Passing It On, Work And Play

I remember several times that my parents would come to "visit" and helped with projects around our home.  Now it is time for us to pass their example on to our kids.

By and L purchased a home in northern NY with several projects to be done.  They have had a problem with some water seeping into the back of the basement into a concrete extension.  Since they back up to a hillside, the thought was to put in a drain line along the base of the hill and where the water from the house also drains towards.  There was an existing drain down past the house that didn't quite do the job.

They dug up the end of the old one, which they will bypass as it is too high, rented a ditch witch, and started digging the length of the house and yard.

This was the ditch after they were through with the machine.  (That is also their fire pit.)  Then it was widened and rocks, many rocks, dug out.  The part that looks like a storm cellar door is where the water would leak in.  The rain gutter to the other side of the door was also missing so that was replaced and also one put along the garage.  These were joined and taken down and tied into the new underground drainage, hopefully to get it away from the house.

 This little critter was found one day during the digging.

 The tench was lined and the pipe put in.  Then it was filled with many truck loads of gravel.  Eventually, it was covered with dirt and sand.  There are now many piles of rocks to be moved.

In the meantime, L and I have been busy painting.  Before we could do the painting, we had to clean up around door and window frames from the previous paintings.  They had gotten the kitchen, dinning room, living room, and front entry painted before we came.  No matter how good a job we think we did there was always some patching to do.  L is busy patching up missed spots.

This is the room off the kitchen, which is listed as a family room.  This was the color of most of the rooms with the exception of the bedrooms.

Almost everything takes a primer coat as well as the actual paint.  This is when it was done.

 During our working, we also enjoyed watching the trees change colors.

Another thing that had to been done, so that they could have insurance, was to rebuild the missing railing from when the hot tub was put in.  Here is the finished rail.  I just got it painted the other day after it had about five days to dry out.  We have been getting lots of rain.

This is the stairway upstairs with the same orange yellow paint before painting, and then after painting.  We still need to do the upstairs landing and hallway.

When B had a couple days off with fall break and it wasn't raining, we took a hike along the Raquette River.  It was a beautiful and warm day for seeing fall colors.  There are several sets of rapids.  Sorry, I didn't get any good pictures of any of the rapids.  There are also several dams along this waterway.

If you look back at the picture of the deck railing, you will also notice a jack under the deck.  The deck was also bowing under the weight and not properly supported.  Also there was a large deep hole under the deck towards the edge of the hot tub.  After researching, By found out, from the previous owner, that when digging the basement there was a large rock that was pushed to this area and then covered.  The dirt had settled around it.

So the guys collapsed the sides, poured concrete into the bottom, and are putting in a post here.  They also put in a beam under the tub the length of the deck, and replaced several other supports, placing cement supports under them.  This is By collapsing the sides of the hole,

and getting ready for the cement to come down the "chute."  Yes, he was sore the next day.

Some of the outer replaced posts.

This is the downstairs rec room before painting.  It isn't quite finished so no finished picture.  Notice the post under the stairs.  The guys put that in to help raise the main floor and above.

This is looking at their house from the road.

More pretty trees, these across the road from their house,

and just after turning off the main road.  This is some of their property.

I didn't post any pictures of their bedroom.  After several coats of paint, it is now how they want it.  By and L will have to show that picture.

So it hasn't been all work and there has been some play.  It is also good to be able to help them out.

New York Summer Time

 

July found us traveling to West Point to attend P's baptism.
We were very glad that we could be there. 










One of the great things is that we get to attend the Sunday evening outdoor concerts.  Since the cut backs, there are fewer, but we got to listen to the steel band play.  They did play music that is typically played by steel drums.

 P and her friend were having a great time dancing to the music.  They were not the only ones dancing.

 One Saturday afternoon we decided to go to Sleep Hollow Cemetery.  There are lots of family mausoleums.  That may be because the ground is very rocky.


Some are very large.

Some look like small churches.

 Some are very small and humble even though it marks the resting place of one who has done so much.      
                                                   

                                                  

Some are very pretty to look at and resemble a garden ornament.













 Some are doors leading into the ground.

 Some have ornate details.

This is the Irving family plot.  The flag marks the resting place of the one who made the town so well known, Washington Irving.

This is the bridge mentioned in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow



 And this is the Old Dutch Church.  It was built in 1697 and has been in use since that time except during the Revolution.                                                                                                                        

Once during the summer the West Point Band travels to Hyde Park and gives a concert on the lawn of the Venderbilt  Mansion.  We went up with R so we had lots of time before it started.  These are some close ups of the mansion.

And some pictures of special people, making funny faces.

Then we listened to the music.  R playing drum set.

Then it was time to leave and head north to help the new house owners.  That will be a new post later.  Hope you had a good summer too.

And On We Go

 I guess it is about time I let anyone who may be interested in knowing that we made it to southern Indiana.  Only difficulties that we had was a blown trailer tire before we got to Billings, Montana.  Because of this problem, we were not able to go see one of Bob's cousins.  Instead we spent the time getting a new tire purchased and on the trailer.  

We didn't make any finds or make any side trips until we got to Nauvoo, Ill.  There we stopped for a few nights and got to see our dear friends, the Thompsons, who are serving a mission there.  They were able to find us a spot in the RV Park where they are staying so, between their working keeping the grounds beautiful and watered and their  other responsibilities, we got to spend time with them.  We watched them in the play "Rendezvous."

 

We did take a side trip to the town of Quincy.  Bob's great grandfather and his two brothers lived there before moving to Montana.  His grandfather was born there.  The only record of them that we found was the marriage license and certificate for his great grandfather and mother.

We traveled on and arrived in "Kentuckiana" in time for the heat of the summer, which was accompanied by lots of humidity.  The heat index was over one hundred for several days.

We made it across the river to see W and C.  This is the boat that W has been working on.  It is looking good.  He was just putting the gunwales on.  We also saw their transformed back yard and garden.  We got to bring home some garden produce.  Yum!

 We have been busy looking at property to build on but nothing decided yet.

We took a break and went down to Four Bridge; the old railroad bridge that is now for walking and biking.  This is the I 65 bridge.  It was cool and there was also a breeze blowing so it made it very nice.  It was called the Four Bridge because it was used by four different railroads.  Kentucky is on the left and Indiana is on the right.

This is the Louisville skyline.  If you look close, and though the girders  you can see the Kentucky Fried Chicken Yum Center.  Lots of things happen there.  It is directly below the two red roofed buildings.  This area is pretty at night with the domed building's dome lit up.



The Four Bridge is one mile long.  Indiana still needs to finish it's ramp up to the bridge.

 

This is looking down river.  On the right you can see two darker towers and a white one.  That is what is now called the Water Tower, which it was.  We went there for Blues and Barbecue with W and C.  There are other functions there also.  The white tower and building are very pretty.

Counting the bridge that we are standing on, there are four bridges crossing the Ohio River in this area.  If you look close you can see the other three.  The cranes are working on the area where the new bridge will be located.  Then interstate traffic will go south on one and north on the other.






There is lots of barge traffic on the river.  Here is one of them.  There are locks on the river upstream from here that they have to go through.



A walk by the river wouldn't be complete without seeing one of the river boats paddling along.

Celebrating the Fourth of July

Sorry that this is a little late in getting posted but we have been on the road.  We went east after this camping trip.

The third of July found us heading for the mountains where it was cooler.  It had been in the nineties.  Unfortunately, T wasn't able to go with us because of a summer job that he now has.  We went south of Missoula, Mt. up along the Wise River and into the mountains.  Our camp was at just over 7700 feet.  The flowers were in full bloom.  We saw this beautiful meadow a few yards from our camp site the first evening.  We were going to get back and take a picture of it lit up but never got back to camp early enough.

On the Fourth we went south to the old deserted, partly restored, mining town of Bannack.  At one time it had a population of around ten thousand.  We toured the town and went into the buildings.  This town had a thriving community and even was trying to become the seat for the county.

One of Montana's notorious outlaws, Henry Plummer, and his gang were here.  He got himself elected sheriff, and therefore had no fear of the law.  If someone had gold accumulated or if there was a load going out, they would intercept it, leaving no witnesses.  One of his gang, Club Foot George, was recognized as being involved in a hold-up.  They also did their work in Virginia City.  A vigilantly group was formed, they were rounded up, and then hung.  Plummer and his two deputies were hung from the rafters at the back of a saloon.

This was the court house.  The hanging gallows are at the start of the hills between it and the building to the right.

Most of the old mill is still standing.  Part of it burnt back in around 1972 and the mill was then shut down.  This truck took us up to the mill where we received a guided tour and learned about the mining in that area.

 

 The second day we went into Butte.  We went to the college museum.  They have displayed an old mining town that you can walk around in.  There was also some minerals on display as well as a doll house collection.

One of B's memories is going to Butte to do Christmas shopping.  Lunch was 'pasties' at the Woolworth's lunch counter.  So we asked where we now could get pasties and they told us to go to Joe's Pasties shop, which we did, and we all had one for lunch.  

Another thing that B remembered was Columbia Gardens, an amusement park.  It is part of an open pit mine now.  The waitress heard us talking about the swings they had there and said that they were now in a park not very far away.  So after lunch we went to the park to play on the merry-go-round and to swing.  They are called horse swings.

We took the trolley tour around Butte which made a stop by the Berkley Pitt Mine.  It is now filling with water, about a foot a month.  They are claiming copper out of the water and still making money.  They are set up to clean the water once they have to start dumping it into the streams, which will be in a few more years.                                                        

 This is a building across the water from where we were standing.  You can see how large this pit is as you spot the building in the next picture.  It is just left of center and appears as a white speck.  Looking at the ground colorization helps to find it.

 

The last morning we went to Crystal Park, not far from where we were camping.  Sorry I didn't get any pictures.  The area is full of quartz crystals.  Most are small pieces.  The area has really been dug up, but you can find a few small crystals.  

Then we broke camp and said our goodbyes.  L, B, and the kids went home and we headed east to our next adventure. 

Month of June

June comes and not only is it the start of summer, it is also the end of school.  We got to attend Tasker's preschool graduation,

 We also got to celebrate his sixth birthday with him.

Since school is out, it means that it is the start of SUMMER VACATION.

Three down, one to go!  (The far right knee just got it's band aide off.)

Spring Fun

 It has been some time since I posted, and thought maybe I should let others know what we have been doing.

Since the last post, we went to Yakima, WA.  In the thirty years that we lived there, I never saw as many things in bloom all at once as this year.  There was warm weather for a couple weeks in March and everything then started popping.  It was beautiful.  Sorry, no pictures as my camera had died and I didn't get it replaced until just before we left.

 In may we moved from Washington to Montana so that we could spoil some of our Grand kids.  Our youngest Grandson is growing up.

 Their big brother had a Lacrosse tournament in Bozeman.  While waiting for his game to start and in between games, we went to the "Museum of the Rockies" on the MSU campus.  Kids always love the dinosaur part of the museum.  They have a large one.

Number 16 is our oldest grandchild.  This is his first year playing lacrosse.  They won their first game but lost the second.  They ended up with third place in the tournament.  This was the first time that we have ever watched the game.  It is very fast paced.  It is closer to hockey but still very different.  He said that it is really a lot of fun to play.