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19 October 1862: John Wood to his mother, Isabella Wood
Transcribed Letter: October 19, 1862 Mrs. Wood I now take the opportunity to you a few lines to let you know that Im well at present. The boys from our sctelinen are all well but Obe we are campt close to El Parsons. Arch and Eli are at our camps every other day or to. Archy and Eli has got as fat as hos Parsons Men are bringing in yanks every day or to. Obe has got the flux I saw Mat Finch in des ark as We past thrugh. I didn’t get to see John Patterson but Bob said looket well. Corn is plenty. Is plenty in this part…
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November 19, 1878: William Riddell to his sister, Isabella Riddell Wood
This letter was written by William Riddell, brother of Isabella Riddell Wood. Transcribed Letter: Wellgreen 19th November 1878 My Dear Sister, Yours of August 10th have duly to hand, I was glad to hear from you again and to hear you were all well, I had a letter from Allegheny with the same Post as yours came with, they then were in good health, I have wrote again to day to Mrs. Reids – Mr. Riddell is much about hir usual way. She is mostly confined to bed, she had one of this ill turns a fue days since, but is greatly covered again, theirs a Dr. Donale in Strathaven…
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Notification of John Wood’s Death Cloutierville, Louisiana 26 July 1864
John Wood’s commander wrote home to his parents, notifying them of their son’s death. The letter is a bit of a jumble of words in places. One can only imagine how terrible it would have been to write home about death. I didn’t try to correct his grammar or add missing words. I’ll leave that up to the reader. Cloutierville, LA July 26, 1864 Mr. and Mrs. Wood, It has become my painful duty to give you the sad news of the death of your son, John Wood. He was taken sick over three days ago. He was taken with a chill and was not considered dangers until yesterday evening…
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Playing with Baby White Tigers in the Limpopo Region of South Africa
Have you ever dreamed of cuddling with a baby white tiger? Well, I had the chance to do just that when I visited a wildlife sanctuary in the Limpopo region of South Africa. I had an unforgettable experience with these beautiful baby white tigers and wanted to share it with you. What are white tigers? White tigers are not a separate subspecies of tiger. They are a color variant of the Bengal tiger or the Siberian tiger, or a hybrid between the two subspecies. White tigers have white fur, dark brown or black stripes, and blue eyes. They are very rare and beautiful animals. White tigers are not albinos. They…
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Historic Airbnb in Pensacola
Our “New” Historic Airbnb in Pensacola, Florida When we finally moved into our dream home in Texas, it was our 29th home. I thought we were finished. I thought we had caught our limit and I knew we were where we wanted to spend the rest of our lives. Of course, fate is funny and now we also own a historic Airbnb in Pensacola. Who would have ever guessed? We spent 20 years being moved around by the Navy, but were never stationed in Pensacola. Jerry wasn’t associated with the aviation side of things and that is the largest group here in Pensacola. We hadn’t even vacationed here on the…
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Concrete Floor Staining Failure – Revisited
Once Upon a Time Once upon a time our floors were beautiful. They were the product of hard work and they were exactly what we had envisioned. Unfortunately, that beautiful dream didn’t stand the test of time. In fact, it didn’t stand the test of contractors or (to be fair) normal use. I have already discussed the problems we had with the concrete in “A Colossal Error in Concrete Staining” What happened? What went wrong? Most importantly, how on earth are we going to fix it? You can read that post, or continue here for a recap and our attempts at finding a solution. In the Beginning… In the beginning,…
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Mustang Grape Jelly: A Family Tradition?
They Grow Wild and Free As far as wild ideas go, the decision to make wild Mustang grape jelly fits the bill. Wild idea. Wild grapes. Texas is blessed with abundance, usually, and I do wonder about what my great, great, great grandparents thought about Texas when they emigrated here from Scotland in 1851. They had been promised that Texas was a land where things grew easily. Where life would be easy. Abundance. You know, the typical stuff you would say in order to get people to move half way around the world. My great, great, great grandmother, Isabella Wood, wrote a letter back to Scotland and told a different…
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Wine Making Class – Step by Step
First, It Isn’t Difficult or Complicated When I made an offhanded comment back in 2009 that I wanted to learn how to make wine, I really did mean I wanted to learn. I thought I would watch some You-Tube videos. Maybe read a book. My husband had other ideas. He got online and purchase all the equipment I needed to get started and suddenly, with no preparation or warning, I was making wine. It is a good thing that he did this because if I had been left alone, I might have gotten around to watching a video or two. I probably wouldn’t have purchased a book. I would never…
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April 2 – Day 16 of Our COVID-19 Adventure
Some Things Stay the Same No Matter What In 1994, Jerry, the kids, and I moved to Sardinia. I was so excited. Sardinia is a small Italian island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. My life was about to be both exciting and exotic, but above all, it was going to be DIFFERENT. And it was and it wasn’t. The water isn’t potable on Sardinia and so we learned to cook and brush our teeth with bottled water. I learned how to hang clothes out on a clothes line. We learned how to survive 115 degree and up temperatures with no air conditioning. We also learned how to manage…
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April 1 – Day 15 of Our COVID 19 Adventure
Is There a Silver Lining? I have been reading lots of posts about, if there is a silver lining to be found during this pandemic, it may be the amount of time that we all have now to focus on things that are important to us. I think there is a lot of truth in that statement. However, I think that it would be difficult to convince medical personnel right now that they have more time, for example. So I suppose that for some of us there is a silver lining, but not really one for all of us. Some people are handling the crisis with aplomb, some are panicking. …