Hello and welcome.

The days are flying by and before we get too far into November, I wanted to take a quick look back at things that happened in October that I haven’t yet blogged about.

Crafting

I made a batch of soap in October, something I haven’t done in far too long. It won’t be ready to use for a couple of weeks yet.

I also did a little sewing. Granddaughter Addie’s birthday was this week (it’s hard to believe she is six years old) so I made her an outfit. The top is pictured below. I also made a pair of matching leggings. He birthday party is today and I’m excited to give her this gift. She always loves new clothes.

Over the summer and into the fall I had been working on some projects to donate to the humane society. I made 7 fleece blankets that they will use for the dogs that they care for.

I also crocheted eight, puppy paw print scarves and three chicken potholders that I donated for them to sell at their annual Pawzarr, a fundraiser that they hold each year in December.

I decided to deliver these items to the humane society on October 10, my late mother-in-law’s birthday. I chose that day because the humane society was mom’s favorite charity. I thought the donation was a nice way the memorialize mom. The staff at the humane society were very appreciative.

House Plans

Things are coming along with our house plans, not quickly, but building a house isn’t something that happens quickly. We did get the permit to install the septic system. Since the permit is good for three years, we shouldn’t have to worry about it expiring before we can build the house. We have a quote from the excavation company for building the septic system and digging the foundation and we are working with the builder to put together the house plan and get the figures of what it is all going to cost.

Recommended Reading

The first book on my recommended reading list this month is one I read earlier this year but I’m sharing it in honor of Veterans Day (November 11) the day which we in the USA honor our military veterans.

The book, No Surrender, is about World War II hero Roddie Edmonds and is written by his son Chris Edmonds years after Roddie’s death.

From Good Reads:

Spanning seven decades and linking a sprawling cast of heroes from every corner of the country, No Surrender is an unforgettable story of a father’s extraordinary acts of valor in the treacherous final days of World War II and a son’s journey to discover them.

Like most members of the Greatest Generation, Roddie Edmonds, a humble American soldier from East Tennessee, rarely spoke about his experiences during World War II. Not even his son Chris—who always considered his father a hero—knew the full details of Roddie’s capture at the Battle of the Bulge or his captivity at Stalag IXA, a Nazi POW camp. But when Chris’s daughter was assigned a family history project, Chris reread Roddie’s wartime diaries, which set in motion a series of life-changing events.

Called to learn his father’s story with a renewed sense of passion and purpose, Chris embarked on a years-long journey, interviewing surviving POWs under Roddie’s command, and retracing his father’s footsteps, from Fort Jackson, Georgia, where a boyish Roddie transformed into a seasoned leader of men, to the patch of grass near Zeigenhein, Germany, where he stared evil in the eye and dared a Nazi to shoot.

Chris Edmonds, along with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century, takes us to the front lines of this inspiring multigenerational story, revealing in gripping, novelistic detail Roddie’s previously untold heroism—and the lasting effects his bravery had on the lives of thousands, then and now. “What was most remarkable about my journey to discover what my father did during the war,” Chris writes, “was the realization that any one of us has the untapped potential to do something incredibly courageous. We all have the potential to change the world simply by standing up for what’s right.”

A quintessential American story of bravery, compassion, and righteousness, No Surrender is a shining example of the transformative and redemptive power of moral courage and a celebration of faith, family, and service, the very characteristics that continue to define us today.  

On Good Reads this book is rated 4.29 stars out of 5. See more of those reviews at this link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43615796-no-surrender. Personally, I give this book 5 stars and consider it a MUST read.

My second recommendation this month came about as a result of a recent conversation with my daughter. As she inquired about our family ancestry, I included that, although it is undocumented, my dad has always claimed that we were somehow related to the Donner Party.

“The Donner Party?” she asked, as if she was familiar with their story, and indeed she was. After our conversation I did an internet search and found the following website with the story of the Donner party, a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. This account is written by Eliza P. Donner Houghton, the youngest Donner child and one of the few survivors of the trip. The entire story can be found at this link https://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/donner.html.

The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate

by Eliza P. Donner Houghton
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Chicago, A.C. McClurg & co., 1911.

SUMMARY
Eliza Houghton (b. 1843) was the youngest child of George Donner, one of two Springfield, Illinois, brothers who organized the ill-fated California-bound emigrant party that bore their name. Eliza and her older sisters were rescued by relief parties that made their way to the stranded travelers at Donner Lake, but their parents perished, and the girls were left to make their way alone in the West. The expedition of the Donner party and its tragic fate (1911) begins with Mrs. Houghton’s account of her childhood and the family’s tragic overland journey, and rescue. She continues with her life as an orphan, first at Fort Sutter, and then with a family in Sonoma and with her older half-sister in Sacramento.

While this piece is not rated in stars, for anyone who enjoys learning about U.S. history I think it’s worth your time to read this first-hand account.

Thanks for visiting.