We went to the farm yesterday with one of our granddaughters and our great granddaughter. They’ve never been there. And I haven’t been there for over a month. This is the time of year for the Annual Asian Lady Beetle Infestation. The last few years they weren’t so bad. But this year is another massive invasion and I was appalled at the carnage in the house. 

The front porch was covered. Literally covered with a carpet of a mix of dead and creepy crawly beetles. The Asian Lady Beetle looks very similar to the common ladybug but they are not the same thing. These were brought in to help control aphids, and…like many good ideas…things took a turn when they a) showed no interest in aphids, b) nothing in its right mind would eat these stinky things, and c) they multiply exponentially.

They seem to love to nest in dead brush and trees…something we have an abundance of in Appalachia. They also get in crevices around windows and under eaves in old country farm houses…like Grandma’s house. They make their debut on the first hot day after the first frost of the season. Along about 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon, you can look out and see them swarming in the sunshine. You can’t hang clothes out because they will just glom all over them, leaving behind their little yellow “signatures” that will NOT come out. And they LOVE whites!

We swept them up and dumped them outside by the dustpan full. We sucked them up with the vacuum cleaner. And the more we swept, the warmer it became outside, the more they swarmed. It was an entirely losing battle and we finally gave up. These little suckers bite, too! They bit my great granddaughter several times and she kept coming to me to put my cold bottle of soda on them to soothe her.

I did some laundry, turned off the dehumidifiers, checked the furnace and cranked it up, and prepped for winter. I called the exterminator to come and check for termites and treat the place if we need to. I walked the grounds with the girls, telling them stories of my youth. Then Mr. FixIt helped me load my jelly cupboard up to take home with us.

If anything would ever happen out at the farm, I want to make sure those sentimental things that I highly value are safe and secure with me. I was given this jelly cupboard by my Aunt Peeps. It’s really the only thing at the farm that I’ve ever wanted. I remember being no bigger than my great granddaughter when my grandma and mom took me to an auction down the road from the farm. 

I was maybe two or three years old. I was sitting in a little blue wagon and they bought me a hotdog. They pulled me all around as I happily munched on my treat. Grandma had her eye on an old jelly cupboard that had multiple layers of white enamel pain on it. She bought it for the winning bid of $5.00. When they got it home, Pop-Pop used turpentine to strip the paint. I can still remember my fat baby hand holding a scraper, my Pop-Pop’s weathered and work-worn hand over mine showing my how to scrap the wrinkly paint that had loosened. 

When he was done, he set a nice coat of varnish that has weathered to a lovely golden color that accentuates the wood’s grain. They painted the inside a garish orange that I hated…until it finally aged and weathered to the most delightful pumpkin color. This cabinet speaks autumn to me and it has usurped my aunt’s rain boots as my favorite possession.

There was a time after Mr. Virgo died that I wanted nothing. I would have been happy to have a handful of favorite things and a toothbrush. I have slowly accumulated things I love. The difference now is, these things are carefully selected and must meet the following criteria.

1. They must give me joy. 
2. They must serve a function. 
3. They must be beautiful. 

Our kids don’t want all that heavy brown furniture our grandparents handed down. They don’t want boxes of books or pictures of people they do not know. They don’t want Aunt Maude’s tea set with the little butterflies on it. They just might want a sturdy wooden jelly cupboard. And, if they don’t, I know people who do that I can leave it to. In the meantime, it sits in a place of honor in the family room at the Ponderosa. It will house my collection of quilts behind the original glass doors that we so very carefully protected as we traveled that winding West Virginia road from the farm. My heart is so happy.

❤️

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Proverbs 22:6 NIV