Woke up with a killer of a stiff neck this morning. Felt like I'd been standing on my head all night long. Lot's of Advil and a run to the store for a heating pad and it is a bit better. Would be even better if there was a hot tub somewhere around that I could sit in for an hour or so.

    Other than that it has been a pretty good day. Did confirm that I broke one of the drain lines from my front 'grey' tank two days ago while packing up. I had set that set of tires on the left side up on some blocks to level it a bit when I first pulled in and when I left I backed off of them instead of pulling forward. So as I came off of one of the 2"x10"s I use it must of 'popped' up in front and smacked the ABS pipe there. It looked like it might of cracked a bit the other day but it was raining hard enough that it was hard to tell. Anyway, it is certainly broken and right at a 90 degree bend. So while in town today I stopped at Lowe's and picked up the materials I'll need to fix it. Unfortunately the shortest piece of pipe I could buy in ABS was 5' even though I only need about 5"s. That and I still had to buy a full 'kit' of pipe cleaner and glue also even though there will only be 5 joints to glue if everything goes right. Lucky for me I'm pretty good at this stuff anymore.... plenty of experience in the last two house I was at.

    Also stopped at a couple places to check out new batteries for the trailer. The good news is that there are plenty of them out there as there is a lot of demand for them from boaters as well as RVr's. The bad news is that it will run me about $220 for two of them by the time I pay tax and add on a few extras. But that's okay, with any luck it will be at least another 5-6 years before they need replacing again, so really not too bad at all.

    Did some other shopping today as well, as I needed some groceries again, at least some more fresh fruit and veggies. This evening I made up a huge pot of soup so that I could use up a few things before they got to far past their prime. A base of some turkey-ham with bunches of broccoli, carrots, onion, garlic, a couple cans of beans and some lentils. Tastes really good to me, but probably put a touch to much red pepper flakes in for a lot of people. Tomorrow I'll add some home made dumplings and it will taste just fine.

    Beautiful weather right now, nearly clear and cooling down nicely after a warm and sunny day. Will work around the trailer for most of tomorrow so that I'll have some time to play on Thursday and Friday. I also need to figure out where I'm going from here. Had wanted to go over and ride the old time steam trains at Cass State Park here in WV. But it turns out that they aren't running until Memorial Day weekend. They do stay open late into the fall though, so I may be able to come back then and spend a day or two there at that time. So many places to see, so little time!

    Below are a few photo's from the last couple of months, some of which you may have already seen. In facebook I have a folder entitled 'Cool Buildings' that I just keep adding to as I see another one or two, but here in the blog it's just going to have to be a few at a time.

Cool Building's along the way - March/April 2013 

The Natchez Mansion 'Rosalie' built in 1820 on the site of an Indian massacre at the site of the original Fort Rosalie - March 9, 2013

The mansion 'Stanton Hall' built in 1857 in the city of Natchez by one of the cotton barons of the times - March 9, 2013



A nice Victorian style, wood framed home in Natchez. I like the octagonal tower structure as well as the round turret over the porch bump out. - March 9, 2013

A rather sad and forlorn house right across the street from the last two. I am surprised to see that the copper sheathing on the dome was still there. It could do with some real TLC, but it may already be to late for that. - March 9, 2013

A nice, well taken cared of brick Victorian in the town of Hermann Missouri. Built just two blocks back from the Missouri River it has loads of details along the eaves and in the porch rails and posts. - March 2013

One of the prettiest government buildings I have seen in a long time, this is the main train depot in the city of Richmond Virginia. Served by elevated tracks on at least two sides, I couldn't see the far side, it has Highway 95 curling around the upper left corner of the structure in this photo. It is quite an experience to first see the upper part while heading right at it doing 65 mph. - April 2013

Another view of the front facade. It's wild how they packed in one of the elevated railroad tracks under the highway on the left. - April 2013

A closer view of the upper floors and the roof. Next time I'm in town I need to spend some time here and see about getting inside and looking around a bit. Love all those dormers. - April 2013

An unknown stone building in downtown Richmond Virginia near the Capital building. The friend I was with that day knew what it was, but it was too long ago and to much has happened since then for me to remember what it is. Still a really beautiful building though. - April 2013

The Governor's Mansion in Richmond Virginia. A nice small Federalists style with some Georgian aspects, some of you might recognise this as being the Lincolns home in this years movie 'Lincoln'. - April 2013

A nice stone church, Methodist, near downtown Durham, North Carolina. I was impressed with the stone work and how all the different shades of brown and grey were blended together. - April 2013

Around the other side was a hidden nook where I ran into a guy installing a sign on one of the gates to a garden. Seeing me taking pictures he offered to take me in to see the inside of the church if I wanted to. What was inside is shown in the next photo. Near downtown Durham, North Carolina - April 2013

One of the first churches to be rebuilt after most of the town burnt down near the turn of the century, one of the members at that time brought over stone masons and woodworkers from Europe to do a lot of the work. I absolutely love the wooden trusses in the main cathedral. They frame the area beautifully and create this wonderful feeling of light and space. I wish I would of gotten a good picture looking the other way towards the alter and all the carved woodwork there. It really reminded me a lot of churches I had seen in Italy. It was also the first church in the city to integrate back in the 1960's. Quite a feat for a church in the deep south. Near downtown Durham, North Carolina. - April 2013

     An early morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Up through hills covered with trees awakening from a long winter. New leaves of every color of green and even some with a slight red tinge to the edges. Interspersed at irregular intervals are bright splashes of white and purple where the dogwoods and red buds are in full bloom. All of it wrapped in a silent shroud of fog until you finally break out on top to a world that is much brighter, even though the sky is still cloudy and threatening to rain.

    My propane alarm started going off again around 6:00 this morning, thereby confirming my original thought that my batteries are on their last legs. I'm not sure when they were originally installed. I can't believe they are original equipment as that would make them more than 9 years old, but I can believe 5-6 years old which to my way of thinking is still pretty good given the hundreds of charges and discharges they have gone through since I bought the trailer. So I'm not feeling too bad about it really, even though it is going to be a hefty charge to get both of them changed out. Will start looking for a couple of replacements tomorrow when I go into town.

   In the meantime; I took my time getting over to Fayetteville taking the back roads wherever I could. Down into the valleys and along the tree lined streams and rivers, then up and over the hills in one switch back after another. Actually kind of fun driving even in the truck pulling a trailer. Got into the RV site around 3:30 this afternoon only to find they were only excepting campers wanting to stay a week or longer. I guess the economy is such that they can't afford to have someone work every day for any less than that. So lucky for me I had planned on a week anyway and happened to get here right before everyone left for the day.

    So now I'm tucked into a nice little spot back amongst the trees, I'm the only one here at the moment and probably will be for some time. I think it is going to be a week to just relax and not do a whole lot. There are a few chores that need to be done around the trailer and the truck needs to be serviced again so it will be a good time to get some of that kind of stuff done. I may even get the train layout down and work on it a little bit.  Right now though I'm just going to finish this up, go do some dishes and then read some of my book. Below are the final photo's from my visit to Henricus a couple of weeks ago. The rest of the photo's were posted a few days ago so you may need to go back and take a look at them first if you haven't seen any of them before. Either way... enjoy!

Henricus Historical Park - Part II  -  April 2013




 

This is Rock Hall, a recreation of the church parsonage. It would of been the home of the Rev. Alexander Whitaker the pastor of Henricus. It was here that Pocahontas came to live and be instructed in Christianity.

No glass for windows way back when, just wooden shutters to close during bad weather and against attack. The bars were there to keep animals and people out when the shutters were open.

The main room in the parsonage where important people would of gathered.

Another large fireplace. This one shows a nice close view of the metal 'crane' to hold pots over the fire. On the right side is a small 'oven' where a few coals could be laid down to heat that smaller space.

The top of the roof over the stairway. On the left hand side is a let-in, lapped, dovetail joint joining the rafter tie to the main roof beams. On the right hand side is the same joint, but it is a mirror image so that it locks the tie in even better. Pretty cool joinery considering it is all done by hand.

A couple of braces for a roof purlin. The 'bumps' are the ends of wooden pegs that are driven through holes in the purlin and into the braces interior tenon, joining both tightly together.

What would of been a common style of bed for the well to do. Note the rope mattress supports showing along the middle part of the exterior support rails. A common method of supporting hay filled mattresses or 'ticks', they gave rise to the saying; Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite'.

A closer view of some of the wooden beams, rafters and purlins and the joints connecting them all together. I also liked the 'felted' hat on the table.

A reproduction of Mont Malado or Mt Malady, the first hospital in the new world. It would of been large enough to house 80 colonists at any one time.

Another view of Mt Malady. Doncha just love that name?

Looking at the roof framing on the inside of the hospital. Sorry for all the pictures of wood thingy's and joints and stuff. I just happen to like looking at them all and trying to figure out what they were thinking about while building them.

Ten different joints at least, all within 24" of the main support post. Now this is a neat bit of work and must of been quite the jigsaw puzzle to get it all tied together and set up correctly.

For all my contra dancing friends; I figure there's room for the band and caller and at least two good lines of dancers with space left over for sitting and socialising. Needs a good sweeping though.

Just the cutest little hand made cart. They were hauling wood in it the day I was there.

You can't talk about 1st and 2nd settlements in the new world with out understanding that there was a functioning society already here. There was a section on the fort grounds set apart to showcase some of these people. In this case it is the Powhatan Indians that lived in this area. Their actual town, Arrohateck, was actually another 4 miles upstream  and contained several hundred people. These structures are recreations of semi permanent building, 'Yehawkans', the natives would of built out of poles and woven reed or grass matting.

There were several of these wooden sculptures scattered among the native houses. Never did find out what the significance of them was, but they were eerily compelling for some reason.

Inside one of the homes with wooden benches covered over with animal skins and a nice wood fire in the center of each. It seemed very cozy to me the day I was there as it was quite windy and cold outside.

Wooden and ceramic bowls and pots along with gourd and turtle shell utensils.

A few of the chickens roaming the site. Had to stop and have a little 'chicken time' with the girls and their friend.

Canoe construction would of been a useful thing to know because of all of the rivers, streams and bays in the area. It still boggles my mind that you can cut down and hollow out a huge old oak or pine tree using nothing but fire, stone axes, sharpened bones and antlers and a few clam shells. I guess anything is possible if you have a lot of time and you don''t know any other way of doing it.

You never really think about how labor intensive an activity like building a fence all around a couple hundred acres would be until you come across something that reminds you. A great idea for using up the outside edges of logs for a useful purpose other than just for firewood. I like the wood pins to hold it all together.

   A wonderful couple of days and nights dancing in the NW woods of N. Carolina at Camp Seratoma. It was 'Spring Dance Romanace' weekend and the lineup for the dance could not of been better. For music there were two top tier bands playing, both Hotpoint String Band and Notorious are near the top of most peoples lists, add in that each one of them had Pokey sitting in on percussion and they both become even better. On the calling side you have George Marshall and Diane Silver sharing the duties and it is hard to find two better callers anywhere. So from the first dance on Friday night until the last one a few hours ago it has been a great weekend.

    I got there early on Friday afternoon and parked the rig out on the highway and walked in to see about a new place to park it for the weekend. Lucky for me I ran into the camp caretaker who said it would be fine for me to park along side the road just inside the gate to the highway. Plenty of room to pull off there and not to far of a walk to all the activities. It only took a short amount of time to set up and get everything ready for the weekend. I had a guest staying with me this weekend, Cathy, from Nashville, had asked if it would be okay if she stayed in the trailer instead of the cabins because the cabins leave a lot to be desired. So she got the usual deal I give to anyone who wants to stay, she got the bed and the front part of the trailer and I rode the couch for the two nights of the dance. By the way, that's the same deal everyone gets, unless you're a guy, in which case I get the bed and you get the couch. Which is actually quite comfortable since I take a lot of naps there on it.

    The first night started out hot right from the first. Lots of people at the dance that I have met over the years, so it was fun to see and dance with all of the women and say hello to all the men. A bit of an after dance party, but most people are usually pretty tired on Friday nights so it didn't last much past 1:30 in the morning.

    I slept in late on Saturday and Cathy and I had a pleasant brunch there in the trailer. Spent some time wandering around in the afternoon and took a few pictures of the 'squares' session that was going on. But mostly I just read my book and took another really nice nap.

      Saturday nights dance exceeded so many expectations. Hot music and calling and dancers that were having so much fun. The first 3 hours went by way to fast even though my feet, legs and lower back were starting to wear out by the end of that session. Afterwards they had a techno contra that went on for another 2 hours and then some 'Blues Dancing' after that. I didn't stay for most of that opting instead for a more traditional after dance party of alcohol and conversation. Lot's of wine and beer and even a bit of Steven's home brewed Bourbon. He has found a way somehow to make what looks and tastes like 15-20 year old bourbon in less than a year. It is really good stuff and he is nice enough to share a bunch of it with everyone when ever he goes to a dance. It is certainly potent though.

     It was nearly 3:00 a.m. this morning when the last of the party finally broke up. It didn't take long to walk back to the trailer and curl up on the couch. I was out like a light in less than 5 minutes. Would of been a great sleep except that somewhere around 6:00 the propane alarm started it's infernal screeching. I knew there was no propane leak having had this problem once before. Instead it goes off whenever the batteries get so low that there isn't enough left for anything in the trailer to work. Unfortunately the only way to get the alarm to stop is to charge up the battery, ie, go out and turn on the truck. As it was cold, dark and raining I refused to go out there in my skivvies and slippers so I opted for Plan 'B'.... throw all the clothes, blankets and assorted other things I could find on top of it and try to drown it out. It actually worked well enough to let me get back to sleep, but it was annoying enough that I didn't sleep very late.... that though was probably a good thing anyway.

     Some cereal and hot tea/coffee for breakfast and it was time to go up for the last dance session of the weekend. Both bands joined forces for the whole 3 hours and it was a truly amazing amount of music. It is hard to believe how fast the time went as we were having so much fun. Today was one of those days when everything just clicks. The music is fast and intense, the calling is tight and the dances flowing and the dancers are just functioning on pure energy. Brain cells were probably dieing by the millions as we were all so tired, but the endorphins had to be flowing through everyone at such a rate that we all just kept having fun until the very last note of the very last dance was played. Even the band members were up there on stage dancing and singing and playing like demons.

    Totally drained afterwards of course and even a bit of a let down. Hard to say goodby to some good friends whom I may not see for some time again. The nice thing though is knowing that eventually I'll run into them all again and once again be able to dance and have fun with them all.

  Right now though it is time to get back on the road again. Will only go until the next rest area because I'm pretty wiped out right now. A couple hours of reading maybe and then some much needed sleep. Will head on to Fayettville sometime in the morning where I'll check in to my usual RV park and start getting ready for the next dance. Lot's to still see in that area also, so I'll be looking for new things to do while there.
    

    Today was a good day to pretty much do nothing. Granted, I did actually get up, ate breakfast, lunch and even dinner, but there was no real effort made to do anything that would be considered 'constructive'. Though why anyone who is retired would ever worry about that anyway is beyond me. Instead I spent the morning doing my regular routine of breakfast, comics, email and the crossword puzzle before hitting the couch for a couple of hours of book reading followed by a short nap.

    After lunch, soup and a sandwich I got the bike out of the truck, pumped up the tires, filled a couple of water bottles and took off on a nice exploration of the park here where I'm camped. It is huge by any measure and it did mean doing a little highway riding in order to get to other roadways. Still it was awfully fun to be out on a gorgeous spring day. Clear blue sky, a temp around the mid 70's and hardly any humidity. It was a fun couple of hours even if I am now suffering from a bad case of saddle soreness. A couple Advil and staying off the bike for the next couple of days ought to help with that.

    Will be packing up and moving on early tomorrow. It will only be 150 +/- miles or so to Camp Seratoma, but it will take me a good 3-4 hours to get there because of all the tight roadways. The dance will start tomorrow night at 8:00 like usual, but I need to be there a bit early to see about finding a new place to park Esmerelda. A friend of mine, Cindy, emailed me a bit ago with some new information about a whole parking lot I knew nothing about last year. It would be so nice to have a place to park there close to the dance, as last year I ended up camping off site. Even though it was only a couple of miles away it still meant having to give up on most of the after dance events. Maybe this year I'll be in a position to stay and listen to some music and talk to a few more friends.

   I decided to start posting photo's again tonight as I get back into the swing of things. I am re posting the first 24 pictures in this set as it has been so long since I first posted them that adding new photo's from the same group would no longer make any sense. So here are the first batch of 24 with their original comments as well as a whole bunch of new ones. There will still be a couple more postings from this group but it may be a couple of days before those are ready to go. In the mean time enjoy these.

Henricus Historical Park near Richmond Virginia - March 2013




View from the front gate of Henricus Fort the 2nd European settlement in the 'New World'. Named after the son of King James I of England it was founded in 1611 when over 300 men and boys came up the James River nearly 80 miles from the first U.S. European settlement, Jamestown. Built on an ox-bow of the river they built the first palisade across the 'neck' of land while under attack from the native Powhatan tribe.



This would of been the main guard shed. Meant to house as many as 8-10 men it was built, (this is a re-creation, as are all of the buildings), of hand hewn wooden posts and beams with the posts set directly into the earth. The spaces between the posts was then filled in with 'wattle and daub', interwoven wood strips with an adobe like material applied to them. Add a thatched roof out of native reeds and you had a pretty cozy house. At least until the snow fell anyway.



I took this photo mostly because of the arrow quiver which I noticed was made out of native reeds set in a tube shape and bound with strips of leather. I thought it looked not only serviceable but rather elegant too.



The inside of the guard shack showing one of the bunks and the fireplace. Made out of wattle and daub also, it was interesting to note how wide and deep it was and how this size narrowed only a little bit as it rose above the floor. This had to be a real heat loser in the winter time, but maybe they were tougher back then. Note the cylindrical objects in the lower right.... these held individual charges for the men's muskets. Each would hold a bullet, cloth patch and enough powder for one charge.



A view of the other end of the cabin. With 8-10 men living here it often meant 'hot bunking', where the guys coming off duty would take the bed of the next guy going on duty. I guess it's one way to have a warm bed when you need it.

A piece of metal in the shape of one of the soldiers armoured breast plates. It shows the effects of being shot at various distances with a standard 52 cal. round ball. In no case did the ball actually pass through, but it still would of hurt like crazy. Guess it's better than being dead.

A close up view of the thatching used on many of the roofs.



One last view of the guard building.

The blacksmith shop where all things metal were either created or repaired. Another neat old post and beam constructed building.

Very 'rough' carpentry in all of the buildings, but still good enough to do what they are meant to do and still stand up to the elements reasonably well. Here we see several different mortise and tenon joints and the wooden pegs that joined them together.



On the other side of the road is the carpentry shop where today the carpenter was building a foot operated treadle lathe. It always astounds me what you can build given a few basic tools, some wood and a lot of time.



A little patch of forget-me-nots.



A reproduction of a Plantation House, this would of been typical of many homes around 1618 for most Virginians. Most of the Gentry and Yeoman would of been growing Spanish Tobacco as a cash crop. In addition there would of been large kitchen and herb gardens for each family. Herbs would of been used not only as seasonings for food but also for medicinal properties as well as a source for fragrances and dyes.

Inside the house would be the main room with the large fireplace. Today there was a pot of soup on for lunch as well as a dutch oven filled with cornbread. I found out from Melinda that one of the reasons for the large fireplace chimney was so that whole hams and other hunks of meat could be hung inside and smoked while the daily routine was accomplished.

One last look at the yeoman cottage and the 2-seater outhouse along side. Oh how I remember the one my family had until I turned 6 and moved to Denver and civilization.

One of the many barns on the place. This one was used in multiple ways including as a drying shed for tobacco leaves.

I kind of fell in love with this little handmade feeding trough. A couple roughed out boards for the sides and bottom and 4 legs from some type of oak tree with the bark shaved off of them and tenoned into the bottom 2"x bottom boards.

Inside the barn you can see some of the tobacco crop still hung on the rafters to dry over the winter. Another example of a nice post and beam constructed building.

Looking at the other end of the barn and showing some of the rafters and rafter ties and the joints binding them altogether.

Just something about this pile of stuff appealed to me. I love the handmade ladder with it's let-in rungs and thick members. I also like the little 3-legged feeding trough with legs that appears to be carved out of one large piece of a tree trunk.

Some hay storage, drying tobacco and farm implements.

Some home made water tight wooden barrels. Not having much access to metal, except for the little bit they had brought with them, they had to improvise with materials at hand. I was surprised to see the wooden lathes holding the ends of the barrels together. It evidently worked though.

Looking at the other end of the barn you can see one of the goats, Dolly, laying down in her feed trough. The other one, Grasshopper, was there too and both were very friendly.

The family pig, Buttercup. Though she looks a lot like a pot bellied pig, she is actually an old world breed like ones they would of been raising during that period in time. Not only would she have much fattier, and tastier, meat than pigs these days, she would of had a large quantity of lard which would of been useful in many things including; baking goods, soap and candle making and as a lubricant, among other things. She would of also been able to forage better than many of the breeds grown now.