Family Pics

From going through a bunch of old photos after Heidi's graveside service:

Arvid and a pony on Bermuda during the early years of WWII. Wish I knew the story of the pony. Uncle Ed seemed a bit bitter they weren't allowed horses or ponies on the family farm!


Dad


Uncle Bill


Dad, John, Ed, and Dick at Heidi's Wedding. Congratulations to Aunt Joy for being the only one able to make a Kivela boy wear a decent pair of socks...


A very young Uncle Bill.


The two on left are Impi (second) and Lempi (sp?), Impi's sister on the very left.


I **LOVE** Granny's expression and body posture in this, and the sunglasses probably help. She's a woman who had earned a high school degree when Finland was still part of Tsarist Russia (and hated that Russian officers took her paperwork away when inspectors boarded the ship she was emigrating on, though she just lost papers -- one of her friends was taken off the boat). Makes you understand why a popular reply from my grandfather to the kids' questions was, "Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe we go ask your mother."


Uncle Ed thinks the dog's name was Feller -- this is the dog that would "rescue" anyone swimming in the farm pond. My dad told of neighborhood kids coming up and asking, "Mister, would you put your dog in the bard so we can go swimming?" If he saw someone in the water, he'd swim out, take them by the arm, and wouldn't let go until they were both back on dry ground.


Arvid, Impi, and Lydia Wesa


Big & Little Ed having an extended (like 10 minute long) discussion over the pic in Ed's hand.


Uncle Bill again. This puzzled me for a moment until Ed explained he operated landing craft in the Navy. I remember late in his life Bill at some family party, and somehow the topic got on the military (or maybe it was the fire company after Franky had passed away?), and he got a bit of the thousand yard stare -- as he recalled how you never forget picking up the broken bodies of the dead when on burial detail. One of the few times I ever saw a WWII vet get emotional over their experiences in person.

He's sitting on the bumper of his rare '42 Ford, since not long into the model year all production was switched to the war.


And after the war in his Oldsmobile. I loved his blue and white pickup when I was little, guess he always had good taste in vehicles :) And where did all these great cars and trucks ever end up?!?! Why don't couldn't we have a family barn full of these treasurers...


The farm's GMC


The two youngest grandchildren of Impi & Arvid:


Impi, Niomi, Impi's sister Amelia from Finland, and probably Carol standing.

Picture Dump!

The prettiest time of the year for the swim pond -- when we have the first snow, but no ice yet:

(Technically, the ice melted -- had 1" already formed before it warmed up again!)

Some nice woodstove shots:




Selfie...


I just liked this, despite any potential implications of narcissism posting it after a selfie :D

Sweet & Sour Kielbasa

Made this for work. Kielbasa from Main Street in Webster, my Onions, Abington Grown Carrots & Peppers.

Pretty pathetic when the first time I used my sleeping bag since buying my house is to keep food warm...

Disturbing Images...

One should not have to see this while waiting in line to get coffee in the morning...



And not disturbing, but Mother Of God that's the geekiest bumper sticker I've ever seen -- and on a horse girl's SUV no less:

Cooper's Overnight

His people were on their annual excursion to Stamford Thanksgiving Parade, so I had Cooper:


Looking dapper in his bowtie:


A visit with Mom & Ed. Ed gave him a Stella Dorro breakfast treat, so Ed has a friend for life!


Enjoying the woodstove. He outright refuses to use the dog beds, I guess he still smells Oscar on them nearly two years and a washing later.


I dropped his food container coming into the house. He volunteered to clean it up -- and got every last kibble.


It's 6:55am on Sunday. He wasn't impressed I get up that early on the weekends. At. All.


He did supervise me hanging up some garland -- one of the few things I got done Sunday nursing this stupid cold I have:

Tires & Selfies

102,069 miles on the Fusion, and it was time for new sneakers -- the old ones had lasted 55,000+ miles, which were the same model as the OEM tires that lasted 45,000.

The new Michelin Premier A/S are rated all around slightly better (and a 60,000 mile warranty, 10,000 more than the Michelin Pilot MXM4's it used to run)...and the bill was $150 less than two years ago when I put the last set of MXM4's on.



Some selfies before the cancer dance...


Bit dark -- because the glare of the ceiling light off my balding scalp blinded the iPhone in selfie mode. FML.

New Ash Shovel...

$10 grain scoop from Tractor Supply, buck worth of nuts and washers from Brooklyn Hardware, and a threaded rod from my spare parts pile -- worked slick as snot.

I always had a hard time avoiding throwing up dust when emptying the shovel into the can when cleaning the stove. With this one, I scoop and bring it outside to dump in the bucket -- almost no dust kicked up in the house!

Leaves, Knives, and Dinner...

Leaves I picked up at the dump, waiting to be dug into the tater bed:


My Dad's Dexter chef's knife that I'm pretty certain is older than me -- mom gave it to me, and the steel sharpened up amazingly. I think it's even sharper than my Wusthoff carving knife (and it's definitely stronger!):


Yesterday's dinner -- my taters, Abington Grown beets, and wild Alaskan salmon:

Walktober: Brooklyn Unitarian Meetinghouse

I attended a "Walktober" talk at the Meetinghouse in October.

Pomfret Second Church, formally “The Society taken out of Pomfret, Canterbury, and Mortlake" -- as it was named by the General Court in 1735 after having gone nameless it's first four years of existence, replaced their original meetinghouse with this one in 1771, in the less common style of having the pulpit in the middle of the side, rather than at the front of the building.

Though by this time it was known as "The Society of Brooklyn;" a change taking place in 1752 along with the General Court abolished Mortlake Manor folding it into the Town of Pomfret.


For much of the 19th century, the second floor was separated from the first -- the second floor being used by the church, the first by the town. Brooklyn was incorporated from Pomfret and Canterbury in 1786, and until the disestablishment of the Congregational Church in 1818 in Connecticut there was no separation of church and town -- tax dollars built and maintained the meetinghouse.


Construction was spearheaded by Israel Putnam (best remembered if not by name but by quote to most Americans, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" being his order); there was one death during the construction when a parishoner fell from the steeple.


Brooklyn was, at least in it's leadership, a particularly liberal parish. In 1819 it became the only society in Connecticut that when it divided between Congregationalist and Unitarian factions, that the Unitarians carried the majority and retained the meetinghouse.

In the 1830s Samuel J. May would be the minister (uncle to Louisa May Alcott, he would leave Brooklyn to focus on the abolition movement), and in 1871 they would ordain Celia Burleigh as the first female Unitarian minister and first female minister ordained in Connecticut:


The current town hall across the green, built by the Town as the Windham County Courthouse in 1831; it was a form of economic development the town figuring it would gain business as the county seat. When the courts later moved out the town offices moved there.