scary pics

These are late Halloween pics. the first is of Sadie. I don't think we've ever posted any pics of her since she lost her eye. In case you haven't heard, Dedie was at her dad's and Sadie came to close to Dedie's dad's dog, Boomer when he was eating a bone and he reached out and bit her on the face and popped her eye out. Dedie made a quick middle of the night trip to the vet hospital at Syracuse. But Sadie has adjusted and is doing fine. Here's the best she can do at looking scary.

And this second pic is of me. We spent a day masking and today I used an airless paint sprayer and primied all the new sheetrock in our house. I guess I could have worn a hat but with everything packed I didn't have one I wanted to ruin so my hair gathered a lot of paint dust. When it was time to come home I could hardly get my sweat shirt on, the hair stuck to the inside of the sweat shirt like velcro. Scary!

Snow in October!

Saturday it started snowing and continued through the night. Snow is not unusual in New York. The problem was that it came before the fall leaves had a chance to fall off the trees. So the snow stuck to the leaves and many branches and trees came down in the road and sometimes across power lines. We finally got power this evening (Monday) to the apartment where we are living while our house is being worked on but we still don't have power at the house. This first picture is to show that the sheetrockers/tapers are almost done. The others are of snow and or trees. The final shot is the apartment where we are living.

Moving forward

Things are moving along on our house. There has been a lot of work done inside. The plumbers, electricians & HVAC guys have all done their "rough in" and the stairs were put in this week. As soon as the sideing is done we'll do the insulation then be ready for sheetrock. But this week there have been some dramatic changes to the outside of the house as well. Here are before and after pictures and other miscellaneous pics.






Dedie prepainted the trim boards in the kitchen/great room area of the house.


Front door and new stairway (covered with cardboard to protect it).


Jonathan Castro, who's staying with us for a few weeks, helped Dedie hang the tile on the front of our fireplace. The mantle will be added later. It looks great!


A new rock retaining wall. The rocks were all along the fence line in the back of our property (we have a "never ending" supply). The labor was provided by a couple of men who did a great job.


A 90 foot long, 18 inch deep ditch Jonathan dug to run electrical conduit up to the shed. This is hard digging. Lot's of rocks. Way to go Jonathan!


A couple of weeks ago we split all this wood. The pile we split and stacked is two logs (36") deep, 6 ft high and 25 ft long. A "cord estimator" on the internet estimated 2.9 cord. The whole logs to the left are some we got recently that I'll split later.

West Point Bands Final Concert

Tonight was the final West Point music under the stars concert series and it was quite a show. But one of the first thoughts I had when I looked around was that it looked like an "over the hill" gang version of Woodstock.



The West Point bands are all professional soldiers who are permanently stationed at West Point to support the cadets by providing music for parades and drills and they also perform for the public as an extension of West Point and the Army.

The first group to perform was the "Hellcats" drum and bugle corp.
The narrator explained that many years ago drums and bugles were sounds that could be heard by soldiers above the noise of the battle and they played some of those bugle calls. It's amazing what they can do with an instrument witout any valves.



Then the Jazz portion of the West Point band performed.


Then the Concert Band


Then some members of the President's Own Army band from Washington D.C. performed some blue grass numbers. They were great!


Then the Concert Band performed their final number the 1812 Overture that was originally written to be accompanied by cannons at one point in the number. They had cannons and fireworks.


Then they played Stars and Stripes with more fireworks. I made a collage of several of the shots I got of the fireworks.

Roof's on

Roof's on & the doors are in and most the windows are in & the plummer's coming in this week.

the Purple Cow

Grandma Hunsaker taught elementary school for years.
Through the years it was common to see the following poem along with a picture (I improvised) on one of her bulletin boards.



THE PURPLE COW

by: Gelett Burgess (1866-1951)

NEVER saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

Moving along

The house is moving along. The first pic is from Monday, August 1 and the second from Friday August 5. Rain interrupted their work this week. The porticos (porch covernings) add a nice touch don't you think?

Church in the Bronx

Yesterday afternoon I drove down a typical street in the Bronx.


Along one side of the road is an underground parking lot ...



But this isn't an ordinary parking garage, it's parking for the Kingsbridge Ward church building. Actually few members park in the parking garage. Most walk or ride public transportation to church.



Further down the street is a cottage in a park where a famous American author and poet spent the last years of his life. His signature is posted on a sign by a park entrance (Edgar Allen Poe).



Here's the cottage. Notice what's in the background.



This is a better view of this side of the Kingsbridge church building.



The entrance on this street is protected by a steel door that stays down when not in use.



Here's the entrance with the door up (looks like the entrance to a typical church building).



And here's the Institute class I visited last night in the Kingsbridge building. It was Elder and Sister Cropper's last class. They go home tomorrow. Other called teachers and missionary couples will take their place in the important work of blessing the lives of the Young Single Adults in New York City.

A few more pics

A few more house pics. We were gone cabinet shopping Friday & Saturday so we'll post new pics tomorrow. Here's were they were before we left. Dedie was amazed at their fearlessness as they nailed boards way up high. She always remembers them in her prayers that they'll be safe.

Music Under the Stars

The West Point Band, adult army officers who serve at West Point to support the cadets, have a concert series in the summer on Sunday night called Music Under the Stars. It's great music in a great setting. Here's a pic of the Jazz Band, the Jazz Knights from a couple of weeks ago, and the Concert Band that performed tonight. Notice the great setting overlooking a bend in the Hudson River.