Finished up my first piece of fence repair yesterday afternoon. Only another couple of miles of fence to go now. Granted, it was only a couple hundred feet of fence, but it meant setting all new fence posts, each at least 3 feet into the ground, and then taking the old fencing and stretching it, one strand at a time, adjusting many of the vertical stays, and then reattaching it all to the new posts with new fence staples.  Whew! The best part of it all was being able to plant 5 new grape vines along the new fence. Perhaps there will even be grapes in a year or two.
    I was just finishing up the last fence nail when the dump truck with a load of gravel for the driveway showed up. He was only 3.5 hours late, but he at least made it finally and once he had dumped his load it looked a lot better than it had been. Of course there is still a need to go out and rake out a few places where it was dumped thicker than normal, or where more gravel is needed.
    Once the gravel was raked enough to keep someone from getting high centered, it was time to head into town as I had planned for the day. We were in need of some food in the house again and there were a couple other items that I needed to get done. For instance, I needed a couple keys for a padlock that I need to use again. While there I found that I could also get a new truck ignition key made while there, and it was only going to cost me a bit less than $70. A steep price for sure, but less than half of the price I was quoted when I originally bought the truck many years ago.
    Got a load of groceries and then went out and had a quick bite to eat, as somehow I had managed to miss lunch. It was only a quick meal and then it was back on the road for home again. Nearly made it there too, except that I got a call from Rima right as I was turning on to the dirt road to the house. Something large and metallic thing had just fallen off of her car while she was driving in town. Not sure what the part was as I never actually saw it, but I did turn around and go rescue her. Kind of like a slightly rusty knight on my trusty mechanical steed.
    Since she actually made it home before 9:30, we settled in and watched a couple episodes of the 'Big Bang Theory' show. Yup.... she's hooked on it now, so we usually manage to watch an episode or two on most evenings. It's a nice way to unwind after a long, busy day.
     Going to finally try and get my income tax done today. Had to have my friend in Colorado dig through my mail and fax me some stuff  I ended up needing after all. Still need to dig out one set of figures from my bank yet, but that should be a pretty easy thing to do. Once done with, then there is still more gravel to rake and trees to trim. There is always something out there to do.
     For now though.... the last set of pictures from my visit to the Belz Museum in Memphis a couple weeks ago.

Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art in Memphis Tennessee March 2014

     

A group of carved jade and ivory boats.

A close up of one of the carved jade ships. Just look at the detail they managed to carve into solid rock.

Another marvelous ship model, this one out of carved ivory.

Yet another dragon boat design made out of jade.

One last ivory dragon boat. Check out the scales, tail and even the waves that are carved out of ivory.

An extra large ivory sculpture. I'm not really sure what the theme of it is... there wasn't anything explaining the big round, Death Star, kind of thing. But the detail of all the trees, birds and buildings was pretty cool.



Some of the detail from the last sculpture.

One last close up.

Unfortunately most of the photo's I took over in the Judaic art section didn't turn out very well because of the dim light, but there were a few interesting things in that section. Here you see a couple of bronze sculptures depicting all the books in the original Jewish history. Also known as the Old Testament

A 'Violano Virtuoso' a machine produced by the Mills Company, circa 1920. It is remarkable in that it is a combination of a finely tuned 64 note violin and a 44 key piano. It is said that it could play to perfection many complex and up tempo arrangements that even orchestras would not attempt to play. Mostly though, it was invented to take the place of having to hire and pay orchestras to play. I would of liked to have heard it play. 

A few final photo's of downtown Memphis and Beale Street. I just liked this sign for some reason.

Looking west along Beale street.

Another view looking east.

Finally, one of the electric trolley cars the city uses for its rapid transit system.

*