Happy Halloween!

Haven't read this in a long, long time. I think you will find this much better, though!

Enjoy!!

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Today's funny :o)

A big H/T to BW!!

 

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Dang!

For the past two mornings when I let the gang out for breakfast, Benji has 

started to cock-a-doodle-doo!

 Finally!!

 Yay!!

 So on Tuesday morning I bought out the camera and filmed him:

Guess what???

Nada. 

Nil. 

Nothing!

Shut the camera off and went back into the house. 

5 minutes later - he started!!

Grrrrrrr!

I should have waited a wee bit longer! Sorry - maybe I'll get it  on another day!

Oh, well! Here is a pic of my new little friend:

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This is the way we wash our clothes....

 Thought you might enjoy this:

Admire the industriousness of the Liverpool women who transport huge bundles of laundry to and from the local wash-house every week, crammed into old prams or balanced skillfully on their heads. The wash-house doubles as a social hub for the women, with a cafe and creche facilities. At the time of filming, this one in the Pontack Lane area was one of 13 remaining original public wash-houses in the city, although new more modernized buildings were under construction.Liverpool's last working wash-house closed in 1995. The peppy documentary not only looks at the modern wash-house, but introduces the story of Kitty Wilkinson, 'the Saint of the Slums', who pioneered the public wash-house movement in Liverpool during the 1832 cholera epidemic. John Abbot Productions, who made the film, specialized in sponsored non-fiction films from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.

Source: BFI

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Today's funny :o)

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A little visitor....

 ... has been stopping by every day lately:

The gang:

Benji is still trying to get up on the roost bar at night, but the girls won't let him, so I put an extra bar in the coop by the window.  It's a lot lower than the long one. He stretches his neck and tries to jump up but he just can't make it yet.
He doesn't jump up on the branches that I have in the pen or run either.

Just have to give him some more time, I guess!

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Friday Night Steam

How about a steam tractor for tonight??

Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart, which was marketed under the Hornsby-Akroyd name. The company developed an early track system for vehicles, selling the patent to Holt & Co. (predecessor to Caterpillar Inc.) in America. In 1918, Richard Hornsby & Sons became a subsidiary of the neighbouring engineering firm Rustons of Lincoln, to create Ruston & Hornsby.

The company took the name of Richard Hornsby (1790–1864), an agricultural engineer. The company was founded when Hornsby opened a blacksmith's in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1815 with Richard Seaman, after joining Seaman's business in 1810. The company became Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1828, when Hornsby bought out his partner's ownership, when Seaman retired.

Richard Hornsby & Sons grew into a major manufacturer of agricultural machinery at their Spittle Gate Works. The firm went on to produce steam engines used to drive threshing machines, and other equipment such as traction engines: their portable steam engine was one of their most important products and the market leader. A farm was obtained nearby, where all their new products were tested before being produced.

Work with Herbert Akroyd Stuart in the 1890s led to the world's first commercial heavy oil engines being made in Grantham (from 8 July 1892). Other engineering companies had been offered the option of manufacturing the engine, but they saw it as a threat to their business, and so declined the offer. Only Hornsbys saw its possibilities. The first one was sold to the Newport Sanitary Authority (later to be re-bought by Hornsby and displayed in their office).

In 1892, T.H. Barton at Hornsbys enhanced the engine by replacing the vaporiser with a new cylinder head and increased the compression ratio to make the engine run on compression alone. This Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine design was hugely successful: during the period from 1891 through 1905, a total of 32,417 engines were produced. They would provide electricity for lighting the Taj Mahal, the Rock of Gibraltar, the Statue of Liberty (chosen after Hornsby won the oil engine prize at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893), many lighthouses, and for powering Guglielmo Marconi's first transatlantic radio broadcast.

 More from the article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hornsby_%26_Sons

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Today's funny :o)

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Falling leaves...

..... and this is probably the last of the tree leaves:

You can see Sunrise Mountain on the horizon now:

Mostly gold colored leaves this year - not many red ones:

Moss on the roof of the shed:

We put this owl up to scare the hawks away - does not work very well at all:

 Threw a handful of mealy worms to the gang - they love 'em!

It's fun to watch them run around trying to see who gets the most:

My pumpkin solar light:

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A new home....

..... for a Coconut octopus!

 Source: Pall Sigurdsson

 We spent a whole dive and most of our air saving this octopus from what was bound to be a cruel fate. The coconut octopus, also known as veined octopus, is born with the instinct to protect itself by creating a mobile home out of coconut or clam shells. This particular individual however has been trapped by their instincts and have made a home out of a plastic cup they found underwater. While a shell is a sturdy protection, a passing eel or flounder would probably swallow the cup with the octopus in it, most likely also killing the predator or weakening it to a point where it will be soon eaten by an even bigger fish. We found this particular octopus at about 20 meters under the water, we tried for a long time to give it shells hoping that it would trade the shell. Coconut octopus are famous for being very picky about which shells they keep so we had to try with many different shells before it found one to be acceptable.

 

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Today's funny :o)

jt

Camel Crossing

The image by George Steinmetz Featured the cover of National Geographic. The picture shows the shadows cast by a caravan of camels and creates an optical illusion - the black shapes are not the camel - look closer!

The black shapes are actually the shade made by the camels.
The photo was originally featured in the Turkish version of the magazine, in 2005.







xc

A pretty day

A beautiful sunrise here in Coopville:

Letting the gang out in the morning:

Pink clouds and the moon:

Starting to see Sunrise Mountain through the trees now - can't wait until all the leaves 

are off so I can get my mountain views!

We had nine trees taken down this past year - can you just imagine how many more

leaves poor Hubby would have to pick up???

As you may know by now, it does NOT take much to amuse me!

(My new desk toy)!

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Checkmate!

Came across some interesting chess pieces:

Weeble-Wobbles:

 Salt and Pepper:

 The North and South:

 Norsemen:

 Hand carved:

Elephants!

 

 Just love the Bishop!

 Nutcrackers!

 Of course you'll need a beautiful board to play on:

And... a bit of history about the game!

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Today's funny :o)

Another good one! Thanks BW!

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Seen around Coopville

A pretty tree:

Some geese a-heading South:

Looking down the driveway:

Amazingly - roses!

Just some of the wood we'll use:

Took down the birdhouse in the dogwood tree. This was inside:

So many tiny twigs!

A pretty leaf:

This was the last one:

Two girls waiting to go in...

One girl walking out!

One very lonely rooster:

Poor Benji!

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Friday Night Steam

Just sit back and enjoy! It's stunning!

Source:

Need4Life

THE SUNDANCE CENTRAL RAILROAD - The Sundance was formed in January 2004 with the goal to create a more detailed and uniformly scened, large-scale traveling layout. This 1:20.3 scale modular model railroad consisting of forty modules for a layout size of 45 feet by 45 feet. The railroad consists of 400 feet of hand laid code 250 aluminum rails that are hand spiked with individual tie plates onto wood ties with a total of 16 turn-outs. The modular was built by a group of seven model train enthusiasts. This diverse group is made up of people who have a passion of early narrow gauge steam locomotives to modern day standard gauge diesels. The purpose for forming this modular group was to provide the public a realistic look at model railroading in a large-scale format. The modules are highly detailed from the scratch built supporting structures and buildings down to the surrounding scenery. The trains and rolling stock that will be running on these modules will also be highly detailed and weathered. Address: 2645 Success Dr, Odessa, FL 33556 Web: www.finescalemodeling.org

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Today's funny :o)

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Let's go for a ride!

Going to  take a ride up to High Point - it's just a few short miles from Coopville!

Hubby:

That's the Delaware River:

Huge granite blocks that make up the base of the monument"

A gnarly pine tree:

A map of the park:

Leaving the park:

High Point, (Sussex County) New Jersey

High Point is a mountain peak within High Point State Park on the border of Wantage Township and Montague Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the portion of the state known as the Skylands, it is the highest elevation in the state, with a peak elevation of 1,803 feet. The closest city is Port Jervis, New York,which lies to the northwest. Besides being the highest peak in New Jersey, High Point is also the highest peak of the Kittatinny Mountains. Three states – New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania – can be seen from the top!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

dfa