Rock Edge

This rocky ledge was along the edge of the trail. I think it is mostly limestone. The rock seems to be fairly soft and full of lines, and holes. The holes sometimes hold water that birds and small wildlife drink. Lost hikers and travelers have looked for holes in rocks where water can collect in any outdoor setting. There are also lots of fossils in the rocks that confirm the fact that the Sandia's were under water, either an ocean or sea many, many, many years before man.

Tombstone Tuesday :: Fisher and Davis

On September 11, .. I visited the public library in Lawrence, Kansas. Though I was unable to find an obituary for Samuel Fisher – the brother of my 2nd great grandmother, Louisa (Fisher) Phend (they were children of Michael and Christenia Fisher) or for Samuel's wife Lucretia (Davis) Fisher I did locate obituaries for several of their children, which will be the subject of future posts. I also obtained directions to Colyer Cemetery where Samuel and Lucretia are buried. During a visit to the health department to get their death certificates I found out that the records are not available at the local level, they have to be obtained from the State of Kansas.

I had to backtrack south and west of Lawrence for a short distance to get to Colyer Cemetery. It is in a rather remote area which involved traveling a bit on gravel roads and by the time I got to the cemetery, the rear of the van and my bicycle (hanging off the back end of the van) were caked with dust. From the top of the hill where the cemetery sits, you can see for quite a distance. There was a farm to the northwest and another to the northeast but nothing could be seen to the south. Remote, indeed. Very pretty. And very quiet.

The road to Colyer Cemetery, Marion Township, Douglas County, Kansas. Looking to the north.

The Fisher plot, looking to the northwest. The two barrell-shaped stones are for Lucretia and Samuel.

LUCRETIA A. FISHER / BORN AUG. 23, 1845 / DIED OCT. 31, 1909

SAMUEL FISHER / 1840 – 1913 / CO. A. 9 KAS. VOL. CAV.

FOOTSTONE.
SAMUEL FISHER / CO A / 9 KANS. CAV.

A Tale of Two Pensioners chronicles the mix-up of the pension records for this Samuel Fisher and another man of the same name.

In the second photo above, there is a marker to the south of Lucretia, which I am guessing is her mother. According to her marriage record (Douglas County Marriage Book 2 Page 33 Located at the County Clerks Office in Lawrence, Kansas), Lucretia's maiden name was Davis.

See detail below.

OUR MOTHER
GLORIANNE M. / CASWELL / WIFE OF / IRVIN DAVIS
BORN JUNE 10, 1821 / AT WATERTOWN N. Y.
DIED JAN. 30, 1882 / AT LAWRENCE KAN.
ALL'S WELL

Sea World Orlando

Today we had a great day at Seaworld with Diana, Lauren, Josh and Zoe.

Ice Arch Sunrise

This winter has been quite productive when it comes to having interesting ice formations to photograph, much more so than last winter. December and January had plenty of very cold days which meant that there was quite a bit of ice both along the shore and floating around in various places on Lake Superior. Near the end of January we had a wind storm that came up and blew a lot of this ice onto the Minnesota shoreline of the lake. Just north of Grand Marais was one area in particular where the ice had been jammed into many fascinating forms along the beaches. The wave action not only resulted in the packing of the ice along the shoreline, but also contributed to the hollowing out of the ice from underneath in several places. Several ice arches were formed as the waves continued to work at the ice from below.
The arch shown in this image was the most photogenic arch that I found. On the morning I made this image I was photographing the shoreline with my friend Paul. It was a very calm morning which was a stark contrast to the previous days which had made all these ice formations possible. Paul and I set up our tripods and started making images of the arch. We had only taken about 5 or 6 images each when we heard a cracking sound. Both of us were in the process of moving our tripods to set up a different shot when we heard the cracking. We both looked up just as the arch collapsed into the water. Needless to say, this scene was a lot less interesting to photograph after the arch fell. Thankfully we each got a few images before it was gone! This image was made at 8:03 AM using my Canon EF 17-40mm lens. Shutter speed was 1/15, aperture f16, ISO 100.

The Hover Children :: All Dressed Up

The Hover Children. Probably about 1886-1887.
Edith was born in 1873, Bessie in 1883, and Charles in 1882.



Their relationship to me is Half 1st Cousin Twice Removed. They are the children of William Henry "Hank" Hover and his first wife Elizabeth Biltz. Hank was one of six children born to George and Rachel (Van Curen) Hover. George passed away in 1855 and Rachel married William Alexander in 1859. William and Rachel are my great-great grandparents.

Contributed to "Smile For The Camera :: Crowning Glory"

Snow Angels on the Pigeon River Ice

During my hike yesterday at Grand Portage State Park I came across this interesting discovery on the river ice... snow angels! Apparently some park visitors thought it would be the perfect location to plop down on the ice and make some angels. I, for one, am glad they did as I thought it made for an interesting shot!

Easy on the Eyes!

After spending nearly six weeks in the dry, mostly brown, desert regions of Texas and California, I left Death Valley this morning. About an hour ago, just west of Tehachapi on California Highway 58, I drove into this wonderful, refreshing area that was definitely easy on the eyes. I didn't realize how much I've missed seeing "green" until I came into this... I stood there alongside the road for abut 15 minutes, just taking it all in. So nice!


I've decided to take a "break" from the desert scene for a few days and am headed for the Coast of California! I'll be joining some friends at the Grand Canyon about the middle of April... For now, I am looking for a State Park near a community with a library with good wifi so I spend some time writing some blog posts and get them scheduled so that I can get caught up. Stay tuned, more posts coming soon, I hope!

This post is coming to you courtesy of McDonalds and AT&T wifi near Bakersfield, California. Moving on now. Will "see" y'all later.

The Tree-Root Waterfall

The Tree-Root Cascade, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here's a pretty unique waterfall.

This cascade is formed by the roots of a bigleaf maple growing through the creek bed. The water flows over the roots in a curtain and plunges into a somewhat deep pool.

This waterfall, like many others in the area, only flows during the rainy season. It's completely bone dry right now.

Wordless Wednesday :: Once Upon a Time

a few years ago...

Snow Pony

This is BlackJack in the 6 inches of snow we had last week.

Tombstone Tuesday :: Elizabeth Helms Jones

They (whoever "they" are) say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, I hope that Amy Crow over at Amy’s Genealogy, etc. Blog is flattered that I am helping myself to her theme of "Tombstone Tuesday" for a series of blog posts. . . Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!

I have a large "collection" of photos of gravestones from various cemeteries that I've visited and plan to eventually post them at Find A Grave. But until that happens, I thought I'd occasionally post some of the family grave photos here at kinexxions.


Masonic Section, Greenhill Cemetery, Columbia City, Indiana

OUR MOTHER / Elizabeth B. Jones / DIED / Nov. 17, 1883. / AGED / 79 Yrs. 7 Mo. 14 Ds.

The text inscribed below her age is not legible.

My post on Grandma Jones, whose maiden name was Helms, was one of the first ancestor biographies that I posted here at kinexxions.

This Is the Day...

We've been talking about doing something like this for a while, and now we finally are! Didn't want to write about it earlier lest I jinx it; details to follow. Have a good weekend!

Trip to the Jemez

We took a trip to the Jemez Mountains last week. There are two ways to get into the forest area where we prefer to go but this time we went in by way of the Gillman Tunnels. Gillman is a little town that is near the tunnel area. During the early 1900's a railroad was built up through the forest to bring out the logs. Two tunnels were blasted through an area that was solid rock with a small rocky canyon below them with a creek going through it. Eventually the railroad line was taken out and a narrow dirt road still allows cars to make the same trip. The tunnels are still there. This is a photo going into the first tunnel.

Cactus Fruit

I have posted several photos of the red claret cup cactus that I have in a big pot in my yard. This year it put on some nice fruit or seed pods. I am hoping they ripen so I can collect the seed and to try to grow some from the seed.

Enjoying the Local Beauty

I am still healing, but we are getting out and seeing some of the local beauty while here. We don't have to go very far for the beauty because we are on one of the water view sites.









The rest of the places are within minutes of the park.

Parka Time?

On one of the most frigid nights before , we went on a late-evening errand to the art store. Not wanting to have yet another "I am too cold to enjoy cycling" experience, I resorted to my floor-length down parka.

It may seem improbable that one can cycle in a coat like this, but it is doable. What you need is the kind of parka that unzips both from the top and from the bottom. I simply unzip it from the bottom to create whatever size opening I need for pedaling.

Bike and parka in motion. The shot is blurry but it shows off my headlight beams. The dynamo-powered headlight points forward (the beam furthest ahead of the bike), while the LED headlight points down at the road. This is essential when there are trecherous patches of black ice on the road, like now.

The art store is about a 20 minute walk from my house, or 5-7 minutes by bike. This is fairly representative of what my winter rides are like. Most of my current daily destinations are only 1-2 miles from my house, which makes for very short bike rides. For longer destinations, I used to rely on the Charles River Trail, which is not accessible once there is ice or snow on the ground - so in the winter I have not been going to those further-away places nearly as much.

Goods from the art store. The small bag looks deceptively modest, but the content - paintbrushes - can be painfully expensive. The store was having a sale and this was the last day of it, so I am glad I remembered on time.

Happy with my new paintbrushes.
After the art store, we decided to experiment with what it would be like to take a longer ride in freezing temperatures, and rode for a bit on a major road that leads out of town, stopping at a coffee shop and then heading home. It was okay, but did not feel entirely safe. The right lane was like an obstacle course: clusters of hardened snow suddenly popping up, potholes, icy patches. In addition to the parked cars on the right and moving cars on the left, it was a bit overwhelming to constantly watch out for all this, especially after dark. The good news is that with the parka I was at least able to finally cycle in these temperatures without feeling uncomfortable. A parka may look silly on a bike, but so what!

Unknown snake

Hubby accidentally ran over this snake with the bushhog last week. I came to the conclusion that it's a lot harder to identify snakes with no heads.

At first I thought he was a Cottonmouth, but the tail is wrong. (They have odd tails, which narrow down from the body somewhat abruptly.)

Anybody else know what it is?

Hubby said he remembered something about being able to tell whether it's a poisonous snake or not by the scales on the tail. So I took a picture of that.



Turns out he was right. At the tip end of the snake, if the scales are divided in two, like here, the snake is not poisonous. If the scale is unbroken all the way across, it is a poisonous snake.

Memory tip:
Two scales = two words: Non-venomous.
One scale = one word: Venomous.

Please post a comment if you know the identity of this snake! The part of him that was left was about 2.5 feet long. He was in some tall grass not far from a drainage ditch.

Flying Tigers Babeball Game

We planned to do baseball games as part of our entertainment this summer. Because I have been tied up with other things, that has not happened until this week. I hope we find our way there more often than we've managed so far because it was a lot of fun.







The stadium we visited is the same one that the Detroit Tigers do their spring training at. Which means the Michiganders visit this place. Which means I get to talk to people who have the same "accent" as I do. And I meet people like the guy who was on the school board of the high school I attended.





I also like hanging out with people that like baseball. Not that I'm a huge fan of baseball myself, but I like people that can still be entertained by things like baseball. And I like to see the talented players. Even if I kept asking Nathan if this particular group was 12-16 years old or was I just getting old(er). Seriously they all looked like babies to me. As in same age as "my" baby who is 17.



It was a pretty uneventful game until the end, and then the Flying Tigers made us proud.



This was my favorite moment of the night, when a three year old ran the bases in a race against the mascots:



Living the life in not so sunny right now Florida!