We Visit William Miller Chapel and Home

Although we have been busy from sunrise to sunset while here in Albany, we just couldn't leave without visiting the William Miller Chapel and Home. So on Monday, the pastors carpooled to Whitehall, New York a one and a half hours drive to explore this historic site.

Bob and I had planned on taking our vehicle with additional passengers, but were pleasantly pleased to be able to tag along in another car. The driver was a pastor that had recently moved from Southern California and we could tell that he had driven in California. If fact he tailed one lady so close, that she finally pulled off on the shoulder so he could go ahead of her. Fast and tail-gating was the driving style he chose on our trip until we got in the middle of no-where and the GPS got lost - which meant we were also lost. I had printed a map-quest and taken it along with me, however, the two in the front were certain that the GPS would get us there. Wrong!!! I of course had my doubts, because of the direction difficulties I have had with my GPS. The map-quest proved not to help either, because we didn't know where we were. Finally we found someone in a truck on the side of the road and stopped and asked for directions. We were only a few miles from where we were going. And, because he drove so fast, even though we got lost, we were the third car to arrive!! We sure had fun teasing this pastor about his California driving. He was a good sport about it.

This is the William Miller Chapel.

This is the old pump organ that is in the chapel. I would love to have an old pump organ in my home. I remember playing my great grandmother's pump organ when I would go to visit her. Playing the organ and swinging on the swing hanging from the large mulberry tree in the front yard are two of my fondest memories of visiting.

Here Bob and I are on Ascension Rock. As the story goes, some waited at this Rock on October 22, 1844, for the Second Coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven. This day is referred to as the "Great Disappointment".

William Miller's home built in the early 1800's.

Here is the parlor. Another old pump organ. And notice the spinning wheel. I think I would like to try spinning some day. Soon!!!

The bedroom. Notice the block propped up by the foot of the bed. That would be heated in the fireplace and placed in the bed to help keep the bed warm in the winter.

It was a wonderful day. I could have spent several more hours, but we had to get back. Before leaving the area, we all went to eat at the Fair-Haven Inn. They have excellent food! I ordered an eggplant sandwich and Bob ordered a grilled portabello mushroom sandwich then we shared. They were delicious.

It's Been a Long Week

The traffic here in Albany brings back memories of when we lived in California. I'm so thankful I now live in a little town in New York and there isn't heavy traffic. I've been "running" all week and today I had to go out and try to find some place to make copies. I didn't have any luck, so I just used my scanner/copier that I brought from home. It took a while, but I accomplished my task.

Before leaving for our trip to Albany, I had to can pears. A church member has a pear tree and doesn't like pears, so he picked them and brought them over to us. I think canned pears are my favorite. I just love them.


I canned a total of 15 jars. I can hardly wait for winter so I can open a jar and eat them. Maybe I won't wait until winter. We'll see.

This week my work days were long and busy and then when I finally got home, I had a million things that had to get done. We had to leave by noon on Thursday to make it to Albany for our first meeting. Thursday morning, I had to do four loads of laundry before we could pack. So while the laundry was going, I cleaned up the house a little and canned pears. Bob was busy pulling the onions in the garden so they could dry while we were away and then he had to vacuum and clean both vehicles. But first, he had to unload all the stuff I had brought home from the office that had to go to Albany. At eleven o'clock, the last load of laundry was finished. I retreived our luggage out of the back storage room and started packing. Both Bob and I had to pack un-ironed clothes. There just wasn't time to iron. We don't get to stay in a four star motel. Let's just say, it's not a place you want to spend too much time in and the chances of it having an iron and ironing board were questionable. So I brought my own iron and ironing board. I also had to quickly pack a few other things to bring with me that have been needing my attention at home, but haven't made it to the top of my to do list. We still haven't filed our taxes for '07 so I had to bring all our receipts and adding machine. Our accountant was hoping to receive this information in August, but I didn't quite make that deadline. Bob called him to see if we could make another extension. Our accountant just laughed. We knew the answer, we were just hoping. Then Rachael had sent me beautiful fabric and a pattern to make pajamas for American Girl dolls to sell in her Etsy store, and I haven't done that yet either. So, I packed my sewing accessories, the fabric, pattern and my sewing machine. Then I had to pack a couple of new books that I purchased at Sturbridge Village. One of them is a new cookbook with recipes using pumpkin. We have lots of pumpkins in the garden so I'm hoping to try some new recipes when I get back home. I have to work on the advertising, and plan for a cooking school that I'm leading out in the first Sunday in October, so I had to bring stuff to work on that too.

Bob packed both vehicles and we headed out at 12:30 p.m. We were very tired and had to fight falling asleep as we drove, but we made it safely.

Bob and I went out to eat and pick-up a few more craft items and when we returned to the motel, the pastors that Bob is on the team with were going to be leaving in half an hour. I had to do some ironing for the weekend, so I decided to just stay in the motel room and relax.

My boss has called several times this evening, and I just received another call, so I'll have to cut my blog off for now. I have another project he wants done.

Potluck Blog

There have been many blogable events. I'll catch you up on a few of the blogs that could have been a complete blog, but . . .

Last Thursday, the granite counter tops were installed in the house Ryan and Lisa are buying. They are really pretty and Lisa is anxious to start moving in. But that won't happen until sometime in November. The well still isn't hooked-up yet. The drillers were working on it today.

Matthew found this little snake when he was playing outside at the house we are working on. And this snake reminds me of a story I was going to tell about when Tina and I were at Sturbridge Village. We had just come out of a basement and we were talking about the snakes that seem to find their way into my basement in New York. As we walked toward the stone stairs that led to an outside meeting area where there was someone telling stories, a snake squirmed across the stairs we were just about to step on. We both screamed and ran the opposite direction. Snakes are just too creepy.

Genie has been in retirement status for over a year. She died over by the barn and Bob and Ryan just couldn't seem to figure out the problem. They suspected an electrical problem. We were going to have to pay to have it serviced to get it going. But, Ryan and the boys went out last Sunday and worked on it and within a short amount of time, it was running again. They loaded it on the trailer and took it down to the house that we are remodeling.

Gracie loves to look at books. When she goes to bed she takes several books and her baby doll.

And, now the big surprise!!! Lola was groomed today. She looks beautiful. The dog groomer said that she was the sweetest dog. She never snapped at her even once. She really is a good dog. When I brought her home, the first thing she did when she got out of the car, was to run and sit in the slammer. She is such a silly dog.

While I was at Sturbridge Village, I bought these two little colonial hats for Hannah and Gracie. They love playing like they are Laura and Carrie from Little House on the Prairie. The girls were pretend cooking on the old cook stove in my dining room.

It won't be long before we start making grape juice.

Tina and I Visit Sturbridge Village

Tina and I had a great time touring Sturbridge Village together yesterday. We were both disappointed that Diane wasn't able to join us. When I e-mailed Tina to let her know that I would be in Massachusetts for a meeting on Wednesday, we put our heads together and decided to meet on Tuesday, and not just for dinner. Tina suggested that we meet in the morning and spend the day at Sturbridge Village and then end the day with dinner at the Publick house. That sounded good to me, so we both took the day off from work and headed for Massachusetts. Tina started in Connecticut and I started in New York. We met at the bookstore and I think I could have spent several hours in there. It is the greatest little store. Not only did it have books, there was a gift shop too. I just loved it. I found several books that I purchased for gifts. We had to put a time limit on our shopping. We couldn't spend the whole day in the bookstore/gift shop. Could we? I think we could have, but it would have been a shame to miss out on the village. It was amazing!!! Sometimes as we toured through some of the simple old houses, I would think how nice it would be to live such a simple life style, but I soon was reminded of why I'm so thankful that I live in the modern days of washing machines, air conditioning, heating, in-door plumbing, electricity and the list goes on.

We started our day at the book store.

This is where Bob and I would have lived in the 1800's. It was a pretty nice house. But in those days the pastor just rented their house because they had a one year contract and were paid $400 at the end of the year. It would be too difficult to have your own house when you might be moving yearly.

This is the saw mill where you would go if you needed lumber.

This was the mode of transportation.

Covered Bridge

This is the Cooper. The Cooper was also a farmer, but he could make more money being a Cooper than a farmer. Being a farmer you could make about 30 cents a day, but being a Cooper you could make up to $1.50 a day but usually just 90 cents.

There was a potter in town too. This is the kiln where up to 800 items would be loaded to be fired.
Here is a picture of the inside of the brick kiln. The potter said that he would lose about 10% of the items due to misfortunes during the firing.

Tina poses next to the white picket fence that is a must in the olden days.

The printer told us that the paper in the early 1800's was made out of white rags. The binding of books was done by hand stitching. I sure am glad I have a photo copier in the office. I would never get all my work done if I had to copy one sheet at a time. Not to mention that I would have to set the type too. This was amazing. He would get $30 for 2,000 copies. He didn't print newspapers. Just political advertisements and books.

This man makes tin pitchers, bowls, candle holders, etc. (I can't remember what he was called)

I think this little house is so cute and I want Bob to build one for me so I can use it as a potting shed. I took a picture so he'll know exactly what I want.

This is one reason I don't want to live in the 1800's. But this outhouse had two seats. So I guess two could be in there at a time. Maybe so you wouldn't be scared when you had to go out there at night.

It was called a Privy - not an outhouse.

This was growing outside the "Privy"

One of the gardens.

I was quite sure that I could wash clothes and churn butter at the same time. So I tried.

This is what the dish rags/clothes were hung on to dry.

Here is the kitchen. We found out that they would spread sand on the kitchen floor so that it would stay clean. The floor would be swept once a week. The sand kept the oil and fat drippings from getting on the wood floor. Interesting. Tina and I thought that there would be sand all over the house, but we were told that the shoes worn in the house were flat on the bottom so there wasn't a problem with that.

In this kitchen, we were told that breakfast consisted of fried cucumbers. You slice cucumbers about 1/8 inch thick, dip in flour, salt and pepper, and fry in butter. We were told they are delicious. I'm kinda hesitant about trying this recipe. But, maybe . . .

A lean-to storing fire-wood outside the kitchen door for handy use.

The church. The men sat on one side and the women on the other side.

This lady was showing us how to dye wool. I asked her how they could boil the wool without it shrinking, and she told me that you have to gradually warm the wool up starting with cool water, then a little warmer, a little warmer, a little warmer, and so on. She also said that at the general store you could purchase urine. Yes you could have a home business of collecting urine and then sell it to the general store. People would buy it because of the acid content to color the yarn. (Tina. Help me out here. I can't remember the rest of the story.) I think I would stick to just plain wool. Urine? No Thank YOu!!!

No curtain rods needed here. They used a string.

This blue must have been a popular color in the 1800's. The house we bought had this color on the woodwork in the upstairs hallway and bedrooms.

This lady was in the general store. It was so cute. We asked her why they wore a bonnet all the time. She let us know that people in those days didn't wash their hair but maybe once a year. She said there was a real problem with lice. She also told us that people only bathed once or twice a year. She said the odor was horrible. I would think so. And, no thank you for living in the 1800's.

Tina and I finished our day with dinner. The food was fabulous. Why is it salads taste so good at a restaurant? Tina had butternut squash ravioli and I had fettuccine Alfredo along with the salads. It was all delicious. We loved the fresh pecan sticky buns that were included in the baskets of assorted rolls.

It was a perfect day and ended much too soon. As we went to our cars to say our good-byes we continued talking and it was so difficult to say good-bye. Tina had brought some clothes for Gracie that her granddaughters had outgrown. They are really cute and I know Gracie will enjoy wearing them. There was a gift exchange and we were on our way - in different directions.

Thank you Tina for making my trip to Massachusetts so memorable and fun. It was great spending the day with you.

Grandpa and the Yard Sale

Last Wednesday evening after prayer meeting, Bob went through some of the donations that the members gave for the yearly yard sale. He found a box full of horses and immediately gave me a call to ask if he should buy them. He gave a donation for the treasured box of horses and brought them home. When Hannah and Gracie arrived home from their vacation, Hannah asked grandpa if he had anything special for them. When grandpa brought out the box of horses there were cheers and jumps of joy as they were handed that box of horses. They played with the horses the entire evening. When the girls had to go to bed, they put the horses to bed too.

They sure enjoyed their new horses.

The girls were asking us for name suggestions. When we would suggest a name they would suggest another name instead.

The girls are ready for bed and they get to take one horse each to sleep with.
This is where the girls decided that the rest of the horses should spend the night.

The girls have been having fun playing with the horses all weekend. What a great find!!!