Life in My World -- Visiting the Ellsworth's in Oklahoma

I was perusing the sizeable Ellsworth bookshelf and told my niece Maddie, “This is better than a library.” 

She said, “I know, ‘cause every book here is liked by someone so you don’t have to sort through the junk.”

Earlier we had named our favorite reads as well as our biggest-waste-of-time reads.  My sister Rachel had said that she loves Huckleberry Finn and as I was looking over the books I came across two copies.  I told Maddie, “I think I’ll ask your mom if I can borrow one.  I’ve never read Huckleberry Finn.”

She said, “Sad.”

I said, “It’s sad?  I didn’t know it was sad.”

She said, “No.  It’s sad you’ve never read it.”

Sad.  That’s the word if you've never spent time with the Ellsworth family.   Last week Calvin and I went to visit them and wish our nephew Cache well on his mission to Thailand.  My sister Chris and my niece Charlie also went.

Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Hydn and me

Chris, Rachel, and I grew up looking for arrowheads.  At the Ellsworth's we look for fossils instead.  It’s much better than looking for an arrowhead.  One, fossils are plentiful; two they are big and easy to spot; three, they are unique.  We all found several.  I found a little rock that looks like a swimming pool for fairies.  I brought it home to put fairy-sized things in it.

The walk to and from the fossil beds go past Pal's trap line.

He has set (and made) several traps to catch animals.  Here he is with a raccoon trap:  a hole in a log with something shiny in the bottom and a bunch of rusty nails pounded in at an angle.  Just like the one in Where the Red Fern Grows.  The idea is that the raccoon will grab the shiny object , but when his paw is fisted around the object it won’t fit back through the nails, thus trapping him.

                

Pal is named perfectly.  He's everybody's buddy.  He's pleasant.  He's willing.  He's funny.  He's agreeable.  He's
the kind of kid you wished you could order out of a catalog for every family.  He also loves Shakespeare . . . and
doing magic tricks and playing games. 

This is his snare trap.  It has a brick slung over a branch and when the animal steps in the snare it triggers a stick which makes the brick fall.  It fell on top of him while he was showing us how to set it.  It had to have hurt.  (His shirt appropriately fits him:  "If history repeats itself, I'm totally getting a dinosaur."

We walked back to the house via the shop where Calder and Cache were rendering fat into tallow for their Grandpa Ellsworth's saddle making.

We also visited a lot.  

Calder is an incredible young man.  He has lots of common sense and a happy personality.  He loves history, but
has a lot of strength in the sciences.  He figures things out.  He's also good on the piano.
As Calvin said, he's a young man of great integrity.

Jesse is remarkable.  A few years ago after seeing her drawings on the sidewalk drawn
with chalk, her folks suggested she start her own business painting scenes on the
windows of stores in town.  She's had her own business for a few years.  Jesse reminds
me of Snow White.  All she has to do is whistle and animals come.  She's very kind to
animals and people.

All of the Ellsworth family are very well read on a variety of subjects.  In fact, one time while Hy and I were paddling on a kayak I was telling him a story and he said, "I already heard that story.  My mom read me the book."  I started to tell another story and he said, "I heard that one, too, my mom read  the book at home."  The only story he hadn't heard was one I made up about a little boy and a turtle.  

Visiting is one of my favorite things to do at the Ellsworths.

Hydn on the other hand would rather have sword fights and gun fights with Calvin.  They fought every day.  Calvin said lying on the trampoline was his favorite fighting position as he just had to bounce every now and then and wave his sword.

  We also had a sling shot contest.  Hy did not win.  Cache did.  Some of us went down to the pond and rode around in the paddle boat.

Rachel parking the boat.  She's kind like that.  Sometimes I so wish Rachel had been older
than me so that I could have learned from her earlier.  She really is one of my heroes.
I'm just so grateful our kids have her as a friend and mentor now.

As you can see, their place is a perfect place for kids to grow and thrive.  It's a place where each child has been able to develop his talents and abilities.  Rachel's kids seem to go from childhood to young adulthood without ever being a "teenager".  She and Bert have taught school to each one of them at home.  As a result, they have been given an extraordinary education and have bought them a long and healthy childhood.  And then, after they've had all the sword fights and turtles, and set all the home made traps they can think of, they become young adults with firm ideas and opinions about their values and future, our country, books, and ideas.  They're very respectful to everyone, and loyal to each other.

You haven't seen a picture of Maddie yet.  That's because she's the one behind the camera in nearly every one of these pictures.  About a year ago she discovered she likes photography.  Not only does she like it, she's discovered she has a talent for angles, ideas, colors, shapes, and subjects.   Compare the picture I took of her below, to the next six she took after that and you'll see what I mean.

Maddie in the tree house the kids built on their property.  There is a pulley swing that
runs between two of the trees and Maddie is getting ready to ride it.

Bert is a vet.  His specialty is horses, though he works on all kinds of animals.  They have
several horses on their place.

I showed this picture to my students when I returned from our trip and a few said, "Hey!  You look like your sister."
I wish I did.  It was the nicest compliment I'd heard all day.

There's a small town near the Ellsworths that has an old five and dime store.
It also has a main street (where the funeral home has a loading dock in front of it) and a great museum.
While we dug around the garters and toys in the five and dime
 (there is Polident from the 70's for sale on the shelf), Calvin sat on the park bench
and slept and visited with the kids when they got bored of five and dime treasures.

We went crawdad fishing while we were there as well.  Here's a baby one.

Even barb wire looks artistic through Maddie's eyes.

As does fire.  I think the flames are amazing.

Cache.  The impetus behind the trip.  Cache left Wednesday to serve a mission in
Thailand.  Besides handsome, Cache is determined, driven, brave, smart, and a good
conversationalist.  He recently returned from a trip to China where he taught English
to young children.  It wasn't part of a big safe group program, rather it was an
opportunity he sought out.  After he'd filled his contract, he did a two week
walk-about China by himself, staying in hostels.  

Maddie's a good photographer, isn't she?  She's also very idea oriented and conscientious.  She's a natural leader.

I mentioned my sister Chris and niece Charlie went to visit the same time we did.

Charlie can weld metal, bake a cake, and is an Art major.  She is a jack-of-all-trades.  She's also a fast, determined and
hard worker.  She loves shopping at thrift stores and is frugal, so she's rich, too.

Chris is a grown-up Charlie.  She is also a hard worker.  She is very good with cattle.  She might be gathering them
in the hills one day, doctoring them in the pens the next, and then down at the sale yard selling them the next.  She
is also very generous with her time and money.  She doesn't hesitate to give.
She also looooooves sugar. 

We met them at the Dallas airport and drove up with them.  It was fun to spend time with them as well.

The day before we came home we went kayaking.  I think it was Bert's suggestion.

Bert is a great man and it shows through each one of his children; they all have some
of his attributes.  Bert sacrifices a great deal so that his kids and Rachel have the
opportunities that they do.  He commutes four hours a day and spends every other
 weekend on call at the clinic.  He has a very stabilizing influence and I'm grateful he's
my brother-in-law.   He's always encouraged Rachel's and my friendship. 

Oh man.  What a fun, fun time we had in the boats.

The people we rented the kayaks from wisely suggested we not take our cameras or wear our glasses.  Best suggestion they could have given me, Calvin, Chris, and Bert.  We all tipped over.  Three of us more than once.   Oh man kayaking was fun.  It was beautiful.  There were enough rapids that you felt like you were moving, but it was calm enough Pal and I could handle our own kayaks.  I came through one little run of rapids and there was Pal perched on top of a rock like Yertle the Turtle.  I thought he was playing while waiting for the rest of us to come down the river, but as I went past I realized he’d lost his boat.  I grabbed him and was trying to pull him on my boat, but Cache and Calder hollered at him to let go as I had to go over a little waterfall that I didn’t see coming.  I biffed it soon after.  Good thing Cache and Calder told him to jump ship.

                

We saw well over 200 turtles sunning on the rocks.  Calvin, Cache, and Calder caught several.

Right before we pulled out of the water several of us hit a snag.  A big snag.  A tree-across-the-river snag.  It tipped all but a few of us into the water, and once we'd all bobbed safely to the surface, it was very, very funny.  

And that was our trip to the Ellsworth's.  We had a grand time.   And now Calvin and I are . . . sad.  And waiting for the next time we'll be with them.