Saturday, February 25, 2012

Thank you Daddy.

After the depressing post about my farmer friend going to that big cornfield in the sky, I knew the next post must be on a lighter tone.

And so I’m here to thank my father.

If any words or statements come to my mind when I mention Daddy, it would be “The Iron Rod” (his fav church song) and “All you need is glue and duct tape.”

Daddy fixed everything in our house. Broken whatever. Dryers, cars, brakes, toys, sprinklers, etc. etc. etc. He did it all. I honestly don’t think I ever saw a repairman (yes, in those days, they were all men) come to our house to fix something. Except when he was gone during the war and Mom would call someone for the TV. Those days, TVs were easier to fix.

But everything else, he did.

I thought about that the other day when I found myself trying to fix my Shark Floor Steam cleaner. The tube that transfers the steam to the mop head had fallen off and I was trying to replace it. I worked and worked at this and many times thought I had it beaten. But then on a  test run, it would pop off again. Very frustrating. I was determined to fix it, because I’ve fixed a lot of stuff in the house. Thankfully, Thomas is also a fix-it kind of guy, so with two of us, we even out what gets fixed.

The dryer stopped heating. Heating element went out. I called around, found the part, got on the laptop, searched the O Holy Internet for “replacing heating element,” found a video and step by step, I replaced the heating element.  dryer

Robee has broken several playmobil guys’ legs (due to the fact that he forgets to pick them up before he steps). Out came the Crazy Glue and on went the legs.

The goats hay bin had fallen to the ground. While Daddy was here in November, he helped me lift the bin off the ground (with the help of a jack since I still couldn’t lift) and screw it to the fence and then install braces on the ground for more support. He was in heaven helping me do this. It was all I could do to keep him from digging up a pipe that was cracked by the pond to repair it as well. I didn’t want him having a heart attack.

I would have to say, however, my mantra would be “All you need is Crazy Glue, Electrical Tape, and Gorilla Tape.” Boy, do I love Gorilla Tape. That stuff will stick to anything and will remain stuck until …. whenever.

I often wonder why he always fixed everything. I’m sure I like to fix things because I’m a product of my environment (and being an adoptee, not a product of genetics since bio mom won’t talk about my genetics) and I watched him all my life putter around the yard and house.

I also think it was partly due to the fact that he is a Depression baby and people who lived through the Depression had to learn to make do with what they had. Food, clothes, tools, furniture, everything. You took care of your stuff to make sure it lasted a long time. We’ve become such a throw-away mentality that it’s a shame. We buy a chair or tool or clothes and don’t take care of them because we know we can buy another in a year.

So if I’m a product of my environment and Daddy is a product of his environment, then hopefully my kids will be a product of us. They see us  fixing things and that’s great. I want them to learn that just because you can throw things away doesn’t mean you should.

So thank you Daddy. Life lesson learned.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Goodbye Farmer Strotz

When we first moved here, we found ourselves drawn to a side road off Hwy 530, guided by a sign that read “Strotz Country Feed.” We turned down the bumpy, pot-holed road and found ourselves right in the middle of a old time dairy farm, complete with a giant red barn, chickens, ducks and a bunch of humongous pigs.

strotz

The dairy farm was no longer but replaced with a feed store that carried everything from grain to bridles to dog chews. Sitting behind the counter was a kind, friendly guy with a baseball cap on his head and offered the kids a bag of popcorn.

And a friendship was born.

Once we learned how to pronounce his name (said like struts), Roy Strotz became our go-to guy for all things animals. True, his chicken coops were a little scary and there was the time I saw the pigs tossing a dead, furry creature into the air before I heard them crunching on it. THAT was weird. But all in all, this was a great place for kids to go to on a Sunday afternoon. He always had Johnny Cash playing overhead and free suckers and popcorn for the kids. He even made sure that there were blue suckers for me when he found out they were my favorite flavor.

strotz roy Roy and his golf cart.

Roy was the head of the Silvana Fair, a fair that was only for the 4-H kids and was officially the start of the fair season in our area. He ran the whole thing it seemed, and you could always count on seeing him spinning around in his golf cart, checking on everybody.

I went to him for advice about my chickens, my goats, my pigeons. We adopted our cat, Sam, from his store after seeing him there in a little cage when someone had dropped him off. I bought all my food and grass from him for the animals. He even let me borrow his doves for Robee’s magic show.

When someone dies so suddenly as Farmer Roy did, it always takes my breath away and I find myself wishing I had talked to him more about what life was like for him, growing up in Arlington, growing up on a dairy farm. Those days are so gone and those people that lived them are going away too. It still makes me a little sad when I drive by the farm and I see it sitting out there in the field, knowing that I’m not going to be talking to him about corn growing or the weather or why my chickens aren’t laying this month. For a moment in time, I felt like I had a little bit of roots when I talked to him. He never made me feel like an outsider (as some locals do) or dumb when I didn’t know something. He was always patient and kind.

Roy Strotz, who has been running the Silvana Community Fair for more than 20 years, works at a recent auction to raise money for the annual event at Viking Hall in Silvana.

Roy Strotz, who has been running the Silvana Community Fair for more than 20 years, works at a recent auction to raise money for the annual event at Viking Hall in Silvana

Since I want to remember him again and again, I’m putting this in my journal so we can always remember this wonderful guy.

Roy D. Strotz, 73, passed away suddenly on February 8, 2012, in the very same house he was born in, on February 3, 1939.
Memorial service will be held, Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. at the Snohomish County Fire District 19, Station 94, 2720 212th St. NW., Stanwood.

Goodbye Farmer Strotz. The fair will be very lonely without you this year.