On The Road

Update ~ Our computer motherboard blew today 11/18/2016.
We are going to be taking a long Blogger break till we can afford a new computer which might be awhile.
I am typing this from the library as a person let me have five minutes of their time.

For November the weather has been exceptionally nice.  Lee said Sweet William The Scot pack your bed and lets do a little road trip so we can show our friends things outside of Nati City.

On the road again

Seein' things that I may never see again

We're the best of friends
On the road again.

Here is our first turn off!

Yep first stop is Captain Anthony Meldahl Locks & Dam.

The Dam opened in December 1964.

Its length is 1,756 ft (535.2 m)

The amount of coal transported down river from Pittsburgh jumped greatly following the Civil War. The size of the tows also grew with the amount of coal hauled.

The Rivers and Harbors Act allowed the production of a system of locks and dams along the Ohio.

Which made the river navigable all the time.

The dams are non-navigable and made of concrete and steel. Each dam has two adjoining locks, one 600-foot by 110-foot chamber, and a 1,200-foot by 110-foot chamber to accommodate fifteen barges that can lock through in one maneuver.

We see two barges coming from the east.

The first barge is maneuvering into the spot closest to us.

He dinged his bell and waved at us. My ears went back with the ding.

See the man standing at the point.

He is getting into place.

And the Marathon Barge is going in.

See his top!

The barge is going down.

Down.

The barge is so low you can hardly see his top!

On the Kentucky side of the river in the distance you can see The Meldahl hydroelectric facility .

The river hydroelectric power plant provides new, renewable generation to the region. Located near Maysville, Kentucky, the facility is the largest hydroelectric power plant on the Ohio River.

It became fully operational just this past April 2016.

Currently they are planning three more turbine hydroelectric plant and spillway addition to the Meldahl Locks and Dam.  Clean energy isn't it great.

At normal pool elevation the length is 95 miles (153 km) upstream encompassing an area of 21,700 acres (88 km).

If we were on the other side of drive we could see the barge come out at a lower river level.

The second barge is going into the second slot.

On the other side of the river is Maysville, Kentucky where George Clooney, the actor is from.

We could take the ferry across but that is not our destination now.

His maneuvering was not so great, we could hear the barge scrape the far wall.

Diagram shows you how the lock works.

Here is a hand forged anchor.  Type used in the early 1800's.

Estimated weight 1800 pounds.  If we could lift it we could take it home.

Well we are back on the road and the field has round hay bales covered with white water repellant sheets.

Our next stop is Freedom Hill.

Yep we are on the Underground Railroad Trail.

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Silverton Tracks

Silverton had its beginnings in the post-Revolutionary War land grants.

The future of the community was forever changed in 1883 when the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad opened a line through town.

Well here I am in Silverton at the village green style park.

Honoring those from the village who served our country.

A replica of the station was constructed in 1976 and serves as a museum.

It houses historic photographs and artifacts from the City’s past, including the Olympic uniform of Barry Larkin, a retired Reds player and Silverton native son. 

The pole says May Peace Prevail On Earth.

 

Do I hear a train coming?

We are having lovely days in the midwest. 

The temperature is in the high sixties and lows in the mid forties.

Lee and I, Sweet William The Scot, are in our car going up river this week.

We decided to do a mini vacation.

Oh my gosh the bench here at the station says donated by the Republican and Democratic Parties in 2006.  Yep guess that was the last time they worked together and they actually managed to get a whole bench together!

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Leonardo da Vinci

In the last post I, Sweet William The Scot, played a game of guessing who Lee was going to be for Halloween.

We gave you clues over the weekend.

The clues were

CRYPTOGRAPHY

thirty-three degrees ~ referring to the FREEMASONRY

died OVER 500 YEARS AGO in FRANCE

PYRAMID ~ referring to the glass pyramid at the Louvre.

MYSTERIOUS EXPRESSION ~ reference to the Mona Lisa which he painted.

This is believed to be his self portrait.

This self portait was painted in 1512 using red chalk, when Leonardo da Vinci was 50 and living in France.

We used this picture to create our mask from PAPER MACHE OVER A BALLOON about twenty layers then spraying it with a clear sealer.  Lee is wearing HIS STRANGE HAT AND DARK ROBE WITH PAINT ALL OVER IT AND CARRYING BRUSHES AND A PAINT PALETTE WITH A GREY HAIR WIG.

WE HAVE LOVED READING DAN BROWN'S international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Lost Symbol and now Inferno.

Inferno is out this week at the theater.

Lee's Halloween Party is at her Book Club and she has to dress as a character from a book they have read.

~~~~~~ DRUM ROLL ~~~~~

We have a winner and the winner is

MADI'S DAD

Yes Madi's Dad was playing along and figured out our clues.

Mr Jack Freckles tried really hard and kept guessing after every clue so we are sending him a magnet also.

All the guesses were fun to see.

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Pssss ~ We will be back next week with another place in Nati City

Happy Halloween

I got on my Halloween costume.

Can you guess who Lee is going to be for Halloween.

See her mask in the upper left corner behind me.

Make a guess and if you are right I will put your name into my Halloween sack and if I draw your name you will get a three inch Scottie Magnet.

Dory's Backyard is asking us what we do to support rescue. 

I do many things.

Why I, Sweet William The Scot, wish every area of the world had a Scooter. Why do I wish such a thing, well Cats are 45 times more prolific than humans.

Now they have a Marmalade!

Let’s kick cat killing in the gonads, one spay/neuter at a time.

But with this movement well I, Sweet William The Scot, start at the very beginning.

Yep I trap feral cats and send them on the Scooter Mobile for a ride to get them gonad free so less cats in rescue.

It is the Give Them Ten the heart and home of the no-kill movement, Ten exists to create a no-kill nation for cats.

Now here is Marmalade Scooter's girlfriend with a message for you.

  

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Don't forget the Halloween Dance also at Dory's Backyard.  Hopefully I can get myself out of this mess so I can pick up Bella.

Pumpkin Patch

Oh No!

Something ate my pumpkin. 

Why I grew this pumpkin myself.  I watched over it all summer.

Dog Gone It!

Now I, Sweet William The Scot, got to go to the pumpkin patch and pay for a  pumpkin.

Looks like they still have a lot to choose from.

But I got to sneak past that darn scarecrow with his devilish grin.

He wants to charge me a paw and a tail.

Now which one will I pick for my jack-o-lantern.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Pssssss ~ Bella and I are getting ready for the Blogville Halloween Party at Dory's Backyard.

Are you ready?  Remember to get them your pictures by October 24th.

Presidential Cookies Poll Is Here

Yep Buskin Bakery here in Nati has been holding a presidential cookie poll for the past seven elections.  And  amazingly their results are very accurate.  I told you about them four years ago.

Who am I voting for?

Cookies are made with each of the candidates’ faces on them. 

The election cookie poll runs all the way to Election Day. 

The poll is updated every 24 hours, and results are posted online and on Buskin Bakery Facebook page.

Busken’s guarantee is -- “They will leave no cookie crumb uncounted!”.

So you got to go and buy the cookie that represents your candidate.

Okie Dokie Lee went and got my cookies. 

Looks like I have a Democratic Party cookie

and a Republican Party cookie and I have a

COOKIE PARTY COOKIE!

Yep I am voting for the COOKIE PARTY.  Why look at the nice smile of the COOKIE PARTY CANDIDATE.

The Cookie Party candidate wants us to take care of our planet.

Their candidate has only good things to say about kindness and love toward each other.

The Cookie Party candidate represents the best in all of us with a sincere belief that we're all in this together and that each of us needs to see the same open doors and have a safety net to catch us if we fall down. 

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Pssss ~ Ohio is a swing state and the state usually goes Republican.  This election year for the first time our paper the Cincinnati Enquirer is not backing the Republican candidate "The Enquirer has supported Republicans for president for almost a century " nor is the Columbus Dispatch "the last time it endorsed a Democrat was in 1916".
Political tension is high in Nati with the Tea Party so we are pretty much staying away from where a lot of people will be and not out and about.

Dang 470 calories.  Yep these candidates are weighting us down!

Working Hard

Lee said Wills today you have to work!

Yep Lee hired a company to put in a section of privacy fence inside my chain link fence.

See the house next door is in foreclosure and Lee is tired of looking at the unkempt place.

Truly we would prefer to move!

Bentley, my friend, sent me a Joseph statue to help sell our home but we think it was the Joseph of flowers because he really made our flowers grow over him.

( Note to self show what Bentley sent me.)

So I had to help the fence installer.  I tell you I worked my paws into the ground up to my whiskers.  I was the best helper he ever had.  He said I was hired full time if I wanted to go with him.  But I said no thanks Lee needs me.

So see my new Dogwood Privacy Fence.
I had my nose in every part of the job.

The fence goes with my new picnic table and chairs.  They are made out of recycled plastic milk jugs just like the rocking chairs on my front porch.  They last and are heavy and help save the environment.  I helped putting them together also.
I'm one helping guy.

Now Lee says I have to landscape.  So far I see nine pots.  So I have to dig nine holes. 

Then we had the city repairing sidewalks.  The city owns them but Lee has to pay to have them repaired.  What a rip and on top of that they really tore up our yard with their big equipment.

One of the dudes was wiping his tools in our front yard and Lee asked why and he said it was because "you have nice grass so the cement comes off our tools easier".

Well did he think we were going to have nice grass after he cleaned his tools?

Picture taken through window screen.

Well that was the week that was.  I stayed home and worked and Lee wrote checks to pay the bills!

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot