I owe an apology to my dear aforementioned friend. I actually acquired her in l964 or so not in the 1980's. She really did well to perform for such a long time and I wanted to give credit where credit is due.
When push came to shove, I had to finish getting the juice from the rest of the berries. I remembered having a heavy aluminum cone shaped sieve which is used to make sauce from apples. This piece of kitchen equipment is quite old also. It has a handle and sits on a tripod thich can we positioned over a bowl. I put the berries in small portions in the cone. Finding the fat, wooden, ten inch pin designed to be used to mash fruit, I began working with the pin in a circular motion. Enough juice eased through the tiny sieve like sides to make the almost 5 cups needed to complete the job. Then the juice went into the fridge as the day was late and I needed a new day to "git er' done". This is that day.
Earlier when my neighbor and I finished our picking expedition, I brought her back to my house and gave her a jar of the rich jelly I had made early. I wanted her to have an immediate reward for braving the briars and helping me to accomplish my mission.
She was indeed pleased and when I drove her home she wanted me to come in and see the old family furniture pieces she had trusted to a furniture restorer. They were indeed beautiful. I had told her earlier that if she and her husband were happy with the job to let me know. I had a 60 year old bedroom furniture set that I would like to have refinished. I had gone that route before with the first dining set that my husband and I had purchased. It was first class and we bought if after having it inspected by a close friend who taught manual arts in the high school where my husband was teaching. That set was solid maple and had two leaves to enlarge it for special occasions. At each end it had a drop leaf which gave the table an oval shape. The purchase price for it in 1951 was $600.
At the time of purchase, I was 6 months into the pregnancy of my first born. My sister who lived in Ky. and had not seen me, wanted to have a picture of me in that condition. So, I had a picture made of me standing beside the buffet of that set. I recall her saying that she could zip up her skirt any day of the week and look more pregnant than that. Well, all of that is family history.
Getting back to the bedroom furniture which I have wanted to refinish for some time, I am using it in a northwest room on the second floor of my home. My oldest sister who was an artist, had purchased this maple furniture in 1939. She and her husband bought it from Montgomery Ward Company. They had a store in a neighboring town and this furniture was used in her home since the day of her marriage. Apparently the furniture had darkened over the years and she wanted to have more color in the room. Being an artist and using color all the time in paintings, she simply painted over the maple. The bed is a four poster and the posts at the end of the bed have worn over the years from being rubbed as hands held onto it in passing.
Owning and using furniture handed down in families is a sacred and time honored act of love. So, it is with all of that in mind that I intend to pursue the challenge of refinishing her furniture which I now use each night. I expect it to be expensive as over ten years ago I got an estimate of $1,000 for the job. I would not hand it over to any person without recommendation and having seen their work.
With everything else that is going on this summer, I may postpone it for a bit, well, at least until this fall !!
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