Safely in Canada

All did not go according to plan with my flights, but I figure it could have been a lot worse. I had to change gates 3 times in Atlanta, which isn't so unusual, even if they were on 3 different concourses. Minneapolis/St. Paul was the problem. The weather was getting bad with rain and sleet by the time I flew in, and by the time I left it was worse with snow and ice. The weatherman was predicting between 4-8" of snow!

We were an hour late boarding the plane, and sat on it another hour waiting our turn to have the plane de-iced before we could take off. I was way over two hours late getting to Winnipeg, but considering some of the recent traveling messes, and some of our past travel glitches, I figure that was pretty tame.

Yesterday we were kind of laid back, and I recovered somewhat from a long day of flights and sitting in airports. I read an entire book before I even got to Minneapolis (452 pages!), so I had time to people watch. Airports are even better than malls for people watching. At malls you have mostly an indigenous population, but in airports the people are literally from all over the world. Different languages, shoes, clothing, luggage... it's interesting to sit and watch all the people rushing by.

My favorite was a young man with a foot high Mohawk died several different colors. Wish I'd had my camera available! It reminded me of the joke about the old dude watching this young fellow with a multi-colored Mohawk. The young guy spouted off, "What's the matter old man, you never seen anything like me before?" To which the elderly gentleman replied... "Well actually, I fooled around once with a peacock when I was younger, and I was just wondering if you were my son."

Which reminds me of the old saying:
OLD AGE AND TREACHERY ALWAYS TRIUMPH OVER YOUTH AND BEAUTY!

Seven Things Tag!

Robin of Seasons Eating Farm has tagged me. If not replying causes dire consequences, I guess I’d better not risk it. I can foresee vet bills, frozen buckets of water, and gadzooks, even MORE guineas wandering around. (The Farmer is trying to see how many we can raise…. don’t even ask how much feed they’re consuming!)

The idea is to post seven little known weird facts about yourself. Hey, everything about me is weird! How am I supposed to choose a measly seven????

Okay, here are the first things that come to mind:

1. Hyperfocusing is my modus operandi. Thank A.D.D. for that.
2. My parrot thinks I’m her mate or her mother, Im not sure which.
3. I like to watch anime and play VGA Planets (blame my boys).
4. When I was a little kid I used to have a pet turkey that followed me around.
5. My living room has items in it from not only the US, but stuff friends have sent me from Canada, China, Japan, Kuwait, England, and various counties in Africa. My favorites are an original painting of a Tuareg dwelling in the desert (the Tuareg are a nomadic people in northern Africa) and a picture worked in leather of a shepherdess and sheep in Mongolia.
6. I used to work in greenhouses in Pennsylvania, raising Poinsettias. During the day I helped with the plants. At night I stoked the furances with coal.
7. I once sewed up a tuxedo with tails, using black denim to make a working outfit for a chimney sweep. The top hat was bought seperately however!

I’ll even throw in a bonus fact – I am hopelessly geographically challenged and directionally impaired. As the saying goes, I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag.

If there's anyone out there reading this that hasn't been tagged already, "Tag! You're it!"

The Farmer's (Grand)Daughter

We have several grandchildren, and all are special. However, I must admit they're extra cute when they're little tykes like our youngest granddaughter shown here:


The Farmer's tractor seems to be great fun!

Big Muskie & The Wilds

We’re back from our journey through Tennessee and Kentucky, on into West Virginia, and even Ohio. We had a fine visit with my dad, sister and her family. Saturday we all went to Cambridge, Ohio, to see The Wilds, a nearly 10,000-acre wildlife conservation center.

The Wilds was created from land donated by the America Electric Power's Central Ohio Coal Company, which sounds very altruistic, but I suspect they got some tax advantages out of it, not to mention the fact they’d already mined it out. Now someone else has the job of finishing the reclamation of land ravaged by surface mining, and this wasn’t your typical operation. Not by a long shot!

After normal draglines and power shovels had removed as much coal as possible, the company decided to build a unique piece of equipment called Big Muskie, the world’s largest walking dragline. This is a picture of Big Muskie in operation. Note the size of the "normal" machine below, and pay special attention to the size of the bucket in relation to the rest of Big Muskie.

It took them nearly two years to build Big Muskie on-site. When they were done, they had a monster machine weighing 27 million pounds, or as much as 13,500 cars. It was as wide as an eight-lane highway, with a 220-cubic-yard bucket that could move 325 tons of dirt in a single bite. That’s the equivalent of a two-story house!

This humongous dragline could take about one bucket bite per minute, moving 39-million pounds of material per hour. During its operating years, Big Muskie moved more than 4.8 million cubic yards of earth, which is nearly twice that moved to create the 40-mile long Panama Canal.

Talk about an extreme machine!

Remember how small the bucket looked in comparison to the rest of the machine??? Take a gander at how HUGE it really is! And to give you a even better idea, check out Scott, Maria and Caleb standing inside this bucket.... Once Big Muskie did its job, and the land was donated to International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals, The Wilds was created. It’s the largest preserve in North America for threatened and endangered species.

Not only are they working to preserve animals, but have some special challenges in reclaiming the land. Big Muskie was just so huge and monstrously heavy, that it along with other heavy machinery, compacted the surface so tightly that tree roots cannot penetrate the soil in some areas. There is an experimental section with various species of trees growing to see which thrives best. They were planted 20 years ago, and have made very little progress.
Nevertheless, the land is lush with growth, and has several beautiful lakes made when digging brought water to the surface. It’s now not only a gorgeous scenic area, but home to several native animals, and endangered species from all over the world as well.

They have buses or “open air safari” vehicles available to take you on tours through the open-range animal areas. You enter through a locked gate system reminiscent of Jurassic Park. The guides make jokes about it, informing you there are NO dinosaurs in the park.

However, there are lots of other interesting animals, along with a Mid-Sized Carnivore Conservation Center, a stop with feeders for giraffes, and many separate enclosures for different species. Our guide was quite knowledgeable about the different animals, and we spent an enjoyable 2 ½ hours riding the bus through the preserve.

We’re a diverse group, but we ALL enjoyed the tour. We saw animals I’d never even heard of before. It was a great trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone who happens to be traveling in the area.

I shot a LOT of animals. With a camera, of course! To see a slideshow with pictures of most of the species we saw, go HERE. There’s about 4 screens worth of photos. Just click on the top left picture and a new box will pop up to show bigger pics.

Big Muskie, The Wilds & FamilyFun! What a trip!