Gardiner's Garden Basket - Part Four

Gardiner's Garden Basket

Part Four

            Leaving the tailgate of Fetchy’s truck we crossed the farm yard to a two story shed that was once a (horse and wagon) harness shop.  “Clomp, clomp, clomp” told me that Fetchy followed me up to ‘the shop’ and ... ‘clomp, clomp’... INTO the shop and... I went up the stairs to the second floor (at my very immediate right) WITHOUT clomping and... NOT hearing Fetchy clomping from behind so:

            “GET UP HERE: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

            “WHALE... just LOOK’EN.”

            “KEEP YOUR FACE OUT OF THAT TREASURE.”

            “WHALE... eye’p... SUPPOSE.”

            Silence.

            I start to walk around the second floor of the shop ...that is filled with old (antique) baskets... and... the silence from below continues.

            “FETCHY!”

            “WHALE... HOW MUCH YOU TAKE ME FOR THEM IRON POTS.”

            “ALL OF THEM?”

            “WHALE...”

            “EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY”.

            “WHALE...”

            “GET UP HERE!”

            First I hear a sliding shuffle.  Then one clomp of Fetchy’s first boot step on the first stair step.  Then a PONDEROUSLY SLOW clomp, clomp, clomp of Fetchy ascending the stairs.  He whole steadily appears rising above floor level of the second floor stair portal... with this floor being a whole open space of old-old flooring... old-old rafters above... old windows covered with cloth and... old antique baskets ‘everywhere’.  At one third of him above the floor level...; at his armpits just above the floor level... he stops and puts his left arm out on the floor and... starts looking around and:

            “WHALE... .... WHERE’D YOU GET ALL THEM POTS ANYWAY?”

            “From YOU.”
            Pause and Fetchy’s face roams the second floor space in support of his eyes.

            “WHALE... I don’ts BE REMEMBER I SELL YOU THOSES MUCH.”

            “You don’t GET THOSE ...MUCH.

            “WHALE... HOW OLD IS THIS BUILDING?” Fetchy continues while his face supporting his eyes continues to ROAM (ROME?).

            “CIVIL WAR”.

            “WHALE... NICE AIN’T IT... UP HERE.”

            “Hot.”

            “WHALE...” he says starting to clomp up to the top of the stairs.  “EYE’P SUPPOSE.” he says standing fully erect at the stair top in his full ... MAINE JUNK MAN and TRASH PICKER ...over dressed for AUGUST... but could go deer hunting in November NOW... (including the ‘he’s wearing L. L. Bean boots!’)... regular and recently washed... so not too dirty... yet ...work attire.  His form becomes ‘giant’ as he expands into the space; a lumbering standing bear sized man whom... in the farm yard appears ‘Maine normal” but ...in the compressed space and subdued light of the old harness shop... turns him into an old work clothes wrapped Sasquatch to any eye.

            I look at him.  He’s looking at the baskets.  I continue to snap up selected ‘garden baskets’ off the piles of old baskets and set those out in a rectangular cluster near a window.  At the same time I form a line to one side of big-to-small baskets in front of a second window.  Fetchy ever more intently watches.  I quickly finish the assemblage.

            “WEREN’T THIS HERE WHERE THE (harness) SHOP WAS UP HERE?” Fetchy says.

            “Yeah.  Downstairs was farm.”

            “SEE THAT ROAD from UP HERE”.

            “Right”.

            “ANYONE COME.”

            “RIGHT”.

            “YOU GET SOMEMORE BASKETS AIN’T YOU.”

            “We try to put ‘em all up here when we find them.”

            “Enough now.  GOOD ONES.  WHALE... SEEN THAT ONE AT JIMMY’S?”

            “No,  That one come out ‘Wicked’ Ames’ corn shed”

            “That ROUND shed?”

            “Yep.”

            “YOU GOT IN THERE.”

            “Yep.”

            “You WEASELED?”

            “Yep.”

            “I TRIED HIM.  Wouldn’t let me IN.  WHALE I say.”

            “I dropped a twenty.” (drop money on the ground to let ‘em see it – then pick it up.)

            “You dropped?  He took that?  YOU lucky WEASEL!”

            “Figured I should TRY it”.

            “WHALE....”

            “It worked.  THIS ONE HERE’S was MARY ANNE’S” I say pointing to one basket in the assembled rectangle.  Fetchy looks toward my gesture.

            “You can REMEMBER that?”

            “COURSE.  I remember ALL that stuff.  Who wants to FORGET?”

            “WHALE... you DO FORGET.”

            “Not me on these; these garden baskets.  Every one’s always been a little special.”

            “I won’t know that one’s Mary Anne’s even though I SAW IT everyday there RIGHT.”

            “Yeah but you didn’t BUY IT.  That’s why; I FIND ‘em and buy ‘em.  I don’t forget ‘cause I’m always LOOKING to FIND ONE.”

            “WHALE you didn’t BUY THAT ONE.”

            “NO!  You know:  Mrs. Taylor PITCHED IT.  Reggie (another local trash hauler) fetched it.  I bought it off of HIM.”

            “WEASELED off of HIM.”

            “I bought the whole PILE.  HE’D weaseled that PILE for himself.

            “WHO WEASELED WHO?  Whale...  Just look’en HERE I SEE MR. WEASEL HIMSELF!” observed Fetchy surveying the whole old space full of ... old New England and Maine farm baskets.

            “Ain’t any old farm basket in an old Maine farm that’s safe from me.”

            “Put the weasel in the farm house I say. Why you LINING those up?”

            “Size.”

            “Whale?”

            “Only the one in the middle’s a GARDEN basket.” I say adding a seventh very small basket to one end of the line.”

            “WHALE... what are THOSE?” Fetchy says pointing to the larger baskets at one end of the line.

            “TOO BIG”.

            “So those?” he continues pointing to the other end.

            “Berry baskets; real small.  Find WAY more of those.  I find... sometimes... FIVE or SIX in a place.  Berry picking you know; ‘UP the MOUNTAIN’.  EVERYONE has a BASKET.  A garden basket:  There usually JUST ONE.  See the size.”

            “WHALE... I like them BERRY baskets TOO.

            “Oh yeah me too.  But.  They’re just not as SPECIAL.  The way they (the garden baskets) were USED.  Everyday.  IN the garden.  All those years.  Generations.  JUST Mary Anne’s was probably used in Mrs. Taylor old house from when it was built (1870’s)”.  Then SHE (Mary Anne) moved it.  Then Mrs. Taylor pitched it.  She don’t have a garden anymore.”

            “WHALE... barely EVER had one.  Mrs. Taylor always been trying to LEAVE TOWN since she was a little girl; ‘FIND somewhere’ she call it.

            “She’s always been trying to find the whole universe.”

            “You KEEP Gardiner’s (garden basket) up in here?”

            “Yep.  Bring it back up.  Use another one.  Maybe use MARY ANNE’S for while huh?’

            Fetchy looks up at me.  He’d been surveying all the garden baskets while standing before Mary Anne’s.  Then he looks out over the floor filled with all the other baskets.  Then he looks back down at the rectangle of garden baskets.  Then he looks back up at me and says “WHALE... It seems to ME... that you can find the whole UNIVERSE in JUST ONE of these nice old GARDEN BASKETS.

The End

s

Mud Season Meals - Number Two - Twenty Meatballs

Mud Season Meals

Number Two

Twenty Meatballs

            “Mud Season

            Is not a time to be witty

            You know”.

            I know

            “Mud Season;

            May be a little bit glum.

            It’s the weather you know”.

            I know

            “So don’t over do it; whatever it is you are doing;

            Even if it is simply planting your pepper (plant) seeds

            At the kitchen table; by the sunny window.  You know”.

            I know

            “Go on about your business and don’t  be foolish;

            Do something foolish.

            Like counting your meatballs

            And rationing them out:

            ‘ONE for you... and

            ONE for you’ and

            ‘WAIT:  One meatball is

            MISSING!’.

            “Who would take a second MEATBALL

            In mud season?

            Not I.

            You know”.

            I know.

            IF you make twenty meatballs (3 ½ pounds of ‘a dollar off second day’ stickered box store grocery ‘ground beef’) and buy a two pound box of box store grocery brand ‘regular’ (thickness) spaghetti... “I ah”... ‘think the job gets done’ (and is ‘Maine Gourmet’; ‘Maine Fashion’).  IF it is four meatballs eaten a meal that’s five meals with ALL the pasta eaten and... don’t forget (to grate from the one pound block) the ‘cheese’ (so titled in Maine).  That... should not be ‘cheese’.  It should be Reggiano Parmesan... ‘cheese’.  One can get that in Maine now.

            “DIDN’T USED TO BE ABLE TO GET THAT”

            “IN MAINE”.

            “YOU KNOW”.

            I know.

            Can you remember when Maine was like that.

            I do.

            I wore my “BEAN BOOTS” across the yard this morning; I could walk on top of the mud.  It’s been so cold.  They changed the time (Daylight Savings Time) so it's dark again in my morning.  I don’t like that; ‘don’t NEED it’.  I’m tired of ‘swamping’ in the dark; Mud Season in the dark.  We was just getting a little light.  Made it manageable.  Out there on top of the stiff (frozen) mud.  “Yep.” to that.

            I didn’t want to start the truck yet; it’s still too dark.  “Something’s at the birdfeeder” I was told.  “Porcupine” I explained.  Big fat old Porcupine... lives under the shed.  Been climbing all the cedars down off the wet corner of the back pasture.  To get something to eat.

            He’s not getting my meat balls. 

            The meatballs are made of a “light” version of “her meatloaf mix” (add breadcrumbs, onions, garlic, parsley, salt pepper and ‘any old spices’ those being ‘bottled (Worchester Sauce) or dry”.  NOT anything or amount that’s foolish.  Ball ‘em up by hand and set them on a tray (to show them off).  Four rows of five; twenty... meatballs.  Then the fun begins:

            “Fitting them in” the stove top tub of homemade sauce (the ‘canned’ tomatoes are “OURS” from “LAST YEAR”.  “Still HAVE onions down cell-ah”.  Etcetera.  Put the meatballs into the sauce.   Keep putting them in until it gets tight and then fit them in and... start bellowing that they “won’t fit”.  Keep going.  Keep bellowing but don’t do anything stupid.  It is Mud Season.  “LAST TIME THERE WERE ONLY EIGHTEEN (meatballs).”

            “They fit.  These will too.”

            “LAST TIME...”

            “THIS IS THIS TIME.  There are twenty meatballs.

            THEY... WILL... FIT.”

            “Oh...

            Well...:

They

DO fit,

Don’t they,

You know.”

            “I know”.

Maine Fashion: What I Wear When I Manage Snow In February In Maine

Maine Fashion:

What I Wear When I

Manage Snow 

In February

In Maine

Bottom to Top; Toe to Head:

L. L. Bean Hunting Boots.  I may choose from five pairs.  All pairs from Thrift Shops, church sales or estate sales.  I have never purchased a new pair.  You can find them new pretty easy.  People buy these and never wear them all the time; a constant.

Two pairs of socks:  These last for years.  Inner pair 30 Below Icelandic purchased from the Vermont Country store in Weston Vermont.  I buy a pair or two when ever I go by.  Outer pair Wigwam Diabetic.  These “diabetic” are on sale a lot.  As the outer pair they ‘aren’t tight’.  All mine have holes in them; heal and toe, from constant usage.  The last ones I bought from Sam’s Outfitters in Brattleboro, Vermont.  I stop most every time we go by.  This sock and boot set is worn year round.  YES:  In July too. 

Gaiters; “the gaiters”:  Currently I have two pairs from Mountain Hard Wear I purchased at some gear type outlet in North Conway, NH.  Off the rack, I walked to checkout and paid full price in cash.  All of this outfit was bought with cash.  No charge card.  These gaiters are the most expensive and foundation piece of my outfit.  I wear them YEAR ROUND and they have the crap beat out of them.  Forest slash protection (cutting; chain saw usage) and tick protection (I NEVER FIND A TICK ON ME) when wearing this outfit.  NO TICS.  NONE.  This is ‘hot’ in July but ‘you get used to it’ and if you don’t like it you weren’t working in the woods anyway.  In February it should be obvious these are a must for snow management across the whole task list. 

Carhartt double layer (“slash layer”) on upper leg front brown duck pants.  NOT BOUGHT NEW.  These are hard to find in thrift shops, etc until you know the secret:  GO TO THE BETTER (more well to do) church thrifts and sales.  There at... perfect never used pairs turn up from good homes who bought a pair once and never worn them or wore them once to go to the mail box and now the wife has donated them so... six bucks and they are mine.  These, too, generally are found in ‘girth is a factor’ waist sizes so they usually ‘fit loose’ on me no problem.  This is important in actual usage for they are sweat soaked in July and wet-frozen-solid in February.  You get used to it... LOOSE.  ‘Tight’ just means your not doing anything.

            Carpenter suspenders.  The ones they sell in the tool section at the local old style hardware store.  They are in the isle with the hammers.  OR:  I find them in the thrifts or, better, never used at the church sales.  Usually for, like, two dollars.  A lot of men wear these.  THEY HOLD YOUR PANTS UP.  That’s why we wear them.  I have eight or ten pairs attached to work pants at all times.  That’s the way they are stored: ON THE PANTS ‘ready to go’.  They last for years (twenty-five years).

            Two dirty old white undershirts.  Worn out rejects from coat and tie usage now used as sweat soaked protection ‘bottom layer’.  YES THEY GET sweat soaked during snow management in February.  July should be obvious.  I have fourteen sets ‘in rotation’  In July I might use three or four sets a day for ‘sweat soaked’ conditions.  GUESS WHAT:  IF it is a Blizzard... I’ll run through three sets a day in February.  FOR REAL.  And these old shirts can stand up by themselves.  These are outdoor farm shed only undershirts.  They are not pretend.  Until you wear them all the time... you don’t.  And:  NO TIC ever makes it ‘that deep’ to this ‘bottom layer.

            The scarf.  My uncle, long dead, gave this to me when I was six.  I have worn it as I wear it for, what?  SIXTY years.  That’s that huh.  It goes under the suspenders and on top of the undershirts.

            Old (vintage) L. L. Bean River Driver Shirt.  It goes over the undershirts, suspenders and scarf and is not tucked in.  Only the undershirts are tucked in.  These shirts are a known classic.  I pick these off at church thrifts and sales.  Often find them ‘new’.  Six bucks is high.  Two dollars is a classic find.  They X the label or cut them off so criminals cannot exchange them for credit at Bean’s.  I have a good slug of these in service.  Sweat soaked in July they are the outer layer.  In February they are the inner ‘stop the wind’ layer.  A VERY IMPORTANT LAYER.  These are ‘stays in the shed’ grade too.  Okay:  ALL of these clothes never... come inside... unless it is a “BAD” “BLIZZARD”.  Again:  All these clothes are never inside.  These are real farm clothes so the LIVE ON A FARM.  They are not house clothes.  They do not live in a house.

            Carhartt heavy grade sweat shirt.  Regular ‘large’ fit with hood and pouch.  Constant usage so “dirty”.  That means “dirty”.  If it is new and clean it will not be for long.  Used year round as a ‘core layer’.  Rain, snow, mud... whatever.  If you ‘hit’ one of these “new with tags” at a thrift BUY IT.  It won’t be there ten minutes later.  As noted earlier the Church Sales are the best source for this grade sweatshirt.  These ‘cost a lot’ to begin with so to find them I shop in the best neighborhoods.  I know the qualities so spot ‘em easy.

            An extra large high school sports and gym grade outer sweatshirt.  I talking blizzard in February in Maine here so once you pull this one on over the Carhartt grade above and step outside you will know right away why your wearing this one TOO.  These one may find ‘new with tags’ at thrifts pretty easy.  A lot of times you can find them with a goofy printing like “I LIKE IKE” or whatever.  Right now mine are plain.  Okay so ah lets clear this up here:  These are never cleaned (“washed”) except by ‘work in the rain’, etc.  WHEN they get TOO BAD to be around... throw them out (use as rags in the barn).  Again:  NEVER WASH... THROW OUT.

            Head gear... for winter snow management:  L. L. Bean safety orange hunting ball cap insulated with ear flaps.  I lucked into this ‘new with tags’ at a church sale for a buck.  HEY:  I got lucky.  You will too

            L. L. Bean cross country skier’s head lamp... a beat up old one ...now seen being used by working Maine men who have become ‘addicted to it’ as preferred lighting “BECAUSE THEY WORK” and are ‘hands free’.  Fresh batteries at the start of the blizzard.  Back up set available ‘lock and load’.  These are now ‘I am lost without it’ status because I am “ALWAYS WORKING IN THE DARK”.  It is always dark in Maine in a blizzard.  Its dark right now while I’m writing this. I am wearing the stupid head lamp RIGHT NOW.  This is a go to the store and buy one off the rack deal.  It takes longer to do now because there are a lot to choose from and... good luck with that.  The big one is ‘can I turn this on and off wearing gloves’.

            Crummy “Navy” blue cap.  These are found ‘new’ easy for under a dollar.  It is what it is; an ‘under cap’ cap.

            Hand knitted safety orange colored heavy wool cap.  My wife made two of these for my thirty years, at least, ago.  I use them fall and winter as ‘top layer’.  Soiled (“dirty”) but ‘she made it for me’.  Okay?  Your not gonna get one of these easy.  IF you have a Maine woman make you one of these to wear when you manage snow... you are... probably an “In Maine” and “live that way” too.  Otherwise:  “Have it professionally done”.

            Gloves:  Safety orange rubber dipped work gloves.  They do not stay dry and are not warm but they do ‘protect’ the hands (frostbite alert).  It’s a blizzard in February in Maine.  The weather is brutal on the hands.  These are, in my opinion, the best cosmetic solution to a ‘no win’ problem of “wet and cold” hands.  Note the duck tape repairs.  Doing those on ALL work gloves ALL the time extends the ‘life’ of a pair a REAL LOT.