Well…it happened! We finally had a heavy frost/freeze. When the sun hit the flowers yesterday, they gave up. This happens every year in Pennsylvania, we just never know exactly when that first killing frost will occur. Bert will be busy today pulling out all the plants that need to go, or cutting them off at ground level. The only things left in the garden will be the lavender and the carrots. The lavender will be fine over the winter as they are. We will continue to pull the carrots as we need them. I suspect they’ll all be out of the ground by Thanksgiving. Here are the last pictures of our 2024 garden.
The leaves continue to drop but the redbud leaves seem to hang on for a while. The butternut tree behind and to the right is not very healthy, so it’s been dropping leaves for a month.
The marigolds and zinnias were spectacular this year but the frost finally got them. Bert is pulling them out today.
The geranium baskets finally gave up. Time to go!
The lavender will be fine all winter. The carrots might make it until Thanksgiving.
Carrots
One of the biggest jobs is to empty the big water tank. It can’t have any water in it over the winter. Bert put the rain barrels away in the shop last week.
And finally, the echinacea has been dropping seeds and all we have left are the sharp seed pods. Bert will wear heavy gloves and cut them off at the ground with his big clippers.
It always feels kind of sad to clean up the garden beds but right after Christmas the seed catalogs start arriving so we can start thinking about next year! Enjoy!
I just came across another recipe for an Apple Cake…this time called German Apple Cake. Several years ago, I shared a recipe for a French Apple Cake, so of course I had to try the German one! I’m always interested in ways to use apples without having to roll out pie crust for apple pie or cut butter into tiny pieces to make an apple crisp. The French Apple Cake appealed to Bert because it had rum in it, but I don’t care for the taste of rum so I don’t make it very often. The German Apple Cake recipe I’m sharing here does not have rum, so I was hopeful I would like it.
The German Apple Cake recipe has similar ingredients and the instructions are pretty much the same. Here’s the recipe:
I started the recipe by cutting up the apples. I wasn’t sure how many I would need, so I bought 3 very large “Honeycrisp” apples.
I put the diced apples into a bowl of water to keep them from turning brown.
When I finished cutting up the three apples, I drained them and put them into my 4-cup measuring cup. Oops! I had more like 6 cups of diced apples!
So, I spooned off the extra into a zip bag and put them in the freezer. They will be great added to my morning smoothies.
Continuing with the recipe…I mixed up the wet ingredients and added the dry ingredients. Then I folded in the cut apples.
Finally, I dumped the mixture into the prepared baking pan.
Of course, before I could take a finished picture, we had to have a taste! Delicious!
It looked dark, almost like it had chocolate in it (it did not!). I think the cinnamon made it look dark. Yum! I will cut it up and freeze it in portions…we can’t possibly eat that much in a day or two.
I guess I’m on the lookout for other “apple cake” recipes. I wonder what other countries make with apples? Enjoy!
Nittany Greyhounds…a greyhound adoption group here in Centre County…has rehomed many greyhounds over the years. Since I’ve been involved with the group, one of the most useful things I’ve made for them is the Belly Band. It isn’t a fancy thing…made of sturdy denim and a piece of terrycloth, fastened with strong Velcro…but it can make the difference in a successful adoption. I’ve begun putting together a batch of belly bands and thought I’d repost the information from two years ago about WHY I make them. If you want to know the details of HOW to make a belly band, you can find the instructions at https://marykisner.com/belly-bands-for-greyhounds/ Feel free to share that tutorial with a greyhound adoption group near you.
From the original post:
What is a belly band? A new fashion statement for our beloved greyhounds? Haha…no! Picture this…you have just adopted a 2 yr. old male greyhound from your nearby adoption kennel. You are ready to make him comfortable in your home and take him off his leash. He wanders around the living room…the kitchen…your bedroom. You show him his kennel or cozy bed in the corner. You let him explore on his own while you take off your coat and put things away. Very quickly you realize that he is lifting his leg and marking the corners of the furniture and table legs. This is a natural response to a new environment, especially if you had other dogs in the house previously. AHHHH…now what?
Luckily, the adoption group predicted this might happen and had sent you home with a belly band, just in case. You had wondered what it was for. This simple denim band wraps around their abdominal region and gently keeps his private parts from being used until you can get him outside. Over the next few days as he gets more comfortable in your home you can train him that if he’s in the house he should not have to mark his territory. When you take him outside and remove the band THEN is the time to explore and mark his territory. The hope is that he won’t need the belly band for very long, but that depends on the dog.
This band can wrap quickly around the dog’s abdomen and is sturdy enough to stay put. (The one in this picture was 27” long…we ended up making all the belly bands 29”).
(Note: The belly band has also been used with the females after being spayed. It keeps them from bothering their incision and stitches.)
So, a greyhound belly band is not a fashion accessory but an important tool to make an adoption successful! I’ll be making 10-15 belly bands over the next few days. Not exciting but so important to new greyhound owners!
Who thinks about Christmas in October? Those of us who try to make handmade things for gifts find even October is sometimes too late! As soon as Labor Day festivities are over, we start getting anxious about what we want to accomplish by the middle of December. Of course, retail stores help this along by hauling out the decorations to get us in the mood! We tolerate displays of Halloween ghosts and goblins and Thanksgiving turkeys but we’re already looking for fabrics, patterns and craft ideas. As we know, it takes time to produce a quilt, knitted sweater or gift basket of handmade items.
How wonderful that sometimes folks will request a special handmade gift in September so I have time to actually make it! Love it! I had such a request for crocheted dishcloths like I had made several years ago. Actually, at that time I was making random wash cloths to go with my various bars of soap I was making. I ended up making a variety of squares, trying to find the best yarn to make a washcloth that was strong when wet (not just soft when dry). I finally passed the whole pile on to my son’s family. I didn’t know they were using them and now needed more!
Very well-loved dishcloths!
I had to search for my bag of crochet hooks and of course had to make a visit to JoAnn’s to choose some new yarn.
I shouldn’t have to buy any more crochet hooks!
Next, I tried to remember what kind of yarn I used originally. That was hard, because I remember trying all kinds of yarn…from nylon and acrylic to bamboo and cotton. I was pretty sure I used cotton but now the choice was between a 4-ply cotton yarn and a #3 crochet cotton.
Finally, all I could do was START! I basically used a single crochet stitch. Beginning with about 28 stitches, I first used the 4-ply cotton yarn. Geez! My fingers had forgotten how to crochet! The first attempts made a hefty 10-inch square. It was heavy enough to use as a pot holder! Next, I started with only 24 stitches. That was better. I also went to a larger hook so it wasn’t so tightly woven (plus, I finally relaxed my stitches). I’m not sure about this yarn. Would I wash dishes with this cloth? It was pretty heavy.
Next, I tried the #3 crochet yarn. These turned out thinner and more flexible.
My first cloths with the #3 crochet cotton started with about 24 and then I crocheted around the whole cloth several times. This made a very flexible cloth…but I think it should be larger, so I’ll increase my starting row of stitches.
At this point, I’ll just keep crocheting and around the beginning of December, I’ll put them in the mail to California! What fun for me and hopefully useful to them!
While I was looking for any other posts I’ve written about crocheting…I could find only one! In June 2023 I tried to make my favorite hot pads. They are my favorite and were gifts from a dear friend (Thank you Helen!). I figured I’d better learn how to make them myself. Luckily, Pinterest had several tutorials available. Here’s a picture of the ones she made for me. They wash beautifully and have double protection.
These hot pads were a wonderful gift!
My hot pads were thick enough, but not exactly as pretty!
So for now, you’ll know what I’m doing while I’m watching Hallmark Movies or Penn State football! What Christmas gifts are you going to try to make this year? Enjoy!
In the last few weeks, I’ve tried a few recipes that suggested I use parchment paper on a baking sheet or to line a bread pan. Frankly, it’s a pain in the neck! I have a roll of parchment paper, but it requires me to cut to fit my specific pans every time, and then it’s so slippery that the whole sheet slides off when I try to take a cookie off the tray!
I have four small baking sheets (8″ x 11 1/2″) that just fit in my oven side by side on two racks. I use them for everything but I haven’t found a silicone tray liner that just fits. And then, I have my bread pans! I recently made a zucchini blueberry bread that really needed parchment paper on the bottom because the mix was so wet. I just didn’t stop to cut paper to fit. I learned the hard way that it was really needed!
While I was searching on Amazon for silicone mats in various sizes, I discovered this one that I could cut to size myself! Great idea!
Silicone Baking Mat Roll 16IN*5FT Free Cutting, Non-Slip Pastry Mat, Non-Stick Reusable Air Fryer Liner, Oven Liners, Counter Mat, Freeze Dryer Mat, Easily Cut to Size Fit All Ovens Pans Tins Dishes $18.99
I got the mat in the mail yesterday and got to work.
It just fit! I cut three more and I now have one for each of my baking sheets!
How about my bread pans? I measured the bottom of the pan…3″ x 7″.
I cut six so all my bread pans would have one. I also have a set of very small bread pans I use occasionally. The bottom is 2″ x 5″. I cut four of the very small size.
Finally, how about my square and round baking pans? The square pan was 7″ x 7″ on the bottom but the corners were rounded, so I cut two 7″ squares and cut off the corners! Perfect!
The round pans were a little tricky and I could probably do better, but I made two 8″ squares and tried to round the edges. Not pretty, but functional!
This is how much mat I had left over. (I’ll toss the corner pieces.)
I’ll put the extra pieces in a zip bag and will store them with my cookbooks…just in case I need a little piece to put under a flower pot or vase.
I can hardly wait to bake something to try these mats out. I’m sure they will lower my frustration level! Give it a try if you assorted pans like I do. Enjoy!
I was all ready to describe my next project…crocheting some dishcloths for Christmas gifts…but instead I thought I’d focus this post on how ALL my do-it-yourself (DIY) projects get going.
There are five major steps that seem to be common to every project I start. These five steps include:
I’m intrigued with a new project. I may need something but think I could make it myself; or someone else asks if I could make something for them. I find ideas everywhere…at craft shows, bake sales, advertisements, or in gifts from others. Even the fiction books I’m reading will often have a “craft” focus like quilting, baking or holiday activities. (I’m easily bored, so I’m always looking for something new to try!)
2. I start researching how something is made, how it is used, what kind of tools are necessary to make it, etc. This is where websites like Pinterest and YouTube help…if anyone has made it, surely someone has posted about how to do it. I have found classes that will teach me how to make something, from baking to crafting. Of course, books and illustrations will often show the most elaborate finished product that could eventually be made (like a beautiful sweater crocheted with a complex design) when all I wanted to learn was how to make a simple product (like a crocheted dishcloth)!
3. Next, I begin collecting the tools I’ll need. For my soap projects, I needed soap molds, blocks of melt-and-pour soap and 4-cup heat-proof glass measuring cups to melt the soap. For my beading projects I found the best elastic to string the beads and the design board to hold the beads as I worked.
4. Practicing making the product takes the longest and is the most fun for me! When I’m baking, the family and neighbors have been my taste-testers while I figure out the recipe. I’ve learned that my baking mistakes will sometimes make good croutons…or will feed the birds…or at least will compost well!
When I made batches of soap, I started making small sample size bars and my high school friends graciously took them off my hands. I learned the sample size soap bars made good gifts…or could be melted down and poured again!
When I made my gemstone bracelets, if the elastic knot came apart or made an ugly lump, I could cut the string and try again! Right now, I have about 60 bracelets left over that I made for the Craft show in July. If I decide to change the design of the bracelets, I can always cut the elastic and use the beads in another design.
5. Finally, I begin collecting the supplies to continue making the products. Usually, I buy just enough to make/finish the one project I’m working on. However, I am optimistic and end up with enough supplies to make more than one! The trick is to buy enough to keep me going…until I lose interest in making the item. This might mean I’ve baked enough that I need to move on…having all those yummy things around every day is too much for my diet! It might mean I’ve given away enough soaps that no one wants more. Mostly…I’m the one that is ready to move on…to learn something new!!
When you explore the posts in this blog you might wonder how I do it all! Haha! Remember…I’m 78 years old! I’ve been “crafting” as long as I can remember. I got bored easily as a kid so my mom always had pencil and paper ready for times when I had needed to sit quietly…like church or a long car ride.
Mom always had bits and pieces of her projects (like yarn, fabric, buttons) that I could work with. Every Christmas Eve I would open a gift that was a project I could make that night that would keep me busy. I remember making ornaments with felt and glue and buttons.
As I grew up, mom included me in her projects. She let me choose the fabric for the dresses she made for me. By the time I was 14 I was making myself a straight skirt and jacket in Home Economics class. Not sure I ever wore it…but I tried! You can see I had to learn to read instructions on patterns early and I’m still learning and even making my own patterns for little things.
The majority of this website has been inspired by my DIY projects. While my academic career focused on teaching elementary school, I ended up teaching Vocational teachers at Penn State who were coming back to school for additional degrees. These folks were my kindred spirits…they made stuff every day! I tried to help them focus on all the reading, writing and math skills they found naturally in their subject areas. All the DIY projects I’ve done and written about have incorporated reading, following instructions and essential math skills.
So, in accordance with the goals of this blog…think about what you do every day. How do you go about learning new things? Is it fun? Do you share these new things with your family and friends? No matter how old you are, every day is an opportunity to learn something new! Share your new knowledge or projects with others. Enjoy!
This is a repost of an article I wrote exactly 3 years ago today. I would not have remembered it but Facebook reminded me about it! The pictures were just too cute to not share again!
September 18, 2021
I pulled out my recipes today to make some Italian bread. It’s been a while so when I found the recipe I was reminded of my sister-in-law, Patty…my big brother’s first wife. She was a real sweetheart and my mentor when I started my own family. Here’s an early picture with two of their kids, Eric and Pam. Paul, Todd and Teresa rounded out their family by the early 1980’s. We were sorry to lose her in 1984, but my memories keep her in my heart to this day.
In 1980, Ted, Kathy and I spent a few days with my brother’s family on the farm in northern Pennsylvania. We borrowed my sister’s motor home while she was out of town and had an adventure going to Uncle Mark’s farm.
Ted was four and a half and Kathy was three. Such sincere smiles!
We parked the motor home in the backyard of the farm house and enjoyed visits with the barn cats and the cousins. Early on the first morning, we were awakened by the neighbor’s sheep. What a surprise to look out the window and see we had been surrounded by a whole flock of sheep! That was the beginning of our adventure!
Of course, this post is about making Italian bread so let me just say every time I make this recipe, I’m reminded of those days visiting the farm. Patty was always baking something and I was inspired by her ability to whip out this Italian bread or homemade Pizza crust in a flash. We had many conversations about baking with whole wheat flour and making our own yogurt. Great memories!
So, here is the recipe for her Italian bread:
When I make bread, I often start with the liquid ingredients and then add flour. This recipe started with all the flour in the bowl and then added the liquid ingredients. I had forgotten this, but it worked out just fine.
At this point, I dumped the dough out onto the floured table, gave it a few “kneads” and put it in a bowl to rise.
An hour later, the dough had raised to the top of the bowl.
I shaped it into two long loaves and let it raise on the pan.
In 20 minutes the whole kitchen smelled great!
Of course, before I could get a picture of the loaves, SOMEONE had to have a chunk!
So that’s the story of Patty’s Italian bread recipe, memories and all! Enjoy!
This has been a very busy week with our son visiting from California, my yearly eye doctor’s appointment, a luncheon with my high school friends, a pot luck dinner with the Ladies Auxiliary to the Fire Company, and the two-day yard sale at the Fire Hall. In the middle of all that, I tried a new recipe for apple hand-pies in the air fryer! At the same time, our son was pulling a bunch of tubs out of the attic that had his mementoes from preschool through college graduation. His goal was to sort, purge and organize his memories. He flew here from California with plans to rent a car/van to drive back home…with all of his stuff that had been in our attic for many years!
It was such a joy to watch him discover his past memories! A great “life review.” I imagine we will have a similar process to go through when we finally downsize our house. Of course, to sort through papers and mementoes…the living room became the best place to set up!
It started with the first few bins…
As he emptied bins and started sorting into piles, he could see he had his work cut out for him. Such a process!
It wasn’t long until I could see the organization begin to make sense.
His stuff is now organized into bins with labels so when he unloads his car in California he’ll know where to store them. Whew! I’m so proud of him in getting it done…and our attic has an empty space. Hopefully it will not get filled with more junk!
Good time for a selfie! (I think I always look like I stuck my finger in a light socket!)
Now, about those Air Fryer Apple Pies!
I started by cutting up apples into tiny pieces. I sprinkled lemon juice on them, added the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and stirred them together.
I filled a small bowl with water to use as “glue” to close the egg roll wrappers.
I had a little trouble finding the wrappers at the grocery store…they were on a high shelf in the vegetable cooler. Luckily, a very tall employee found them!
A tablespoon of apples just fit on one wrapper:
Then I folded the sides in:
…and the bottom up…
…and finally folded the top over, using a dab of water along the edge to help it stick.
My air fryer has two shelves, so I could cook all 12 at once, turning them over halfway and rotating the trays.
Of course, I forgot to get a picture of them coming out of the air fryer! Sorry!
If you look at the recipe above, once fried they were to be dusted with extra sugar. I did not do that but within half an hour of coming out of the fryer, the pies were gone! They tasted great, but egg roll wrapper got pretty crunchy. Seemed like a lot of work for a few bites!
So today, Saturday afternoon, I’m finally home from the yard sale at the Fire Hall. It was successful, but I’m exhausted! Tomorrow our son will begin loading his rental car with all his memories. His visit has been fun for us and successful for him. On Tuesday he’ll begin driving home to Santa Barbara.
I’m looking forward to getting back on track…with my own projects. I’m finding my Morse Code bracelets are a hit with some friends ordering them for Christmas gifts. Other bracelets feature favorite colors, birthstones and meaningful beads.
It’s probably time for me to start thinking about what to do for Christmas too. Any gifts that involve crafts or sewing take time. Let me know if you think of any craft projects that would make interesting gifts! Enjoy!
The 2024 gardens at the Kisner homestead are winding down. It always feels a little sad to see the plants turning brown. However, we are still harvesting a few things so it’s not over yet!
My patio planters did a great job with lettuce and radishes this summer. By mid-August I had had enough radishes for a while and the lettuce was attracting hungry aphids. I pulled everything and Bert put fresh soil in the bins. I planted spinach in all of the bins thinking I could harvest it all at once, dehydrate the leaves and spin them to powder in the blender. Then I could add a spoonful of powder to soups and smoothies. Great idea…not! August was really too hot for spinach and then we had tons of rain that just overwhelmed the tiny seeds. This week I cut off most of the spinach that had tried to grow and gave it to a friend who had bunnies…it would not go to waste! I have two bins of spinach that seemed to do well, so I’ll let them go until the first frost and see if it works!
These sections might actually produce some spinach!
These sections had a few green shoots that I cut for the bunnies. We’ll compost the leftover roots.
The fenced sections off the patio had mixed success.
The front section had sugar snap peas in the spring. When we cleaned them up, we found a few volunteer potatoes that came up from last year. We haven’t dug down to see what actually grew yet. The section behind that has zinnias and giant marigolds. They are beautiful right now. They have been a delightful treat as everything else is dying down.
To the left of the empty potato patch, we planted just 2 yellow pear tomato plants. They went nuts! They have leaned into each other and the fence is holding them up. The tomatoes are delicious and make a great snack!
Behind the tomato section we had 2 hills of zucchini. I think we harvested about 10 small zucchini and that’s it! Who knows if it was the weather, the soil or the seed! We’ll consider it next year.
The fenced garden up on the hill still has some green plants!
I’ve begun trimming the lavender so it will be good over the winter. Bert discovered one lone poison ivy plant right in the middle of the lavender. Luckily he put some gloves on and removed it before I started trimming!
We tried a late planting of green beans in early August. I think the birds pecked up some of the seeds but the ones that grew are making blossoms so we may actually get a few more beans!
Our carrots have done very well this year. We’ve pulled a few and will continue to dig them up as needed.
And then we still have tomatoes ripening! Many of the plants got chomped and stripped by giant horn worms…UGLY…but the tomatoes just kept on growing.
I’m most disappointed with the echinacea. They look great around the 4th of July, but very quickly they started dropping their seeds and now look pretty sad.
So, that’s the status of our garden today. All I have to do is look in the refrigerator and on the kitchen table to see that we’re not done with the garden yet!
Keep checking the Farmer’s Markets near you. They should have fresh produce through October and November around here. Enjoy!
This is Part 3 of my mother’s biography. She wrote Parts 1 and 2 as an essay when she was 15 years old and in 10th grade in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. You can read those posts here:
This post continues the story from her high school years to her marriage to Paul Bixby, my dad. It is based on a few documents and photographs I found after she passed away. After 1935, the information I have about her life was woven into letters written by my dad to family in Minnesota. I hope you enjoy her journey to 1935.
___
And the story continues…
Ruth’s High School Years…1928-1930
In high school, Ruth was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook, “The Senior Otter.” She was the general class treasurer, class president for one year and a member of the Glee Club. Her description under her picture was, “Little, sweet, clever, dependable,” and her nickname was “Ruthie Jane.” Two fellow classmates that worked with her on the Yearbook, wrote:
“Your sunny disposition alone will crown you with success’s laurel wreath,” and “I shall always remember you as the most optimistic of my acquaintances!”
Another wrote: “In beauty, in character and fine, high-spirit optimism, I do not know your peer!”
Ruth graduated from Fergus Falls High School May 29, 1930. Ruth met Paul Bixby in high school and their relationship continued beyond graduation.
Ruth’s College Years…1930-1932
Ruth attended St. Cloud Teachers College for two years to become certified to teach in elementary school. She was responsible for keeping track of her expenses, as shown in her small account book right down to the penny. She would carry these skills of thrift and accounting throughout her life.
Her grades were mostly A’s and B’s with a few C’s mixed in. After graduation she received her Elementary School Certificate. In 1932 she obtained a position as a teacher in a one-room school. She had to live with a farm family to be closer to the school during the school year.
Ruth’s Teaching Year…1932-1933
Her teaching contract, dated 1932, committed her to 8 months at $75/month. It also outlined the teacher’s responsibilities: “Teacher is to do own janitor work…including building of fires, sweeping and keeping the school room clean.”
Curiously, her background of in-town living and her academic college courses did not adequately prepare her to face the reality of handling the one-room school situation. (Note: Paul, on the other hand, grew up on a farm, attended a one-room school himself, and was quite prepared for the daily duties of building fires and keeping a school room warm and clean.)
While the students in a one-room school included small first graders, there were also large farm boys that did not want to be there. In later years, she would often refer to her one year of teaching as a “nightmare!” In this photo of her class from her photo album, she even wrote, “My Nightmare” across the picture!
Paul also taught in a different one-room school four miles away and roomed with a farm family close to his school. During this year of teaching, Ruth and Paul were “courting,” figuring out the party line telephone system between the two farm houses where they lived so they could talk and make plans for getting together. I found several (quite steamy) letters Paul wrote to Ruth during this time so I wasn’t surprised to see her teaching career ended after one year and she focused on wedding preparations.
Ruth and Paul’s Wedding…1935
Wedding plans were made for June 1, 1935…twenty-five years after Paul’s parents, John and Cora, were married at the Davis farmhouse. Paul’s account of the day is preserved in his book of stories:
High noon was the obvious hour for a wedding in the Basswood farming community in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. Because of morning and evening chores, the Bixby and Davis families could be spic and span only at mid-day for dress-up events. So it had been in 1910 when at noon on June 1, John and Cora spoke their promises at the Davis farmhouse and then hurried back to the honeymoon house they were building on the hundred-acre wedding gift Father Bixby had whittled off the lakeshore homestead. A quarter century later Paul and Ruth decided to continue the rural schedule although Ruth’s city family thought it a strange hour for a wedding and a celebration of a silver anniversary.
Minnesota summer in 1935 was gloomy. Drought and blustery Westerly winds were cooperating to bring tons of the best North Dakota topsoil to fertilize the farm land and dust the furniture in even tightly closed homes. The porch floor of the Lowry home in Fergus Falls had been swept and polished in the morning but by noon the procession made tracks in the dust. The over warm house had to be closed against the dust-laden wind. My lapel flower brushed my cheek giving a sense of sweat about to make rivulets to my shirt collar as I tried to remember my cues as directed by the Episcopal Prayer Book.
Formalities over, socializing between town and country families was heartening. The veal bird dinner was superior. Then continuing the custom set by John and Cora a quarter century earlier, Ruth and I hurried our much-used Chevy toward our dream for the future. John and Cora remembered a house they had to finish before the cold winter. Paul and Ruth had a professional education to complete before financial security could be attained. As we coasted down the Whitford Street hill away from our supportive parents we could not know that it would be twelve exciting but strenuous years before we would move into our first stable home near the campus of Penn State.
Paul, Ruth, Minnie S. Lowry, Stewart B. Lowry
Paul, Ruth, Cora D. Bixby, John L. Bixby
Ruth L. Bixby and Paul W. Bixby
So for now, that’s the end of the biography of my mother, Ruth Lowry Bixby. I have continued her life story in my files, but my source material came mostly from letters and stories my dad wrote and a few photographs. Ruth did not keep a daily journal, but did write down some of her experiences to contribute to my dad’s record of their various travels.
I hope you enjoyed reading my posts about my mother. Writing these stories has helped me remember my mother’s journey from 1912 to 1935. I was born in 1946, and she passed in 1988, so her story and mine are intertwined for another 42 years! Enjoy!
