At the beginning of September we spent a weekend in West Virginia. Mark got to tailgate before a WVU game and visit his mom in the hospital - which shares a parking lot with the stadium. Football is so important in West Virginia, patients and staff must move their vehicles from the hospital parking lot before the game. Really. The Stadium leases the hospital parking lot.
The boys stayed with me at Aunt Sherri and Uncle Louie's house. We enjoyed our relaxing Saturday afternoon! Cartoons and naps. It doesn't get better for a Saturday.
Unless of course your brother is taking up your foot space on the couch.
After the game we were having a family get-together. Celebrating family and saying good-bye before Mark left. Benjamin and Jordan helped with the food prep. They were excellent!! Ben piped in the filling for the devilled eggs.
Jordan made the red velvet cupcakes. Bits of batter on the floor had me do a double take. I thought they were drops of blood! One of Aunt Sherri's hotpads will have memories of red velvet cakes for the rest of it's life. :)
Ben took to frosting those cakes! Jordan then worked on clean-up.
We stopped for pepperoni rolls, arrow tips, and milkshakes at a great little place on the way home. It was an answer to prayers. We were running on fumes, downhill, when we saw this gem of a store! Among the finds (and gas) we found pepper spray perfect for a gal.
At first I thought this was a stroller. A camo stroller. Attached to a tree!!
Once a month we try to have dinner with my brother. Now my sister, Penny is in Virginia, they were able to come up too! These are the veggies for our spread. Funny moment. My sister asked if I had any "veggies". I waved my hand over this. Beautiful veggies. 5 different types! No, she wanted veggie burgers. I told her at my home vegetarians eat veggies! (all meat was real). For those curious, from left to right - Chinese cucumbers, fresh corn-tomato salad, curried yellow squash, roasted bell peppers, roasted reg and chili-spiced corn. Delish!!
My husband is from West Virginia. He likes manual work. It makes him feel good. We had half a load of oak dropped off at the house. Mark and the boys (and the missionaries one day!) split it all by hand.
Frosty was safety and quality control.
Because of their father's genes and great example, the boys also like to exert themselves. In WV we learned a story about Mark's grandfather. Mark is named after him. Pietro DiPalo was a coal miner. We learned they called him "Big Pete." and he had a big heart and was very, very strong. When miners were sick, injured or otherwise not able to work Big Pete would load a car of coal for them. No matter how many there were, he'd load his car, then theirs. Back then you didn't have sick pay. If you didn't work your family didn't eat. Big Pete helped many people. We learned that the men in charge of the donkeys didn't like Big Pete though. He would load his cars to over-flowing, stacking as much coal on top as possible. The mines had low ceilings and when the donkeys would haul the carts out, Big Pete's load would always snag on the ceilings and cause the donkeys much strain and pulling. Here Jordan learns how hard it is to control an over-loaded cart (wheelbarrow). It's tough!
After the splitting comes the stacking. Ben's strength was best-suited for stacking. Too many wheelbarrows tipped with his hands. :)
The muscles on the boys are growing! With our second load they are stacking 150 pieces every day, and half of the stacking involves throwing the wood to the stacking partner. Oak is heavy!
At one point I convinced Mark to use a chainsaw. He told Ben to bag the sawdust. Ben did.
To give you an idea of the size of logs they were splitting - this cup is a large cup that holds almost 1 quart!
That first day of splitting I made homemade gatorade for the men. It definitely hydrated them and replinished their salts. But I learned that banana-orange juice is not the greatest to add salt to. :)
That's all for now y'all!
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