Some New Things

One morning not too long ago I went for a walk. It was a sunny day and not too cool. Unfortunately, I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.



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Actually, the trail goes right by the airport. Usually the planes are taking off over the trail, but once in awhile the wind is blowing the opposite direction so they are landing when they cross the path. Sorry that the video isn't clearer. I had zoomed and my 'video setting' doesn't seem to like zoom. These are a couple other pictures that I took on the hike.


We went to the Museum of American History. I thought that this area was interesting with their displays. However, the forgot to put a hat on one of the people.


We are enjoying our time. Hope you are too.

History and Work

I'm a little slow, because I've been busy, with keeping my blog up to date. So here goes a try.

We had the opportunity to take a boat over to Constitution Island. This is where the other end of the chain was attached that stretched across the Hudson river from West Point during the Civil War, preventing the British from going up the river. At least, that was the plan. The British never came up that far and put it to the test. Of course, there were lots of soldiers on the island, fortifications, and guns.

This is a picture back towards West Point while we were on the boat.

This is taken while on the island and looking towards Trophy Point, where the flag is flying. The helicopter landing pad is next to the water.
This is two cute kids that we found on the island. Okay, they are our grand daughters. They had a day off from school and were able to go with us and their Mom. They are looking at some of the old gun works.


While we were going across on the boat, they gave us a contest to take. This was some of the questions. You had to figure out the candy's name.

The day that employees love the most.
Children of the cane.
Nut happiness.
Flotation device.
What bees make.
What determines the winner.
(Answers at the end.)

There were five who had the correct answer so they drew for the prize of a Halloween gingerbread haunted house kit. We won the drawing. The girls had fun putting it together after we got home.

If you are wondering what else we have been doing, here is a picture. You can also click on here to see what Br has been doing all summer and what we helped her with this last week. It is towards the end of her post.
She shows you what it looked like after she and B got their work out done digging it up. This is what it looked like Sunday morning after snowing all day on Saturday, two days before Halloween.
There was also wind with it and the snow was very wet. Trees and branches came down. All roads out of the post were closed. Many people were without electricity and some still are, not only in New York but in other states too.

We are wondering, "WHAT HAPPENED TO FALL?"

Contest answers.
Pay Day
Sugar Babies
Almond Joy
Life Savers
Bit of Honey
Score

I Think That I Am Sore

I don't want to repeat, for some of you, the things that you have already read so I will just refer you so that you can find out what we have been up to. Just click here. We had an enjoyable time. P out hiked me. Our short legs had a hard time in spots as over half of the trail up the mountain was rock stair steps.

Things To See and Learn in DC

We found ourselves at two of the museums that we had not gone to. One was the Air and Space Museum. Since some of you have been here, I will save you looking at pictures. Oh, I guess I only took a picture of the Wright Brother's plane. I was surprised that it is the actual plane with just new fabric.


Last week we found ourselves at the Museum of Natural History. One could spend a week there. This picture is familiar to some as I think this was in a movie.


There was a special exhibit on the excavation of the Jamestown Settlement and what they have learned from the bones and other findings. We didn't have much time to spend there but what we did see was very interesting. It is amazing how much more we now understand and can identify from bones.

Of course, we went through the butterfly house.


One decided to land on my arm. It stayed there until we were ready to leave. So an employee helped remove it.

This is an extinct shark's mouth. It is about three times the size of a great white. I'm glad that they are extinct.


We went into the mineral and crystal area of the museum. There we saw some beautiful crystals. I learned that even though some have the same chemical composition, they can be numerous shapes and colors. The color is due to an atom of a mineral being introduced. In this department they also were displaying the Hope diamond along with other jewelery that has been given to the museum. The Hope diamond has been reset for this showing.

You can view the other jewelry by clicking here.

If you click on each picture, it tells about the item: where the gems are from, who had the jewelry, etc. You will find earrings of Marie Antoinette, some that Napoleon gave to his wife, etc. The butterfly's sapphires are from Gem Mountain, near Philipsburg, MT, where we went with L and her family.

There were lots of other interesting things we saw and learned. If you find yourself in this area, this is one place I recommend seeing.

Project One in DC

One of the first things that we did after arriving at B and L's was to make a late evening dash to IKEA. They had been waiting for the truck to make a haul. We hurried through the store, gathering boxes and just finished before closing time. Then a few nights later, it was time to start the assembly.

Step one of first box: Open box, find instructions, sort pieces. Two supervise while one works.

Step two: Make sure that you both agree on how it is going together. (Note the boxes still waiting.)

Step three: Do lots of screwing in screws, and be sure to get them straight and all the way in.

Step four: Make sure that it all fits together.

Step five: Use team work to attach the last things.

TA-DA!!! A finished desk.

I won't bore you with pictures of the next assembly job. However, a few days later this was the finished project.

You might notice that L is sitting in front of another box of parts. This is the beginning of the third item that was put together yesterday. It was two boxes like the second project.

And this is the third and final project.

Now they just need to find their home in the bedroom. We were glad that we could be here to help.

Our Old Stomping Grounds

It was time to head north and see some of our other kids and grand kids.  So the trailer got stored and we took off in sunshine that then turned to rain.

We traveled through Charleston, West Virginia and had the opportunity to go by the first house that we lived in after we were married.  It took us awhile to locate it as the road system has changed with the interstate now going through there.  It had been located on the main highway out of Charleston to Ohio.  First we had to find the right "haller" to go up.  There have been a few changes to the front yard and there are now wood posts on the front porch where there had been metal.  Other than that, it doesn't look like many changes have been made.  Of course, it is a brick house so that stayed the same.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but my camera decided to go on the fritz.  So you will just have to imagine how it looked. 


From there we traveled east on a different road than what we have used before.  We got to do lots of up and downing.  Some were ten per cent grades.  We were glad that we weren't towing.  The trees are just starting to give a hint of showing their true colors.

While traveling through West Virginia, I made the realization that it really is the largest state.  It just needs to be ironed flat.  Look out Texas.

When In Rome

The saying goes that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since we are in Kentucky, we thought we had best do as the Kentuckians do, or at least some of them. So we went to the State Fair.


This is one of the first things that we saw, made completely of balloons. To bad some of my grand kids weren't along; they would have loved it. Zoom in to see the animals.


This is a very large fair with exhibits going and coming. We took in the 4-H and FHA displays. B thought their old restored tractors were great.

In the barns we saw pigs and sheep. The sheep were being closely sheared, different from when I was in 4-H. Beef cattle were just being brought in.

In other buildings we saw lots of quilts, and I mean lots. We looked at photos, paintings, antiques, flowers, bees and their production, tobacco, hay, lots of vegetables and only apples and pears for fruit. The largest watermelon was over two hundred pounds.

While we were looking at the vegetables we saw, in the bean category, some foot and a half long deep purple beans. I asked what kind they were and was told that they are a type of Asian bean. I thought, how many people are you serving, that's how many beans you need to cook. They must be a pole bean.

We saw lots of corn, mostly dried, along with many other seeds. We found out that the plants that we had seen driving here that looked like shorter corn with a bushy top, instead of a corn top, is sorghum. The seed is quite small. We also learned that you judge soy beans by the size and thickness of the plant, but mostly by the number of bean pods on each branch of the plant.

During the fair, for three days, is also the National Championship of American Saddlebred Horses. It was fun to watch. Some of their tails are dragging on the ground by a foot or more. As soon as they are leaving the ring, someone is gathering and knotting them up. They are beautiful horses. We also watched the double and four team mule teams be judged. It was also interesting.

There were lots of other performances going on in the buildings and on the grounds. Did I mention that most everything is indoors. With the heat and humidity in this part of the country it is understandable. The grounds are next to Churchill Downs. We listened to music groups and saw performances, such as these motorcycle riders. There was a tight rope walker before them.

Of course, a fair would not be a fair if it didn't have food. So we had some of it too. You can see who was doing the eating.


Okay, I did have some too.

There was free grandstand entertainment in the evening, some of which were well known groups. However, after nine hours there we were ready to call it quits. THANKS Louisville for a great day!