Another beautiful day in Floyd yesterday. My morning was taken up with my usual routine, reading, doing the crossword, checking e-mail etc. I was done before noon and headed off to the town of Riner to have lunch with Rima. We had buffalo quesadillas' and ice tea out on the front porch and watched the cars pull in and out of the gas station next door.
    I stopped at the lumber yard on the way back to the farm and picked up another load of wooden fence posts. Seems that I worked my way through the first set with only one more to set in the section of fence I have been working on. Unfortunately this one post took longer than 3 of the regular ones as I had to first dig out the old one which was nearly rotted through at the ground line, and then put the other one in and tighten it up. To make it worse, this one was located in a corner so it had stresses from two directions at once. The digging was the hard part, but the old post finally came out. Dug the old hole out another 8 inches deeper and then got the new post stuck into it. Ended up having to back the truck up close to it an hook on to the post with a strap and 2 ton come-along in order to winch it up straight and level. Got the dirt packed back in around the base of it, but will still need to install a corner brace before it will stand up straight to the pull of the fence.
   Still.... it was a good afternoons work and I was ready to quit by the time the sun was going down. Just had time to grab a bite to eat, say hello to Rima when she got home and then go to bed.
   Will be working on the fence a little bit more today, trying to get that last fence post completed and standing up straight. In the meantime though... I'm headed into Floyd to do lunch with Rima again. What can I say... I like to eat, and I like to spend time with my sweetie. There is always plenty of time to sweat out in the hot sun.
     But for right now... here are a few more photo's that I got fixed up last night.

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

How's this for a parade? Here we have several different pairs of animals created from different materials. Many of them are formed from some color of carved jade including the two horses right in front. Others are ceramic and there may even be a pair that are painted wood, though I could not determine that. 

Here are two more exquisite horses created completely from carved onyx, another variation of jade. 

These two camels were just gorgeous with their green jade bodies and other carved stone accents. 

These are Phoenixes carved completely out of green jade. They stand at least 5' tall.  

The tail end of the parade and some beautifully painted ceramic and possibly wood animals. Hard to tell without being able to touch them. 

Another large carved piece made out of red jade. 

This ivory carving was remarkable for its sheer size and detail. Note how it had to be placed under a dome in the roof in order to get it all in. As it is I think it must be well over 10 feet tall. I couldn't believe it was placed out in the middle of an aisle where everyone could brush by or touch it. The temptation was there of course.... but we didn't.

Another one of those things you see, but just can't believe are real. This matched set of urns are made of carved onyx and have to be 7' to 8' tall. 

There was one display case of ivory carved figurines that were stunning. All of them had some type of unusual theme or an everyday event occurring in them. This one with the balanced acrobat really caught your eye.

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