Nursing Homies

My Mom Faye Anderson 

Nursing Homies

It all started with my Dad. I spent so much time as a caregiver for my family members (not to mention the non family members) that at some point it just took over my life. I never decided that I would spend my life as a caregiver I was just always the obvious person to take on the job. As a single parent and being a mom and a seamstress I worked at home some of the time anyway. 

My Dad was a hypochondriac, as a kid, I remember having to clean up after my Dad. My Mom was a workaholic trying to stay away from home, and him, and her 4 kids!! I loved my parents and I always felt like it was my duty to help my Dad. I thought I was my Dads favorite child, but he was not only a hypochondriac he was also a pedophile, so being his favorite was not such a grand prize! I remember the dirty Kleenex and the pill bottles everywhere, not to mention the spit cans and the dark rooms. Coming home from school at age 9 and having to see his mess would just give me the creeps and of course there was no bringing friends home. Some days I would run away on my bike and find some mountain trail or park to just sit alone and hide on. I remember sitting in some cornfields and some dusty ditches just to get away from home. I always went back and I would do the job but I hated it.

Later when I was a Mom and I was trying to be a wife my Dad showed up when some kids dropped him off at my house with his Honda 100 in their trunk and his tackle box. He was a sick guy and I mean really sick he did things you just hated. Like painting the grout between the beautiful granite rocks of my fireplace black and the stones bright red while I was gone on vacation.  I just wanted him to go away so bad. But I knew my sisters had tried to help and I was all he had left, so I tried to help him but the stress was not good for my family.  My marriage broke up in the process. The Doctors did find that he was really ill but that meant I would have to be there for his recovery or so I thought. He took off one day and it was years before I saw him again. The next time I saw him he came in the Buick he lived in and his Coleman stove bacon cooker, in his trunk and a fishing tackle box and pole. So I started over with him again. But he would leave and who knew where he would go!

By this time my Mom had moved in with me, and my Grandmother and Aunt Bunny had moved in the house next door. They all needed help too; Aunt Bunny was on trial medication for a heart problem and needed to be monitored by the hospital in Denver 50 miles away.  My Grandmother had dementia, and would pack her bag and sit on it out by the edge of the road and wait for “them “ to come while visions of "religious people" climbed in her windows at night to sing hymns and keep her awake! My Mom had a skin cancer tumor removed from her back and had required some grafting and bandage changing. OH boy, it was getting harder and harder and drugs and liquor were looking mighty good to me! Just for a weekend to think about just me! I was only in my 30’s and Carlee and I were dealing with some problems ourselves. So when she was with her Dad on the weekends I would really cut loose! I became meals on wheels and home care aid for a couple with Alzheimer’s, Walter and Bertha, and the driver for Gordon my neighbor with Kidney disease, 3x a week for dialysis, 5 hours I would wait for him 20 miles away from where we lived. There were others I cared for, I remember every one of them. Not long after my Aunt passed and my Grandmother went into a home I became the caregiver for my new beau’s Mom with Emphysema and Dad with a heart condition, then there was my X-Mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s I lived with for the last year before she went into a care facility and finally my own Mother, brain lesions and dementia. That made 10 + people I had cared for since I was very young. Remembering that care giving has no benefits other than knowing you have done the best you can with the goodness of your heart. There is no vacations from care giving, no medical care or retirement and the stress adds up, I knew the moment my sister dropped my Mom off to live with me that my own energy level was low and I had some emotional issues involved.  I came away from all of it with Illness myself!

After 40 + years of care giving and trying to hold down multiple jobs, there I was with an unknown undiagnosed disease but believing It was just stress I began a new business and I tried to go on, all the time caring for Mother. When She was gone, I knew my own medical problems had become overwhelming, working at all was problematic for me.

I just couldn't work and I left my friends and community I loved to live closer to my daughter because I really didn’t think that I had much longer to live myself. I had to find a doctor and insurance before I would know.

Here I am 7 years later and I have a diagnosis now! Diabetes and sleep apnea, degenerative bone and joint disease, skin cancer and nerve damage and I just had a hysterectomy because of cancer and I’m trying to get back my business and move on with very little income and not much insurance. I feel quite lost and I’m not real sure what is the next step. There is no retirement for me!

I’m not complaining really I just am writing it down to see what it all looks like!! It’s a story that looked bleak as hell!

 Now at 59 I have my own caregiver, Heather. She shows up sometimes 2 times a week and does my dishes and floors and carries laundry to the garage so I can do it, then carries it back. She’s here when I take a shower and she rubs lotion on my dry old feet, She changes the sheets on my bed and vacuums. She took me to lunch yesterday for soup and salad and she drives me around to my favorite produce markets. We also picked up a food box from St Vincents. I’m having trouble driving a stick shift (my car Mavis is a stick) so I have completely reversed my situation from being a caregiver to a receiver and it’s hard to believe that my days seem numbered already at 59. I’m wondering what happened to my life? And How do I go on from here? Will I get better or will I ever get to drive again? For some reason aging and driving is a real set back in your mind. Having someone mop your floor is OK but when you can’t drive it’s like the end of life, as you know it! I can still drive; I just can’t drive my car, Mavis. She is parked in the garage with the rims rusting away. Poor thing! Carlee says sell it but then I really will be stuck. I drove Aunt Bunny, I drove Grandma and my Mom, I drove so many to the places they needed to go and didn’t think a thing about it but now that I have to ask for rides it creeps me out so much, I want to run away on my bike and hide from it all. But my bikes got a flat tire!!

        

Heather

She was a big ole gal and sort a shy at first, a bit like me. She had 2 kids in high school and an alcoholic husband and she needed a job. Her husband’s paycheck had a garnishment, so even though I knew she’d be slow because of her size, I hired her as my caregiver because she had two kids and she needed a job.

I knew she needed the job and I needed someone who wasn’t going to be a thorn in my side. Telling me what I needed to do all the time. I just wanted help.

 Right off we got along fine I told her my stories and she told me hers and when she came we would sit and chat about an hour before she got to work. That worked for me. I needed the company as much as I needed the help. I had made myself a recluse after 8 surgeries in 4 years and being diagnosed with diabetes and sleep apnea. I already knew about the cancer, asthma and bone degeneration. I really needed help I had fallen twice in the bathtub and I was scared to shower when I was alone. I was having trouble getting dressed and my housework was really becoming a problem. I was afraid to say anything for fear of having to live in a nursing home at 57, without my cat, Buddy, and Mavis my car. I had gained so much weight, that moving around was difficult, there was nothing wrong with my appetite but I had only $150.00 for groceries and that meant cheap food at best and vitamins only sometimes.

The first few times Heather came were kind of routine then she started bringing her kids to help out too, and she also got her husband to make a kitchen shelf for me and he and the kids moved my old bed racer. And worked in the yard some.

Heather was always late and never came on the days we had planned and I was wondering what to do about that but I just let it slide. I felt for her, and I knew she was going through a rough time. Her husband was on the verge of an affair and leaving her. Her son had dropped out of school his junior year, her daughter had a girlfriend and there was signs of being gay. She was only in her mid 30’s and she was trying to just make it through the day without tears, an impossibility.  Although she had the best of intentions she was always giving excuses and feeling like she wasn’t good enough and like I might fire her. But I didn’t. I could relate to so many of her problems from my own past, but her story is quite sad.

She lost her Mom to alcohol when she was in her 20’s and she became the matriarch, 2 sisters and a brother, even though her Dad had remarried years before. Becky could never have the control of the family like Heather had. I never saw anyone who kept in touch with all the family like Heather. Her phone was constantly ringing and she knew where everyone was and what he or she was doing all day long, everyday. All this constant energy towards what was going on took a toll on her a few times a month she would be sick. She’d close herself off in her little bedroom and not come out for a few days.

When the eviction came up she was the one who found a trailer for $2000 and she rallied the whole family to jump in and help fix it up. Even her husband was taking time to work on their new home.

She was always giving a space to a friend or family member who needed shelter, even in her state of remodel of the 2-bed room trailer. After managing a trailer park for 10 years I kind of knew this personality type pretty well and after living my own life in poverty and trailer parks, I could justify her every move.

Her family is a very colorful bunch from what I have learned. The first time I met her father-in-law he was loading stuff from my yard into his van and my first glimpse I wondered why that homeless person was taking my stuff, even though I was glad. Heather called his van the big green rolling turd, she hated having to drive it but on occasion she would have to. As he was loading it I spied her daughter in the van and knew immediately who he was. The green van had a lift and Bill needed that to hold his wife, his very heavy wife and her wheel chair. Bill and his wife, Barbara lived in the same trailer park as the new fixer upper trailer. Very handy for Heather to check up on them too, having them so close! Other family members were in and out of jail. Some could be trusted and some could not. 

I had to admire her, especially when her brother-in-law dove into a lake and broke his neck. She was the first one to offer to help her sister even if it meant taking classes to learn how to work with him, and help with his care! Wilbur is a quadriplegic now and has no feeling except in one hand but not enough to feed himself. He has to have assistance not just to eat and move but to cough and clear his throat and she has to get his bowel movement started so he can poop. Heather has taken on an enormous amount of responsibility for his care. She reminds me of other caregivers I have known and sometimes even myself. I think many caregivers take on the job knowing it will be difficult and that no one else is going to step up to take it. If you had to compete for a care-giving job you wouldn’t do it! But mostly you feel obligated and wonder who else does this person have? You ALWAYS try do the best you can while still trying to please the rest of the family and carry on with your regular jobs also. That is not an easy task. Heather deserves a lot of respect for what she does. And for her care for so many people.

My friend Bev has spent the better part of 10 years caring for her Mom, Helen and Paul her Dad, who recently passed. I was always so proud of her for how patient she was and how she never gave up even when her Dad would tell her to GO! Her brothers never so much as blinked to help support her and it was a very difficult job, a second job mind you! Her Mom was a very pleasant woman but her Dad had been the one most impossible person I had ever known! She held her own and now she wonders if by keeping some of their things if she is clinging to what is gone and should she let go? I often wondered the same thing.

I’m amazed at the way the Oregon Health Plan has set up this service to help keep people in their own homes. I’m so happy to be one of the people that can stay home and have help. I love Heather and her family they have become a very important part of my existence and I wonder some days how I would ever go on with out her help. I see myself in Heather and I understand now what forced me to give up large portions of my life to care for my friends and family. If you think it was for the money you better think again, the benefits are minimal at best. The best reward is that you have done all you could to give someone the love and encouragement to go on under serious circumstances. And when it’s all over with, you stood by them when no one else was there. I don’t regret taking care of my family and I’m actually grateful for having been there for them. I respect Heather and my daughter both for what they do for me and how they put up with my idiosyncrasies and failing health care issues. I know how difficult that can be. I wish there was a reward in the end for what they are attempting to do.

OK let’s lighten up a bit and let me introduce you to my Newest line of paper dolls, The Nursing Homies, that live at Happy Haven. There is Pinky and Helen and Paul and of course Donald the outcast patient, Nurse Ethel and Heather the NA! They come with medical supplies, wheel chair, a walker, an IV stand and an oxygen machine, a hospital bed and tray and of course a rocker and a park bench! The folder opens out to a dinning area, a large bedroom and of course the nursing station! Hospital gowns and pajamas, shawls and blankets and warm hats make up the wardrobe!

 I believe older folks and people with disabilities need to be accepted into the family with humor and play and not so much fear and denial. Bridging the gap between children and family health care, in turn engaging all involved in the process of declining abilities. After all disease and loss doesn’t belong to anyone but to all and sending our relatives off to die with out becoming a part of the process is cruel at best. I feel we should celebrate this part of life and send our loved ones to a better world with grace

Some days I feel so proud of my life and what I’ve done and some days I feel like I should have done more and I wish I could go back and begin again. I will always hope that what I did to support the people I loved was comforting for them because I know how important that support is when you have no ability to help yourself. But there are times when being a caregiver you just have nothing left to give and patients is so hard to dig out from within yourself.

I remember telling my Mom about my “Nursing Homies” idea when we sat on my front porch in the rockers, before she was totally confused and she laughed and made me promise to make her a paper doll so this is it and I hope you can see this as a tribute and not disgusting because I mean it with the utmost compassion and care.

Things are actually better for me now, I’m finally feeling better and Mavis is gone I have a little Toyota, Maxine, named for a character my Mom and I laughed at together and shared in cards. My Toyota is an automatic and I can drive her. My son-in-law David purchased her for me, he worked so hard to get rid of Mavis and find a car that was just right for me. I feel so grateful to have my Daughter and David so close and people like Heather and my sisters who support me and listen to my stories. I have even started to do some work again and death doesn’t feel so close by. I hope they all know how much I appreciate what they have done for me. Remember to always take a second look at how your family is getting by and give them a hand if they need it you will never regret that. OK now I think I’ll go have some fun and play some paper dolls or sew some bags!! There will be more characters coming soon,
My best to you all Nancy

Passions Of those Anderson Girls

The strength of the Oak Tree Is a symbol of Family, a block print by N Roncketti

Keeping  Mother’s Research

Keeping  a daily journal has always been something that my family did. In fact, I know it goes back generations. My Grandmother had a trunk full of Journals from her ancestors and herself when she past away. My mother inherited many of them and some were sent to my Uncle Roy. Now some are stored in my sister Peggy’s garage in an old trunk along with my Mothers old Journals.

My Little Writers writing

 
I remember getting my first Diary when I was 5 years old. It was white with gold trim and it had a lock with a key. I was so excited to write my thoughts every night before I went to bed. I watched my Mom and Grandmother do that and I felt like it was such a grown up thing to do. I never read my Mom’s writing until much later in my life, but she wrote many stories based on her daily journals. I don’t think I really appreciated her writing as much as I do now. Maybe it’s just something older people get off on, but reading her stories now is different, now that I have spent some time writing myself. The old stories and pictures of where my Mom came from and those of my grandmothers and even the older ones from my great grandfather and his brother, Nathanial an artist In Lamar, Colorado. Old news paper articles about my Dad’s Dad and his restaurant and truck stop in Fremont Nebraska, they all give me this kind of understanding about who I am and how far my family has come, It’s so interesting to me now to see the evolution of our family and know our history.

Before my Mom died she was frantic about losing her research for a story she was writing. She kept trying to keep it in order. She kept it all in a Tupperware container. It was a story about Admiral Byrd and his trip to the center of the earth. My Mom had worked for Jeppesen Mapping Company in Denver when she was in her 30’s and I believe she met Admiral Byrd at that time. I think she had a life long crush on him and found excitement in his discoveries. I sent the research to a friend who belonged to the Middle Earth Society to see if there was any information that was printable- "No there wasn’t" she said, but I still have her Tupperware container and though all the pages were mixed up, (she kept it with her even in the nursing home until she had no idea what it was!) all her research was kept in that box, in the basket of her walker. Even when she ran away from the nursing home her story went with her!
My friend Laura Hendrie a writer I met when I was caring for my Mom, went to see her a couple times a week and they talked about her “research” and writing. She would perk up to tell me about their visits. I owe a lot to Laura, and I thank her again for what she did. Laura has written a few books I just finished "Remember Me" and  "Stygo"  is a favorite.

I feel like my Mother’s research should have been sprinkled with her ashes.

Laura Hendrie,You can order her books in any bookstore.

There is something so very personal about the written word. A part of you goes into the page. Maybe no one will ever read it, which really isn’t the point; it’s the writer writing and the emotion in putting the words out into the universe that gives you a sense of foreverness. Maybe that’s why so many old people write their memoirs. Of course there are many people who are so fascinating you really want to hear their stories. My family had stories but living through the Dust Bowl Days and The Depression and Cowboys Life on the Range, wasn’t really interesting to me, at least not when my Mom was writing about them. I know what I write about is not really  interesting to most people but I can’t stop the words from coming!

Scrap booking is such a rage for some these days. Crafting the perfect pages is so cutsie to me. I thought I would never do that. When I was about 10 my Great Aunt Madge gave each of my sisters and I a scrapbook that she had made of old cards and newspaper clippings and post cards that she had saved over her life. I thought then it was so cool that she had made all of them and that they were all so different. I wish that I had kept it now, but some where in my traveling it was lost. I think my sister Peggy still has hers. I want to think Blogging is Queen of like scrapbooking without the cutsie!!

I clip things that are interesting to me out of magazines and I make Idea Books and Cookbooks it’s all pretty much a waste of time except when I need an idea or a recipe! I sit here nearly every morning for a couple hours purging words or cutting and pasting. Many say my words should only be written in my journal, and maybe that’s where my Mothers words should have stayed too, but I sit and write, to you and the universe. This is what trips my trigger.

Peggy Lee  with her brand new Gibson

The Sisters

I have wanted to write about my sisters for the longest time. I think they are strong fascinating and creative women.
   Peggy Lee was always my sister in crime. Growing up only a year apart we shared everything, Peggy started writing songs and playing the guitar when we were in high school. She also learned to play the piano by making a cardboard cut out of the piano keys and she would sit and “practice” on cardboard without the sound. She wrote about love. She played in a band or two and she even made an album, vinyl the old style. I was so proud of her for her song writing. Having 2 beautiful daughters, Millicent and Cindy, at a young age seemed to intensify her ambition for music and a career. Sometimes a strong passion for something takes you to places you don't mean to go and are misunderstood. Mistakes that are difficult to overcome. Believe me I have made mine! Maybe Peggy's second marriage was only to increase her music skills and to produce the only beautiful baby boy in our family, in that generation! Adam. Adam was the last of my sister’s children and he deserves a story of his own someday. 

  I don’t think Peggy writes as much any more, but she has kept up with her music skills over the years, besides the guitar and the piano, she plays the flute and the cello, I love to hear her sing and play. She has a beautiful voice that changes her personality when the melodies drift out of her lips. I myself was not as musical but I loved playing the clarinet and the saxophone in the marching band when I was in grade school, Later I tried the Banjo, with lessons from Banjo Bill, an icon who played banjo for years in Victor Colorado, at the Victor Hotel, (He asked me to marry him, why I didn’t I'll never know!) The washtub base I played during my Palmer Lake days when I was pregnant. That was quite a spectacle in my overall skirt And Carlee’s Dad at the guitar. Later the harmonica caught me and my favorite number was “Kinda Fond’a Wanda” by Neil Young! I called myself an Axe Woman for a while!

   Peggy also developed her talent for sewing. Through a home based business in quilting and design she has been quite successful. She owns a quilt machine with a 14-foot arm so she can do quilting of king size quilts professionally. She also shares a space with other juried artists in The Spanish Village, which is a part of the Balboa Park and the San Diego Art Museum. Check out Peggy at quiltarte@zhibit.org. She has some very unique pieces of fabric fun including horsehair felting and flower dyed quilts. She also teaches her craft at the Spanish Village Square.
Sewing was after her 30-year career in Jewelry making and Gemology, she began making Indian Jewelry right after high school in a shop in Manitou, CO. She had her own shop in El Cajon,CA and was making beautiful pieces when divorce took her shop and tools away. She still works in a jewelry store, but she needs to have the ability for expression that working for yourself gives.I believe she is doing appraisals now.

Judith Kay and her great smile

                                       
 


  During all this writing, artistry and music making my youngest sister, Judith Kay was growing up with a furious passion for horses. She kept a trunk of equestrian paraphernalia, brushes, combs, leads, halters, books, and blankets. She had a couple of horse dolls from the time she was very young and she would get all the adornments for her toys. Her first real horse was a pregnant Shetland pony she caught at a rodeo. That caused my Mother quite a stir as we lived in an apartment with nowhere to keep it! The horse passion still burns in Judy. She and another woman started the LA Equestrian News Paper. Judy worked as the Art Director for the Paper, and now she handles a web-based business ushorse.biz and does freelance illustration and graphic design. Judy has done an awesome job with her writing and illustration work, not to mention her Fine Art and Photography. Her dedication is so unique and unbelievable. Judy went to Art Center, In Pasadena and has studied with some very fine artists, I recall Herman Raymond for one and her watercolor series of Blues Singers was phenomenal and my favorite.
Judy was married to Dennis Walker who filled her life with music and blues! As a blues producer and writer, bass player, piano player, etc. he has quite a career with interesting and colorful personalities. Clearly he brought passion for music into her life, along with increasing the rest of the family's passion for music.
  Her present husband, Peter works for Universal Studios as an Art Director for movies and episodic TV and Is now working on the remake of Hawaii Five 0. We are all so excited to see the new show and wonder what Peter will do next! 
Peter has done some special effects in remodeling on their home in Glendale, CA also. As a gardener and gourmet cook he spices up Judy’s life. And his children gave her a ready made family.

Judy rides Dressage and practices daily with her Hanoverians, a breed of horse from Germany. Peggy also loves horses and rode with her husband Roy Caballero as mounted police officers for San Diego Police Department. Roy works for a construction company in San Diego County and he also has a special flare for cooking! He was born in Mexico and his authentic Mexican cuisine is very yummy. Roy and Peggy also did a huge remodle on their home (the home where Gregory Peck was born, they call it the Peck House!) Peggy keeps her horses in her back yard and loves them like children! 
My sisters and their families are very talented and wonderful people I respect and love them very much. They're support and patient understanding means the world to me. I wish everyday that evolution didn’t mean living so far from the ones I love! I just want to go have coffee with my sisters in the worst way.

My oldest sister Sue Ellen always has been somewhat distant, trying to keep in contact with her is always a puzzle. She has lived for the past 15 years on Orcas Island in the San Juan’s near Seattle. I’m not sure why she has isolated herself from the rest of the family and I don’t really have a clue why she has no desire to know and love her fabulously talented and caring sisters and their families, maybe it has something to do with having to spend so much of her childhood babysitting the rest of us, and though she hasn’t kept in touch I just bet that she writes. And I bet music is in her blood and there is color and beauty around her. She is a vital part of this Peppersauce Family and I hope someday she will find her way home.
  I feel like writing about my sisters does not really do them justice They are such real and special friends but this is a quick glimpse into my family and selected memories shares a little bit about who we are and where we came from. 

We are all very different and we live very different lives but there is this thread of similarity that runs thru us and connects us in ways that only families share. We are a Peppersauce Family that grew from the Peppersauce Bottom in Southern Colorado on the Arkansas River. Four women raised by women, with a strength and understanding that was breed into us. My sisters carry the passion of  wild mustangs and the pallet of a sunset in a mountain canyon, music in their hearts and a sense of communication that we all welcome the chance to share. I hope you have enjoyed my story; it’s been so long since I’ve written and please check out our web sites and spend some time telling your story to someone you love.

My Mom and I The Last Good Picture!

Ms Peppersauce Bottom Does Halloween Tricks

Last but not least is Ms Gracie Grassroots

The Grandmother Spirit lives on forever!

The Grandmothers live a Green life-Protecting the Earth and the people

The Fairy Grandmothers life in Peppersauce Bottom on the Arkansas River

Chapter 7 Ms Gracie Grassroots

   Gracie, Gracie, Gracie! What would we do without Gracie? Gracie has the bed and breakfast at the Peppersauce Ranch or like we called it back in the day, a boarding house trailer. Her’s is a two story and she always has a bed ready for a passerby. Gracie is getting back to basics, She has a cow, Bossy and a goat Sassafras and the big red hen Squawks and the little piggy, Buttons. She is also a weaver and a baker like Ms Lucy and now she is into preserving and she puts up tomatoes, corn, peas, apples and peaches and plums and the Peppersauce peppers and chilies and whatever is abundant in the crops. Lucy makes cheese, yogurt and butter out of the goat milk and the cow’s milk. She is so busy all the time I don’t know how she has time to make up special pies to sell for the church or to pack up boxes for a friend! But She does that too!
  Gracie weaves pillow tops and blankets and special pieces of art. She is very crafty, that Gracie! She is learning how to crochet and make little slippers for all the Grandmothers. I can’t wait to get mine!
  Gracie wears Capri’s and little home made shirts with and apron just about all the time now, except on Sunday when she puts on her dress, with an apron. She wears high top sneakers and a scarf in her hair. Gracie Makes you laugh. Her nose and eyes crinkle up and she giggles and you just laugh with her. She IS very special.
  Gracie defiantly loves the Mountains. Living on the front range of the Rocky Mountains you can never get lost, you just look up and there you are! Gracie really likes this because she tends to get lost. Then the Grandmothers have to send out an alert to gather the teams to go find Gracie. It just hardly happens any more. Gracie has found her points of reference! Her Faith will pull her through.
 Gracie really has gotten back to basics, it’s funny how all the grandmothers can be so different and still be such good friends. If you knew them you would love to sit in the branches of the apple tree and look down at the little Ranch. There is always an opening at the Peppersauce Bottom Ranch for more Fairy Grandmothers or visitors tell me about your rig and yourself and we will make room for you at the PSB Ranch!

  Of course ALL the grandmothers are special and all Grandmothers are different but best of all Grandmothers are magical. You see, there will be more stories about the Grandmothers, Grand Mothers never really die they just acquire little wings and become smaller in size but that’s only so it’s easier to make wishes come true, so we will never run out of the Grandmothers’ stories because they are never ending!

It's Ms Lucy Larkspur

Ms lucy Larkspur's Tipi and Ms Gracie Grassroots Boarding Trailer

Chapter 6 Ms Lucy Larkspur

   It’s not so hard to spot the Tipi from the lofty apple tree branches the white color and the triangular shape exposed by the early morning sun makes the visions of the grandmother spirit clearly defined as the trails of the old ones weave around the canvas. Ms Lucy so patient and calm has always carried the grandmother spirit. She is tall and thin and her long blonde hair trails down her back. Her costume is plain and simple a pair of Levi’s and a worn but warm sweatshirt, a kind of rough ruggedness in a peaceful way. She can pack up her tipi in a flash and load it on a small cart that is pulled by her white horse, a beautiful sweet horse named Cloud and a strong horse, a Paint named Lightening. Ms Lucy, Lightening and Cloud live a simple and easy life now and the land is their playground. Searching for arrowheads and Indian relics, old Tipi circles and rocks is their pleasure. Ms Lucy makes artificial body parts for people who are broken. She is a whit’ler and an artist and she can make you strong in no time flat. She also weaves and makes beautiful blankets she trades for what she needs and maybe a beer now and again! Ms Lucy Larkspur lives the old culture, she loves solitude and meditation, strength and perseverance but mind you she has a cowgirl streak, I call it rowdy! And there is something that changes when the Grandmothers all get together it is a powerful site! Darn right powerful. The color of the air changes, the old women turn to young vibrant passionate strong souls, look out! The Boots come on!
  Anyway, Ms Lucy a caring compassionate understanding Grandmother you want to visit every day. A cup of coffee in the morning with Lucy will put you on your way knowing someone is on your side all day, Ms Lucy loves to bake bread and she once made her own crackers to share, I wonder if I could get her recipe? And she like all the grandmothers loves to make green chili, the campsite favorite meal.
   Ms Lucy has been quite inspirational in getting the Peppersauce Bottom Ranch under way. She has great ideas and she already has a camp the Grandmothers stay at every now and again. The grandmothers pack up and take a road trip to Hartsel for the annual Chicks in the Sticks Camp Out. They owe a lot to Ms Lucy Larkspur!

Meet Ms Ruby Hot Rocks

Ms Bunny Bugles and Ms Ruby Hot Rocks Homes at The Peppersauce Bottom Ranch

Ms Ruby Hot Rocks

Chapter 5 Ms Ruby Hot Rocks

  Ms Ruby Hot Rocks is a famous designer of rock. She builds large signs by blasting words into the rock, She glues rocks onto other rocks to make a sculpture design sometimes she adds clay or fabric or wood or even iron to her designs. Ms Ruby also does jewelry in glass and beads and other items like ceramic pots, dishes, platters and bowels, but that is not all! Ms Ruby does dolls and Inko dyes and quilts and sewing, and she builds furniture and this probably is n't near the end of what she can do. She is an artist by trade and a multi-talented Fairy Grandmother. She also likes to sail her boat out on Lake Pueblo. Ms Ruby is a rotund woman like Ms Peppersauce Bottom and she loves comfort. Her clothing is loose and flowy and brightly colored and she moves quickly and has determination in every step.
   Ms Ruby is a “DOG” person, seven in all and though she is quite talented there is chaos around her always! The other grandmothers wonder how she manages to do so much with all the chaos! I think it inspires her. She sleeps in a big old feather bed with all, yes all 7 of the dogs. There’s Sparkle and Champy, Mugji, Muffin and Zeke (a rooster cat goat Terrier mix) and Boo and Lolly, A big pack of little dogs all a mixture of Terriers and Beagles. 
 The grandmothers gather at the big caldron pot every morning for coffee and breakfast and all the dogs’ dash away to the big prairie where they chase each other and run so fast nipping at each other’s tails.Watching the dogs run makes me shiver with delight Even the Horses and Spicy and Sassafras the goats, the old milk goats, and Bossy the old milk cow get all excited and join in the chase. When the dogs run in the morning the chickens in the chicken coop jump and flutter their wings and Buttons the pig rolls in the mud, every one is awake and ready for adventure, will today be the day? Will the Grandmothers pack up the casitas and take a road trip?

Oh Yes, Inspiration yes, yes, Back to Ms Ruby. She flows in her little batik print dress and her Hawaiian Shirt and her Birkenstock (little Sandals) She Is a Picture, indeed! And a great sailboat Captain too! Eye Eye Ruby Hot Rocks Cap’ in, and she is off with the grandmothers. Ms Ruby’s little casita has a rock front and real Rubies are mixed in with the rock that dazzles in the sun. A large wooden door carved out by Ms Ruby herself and a big welcome sign adorn her front porch, Her casita is like a big tunnel inside with rock walls and big wooden beams, She also has a big red couch that she shares with all the dogs too. The other end of her casita has a sauna, A Room that fills with steam from the little rock stove where water is dripped across the rocks to make steam and heat that cleanses your skin and warms your bones. Grandmothers just love that, too! They sit naked in the sauna and sweat. The steam heat clouds the little room and after awhile they run and jump into the swimming whole they have carved out of the little river, Cold icy water but just a quick dip then, then back to the old comfy chairs by the caldron pot to warm by the fire.
  Ms Ruby and the next 2 grandmothers, Ms Lucy Larkspur and Ms Gracie Grassroots along with Ms Peppersauce Bottom have had a close bond. They were really the inspiration for this tale I’m telling you. Their lives have interconnected and lasted for many, many years. They shared many ups and downs and kept a close friendship throughout time. Why Peppersauce Bottom Ranch came to be, pert'near from their shenanigans!

Ruby Works in Carhearts and a blaster Rod

 Ruby's extra clothes

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Meet Ms Bunny Bugles alias Melody Meadowlark

 Chapter 4 MS Bunny Bugles alias Ms Melody Meadowlark

   The casita on the other side of Ms Peppersauce belongs to Ms Bunny, Ms Bunny is a little tricky but she loves to travel, sing and bake cakes, beautiful big cakes with lot’s of sweet frosting and beautifully decorated. Ms Bunny has those funny little teeth (buglers) that make her just belt out the songs and there is always a party around her, singing, dancing and all the merriment. She is so much fun to be around that all the Grandmothers enjoy a grand time in her company. Did I say Ms Bunny plays the piano? She dose, quite well. She knows all the tunes from time but her absolute favorite song is “I got my Thrill on Blueberry Hill!” She plays and sings long into the night. Her Casita is a 2 story with a big front porch with a porch swing and a wide French doors and a player piano, it plays songs on paper rolls that feed through and make the notes play magically. They were wonderful back in the day!
   Ms Bunny has a big bag that Ms Peppersauce made her to carry around her magical talent. Yes, yes, we will come to that part latter. Ms Melody Meadowlark as she likes to be called, is her show name. She is an actress and a singer and all the Grandmothers just love to watch her perform, especially at the Melodramas. She is a Tallish, grand Woman, striking and groomed and people take notice when she enters a room. She wears Bling, lots of shine and jewelry that pop out at you as you can’t keep your eyes off of her. She has a magnificent colored light around her. Her dress and shawl flow in the breeze as she twirls past you and her dress swishes by. Elegant, elegant woman, she is.
   Ok, the big bag is a healing bag. Ms Bunny has medicine in her bag. It will make you well if you are sick and happy if you are sad and full of energy if you are tired. It will make you eat when you can’t and if your tummy feels upset and you need some help it will help you BUT this is important you never take medicine when you are by yourself you always need someone to help you and sit with you and Ms Bunny will do that! You just have to ask, and quick as a bunny wink she is there by your side.
   Ms Bunny has a roof top garden where she grows herbs and spices that will fill her bag with flavors and scents and tinctures and rubs all medicine for her bag or sometimes for the big caldron the grandmothers cook in.
   Ms Bunny surely loves to travel pert’near everywhere. She loves to see how other people live, and what they eat, and sing in lands around the world. The grandmothers love to hear her stories but not as much as they love her famous double chocolate fudge cake with the creamy fluffy chocolate cream cheese frosting!
So after we finish this big slice of chocolaty heaven we will travel down the rocky path to the next casita, where we find another party place, Ms Ruby Hot Rocks!