Funny Bunny Sunday

I dreamed that I took my favorite photo ever, and decided that the definitive title for it would be Funny Bunny Sunday. My husband pointed out (in the dream) that the picture was of our cat Ginger, and not a rabbit. "It'll still work," I said.

I sat with camera in hand for at least an hour, obsessed with recreating my dream. I waited for Ginger to do anything remotely funny-bunnyish. But mostly he was just interested in sleeping.


"You are not putting that on the internet."*


Kind of bunny.


Kind of funny.

Ginger loves to crawl up my husband's chest, arch his back high in the air, then settle very, very close to the face. I tease him. "That cat looooves you."

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*I was able to change his mind.

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P.S. I forgot to add a link to the Circus of the Spineless earlier. Sorry, Doug!

Rainbow Sunset - Grand Portage Bay

This photo was taken last night at sunset just after a brief thunderstorm passed over Grand Portage Bay.

Old Town Walk

Most of the walk ways in Old Town have been covered to make for a more pleasent tour due to our hot sun and in the summer sudden downpours of rain in the monsoon season, which we are having now. There was no rain the day we were there but the shade was welcome. There are still several of the old cottonwood trees still along some of the streets and in the park.

Sunset at Schwabacher's Landing

Just when I thought the entire trip was going to go by without having any decent clouds, the planets aligned and for my last sunset of the trip we had fantastic clouds and color over the Teton Mountains! Our decision on where to shoot sunset on this evening was kind of up in the air, so I suggested going back to Schwabacher's Landing and giving it a try. Normally known as a better spot for sunrise shooting, the other morning when we were there I couldn't help but think that this would be a good spot for sunset as well. I always like to have moving water in my shots when possible, and I thought the water just below the beaver dam would make for a great foreground for a sunset shot.



Another element which added some drama to the scene was some smoke and haze from a nearby prescribed burn that was going on elsewhere in the valley. The Tetons were sort of "trapping" this haze on the east side of the mountains, which really helped to catch some extra color from the setting sun. It was a phenomenal sunset to witness. I only hope I was able to catch at least some of that feeling in these images.

An interesting thing that happened is that as soon as the "best" of the light started to fade, all of the other photographers started packing up their gear and leaving. The last one to walk by me stopped and said "Well, the lights gone now." I replied: "Not at all! There's still at least half an hour of good light left!" "Well, if you say so....." the man replied. He wished me well then retreated to his car. I spent close to another hour shooting after than encounter. The image below was made almost 40 minutes after that other photographer proclaimed the "good" light to be gone.



After shooting the sunset I parted ways with Jake and Stuart, thanking them for an incredible time. We had loads of fun shooting together. They went back to the hotel, and I hit the road since I had to be back in time to work Saturday morning. It was a short trip, but a great trip nonetheless. I can't wait to go back!

Nene Way 2 Nether Heyford - Sixfields and return.

With Marta. 22 July . 11.2 miles. Walking time 3 hrs 30, a total of almost 5 hrs including breaks. Weather, fine, warm, some sun.






'Organisational difficulties' meant that we had to do this walk as a there-and-back. Fortunately we worked this out after 5 and a half miles, and the walk was roughly the samedistanceas we had planned.

At Nether Heyford

The pub at the start of the walk served us coffee although they were not officially open until 12 noon. Much appreciated. We turned left from the pub car park, along Middle Street, turned right at T-junction, then right into Watery Lane, where we met the first waymarker.

The first waymarker - were the bags too heavy before we'd even started the walk?






From Watery Lane we took a signposted track between two houses. The path turns slightly left and crosses a stream (not the Nene) and several fields. There are stiles. On the left a mile or so away is Glassthorpe Hill, and according to Mia Butler, there was once a Roman villa in the valley.





We meet the mighty Nene itself as we approach the bulk of Heygate's Flour Mill (marked on the OS map as Bugbrooke Mill. Weirs remain from the original watermill. The water is very clear - we saw small fish and a froglet, as well as damselflies. There's also a walled fruit and veg garden full of rows of beans, and with a fig tree growing against the wall.















Just here was the only place we made a small unintentional detour. After crossing the service road, we followed the clearly signposted path, but didn't notice the gap in the hedge a couple of hundred yards further on - no signs here. We realised what we'd done when we came to an impassable ditch and barbed wire at the end of the field. We even walked all the way back and missed the turning. Careful consulting of the map - and, yes, there had to be some way through the hedge - it's just after the end of the taller bushes, to skirt the industrial building.


The path leads diagonally through a field storing what look like abandoned food storage containers - grain silos? - round and very big.


























Through the gate and across a wheat field towards the M1 and through a tunnel underneath.

Under the M1

This was the quietest place within a hundred yards or so, and was clearly the place where old farm machinery comes to die.





Across a meadow where cows were doing their best to eat the maize in the next field, then through the maize jungle, closely planted, neat rows, computerised sowing, taller than we are, past an area where children were playing by the river and a cat was observing from its vantage point.

Totem cat

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The fourteenth century church at Kislingbury

Kislingbury has three pubs, a general store and a butcher's shop, as well as the church.

I like the colours here, though I should have got the writing and flowers in focus too. Need to study 'depth of field'.






The path to the footbridge is part of the flood defences, and a large metal gate can be closed off to protect the village against another two for three foot rise in the water level.





After Kislingbury we turned right from the road, and walked through several fields, quite a distance from the Nene, which was on our right. We could see a raised dyke area, and the path was clearly marked. We walked past a long wall, which has fallen down in places, although there is a door in one of the remaining sections. We arrived at Upton Hall Farm with horses and vociferous geese, then came to the new development of Upton Sustainable Urban Extension. It still looks rather new, but when the trees have grown and the water/ drainage areas have settled in it promises to be an attractive area.

Part of Upton Sustainable Housing Development

The signs for the Nene Way were a little sparse through the new houses, but we found our way through to where the path crosses the dual carriageway of the old A45 at traffic lights

and were ready to take the Duston Mill Lane when we decided we had to turn back.

Geese getting ornery

Wildlife - kestrels and a couple of herons.

For details click here

Mouses, Mouses

Drats, we have mice in the hay shed, and storage shed. Again.

Delving into the Deeds

In addition to the Yarians, Ruperts, and Switzers I have Berlin, Coy and Hoffman ancestors who lived in Columbiana County, Ohio. All of them in the 1803-1860 time period and all in the northeastern tier of townships: Unity, Fairfield, and Salem, and Green (which would become part of Mahoning County when it was formed in 1846).



By the beginning of my second week in Salt Lake City, I had pretty much gotten through my original, rather short, “to do” list except for one item that I knew would consume a huge amount of time. It simply said “Land Records – Columbiana County.” I've had good luck before with land records naming heirs of an ancestor and was hoping for some more luck, especially in the Rupert and Switzer lines.



If you have never done any work with deed records, be forewarned that it can be tedious and confusing. But it can also be extremely rewarding. First you have to search for the desired name in the General Index to Deeds. There are generally separate books for those purchasing land (grantee) and those selling land (grantor). The index will provide the name of the grantor and grantee, the date the transaction was recorded (could be just the year, and the recorded date could be many years after the date of the transaction), the location of the land (in the case of Ohio it is by Range, Township, and Section), the type of deed, and the volume and page number of the deed book in which the transaction is recorded.



This nice tutorial Taking The Mystery Out of Land Records is helpful as a reminder or as an introduction to working with deeds as is this list of Terms used by the Register of Deeds. (There are many others “out there” on the internet, these are two that I've used in the past.)



There were four rolls of microfilm with the grantee index and five rolls with the grantor index covering the years 1798-1897. It would take nearly two full days, but I transcribed each entry in the index books for my known or presumed ancestors John D. Berlin, Henry Coy, Detrick Hoffman, John Hoffman, John Rupert, Jacob Switzer, and Conrad Yarian along with a few entries for others with the surname Rupert and Switzer..



The first day I made it through the grantee index, writing them out by hand. Then, that night back at the campground I typed each entry into a spreadsheet. Duh! Duplicate work. The next day I arranged the netbook so I could type directly into the spreadsheet. A little awkward, but it worked quite well.



After getting the entries from the grantor index entered I sorted the spreadsheet several different ways to review the data. One was attempting to match up the sale of a piece of land to its corresponding purchase, another sort was by township, and yet another by surname.



All of that was done so that I could determine which deeds should actually be looked at. There were too many of them to review them all. Top priority was given to those that were sold by “so and so, etal” (etal means “and others” which could indicate a sale by heirs of the owner of the land) and to those that were sold with a “Quit Claim” deed (sometimes indicating a sale to another family member). I then went to the Library Catalog to get the film numbers and added that information to the spreadsheet.





A small portion of my list of deeds.

I actually looked at about 1/3 of the entries on my list. I had highlighted the records that I really wanted to look at and had sorted the list by film number so I could see what else was on the same roll of microfilm. Even then, I didn't always look at everything from my list on the same roll of film – sometimes I got distracted by what I found in certain deeds and went off on another tangent looking for something else! That's the beauty of being at The Library where a wide variety of sources are available.



As I looked at the deed records I abstracted information from those that were “of interest” to me, adding that information to the spreadsheet. Some documents were scanned while others were just abstracted. There simply wasn't enough time (or even a need) to scan them all.





The spreadsheet with data added after reviewing the deed.

Was it worth the time it took to make that extensive list of land transactions? Yes, indeed! (Pun intended.) It was definitely worth it. What I found in those deed books was cause for more than one Happy Dance and in future posts, I'll summarize a few of the things I found and the discoveries which followed.

Big Bend Day 2 - Hike 2 - Santa Elena Canyon

Santa Elena Canyon Trail - 1.7 miles

This trail is often impassable due to flooding during the summer rainy season. No problem today - there's been no rain since November. It is one of the prettiest short hikes in the park.Can you see the trail ahead?The trail climbs some concrete steps.

Then slopes down gradually down to the river's edge inside the CanyonIt continues farther into theCanyon winding among larger boulders. Looks like shade ahead! Glad we kept going - what a great spotTimefor a nap! After all we will have hiked a total of 8.5 miles today!It ends abruptly where the Canyonwall meets the river. This is one of the narrowest places in the 7 mile long Canyon. Wish we had a Kayak!Oops - the shoreline looks a little mucky! She was trying to save her shoes but lost them in the end.

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n



More Later,

Melissa and Gary

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse

Wednesday, September 19th - - The weather forecast for today was rain and gusty winds. In anticipation, I had gotten the laptop charged up yesterday and had plenty of 'work' to keep me occupied until the storm was over. It began sometime in the early morning hours. Alternating between a drizzle and a downpour. The wind whipped through the campsite and I wondered if I should have taken the tent down last night. But it held up throughout the day. The rain eased up in early afternoon and had stopped by 2 p.m. but it was still very cloudy.



I ventured out and visited the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse on the eastern-most point in the United States. It is reportedly one of the most photographed lighthouses, explained perhaps by the fact that it is easily accessible, unlike many that are located on offshore islands.

The Winter Carnival has Arrived!

Jasia has posted the 64th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, the topic this time around was Winter Photo Essay. Thirty contributors featured a variety of "winter" photographs. A chilly trip back in time to be sure, but heartwarming nevertheless.

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: "The Happy Dance. The Joy of Genealogy. Almost everyone has experienced it. Tell us about the first time, or the last time, or the best time. What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy? If you haven't ever done the Happy Dance, tell us what you think it would take for you to do so."

This next edition will be hosted by yours truly, right here at kinexxions. The deadline for submissions is February 1st. Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy using the carnival submission form. Please use a descriptive phrase in the title of any articles you plan to submit and/or write a brief description/introduction to your articles in the "comment" box of the blogcarnival submission form. This will give readers an idea of what you've written about and hopefully interest them in clicking on your link.

So that we genea-bloggers can plan ahead (yeah, right!) Jasia has provided a list of topics for future carnivals (in the lower left column at Creative Gene). Several dates are still available for hosting. If you're interested, contact Jasia.

The COG posters are a creation of footnoteMaven.

Wordless Wednesday - Parade of Lights

Shriner's Parade of Lights. Three Rivers Festival, Fort Wayne, Indiana.July 1985. Digitized ...Copyright © 1985/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Low Trail Madness

While I've wished for this to happen, I doubted that it actually would: Low trail, 650B bicycles entering into standard production. But the day has arrived, and it arrived with an email from Soma Fabrications. An e-buddy of mine over there informs me that they will soon release a "Grand Randonneur" model, co-designed with Boulder Bicycles/Rene Herse."Is this public knowledge?" I asked, wiping the spray of coffee off my keyboard. Not really, was the reply, but I was welcome to make it such. "Just note that it’s still unofficial, and some of the details may change before production." Noted. Oh, and do I want to test-ride the prototype once it's ready? As if they had to ask.




The Soma announcement came on the heels of Rawland's release of the Stag: a model similar to the Nordavinden, only with slightly different specs. The pre-order pricetag is $625 including a free set of Pacenti PL23 rims. I imagine Soma will try to get its pricepoint in the same range. Adding the $500 Velo Orange Polyvalentto the mix, that gives us 3 manufacturers offering standard production low trail 650B framesets, made in Taiwan, for well under $1,000.




For those who prefer a US-made bike, there are several pre-fab models available in the $1,500 range, including the Box Dog Pelican, the Boulder Randonneur, and most recently the Rambler from Ocean Air Cycles.If you've ever wanted to try a bike like this without the wait, uncertainty and pricetag of going full custom, there are options.






But speaking of custom, more and more framebuilders are testing the waters with low trail 650B designs and some of the names may surprise you. As I write this, I am eying a fresh-off-the-boat prototype frameset from Mercian Cycles in England that was built to my spec. (For the record, they are skeptical of the low trail design, so if the bike doesn't ride well I take full responsibility.) Equally surprising is that Seven Cyclesare willing to give it a go, in titanium of course. Jokingly I asked them about it a little while ago, and the reply was "Let's talk."




So what's so special about low trail? In a sense, nothing, and that's sort of the point. Some of us simply believe it to be a "normal" geometry just like any other that happens to be useful in some contexts and beneficial for some riders. This does not mean that it's special or better, but only that we feel it ought to exist as a viable option. Personally, I've come to appreciate the feel of low trail on city bikes, as well as on fat tire bikes ridden on dirt; the combination of how responsive and at the same time intuitive these bikes feel intrigues me. But of course not everyone agrees. The husband tolerates low trail on his Brompton, because he finds the bike handy, but dislikes it on roadbikes. And framebuilder Mike Flanigan - tempted to try the Rawland after I raved about its handling - just smiled and shook his head after his ride: "Nope, still don't like low trail" - though he's made a few for customers, and continues to do so.




Is low trail design a fad that will seem silly in hindsight, or an enduring trend that is here to stay? We'll just have to wait and see.

Pueblo Montano Trailhead

There is a small park at the Pueblo Montano Trailhead that I went to this past week. I had been meaning to go for about a year or so and no one wanted to go with me so I went by myself. I found that a firefighter had made these wonderful chainsaw sculptures out the dead cottonwood tree trunks that were left from a fire that went throught this area in ... I had to take lots of photos of the sculptures and now I want to share them. I hope everyone appreciates this artwork as I do. My thanks to the artest for for doing the scuptures.

Armchair birding

Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), eating berries from an Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana).



As seen from our living room sofa.



Please excuse the dirty window glass. I don't wash the windows, so that the birds won't fly into them. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I didn't actually know that Sapsuckers ate berries, until I saw this one doing it.

They're Gone!

This morning when we got to The Family History Library all of the pretty flowers had been removed. My guess is they will be planting something soon, but it was such a shock to see nothing but brown dirt in the flower beds. They were so colorful...