Mandolins

Sunshine and ferocious wind gusts all day, rattling the old windows we haven't yet replaced in the kitchen. The power flickered on and off. W. actually saw a tree blow down behind the house. 

These mandolins were in my grandfather's possession when he died. The bowl-backed one on the right is the older of the two, from the early twentieth century. The other is from the 1920s. My grandfather remembered his uncle playing the older one out on the range in Montana, where his family settled after "going West" in covered wagons. They made that trip in 1908 (late in the game for such travel, but it did still happen), from Wisconsin to Grass Range, when my grandfather was 3. He told stories about that trip all his life. My great-great uncle was a second generation Scot named William Wallace McLean. 

Grocery shopping today - it took ages and was more tense than it has been. But FaceTime with family tonight involved lots of laughter.