The lower house at the Ironside Ranch.

Originally the "main house", it was built in the thirties and vacated when the new upper house was built. This is in Ironside - actually a ranch just n. of Ironside where I go every year. A little

work with google maps and a high-speed connection and you'll find this. More stuff will be put up on this blog from my recent visit in awhile. This was taken Fridy Sept. 17th I think.

Four new Van pop-up windows.

On the 1969 Dodge A108 project - well the windows are offically now all in. The pop-up windows, four of them are installed on both side doors on the right and the rear.

All new four custom cut smoked glass for both rear and both side doors for the '69 vans. The hinges were soda blasted and while not perfect theyshined up real good and all the grungy rust is gone. Some of the hinges springs popped outta their perches but once reinstalled the latches lie down nicelywhile closed. I really could use two on the other side of the van, and have seen it before, but the latch mounts on the bottom and the hinge mounts on thetop are absent.

On the hinges on the near / rear side van door, there were two holes in the top of the door frame for each hinge. This bummed me out to find out, until I discovered that the outer hinge holes were on the correct pitch as required for my hinges and the holes in the window.

So that all ended well - a rarity!Installing these alone was like wrestling an alligator. I don't think anyone wanted to be around me, tho.. hah hah!

Beaver in the Wild

My friend Rick snapped photos of a beaver near his back yard in early August. I've never seen a Beaver in the wild in Oregon, and gosh darn it, we're the Beaver State.

Here it is:

Yorktown Part II

I guess I'm able to post more, so I'll finish my Yorktown stuff. The folks you see here are walking towards the English defenses. If you stood on them you'd come to a large field and spot the American defenses. Eventually the Americans took over a few of the remote English defenses and used them to launch mortars, several of which struck the Nelson house as pictured in Part I. The American's final charge was quite brave, and the English thought better of trying to fight them off. Here I am at the Victory Monument. The top (not in view but pictures in Part I) was damaged by lightning in the fifties I think and hadda be replaced. Oh, yeah, one more shot of the tents Washington used during the Seige.

Historic Williamsburg.

This was on August 14th 2010. We stayed at a hotel right across from the Historic Williamsburg entrance. So rather than go to the water park (another crowded stressful place I should better avoid), I needed a walk, and decided to go against the flow at 6 p.m. and visit historic Williamsburg in the late afternoon. It was good to lower the blood sugar, being diabetic, which was terribly high, but I almost passed out with a low during this walk.

Nothing a good homemade Oatmeal raisin cookie and a nice triple-shot cappucino couldn't help that I got at a local coffee shop. Here you see the Governor's mansion, a MONDO birdhouse, a small play that was being rehearsed in time for the evening's festivities, the old Bruton Parish church (and cemetery), to give you a flavor of the place. A nice place to live, and I wouldn't mind one bit no sirree. I really love Virginia, but not the traffic. I will return soon!

Yorktown, Aug. 15th Part 1.

Rather than spend an unpleasant day at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, I decided I needed to visit some more Colonial sights. Previously, in Oct. '07, I had been to George Mason's house and Mt. Vernon, so it was time to see Yorktown. Aug. 15th just so happened to be "free admission to National Parks day" in the US. I drove out there and did the whole thing.

I think these blogs limit my pic. uploads so I'll do six now, and some more later. Note the Canons on the English side, the holes (and even cannonbals embedded) at the Nelson House (Cornwallis stayed there during the seige) which had been, um, placed there by Washington's (and really RoShamBo's ) army at high speed from a mile and some change away!, the Victory memorial, the ORIGINAL tent Washington used during the seige, an English Bess musket (they claim it had a broken stock when the English soldier threw it down infrustration during the surrender ceremony, but I couldn't see it for the life of me) and a canon in one of the ships in the naval battle - I forgot which side... The French were heavily invovled in the seige with the Colonials and really managed the sea blockade as well... We owe them heavily for this decisive victory. Oh, they had their reasons, too, but it suited us both quite well....

I'm "connected".

Recently I needed an endoscopy, needed to be anaethetized, so they have to hook y'all up with

an ECG. That requires sensors. Hey, I even took several showers but didn't notice this connected to me until several days later! Ha hah! I had to preserve the image for posterity.....

Beautiful 1960s Ford Falcon Van.

One nice evening in July, there was a party up the hill. A guest had their Falcon van parked on my side of the street, so I took the opportunity to photograph it. 1960s Ford Econoline vans are rare; the same vintage Ford Falcon van (a stretch version of the Econoline distinguished by the V-shaped window behind the front doors) are much rarer ; examples like this are very few indeed.

Enjoy!