Story Up On Hartford Ridge
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
Thank you for this outstanding story!!!! I have absolutely devoured it this week and just caught up to the last chapter here. You have other awesome stories, but this is my all-time favorite! Now I’ll join those saying thank you and please hurry with more. 
Cedar Lake
Connecticut Yankee
Everybody needs to calm down,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
we aren't there yet,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but not yet.
But we will be soon.
we aren't there yet,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but not yet.
But we will be soon.
Been trying to talk DW into moving to the Tampa area, do you want to help. I think I could give her and Scott enough help to free her up some time.
LOL Rooster's name isn't Scott. ROFL. Sorry. Sometimes I wonder if people think I name my male characters after hubs. The truth is I don't name any of my characters after my immediate family's names. Even trying to figure it out by process of elimination wouldn't get them all. <giggle, snort guffaw>
I'm going to try and do some writing tomorrow, maybe tonight if I can get some things finished. I just need to be able to respect the characters instead of being rushed because I respect my readers and don't want to blow the story up just to get it to a conclusion point.
Okay I've written and re-written the next chapter and hate it. I'm going to try and stop forcing it and just step back for a day. I mean I really, really hate it. None of the characters sound correct. Grrrr. I hate with that happens. I'm just going to post something on Gus 2 and hopefully that will pop whatever canker is getting in the way of moving Hartford forward.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Writer's block does kick in sometimes, Take care!
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Sounds like the beginning of Muse season to me....?
Cedar Lake
Connecticut Yankee
That's understandable. You take your time, & you can take this to the bank, that all of us will be here.
beaglemama
Contributing Member
Take your time and be kind to yourself.
Texican
Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Kathy,
Writer's block can suddenly appear and lasts what seems like forever especially to your readers.
Post when you can for we all will be waiting.
Thanks for all of the stories thru the years.
Bet this post will get a lot of lookers to see what was posted.
Texican....
Writer's block can suddenly appear and lasts what seems like forever especially to your readers.
Post when you can for we all will be waiting.
Thanks for all of the stories thru the years.
Bet this post will get a lot of lookers to see what was posted.
Texican....
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Last edited:
Lake Lili
Veteran Member
I'll bet that most of us can recite our top ten absolute favourites and our top 30 very favourites...
Thanks for all the enjoyment over the years.
Lili
Me too. 
babysteps
Veteran Member
Yep. Got me too.
Kathy's stories are more addictive than potato chips.
We love you Kathy!
I'm trying folks.
-------------------------
I should have brought two skillets. Three would have been even better but I don’t have that type of household item to waste so one is what I had, and I made it work.
The night started better than I anticipated. I brought a satchel of stuff to keep me busy and out from under foot and a quilt to put Jolene down on in case she went to sleep or got upset. She’s never in memory been around as many kids as she was about to be around, not even at the Church as she refuses to stay in the nursery. It was a good thing the night was mild as there were so many there we had to meet in one of the ancient hay barns, empty where they still couldn’t get caught back up. Without the use of the hay cutters and bailers they’d had to go back to the old way of making haystacks after the family had insisted on using the bailed hay until it was all gone simply because it had been easier and the way “they’d always done it.” And that’s why they had an empty barn that didn’t smell that the family meeting could be held in. Didn’t mean it was all that comfortable. Mild it might have been, and an enclosed space stuffed full of people, but it was still November which meant we all kept our coats on.
Everyone had brought something to sit on. Stools, folding chairs, real chairs for some of the older folks for whom the cooler November night air was making bones ache. Sawyer insisted on bringing a rocker for me to sit in that he lined with a quilt. I was grateful to be honest and nearly snapped at a couple of wives I heard muttering “Queen of Sheba” comments that it wasn’t my fault if their husbands weren’t as thoughtful. But I’d promised myself that I’d keep my mouth closed so I could do as Sawyer asked. If I was in a fight how was I supposed to keep an eye on anyone wanting to start a fight with him? Or hear the words of those that might be conspiring?
In the end I didn’t have to watch Jolene. Barbara and Cindy kept all the littles under school age at the Big House in the newly cleaned out attic and most of them were babies in playpens or could be tossed in a play yard until they were tuckered out and went to sleep on their own. School age to twelve (all boys) were being watched over downstairs where they were being taught to make snares or something manly like that. Burt, being just shy of being mandated to attend the meetings, said, “I’ll stay to the house to keep things down to a dull roar. A couple of them are like Uncle Sawyer calls it … Knotheads 2.0 but most of ‘em ain’t too bad just yet … so long as they know they’ll get a lickin’ if they try something stupid.” Oh my. I knew right then I’d need to warn Sawyer he had one just like him in the making. It was like his Penny side was only helping his Hartford side push his mouth into overdrive. At least he still means well when he does it. Aunt Dump says he is twelve going on sixty-two. Then she laughs. Bet she wouldn’t laugh if she had to live with it all the time and worry the boy was missing out on a childhood.
Anyway …
When Sawyer was putting my rocker in the barn he wanted to set it close to the wood stove that had been set up. I turned that down and told him to just set in the back in the far corner.
“Babe …”
“Sawyer, I can’t keep an eye on things if they are all at my back. Or didn’t you explain to me why you wanted me here?”
He opened his mouth then slowly closed it. He then kissed the top of my black bandana covered head and asked me to promise that if I started getting too cold that I’d say something. It was an easy enough compromise to make, so I did.
I did my best to disappear into the shadows and was happy enough when I realized most people were either ignoring me on purpose or forgot I was there. My black hair, black bandana, and dark clothing I wore so it wouldn’t show any dirt hid me about as well as I was pleased for it to, even if I hadn’t planned it that way.
It took me a bit to get my bearings, shake off my nerves, and really start watching people, could separate out my personal problems with people from Sawyer’s interaction with his family. However, once I did I realized there weren’t really that many that continued to play the game that they didn’t understand how things stood. Matter of fact, of those, mostly they’d stopped trying to prove they were bigger and badder and knew better. There was only a very small percentage of them that continued to play games, it was a different kind. I watched a few try to schmooze their way through. Uh huh. I now began to see some of Sawyer’s problems in a different light. It was no longer an above board fight where some of the cousins thought brute force would get them what they want. Those appeared to have calmed down and fallen in line after realizing there was someone stronger than them … and they seemed to be willing to follow so long as Sawyer stayed stronger than them. Nope, a few had maybe learned too well from Bud and were trying to have their way by subterfuge.
Hmmm. I’m not saying all Hartford men are thick as stumps but I’m more inclined to see some of what was going on as being instigated by a couple of the wives. Not all of them by any stretch. Sure, there was discontent but most of them didn’t seem to be holding Sawyer for account of it all. But, I’d been around them too much in the early days not to see the stamp on some of what was going on by a few of them. I also noticed that the wives weren’t as aligned as I thought they were. Neither were the Aunts.
Both Wives and Aunts looked older and more tired. I’d been seeing some of it on Sundays but I reckon for that day they’d been dressing and doing themselves up better. I know I did. But even with the extra effort we women put in on those days, we’d all been affected by our changed circumstances. Hair coloring and salon appointments weren’t a need no matter how some of them had wailed about it in the beginning. Some had lost weight, some had gained weight, and some of us have had our weight redistributed and our shapes had changed. Add in there pregnancies and muscle building work and I don’t think any of us looked as we had when I first came to the Ridge. Even some of the wives were getting grey streaks in their hair including those that were still in their 20s. Barb says that au natural is what is in these days – for me it has always been this way.
Not really bothering about it my hair has managed to get long and stay that way, and it has developed some waves to it though I don’t know if they are natural or just a result of keeping it braided every day. Change in diet, me not caring too much either way, and Sawyer’s preferences has kept me from taking the scissors to it and chopping it off like they used to do in foster care. I can now sit on it when I take it down to brush it out. One of Sawyer’s few bits of silliness is that he gets right wound up watching me do that. I wouldn’t tell anyone but he also enjoys brushing my hair on occasion. At first it felt like I was being curried like a mule but I’ve grown to appreciate the attention. I do sometimes wish I could do something about that stupid white faun I have. Sawyer says it gives my face character, like I needed anymore but it helped him get over me being a kid when we first came together. On the other hand I look at it and sometimes all I can think of is “skunk” though I suppose that is better than “Igor Baffa” like I was once called.
I keep my hair covered as much as possible. I was wearing a black bandana as I hadn’t had a chance to wash my hair since Sawyer gave me so little notice. On Sundays I try and do something with my hair, but usually I’ll wear a crocheted snood on top of whatever I’ve done to it. If I’m going to be working outside or doing something inside in hot weather, I’ll wear a snood scarf. I have found it keeps my hair cleaner longer, and knots and rats nests down to a minimum which means I don’t have to break so much of it to get them out. That in turn has helped my hair stay thicker despite a poor diet there for several months. I do much the same thing to Jolene and she insists on ribbons for her pigtails on Sundays.
Looking at the wives and Aunts I was surprised to see how thin and flat some of their hair was. Hmph. Vanity thy name is woman … or something like that. My observing had gotten off track and I had to jerk it back in line when the meeting really got started.
-------------------------
Chapter 139
I should have brought two skillets. Three would have been even better but I don’t have that type of household item to waste so one is what I had, and I made it work.
The night started better than I anticipated. I brought a satchel of stuff to keep me busy and out from under foot and a quilt to put Jolene down on in case she went to sleep or got upset. She’s never in memory been around as many kids as she was about to be around, not even at the Church as she refuses to stay in the nursery. It was a good thing the night was mild as there were so many there we had to meet in one of the ancient hay barns, empty where they still couldn’t get caught back up. Without the use of the hay cutters and bailers they’d had to go back to the old way of making haystacks after the family had insisted on using the bailed hay until it was all gone simply because it had been easier and the way “they’d always done it.” And that’s why they had an empty barn that didn’t smell that the family meeting could be held in. Didn’t mean it was all that comfortable. Mild it might have been, and an enclosed space stuffed full of people, but it was still November which meant we all kept our coats on.
Everyone had brought something to sit on. Stools, folding chairs, real chairs for some of the older folks for whom the cooler November night air was making bones ache. Sawyer insisted on bringing a rocker for me to sit in that he lined with a quilt. I was grateful to be honest and nearly snapped at a couple of wives I heard muttering “Queen of Sheba” comments that it wasn’t my fault if their husbands weren’t as thoughtful. But I’d promised myself that I’d keep my mouth closed so I could do as Sawyer asked. If I was in a fight how was I supposed to keep an eye on anyone wanting to start a fight with him? Or hear the words of those that might be conspiring?
In the end I didn’t have to watch Jolene. Barbara and Cindy kept all the littles under school age at the Big House in the newly cleaned out attic and most of them were babies in playpens or could be tossed in a play yard until they were tuckered out and went to sleep on their own. School age to twelve (all boys) were being watched over downstairs where they were being taught to make snares or something manly like that. Burt, being just shy of being mandated to attend the meetings, said, “I’ll stay to the house to keep things down to a dull roar. A couple of them are like Uncle Sawyer calls it … Knotheads 2.0 but most of ‘em ain’t too bad just yet … so long as they know they’ll get a lickin’ if they try something stupid.” Oh my. I knew right then I’d need to warn Sawyer he had one just like him in the making. It was like his Penny side was only helping his Hartford side push his mouth into overdrive. At least he still means well when he does it. Aunt Dump says he is twelve going on sixty-two. Then she laughs. Bet she wouldn’t laugh if she had to live with it all the time and worry the boy was missing out on a childhood.
Anyway …
When Sawyer was putting my rocker in the barn he wanted to set it close to the wood stove that had been set up. I turned that down and told him to just set in the back in the far corner.
“Babe …”
“Sawyer, I can’t keep an eye on things if they are all at my back. Or didn’t you explain to me why you wanted me here?”
He opened his mouth then slowly closed it. He then kissed the top of my black bandana covered head and asked me to promise that if I started getting too cold that I’d say something. It was an easy enough compromise to make, so I did.
I did my best to disappear into the shadows and was happy enough when I realized most people were either ignoring me on purpose or forgot I was there. My black hair, black bandana, and dark clothing I wore so it wouldn’t show any dirt hid me about as well as I was pleased for it to, even if I hadn’t planned it that way.
It took me a bit to get my bearings, shake off my nerves, and really start watching people, could separate out my personal problems with people from Sawyer’s interaction with his family. However, once I did I realized there weren’t really that many that continued to play the game that they didn’t understand how things stood. Matter of fact, of those, mostly they’d stopped trying to prove they were bigger and badder and knew better. There was only a very small percentage of them that continued to play games, it was a different kind. I watched a few try to schmooze their way through. Uh huh. I now began to see some of Sawyer’s problems in a different light. It was no longer an above board fight where some of the cousins thought brute force would get them what they want. Those appeared to have calmed down and fallen in line after realizing there was someone stronger than them … and they seemed to be willing to follow so long as Sawyer stayed stronger than them. Nope, a few had maybe learned too well from Bud and were trying to have their way by subterfuge.
Hmmm. I’m not saying all Hartford men are thick as stumps but I’m more inclined to see some of what was going on as being instigated by a couple of the wives. Not all of them by any stretch. Sure, there was discontent but most of them didn’t seem to be holding Sawyer for account of it all. But, I’d been around them too much in the early days not to see the stamp on some of what was going on by a few of them. I also noticed that the wives weren’t as aligned as I thought they were. Neither were the Aunts.
Both Wives and Aunts looked older and more tired. I’d been seeing some of it on Sundays but I reckon for that day they’d been dressing and doing themselves up better. I know I did. But even with the extra effort we women put in on those days, we’d all been affected by our changed circumstances. Hair coloring and salon appointments weren’t a need no matter how some of them had wailed about it in the beginning. Some had lost weight, some had gained weight, and some of us have had our weight redistributed and our shapes had changed. Add in there pregnancies and muscle building work and I don’t think any of us looked as we had when I first came to the Ridge. Even some of the wives were getting grey streaks in their hair including those that were still in their 20s. Barb says that au natural is what is in these days – for me it has always been this way.
Not really bothering about it my hair has managed to get long and stay that way, and it has developed some waves to it though I don’t know if they are natural or just a result of keeping it braided every day. Change in diet, me not caring too much either way, and Sawyer’s preferences has kept me from taking the scissors to it and chopping it off like they used to do in foster care. I can now sit on it when I take it down to brush it out. One of Sawyer’s few bits of silliness is that he gets right wound up watching me do that. I wouldn’t tell anyone but he also enjoys brushing my hair on occasion. At first it felt like I was being curried like a mule but I’ve grown to appreciate the attention. I do sometimes wish I could do something about that stupid white faun I have. Sawyer says it gives my face character, like I needed anymore but it helped him get over me being a kid when we first came together. On the other hand I look at it and sometimes all I can think of is “skunk” though I suppose that is better than “Igor Baffa” like I was once called.
I keep my hair covered as much as possible. I was wearing a black bandana as I hadn’t had a chance to wash my hair since Sawyer gave me so little notice. On Sundays I try and do something with my hair, but usually I’ll wear a crocheted snood on top of whatever I’ve done to it. If I’m going to be working outside or doing something inside in hot weather, I’ll wear a snood scarf. I have found it keeps my hair cleaner longer, and knots and rats nests down to a minimum which means I don’t have to break so much of it to get them out. That in turn has helped my hair stay thicker despite a poor diet there for several months. I do much the same thing to Jolene and she insists on ribbons for her pigtails on Sundays.
Looking at the wives and Aunts I was surprised to see how thin and flat some of their hair was. Hmph. Vanity thy name is woman … or something like that. My observing had gotten off track and I had to jerk it back in line when the meeting really got started.
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Wow, the anticipation is rising!
Where will Cliffy strike first?
Thank you for the new chapter!!!
Your trying is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where will Cliffy strike first?
Thank you for the new chapter!!!
Your trying is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kathy, you’ve made my day! Thank you!!!
Kiwibutterfly
Contributing Member
Loved waking up to see another chapter, thanks so much.....now I'd better get some work done.