Friday, February 28, 2014

Friday Night Steam

Steam bus!


These videos were taken in the town of Whitby - the place my mother's people came from.




Supposedly I am related to Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian novelist. My Mother's maiden name was Gaskell and her father's people came from Whitby. And my middle name is Elizabeth.
How about that!




Today's funny :0)


Swing and a Miss



Swing and a Miss




Are we colder than Alaska??

Let the boids out about 20 minutes ago.......




Brrrrrr......

Thursday

This was the temp when I let the chickens out yesterday. Yup, it was cold!





This is what it looked like when I put them in for the night. Yup, it was snowing!




Looks like another cold, snowy, wet couple of days......sigh




Thursday, February 27, 2014

Middle East Memorial Wall



 The heart of the American people, represented by a cellular company-- who would have ever thought it would be like this and not our own government making this kind of thing happen across the country? Wow!
  
Middle East Memorial Wall-- I had no idea this was in existence.  How many of you have ever seen or heard anything about this beautiful Memorial?
God Bless America!!!  We can do things like this without the Government getting involved. 







Today's funny :o)




College of Architecture and Planning




A quiet country morning.....

Nothing interesting today - just early morning sounds........ (but it sure beats living in the city)!





The trees are finally losing their harsh Winter look.
I know my crocus flowers are somewhere under all that snow just waiting to bloom......


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Mortgage free!

Saw this article while wandering the webz - not a bad idea!


Tiny Bicycle Houses

One of the more attractive allures of tiny house living is the freedom it brings from being mortgage-free and to go where you like. A great way to take your home with you is by putting it on wheels. To take things a step further, why not let those wheels be bicycle wheels?
A tiny house mounted on or pulled behind a bicycle is extremely efficient in that no fossil fuels are needed to move it along. Another added benefit is that towing it is a good workout and lets you enjoy the great outdoors.
But what about long uphills? The perfect addition to your bicycle/tiny house setup would be to make your bicycle have an electric motor kick in when needed. Any bicycle can be converted to a pedal/electric hybrid with a kit such as this one. Or you can purchased a bicycled that’s already electric from the manufacture such as this one (men’s) and this one (women’s).
To inspire you, I’ve prepared a nice list of bicycle/camper setups that I believe you’ll enjoy.



The Camper Bike by Kevin Cyr. You can learn more about it here.

The Little Tag Along. See a full writeup with more photos here.

A fellow named Paul designed this little camper pulled behind his bicycle for housing while hanging out at Burning Man. You can learn more about his little camper here.

Apparently pulling a camper behind your bicycle isn’t an entirely new concept.

“The Caravan” is a luxury bicycle camper with an array of available options like solar roof panels, satellite dish, gaming console, central heating and external luggage rack. Learn more about The Caravan here.

The “Fiets caravan” is designed to be very lightweight and two of them can be placed side by side to make a double bed.


The “Supertramp” is a pull behind bicycle caravan made mostly of fabric. I think it’s great that it even comes with a wood stove! Free heat on the go. You can learn more about the Supertramp here. Photo credits Lehman B.

“The Karavaanari”. Photo credit Tero Tilus.
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Today's funny :0)


Armadillo Doing What He Does Best..



Armadillo Doing What He Does Best..
How cute is that? :0)

Big mouth

Charlie woke me up at 4:30 yesterday - And I was really tired the rest of the day. BUT chicken stuff still had to get done, so they got their breakfast of feed, oatmeal, fresh water and a pancake for all of them to share at 7 o'clock. It was soooo cold out!

Hubby is still bringing in firewood to keep us warm. I don't know what we would do if we didn't have that backhoe to do all the heavy lifting.



Still have lots of snow and ice and tonight our weather forecaster is calling for temps around 4 degrees.

I hope Charlie keep his big mouth shut until the sun comes up. That's what roosters are supposed to do - wait for the sun...right?

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Shattered glass

Have never seen anything like this before and find it fascinating!

Shattered glass sculptures by Daniel Arsham:

shattered glass sculptures by daniel arsham
















from:




Today's funny :o)



Snow removal

Tried to get some snow away from the coop before we get the next round of the stuff on Wednesday.

Cleared the ice away from the big door on the coop and  then had to put some hay down so I don't slip on the ice in front of it:




And also got some ice away from the pen gate so they could look out a little better:




Now they can see me when I bring 'em treats - they really, really like that!

Charlie is getting ready to attack my boots again!


It was cold and windy, so I didn't stay outside more than two hours. Brrrr.....



Monday, February 24, 2014

On this day.....



February 24TH



1803 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled itself to be the final interpreter of all constitutional issues.

1835 - "Siwinowe Kesibwi" (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the U.S.

1839 - Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.

1857 - The Los Angeles Vinyard Society was organized.

1857 - The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. Government.

1863 - Arizona was organized as a territory.

1866 - In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time.

1868 - The first parade to use floats occurred in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.

1868 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson due to his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The U.S. Senate later acquitted Johnson.

1886 - Thomas Edison and Mina Miller were married.

1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.

1903 - In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an area was leased to the U.S. for a naval base.

1925 - A thermit was used for the first time. It was used to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY.

1938 - The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially.

1942 - The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort.

1942 - The Voice of America (VOA) aired for the first time.

1945 - During World War II, the Philippine capital of Manilla, was liberated by U.S. soldiers.

1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1956 - The city of Cleveland invoked a 1931 law that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public without an adult guardian.

1980 - NBC premiered the TV movie "Harper Valley P.T.A."

1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.

1983 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1100 mark for the first time.

1983 - A U.S.congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

1987 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of the Los Angeles Lakers, got his first three-point shot in the NBA.

1987 - An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against "Hustler" magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire.

1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel "The Satanic Verses". A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie's head.

1989 - A United Airlines 747 jet rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand.

1992 - "Wayne's World" opened in U.S. theaters.

1992 - Tracy Gold began working on the set of "Growing Pains" again. She had left the show due to anorexia.

1994 - In Los Angeles, Garrett Morris was shot during a robbery attempt. He eventually recovered from his injury.

1997 - The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.

1997 - Dick Enberg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In southeast China, a domestic airliner crashed killing all 64 passengers.

2007 - The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.

2008 - Cuba's parliament named Raul Castro president. His brother Fidel had ruled for nearly 50 years.
And in 1965, this famous song was recorded:



It was a very good day, indeed!

Today's funny :0)



The run.

Had to clean the pen before I started on the ice and snow filled run. Chased them all out.

  



They weren't really too happy about it because of all the mud and headed for the deck:






All this has to go too!



Me thinks I should just wait until it melts and save the wear and tear on these old bones!





The little darlings even left me a calling card to clean up:



My fun never ends........


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Deck time!

Warmed up into the 40's this afternoon so I let them out for a bit. There is still plenty of snow and ice on the ground, but now that some has melted, there is also a lot of mud - especially around the pen and coop.

After walking through the mud and then the snow, even Charlie wanted to come up on the deck to warm his tootsies.


He was not a happy camper when I scooted him off the deck!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Going to take tomorrow off and try to get the pen and coop cleaned - haven't been able to do it because of all the ice. The run still has over 2 feet of snow in it........ 




Today's funny :0)




Yesterday was a funny kind of day. For the weather, that is.


It started out like this:





Then went to this:




Then it rained, went up to 40 degrees, more rain WITH thunder and lightning!



The sun poked her head out:



And the day ended with a beautiful sunset!



Chance of more snow next week..........



Friday, February 21, 2014

Friday Night Steam

Nice little video - shows inside of train station and several steam trains!




It has been said, "The West has to be seen to be believed. But it has to be believed to be seen." -- Kiowa poet N. Scott Momaday. The same could be said about the Cumbres & Toltec. 
America's most authentic steam-operated railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec is a proud remnant of the spirit that won the West. In recognition for its place in our national history it was awarded National Historic Landmark Designation in 2013.
Built in 1880, it was part of the San Juan Extension of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, with tracks running from Denver through the ore-rich Rocky Mountains to Silverton, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its path through steep passes and deep gorges is the stuff of adventure novels and was an engineering feat for the time. The decline of silver mining in the 1890s ended the railroad's vital role.
The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad filed for abandoment in 1969, but the most scenic part of its route, its equipment, and its buildings were saved by the states of Colorado and New Mexico.
Today the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad fulfills another important mission - taking passengers on the ride of a lifetime, connecting Colorado and New Mexico, the Mountains of the San Juans to the Conejos Valley, and allowing us to see where the deer and the antelope play.


Formal Rio Grande, Cumbres and Toltec Locomotive 487


                                                                                 

Number:  487
Type:  Locomotive
Class:  K-36
Tractive Effort:
36,200 lbs.
Category:  Motive Power
Year Built:  1925
Manufacturer:  Baldwin
How Acquired By the C&T:  Purchased from D&RGW, 1970.

The 480 series or K-36 locomotives were ten engines designed for the D&RGW. They were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925. The 480's were the last ten narrow gauge locomotives constructed in the United States. The 480s were used for freight-hauling throughout the D&RGW narrow gauge network.
The Cumbres and Toltec owns four K-36s: 483, 484, 487, and 488 and 489. Engines 480, 481, 482, and 486 are owned by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. 485, unfortunately, fell into the turntable pit in Salida, Colorado in 1955. It was scrapped for parts thereafter.
The K 36's were used primarily as freight locomotives out of Alamosa to Durango, Colorado and to Farmington, New Mexico. They were built with special valves to allow brake control between locomotives while doubleheading, and were commonly found between Alamosa and Chama, New Mexico. They were heavily used during the pipe boom in Farmington, New Mexico, and hauled long freight trains between Alamosa and Farmington, returning with natural gas and other goods.



Today's funny :0)

Is this love or what?.

A middle-aged couple had finally learned how to send and receive texts on
their cell phones. The wife, being a romantic at heart, decided one day
that she'd send her husband a text while she was out of the house having
coffee with a friend. She texted:

If you are sleeping, send me your dreams.
If you are laughing, send me your smile.
If you are eating, send me a bite.
If you are drinking, send me a sip.
If you are crying, send me your tears.
I love you.

The husband, being a no-nonsense sort of guy, texted back:

I'm on the toilet. Please advise.

One went missing...

Let them out of the pen for a while. Charlie is belly-aching because he is missing one of his girls!



Seems that Lucy was in the nest box and when she came out - no one was there and she started to whine. In the first video, Charlie hears her but can't see her.





Sometimes they act like a bunch of kids!




Thursday, February 20, 2014

The year was 1940....






1940 Ford Deluxe



http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/ford/ford-00027-1.jpg
Ford pickup 1940




http://www.internetclassiccars.com/photos/classics/20358000/20358012.jpg
1940 Packard Limousine



http://aeclassiccars.com/files/images/_medium_aeclassiccars_38375.JPG
1940 Pontiac 4 Door




1949 GMC 1/2 Ton (Threw this in just because I like it)






1940 Plymouth



http://aeclassiccars.com/files/images/_big_aeclassiccars_128849.jpg
1940 Chevrolet Coupe







http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/lincoln/1940-lincoln-001-1.jpg
1940 Lincoln Continental Convertible




1940 Packard 180 Formal Sedan















'Hope you enjoyed the ride!