Josie and Ryley on Wheels

Friday with Josie and Ryley

Above: Josie's Preschool. It was a wear-green day.

Left: Ryley reading inside the tent, which was set up in the living room.

Hazel Lou's Necklace

A Navajo squash blossom necklace that belonged to my grandfather's sister or her daughter is up for auction on ebay. Starting price is $1800.

The Humphrey Museum in Colorado inherited Hazel Lou's vast collections and sells a few pieces at times to raise money. Hazel Lou was the daughter of Grandfather's sister Hazel Harry Hammer and her husband newspaper publisher Lucius Humphrey.

Family Tree of D. Harry Hammer on this site
Humphrey Family History on the museum's site

What are YOU Looking At?

I haven't posted a squirrel picture in a while so I processed this one from last year.

Crows in a Tree

How much is that prescription?

The gastroenterologist in Winchester prescribed an antibiotic for me today. (Don't worry folks, bacterial dysbiosis is not contagious.) I had a coupon from CVS that gave me a $25 gift card with a filled prescription, so on my way home I stopped there to get the prescription filled.

After a 15 minute wait, I went to the counter to pick up the tetracycline. The clerk said it was $123! Wow! I asked her how much the insurance had paid (thinking they had made a mistake).

She checked the computer and conferred with a pharmacist. "You can save money by getting the capsules instead of the tablets." Okay, let's do that.

About two minutes later she brought me the revised prescription. "That'll be $4.53."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

Turns out the capsules are on the preferred list. I didn't ask the particulars but I was relieved to get a bargain. And I got my $25 gift card, so I came out of the store with a profit!

Website notes

Last night I revised the Spiritual Singles Calendar and made updates on Javins.com. (The latter is one of my personal sites - Javins was my last name for 38 years.) For Javins relatives, I republished the genealogical comments which used to reside on AOL's homepage servers (which no longer provide web space to members).

Both Spiritual Singles and Javins.com have been hosted on Virtual Avenue for quite a few years.

Driveway Repair

Our driveway is on a fairly steep hill so eventually it gets ruts. We got a new load of gravel today from Macanie Trucking, the same company that does our snow removal.

The driver dumped and spread the gravel, then ran over it with the truck to pack it down. It looks much improved.

Palmer Marker, Port Republic

This marker stands in front of the park on the South River at Port Republic, VA. Next to the picture below (of the periwinkle-covered foundation) is the text of the sign.

Palmer Lot at Middle Ford
Ford was site of Jackson's temporary bridge

Parallel to South River is seen the bed of the lower millrace which brought water power to several village industries. The Galliday Tannery was located on the far left; the Dundore/Downs Tannery on the adjoining property on the right. The Robert Waller Palmer house, known as Green Isle, stood between the race and the river. Its foundation, now covered by periwinkle, exceeds the measurement of sixteen by sixteen feet, the minimum allowed size of houses built on the first lots sold in the newly chartered town of 1802.

The ell-shaped limestone foundation near Water Street remains from the mid-nineteenth century house, store and post office of Palmer's son, John. An 1837 invoice describes his merchandise as "French, English, German and American Fancy Goods."

On the site was a slab bridge over the millrace which led to the middle ford of the South River. On June 8, 1862, Union soldiers under Col. Samuel Sprigg Carroll invaded the village by fording South River and cross the bridge. After the Federal invasion had been repelled, Confederates hurriedly constructed a temporary bridge during the night of June 8-9. Captain Claiborne R. Mason's African-American engineer troops performed the difficult job by dragging wagon beds into the flood-swollen river by means of a complicated pulley system, putting rocks atop the wagons, and then fastening lumber together to provide a precarious walkway. The next day Confederate soldiers, hurrying into the Battle of Port Republic raging just downstream, crossed gingerly. Eventually the temporary bridge broke down, leaving many obliged to wade through the deep water, holding their weapons and ammunition up to keep them dry.

Across the street are the Town Hall and the James Patterson log house built in the early 1800s. Patterson's home was later owned by Marshall Jones, the first freed African-American in Port. Also visible are some of the oldest remaining structures in the village.

Port Republic: Two 19th-Century Buildings

These buildings are across from the park on the South River in Port Republic, VA.

Above we see the old Town Hall.

To the right is the James Patterson log house. It was later owned by Marshall Jones, the first free African-American to be recorded as an occupant in the town.

You can search this blog for other pictures of Port Republic, or just look at the BRCC Field Trip to Port Republic.

Marie and Marie

Marie Alice and Marie Ellen

Lynn and I drove up to Alexandria today to meet Marie at the Metro Station. That's our Marie on the right. Next to her is her longtime friend, the other Marie. They were best friends in high school and later roommates in Jersey City. Then they each bought a fixer-upper condo in the East Village. Each later sold at a nice profit.

We were also joined at lunch by Lynn's longtime friend Teresa.

Marie Javins's blog

Cows at Liberty Furnace

We were driving along route 717 in western Shenandoah County a few months ago when we saw cattle grazing at Liberty Furnace. It's a charming location so we stopped the car and took a couple of pictures.

Liberty Furnace, now privately owned, was the site of an iron ore operation in the 19th century. According to a Forest Service article, " there were several essentials for the location of a furnace found in the Valley -- an adequate supply of iron ore and limestone, sufficient waterpower to turn a water wheel that operated a bellows for the fire, and an abundance of timber for charcoal that was the fuel for smelting the iron ore." The article also tells us that Liberty Furnace was burned (but not totally destroyed) during the Civil War. Nearby Columbia Furnace was burned three times by Union forces!

Liberty Furnace is on the side of Great North Mountain between Wolf Gap Road and Jerome. I included it on a Basye area tour map last year.

See also my pictures of Elizabeth Furnace

Looking at the 3-D Atlas

Lynn has assembled a collection of pictures of folks reading the 3-D World Atlas and Tour by Marie Javins. Peggy posed for a photo complete with the goofy-looking glasses that make the 3-D pictures stand out.

Thanksgiving 2008

Top Row: Me, Allison, Peggy, Lynn
Bottom Row: Benny and Frank

Left-hand photo: Peggy and Barbara

We had a nice turkey dinner with the usual fixings except stuffing, which I forgot to cook.

We missed the presence of Marie and Dave, who were unable to make it. Peggy brought her friend Barbara.

The Plus Side of Cold Weather

The early cold weather has enabled Bryce Resort to cover the ski slopes with snow earlier than usual. So the Ski Season will open tomorrow, 11/28/2008.

Photo of my Mom in 1986

I always miss my mother on holidays. Since I stayed in Virginia after I grew up, I always saw her and my dad on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This is a picture I took of her in 1986. I needed to take a picture for a photography class and she was kind enough to pose for me.

Earlier Post: Eleanor In her Youth

Forty Years Ago

Marie and Lynn in 1968

Update on Scamp

We called Martha from Sheltie Rescue to see how Scamp is doing. He was out playing in the yard with her shelties. She said he is doing great.

They plan to place him in a forever home with a fenced yard where he can romp. She indicated before that they do not like to place shelties in yards with invisible fences because an active dog will sometimes cross the fence, oblivious to the shock while intent on chasing something. Scamp likes to chase squirrels and other dogs.

We're glad that he is adjusting well. Meanwhile, Ben's behavior has improved and he is back to being his old self - pouty but tolerably quiet.

Happy Birthday to Lynn

Today in Harrisonburg, VA

I met Lynn for lunch to celebrate her birthday. We also did a bit of shopping, mostly looking at cell phones.

The picture on the left is from 40 years ago. Friends Ronnie and Donnie are sitting outdoors with Marie and Lynn.

A Clock on Javins.com

I checked my site statistics for Javins.com (a site I've had a long time but haven't done much with in recent years). I learned that:

1. Most visitors type in the URL or use a bookmark
2. 5% of the visitors come through searching Google
3. Less than 1% come through Yahoo and Ask Jeeves
4. A similar number come through a blog in Spain called Bitter and Turbulent.

The fourth one surprised me. I checked it out and found out that the writer linked to this clock picture that I posted in 2000 after our trip to Paris.

The giant clock is on the exterior wall of the Musée D'Orsay but I photographed it from the inside. The Musée D'Orsay is a wonderful place, once an ornate train station and now an art museum.

By the way, I checked on what folks are finding on my pages through Google and many of them are looking for Harpers Ferry and John Brown's Raid. I need to redo that page and move it to CivilWarFieldTrips.com. In the meantime, here's a view of Harper's Ferry (below) taken from Maryland Heights. The walk up to the lookout point is fairly steep so even though I'd like to redo that shot on a sunny day, I doubt that I'll force myself up that trail to do it.