A few weeks ago my mom and I ventured out into our "junk" yard in search of some old galvanized tubs to upcycle into decorative planters. It's a small area at the far end of a piece of what used to a pasture area for various animals. Through the years it became a place to park old pieces of farm [...]
Growing up, I often would hear Paul Harvey's radio program The Rest of the Story while helping dad around the farm. Mostly it was during harvest time. The Rest of the Story consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) [...]
Looking back on my life, I have come to believe that, yes, things happen for a reason. I am not a terribly religious person nor am I a big fate or karma believer. I just simply have found that there are things in my life that if they had not happened, I may not be where I am today and [...]
Today was the annual Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in Heppner and it made for a very fun small town Saturday. Last night they had a boxing match called a “Smoker” defined as the informal name given to an illegally staged and unregulated boxing show of the early to mid-1900s. The day had many festivities scheduled. In the morning was a [...]
Last month I wrote about how all of my best ideas often come to me while I am in the shower- a little TMI , I know. (TMI means too much information, mom-hehe) Well I am thrilled to tell you that the problem has been solved! And in a pleasant twist of fate, the arrival of the solution has saved [...]
The best posts that I’ve ever written, you will never read. Wonder why? It’s because my best ideas and blog posts are written in my head, usually while in the shower. When I am done, the ideas, words and perfect phrasing are sucked up through the bathroom fan with the steam. During a call with some fellow bloggers this past [...]
<sigh> I had to bit the bullet this month and resign my beloved Connecticut license plates. I keep telling myself that it had to happen but I have to admit it is the last little piece that proves I lived there. Well, okay, if I am being honest I am also going to miss what that CT plate did for [...]
I saw many posts on Facebook about yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration. I totally missed watching but I did catch our local version just a week prior. Our little town has been doing this student version of the inauguration for the past three decades which covers the inauguration of seven Presidents. Please pardon the crude transitions in my [...]
My love of books and reading started very early in life. I loved to crawl onto mom’s lap and have her read me a story and I have vague memories of story time at the our tiny town library. In my elementary school years (that’s grammar school for you easterners) I remember coming to town in the summer to go [...]
I have been spending time browsing Pinterest and getting inspired to up-cycle and re-purpose things. Who’s with me?! So you may know that we have this old house that I have dreams of remodeling some time in the coming years. Well, the house happens to currently house all sorts of family treasures! I spent two hours at the house this [...]
I don’t know about you, but I love to play games. I have fond memories from my youth of sitting around the dining room table enjoying family game night with my parents and sister. Even when we traveled, we had some laugh-filled games of Uno. While at my sisters house a month or so ago, I came across a stack [...]
I knew I would have days like this; days when I missed my life in Connecticut. When I would feel lost with no place to go because I am miles from anywhere. I am happy to be back, make no mistake. However when you need to get out of the house and socialize or people watch, rural Oregon doesn’t cut [...]
Today I found myself missing the excitement of going to a polling place to cast my vote. Here in Oregon, everyone votes via mail-in ballot. I have a vague memory of going to a polling place with my mom when I was younger but until I moved to Connecticut I had personally never been to a polling place. I remember [...]
I have been reflecting lately on the things no one told me to expect when I went off to college and into the big world. When you live a certain way all of your life, you assume everyone lives that way. If I could communicate with my teenage self, here are some of the things I would share. Dear teenage [...]
One of the biggest differences between my life in Connecticut and my life here in Oregon is the amount of bugs. They are everywhere… seriously everywhere…. in the country. I have decided that Pixar should do a sequel to A Bug’s Life and cover the variety of bugs I encounter in the country. There would be “Dusty” the Squash Bug [...]
The smell of chili simmering in the crock-pot is filling the house today. As I lay on the couch watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls and smelling the chili, I was back in Connecticut. Funny how a single smell can trick your mind into thinking you are somewhere else. I close my eyes and I am back in my little [...]
Today is the final day of the blog challenge. The topic is: Link up a post you wrote on this day (September 28th) from a previous year. If you didn’t publish something on the 28th, link up a post from that week. However, since I just started blogging a few months ago, I do not have any older posts to [...]
Continuing on with my blog challenge, today’s topic is:Share either your favorite fall craft or autumn recipe. Or share what you’re eying on Pinterest. I love, love, love cookbooks. Mostly for the amazing pictures of food. The cook books that I look at over and over again are the ones with pictures for every recipe. One of my most used [...]
Today’s blog topic:Share one of your favorite fall memories with us, or something you look forward to each fall. Boothe Park, Stratford, CT ©Heidi Nelson If you search Google Images for “autumn in New England” you return dozens of breath-taking photos filled with fiery hues. Picturesque foliage, ablaze with color. Before I moved to the East Coast those were images [...]
Today’s topic for the blog challenge is: Show us a picture of what fall looks like in your neck of the woods. Or show us a picture that means “fall” to you. Here in Eastern Oregon, the colors don’t really change. There are few trees and a lot of farm ground that is either yellow with stubble from harvest or [...]
My blog challenge topic for today is to write about my best school memory. When I first saw this topic I knew exactly what I was going to write about- my favorite teacher. Then as I sat down to write the post, I paused and started thinking about so many other school memories. I pulled out my photo album, took [...]
Senior year photo in the yearbook Since I moved back, I have had many time warp moments; it’s as if everyone is frozen in time in my memory. I have actually been standing in front of someone from high school and not realized who it was until they spoke to me. In my mind, they are the age at which [...]
After some time away from my blog I was thinking today about how my life now compares to the life I left behind in Connecticut and thought I would share. A typical day in CT went something like this-Up around 7 or 7:30 a.m. to get ready for work, head out the door about 8 or 8:30 a.m. to arrive [...]
While out for dinner last night my sister and I were having a conversation with TP, another Ionian. We initially started talking about how hard the local farmers push themselves and their crew during harvest, sometimes not even stopping for lunch. That led to TP telling us how her grandson thought that coming and working at her house would be better and [...]
Do you ever just drop by someone’s house without calling or texting ahead of time? If you answered yes, you may live in a small town. My entire life (the years before I moved to the East Coast), people would often stop by our house, unannounced. We lived on one of the main roads used to go from Ione to [...]
Every town has their own way of celebrating Independence Day. In the years that I spent in Connecticut, I had some nice Fourths, mostly the day was celebrated with a barbecue with friends. Never once did I go down to Short Beach in Stratford, CT to watch the fireworks. And if there was a big, town-wide celebration, I wasn’t aware [...]
Taken Summer, 2008 Today just happens to be my sister’s birthday. I won’t say how old she is but I will mention that she is only 2 years and 5 months older than me. Living on a farm, outside of a small town, we kept each other entertained. A rousing game of “hot dog” where one of us would lay [...]
View shows the front door and the windows into the kitchen which is the area to the right of the door. For lack of anything else on television tonight, I find myself watching the new Dallas. Have you watched it?I love the scenery/location where they shoot the scenes that take place at “South Fork.” It makes me think about the [...]
On Sunday my mom, dad and I started the long process of cleaning out the barn as my niece wants to have a 4-H animal next year. As expected, my niece eventually wandered down and joined the work. Our main project was sorting through the collection of wood that had formed in one end. We paraded the wood past my father [...]
One of the hardest things about moving back to my hometown after being gone for 20 years is that I have lost my knowledge of who is who. I spend a lot of time asking my sister or my mother “who is that?” I see a lot of people that I think I know, or look familiar but I cannot place [...]
I found this letter in the local, weekly newspaper. It epitomizes what I love about a small town. Kindness to Strangers Dear Editor and People of Heppner, On Sunday, May 20, 2012, we were traveling through your beautiful area of the country on our return trip to South Dakota. One of our car tires blew out about 10 miles outside [...]
As far as parents go, mine are rather modern. They both have laptops, kindles and android phones. However, with their daughter in the house, they are learning so many new things! My father fell in love with my Keurig. In fact they bought one today for their RV so they have one when they travel. My mom discovered she can use her [...]
My niece is hanging out today so I decided to put her to work as my guest blogger. Here is her Top 10 favorite things that make a small-town Summer fun! 10. Shopping for School Supplies 9. Having a fun babysitter 8. Sleep overs with friends 7. Riding in the Fourth of July parade on the fire truck with dad [...]
My father seems like a private, taciturn man. However, if you get to know him, you will come to know is that he is funny. I had bought some zucchini bread at the farmer’s market and put it out on the kitchen counter with a note that said “zucchini bread to share.” The next day a package of seaweed snack appeared [...]
