Pretty quiet since my last post. Last night was certainly beautiful, took a short drive last night out and about the local forested area in search of critters. Saw quite a few deer of course, as well as a couple wild turkeys and a couple of cow elk. Seems like every local farmer/rancher decided it was a good day to cut hay yesterday as all the fields where the grass had been nearly waist height were suddenly all mowed and waiting for the baling machine.

   Kind of surprised that I'm not seeing 'more' animals out and about, as I often have seen hundreds of each on a 1-2 hour drive. But guess it makes sense in a way, the nights have been nice and warm and with enough of a moon that they don't have to come out until after dark. There has also been enough rain lately that there are standing puddles of water everywhere so they don't have to visit any of the regular watering holes. Then on top of it all, I think the hen turkeys are all still sitting on their eggs and the deer and elk were late in dropping their fawns and calves this spring, as I'm not seeing any of them yet. Did see a couple of nice bucks last night, though so far their antlers are still not very far along in their development.

   No rain last night so I didn't get a chance to see if my latest roof patch will have any effect on my leak inside the trailer. Found some new butyl backed duct tape last time I was in the hardware store and decided to give it a try. Certainly went on well and it seemed likely to stick to everything, even going down the road at 65 mph. Really hope this solves the problem, I'm really getting tired of hanging a umbrella upside down over the bed. :)

   Another wonderful summer day here this morning. Took a road trip over to the Agate Fossil Bed National Monument earlier this afternoon. Had been there once before a couple of years ago, but I still find stuff like that to be fascinating. Checked out all the displays of long dead and extinct rhino's, camels and dire wolves as well as this other kind of wolf like predator that was actually related to modern day pigs. Looked more like, and about the same size as, a lion to me. But I guess it is some extinct kind of pig-dog. Also hiked out to the old fossil beds and looked around a bit out there. Really not much to see out there as far as the 'dig' itself, but the view of the surrounding hills and prairie are worth the hike.

   Back down and around the southern edge of the area and back through the towns of Wilford and Berea. That town sure doesn't look anything like the town of Berea in Kentucky, that's for sure. Going to head on back to the campground in a little bit and then wait for it to cool down a little bit so I can go take a bike ride. It hasn't been that exciting of a day so far, but it has certainly been a fun day.

    Here are some additional pictures, (15), from my visit to the Boldt Castle in New York state a couple of weeks ago. The first 17 pictures were posted last night so you might want to check them out also.

Boldt Castle on Heart Island near Alexandria New York 

June 3, 2013

The formal dining room with the original Boldt family dining room table and chairs. There are not many original family artifacts or effects in the castle, but some family members and other friends who ended up with bits and pieces have donated some of them.

A close up view of the carved legs on the dining room table. Boldt would of chosen furniture and other decorations to go with his overall theme of a Rhineland style castle. I think he picked very well in this case.

A carved wooden panel on a buffet in the dining room. I am not sure if this piece originally belonged to the Boldt's of not, but it certainly went with the rest of the décor.

One other carved wooden panel.

Back in the atrium with the staircase, you can see one of the doors that leads to the staircase to the basement. All of this work is new and superb in it's execution. Here, if you look close, you can see the only real defect I noticed in any of the work. At the top of the custom made door, on the inside, you can see where one of the joints has come apart very slightly. Most likely because the wood they used to build it wasn't quite dry enough when they put the door together. Otherwise everything else is pretty much perfect.

Looking up at the ceiling on the 2nd floor. Note the plaster work on the column and around the edge of the opening for the atrium.

A closer look at the ceiling and some of the 'wedding cake' plaster work that was done.

Heading into the grand ballroom you have a piano.

At one end of the ballroom in it's own little niche is this working pipe organ. The ballroom itself was just to large to photograph, but I would guess that it would hold well over 250 dancers at any one time.

One corner of the ceiling in the grand ballroom.

The sitting room/library. I don't know who they have doing the research and buying of period appropriate colors, material and furniture, but who ever it is, is damn good at what they do.



Another view of the library. Notice the ceiling plaster and the custom built mantel and bookcases. In the distance you can see one small part of the grand ballroom.

A close up view of some of the carving on the custom made fireplace mantel.

Over the main stair case, out in the atrium, is this wonderful stain glass dome. Again, this is a reproduced version of the original as nothing was left of it other than some plans and a few small pieces of glass. It is at least 20-25 feet on each side.

And because I'm an engineer, and this kind of stuff fascinates me, here is the supporting framework holding up that stain glass dome.

    More photo's to follow in a day or two.