R.I.P. Stewpot

How many times did I ask the coyotes why they didn't take a rooster instead of a hen?



They finally did. Stewpot failed to return home at the end of the day.

Despite all his meanness, I'm going to miss him. He was one of our first chickens, and he sure was handsome.


With his girls.


Dust bathing.

How he was named, and his antics.

Honoring All Who Served

Armistice Day. 1918. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The end of "The Great War" thought then to be the "war to end all wars" but sadly, it was not to be. In 1954, President Eisenhower signed a bill that changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. It is a day meant for honoring all American Veterans; the living as well as the dead; those who served in wartime and those who served during peaceful times.





The above poster is in the Public Domain and is from the website of The Department of Veterans Affairs aka Veterans Administration.



On May 28, .. I posted a list of The Veterans in my Family, which primarily consisted of members of my immediate family as well as ancestors and a few of their siblings who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States from Vietnam to the Revolutionary War.



I am honored and grateful to have had so many relatives and ancestors fight for our Freedom during War or serve to protect that Freedom during the all too short times of peace. I may not always agree with the policies of our government but I will always support our soldiers and our veterans!



A few years ago, I gathered information and photographs of the 21 soldiers from Whitley County, Indiana who were killed, or died as a result of injuries, during World War I. Those stories were then published on my (now neglected) Whitley County Kinexxions blog.



If you scroll down to the bottom of the list of labels on that blog you will see several “WWI” labels that will lead you to newspaper articles that were published in the Columbia City Post 1917-1919 regarding The War and The Soldiers.

Hats Off!

Because quite a few of you have ordered hats from me as part of barter deals via the Trading Post, I wanted to announce that: (1) I am now done with all the ones I promised thus far and they are going out in the mail on Monday, and (2) My waiting list has cleared and I am ready for more trades. Thank you for your interest in these, and I am happy to make them. I have problems with the nerves in my hands and knitting is a good form of physical therapy for that - so it's great to be "forced" to do it. While I am not looking to start selling hats, I am more than happy to trade them for bicycle components and whatever other stuff might appear on my Trading Post "want" list. Since I've received a lot of questions about the hats, I thought I'd provide some details here, and link to this post whenever someone has a question. Please feel free to skip if this is not of interest.





Materials and Patterns: I use a soft 100% Peruvian wool. I have a very good source for the wool now and can get pretty much any colour you want. I don't use patterns, but make up my own designs.





Styles: I can make three basic type of hats in many variations: a ski-hat ("beanie"), a rounded Scandinavian style hat, and a slouchy beret. I don't make hats with ear flaps or visors.





Texture: Most of my hats have some textural variation to them. This adds structure to the hat, as well as visual interest - especially when the hat is all one colour. If you prefer them to be smooth, that is fine as well.





Extra warmth? By default, the hats are warm and wind-proof. But if you want one that is extra warm, I can do that by using stitching that makes the hat thicker.



Summer hats? I can also make a summer weight beret using a delicate cashmere blend.





Colour combinations: Hats can be made single tone, or in various colour combinations. I like stripes and organic forms. If you have something specific in mind, let me know!





Which hat for under a helmet? If you want a hat specifically to wear under a helmet, I recommend opting for a ski hat with no textural variation. The colour combination of course does not matter.





Trade value?No idea. So far I've traded for things like handlebars and vintage camera equipment, and multiple hats for a (new) wheelset. The more complicated the pattern, the more time consuming a hat is to make, but I have no concrete value system in place. I am not looking to start a hat business or to market these. It's just a fun way to trade and thanks again for the interest!

Cottonwood Trees Along Rio Grande River

The cottonwood trees that live along the river from about where Santa Fe, NM is to Truth or Consequences, NM (about 160 miles) are known as the largest cottonwood forest in the world. Most of the trees along the Rio Grande River are mature and aged trees. Most are 40 to 100 years old and the tallest are about 80 feet tall. The trees are not naturally reproducing as they used to due to non-native trees like salt cedar and Russian olive trees taking over. The non-native spices are being removed from this area. Plus the river is damned at a few places and drained off into irrigation ditches for farmland (including the hay I buy for my horses) which means there isn't the flooding along the banks of the river anymore to help seedlings and young trees grow. Much is being done to help the cottonwoods reproduce and not die off.

Sunset

Lyveden Way from Wadenhoe

With Harry. Some sun, some cloud, but fine and warm. Some mud underfoot in the woods. Just over 7 miles including Lyveden New Bield itself.

Millenium sundial at Wadenhoe church.

From Wadenhoe church we followed the path over a couple of cattle grids to the road to Aldwincle, turned left along the road, then right on a path which took us to another small road.Here we turned left through a metal gate and walked along a wide grassy track, which used to be part of the road from Thrapston to Oundle.



A shaggy inkcap fungus on the grassy track.







Just over half a mile down the track, a footpath goes to the right, heading for the woods. When we were there we noticed masses of crab-apples on the ground.



The path through the edge of the woods is quite narrow and overgrown in places, and can be muddy. In the sunlight we had it was a lovely place to walk.After another half-mile or so the path became wider, and joined a track, which we followed to the right almost through the woods. The sign for the next turn-off is slightly hidden, but if you come out of the woods on the big track, you'll need to retrace your steps for a hundred yards or so. The small track cuts through to the right, and we emerged at the edge of a field. The marker posts are clear and the path now goes behind Lyveden New Bield, with its car park and on Wed- Sun from 10.30 - 5, you should be able to get a drink and snack, even without making an official visit.

Lyveden New Bield is an uncompleted building - it was intended as a hunting lodge, or more probably as a 'summer house', and built for Sir Thomas Tresham in the early 1600s. More info about the building and the Treshams.



The mound in the picture is a 'snail mound', created when the garden was made, as Elizabethan and Tudor gardens were designed to be looked at from above.















This is one of the 'canals' constructed as part of Tresham's pleasure garden.

The orchard has been replanted using many of the original old varieties of fruit - apples, pears, and plums.





From the New Bield the path goes across a field and directly through Lilford Wood. At the other end of the wood, we crossed a small grassy field, then a footbridge, walked uphill through another field, until we reached a metalled track. This took us for a couple of miles or so back to the small road we crossed much earlier in the walk. Here we turned right, then left soon afterwards, taking a footpath alongside a hedge full of blackberries.

The path is well signed and leads into `Wadenhoe village, coming out between two houses and on to the main street.









Walk route - thanks to 20 best local walks, by Nicholas Rudd-Jones.

Mount Rainier :: Perfect Timing!

Tuesday, September 14th - - It was mid-morning when I finally entered the southwestern side of Mount Rainier National Park. The morning had not been hopeful, awakening to cloudy skies once again. But luck was with me and as I drove toward the park the sun appeared and burned away the clouds. Quite a welcome change from my previous visit of a week ago, which was basically a drive-thru since I couldn't see anything at all due to the clouds, the fog, and the rain!

I forget the name of this creek but it was only a few miles into the park and it was the first view I had of Mt Rainier. Breathtaking.

This is a little further into the park. When the roads were constructed through the park the engineers took into account the “viewing pleasure” of the public and I must say they did an excellent job in selecting the sites for the viewpoints.

A couple of close-ups of the top of the mountain.

Probably the most visited area of the park is in the south-central part. It was about 12:30 in the afternoon when I arrived in Paradise and, as you can see, the clouds had moved in. I spent some time in the visitors center at Paradise - looked at the exhibits, viewed the park movie, then looked through the telescopes and saw three climbers halfway up the mountain.

The mountain played peek-a-boo with the clouds, but they eventually completely blocked out the view. I joined some of the other visitors on a short walk along one of the many trails in the area.

Mount Rainier and me!

Zebra Slot Canyon

Today we hiked Harris Wash to Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This was an amazing, albeit tiring, hike. Total hike distance was almost 9 miles over quite a variety of terrain. Quite a bit of the hike was in deep sand, something we are not used to and hiking through the sand was pretty exhausting. It sure was worth it, though!



Zebra slot canyon is short in length but amazingly beautiful. The walls of the canyon are lined with stripes, making one think of the stripes on a Zebra, hence the name. Unfortunately the most beautiful part of the canyon is very, very tight and I was too big to make it all the way in. That's okay, though, because the part of the canyon that I saw was plenty beautiful. Jessica was able to go in further than I was, and while she went ahead I stayed back and made this image.



If you look near the bottom right of the image you can see a thin stripe of sand. This is the floor of the canyon and is less than 1 foot wide. You had to wiggle through this with your feet sideways. One could always use the "chimney" technique and walk upwards along the wall using outstretched hands and feet, but I did not want to attempt this with my camera gear. So, I stayed in this spot and enjoyed the beautiful lines and colors laid out before me :-)

Skyscrapers of the Kansas Plains

Tuesday, May 10th - - Driving in west-central Kansas, you can't help but notice these tall buildings punctuating the sky. Nearly every community has one, or several. Sometimes they are seemingly in the middle of nowhere, with no town or community nearby; simply in some farmer's field. And, they are almost always near the railroad tracks.



These photos were taken as I was driving (yes, actually driving) west on the K-96, as it was called by the local inhabitants, aka Kansas State Highway 96. The overall bluish cast of the photos and any “blemishes” are caused by shooting the pictures through the windshield. I'm not gonna say how many shots I took that were fuzzy and totally out of focus! But it sure was fun to do...



















Another view of the same grain silo as in the previous photo.