Happy Birthday, Uncle Mel!!!

My Uncle Mel turned 80 and we went to his house to celebrate! At one point, one of my cousins passed out favors he had made: hand-crafted wooden pens! He purchased the metal pen components, then turned the wood to make the barrels. The tag on it was leaf-shaped and read, "We extend this branch of our family tree in celebration of Melvin's 80th Birthday...". Then I heard him say something about apricot wood! I was thrilled and thought, 'No, not our apricot wood!' and proceeded to ask him if this meant he had used wood from apricot trees that had been grown on our family farm and indeed, he had! What a thrill! This pen is so much more meaningful and precious to me because it not only is made of wood my cousin carefully crafted into its pen shape, but also wood that his father had grown!

My grandfather was a fruit farmer in Solano County who had a repair garage on the farm. Though his two sons ended up mechanics for UPS, they continued to farm the property that the siblings had all purchased together probably some 50+ years ago. My grandfather's small 'ranch' is now developed into a commercial building site and long gone, but the "other ranch" is still around. At least for now, though I know it will probably not be forever.

It means alot to me to have this small piece of my family's history!

And speaking of birthdays, TODAY is Nartian's birthday, so go hop on over and wish her a happy one! You've got less than 2 hours!

ETA: and, btw, I forgot that this was kinda knit-related in topic. Spinning-related, really, since my cousin's girlfriend weaves, spins and now knits. She is hoping he'll make her a spinning wheel one day and I am flat-out begging him to make me a spindle! I think his GF would settle for a spindle, too...