NeverSeconds: Double pasta!

NeverSeconds: Double pasta!: Since my blog became well read we have had a special visitor at school who wears a white coat and hair net. She looks at my food when I am w...

Ex-barn - Manor Twp., PA

The remains of a barn being torn-down on the property near my workplace, supposedly for rebuilding elsewhere, (although it's been in a semi-deconstructed state for some time). I took some pre and mid-demolition photos, (including one showing a plastered wall where, "Isaac" and another man had written their names and a mid-1700s date).

Hans Graf Cemetery - Marietta, PA

Located just-around the corner from my home lies an old graveyard. Etched in the side, "In the God's Acre Lie the Descendants of Hans Graf". It's unique in that it's elevated- the graves may be above ground level.

Local superstition regards this area as a hazard... While I don't usually side with the non-critical thinker, I'll concede that circling the stone perimeter backward five times is likely to result in head injury. And as for the spirit of a barking dog, the live ones in the neighborhood are louder.

It's on private property, and growth of vegetation is leading to degradation of the stones, (I can see a change in the 1.5 years I've lived in the area). So I thought it wouldn't hurt to lean-over the perimeter and get a few photos...

Further down the lane, a dilapidated barn bears the name of it's builders- are they in the cemetery?

He Done What He Could

I noticed a familiar phrase in Marietta Cemetery... (There's a stone in the Edgar, Nebraska cemetery where many of my relatives are buried- the dead ones... "She done what she could.")

I googled it- it's Mark 14:1-8.

Low Water on the Susquehanna

The level of the Susquehanna River's been very low recently in the Mount Wolf/northern Marietta vicinity. A week ago last Friday I walked to the boat dock and noticed people climbing on the rocks in the center of the river. I assume they'd taken a boat, but found a way to access the area a short distance to the south.

Much ground we exposed- I could walk at least 20 yards downriver. I found coal, weathered glass, driftwood, a (horse?) tooth...

Shed Hunting

I make at least one formal foray yearly into Lancaster's County Park for shed hunting reasons. While I've yet to find an antler there- I've learned from the experience.

What can you do with an antler? I suppose you might make buttons, a chandelier, or a very small rake...

It's interesting the way antlers are shed- after a skin membrane grows-across the interior base, eliminating the blood supply that had fed the velvet.

There's more to this than a knack for foraging...

Snow Geese at Middlecreek

My friend Janet called last Sunday morning to ask if I'd like to view the snow geese on their migration stop at Middlecreek Wildlife Management Area. In the spirit of, "Yes Man", I went along.

Our guess at the lake's goose population was approximately correct, (55,000 snow geese estimated 2/22/'12 per the Pennsylvania Game Commission's web site), plus a number of longer-necked tundra swans, (which kept to themselves).

Janet noticed one of the geese was banded with a wide yellow collar. Another appeared to have a broken wing, (yet lifted with the rest when the flock decided to move).

Later we went back to Janet's place and roasted a chicken.