Great Grandpa Vernon’s cradle

Over 40 years ago, I asked my children’s Grandpa Vernon to make a cradle for my babies.  He could do anything and everything.  

In 1917, when Grandpa Vernon was four years old, his father was lost at sea. His father was the captain of a fishing boat that was returning from Alaska. No one ever knew what happened to this experienced fisherman who was piloting his boat through the Straits of Juan de Fuca to his home on Lopez Island.  All that is known is that the crew found him missing.  His body was never found…he was presumed to have been washed out to sea, into the Pacific Ocean.

Little four-year-old Vernon had a two-year-old brother and an older brother and sister at the time of his father’s death.  His mother brought her children to live with her father-in-law for a few years.  

Then she moved with her four children to Anacortes, an island on the edge of the San Juan Islands.  In Anacortes, she supported her children by taking in washing.  They raised chickens and sheep, and had fruit trees and a vegetable garden.  She and her children spent hours caring for their animals, butchering, harvesting, and canning so they would have food through the winter.

To make enough money to provide a home and enough food her four children, she also took mothers into her home and cared for them after the birth of their babies.  At the end of a pregnancy, mothers who lived in the San Juan Islands would come by boat to Anacortes to safely have their babies in the only hospital in the area.  Grandpa Vernon’s mother fed and cared for these new mothers and their babies for ten or more days….until the doctor felt it was save for them to return to their home.  If they went back to the remote island where they lived too soon, and a problem arose, there was a great risk that the mother and/or child would die.  

Grandpa Vernon’s older brother and sister quit school after the eighth grade and went to work to help support their mother, little Vernon, and his younger brother.  Because of this, Vernon was the first child in the family to graduate from High School….just about when the 1929 Great Depression hit our country.

Despite loosing his father and all the hardships that he and family endured, no one in his family was ever angry or bitter.  This was just considered part of life.  

In fact, Grandpa Vernon has the most amazing, wonderful, and humorous memories of growing up in Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.  Our favorite pastime was to sit with him and quietly listen to his stories of his life…not just as a child, but his whole life.

In the 1930’s he was a third mate on merchant ships that traveled to Alaska and the Orient.  Although he had always loved the sea, he wanted to be at home with his wife and children.  So he applied to the Seattle Police Department and was a street officer for over 30 years.  This was the time when there was corruption in the police department, but he didn’t join the officers who “bought “ their lucrative beats or joined the scams that got them promoted.  

So the family was never rich.  He took extra jobs and became a skilled electrician, plumber, carpenter, and clock and cabinet maker.  He was always honorable, kind, and gentle.  He lived a good life.  He lived to be just a few months shy of 100 years.

He always treated me like a special daughter.  He was a father to me.  I not only called him Dad, but he was a loving father for me always.  I admired and loved him very much….so did all his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Here are some photos of this amazing husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

In his 60’s, when I first met him…. 

With his granddaughter, Rachelle, and great granddaughter, Ida.  He made this rocking horse for my babies.  I painted it, and added the face, mane, tail, and bridle.  His great grandchildren are still riding this bright yellow horse!

With Owen in the log cabin that his Grandpa Vernon built and loved so much.  It is at Holmes Harbor on Whidbey Island….just a few miles from the farm where I raised my children.

His granddaughter, Candice as a child, wanted to have me take her picture in front of the photo of her Grandfather Vernon.

With his granddaughter, Alison….Christmas at my farm on Saratoga Road.

With Candice's daughters (his great-granddaughters), Marina and Stella…trick or treating at his cabin on Halloween.

With his grandson, Owen, opening Christmas presents at my home in Greenbank on Whidbey Island.

In the spring of 2013, Dan and I saying our final goodbye.  I told him what he had always meant to me and how much I loved him….

Owen’s middle name is Vernon, in honor of his Grandfather Vernon.  Owen and Mila named their son Vernon after this remarkable man.  

He now has many great grandchildren, including all of Dan's and my grandchildren—Marina, Stella, Ian, Adam,  Ida, Alden, Wilder, Soren, Sebastian, Aryana, Easton, Hannah, Vernon, and Robert.  He didn't live to see and hold some of these grandchildren, but he would have opened his heart to each of them and loved each of them deeply.

Family was the most important thing in the world to Grandpa Vernon.

Here is Robert in the cradle that I had asked this remarkable man to make for my babies, his grandchildren, and now his great grandchildren….

We love seeing Robert in the cradle that I asked Robert's Great Grandfather Vernon to make for my babies.  I can still remember all the times that I nursed Robert's father, Owen, and as he fell asleep gently tucked him into this same cradle.  It is even more special now with the handmade mattress and bedding that Mila sewed…each stitch with adoring love for her babies.

We are sure that Grandpa Vernon is happy to see another of our family babies sleeping peacefully in the cradle that he so lovingly made over 40 years ago.

Our littlest grandchild….born July 29th at 8:13 am

 We are so happy.  He is just precious.  

He’s a big boy…8 pounds - 1 ounce, and 21” long.  And look at all his beautiful hair!

Owen was with Mila and helped her during the birth of their son.  Mila said that she was able to give birth without medication because Owen was there to help her get through the hard, painful times.  

Our new grandson doesn’t look so big while sleeping in his Papa’s arms.  

Hannah holding her little brother…you can see the pride and happiness in her eyes.

Several months before he was born, Hannah had named him Samson.  She had decided that the baby should be named Samson from the stories and pictures of Samson in the Bible.  She has also gave herself the middle name of Sarah, and decided that Vernon’s middle name will be Treehouse because he likes to climb trees. 

But as soon as she saw her baby brother, Hannah said, “He doesn’t look like Samson. He looks too cute for Samson.  Samson is a serious name.” 

We have yet to know what Owen and Mila (or maybe Hannah) will name this sweet little boy.  We’re calling him “our little bundle of joy.”

Vernon, who is only a year and nine months old, is too rambunctious to sit still and hold his baby brother. Instead, he looks at his little baby brother, gently pets him, and says, “baby.”  

Owen and Mila now have three children.  Here is a photo of all of them when they visited us last February at Nuestra Casa.  What a wonderful family!

Mila was just a few months pregnant when they were with us…and now a tiny baby is born into the World.  It is truly a miracle.

This little gift from God is our 14th grandchild.  Our oldest grandchild, Ian, was born 20 years ago on July 29th—the same day as this little baby was born.  The birthday of our oldest grandchild is certainly an auspicious day for the birth of our youngest grand baby.

Happy Birthday Ian and Happy Birthday to our little bundle of joy!

Welcome to the world, little guy.  Welcome to our family….we love you so very much.

Only a day old, and he’s already alert and seeing his adoring family for the first time.  

The Burt Family:

Proud Papa, the happy brother and sister, and Mama, looking like the Madonna, holding the new born child….

Owen and Mila have chosen two special family names for their new son….Robert Bayard.

‘Til death do us part….

….and even in death, we will be not be apart.  We will be together—dancing and walking in our “Fields of Gold.”

Thirteen years ago Mom and Dad married us.  Dad walked me “down the aisle.”

Dad preformed our lovely and meaningful ceremony, and Mom sang beautifully at our wedding….

Emily and Sean sent us our wedding cake….

It was a wonderful start to our perfect union….

Everyday we feel that Mom and Dad are with us.  We feel their presence in a very real way.  

Today, 13 years later, we celebrated our marriage and our love for each other.  We celebrate Mom and Dad, and all our family, children, and grandchildren.  And to all of them, we want to say thank you—and we want to let them know that we are more in love than the day that we were married.

A joke present for Vicky.  We are watching the 1970’s Bob Newhart series.  On their anniversary, Bob gave Emily a Blenderizer.  She was furious and it darn near ruined their anniversary.  Of course, she ended up getting even with Bob, and they were still happily in love.

I guess that Vicky ended up making it a joke on Danny.  She loves all her new (vintage) kitchen items, and just like Bob and Emily Newhart, Dan and Vicky are still happily in love!

Definitely a joke present, since Danny complains about Vicky making him eat his veggies everyday.

 

But he does admit that the carrots and veggies may be one of the reasons that he survived his heart attack!

A special anniversary tribute from Candice:

Special cards from Kathy and Tonia:

We met at a dance, danced in the lobby of Mom and Dan’s assisted living facility after they married us.  So, of course, we danced today!

Since Danny borrows Vicky’s pen—and then can never remember where he put it….

A gift for Vicky—a 1950’s (made in Japan) tin and celluloid dancing couple….the perfect gift!

Our gifts to each other….

We both gave each other vintage salt and pepper shakers.  Danny’s was of a mountain lion couple, since we had a mountain lion on our front deck last winter.  We already have cowboy salt and pepper shakers in our cabin, so Vicky’s salt and pepper shaker gift was of an Indian couple.  After all, you can’t have cowboy’s without Indians too!

The mountain lions and Indians are a great addition to our collection of salt and pepper shakers that we’ve gifted each other….

Vicky gave Danny a photo of us dancing to “Fields of Gold” in our fields of gold, the exact place where we want our ashes spread.  Danny gave Vicky a vintage advertising card from the Sting song, “Fields of Gold,” so we combined the two gifts into one!

Our cards to each other filled with love and romance….

Our special anniversary dinner….

…barbecued steak and Mom’s famous, family noodles with green beans!

Today we gave each other Book 21 and Book 22 of our life…..

Unbelievable that we now have twenty-two books filled with photos and stories of all we have experienced together and with family, children, and grandchildren—so many good times, so many memories….

 

And all of these memories, side by side, going through the years and life together.

We take our wedding vows and all the promises that we made to each other 13 years ago very seriously. This is our life, and we will live happily ever after, as we have lived for all the years that we have loved each other.

Us dancing together through all eternity….

Twas the night before our 13th wedding anniversary….

The steaks are in the refrigerator seasoned and ready for the barbecue, my love has prepared a wonderful dance list for us, the presents were chosen with care and are all lovingly wrapped…..

We are ready to celebrate each other, our marriage, and our love.

John Wayne's stunt double; Chuck Roberson

His niece delivered our groceries from Walmart today.  Want to read that again?  She had all kinds of interesting photos from her collection.  I gave her an extra big tip. 

From IMBD:

"His close physical resemblance to John Wayne led to nearly 30 years as Wayne's stunt double. He often played small roles and stunted in other roles in the same film, which frequently resulted in his "shooting" himself once the picture was cut together. He graduated to larger supporting roles in westerns for Wayne and John Ford, and to a parallel career as a second-unit director. At the time of his death, he was one of the most respected stunt men in Hollywood."

You may wonder why it is we even found out, but if you were in our family you'd know we bring up John Wayne in every conversation.  Here are Chuck Roberson and John Wayne.

 

Now, if you want to know another dimension to this, where we live in Leisure World in the winter was where Ben Johnson lived for many years.

Here is a photo:

 

And if that isn't enough, three doors down from us lives a woman who is Wyatt Earp's great-niece.  Her last name is Earp. 

We live in COWBOYLAND!

Danny’s swamp cooler, monsoons, my ditch

Three years ago, when we bought our cabin, there was a sort-of ditch that ran under our driveway and through our front yard.  I say "sort-of" because it was lined by a mishmash of rocks and broken concrete blocks.  There were giant holes carved out by rushing water, and it was only about 20 feet long.

Since there was a giant metal culvert that ran under our driveway that appeared to drain water and debris into the ditch, I decided that we needed to create a functional AND beautiful ditch.  

First I lined the outside walls of the ditch, and then I started to place hundreds of rocks on the floor of the ditch.  I didn't want the huge rush of monsoon downpours to dig out holes in my newly constructed ditch.

This endeavor took me two summers of carting numerous large and small rocks from all over our yard to the ditch.  I soon ran out of rocks that I could dig out of our yard.  So on all of our hikes, bike rides, and camping trips, I started hauling rocks from the top of Hardscrabble Mesa and the Rim...perfectly legal by the way.

On the day that my Danny saw me with a large rocks on each of my shoulders, he called the “Safety Rule,” and said I was to lift no more large rocks.  Of course since my ditch was not complete, this meant that to keep me happy, he now had to haul all the gargantuan rocks that I found.  Danny says next time he'll be more careful about calling the "Safety Rule."

Thank you, my love for doing all the heavy lifting so I could complete my ditch.

Isn’t it beautiful!

My ditch project was completed a year and a half ago.  Since then, pine needles, pine cones, and dead branches have fallen into in my ditch—but we had seen absolutely no water has drained out of the culvert into by beautiful ditch.  

In fact, my ditch has become one our (not so private) jokes.  “Vicky’s Ditch with no water.”

Meanwhile for the past three years, we have had nothing but trouble keeping our swamp cooler running….it has not kept our cabin any cooler than a good fan, and the water lines have constantly plugged up.  We’ve had two different so-called experts work on it to the tune of at least $1,000. 

A few weeks ago on two separate days, we went out and fooled with it for several hours.  We, meaning Dan (with me as his go-fer….giving him a constant stream of ideas and suggestions, which he very good naturedly listened to….I think), cleared out the water lines and seemed to get the water flowing.  Hopefully, “we” had fixed our swamp cooler.

Then yesterday when we got home from our camping trip, tired and dirty, we realized that the air pumping into our cabin from the swamp cooler was two degrees warmer than the outside temperature.  

Poor Danny.  Out he headed into the 92-degree sunny weather to see if he could fiddle with the swamp cooler enough to get it to rattle away and start cooling us off.  By us, I mean me, since Danny was raised in Oklahoma and almost never thinks it’s warm enough. 

As for me, I was raised in the rainy Pacific Northwest, and I react drastically to the heat.  And I believe I let my Danny know a bit too often how hot I am.  My excuse is that I once had heat exhaustion when we were cycling at night in Mesa in 95 degree weather—almost fainting, heart rate 160 bpm, and my oxygen down 60.  So I really do have a problem with the heat.  

Wasn’t he a good husband to go out to fix the swamp cooler, and to leave me inside the much cooler cabin, where I watched him through the window to see if he needed anything.  Me being his “in the cabin go-fer” this time.

He found that the swamp cooler pump was dying a slow death.  Storm clouds were gathering.  

But since it was late Saturday afternoon, he headed to the local Pine Hardware store where they actually had the exact pump that our swamp cooler needed. 

Since I had just headed in the shower to clean off the grit of five days of camping, Danny went to the hardware store without me.  Neither of us can remember the last time we were apart.  But the hardware store was only a mile away, so it made sense for him to go alone.

Then the rain started….then hail….then my phone beeped three times!  This is the emergency announcement that I read on my phone:

Of course, I panicked.  I waited and waited for him on the front porch, as I watched the dirt road turn to a muddy muck.  At last my love came safely home to me.

By this time it had cooled down and I was no longer hot.  But he had the swamp cooler totally torn apart, so he headed out in the middle of a thunderstorm to install the pump and put the swamp cooler back together.  He asked me to stay inside and bring him anything he might need.  

I watched carefully, just in case the lightning came close to my sweetheart.  I would the call the “safety rule” on him, and make him get inside with me—and to heck with the swamp cooler!

My Danny, who fixes things, got our swamp cooler pumping out an abundance of cool air….for the first time since we bought our cabin!

I now officially call our swamp cooler, “My Danny’s Swamp Cooler.”

Look at my ditch during the monsoon rainfall yesterday!

It is no longer “Vicky’s Ditch with no water,” but it looks like I may need to widen my ditch.  Get ready, my love, to start hauling more rocks for me!