The Office

My dad bought Bishop House a wonderful gift last October..and since he is in California and not able to travel, I wanted him to see it here. There was a vacancy on the wall behind his desk since Bishop Porter took his painting with him when he left.. This painting of the Savior, is my very favorite. It's a Liz Lemmon Swindle. Thanks Dad!

Old Family Pictures

My brother Brad' Family

My family ... 1970's

My parent's 50th anniversary 1994

OUR TOWN July book club

Dear Shadow Mountain Ward Literary Society,

Our reading this month is the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
It explores the lives of people living in a small, quintessentially American town. It was first produced in 1938 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. I have given out a dozen copies, but still have three copies at my house.

Reminder: We meet 7:00 pm Thursday, June 16th at Joan Iverson’s home, or actually, in her beautiful back yard, sitting in lawn chairs with our feet dangling lazily in her sparkling swimming pool with the scripts of Our Town in our laps..….

The play is divided into three aspects of the human experience:

ACT ONE: Daily Life
ACT TWO: Love / Marriage
ACT THREE: Death / Loss

What is Our Town is about? It is about everything. It is about common people living common lives doing common things, experiencing common emotions, and doing it with their family and friends around them. It is….about all of us. About the beauty of love and the temporary and nature of life. About our desire to understand more than we can see and to hold on to things that we must let go….

Here is a copy from a review I found that explains Emily’s emotions about reliving her 12th birthday… she’s allowed to leave the cemetery to ‘live it’, and, worse, ‘know what comes next that they can’t see’…..

Observing the funeral company, she says she never realized in life how troubled many people are. Nevertheless, she expresses a wish to return to life for a little while. Mrs. Gibbs says she can but advises her not to. So does Mrs. Soames. But Emily says she plans to return to a happy day, not a sad one. “Why should that be painful?” .......The stage manager answers, saying, “You not only live it; you watch yourself living it.” He also says she will see the future. Mrs. Gibbs points out another reason Emily should not return: The proper activity of the dead is to forget all about life and to think only of what is coming next and to prepare for it. Emily says she cannot forget–and so she returns to the day of her 12th birthday. First, she sees the routine of life going on as usual–Howie Newsome delivering milk, Constable Warren telling how he rescued a man lying in snowdrifts, Joe Crowell delivering newspapers. Then she sees her mother and father, who are surprisingly youthful to her. They are preparing to give her gifts. .......She speaks with her mother, who tells her to eat her breakfast slowly. Mrs. Webb gives her a dress which she had to “send all the way to Boston” to get. Her father and Wally also have gifts, but Emily can’t go on any longer and breaks down, saying she didn’t realize how much the little things of life–things she did not notice before–really matter. Emily returns to the cemetery and addresses Mrs. Gibbs: .......“They don’t understand, do they?” .......“No, dear. They don’t understand.”

The Fab Four

Yuba City High cheerleader try-outs in 1994...

Cute shorts.... I know Melissa (white) wanted to win a cheerleader slot -- mainly so she could turn in the Honker mascot suit she wore her sophomore year....... and........drum roll....she wins! And so did Heidi.....(in red).

We are the World

I think this was the first of celebrity embracement of world causes. And a good song..

Sooo Sad

Back in 1985, I was teaching a 5th grade class at Johnson Park Elementary... I brought in the music and words to We Are the World. The kids loved it... even though we were tearing it apart for literary value and figurative speech.

Two Famous Men of the 80's

This was back when he was not too weird.... Loved his MUSIC... and his dancing. (Michael's, not Ronnie's)Billie Jean King was my favorite dance routine and You are Not Alone.... with his stunning wife Lisa Marie in it..

SPIKEY

WE love this bird... Christian's bird, SPIKEY... he sings so beautifully and lets me scratch his head and whistles to the walkers/joggers going by out front. They often call back to him. The cat would like to lick him, but he always stays a feather away... just to tease.

Book Club Report Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie Years

Abraham Lincoln’s Own Poetry:

Abraham Lincoln
his hand and pen
he will be good but
God knows when .

Abraham Lincoln is my name
And with my pen I wrote the same
I wrote in both haste and speed
and left it here for fools to read

Whatever Spiteful fools may Say —
Each jealous, ranting yelper —
No woman ever played the whore
Unless she had a man to help her.

Lincoln's last documented verse was written July 19, 1863,

in response to the North's victory in the Battle of Gettysburg:

In eighteen sixty three, with pomp,
and mighty swell,
Me and Jeff's Confederacy, went
forth to sack Phil-del,
The Yankees they got after us, and
give us particular hell,
And we skedaddled back again,
And didn't sack Phil-del.

Lincoln – poems about him:

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck You've fallen cold and dead. My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Anne Rutledge by Edgar Lee Masters

Out of me unworthy and unknown

The vibrations of deathless music:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all."

Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward millions,

And the beneficent face of a nation.

Shining with justice and truth.

I am Anne Rutledge who sleep beneath these weeds,

Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln,

Wedded to him, not through union,

But through separation.

Bloom forever, O Republic,

From the dust of my bosom!

NANCY HANKS by Stephen and Rosemary Benet

If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
She'd ask first
"Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe?
What's he done?"

"Poor little Abe,
Left all alone
Except for Tom,
Who's a rolling stone;
He was only nine
The year I died.
I remember still
How hard he cried."

"Scraping along
In a little shack,
With hardly a shirt
To cover his back,
And a prairie wind
To blow him down,
Or pinching times
If he went to town."

"You wouldn't know
About my son?
Did he grow tall?
Did he have fun?
Did he learn to read?
Did he get to town?
Do you know his name?
Did he get on?"

Julius Silberger wrote another poem, entitled "A Reply to Nancy Hanks"

Yes, Nancy Hanks,
The news we will tell
Of your Abe
Whom you loved so well.
You asked first,
"Where's my son?"
He lives in the heart
Of everyone.

Powder Puff Football 1970

I had so much fun with these girls... That's why reunions are a blast. I'm behind & between 52 and 74

Yum

Love this Pioneer Dessert I made for the bookclub held at my house last week .... unfortunately, delicious as they were, I dumped one of them in the lap of a friend..at least I think she still is..

Kami the Artist

I love Kami's image of herself. Happy, confident, smart, pretty, lipsticky, rougey,

bejeweled, and even her stance....with the arms up in the air tells a lot about how her parents have raised her. And I can tell she's MY GRAND DAUGHTER! Go Kami!

I put her poster in my home office on my wall with my 'important things'... this latest addition has just become the most important of all.

98 Year Old Barn

Red Bluff Daily News Article

Los Molinos Farmer burned fighting $3M blaze By JULIE ZEEB -DN Staff Writer Updated: 06/12/2009 07:04:59 AM PDT LOS MOLINOS Los Molinos walnut and prune farmer Brad Call suffered minor burn injuries after his barn caught fire Wednesday on Highway 99E near Englehorn Road, but was doing fine Thursday, his wife, Larisa, said. Brad Call had been trying to save some of the couple's farming equipment when he caught fire. The flames were quickly extinguished using a hose, Larisa Call said. Brad Call was able to drive one forklift and a bin carrier out, but several large tractors and everything else in the barn was lost. It's going to be hard to get equipment and get it going again, Larisa Call said. The estimated loss was about $3 million, with $500,000 worth saved, said CalFire Capt. Dan Todd. Among other things saved was a baby fox the firemen rescued. It had apparently been living in the barn, Larisa Call said. The cause of the fire, which was burning vigorously when firefighters arrived, was a cutting torch, Todd said. Five engines, three water tenders and air support helped get the fire contained by 5:34 p.m. and the last crew left the scene at 7 a.m. Thursday having spent the night to make sure flames didn't start back up, Todd said. Tehama County Fire Department was on hand with volunteers from Los Molinos, El Camino and Antelope. PG&E was called in to deal with downed power lines. The fire didn't spread to any nearby vegetation. It was kept from reaching large fuel tanks on the property, for which Larisa Call said she was thankful.

Reply »

COMMENTS

Nan Schmalz

I understand that there are extraordinary Good Samaritans living in Los Molinos. After the tragic destruction of the Call barn, friends, neighbors and church members have combined to offer their harvesting equipment and tractors and about anything else that is needed. Even a distant high school friend called with similar support. What a blessing it must be to be surrounded by such excellent, caring people!

Anne House I am sad to hear of the fire that destroyed this 98 year-old barn on the Sycamore Ranch, just south of Los Molinos. I recently spent time photographing this very barn ... a huge, beautiful historic structure, built in 1911. Sorry to hear that Brad was injured trying to save equipment, but relieved that he, and the fox, will recover.

The Barn.. hours before...

The Barn

I just got back from a great trip...staying with my dad in California for a week, with my cousins (we're all teachers and flew out just after our last week of school). We had a wonderful time! The last day (June 10th) Brad gave us a great tour of the 200 acre ranch, some 28,000 trees, and the barn. This is barn is so big and impressive.....I took lots of pictures. It houses the tractors, harvesting equipment, and everything else a farmer uses. The dehydrators are there, along with bales of hay, tall stacks of pallets for the prunes, a swing from the rafters, an antique piano, a truck, tons of food storage and assorted wildlife that made it their home, too---squirrels, owls, bats, foxes. After the tour we left for the airport around noon.......by four in the afternoon the barn had burn to the ground... This barn was 98 years old.... I am SO SAD! Here are some pictures of the barn hours before it was lost.

Fine Fellows

Here's my husband with my cousin, Jeff ...ironically they're bishops in the same chapel. Bishop House --- Shadow Mountain Ward which meets at 1:00 pm, and Bishop Call --- Shadow Valley Ward which meets at 9:00 pm. There is another bishop whose ward meets at 11:00 but who cares, he's not related.

Jay's Family

Aunt Elaine's Funeral

Uncle Jay has a great family..Laurel, Nathan, Larry, and Jeff
Uncle Jay (Dr. Call) was a veterinarian at Utah State most his career. Everyone thinks he's the most wonderful man..

This is Aunt Elaine in a photograph. She was a great mother, and very stylish and talented.

Abraham Lincoln..June Book club

Here’s the cover on my grandmother’s book. She LOVED this book.

Hello Shadow Mountain Ward Readers,
This is your friendly mid-month reminder that the book this month is Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie Years by Carl Sandburg. I have a few copies if you want (they’re on a stand by my door right now …. leave your name) This was the only biography on the list…and what a book! I’ve read it several times in years’ past, but I am reading it again and VERY MUCH enjoying it. Carl Sandburg is known as the world’s authority on Lincoln… it is written in a style that is down-home with easy stories and facts.

Basket ball Pics

Christian and his Cousin Nate

Dear Book Club Ladies … and Cyber Book Club Ladies, and all those men who corner me privately and whisperingly tell me they read along with us….

This month we met at Anne Clark’s home… it’s such a cozy, warm house, and bless her heart, she has hosted it twice. Afterward she served a delicious Apple Betty with ice cream on top … many asked for the recipe… She said I could share it..
Anne Clark’s Apple Betty



• 4 cups thinly sliced apples
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mound sliced apples in pan … Sprinkle with orange juice.
3. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Scatter over the apples.
4. Bake 45 minutes. Serve warm. .. add ice cream on top



This was a Steinbeck night.. We discussed both of his short novellas: Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. I’m only reviewing Of Mice and Men here, which is more famous and has more depth, but it is dark and is a bit hard to read with its colloquialisms and salty language (which define the two main characters, Lenny and George). There have been six Of Mice and Men movies made: the latest and best in my opinion is with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.



We touched on all these areas below……it is so interesting, as Joan said, that we can see many different things in the same novel, referencing our own experiences in life. I had to defend the fact that I felt some sympathy with Curly (yes, really!). But I was outnumbered. Gotta love the debate.

The Impossibility of the American Dream Most of the characters in Of Mice and Men admit, at one point or another, to dreaming of a different life. Before her death, Curley's wife confesses her desire to be a movie star. Crooks, bitter as he is, allows himself the pleasant fantasy of hoeing a patch of garden on Lennie's farm one day, and Candy latches on desperately to George's vision of owning a couple of acres. Before the action of the novel begins, circumstances have robbed most of the characters of these wishes. Curley's wife, for instance, has resigned herself to an unfulfilling marriage. What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for untarnished happiness, for the freedom to follow their own desires. George and Lennie's dream of owning a farm, which would enable them to sustain themselves, and, most important, offer them protection from an inhospitable world, represents a prototypically American ideal. Their journey, which awakens George to the impossibility of this dream, sadly proves that the bitter Crooks is right: such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world.

The Corrupting Power of Women The portrayal of women in Of Mice and Men is limited and unflattering. We learn early on that Lennie and George are on the run from the previous ranch where they worked, due to encountering trouble there with a woman. Misunderstanding Lennie's love of soft things, a woman accused him of rape for touching her dress. George berates Lennie for his behavior, but is convinced that women are always the cause of such trouble. Their enticing sexuality, he believes, tempts men to behave in ways they would otherwise not. A visit to the “flophouse” (a cheap hotel, or brothel) is enough of women for George, and he has no desire for a female companion or wife. Curley's wife, the only woman to appear in Of Mice and Men, seems initially to support George's view of marriage. Dissatisfied with her marriage to a brutish man and bored with life on the ranch, she is constantly looking for excitement or trouble. In one of her more revealing moments, she threatens to have the black stable-hand lynched if he complains about her to the boss. Her insistence on flirting with Lennie seals her unfortunate fate. Although Steinbeck does, finally, offer a sympathetic view of Curley's wife by allowing her to voice her unhappiness and her own dream for a better life, women have no place in the author's idealized vision of a world structured around the brotherly bonds of men.

Loneliness and Companionship Many of the characters admit to suffering from profound loneliness. George sets the tone for these confessions early in the novel when he reminds Lennie that the life of a ranch-hand is among the loneliest of lives. Men like George who migrate from farm to farm rarely have anyone to look to for companionship and protection. As the story develops, Candy, Crooks, and Curley's wife all confess their deep loneliness. The fact that they admit to complete strangers their fear of being cast off shows their desperation. In a world without friends to confide in, strangers will have to do. Each of these characters searches for a friend, someone to help them measure the world, as Crooks says. In the end, however, companionship of his kind seems unattainable. For George, the hope of such companionship dies with Lennie, and true to his original estimation, he will go through life alone.

Strength and Weakness Steinbeck explores different types of strength and weakness throughout the novel. The first, and most obvious, is physical strength. As the novel opens, Steinbeck shows how Lennie possesses physical strength beyond his control, as when he cannot help killing the mice. Great physical strength is, like money, quite valuable to men in George and Lennie's circumstances. Curley, as a symbol of authority on the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate the men and his wife. Physical strength is not the only force that oppresses the men in the novel. It is the rigid, predatory human tendencies, not Curley, that defeat Lennie and George in the end. Lennie's physical size and strength prove powerless; in the face of these universal laws, he is utterly defenseless and therefore disposable.

George and Lennie's Farm The farm that George constantly describes to Lennie, those few acres of land on which they will grow their own food and tend their own livestock, is one of the most powerful symbols in the book. It seduces not only the other characters but also the reader, who, like the men, wants to believe in the possibility of the free, idyllic life it promises. Candy is immediately drawn in by the dream, and even the cynical Crooks hopes that Lennie and George will let him live there too. A paradise for men who want to be masters of their own lives, the farm represents the possibility of freedom, self-reliance, and protection from the cruelties of the world.

Lennie's Puppy Lennie's puppy is one of several symbols that represent the victory of the strong over the weak. Lennie kills the puppy accidentally, as he has killed many mice before, by virtue of his failure to recognize his own strength. Although no other character can match Lennie's physical strength, the huge Lennie will soon meet a fate similar to that of his small puppy. Like an innocent animal, Lennie is unaware of the vicious, predatory powers that surround him.

Candy's Dog In the world Of Mice and Men describes, Candy's dog represents the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose. Once a fine sheepdog, useful on the ranch, Candy's mutt is now debilitated by age. Candy's sentimental attachment to the animal—his plea that Carlson let the dog live for no other reason than that Candy raised it from a puppy—means nothing at all on the ranch. Although Carlson promises to kill the dog painlessly, his insistence that the old animal must die supports a cruel natural law that the strong will dispose of the weak. Candy internalizes this lesson, for he fears that he himself is nearing an age when he will no longer be useful at the ranch, and therefore no longer welcome.


Next month the book will be:
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years by Carl Sandburg.

Steinbeck next month

8th Wedding Anniversary

Three Cute Chicks

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Hello Again My Shadow Mountain Book Club Lady Friends… and all lurkers,

I’m quite late getting this review and next-book information out. My excuse is a good one, however… as it is hayfever/allergy season my only desire is to lie on the sofa with a tissue box and feel sorry for myself till June. Any commiserating sufferers out there? Life could be worse…..I could have been a resident of the Island of Guernsey during WWII .. shunned by the English and occupied by the Germans. but at least they had a book club
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was our book for the month of April…..a departure from our classic’s list, but it worked out fine! Claudia Elliason stepped out of the mother-of –the-bride- mode long enough to offer her wonderful home and yummy refreshments. We sure appreciate her! It’s not every bookclub that has the Mother of the Year for the State of Utah as a member…
This book was highly recommended by Margaret Tribe, and I’m glad she did. Sometimes I need to be forced out of my comfort zone (rut) and read different genre. She gave a thoughtful overview using her marked passages and handouts.
It was a story told through letters from journalist In England to a group of odd, loving, funny and eccentric people on the quazi-English-owned island of Guernsey, near the English Channel.

The central figure in this novel is Juliet Ashton, a World War II London columnist. In early 1946, just as England and Europe are beginning to rebuild from the War, Juliet receives a letter from a Guernsey pig farmer, Dawsey Adams. Her curiosity is piqued when she learns that the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, mentioned in Dawsey's letter, played a huge role in saving its members’ lives. Juliet begins to correspond not only with Dawsey but also with other members of the Society. Eventually, she takes up residency on the island herself in order to research and write a book about the German occupation of Guernsey and how the Islanders survived it. Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. Julie begins to correspond with Dawsey and the members of his book club, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and arranges to visit them, although a handsome American publishing tycoon wants her to stay in London. As she becomes enmeshed in the islanders’ lives, she learns she can’t escape the effects of war as she had once longed to do: “The war is now the story of our lives, and there’s no subtracting it.”
Authors Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows tell well the hardships of islanders who made do with wartime rations of one candle a week and cooked their vegetables in seawater for lack of salt. The authors also offer many well-chosen quotes and anecdotes about an eclectic group of poets and writers: Chaucer, Wilkie Collins, Agatha Christie, the Brontë sisters. And in the age of Dr. Phil and Twitter, it’s refreshing to meet characters like the book-club member who finds comfort in the words the Roman orator Seneca: “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.”
The one great thing this book did for me is teach me about the occupation of the island by the Germans….and not everything is easily defined as black and white or enemy and friend. There are good Germans. There are insufferable Islanders…There is a tremendous scene where the islands have to ship their children off to England for safety…I can’t imagine it.
I had to reread Wuthering Heights because of this book. There references made to that book wetted my appetite to revisit it. If you didn’t read it with us, I challenge you to pick it up and read it. You’ll enjoy.