The Return to Reality

We had a great vacation.  It was fourteen states in twelve days. We actually cut a couple days off the trip because some of the things we wanted to do were only open one or two days a week, and not the day we were there.

It was a lot of driving.  I have to say, the driving was the only part I didn’t like.  I have not been out of my little circle of existence hardly at all.  In the last ten years, I think I’ve only driven outside this bubble twice–once on a day trip with my sister and once to take a class for work.  Now I drove through fourteen states with a gps that took me on tiny, non-existent winding dirt paths or through the center of Boston.  But I survived.  Don’t ask me how, but I survived, and we made it back home.

My world

And I was so happy to get home despite having an enjoyable trip.  The critters were happy to see me.  I might have been quite popular with these three.  They wanted lots of snuggles.

Sky, Salem, and Tiger all demanding my attention

Bob was just happy the doorman was home.  He was ready to go back to in and out as his whims dictated.

Bob

Rocky might have been a bit melodramatic.  He was hiding in the basement ceiling, yowling like he was lost up there.  He made me get a ladder and talk to him and coax him and spend about twenty minutes trying to get him to come to me.  I finally got him and brought him down.

Rocky in the ceiling (I was standing on a ladder and shooting into the dark with my cell phone)

Then he was really clingy.  He did make another trip into the ceiling, crying the whole time when my son stopped by that night.  I hadn’t told him that we were home a couple of days early, but I wanted to give him the gifts I had brought for him and his girlfriend for taking care of the critters.

Rocky

Because goats will be goats no matter whether or not I’m here, I got a message one evening from my neighbor saying she saw a bunch of goats in my driveway.  Bless her for stopping and letting them back in the gate.

The picture the neighbor sent. I was just excited to see my girls (and Popcorn’s butt).

That is the thing.  Goats are homebodies.  They’ll get out and eat in my ditch, but they are always ready to go back in the barnyard at bed time.  My nephew went out and fixed the fence for me.  The next night, she sent me another text that there was a goat standing there waiting to go in.  My poor nephew got called again.  This time it was Freddie.  He let him back into the buck area through the garage.

The next night, I got a text from my son’s girlfriend asking if this was the mean buck.  Now I don’t have a mean buck, but Xerxes has such a fear of people that he would run over you to get away. I told her that Freddie was a good boy, and he actually went back over the fence.  So I have fence work to do there.

The picture I got when Freddie was out.

Just a few minutes later, she sent me a picture of Shellie. That makes twice that little brat got stuck while I was gone.

The picture of Shellie stuck in the fence.

And there’s no way anyone could track the little kids the way I do.  I couldn’t even count them.  I had to go mom by mom and try to find their kids because you can’t count them running all over the place.  The first thing I did when I got home was to go out to pasture and look for the littles.  I didn’t see a single one, so I knew they were all somewhere together.  When I found them on the bottom, they actually just stood there and stared at me, so I did a quick count (it took me twice) and they were all there!  That was a relief.

Sidney with Crystal and Frosty

Zora is totally wild again (hiding behind her mom)

Ostara was willing to let me give her butt scratches!

Ostara

Perdita ditched her horn apparatus, but she never got stuck!

Perdita

My old ladies are all doing okay.

Bambi resting in pasture

The llamas were just there.  Odie might have been a bit annoyed that I’m back because now I’ll touch her again.

Aurora in the barn

All the birds were present and accounted for.  Although the goose is still trying to sit on her nest of non-fertilized eggs, and one hen was acting broody.

Mr. Peacock

It was such a wonderful feeling to come home and see everyone and know that they had good care while I was gone.

This sight makes my heart happy.

My garden had even been checked and taken care of.  I still need to get it weeded again (I wouldn’t ask anyone to weed my garden for me; although, they did do some!).

I’ve started weeding it.

It’s amazing how much the corn has grown in the short time I was gone.  Everything is so green!

My dad mowed for me.  I will say, we did have some storms while we were gone, and I lost a couple of long dead limbs out of the oak tree, so I have some cleanup to do there.

But it was again, a great feeling to know that everything had been taken care of.  I am so grateful to my family, friends, and neighbors who made this trip a possibility.

The Rest of the Trip

After leaving Rhode Island, we continued north to Salem, Massachusetts.  I already shared that my mom had Quaker ancestors on her father’s father’s side who were persecuted.  Even though the cemetery isn’t open to the public, we decided to visit the Quaker Cemetery in Salem.

I know there’s one remaining stone from a Southwick relative in there, but I assume there are more stones that have been lost.

From there, we went to the 1692 Witch Museum. If you want more history, HERE is a great video from the Smithsonian.

Salem really was not good to my mom’s ancestors.  On her mother’s mother’s side, she is descended from Sarah Pease, who was arrested as a witch in May of 1692.

Proctor’s Ledge, the site of the hangings of 19 accused witches.

Luckily, she was released in May of the following year.  But I’m sure it was a brutal winter in a jail not made for long-term housing of prisoners.

We found Sarah’s name on a wall listing the accused.

I’m sure it was also a hardship on the family (they were weavers–probably working class) to have to pay the bills incurred for feeding her in prison.  Yes, even though acquitted, they remained in prison until the bills were paid.  What amazes me is that she and her husband remained in Salem and continued to live in the community where she was persecuted.

After leaving Salem, we headed north to Vermont.  We found the Maple Hill Cemetery at Dorset.

In this cemetery is the farthest back we can go on my mom’s dad’s side.  We just hit a dead end there, but we were very happy to see where they lived and these two are buried.

Deac. John Manley (and his wife, Mary Arnold Manley was beside him, but her stone can’t be read).

It was also nice to see the cemetery being so well-preserved.  There were two workers who were digging and then resetting some of the stones that were tipping.  When they finished, the stones were perfectly stable again.

Fixing cemetery stones.

The next morning, we were off to find more cemeteries.  I’m not going to go into detail, but let’s just skip straight to Maple Grove Cemetery just south of Otselic, New York.

This is the final resting place for my fourth great-grandparents, Jonathan and Esther (Moon) Brown.

Esther Moon Brown

Johnathan  Brown

After a much needed night’s rest, we were off again.  This would be the last of the cemeteries.  We found Pioneer Burying Ground in Pittsford, New York.

It took a bit of work to find the stones we were looking for.  Luckily, I had the pictures from findagrave.com pulled up, so I knew the shape.  Unfortunately, they have really deteriorated since the pictures were posted.  The one on the left that is broken belong to my 6th great-grandmother, Rachel (Ide) Perin.  I don’t know who the middle one belongs to (and I can’t read it).  The one on the right is Rachel’s son (my 5th great-uncle), Glover.

I do hope someone can work on fixing many of the broken stones in this cemetery before it’s too late to save them.

Two More Historic Cemeteries

The day we went to Long Island is because we wanted to go to Shelter Island, New York.  It is a small island that only took another fifteen minute ferry ride to reach from Long Island.  This is where my ninth-great grandparents Lawrence (1594-1660) and Cassandra Burnell (1598-1660) Southwick went when they were persecuted as Quakers living in Salem, Massachusetts.

Yep, before the witch trials, Salem persecuted Quakers.  My eighth-great grandfather, Daniel Southwick (1637-1719), and his sister, Provided (1639-1727), were to be sold into slavery by the town leaders, but they could not find a ship captain willing to take the teens to the Barbados to sell.  I believe they both lived the rest of their lives in Salem.  Provided is later found in court records testifying during the witch trials.

Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick

Quakers were hung in Salem and Boston throughout the 1650s before there was a bit more tolerance.

Nobody knows where on the island they were buried for sure, but there is a monument to them and other Quakers who were banished from the community.

The next historical cemetery we visited was Newman Cemetery in Rumsford, Rhode Island.

For the longest time, I could not find my ancestors.  I never knew why, but then I discovered that Rehoboth, Massachusetts was much larger.  Part was divided off into the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts, and finally, another section, the original section, was divided off into Newman, Rhode Island.  No wonder I couldn’t find them.

The church which was founded in 1643.

Once I found the historic cemetery, records indicate that I have fourteen direct ancestors buried there, ranging from seventh to eleventh great-grandparents.

Eighth great-grandfather Captain Timothy Ide (1660 – 1735)

It also includes William Carpenter (my 10th great-grandfather), who was the first burial in the cemetery in 1658.

William Carpenter (1605 – 1658)

My furthest back Perin ancestors were also in this cemetery.  One thing I find interesting is the way the art on the headstones reflect the beliefs and attitudes of the time period.  In the stone below, it is one of the earlier pieces of art which reflects their common place attitude about death and decomposition with the skull.  It isn’t until later with a softening of attitudes that you start to see winged faces and angels.  So the early stones look a bit scary, but it really was just a reflection of the reality that only the body is buried, and the soul has already left this world.

Ann (Hubert) Perrin, (1616-1688) my 10th great-grandmother

It was really an amazing stop.  And I have learned that there might be snips of the church and cemetery in the upcoming movie, Hocus Pocus 2.  I’m certainly going to be watching it now.