Vee - I think I sent this to you personally so I am resending it to the group in case anyone is interested . Jo ----- Original Message ----- From: "Josephine Grieve" <[email protected]> To: "Vee L. Housman" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 10:39 AM Subject: Re: [FOLKS] Planning a NY State Historians' meeting > Hi Vee, > > Your town historians meeting sounds like a veritable orchard to me! What a > wonderful idea to get a list of all the names (apples ;-) and addresses of > the people attending so that those of us who are researching New York State > would have people to contact who might be in one of those little villages or > town where our ancestors lived. Do you think this would be possible. It > might be able to be printed up and a small charge would take care of the > printing and mailing. Or - those of us who are interested could write and > order a copy. What do you think? > > By the way, what a fantastic job you have done with the veterans. People, > in the coming years, will be thanking you again and again. I am in the > process of gathering all the vital data from one of our Methodist Churches > here. We in our genealogical society are putting all the information on > churches in our county on CD's. available for sale. Our next project is to > go to all the townships in our county and gather all the vital information > there. Time consuming but very interesting. Keep up the good work! > > Jo in Michigan > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Vee L. Housman" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 2:18 AM > Subject: [FOLKS] Planning a NY State Historians' meeting > > > > Dear Folks, > > > > This afternoon my friend Janet Jachlewski, our Village of Youngstown > > Historian, and I had a long intense and productive discussion about > > finallizing my veterans project and then we went from there to what was > > being planned in September here in Niagara County. > > > > Janet is a couple of years older than I and I don't know where she gets > her > > energy from, but she's on top of everything. She had clued me in about a > > month ago that the local historians of Niagara County would be playing > host > > to the historians all over New York state in September. That surprised me > > inasmuch as I subscribe to the NYS historians mailing list and no mention > > has been made so far as to all of us meeting here. Janet explained that > it > > was still in the planning stages. > > > > Janet told me that as a welcoming "basket" for each attendee each Town and > > Village and Hamlet would put something in it that would symbolize our > > particular simple "fame." Janet had even planned ahead as what the Town > of > > Porter could contribute that would symbolize the town. Not only did she > > come up with the perfect idea, she made phone calls, searched through > > catalogs and had the perfect plan down almost to a tee. What is the rural > > Town of Porter really noted for? It's noted for it's fruit orchards. > Janet > > came up with the idea of buying simple 4-inch square boxes, selecting the > > perfect September local apple in season (I suggested wrapping it in tissue > > paper), closing the box and paste a stickum label on it with the wording > > "The Town of Porter Invites you to [inserted graphic of the Town logo] > Take > > a bite out of history." Of course the two of us really came up with that > > eventual idea. Just the Youngstown Historian and me the Town of Porter > > Historian. > > > > But here's the thing of it. I've never attended any the local historian's > > meetings in the county seat of Lockport which is a 30 minute drive from my > > house (a day-trip for me). Not only can't I sit very long (pain) but I > > can't stand very long either (unsteady legs). But more importantly, those > > meetings start BEFORE noon and even if I were to suffer the pain and > wobbly > > legs, ain't no way am I getting up before noon! > > > > But on this occasion I may make an exception. And the biggest reason is > > that over the past year that I've subscribed to the NYS historians' list, > > I've become acquainted with a number of them. They're always willing to > > help one another with information and frankly I'm a bit impressed with not > > only the number of county historians who help on the list but the > wonderful > > information that the NY State Archivist or a similar person has posted who > > knows where the historical records can be located. > > > > But I guess more than that, I'm curious to meet the "little folk." The > Town > > Historians, the Village Historians and those who are like I am who are > > intensely interested in our local history and have the courage to speak up > > and ask simple but intelligent questions of the big guys. And what makes > me > > smile is when most of them identify themselves as the "Town of _______ > > Historian." The reason that I smile is that I don't have a clue where > that > > town is located or even in what county it's located. > > > > Now how could I not attend such a prestigious state-wide meeting of > > historians just "down the road?" > > vee > > town of porter historian > > > > > > >

Dear Folks, This afternoon my friend Janet Jachlewski, our Village of Youngstown Historian, and I had a long intense and productive discussion about finallizing my veterans project and then we went from there to what was being planned in September here in Niagara County. Janet is a couple of years older than I and I don't know where she gets her energy from, but she's on top of everything. She had clued me in about a month ago that the local historians of Niagara County would be playing host to the historians all over New York state in September. That surprised me inasmuch as I subscribe to the NYS historians mailing list and no mention has been made so far as to all of us meeting here. Janet explained that it was still in the planning stages. Janet told me that as a welcoming "basket" for each attendee each Town and Village and Hamlet would put something in it that would symbolize our particular simple "fame." Janet had even planned ahead as what the Town of Porter could contribute that would symbolize the town. Not only did she come up with the perfect idea, she made phone calls, searched through catalogs and had the perfect plan down almost to a tee. What is the rural Town of Porter really noted for? It's noted for it's fruit orchards. Janet came up with the idea of buying simple 4-inch square boxes, selecting the perfect September local apple in season (I suggested wrapping it in tissue paper), closing the box and paste a stickum label on it with the wording "The Town of Porter Invites you to [inserted graphic of the Town logo] Take a bite out of history." Of course the two of us really came up with that eventual idea. Just the Youngstown Historian and me the Town of Porter Historian. But here's the thing of it. I've never attended any the local historian's meetings in the county seat of Lockport which is a 30 minute drive from my house (a day-trip for me). Not only can't I sit very long (pain) but I can't stand very long either (unsteady legs). But more importantly, those meetings start BEFORE noon and even if I were to suffer the pain and wobbly legs, ain't no way am I getting up before noon! But on this occasion I may make an exception. And the biggest reason is that over the past year that I've subscribed to the NYS historians' list, I've become acquainted with a number of them. They're always willing to help one another with information and frankly I'm a bit impressed with not only the number of county historians who help on the list but the wonderful information that the NY State Archivist or a similar person has posted who knows where the historical records can be located. But I guess more than that, I'm curious to meet the "little folk." The Town Historians, the Village Historians and those who are like I am who are intensely interested in our local history and have the courage to speak up and ask simple but intelligent questions of the big guys. And what makes me smile is when most of them identify themselves as the "Town of _______ Historian." The reason that I smile is that I don't have a clue where that town is located or even in what county it's located. Now how could I not attend such a prestigious state-wide meeting of historians just "down the road?" vee town of porter historian

Dear Folks, This evening when I looked through my refrigerator I noticed the custard cup of drained grease from the Hamburger Stroganoff I had prepared a couple of nights ago. In fact there were TWO custard cups of the same sort of drained grease because I had made a big pot of Chili Soup the next day. And what I noticed is that in both cases the fat had congealed on the top and I knew it could easily be scooped out in one piece and tossed in the kitchen trash can. And then I noticed what was below the congealed grease. Along with draining the grease off the hamburger, I had also drained off the meat juices at the same time. And I had to smile. As the old saying goes, "waste not, want not" and on Wednesday when the trash goes out to the curb along with the blobs of grease, I'll be left with the greaseless meat juices that I'll dump into my containers of soup. The total amount of juices might add up to 1/3 cup, but the flavor will still be there. Why pour something like that down the drain is what I always say. vee

> Dear Vee, I hold the lid of the frying pan over the pan allowing only the fat to drain off. This eliminates having to wash a colander. I drain the fat into a glass container. When it solidifies I can use it sparingly to add to other recipes that need a bit of spicing up. I know that sounds like defeating the original purpose of draining it off in the first place. However, it would appear that we all add the extra fat again somewhere anyway... as a side dish I had an ear of "fresh" corn slathered with butter and salt. Ethel Ontario, Canada > So now we get down to after the onions have been cooked in the > microwave and > the hamburger has been added to them and cooked until it's no longer > pink > and it's time to drain all the grease from the hamburger. And that's > where > I've always had a problem. How do you drain it and what do you drain > the > grease into and then what do you do with the grease?

Bob from AZ said, > You need to dump whatever printer you have and get a real printer. Like a > HPIII or a HPIIID for two sided printing. > > If you want I will ship you one for free if you will foot the shipping. > Probably about $50.00. We have a HPIII and it will print all night long while you > snooze. A toner cartridge lasts us about 8 months. Get the Town Council to > float a bond issue to pay for it. Dear Bob, You certainly got my attention with that offer that I couldn't refuse but after careful consideration and research, I don't know if the HPIIID is any more current than my HP DeskJet 712C that's now working smoothly again. There's no doubt that if I requested a new printer from the Town of Porter Board of Directors due to the wear and tear on my present one recently, they would buy me the newest high tech one in a heartbeat. But in spite of my position as Town of Porter Historian, I'm still one of the old Depression Era babies who still pinches pennies and if it still works, don't fix it. The Town can't quite figure out my attitude toward turning them down with their offers of "whatever you need, it's yours." I keep telling them that IF I really need something or some supplies, I'll let them know. Somehow, however, they always seem to be disappointed that I don't demand more of the Town than I do. In fact just about anything I would REALLY need would be automatically covered by my annual Historian's budget which I can never imagine spending that amount of money covering my official duties in one year. Nonetheless, thanks Bob for your generosity in coming to my aid right now. That's what friends do for each other. vee

Dear Vee: I have to applaud you on a tremendous job you've done! Kudo's from stormy Nebraska, Kim

Vee & group: I put a container in the sink and I drain the grease into the container, then when it is full, I will toss it in the garbage. Course it'll be a container that I won't need anymore! We have a septic tank system so draining the grease down the drain is out of the question for us, too. Vee, your dinner sounds yummy, it made me hungry just reading about it! Kim

Ruth suggested, > Dear Vee, I use a large one of those fly screen wire strainer thingys, > what are they called, and drain into a bowl or whatever then I just pour > the grease into a coffee can which I keep for that purpose. You could keep > the coffee can in the fridge until it's full, then just put the lid on and > toss it in the garbage. > > You do drink coffee don't you? All military personnel are required to > drink coffee aren't they? Ruth Ruth, that sounds pretty close to my way of doing it but it would take me years to fill up a coffee can of any size with greace considering how few times I'm in the mood to cook dinner from scratch. And yes, when I was in the Navy all hands were expected to drink coffee at all hours of the day. However, I've upgraded myself to a more gourmet approach since then and the coffee I brew for myself is freshly ground Columbian coffee (from whole coffee beans) with a nice scoop of Hazelnut coffee beans added into the grinder. But on the whole it seems that all of us are in accord as to what to do with grease drained off of cooked hamburger. Save it in some kind of container and when the time comes, toss it into the garbage right before the garbage man shows up at the curb. It is soooo nice to discuss such little household hints with such nice down-home folks like you. vee

In a message dated 3/27/2004 5:01:31 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [email protected] writes: town should bestow a medal on you for your efforts. Skip the medal thing. Get her a real ptinter. Bob AZ

Vee <<Last night I worked my HP printer to death for almost 2 hours printing out 200 word documents of>> You need to dump whatever printer you have and get a real printer. Like a HPIII or a HPIIID for two sided printing. If you want I will ship you one for free if you will foot the shipping. Probably about $50.00. We have a HPIII and it will print all night long while you snooze. A toner cartridge lasts us about 8 months. Get the Town Council to float a bond issue to pay for it. Bob AZ

Vee, what you have accomplished is above and beyond the call of duty and I think the town should bestow a medal on you for your efforts. Great job and well done. Charles

Sounds to me that the day was not the only thing full. Happy eating young lady. Charles

Loud hand clapping from this gal in Arizona! Vee, your dedication to the folks in the Town of Porter is worthy of acclaim. I am just a bit jealous of all those people who have ancestors there. What a wealth of information you have given them with the veterans project and the numerous other bits of information you have provided through the years. Barbara Moll

Dear Vee, I use a large one of those fly screen wire strainer thingys, what are they called, and drain into a bowl or whatever then I just pour the grease into a coffee can which I keep for that purpose. You could keep the coffee can in the fridge until it's full, then just put the lid on and toss it in the garbage. You do drink coffee don't you? All military personnel are required to drink coffee aren't they? Ruth At 1:19 AM -0500 3/27/04, Vee L. Housman wrote: >Dear Folks, >So now we get down to after the onions have been cooked in the microwave and >the hamburger has been added to them and cooked until it's no longer pink >and it's time to drain all the grease from the hamburger. And that's where >I've always had a problem. How do you drain it and what do you drain the >grease into and then what do you do with the grease? -- Ruth Barton [email protected] Dummerston, VT

Dear Folks, I just had to let you know that I still have a domestic side to my life. In the midst of my veterans project today I was looking forward to actually preparing Hamburger Stroganoff from scratch for dinner. The local market had regular ground beef on sale for $1.18/lb if you can believe that, so I bought up a couple of 1-lb. packages plus a carton of sour cream because I've been craving Hamburger Stroganoff for the longest time. In fact it's been so long since I prepared it, I couldn't even find the recipe I used to use. But with my unusual diligence I not only found a similar recipe but I found one that could be made in the microwave--just my style. So now we get down to after the onions have been cooked in the microwave and the hamburger has been added to them and cooked until it's no longer pink and it's time to drain all the grease from the hamburger. And that's where I've always had a problem. How do you drain it and what do you drain the grease into and then what do you do with the grease? Of course pouring the grease down the kitchen sink drain is out of the question and I can't quite see me draining it directly into the kitchen waste basket. So I've compromised. I take out a small colander that will accommodate the amount of hamburger and select a bowl of comparable size and drain the hamburger through the colander into the bowl. Then I select a glass custard cup and pour the grease into it and put it into the refrigerator. Overnight the grease solidifies and I keep it in the refrigerator until it's time for the next garbage pickup. That's when I scoop up the hardened grease, dump it into my kitchen waste basket and haul it off to the curb. I'd be interested in how other people manage to drain hamburger, but in the meantime let me tell you that tonight's dinner was delicious. I served the Hamburger Stroganoff over mashed potatoes and as a side dish I had an ear of "fresh" corn slathered with butter and salt. In addition, I had my typical green salad with garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing on it. I stuffed myself silly and I have enough leftovers to keep me in dinners for weeks to come. I must say that I've had a full day today. vee

Dear Folks, It's been a tough row to hoe to finally get my veterans project in proper format and printout to share with the Town of Porter, the Village of Youngstown and the Town of Porter Historical Society. Last night I worked my HP printer to death for almost 2 hours printing out 200 word documents of the Verterans Personal Pages one right after the other. Finally after 10:30 the printer said I quit and did just that. No amount of coaxing could get it going again. And I had only 22 more documents to print out before I was at the end of the over 1000-record printout. It was so frustrating. But after a good night's sleep, the printer was up and running again this morning, the 22 remaiing records were printed out and as far as the total time it took for me to print out all of those documents it was 11 hours. I wanted to give the Town of Porter Supervisor an idea of the vast volume of the valuable collection of personal information we now have regarding veterans who served from the Revolutionary War all through the years to those who are still serving on active duty. The stories some of those pages tell in only a few words paint a vivid picture in your mind of what they went through. I managed to drag the numerous notebooks to the Town Hall (it's a wonder I didn't need a dolly to haul them all!) only to find that Mert the Town Supervisor was in a meeting. Oh well, time wasn't wasted. I kidded around with the Town Clerk and his new temporary intern Lori who quickly realized that I'm really not of sane mind! After a bunch of laughs and even serious talk, Mert finally came out of his office and I sent him right back in there lugging all my notebooks behind me! To back up a bit, Mert had already decided that the Town would display panels in the Town Hall listing all of the names of our veterans. However, I couldn't imagine why the Town would want to store the huge amount of Personal Pages just in case someone might ask for more information about a particular veteran. But he really surprised me when he was eager to get a copy of all the pages, set them up in proper notebooks and display them on a proper table in the hall under the listing of veterans names and suggested that the Town call it their Veterans Corner. That pleased me a lot. Although I hadn't thought of it that way myself, I realized that what he suggested was what I really wanted in the first place. First to publically display all the veterans' names and then to give the public access to the more personal details of the individual veterans' service. Am I finished? Not by a long shot. I knew that there were major errors in individual names and so I had bookmarked them to be corrected. In addition, I realized that there were duplications of individuals depending on what source I had been using at the time. This evening I spent a couple hours scrubbing both the database and the Personal Pages and then when I took a last glance over each list, wouldn't you know I didn't get past the "C"s when I found not only a duplication in the database but . . . . . but you don't need to know the details about what I didn't find in the Personal Pages. So it appears that with further diligence on my part tomorrow I'll reach the end of the veterans tunnel at least for now. Mert got so excited again today about the whole project that he told me that he personally knows of more veterans who haven't been listed and now he's determined to hand out questionnaires to them to add to our list. Will it ever end? I certainly hope not. vee

The weather is a bit different here in Arizona. Spring simply moved north and forgot to stop here. We went from 50 degree weather to 80 degrees and yesterday it hit 92. The calendar states spring but it definately feels like summer. I am not complaining because we had a lot of rain this winter and the wild flowers are popping up all along the highways, looking lovely. We will be back in Niagara County in May and we will have our springtime then, just a little out of sync but we are looking forward to it. Barbara Moll

Vee: What a huge undertaking! I admire your tenacity. I think you'll have more people than you know who will appreciate what you have done for the veterans. Kim

Good Morning all, It seems that Colorado is experiencing the same as Nebraska weather wise. We've been having Spring like temperatures for over 2 weeks - in the 60s and 70s here in the Springs. It's why the fire season is here and my allergies are already being annoying. There's been no moisture for weeks now, so Colorado could use snow or rain. As to the drought, the so-called experts disagree as to whether we're in the 6th year of a 7 year drought, or the 7th year. We will once again be on water rationing in regards to outdoor use. With all this I still see today as bright and beautiful, a new gift yet unopened. Evelyn in Colorado ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

Vee, Hereabouts it's the steady drip, drip of sap in the bucket that foretells spring. Then when we hear the Peep, peep of the frogs it's time to take in the buckets and spring is REALLY here. Ruth At 12:05 AM -0500 3/22/04, Vee L. Housman wrote: >Dear Folks, >When I looked up at my silver maple tree this morning I could see tiny buds >on it that forecast green leaves to come and I know that within a few weeks >I'll hear the "peep, peep" of the frogs out in the back 40 singing their >hearts out. Now that's what I call "hope springs eternal." > >vee -- Ruth Barton [email protected] Dummerston, VT