Back to the simple style

First good snow of the season now. I shot a short video and here it is, just click on the photo below and the short video will play. The ground is all white now, about an hour after I shot this video.

From Drop Box

Ohio Baldwin Christmas Slide Show

Here's a link to a slide show of our Christmas

Joan Owen Christmas Card

We got a Christmas card from Joan Owen and thought you might get a kick out of the info she shared with us:

"Hi - It was great to see you again Herb and renew old memories.  It was also great to meet and talk with out Kathy.

Would you be interested in a subscription for the American Welsh newspaper Ninnau?  Of course it is all in the English language - very few of us specak Welsh in America now.

Let me know and I'll get one for you."

and she wrote inside the card ... "Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd dda"

We/you, if you're interested may be able to subscribe to Ninnau online or buy an issue or two via your Kindle?

Have a Merry Christmas, (it's Thursday afternoon and I am done for the week now) Going to have "brunch" with Stu and Sara tomorrow (Friday) and then Christmas Eve here with David and family after candlelight church service to open some gifts and have chilled shrimp / crackers & cheese / wine

Christmas morning church service then back home and David and family coming again to have a traditional Christmas ham dinner with all the trimmings.

Trying back to the "Dynamic" blog style

Just looking for something new and not so boring, so I went ahead and changed back to the "dynamic" view.  To write a new post, you should see a small "pencil" graphic in the upper right hand corner.  Click on the pencil and this will open your post composition box.

You can also click on the tabs (upper left) and change dynamically the view of the posts.  I kind of like "magazine" view myself.

Was up to 60 degrees today but rainy, now the rain has stopped and down to 34 later tonight, so I've fired up the wood stove.

Continuing to cut up, split, and stack firewood couple times/week.

Kathy's job at Rite-Aid is going well, she enjoys it and between her 16 hours/week and her school retirement, the cash income is just about the same as when she was working full time at the school.

OK, going to go watch the national news now.  Nitey-Nite for now.  Hope you don't have any problems posting with the new design.

Sad Day for Stu & Sara

Here's what Stu wrote in an email earlier today:

"I once read something to the effect that the difference in life span between dog and man is one of the cruelest inequities in life. I am more painfully aware of it today than ever. I lost my little girl, my best friend yesterday. We put Kyla to sleep. Sara and Mom and I were with her in the end. She celebrated her 13th birthday last month and had a wonderful life with us. She was deeply loved and will be deeply missed. Kyla and I lived a lifetime together, and unfortunately for me, it was her lifetime and not mine."

Little Rosie Tea Cup

Kathy found this in a junk shop in town last week.  Does this look familiar?  We're thinking it's the same (or similar) to the pattern Mom had on display on one of her end tables?

First Snow in Mount Gilead

Here's our first snow of the season, November 30, 2011 looking out the front door to the driveway and beyond (see our new flagpole out there?)

Thanksgiving in Ohio (2011)

Well, Thanksgiving is over, we had David, Lisa, Shania and Garret along with the Akron kids on Thursday and then Sara and Stu along with Chuck and Dolores (our neighbors in back) came for leftovers Friday night.  We sent all the leftovers home with Stu and Sara and had "normal" food the rest of the weekend.

I have posted the pictures to Picasa and here is the link for you to click on and see them.  Baldwin Ohio Thanksgiving Pix You can click on each one individually or you can select the button that says "slide show" and see them full size for a few seconds each.

It's been a pretty "dry" month financially, but I have 3 closings today and tomorrow and got a nice listing "In Contract" over the weekend, so we should be OK through Jan or Feb ... and more will come in time.

Kathy is working at Rite-Aid 2 days/week and likes the job and the co-workers and her boss, but her foot is really bothering her (planter faciaitis sp?) and heel spurs.  Walking the dog (or walking at all) has become painful.

I found a used wooden storage "barn" and it's being delivered on Thursday, so we can move all the stored stuff from above the garage into this building so that I can get the room above the garage finished into a guest room so that when you guys come to visit you'll have appropriate accomodations!  It'll have it's own bathroom with shower, 2 bedrooms and an open kitchen/living area.  That way it can really serve as an apartment for someone on down the road, improving the resale value of the property.

I think that's it for now.  It has been raining for three days now, it's 50 degrees out.  Temp is heading down tonight and we will get our first flurries.  Colder later in the week, but at least the rain will stop soon - thankfully.

Take care, thanks for posting and we'll catch you all later!

Hello, Betsy shamed me into downloading my pictures and getting on the stick. Everyone was here for Thanksgiving. Ashley had to work until 3:30 p.m. and Bob likes to head back to Palm Coast before dark, so we started eating around 3:30 and Ashley caught up. The Lions were playing, but not winning so we could eat before it was over. Ryan and Tracy got here about 4:30 a.m. as Ryan worked until 2:30 a.m. and then they came here and went to bed. They woke up in time to eat and then shopped Black Friday from midnight until 7 a.m. Kyla stayed here the night as Darin and Ashley had to work on Friday. We decorated a gingerbread house. Friends came from Tampa on Saturday, we went out to dinner with them and our friend Howard who is in assisted living and then came back here to watch the Florida/Florida State game. Terry and Karen spent the night and left on Sunday morning just as Tracy and Ryan were returning to go to the Jags game with us. (They're a losing team!) Tracy had just gotten off work (7 p.m. -7 a.m.), but she stayed awake the whole game. They left about 8 p.m., didn't want to spend the night because Tracy has an accounting class on Monday mornings at 9 a.m. Today I am washing sheets and towels along with all the rest of the laundry I have been neglecting.

The boys helped Rick get the tree down from the attic on Thanksgiving, so it is in the living room, naked. I thought I might do a little this week, but all the stuff is still up in the attic. Rick had an MG club meeting last night and he goes to Tampa for a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday through Saturday. We are joining some friends who have a dock 1\2 mile from here on the creek to watch the Julington Creek boat parade on Saturday night if Rick gets back in time. The holiday festivities have started, but not my shopping. If I had some good ideas, I could go.

These pictures are not the best. My little camera's memory was full. Kyla and I went to the Veteran's Day parade and I thought she was taking pictures, but she was taking videos. I would delete it all, but I think Rick might want some of the pictures on his computer. So, Rick brought his big camera home from the office to take pictures and when we were all ready and we had it on a tripod, his battery was dead. I took these pictures with my i-phone, but by then Bob had left and no one was in the mood, especially Kyla!

love to all, Marilynn

I added the pictures after my text but I would like them to all line up next to one another. I made the last one bigger, but you guys can place the cursor over the picture and blow it up, right? I could do that with the ones Betsy sent.

Thankspigging

So, where is everyone's Thanksgiving pictures? eh??????????? I only have one to include. We went to Thankspigging at Skinny's. A good time, but only about half the folks there were last year. The organizer said 2010 would be the last year, but the locals reorganized, didn't advertise much and all was well. They even had alligator. We saw a few people who are only here 6 months out of the year and they are beginning to come back on island now. Evan worked on Thanksgiving and Nathan went to Laura's family dinner.

Bob and I stopped to dump the garbage last week on our way early (in the dark) to STT and some (lots) of bees came in the car as they were attracted to the light. We stopped down the road to shoo them out and about 1/2 a mile later, I'm screaming for him to stop the car - one got me in the butt!!Can't remember the last time I had a bee sting. Wow, that hurt!!

The floor job downtown turned out great. They were very happy. Hope they advertise for us.

My garden is in full tilt now. I have beautiful bok choy. The local organic gardener gave me the seeds from Malaysia. We are now on to jalapenos, many herbs and tomatoes, cukes and kale.

Going with a friend to see another Eastender's garden this morning and Bob is going diving at noon today with a buddy.

hope everyone is well and happy.

luv,

betsy

October News

hi All,

That's just great about Kathy getting a new job. How do you like it, Kathy?

We had Evan the beginning of the month for a little more than a week. He was great. We had LOTS of discussion about family and stuff he never new about. He saw some of his old friends here and lots of people stopped him when we were out and about. Last time he was here, he didn't want to go anywhere. I think the depression is finally lifting. He loves his job, but I don't know how he will make the trip to Lansing (1 hour drive) in the snow when winter comes. Speaking of that, a friend of ours said they had snow in NH and expect 8 inches tomorrow.

Bob finished the floor at Low Key Watersports and it came out great. Evan worked with Bob 3 o4 4 days of his vacation on the floor. The owner paid us and gave Bob and Evan a $350 dive certificate.

Nathan left yesterday for Las Vegas. They are showing a $250,000 truck they rebuilt from the ground up. The company he works for rebuilds generally, Lincoln town cars for celebs. Nathan is in heaven being participant to the build. Check it out: www.semashow.com

All for now. Ever'ting good here.

luv,

b

Kathy's New Job!

Kathy's got a new job!  She is a cashier at our local Rite-Aid Pharmacy.  She started a couple weeks ago and she works Tuesday and Wednesday (8 hours each day) and every 4th weekend (8 hours each day), so it's really nice instead of working every day for 2-3 hours.  Only problem is I need to be around to come home a couple times and let Quincy out, but my office is close by.

We're getting ready for winter, have all the storms on and the leaves are blown away or burned.  It was in the 50's over the weekend, beautiful sun shining and we had a dozen or so over last night for a pot luck meal and then all sat around the campfire and cooked Smores.  It was a beautiful evening even though it was dark.

Business is slowing down, but we'll squeak through the winter ok.  Thursday we're going out to Flying Horse Farms (a Paul Newman "Hole in the Wall" camp that opened a couple years ago here in Morrow County.  Our church built the Archery Shelter and we're dedicating it Thursday night and singing Kum-By-Yah songs and cooking Smores (again).  You can find out more about our project at this link: http://tinyurl.com/3m5628y


Guess that's it for now, hope all is well down south.  
Later, Herb

Joan Owen Visit

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of visiting with Joan Owen, wife of the pastor of the Welsh Church in Detroit. Joan, and her (now deceased) husband John not only used to live in Detroit when he was the pastor there, but then subsequently came to Mount Gilead where John pastored the church that Kathy and I now attend, First Presbyterian Church of Mount Gilead. While they lived here, they became very close friends with our (now current) neighbors, Chuck and Dolores Reutter. Joan currently lives in Lisbon, OH about 2 hours east of here, just a few minutes south of Youngstown, OH.

Joan stopped and spent the day and evening at Chuck & Dolores' and today is on her way to visit her grandson (Marion's oldest) who is a sophomore at Ohio Weslyan University in Delaware, OH just about 40 minutes south of us.

On Sunday, she'll be attending a Gymanfu Ganu in Westerville, OH (northeast Columbus) at Central College Presbyterian Church.  She is quite active still in the Welsh community nationwide, serving on many boards and committees and has even worked as part of a team compiling and publishing a Welsh songbook.

Both Marion and Roderick live in Virginia, about an hour apart from each other and Roderick is a college professor at Mary Baldwin College where he teaches philosophy and religion.

I'm sorry I never asked what Marion is now doing, but I did find out that each has 3 boys, so Joan has 6 grandsons.  Although she doesn't have email, I know she'd love to hear from you girls, so I'll send you her address and phone when I get it from Chuck and Dolores.

Pix of Fall in Ohio

Here's a little slide show of some pix in Ohio during the fall colors. There's also a few of Kathy and Sara walking the dogs over at Clear Fork Resevoir yesterday.

Fall Colors in Mid Ohio

Drove around Mount Gilead today, nice and sunny and took some pix.  They're loaded up "in the cloud" on Google Picasa Web Albums at Fall 2011 in Ohio

Click on the link and Check out the pix - Later

Eisteddfod

OK, so I switched back to a "basic" style template because I couldn't figure out a good way to be able to write posts.  You'll need to just overwrite the part that says ..."Here's where you'll write your new posts"

Mark and Cindy are coming for dinner tonight, I've been cooking pork BBQ rack of ribs (8 lbs) out on the grill since about noon, keeping the fire at 200 deg.  Kathy's made cheesy potatoes and 7 layer salad too.  Yummy!

It's been raining non-stop for about all week now, we are going to a Wooster College football game tomorrow and then on Sunday we are going to Gomer, Ohio to Gymanfa Ganu and the Eisteddfod

Gomer's Welsh atmosphere has endured to the present day. An annual Gymanfa Ganu is held on the first Sunday in October, Saint David's Day is celebrated there and Gomer Welsh Community Museum has been set up in the village.

The Museum is open between 1:30 and 4:00 on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. The address and telephone number are:
Gomer Welsh Community Museum,
7365 Gomer Road,
Gomer, OH 45888
(419) 999-5820


Link to more on Gomer, Ohio and the Welsh

Check out this link too ....

That's all for now, see you girls later, I'll try to shoot some video of the Eisteddfod so you can hear the singing!

The new format looks great, but how do you tell who is doing the writing?

I'll try posting again tomorrow - busy today

Evan arrives next Wed for a visit

crabs having coffee with us

thought you guys should see this. I dump the old coffee grounds over the railing every nite and morning along with a few egg shells and they all come and have a feast.

Errors in the upload - "corrupted" video on my camera? should I try it again? took a long time to get that information.

Old format

Here's the link you want to use for the old format.

http://www.blogger.com/home

Back to the old way

I switched back to the old way so we can see how to write posts easily.
If I find a better way, I may switch to something else, just for the fun of it.

How do I write a new post?

This is strange, I kind of like the new layout, but I can't figure out how to write a new post except to click on "Blogger" and then it takes you to a page where you can select "New Post"  Seems kind of cumbersome,

Late September

OK, here it is late September and Kathy and I have been continuing work around the "lodge". We took off all the screens Saturday and installed the storm windows after washing them first. I am continuing to cut and split firewood feeling like a squirrel putting away nuts for the winter.

 The latest project is to start the finishing of the 2nd floor of the garage, making it into a 2 bedroom apartment. I hope to have this all done by spring of 2012. Just starting to do the electrical wiring in the walls and will next be installing insulation in the exterior walls before I put up drywall or plywood for the wall coverings. Have to install baseboard electric heat, a kitchen and a bathroom. Nothing fancy, but functional and eventually income producing.

This weekend we're going to a Wooster College football game, a young man from our church is on the team there and a bunch of us are taking a road trip (about an hour and a half) and going to their Homecoming game.

Guess that's it for now.  Catch you all later,

I changed the layout a little

Don't let the new layout fool you, you can still post just like before, things just look a little different and you can click the buttons on top (classic, slideshow, magazine, sidebar, etc.) to get even a different view.

I think it's cool!

Fall at our house

From Instant Upload

Here's a short video of Sunday morning at our place. Beautiful fall morning. I'm at work now, Monday morning, not making much progress.

We think Quincy may have had a stroke yesterday late afternoon. He woke up and can barely walk, like he's drunk -- keeps falling down .. sad. We'll talk with the vet tomorrow, his office is closed today.

Trip to South Dakota looks awesome, beautiful scenery. Hope all is well in St. John too.
Back to work, later

Trip to South Dakota

This is where my curser ends up, so I guess I start typing from here. We had a great trip. It looks like it was cold, but it actually was only cold in the mornings and one day when it rained and was windy. That's the day we went to the Badlands. We saw Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Devils Point, and the Badlands and took a two hour ride on this steam train through some real pretty country. There were about 20 of us, 8 stayed at a Bed and Breakfast about 12 miles out of Rapid City. The rest were at the Alex Johnson in town. Coming home to 80 degree weather is not too bad as it was much hotter when we left. This morning it was actually quite nice with no humidity. Rick has gone shrimping again and I am doing the laundry. Baxter stayed with Ryan and Tracy, but we went to Brunswick to pick him up on the the way home Friday night. love, Marilynn

TS/Hurricane Irene

Hey Guys, Just to let you know, we made it through the storm. Quite a bit of water on the floor because we didn't have enough warning time to put up shutters and the rain came fast and furiously directly at the windows from 1 p.m. yesterday and on thru today. It is, however, SLOWLY moving toward the west, but the wind is still quite high up here on the hill. It's not so windy in town. the electricty went about 3 a.m., but came back on today at 1 p.m. Boy, were we surprised!! Last year with Otto, we were out for 4 days.

There were 4 boats up on the rocks near Island Blues in Coral Bay. They said on the radio this morning that the winds were between 75 and 85 mph. Whew! some wind!!

Sending some pics

July News

Hi, we are home from our cruise and have finally caught up on our sleep. That 10 hour flight home and being up for 22 hours was a killer. We had a great time, spent 3 days in Rome, then onto Sicily. We really liked Sicily. It was not crowded and much less tourist orientated. It was beautiful and we spent time in a small city up in the mountains. The next day we were at sea, then onto Athens. We thought at one point that we would be going to Malta instead because of the rioting in Athens. But that settled down. The taxis were on strike the day we were there but we had hired a van for the 8 of us and he picked up right up at the port and took us everywhere in Athens. We were with him for 9 hours! Ephesus in Turkey was another favorite place. It is the cradle of civilization and the ruins were unbelieveable. We went to a place where they sold Turkish rugs and saw how they are made from the silk worm to completion. Most in our group of 8 bought a rug, but not us. They were still high and I didn't see one I couldn't live without. Crete was our next spot, very nice, olive trees everywhere. We went to an olive oil factory and toured the country side. Overall, a real nice trip, but glad to be home.

Kyla is enjoying summer camp. Ashley and Darin are fine. We found a nice leather sofa yesterday at an estate sale off Mandarin Rd yesterday for only $90 so we bought it and will try to deliver it up to their 3rd floor apt. tonight. Ryan and Tracy are coming down because she has a 4 p.m. cleaning appointment so Ryan can help move the sofa too. Yesterday it was raining and we really couldn't take it. Tracy just got a new job at the hospital. I don't know the details yet, but it is full-time with benefits. She was working 20 hours a week there and picking up hours at Outback on Friday and Saturday night. I'll hear more about it tonight when we see them. She gets to wear scrubs for this new job too which will help on the clothing side of things. Okay, now I'll try to load up a few pictures.

Graduation and MI visit 2011

Hi All,We arrived back in St. John safely and happy to be back. However, the weather in MI could not have been more beautiful. Evan and Bob even got in a round of golf. They had a great time together and I was happy to let that happen without being a part of that. Bob pulled up most of the carpeting in the condo and we are looking at putting down some cheap fake wood flooring when we go back, whenever that will be.

Drove to Bowling Green, OH where we met Herb and Kathy. Kathy was just behind us coming from MI and her "girls' getaway" weekend. We had a nice visit over lunch. It was too short. I love going to their place and seeing everyone there. Hopefully, next visit.

Graduation for Nathan was great. They graduated 10 of 25 students. We were totally overdressed for the occasion, but we can't help how we were brought up, now can we. We went to Amelia Island for lunch and a nice drive back in the rain. Nathan was so happy, as he told Laura, his girlfriend, that his family was there to share it. This is a rough crowd, the guys who work in this business. Marilynn and Rick had all the family over for a "low country boil" on Saturday and Marilynn told Nathan he could invite a couple of his dive buddies from school. We were 16 altogether. It was great!! Laura stayed until July 4 at Marilynn and Rick's and Nathan drove to LA for interviews a few days later. He is still waiting to hear as to employment. Should know something tomorrow.

Evan continues to thrive in his new job. He really likes having some money and loves working with the autistic adults. We are ecstatic as to his turnaround and especially the fact that he seems to be moving further and further away from the depression. Doesn't he look better???

Well, that's all the news for now. Have to go to work.

Let's get "bloggin' "

Love to all,

Betsy

Visiting Family - soon come

Hi Guys,
Just wanted pass on some good news. Evan got a job. He is working, just started yesterday, in Lansing for a home health care company. He says he's very excite. d as this will look good on his resume and it is in his field. I think it also fed his ego that he could really land a job when he hasn't worked in so long and people wonder what he has been doing besides being in school. He's really into biking and is exercising quite a bit. We are happy for him.
We are having a storm here the last two days - lots of wind and rain. We are supposed to have the Jolly Dog party here on Friday - about 25 people, but if things don't dry out, I don't know if we can pull it off. Jeff, owner, is supplying steaks, shrimp, beer and champagne. the idea started out as a small gathering to see his CD of his trip to Patagonia because we have the big screen TV and now everyone is bringing their 20 something kids and it's kind of mushroomed!!
We are excited about leaving island and going to Nathan's graduation and seeing you guys in FL and then on to MI to see the rest of you. Nathan was VERY sick this past weekend. He said he couldn't even get out of bed on Sat. He sounded terrible last night. luckily yesterday was spent in class. This is the 3rd time he has had this "cold stuff", but it has never been this bad.
Bob has little projects that he is working on here at the house which keeps him busy. the yard now looks like a jungle because of all the rain we have had.
Really looking forward to seeing you all.
luv,
Bob and Betsy

May News