Hot Rod Cowgirl

Looking out the same kitchen window my entire life…I have watched a daily movie of crazy yet never boring life. I have seen wonderful moments filled with heartfelt memoreis…good stuff and good times…really boring times…terrible weather times…and tearful sad times.

1932 sorting wheat in the kitchen…in silence for the picture but…I bet they talked:)

I am not  sure how I will write this blog segment, I hope to share with you the memories that have been lived here while viewing life through my kitchen window…a significant portal to the outside world of daily life and memories.

My kitchen window began its life in a wild and wooly cowboy town way back in the teens of 1919. Pendleton was a rusty dusty small town at the beginning of the century.

Norwegians, Swedes, Germans and Fins were busy homesteading and farming the land around Pendleton…a dream they had in their heart from the time they left their homeland, setting sail for America, the land of opportunity. My Grandfather traveled by boat from Norway alone when he was 13 years old looking for a future and a hope… today I am living his future and his hope with the same deep faith and love of the land.

My window was carefully transported 20 miles on a wagon pulled by a team of horses headed out of town for the North country to Juniper Canyon. My Grandpa was building this house for his mother Anne Marie who was coming from Norway by boat to her new home in America, where she would join her sons and family to make a new life. She was 76 years old…can you imagine coming to a new world at her age? I have a deep appreciation for my Great Grandmother, as the world in 1920 was much more primitive out here without modern conveniences. She had the same kitchen window view that I have today, but in 1920 she had no electricity or telephone and the roads were dirt trails to civilization and life. I wish I had known her…how great it would be to talk to her and hear about what she saw and experienced.

 “Little Toot “and I in the kitchen in 1960… I still have the cookie jar…and the red hair:) I love red cowgirl boots…Mom liked Campbell’s Soup and the cupboards were now painted pale green.

I re-finished two of the red fir cupboards from the original kitchen…most people would have thrown them out as they were painted many hideous colors…but thankfully we saved them…and ta-da…they are beautiful and I use them daily.

My kitchen window is a quiet view of history…weather…life…and sometimes a lonely view…you see sunrises and sunsets…rainbows…incredible clouds and God given weather…horses, kids, cats and dogs…last minute crazy life pictures that make you hang on tight, which is why you get some of the wild pictures that I take. The dishwasher is right under the window…I will be doing dishes and look up and out the window saying ohhhh….

Wow, I have to shoot this and grab my camera which I keep sitting in the kitchen ready to go.

Looking out my window are many views of life, heritage and history that are reflected in today’s life and yesterday’s memories. Almost a hundred years of down home lived here in this house in a simple country girl’s life.

In sharing this part of my life the song “Guardian Angels by The Judd’s” comes to mind. When the going gets tough the tough get going…this song gave me the strength to fight and conquer the hard times of life.

Sometimes when I’m tired
I feel Grandpa take my arm
He says, keep a-goin, hard work
Never did a body harm.
And when I’m really troubled
And I don’t know what to do
Grandma whispers, just do your best, were awful proud of you!They’re my guardian angels

And I know they can see
Every step I take
They are watching over me
I might not know where I’m goin
But I’m sure where I come from
They’re my guardian angels
And I’m their special one

Have A Happy Superbowl Sunday!