Nevada Sunset

Near Carson City, Nevada. October 11, ...

Wordless Wednesday :: Schooldaze ~ First Grade

Dontcha just love the hairdo? What was my mother thinking?

Aquatic Bicycle

Co-Habitant's Motobecane meets Provincetown's boat launch

Aquatic bicycle?

A Hint of Autumn

Monday afternoon. The first "bright" color I've seen in the area. There's still hope for a colorful fall after all.

Rain, Rain Go Away? Or on Second Thought, Stay!

I have not been cycling for the past week due to nonstop rain. But today I finally could not take it anymore: Despite the overcast sky and the morbid forecast, I went. By mid-day, it did rain. And it was great!


Some nice things about cycling in the rain:
. it's good for your complexion
. you can sing in it (and I did!)
. the grass and trees look super green, almost neon
. the lovely scent of flowers really comes out
. you have the cycle paths mostly to yourself
. you have an excuse to wear screaming red and lobsterman yellow!


Above: My empty Apfelspritzer mug, in an empty outdoor cafe -- in the rain. Look how red those geraniums look!

One More Hibiscus

A water-covered tropical hibiscus in Arizona.

Dancing with the clouds

Moonrise on January 9, . Had great fun last night watching the moon dip in and out of the clouds as they passed by. The first thing I thought of was "It looks like the moon is dancing with the clouds!". Voila! Another image title :-)



Last night as the moon was rising the light on the surrounding landscape was sublime. The moonlight, clouds, stars and snowy landscape made for quite a memorable scene! I know I've said this many times before, but I can't help myself by saying it again: "I LOVE living here!"

Even More Water Slide Fun

The face says it all!

It's so nice to have fun that is great for the big kids and the small ones! We are having a great time here.



Living the life in Michigan!

Put upon

This poor little Trillium decumbens (Trailing Trillium) made the mistake of growing in an area with an overabundance of grasshoppers. It looks a bit frazzled. I feel the same, when thinking about everything I need to get caught up on in the coming week.

Stormy weather washed out the traditional best-sales-day of our last spring craft show Saturday. But like one neighbor observed, it could have been worse -- the tents could have been upside down. One bright spot was meeting an artist whose work I'd previously admired on her Etsy shop. I spent some more of my George money on one of her pieces similar to this one.

I'm thinking of trying Etsy myself, for one-of-a-kind soapy things, or the "bargain bars" that I normally sell only at shows. (We call them "cosmetically challenged" soaps because we hate to call them ugly.) Just one more item to add to the list of "things I should probably be doing instead of blogging"...

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If you like the creepy crawlers, check out the Circus of the Spineless!

Ladies and Diamond Frames

Lots of ladies ride diamond frame bicycles, even in a skirt. The lovely Charlotte of Chic Cyclist and the good women of Bike Skirt are just some examples. Recently, I tried riding diamond frames for the first time in my life.

Here is the Co-Habitant's vintage Raleigh. I had to wear platform shoes, because I can't otherwise clear the top tube of his 24" bike.

And here is an Origin8 Cykel, which I tried at the Bike Stop in Arlington, Mass. This time the frame was just the right size, though those super-wide handlebars took some getting used to.

My feelings about diamond frames are mixed. While cycling, I actually find them very comfortable: The horizontal tube helps me feel balanced and in control of the bicycle. But by golly, I don't understand how to mount and dismount gracefully. The Co-Habitant swings his leg over the back in one fluid ballet-like motion, but I seem to be incapable of executing this maneuver without faltering. Plus, in a skirt this can't be done without hiking it up first.

I've tried leaning the bicycle over toward me until the frame is low enough to step over, but that does not seem right either. Ladies, how do you do it? And when you're wearing a skirt?

UPDATE: The graceful Charlotte of Chic Cyclist has now posted a photo-tutorial showing how she rides her diamond frame in a miniskirt. Enjoy!

More South Carolina From My Window

I loved this practical use of space. It is the Town Hall, Police Department and Fire Department all in one!

The Stranger

A little while ago I locked up my bike in a neighbourhood I don't much like and left it there for a couple of hours. When I returned, there were objects arranged on my rear rack: an unfinished cup of coffee and a pair of broken sunglasses. I picked up the paper cup gingerly and threw it in the nearby trash. There was a stain and some crumbs stuck to the cup where someone's mouth had been. The cup was cold, but then the day was also cold; impossible to know how long ago the coffee drinker had left it there. I then looked at just the sunglasses alone on the rack. Reflective and cracked in several places, they reminded me of broken mirrors that could bring bad luck -I found myself not wanting to touch them, and just stood there looking at them for a bit. Finally I removed them from the rack and placed them carefully on the edge of a flower bed.

So... some idiot left some stuff on my bike. What is the big deal? I don't know.I guess I am prone to seek meaning in things where none exists, and sometimes these random ambiguous types of acts bother me more than something more obviously hostile would.I tried to imagine the stranger who left the cup and sunglasses behind.Was it an absent-minded thing, where the person was on their way to the trash bin and suddenly their mobile phone rang? Or was it intentional, and a coin-toss between that and slashing my bike's tires? Was it a message, however unconscious, or did it mean nothing at all?

It's amazingly easy to leave our mark on somebody else's world, and bicycles - being personal objects that we just leave around, exposed - seem to attract that kind of mark-making. Be it a flower tucked into the handlebars, or garbage left in the basket, the gesture makes us aware of those countless strangers among whom we move and most of whom we will never know.

Clouds and Smokey Sun

Took this one 2 evenings ago. The clouds give it a nice look even with all the smoke.

Jonas Joslin :: 1818 Ohio Land Purchase

The first record we have of Jonas Joslin (under the name of Jonas Joshin) in Delaware County, Ohio is his purchase of lot #16 in the third township on October 20, 1818. The lot consisted of 100 acres and was purchased for $1,050 which seems like a lot to me for the time period. The transaction was recorded in Deed Book 4, pages 403 and 404.

=+==+==+=

Page 403

Merrit Foote by his Atty Benjamin Bartholomew
To } Deed
Jonas Joshin

This Indenture made and concluded this twentieth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen by and between Benjamin Bartholomew of Delaware County in the state of Ohio as attorney in fact for Merrit Foote of the County of Newhaven in the State of Connecticut of the [other is crossed out] first part and Jonas Joshin of said Delaware County in the state of Ohio of the other part. Witneseth that the said Benjamin Bartholomew for and in consideration of the sum of one thousand & fifty dollars and to him in had paid or secured to be paid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath given granted bargained sold released conveyed and confirmed and by these presents give grant bargain sell release convey and confirm unto the said Jonas Joshin and unto his heirs and assigns forever a Lot of land viz lot number sixteen in the east tier of lots in the fourth section of the third township in the nineteenth range of the united States military lands and within the said county of Delaware and being a log of land purchased by the said Merrit Foots of Ralph Richardson & Dorcas his wife by a deed dated 6 day of October 1817 and supposed to contain one hundred acres more or less To have and to hold the above described premises with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining unto him the said Jonas Joshin for and unto his heirs and assigns forever And the said Benjamin as S P atty

Page 404

as attorney as aforesaid for the said Merrit his heirs executors and administrators does convenant and promise to word with the said Jonas Joshin his heirs and assigns that he is lawfully seized of the premises aforesaid that he has foresight and full authority to sell and convey the same in manner aforesaid and that the said premises are free and clear from all incumbrances And further that he the said Benjamin as attorney afforesaid of the said Merrit Foote his heirs executors and administrators will well warrant and truly defend the premises aforesaid unto the said Jonas Joshin and unto his heirs and assigns forever against the lawful claims of any person or persons whomsoever. In testimony whereof the party [of crossed out] to the first part has hereunto set his hand and seal this day and year above written

Signed sealed and delivered in presence of

Benjamin Bartholomew attorney in fact for the said Merrit Foote

{The word convey between the 7th & 8th line from top and the word his between the 11th, 12th and between the 14th and 15th lines were inserted before the signing}

Noah Spalding
Ebenezer Goodrich

The State of Ohio Delaware County
On this day of October 1818 personally came before me the [word illegible] one of the Justus of the peace of said County Benjamin Bartholomew and acknowledged that he signed the within deed for the purposes therein mentioned Given under my hand & seal
John Roberts {seal}
a Justice of the Peace

Received & recorded this deed April 1st 1819
J. L. Hughs. [?] Recorder D. Cty

Busy Busy

Like the previous post stated, it's fully summer. Still. The sun has been out consistently during normal daylight hours and the stars have been seen most of the other time. The cloudy marine layer that covered the Puget Sound area most mornings never even made it close to the park boundary. Summertime and the living is easy!

Saturday Morning, Camp Schurman

The scene up here on Rainier the past couple of weeks has been really busy with climbers making many successful ascents of many routes. The Emmons and the DC are still both in great shape. The Emmons is currently the more direct route of the two, offering stellar glacier climbing from Schurman to the summit. Many people have also been climbing the Kautz, encountering moderate and fun conditions in the ice chutes and moderate glacier travel above. We've even gotten a few reports in from climbers who have made recent ascents of the Tahoma, Sunset Ridge, Ptarmigan Ridge and Mowich Face. The approaches on these more remote west side routes are a bit long and involve more encounters with scree and talus this time of year, but the climbing conditions above 9,000' remain great.

Sunset Ridge, photo by Paul Cook

The past couple of weeks we have seen what appears to be an increase in the number of climbing parties having mishaps and/or full on accidents. We as the climbing rangers just want to remind everyone to stay vigilant, know and respect their abilities, stay aware of current conditions, and be ready and prepared to deal with whatever emergency may arise on your own. Help is definitely out there for people if it is needed, but that help might be a long way off which means self rescue is always required to some level.



Stay Safe. Climb Hard.

Whoa... A cabin had to be built

As I understand it, the mountain has often been shrouded in clouds, rain and snow over the past few weeks. But how would you know unless you came here for yourself? Certainly I've done little to keep you informed through this blog... But what can I say? This ranger/blogger needed a vacation and along the way, I caught a batch of writer's block.

Thankfully an ultra-reliable IBM oriented PC is at my finger tips with MSFT software gliding me happily towards another post. I know - Mac's are cool and all, but I needed some sort of flimsy excuse to avoid another post while building a cabin in Alaska for Ted (the Camp Muir guru). BTW, I really appreciated all of the nice Mac folks who took the time to defend their product and offer help. I hope you'll still read this blog knowing that's it's driven from a virus prone, often crashing, operating system. ;)

So what's shaking on the mountain? Well, a few roads have re-opened, and a few ranger stations have closed. September turned out to be a very quiet month for independent climbers. Many (I suspect) gave up on the super-dooper extra long DC climbing route. Thankfully the guide services successfully kept it afloat when most of us would have gone home empty handed. But the past 2 weeks of inclement weather really shut things down on the upper mountain. As the snow settled in, the DC and other "kicked in" routes finally disappeared for 2007.

If you're a downhill oriented person, this sort of news has you jumping for joy as ski season is descending upon us rapidily. And after reviewing the current weather forecast for this upcoming week, Mount Rainier is going to see a lot of snowfall! Sharpen your edges, wax those boards, pack your backcountry avalanche gear and check out the Paradise and Camp Muir telemetry sites for updates on how much snow you could be playing in this weekend.

The first post back might be the hardest, but now that I've broken the bubble I intend to publish more information this fall. There has certainly been a number of neat events that should be shared... And hey, I mostly want to follow up on Maria Cantwell's visit! That's largely because we climbing rangers were star struck by the Senator, as she turned out to be quite hip and very down to earth. Who would have imagined such coolness in DC? Maria Cantwell with Jeremy Shank and me, photo by Mike Heavey

In the meantime, send me your thoughts and comments, and I'll try my best to kick this blog back into action. Photo above: Jeremy Shank cabin building on Bald Mountain near Talkeetna AK, image by Mike Gauthier.

Big Bend :: Castolon

Back in the early 1900s, the Castolon area was under cultivation. It was interesting to look at the area now and imagine green, luscious fields filling the valley, made possible through irrigation by pulling water away from the Rio Grande. Where now you see cactus, mesquite and other desert plants there were acres of cotton, sorghum, alfalfa, corn, wheat, and melons. Actually, it is beyond imagining. It really is hard to believe that someone could actually farm in that rocky, sandy soil.

The remains of several houses of the farming families are still standing and can be seen on a short half-file walk about seven miles from the campground. One such farmhouse is that of James and Melissa Belle Sublett, settlers who came to Castolon in 1913. According to a sign at the site, James is recognized for introducing mechanized farming into Big Bend and also installed the area's first irrigation system supplied by a water wheel. By 1918, he owned nearly 3,000 acres of land in the area.

Built on the side of a hill, the walls of the Sublett home are all that remain. The back wall had no windows since it faced the hillside.

The remaining walls of the Sublett home.

The view from the front of the Sublett home. As beautiful as it can be sometimes, I'm not sure it would be worth it to me to live in such a place. For some it obviously is, but I'm not one of them!

The Dorgan House, shown below, was built in the 1930s by Albert W. Dorgan and his wife Avis Ann. The adobe home had large windows at the front and a double fireplace that opened into the central living area. In 1938 the Dorgans vacated this property and in 1941 leased it to A. F. Robinson who opened a resort hoping to benefit from the new Big Bend National Park. The resort was a failure and the Dorgans sold it for inclusion in the park.

In the early years of the park, historic structures like the Dorgan and Sublett homes, were either destroyed or allowed to deteriorate because they were not thought of as part of the natural scenery.

The Dorgan house was built on a mesa, which overlooked the Sublett home.

The fireplace in the Dorgan home, made of stone, petrified wood, and adobe bricks, dwarfs the remains of the house. It stands about 10 feet tall.

A detail of the adobe walls of the remains of the Dorgan home.

The ruins of the Sublett home, in the center of the picture, appears insignificant in context of its surroundings. The mountains behind the home are in Mexican territory. The Rio Grande flows at the base of those mountains, several miles from the Sublett home.

The Subletts and Dorgans would have witnessed many such mornings as this. In their struggles to make a living, I wonder if they saw the beauty around them.

Photographs taken March 1, .. and March 2, ...

The Seasons are changing, and so are the routes...

This past week has brought intense thunderstorms, new snowfall, and crisp fall air to Mt. Rainier. With these changes in the weather, we are also seeing changes on some of the routes. See the Disappointment Cleaver page for information on the latest developements there. The upcoming week looks like it holds beautiful weather, so come on up to Mount Rainier National Park and enjoy the stunning scenery, the wildflowers, and the melted out hiking trails before fall truly takes hold!

All in all it was a good day

Went to Peru. . .

The Marriage Record for May Hale and George Armstrong did not include parental information.

The Death Record for May L. Armstrong (Miami County Health Dept. Book C-5 page 5, December 18, 1899) gives her parents as Albert Hale and Elizabeth Foutz. So she is NOT the daughter of Jacob and Rosanna (Wise) Hale. I didn't get a death certificate as it would have cost $10. I was fortunate that the clerk allowed me to look at the record. Afterwards, she said "for future reference" in case I needed additional searches, they are supposed to charge $35 per half hour for lookups, plus the charge for the certificate!

The Estate Packet for Christina Wise was found in the archives building! Got my hands dirty ;-) I "made copies" of all the documents in the file using my camera since photocopies were $1 apiece! Most came out quite well, with a few being a little soft in focus, but they can be read.

In addition to the people already named in a previous post, there are documents that mention William Wise and John Wise, though no relationships are given.

There was a statement (see image below) signed by Rosanna Hale (her mark) and witnessed by M. H. Grunden which fits in quite nicely with the census information found by Pseudo-Anonymous Gary earlier this week (which also prompted this overdue visit to Peru). In the 1900 census for Steelton Borough, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (page 55B), Rosana Hale is listed in the household of Martin H. Grunden as widowed, mother-in-law.

There is no date on this document, but similar ones for William Kircher and Luella Culbertson were dated October 4, 1887. It reads: "Whereas, the assets in the hands of William Kircher, Administrator of the Estate of Christina Wise, deceased are insufficient to pay the claims allowed against the same in full - to avoid the additional expense of settling said estate as insolvent, I, Rosanna Hale, consent to accept, and hereby acknowledge the receipt of about eighty-three per cent of my claim against said estate, to-wit: Seventy-seven & 27/100 Dollars, in full payment and satisfaction of said claim. Witness M. H. Grunden. Rosanna x Hale, her mark."

Found the deed book entry where Peter Wise and his wife, Christina, sold their 180 acres of land on April 5, 1866 for $8,000.

On May 14, 1866 Peter purchased town lots 5, 6, & 7 in Gilead. On October 26, 1868 he purchased 5 acres of land that was bordered on the east by the town of Gilead.

Those two entries in 1866 were in one of the books I had skipped on my previous visit to the courthouse a month ago. The reason I had skipped over them was because in the 1870 census it still showed that Peter owned land. What didn't "click" though was the fact that in 1850 his real estate was valued at $4,000 while in 1870 it was only $1,000. Lesson learned: Check all records for the time period of your ancestor, not just the years you think there "might" be transactions.

However, I didn't find the records for the sale of the lots and 5 acres under the Wise surname. So I checked for transactions by William Kircher, the administrator of Christina's estate, and found the record of the sale of the five acres on April 15, 1887 and the sale of the town lots on September 10, 1887.

As a point of reference, this is a portion of the 1860 census for Seward Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana page 60. After looking at it for a while I can now see that it could be Mary A. rather than May A., but then again, maybe not.

Skis reviews at ?

The way Cold Thistle started was me going on the hunt for a decent down jacket. I learned a few things in the process. Mostly what I wanted, wasn't want most people bought.



Skiing has been important in my life off and on. Not really all that important now but I still don't want what most people buy. A lot of reasons for that and likely not all of them good or relevant to you. But I am finding some issues I might consider serious flaws, if only I knew more about the subject. So what you'll get is some opinion. Not all based in fact, just my experience.



Not the first time I have gotten to this point, when what I would have thought were reliableresources I have been reading on the Internet come up with totally difference conclusions than I do.



But no matter :-) I'll be writing some ski reviews shortly. Boots and bindings as well at some point.



Here is a teaser as towhat skis you will have a chance to read in depth reviews on.





















A quick shotof what will be reviewed should look like this:

Black Diamond

Aspect



La Sportiva

Lo5

Hi5

GTR



More on La sportiva skis..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fbinjGpIvI



Dynafit

SevenSummit

Broad Peak

Huascaran @177cm and196cm



more here on the Huascaran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Bf35O81GU





DPS

Wailer 99 Pure

Wailer 112 RP Pure

Wailer 112 RPC Pure

Lotus 138, Pure, 3.2 rocker version



more here on the 112s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq2VAjV8bJo





Rossi Series for /14

Soul 7

Squad 7

Super 7



More here on the 7s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA4OM4Wzbyo