More Pictures from the Road

Here's some more pictures from today. I left York around 8:30 a.m., then drove to the outskirts of Philadelphia to a laboratory in a suburb named King of Prussia. Then back the way I came, all the way past York again, but on a different highway than the first time. Now I'm in Waynesboro, VA.

This picture is from downtown Hershey, I think. I can't remember exactly where it was, but I think it was Hershey.


Notice the lamp posts in this one - they look like giant Hershey Kisses.


If you are ever traveling and need your hotel to be your office space, Residence Inn is an awesome hotel - or at least the one in Waynesboro, VA is. My room is complete with full-sized refrigerator and kitchen. It is large enough to be an apartment for one or two people. Too bad I will only be here overnight, but I can get my laundry done and catch up on my writing and plot my course for tomorrow while I'm here. This has been, by far, the nicest hotel I've visited since starting the consulting work.

I'll try to check in and post more pictures tomorrow night.

Traveling Lab Tech

Darn, this one didn't come out too good. It's hard to take good photos while driving! No one seems to think the speed limit signs mean anything here, by the way. I was trying to take a picture of the farm and the church steeple.

Those big things over there are windmills. Only a few were turning, and not very fast. It must take a good breeze to turn those giant blades. Sorry, it too was taken while driving down the road. Maybe I'll find some better scenes tomorrow and hopefully they will happen in places where I can actually pull over and take time to get good shots.

Since yesterday afternoon I've been in York, PA. All of the downtown streets in most of the cities/towns or boroughs/townships look similar to this. The houses and shops are right on the street and you have to be so careful driving through to make sure you don't hit someone crossing the street or opening car doors. I've managed to get lost a few times, but I always seem to end up where I'm trying to go in the end. And I always get to see interesting sites along the way. There was no where to park and just get out to take pictures, though, so all of them have been taken from inside the truck while stopped at red lights.

Tomorrow it's onward to King of Prussia to drop off the first set of samples at the lab over there. What a name for a town! After that I'll be heading for WV, but I'll stop over in Waynesboro, VA to sleep. Beckley and MacArthur are the WV stops and then onward to Kingsport, TN where I'll stay overnight again before heading out for Knoxville.

Traveling Lab Tech

In a few minutes I should have some pictures to upload. And I'll add more to this post...

Tenacity, Perserverence, and Persistence. These are my three favorite words. Recently I noticed a dandelion growing in the concrete; she embodied the word 'Tenacity' perfectly. It was how she maintained her precious hold on the tiny speck of dirt that sustained her form. Perserverence and Persistence are related and very similar to Tenacity; the meanings are difficult to separate from each other and there is overlap between them. I would say that Tenacity is the overall circle with Perserverance and Persistence being smaller overlapping circles inside. You know the circles I'm talking about, right? The ones we learned about in grade school to define sets and subsets? Some things might be inside one circle, but not the other and all of the items in each circle are within the larger circle? Well I know I haven't defined any of the words, but just wanted to spark your mind to see if you think of these words like I do. There is much going on in my life right now and I've learned that some people have tenacity and some don't - much like tender plants and hardy ones. I am a dandelion.

Garden Fun

Garrison and I started on the garden last weekend. I uncovered the row that had been covered for the most part with cardboard and newspaper, and it was by far the best soil in the area. It looks awful messy, but sure seems to draw the earthworms from far and wide. I will continue to use newspaper and cardboard in spite of how it looks. You can see my row in the picture below - it's the messy one, haha. It was nice to get my hands in the dirt again after such a long and cold winter. I'm so ready for spring! The bluebirds are out looking for nesting sites, so I need to get our box hung very quickly now. Bluebirds are great garden companions; they eat many of the bugs that like to eat our garden.

Garrison planted strawberries and green onions and I planted yellow onions and lettuce, and asparagus. He tilled up all the rows on the right. Later, we'll plant potatoes in some of those. In the dark row to the front, we transplanted asparagus that was located way in the back, where they weren't getting enough light. That's where the strawberries were too. I moved the raspberries, which were getting too much sun, to the spot where the strawberries were.

Gary and Lee got the septic tanks installed. We have black water going into the one on the right and the effluent from that will lead to the graywater tank on the left. We'll have to make adjustments to our system based on lab results later when they get full enough to have an effluent. Eventually I'd like some ferrocement ponds below the effluent pipe where the water will cascade from one to the next, with plants efficient at nitrate and phosphate uptake, like cattails and other water plants.

Garrison was the lucky one who got to get inside to hold the pipes in place while they leveled and glued or attached (I'm not sure what exactly they were doing to them, but I know they were after a certain angle from one end to the other) from the outside.

Here's a picture from Garrison to demonstrate to all the young boys out there that you should NOT take a screw driver to a full spray-paint can. We're still trying to get the paint out of his hair.

Ginseng Workshop

March 14 2009
Choosing the site

Even though the season is almost past for planting seeds, now is a good time of year to get a good look at potential ginseng planting sites on your property to get ready for next year. Or you can transplant seedlings from now to the end of spring. Join me next weekend for a walk-about and site inspection of my ginseng plots. We may even find some very early spring plants out - at least there will be rattlesnake fern and putty root orchids around, and possibly we'll see the bloodroot buds and ginseng furls.

$25/ea, about 4 or 5 hours, Saturday Mar 14. Please RSVP by email.

Please note: This hike is rated 'challenging' or 'difficult'.

The next herb walk is scheduled for April 4.



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contact:
roxann @ ancientearthwisdom.com

Pics from recent ice storm

I finally got the pictures from my cell phone put on the computer. There were only 2 that were clear enough to post. The first is on the county road going up past Doug and Don's toward Bernie Mountain Rd. In the picture it looks like little more than a logging road. It is normally a fairly decent road, wide enough for the school bus, at least. The second is looking out toward the east from our porch. The camera didn't capture the splendor of the light coming through the ice; that was something incredibly beautiful to see.

It Hailed Today

Gary went to get Garrison from school and they looked off up the river valley and wondered if someone was burning off woods on ground in distance or if it was raining. We went a little further and it started sleeting and hailing.

Whew! I'm glad they weren't in my car.

Louisiana Visit

Almost since the power was restored, I've been on a business trip down to Louisiana. It's incredible how much difference in climate there is between here and there. Temps were in the upper 60's there and barely above freezing here. But overcast and rainy at both spots.

It was nice to visit friends and family for a little while, but time was much too short for more than drop-in-and-say-hello kinds of visits. I put a few more personal miles than I intended on the company truck, so I hope I don't have to pay them back or otherwise be punished for them. And the trip has lasted a few days longer than I originally planned. I thought I'd be home by Saturday night, and here it is Monday night and I'm back in Shreveport. Traveling for work is fun, but it's getting kind of stressful knowing that my work back at the lab is just piling up because no one else is trained to do it yet. Not only that, I am scheduled to be off this Friday and I hope they didn't forget that, because I cannot reschedule that day off. Someone is coming down for an herb-walk/ginseng-workshop and it's been planned for a while now.

I tried to take some pictures today while on the road, but unless I am very very good, it's unlikely that any of them will be good. It's hard to photograph things out the window of the truck while going 70mph down the interstate, haha. We'll see. When I download them if anything is even remotely recognizeable (not sure about that spelling, but spell-check didn't underline it), I'll post it.

Lights On

The power was restored Tuesday night. I have to admit that it is nice to have lights at the flip of a switch, and it is good to have the internet back. Oh, and it's also nice to wash clothes at home rather than the laundromat.

However. I think I could survive just fine if it never came back on and that gives me a sense of security of sorts.

The sheetrock crew should be here tomorrow to start on the job and the septic tanks should be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait to get moved in.

Quick Update

We still have no power at home. Yesterday (Friday) was the first time we were able to go to town and restock provisions like lamp oil, milk and bread. After getting a few supplies, Gary and the Garrison rode back home from Kingston with our neighbor and I went on to work. The little car might be able to make it up Snotgrass hill (maybe it's 'snodgrass', but it sounds like they call it 'snotgrass', lol), but yesterday it would not have. So I stayed overnight at work and caught up on all that I've gotten behind on and am still doing that today. Maybe tonight I'll try to get home, but I can stay another night if needed.

Woodstove cooking has been the highlight of my week without power. I learned how to cook full breakfast (eggs, sausage and biscuits) on the stovetop. Also made cornbread, chicken pot-pie, and a delicious deer soup. So we definitely have not been going hungry, haha. Extra lamp oil would have been nice so we could have had more light. Otherwise, we've been good out there hunkered down in the ice.

Zack got out this morning to go to work. He called while on the road to say that Highway 21 north of Kingston appears to have no standing trees left. The path cleared through was only wide enough for one car and all the trees have been pushed off to the sides. Many are still without power and it might be a week or more before we get it back because there are so many downed power lines and trees. I imagine a lot of fencing repairs will be in order for all the farmers out this way, as well. In my immediate community, there has been no injuries or losses that I know about.

So, until we get power back at home, this might be the last post for a little longer. When power comes back, I'll also have a couple pictures to upload from my phone camera. Charged camera batteries is another good thing to have ready for long power outages and I wish I'd have remembered to bring my charger and camera with me to work.

Good luck and stay warm to all you others out there without power and stuck at home.

Ice Storm

We are in the midst of a serious ice storm. Full grown trees are snapping and falling outside. This morning I actually witnessed one falling; usually I hear them and can't tell where they are, but this one was across the creek on the mountainside opposite and I had a clear view. It was so loud, the dogs were barking and the horses were alarmed. I hope none of the big trees on our side fall. Lots of limbs have been snapping under the weight. I moved the horses over to the paddock because our power feed line passes right over the stall and the tree over it is drooping precariously. I'm afraid if the limb breaks it will snap off the feed line to the house and electrocute them in the stall. Or me when I try to help them. Tonight the temps are going to be low enough to freeze all the slush and water solid and we won't be able to get out again tomorrow. Right now temps are just above freezing so the rain is puddling over all the ice already on the ground but it doesn't seem to be melting it off the trees and powerlines, only causing longer icicles to grow everywhere. Power went out shortly after I got up this morning, but now it's back on so I'm trying to get all my email checked and my news read before it goes out again.

This was not a good week for me to have to miss days at work. We've got a huge new project that will take me down to Louisiana next week and I needed this week to prepare. Hopefully I can get out if not tomorrow, then by Thursday or Friday. I'll have to spend all weekend at the lab catching up again before I can leave for the trip.

Blizzard!

Last night on my way home from work, a few snow flurries wiggled down from the dark skies. No snow or precip of any sort was in the forecast, so I didn't think much about it. This morning it looked like a blizzard on our way to school and work - beautiful powdery snow, and large flakes! We left Snippy in the stall with hay and water and Comanche is on the outside because they fight too much if left together in close quarters for too long. Comanche handles the cold better anyway. The kids were disappointed that school was not called off, but excited at the pretty snow. We haven't had a good snow yet this year.

Here are some more pictures from today's walk, which this time was with Garrison. This is a strange rock that he found down the road at his friend's house: This is another strange rock that Zack found outside at our house. It's rounded and looks a lot like a turtle sans legs and head.

The picture really doesn't show this one well, but it looks like fossilized coral or sponge. The entire rock is full of holes on all sides.

And this one has an imprint that resembles a brain. It is probably a shell or something, but we like to imagine it is a brain fossil, lol.

Here's Garrison, eating an apple on our hike with Bobbie Sue beside him. Bobbie Sue is the dog we got from the pound as a puppy to be Badger's companion. She has turned out to be a great dog, after a rocky start. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stop her from chasing the chickens, but she learned and is now a very good guardian to them. I never could understand why she always got in front of the things she tried to herd, as she has a very strong herding instinct. Then I learned that herd dogs come in two types: headers and heelers - she must be a header. She escorts all the cars up and down the driveway, and harrasses the horses from the front of them constantly, trying to make them chase her.

Here is our collection of arrowheads and flint pieces that we've found around the place:

And this fossil looks like either fish scales or the bark of a tropical palm-type tree.

The cave entrance. It's very difficult to access:

So those are the photos from today's walkabout. Hope you enjoy them!

Today's Fun

The first thing we did today was work on the fence. It was steep and hard to do, so we only got a short distance finished, but what we did looks good. For now, the horses will have to stay in the paddock because it's not ready for them yet. Here's a pic of Gabrielle in rare form. She helped me do the hard part today. I bought a fence stretcher, and I can't believe it took me so long to find out about this handy tool.After we wore ourselves out on fencing, we took the horses out for some exercise. They enjoyed themselves and ran from one end of the field to the other, back and forth. Gab is riding Snippy and that's Comanche beside him. This summer, I'll teach Comanche to ride me around. He'll be three in May. He lets me sit on him, but he doesn't know what to do. He likes wearing his saddle and bridle.

Comanche kicking up his heels:
Well, the horses ran off to the other end and didn't come back, so we went off in search of them. They have to go back in the paddock before tonight. We made it over to the cedar grove. The cedar grove seems to be a bone yard, where cows and deer go to die. Zack found a nice 8-point deer skull and skeleton. There are lots of cow skeletons lying around out there among the moss. There are also a few portions of rock walls lost in that area. You can't get to them hardly in summer because the rose and briar brambles are so thick. Here's Gab and Badger. The dogs always go with us on our hikes. I forgot to get a picture of it, but there's lots of bear poop lying around, too, full of persimmon seeds.

Some plants were out to see, and today I saw a sort of grape fern that I've never seen before. It's frilly, very pretty. I think it's red because the frost touched it. But it might just be that color. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'll be looking it up. If you recognize it, send me an email or comment so I'll have a clue.

I didn't know what this pretty little plant was, but Bev let me know that it is a Downy Rattlensake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens), and that it is an orchid, not really a plantain at all. Later in the season I'll go check on it to see if it has flowers and how big it has grown.

Another partial wall:

Another red grape fern, this one more like the others I've seen, with less frill:

And we found a little waterfall, just right for fairies:

Badger on another rock wall, with a cow skull on it:

We made our way down to the gate and there the horses were, wishing someone had left it open.


Here's a bear claw rock:

Fire-starter

Woke up this morning to a cold house. No one got up during the night or early morning to add another log to the fire and it burned out. I'm out of fire-starter, but luckily I washed and dried enough clothes yesterday to gather enough lint to get a fire going. Dryer lint and kindling make excellent fire-starter, and it's a free. Well, if you consider it a by-product from the electricity you bought to dry clothes, it's free. Every year I plan to make fire-starter bundles to put aside and every year I forget until the day I'm out of fire and need to start one without commercial assistance.

Happy Holidays

This entry is going to serve as my Christmas letter. I am writing it too late to send out with a card, so I hope my friends and family check the blog. I promise to try and do better next year and send out cards!

It's been pretty chilly lately here in Madison county. This morning almost felt warm at 23*F, compared to the 3* I woke up to yesterday morning. Our water froze night before last and still has not thawed, so we are without water. Ordinarily, during weather like this, I keep the horses penned close to the house because I don't want to have to go far in search of them if they don't show up at the house for supper or breakfast feeds. But with no water, I had to turn them out. So far, they're being good boys and have been coming up at the expected times.

This Christmas is threatening to be a silent one for me. My voice is fading fast today and by tonight I may not be able to squeak out a word at all.

The house building is going slow these days. Right now Gary and Lee, our plumber neighbor from up the road, is working on the plumbing. Once that is done, we'll have the insulation blown in and the sheet rock hung. After that I'm ready to move in and finish it while I'm in there.

Gabrielle is 16 and driving now. Folks on the road should be forewarned, haha. She's still planning to go to LSU and become an equine vet.

Garrison still loves to skateboard and tried his hand at snow boarding, or rather, ice boarding, while his ramps were all frozen over in a glaze of ice recently. I didn't get the impression he liked that very much.

Zack has gotten out of OTR trucking. He had an accident in Tucson in September and although no one was seriously hurt, it made him think he'd rather not be on the road so much anymore. He is working for Tyson in Berryville. He likes being able to come home every afternoon now.

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season and stays warm and safe. Merry Christmas!

First Snow

When I looked outside this morning, a blizzard was in full effect. Okay, well, it was a mini-Ozark style blizzard, but a pretty snowy morning all the same. The horses were waiting to eat breakfast, and when I went out to feed them, I noticed all the individual flakes on Comanche's black spot. So tiny and perfect. He didn't care about the artistic flakes he sported, he just wanted his food, though.

Snow, sleet and weed seeds on Comanche's black fur: All the pretty little snowflakes are melted already, so I couldn't get a good picture of them.

This picture is of the stacked rocks that make up the foundation for our old house. You can also see one of the hand-hewn beams under the house. The rest of the house is so degraded beyond being feasible to restore, so we're building a new house. But I'd like to use some of the beams and things that can be salvaged later on a barn or shop.

Zack's Kill

I have more pictures, but blogger isn't cooperating right now. I'll upload the others later. Anyway, Zack got this nice buck this morning.

Pine Beetles - Beneficial??

Today I learned an interesting little tidbit about pine beetles that makes them less of a bad guy. Apparently scientists are researching them to see if they hold promise for new antibiotics that could benefit people one day. There are only two other insects so far discovered to have such potential, leaf-cutting ants and a type of wasp from Europe. Click on the title link to go to the website for Science Today and read more about this.