet wide. It'll have room to spread out in the chosen location.

Tree Time

 Tom and I have been talking about planting a few new trees at Pinehaven, mostly as memorials to both of our parents. On Friday (04/06) we drove to Chaney's Nursery in Troy, Ohio and picked up a Northern Pin Oak; on Saturday (04/07) we returned for a Bald Cypress.

 This is one the most-organized nurseries I have ever seen. We actually spotted it when we were driving to Deshler, Ohio, passing by on nearby I-75. I sent an email to them and Sharon replied within a day. Yes, they had Northern Pin Oaks and they were part of a pre-season sale.

 Here's Tom checking out on Saturday after buying the cypress.

 Here's Tom posing with the two trees. The Northern Pin Oak is on the right and the Bald Cypress is on the left. Tom selected each tree. Getting them home in the back of a Toyota Prius was a bit of a challenge, though. The container was placed in a plastic bag, the back seat of the car was laid down, and even so the tree barely fit in the length allotted. I came home in the passenger seat and held on.

 This is the Bald Cypress, the second tree we planted on April 12. It was a beautifully sunny day with a high temperature into the upper 70's but the winds peaked near 40 mph as we worked. This tree will serve as a memorial to Tom's family.

 We planted the Northern Pin Oak first and placed it at the front of our south lawn. We dug a hole about six inches larger than the root ball and deep enough to add a combination of soil and peat moss to the bottom of the hole. In this spot we unearthed an old terra cotta drain tile while seemed to connect to nothing on its northeast end (it disappeared to the southwest and we have no idea where it went). We couldn't remove it so the tree is planted atop it. This tree will serve as a memorial to my family.

 For my own information, this tree was tagged as being grown  by "JFS - Boring OR 97009". the tag is dated 2016. In a bit of serendipity, the wholesale grower of these trees was J Frank Schmidt. Could we have asked for better kismet? A link to the grower is here.

 The Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) is considered a 5' tree in a #5 container (3.75 gallon).

 On Thursday 04/12 Tom drove back to Chaney's a third time and bought a Red Oak (Quercus rubra). We planted it in the meadow.

 It may grow 50' high and spread 45'. I'll love the deep red colors of fall.

Follow up: The bald cypress never leafed out but for one single lower branch. Chaney's Nursery replaced it at no charge. Tom picked out another and we planted it on May 18, 2018.

Perseverance

 Many months ago Tom brought an amaryllis bulb here to see if we might get it to bloom. It was been a study in perseverance. First, here's the final success ...

04/11/18

 It almost wasn't meant to be. Back in March I walked onto our enclosed porch and saw that the bulb had unexpectedly - and even suddenly - shot up a bud.

03/08/18 

 In early April I was hurrying down the basement stairs to check the sump pump. The power was out and water was pouring through the basement walls. I must have brushed against the plant and broken the bloom stalk off. I was sick. I cut the stalk cleanly with a knife and brought the bloom in and placed it in a glass of water.

04/03/18 

 04/03/18

 The next day I noticed that the bottom of the stalk had divided into four "curls" - almost like ribbon candy - and the stalk was shortening.

04/04/18 

04/04/18

 Shorter and shorter the stalk "grew". I was told by a friend that I would need to cut the stalk diagonally instead of straight across. That worked. Instead of getting shorter every day, the bud began to develop.

 04/09/18

 And a month after the mishap the bud began to open ...

04/10/18 

 The lock has just about been sprung ...

04/11/18

 And now, almost fully open, the flower has the look of a candy cane ... pinks and red striations against an ivory background. That was one of Tom's goals, to see what color would surprise us.
 On April 15 there are three flowers open. One smaller bud seems not to be maturing and will probably dry up. But for all the damage I probably caused, this flower has made a noble effort to bloom. Perseverance is Mother Nature's middle name and I have her lesson sitting on my kitchen windowsill.

Clara Buhler

 Over the past few years, Tom and I have had the pleasure of visiting his step-mother, Clara Buhler at the Oak Grove Health Care Center in Deshler, Ohio. She had her 101st birthday this past November. Clara died on March 27 so Tom and I made the second trip in five days for her funeral (we visited on March 25).

 Here's two pictures I took on recent visits:

October 9, 2105 

November 19, 2016

I am thankful that I got to meet her. Likewise I'm happy that Tom was able to meet my own mother.

 Flowers sent by John and Tina Buhler

Woodlawn Cemetery - Deshler, Ohio

Just preceding Interment 

Clara's casket following the ceremony 

Bill (l) and Tom at the reception following the funeral

 I have to make mention of the excellent eulogy delivered by Rev. Ruth Carter-Crist. She researched Clara's life story with family members and made a presentation that was very personal, hardly the boiler-plate services we often endure.