After getting about 3 inches of rain over the past three days I thought today would be a perfect day to do some weeding in the strawberry patch.  I have never planted strawberries before.  Picked plenty over the years.  Made more than my share of jam, shortcake, pie, etc., but I have never grown them. 

So last year I decided to plant them for myself.  I ordered 25 plants of the June bearer variety.  I planted them and faithfully picked off the blossoms as the directions from the nursery told me to do.  They spread like the plague and I did my best to pinch off most of the shoots and train the rest to run only where I wanted them to go.  Unfortunately this spring I have been so busy with schoolwork that the weeds got a little bit away from me. 

Today I went out to do a little weeding and discovered that the plants that were loaded with green fruit last week had a bunch of ripened fruit on them today and plenty more coming.  I picked it and brought it in and Melissa got going through her cookbooks trying to decide what she was going to make with these beauties.

Hat started this and I just had to go along.  His story made me tear up and I am here to tell you that is a difficult thing to do.  He may be big and soft himself but I have a reputation around here of being heartless and doggone Hat is making it hard to keep that reputation intact.

My time here on Xanga bagan in May 2007.  But actually I was familiar with it before then.  My son who is more than literate, p_obrien , has a Xanga blog and I had been reading him for quite a long time.  Then I started to read some of his subs and commenting on their blogs also. 

When my boys were slated to be stationed overseas I needed a better way to keep in touch with them and to help them keep track of what was going on at home than simply writing letters or emails.  I decided to steal the blog idea and have one central place complete with pictures and captions that they both could access with their computers.  Since then no matter where any of my children or our extended family is they can always know what is going on in this corner of our world.  It has also been a great emotional outlet for me and a way to develop friendships beyond this small town.

Not as exciting as Hat's story but there you have it.

This past Friday was our 27th wedding anniversary.  Thursday night Doug took me out to dinner and we spent a lovely evening, and night I might add for a couple of old fogeys who usually are in bed by 9, having dinner and then visiting with friends.

Then yesterday I kidnapped Doug for a day-trip just the two of us exploring some of the awsome scenery and history that NY has to offer.

We packed a picnic lunch and left the house at 6AM and drove through the rain and the fog toward the southeast.  As we got into the Catskills the terrain started to rise and become rougher and the trees got denser.  Eventually we left the heavier rain behind and the sun tried to peak out from the clouds once in awhile. 

When we finally pulled into the city of Kingston on the Rondout Creek there was a festive mood in the air.  They were celebrating Time Fest.  We drove down to the strand and parked across from the Hudson River Maritime Museum, got out of the car and walked around looking at the boats along the creek.  We toured the Museum and got out tickets for the ride out the the Rondout Lighthouse.  What a trip that was.  I think that I was meant to be on the water and to live in total solitude tending the lighthouse.  I even volunteered to take the job from the current lighthouse keeper.

The boat that we rode out to the lighthouse was called the Lark.  She was a worthy craft with a captain who was knowledgeable in the history of the area.

The highlight of the day was our ride on the trolley through the strand area and out to Kingston point.  The gentlemen who piloted the trolley and regalled us with the history of Kingston, the trolley, and the Hudson River and Rondout Creek were not only pleasant to ride with but gentlemen from the ground up.  I truly enjoyed the ride on the trolley and all that they taught me about the history of Kingston, NY.

Outside my window......the sun is beginning to shine but it is decidedly chilly out, 48.  This is Central New York after all and that is the way things go.  After about a week of temps in the 80's to 90 and humidity (I won't insult the southern half of the country by calling it high humidity) we had four days of thunder and rain and now it is cool.  Not good for making hay but very good for the gardens to thrive in.  The broccoli plants are loving this cool weather.

I am thinking......about the weekend past and the week ahead.  There is much to do but there is always much to do and I have learned the hard way not to dwell on the quantity of work yet to do but on the quality of the work that I do.

I am thankful for......my husband and children.  For the twenty-seven years of marriage that we celebrated this past weekend and the life and that family that we have built.

From the schoolroom.....two more courses to finish for this semester.  Thankfully they are the two that I really enjoy.  Then on to registering for the next batch.  I also have to work on Matthew's paperwork for homeschooling and helping MK get her classes registered for online learning.

From the kitchen.......I don't know what is in store.  Melissa made a delicious meal yesterday I heard.  Perhaps I will have to come up with something today to give her a break.  I happen to know that Layn was up quite a bit in the night last night.

I am wearing......grey shorts and grey tee shirt.  Not going outside today it is darn muddy out there.  We must have gotten, all told, three inches of rain over the weekend.

I am creating.....a world where all who enter in will feel at home and welcome, I hope.  I try at least.

I am going.....nowhere I think.  It is after all Monday.  There are chores to do, schoolwork to accomplish, and dreams to dream.  Much too much to be galavantin' all over the county.

I am reading......."The Heart of Darkness" for my Literature course, and I am not enjoying it.

I am hoping......problems find solutions, love finds a way, and the chicks in the garage grow big enough to go outside very soon.

I am hearing......the chicks in the garage cheeping, my husband making a pot of coffee, (wonderful man that he is!), the dogs pacing in the bedroom upstairs, (they must be trying to get MK out of bed), and the wind sighing in the bushes out front of the house.

Around the house......it is really quite orderly for a Monday morning. 

One of my favorite things........snuggling on my bed with Brutus on a chilly morning like this.

A few plans for the rest of the week......finish Matthew's paperwork, exchange the grade 11 books for the grade 12 books in preparation for the coming school year, continue with my schoolwork, go to two holy hours, appointment with the neurologist on Thursday, church dinner Thursday night, another one on Saturday night.  I think I will be sufficiently busy so that I won't get into too much trouble.

I have no picture thought to share with you since Xanga won't let me upload pictures right now.

I am on an educational roll.  I told my daughter that this essay was masterful and inspired.  Her comment to me was, "When you think it is masterful, it turns out not to be."  She cut me, cut me deep.  I kept writing 'cause I thought that I was on the right track with this one, and I turned it in today.  A little while ago I got an email with my grade, 20 out of 20 with a comment stating that my observations were very good. 

Ann Kraeger

Jennie Hensarling

LITR211

Wk# 9 DB#7

     Consider the range of social atmosphere from the end of the 19^th century, through WWI poetry, to the WWII era symbolism in Yeats’ poetry. Although the question calls for an analysis starting only from the end of the century, let us, for the sake of argument, go back to the early part of the century to get a feel for the totality of change that sweeps through the writings of the 19^th century.

     The range of social atmosphere can be likened to a child in the throes of awareness.  At the beginning the child is in the stage of dreamer and even of idealist, inexperienced and yet not wont to express himself with all the authority of the one who knows not of what he speaks.  Nothing is beyond the realm of possibility.  Thus were the poets and poems of this time as well. Poems such as Byron’s She walks in beauty that express only the beauty and perfection that is seen by the speaker in the poem.  There is nothing of fault or flaw here and so the young child of the century in the person of the poet expresses himself.  Dreaming lush and large dreams and expressing possibilities as only an idealist can. 

     As the century wore on the child gains the usual bumps and bruises and bits of experience that any child will when given fits and snatches away from the schoolroom and out into the world.  And so the poets of the middle part of the century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold and the grimmer realities of life and human nature come to the fore.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, The Cry of the Children, written to describe the horror of child labor is surely an example of the disillusionment that came about when the truth of industrialization was realized.  The literature of the time begins to reflect these experiences and the gradual disillusionment that being forced out into the world will often bring about, the growing and maturing child of the 19^th century was having growing pains and they were reflected in writings of this nature. 

     At the end of the century and the beginning of the new, a new and false sense of being grown-up and even invincible sets in as most children will have in their late teens.  These so-called grown-up, bumped and bruised poets show they can fight back at life by expressing a new sophistication.  They delve into the previously unexplored and forbidden. Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover is one such poem.  Dark with the heretofore unwritten topic of not only forbidden love but murder of that love as well.  But, as with any young adult, these experiences leave them cold and wanting.  Thus that emptiness leads to seeking fulfillment by seeking something higher, such as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in The Windhover, who writes of nature and the divine tries to fill himself with the wonders of the world around him.

     The First World War comes along and kicks the new century but, in search of something real to believe in, the century kicks back as do its poets.  They find that the promises they thought they heard made and the experiences they had up to this point have left them ill prepared for the life and experiences that are before them.  The poets are tired, tired of fighting, tired of living and tired even of dying.  Oscar Wilde’s poem The Harlot’s House, speaks of that same devil may care attitude, you cannot defeat me defense that all that are care worn put when they have seen too much and been through too much.  Just as a the young adult of the century being so care worn puts up its defenses in the form of poetry that tell it like it is, no punches held back and no holds barred.  As in Yeats’ poem Leda and the Swan the child of our century turns back to topics less of reality and more of fantasy.  As if the child is saying to the rest of the world, “ I cannot face this right now, let me retreat back into my mind and rest there a bit.”  And so Yeats reverts to the fantastic and yet risqué topics of old, a bit of rest away from the bumps and bruises of war are all that is needed to heal and then he, and the times can go on from there.

Works Cited

    Byron, George Gordon, Lord. The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.612. Print.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.1079. Print.

Browning, Robert, The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.1252. Print.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley, The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.1518. Print.

Wilde, Oscar, The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.1688. Print.

Yeats, William Butler, The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. Stephen

          Greenblatt. New York/London: W W Norton & Company, 2006.2039. Print.

Twenty-seven years ago today my dream came true. 

....we are gathered together here in the sight of God-and in the face of this company-to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.

Marriage is th eunion of husband and wife in heart, body and mind. It is intended for their mutual joy-and for the help and comfort given on another in prosperity and adversity.

We are here today-before God-because marriage is one of His most sacred wishes-to witness the joining in marriage of this man and this woman.

This is a beginning and a continuation of their growth as individuals.  With mutual care, respect, responsibility and knowledge comes the affirmation of each one's own life, happiness, growth and freedom.  With respect for individual boundaries comes the freedom to love unconditionally.  Within the emotional safety of a loving relationship-the knowledge self-offered one another becomes the fertile soil for continued growth.

Do not think that you can direct the course of love-for love, if it finds you worthy, shall direct you.

Marriage is an act of faith and a personal commitment as well as a moral and physical union between two people. 

So, twenty-seven years ago we vowed, pledged, and promised our hearts, souls, and bodies to each other.  With full knowledge that none of the joys or adversities of life should make us cease to love each other but instead should be used to develop and enhance that love.

I love you now, Douglas, more today than I did then because I love you better. 

In another couple of days there will be great feasting going on in this neck of the woods.

Every pea plant is loaded with blossoms and fruit!  This is what I am talking about....summertime bounty.

363 Miles Across the State of New York

Ann Kraeger

Kim Rush

HIST 101 US History to 1877

17 May 2010

     At the beginning of the 1800’s America was still a very young nation.  Although the industrial revolution was beginning to take hold in England, America suffered one major obstacle to her own industrialization, expensive and unreliable transportation.  States such as New York were found to be fertile and well suited to the growing of crops, the milling of flour, and the cutting of timber, but she was lacking reliable and inexpensive means of moving these products to markets on the eastern seaboard.  At the turn of the century the Appalachian Mountains were seen as the barrier that stood between the populous eastern seaboard and westward expansion into the interior of New York State and beyond the Great Lakes.¹ Prior to the building of the Erie Canal anyone traveling across the state was bumped along in “bone-rattling” wagons that were drawn by horses over rough roads called corduroy roads because of the logs that were laid, side by side, across them.  In good weather the roads were dry and dusty and in wet weather the roads were a quagmire of mud and ruts.² making matters worse, the cost of hauling freight overland was more expensive than by water.  The cost of moving a ton of freight from Albany to Geneva, 200 miles, in 1798 was $100 a ton overland, while the cost of moving the same amount over the same distance by water was only $32.³ A solution needed to be found to facilitate the expansion of settlers westward into the interior of New York State and to help those who were already settled west of the Appalachians to be able to have quicker and cheaper access to the goods and markets of the east. That solution came in the form of the Erie Canal, or at the time that it was being proposed and built, “Clinton’s Ditch.”⁴ The next question then becomes, could this be done both economically and geographically. Could the money be raised for such an undertaking and, more importantly, did the geography of New York State lend itself to a route that would allow for the building of a canal.  These two questions were not only what needed to be answered but the answers needed to be presented to the Legislature and voters of New York State.

      Before a canal could be built a route had to be surveyed across the state.  Several prospective routes were proposed by many different and prominent politicians and businessmen of the time.  However, in 1810 the then gubernatorial candidate, Jonas Platt came up with the “visionary and extravagant” idea to survey “the whole route from the Hudson to Lake Ontario and to Lake Erie also.”⁵ According to Jonas Platt this was not to be a canal running in existing streams but rather independent of rivers, using them as feeders instead.  It would be completely man-made using locks and levels and existing waterways to supply the water for the canal only.  The route of the canal would be decided by the survey.  Platt also proposed that the plan be backed by De Witt Clinton Republican Leader of the senate.⁶ The resolution was passes, the senate appropriated monies to pay for the survey and by virtue of politics De Witt Clinton came to be associated with the Erie Canal. 

     The following year, April 1811, the survey report was presented before the state senate along with “An Act to provide for the Improvements of the Internal Navigation of the State” which passed the legislature.⁷ A suitable route had been found, the next big hurdle that had to be overcome was funding.  Even though a route had been found did not mean that there was no opposition to the project.  Thomas Jefferson said that, “making a canal 350 miles through a wilderness is little short of madness.”⁸ Not only did Thomas Jefferson oppose the project but President James Madison vetoed a bill that would have provided federal land grants to help New York with the project.⁹ Nevertheless, Governor De Witt Clinton and the voters of New York weren’t discouraged by these denials by the federal government and they persisted in finding the backing for their project. Riding on the Clinton and the canal Board of Commissioners’ conviction, plans for the Erie Canal went ahead.  March 18, 1817 legislation was introduced that proposed a $1.5 million dollar appropriation to start construction on a short section of the canal.  The passed the Assembly (64-36), then on April 15, 1817 the Senate passed the Canal Bill (18-9).¹⁰ The battle to build the canal was over and the fight had been won, construction began on July 4, 1817.  New Yorkers would have their canal insuring easier and cheaper travel from New York City to the interior of the state and beyond to Lake Erie.

     Before the Canal was proposed and built there were no engineering schools in America and even if there had been, the technology that went into the building of this wonder hadn’t even been thought of yet.  The Erie Canal is a man-made waterway stretching 363 miles long across the breadth of New York State connecting Albany in the east, crossing the Appalachian Mountains and connecting with Buffalo on Lake Erie in the west.¹¹ The canal was a mere 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep but for the times it was considered a miracle of technology.  The miracle existed in the marvel of its 83 locks which raised boats and freight an elevation of 675 feet as they made their way across the hills and valleys of New York State.

Fig.1. Profile Map of the Erie Canal:  this map shows the rise in elevation from the Hudson River in the East to Lake Erie in the west.

Source: Sadowski, Frank E.. "The Erie Canal." 2000.http://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html (accessed 22 May 2010).5.

Not only did the canal have to overcome such a great elevation but there were many other engineering feats that had to be accomplished before the canal could be realized and be called a success.  “Success fed progress and the pace of construction increased…two years before its completion with construction underway in the west, construction on the eastern section commenced, and engineering feats like locks and aqueducts sprung up across the state.”¹²

Figure 2. Source: Vintage Views of Rochester New York." 2003.http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-r/index.htm (accessed 22 May2010).

The building of the double locks at Lockport, New York.

Figure 3,  Source:  Volpe, Paul. "Digging Clinton's Ditch. 2003.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/canal/firstpage.html (accessed 18 May 2010), 4.

     Not only were there many engineering marvels that came about because of the building of the canal but the economy of the state was immediately impacted, long before the canal was completed or opened for business.  By 1820 the middle section of the canal was completed and filled with water.  Even though it was only a portion of the whole canal, the use of that part of it had already brought prosperity to the area.  By that time New York’s population had increased so much that it had reached the standing of the nation’s largest state.  Already businesses for boat building and other necessities for the canal had sprung up along the already opened section of the canal.¹³ The entire canal was completed in 1825.  In its first full season, 1825-1826, $750,000 was collected in tolls. Stores sprang up all along the canal selling almost anything a boat or its passengers might need making the canal a positive thing for the economy of the State of New York.¹⁴

     The impact that the canal had on the state is visible on any map that you look at even today.  Except for the cities of Elmira and Binghamton every major city in the state of New York is situated along the canal.¹⁵ Although the canal is no longer used commercially as much as it was, it is still popular for recreational boaters and the towpaths along the canal is a great place for walkers and bikers alike.  The state of New York is still prospering as a result of the building of the Erie Canal and still enjoying the presence of the canal in the lives of her citizens.

.

Notes

1.       Volpe, Paul. "Digging Clinton's Ditch." 2003.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/canal/firstpage.html (accessed 18 May 2010), 3.

2.       Kendall, Martha. The Erie Canal. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2008, 8-9.

3.       Bernstein, Peter L.. Wedding of the Waters. New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005, 99.

4.       Koeppel, Gerard. Bond of Union. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009, 8.

5.       Koeppel, Bond of Union. 72.

6.       Ibid., 73.

7.       Ibid., 88.

8.       Mintz, S.. "The Roots of American Economic Growth."

     2007.http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=600 (accessed 21 May

     2010), 2.

Figure 1.        Sadowski, Frank E.. "The Erie Canal." 2000.http://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html (accessed 22 May

                       2010).5.      

 9.  Mintz, S., “The Roots of American Economic Growth.” 2010, 2.

 10.  Volpe, “Digging Clinton’s Ditch.” 2003, 4.

 11.  Kendall, The Erie Canal, 2008, 7.

 12.  Volpe, “Digging Clinton’s Ditch.” 2003,4.

 Figure 2.  Source: Vintage Views of Rochester New York." 2003.http://www.vintageviews.org/vv-r/index.htm

                   accessed 22 May2010).

Figure 3,  Source:  Volpe, Paul. "Digging Clinton's Ditch.

                 2003.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/canal/firstpage.html (accessed 18 May 2010), 4.

13. Kendall, Martha. The Erie Canal. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2008, 46.

14. Ibid., 84.

15. Ibid., 114-115.

Bibliography

Bernstein, Peter L.. Wedding of the Waters. New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005

Kendall, Martha. The Erie Canal. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2008.

Koeppel, Gerard. Bond of Union. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009.

Mintz, S.. "The Roots of American Economic Growth."

     2007.http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=600 (accessed 21 May 2010).

Sadowski, Frank E.. "The Erie Canal." 2000.http://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html (accessed 22 May 2010).

Seward, William H.. "The Building of the Erie CanalHistoryCentral.com (2000), 1,

     http://www.historycentral.com/documents/EirieCanal.html. (accessed May 22, 2010).

Volpe, Paul. "Digging Clinton's Ditch." 2003.http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/volpe/canal/firstpage.html (accessed

     18 May 2010).

Love and Obligation

I recently heard a couple having a conversation and the husband referred to his wife as an obligation, then he said that he also loved her in the next breath.   That took me aback and has had me thinking ever since about the connection between love and obligation.

Love by definition is an act of the will which desires for the beloved what is good and holy.  That means that the one doing the loving wants only to do for the beloved that which is good and holy.  Obligation is a much colder word.  No less noble but it is still a colder word.  Obligation denotes a responsibility, something that is done simply because it is required and cannot or should not be escaped.  There is no connotation or denotation of love or feeling in the word obligation.  Just as an aside I find it offensive to refer to a spouse or a child or the relationship that anyone has with another human being as an obligation. 

So where does obligation come in with love, or does it.  When one loves another person popular culture would say that there are certain responsibilities inherent to the maintenance of the relationship, but I am not talking about popular culture.  I am talking about love, real love the love that God has for us and wishes us to have for each other. 

I believe that when one person loves another person there are inherent obligations but the beloved isn’t one of them.  The beloved is the inspiration, should be the inspiration, for the one who loves to fulfill what love requires.  The responsibility that is most basic to loving is to will what is best for the beloved.  Sounds easy right?  Not really.  No one, anywhere, ever has been able to effective change another person. Hasn’t ever happened and never will.  The only person who can change anyone is that person themselves.  So if you want what is best for the beloved the best thing that you can do, the most basic of obligation, is to change yourself, become the person that God wishes you to be.  That doesn’t mean that you spend all of your time working on your own faults and ignore the ones that you see in the beloved.  But it also doesn’t mean that you make the improvement of that other person your project for the rest of your days.  If your beloved inspires you to love than your love should be an inspiration, to the point that they are inclined to be worthy of such love, that is the obligation of loving.

That man, who told his wife that she was his obligation, and that he loved her as well, is I think, seeing things the wrong way.  She isn’t the obligation, she should be the inspiration, and he is the obligation, to love her to the point that she is inspired by his love.

Note: Lest any man think that this is meant to be one sided, it isn’t.  Love cuts both ways.