A Maple tree in full color next to a white bridge over the canal.
A row of trees reflected on the waters of the canal. I thought LadyStyx might want to try this one as a puzzle!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
The Delaware and Raritan Canal
The Delaware and Raritan Canal runs between Bull Island to New Brunswick, New Jersey by way of the state capital of Trenton. These two autumn pictures were taken today while I took a short walk around Titusville, the town opposite of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania - the site where George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve, 1776. Remember you can click on the image to enlarge them.
A Maple tree in full color next to a white bridge over the canal.
A row of trees reflected on the waters of the canal. I thought LadyStyx might want to try this one as a puzzle!
A Maple tree in full color next to a white bridge over the canal.
A row of trees reflected on the waters of the canal. I thought LadyStyx might want to try this one as a puzzle!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Taking Your Milk Seriously
A couple days ago I was being "Miss Daisy"-ed and noticed the car in front of us had an interesting 'vanity' license plate - I apologize for the sun glare, it was the best I could do in the moment I had to take the picture:
As lousy as the picture is, it brought back all sorts of memories for me -
This minivan is owned by Mrs. Rothenberger (I would guess the fourth generation one by now). The Rothenbergers are a family that owns the MerryMead Farm which is one of Pennsylvania's century farms having been in the same family for over 100 years.
About 50 years ago my parents built a house on the edge of this farm and knew the Rothenbergers pretty well - I remember as a little boy the scent of freshly spread cow manure wafting across the backyard while my brothers and I played in the sandbox and going with Mom to get more milk in a 5 gallon box (yes, a box) that my brothers and I took care of every a couple days or so.
There are now three housing developments, a couple office buildings, and townhouse complex between my parent's old home and the farm now. Fortunately, most of this farm remains and this time of year it's quite busy, with a 5 acre Corn Maze, Scenic Hayrides, Face Painting, Pumpkin Painting, the Great Pumpkin (for which they have a lighting ceromony), a petting area with sheep, pigs, chickens, and other animals; and of course, the cows making milk and ice cream (along with more stuff for the fields).
Amid all the traffic - you can go and watch the cows being milked and try your hand at it.
The automatic cow milker looks like a huge stainless steel merry-go-round, and the cows step into the turning stall and have the milking cups applied, a bit of a turn and some hay munching later, they get led off the machine. It is really neat to see.
MerryMead Farms
I guess Alice Kay and I have some background that we share - while growing up there was always a cow or two out one of the windows.
As lousy as the picture is, it brought back all sorts of memories for me -
This minivan is owned by Mrs. Rothenberger (I would guess the fourth generation one by now). The Rothenbergers are a family that owns the MerryMead Farm which is one of Pennsylvania's century farms having been in the same family for over 100 years.
About 50 years ago my parents built a house on the edge of this farm and knew the Rothenbergers pretty well - I remember as a little boy the scent of freshly spread cow manure wafting across the backyard while my brothers and I played in the sandbox and going with Mom to get more milk in a 5 gallon box (yes, a box) that my brothers and I took care of every a couple days or so.
There are now three housing developments, a couple office buildings, and townhouse complex between my parent's old home and the farm now. Fortunately, most of this farm remains and this time of year it's quite busy, with a 5 acre Corn Maze, Scenic Hayrides, Face Painting, Pumpkin Painting, the Great Pumpkin (for which they have a lighting ceromony), a petting area with sheep, pigs, chickens, and other animals; and of course, the cows making milk and ice cream (along with more stuff for the fields).
Amid all the traffic - you can go and watch the cows being milked and try your hand at it.
The automatic cow milker looks like a huge stainless steel merry-go-round, and the cows step into the turning stall and have the milking cups applied, a bit of a turn and some hay munching later, they get led off the machine. It is really neat to see.
MerryMead Farms
I guess Alice Kay and I have some background that we share - while growing up there was always a cow or two out one of the windows.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Lefty Lucy - Life's Embarassing Moments
A while ago I wrote about some engineering words of wisdom in an entry called "Bumblebee - Christmas Tree". Both ChicagoLady and Alice Kay pointed out in their comments that the words Righty-Tighty had a follow on, namely, Lefty-Loosie.
Embarrassed by my inability to recall this sterling gem from college, I decided to thumb through my class notebooks and nearly killed myself inhaling all the accumulated dust. After some digging, I found the precious notebook in my library.
Here is the page scanned in for your viewing pleasure.
As you can see, I must of misheard Professor Brophy that day - this class being required of all the freshmen (fresh-persons?) so it was probably held in the wee morning hours of September 21, 1978, most likely the ungodly hour of 9:00 AM.
When I was reviewing my notes, cramming for the final exam, I circled "Lefty Lucy" and made a note to find out "who is Lucy?" Time was short and I guess I never did find out. So for all the years since then, I've wondered just who this Lefty Lucy was... was she sexy? was she famous? did she act in movies? did she look like this:
...but once I read ChicagoLady's comment on lefty-loosie, the lightbulb finally went on in the mush that I call my mind. Doh!!
I notice too, that I had forgotten the "Martha visits every Monday and just stays until noon" wisdom. This tells me that my notebook page is a fake. Do you know why? :)
Embarrassed by my inability to recall this sterling gem from college, I decided to thumb through my class notebooks and nearly killed myself inhaling all the accumulated dust. After some digging, I found the precious notebook in my library.
Here is the page scanned in for your viewing pleasure.
As you can see, I must of misheard Professor Brophy that day - this class being required of all the freshmen (fresh-persons?) so it was probably held in the wee morning hours of September 21, 1978, most likely the ungodly hour of 9:00 AM.
When I was reviewing my notes, cramming for the final exam, I circled "Lefty Lucy" and made a note to find out "who is Lucy?" Time was short and I guess I never did find out. So for all the years since then, I've wondered just who this Lefty Lucy was... was she sexy? was she famous? did she act in movies? did she look like this:
...but once I read ChicagoLady's comment on lefty-loosie, the lightbulb finally went on in the mush that I call my mind. Doh!!
I notice too, that I had forgotten the "Martha visits every Monday and just stays until noon" wisdom. This tells me that my notebook page is a fake. Do you know why? :)
Busy Weekend
The picture shows my Dad in the Skimmer leaving me behind at the dock. I wanted to ride along badly, but for the sake of not banging my shoulder around, I watched from the dock. The boat is all set to come out of the water - the turbo-chargers are to be removed, serviced and reinstalled for next spring, the oil and filters changed, and the bottom power washed.
I was taking a picture of the new ramp that goes down to the boat dock - when the little boy went by running with bread in a plastic bag, yelling, "I'm gonna feed da DUCKS!!!" His pink life vest is kind of cute and is a "hand-me-down". He and two of his three sisters were all wearing jackets. The exception was the oldest sister, who is about 9 years old, and who was charged with being the lifeguard. She can really swim - I've seen her in the pool swimming non-stop for over 5 hours. The marina is home to two pairs of mature ducks; a white domestic goose named Henrietta; and an odd couple named Oscar, who is a large white duck, and his/her mate Felix, who is a small male mallard. Both sets of 'normal' ducks had a large hatching, 12 and 9, respectively. So the little boy had over twenty ducks to feed.
I have some sad news - Silkie the boat riding chicken passed away last week - she was attacked by a male peacock defending his brood and killed. The owner was quite devastated and was cheered only when I offered her a loaf of stale bread from the houseboat's refrigerator to feed the ducks. Soon, the incessant quacking was driving everyone crazy.
I got home feeling a little blue since taking the boats out of the water means the summer is officially over for me - and I just looked back at the year gone by and wasn't too impressed with either it, or myself. So I decided to take a little walk to clear my head - a short ways into the walk, I heard these big BOOMING barks that only a large eighty-ninety plus pound dog can make and looked around to see where they were - my hand reaching for the peanut buttered cracker I always carry to give to an "attacking" dog in "self-defense". Being hearing impaired, it is often difficult for me to pinpoint the source of sounds - and in this case the booming barks where even echoing off of a nearby hill. I looked in all the usual places, front doors, side yards, and in the fields beyond the houses but couldn't find the dog(s). And then I raised my head a little and saw them! The white dog nearly fell out the window in his/her enthusiasm to guard the homestead from the intruder on the sidewalk out front. Judging by their posture, they were standing on the floor with their heads hanging over the window sill. Silly doggies! :)
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