The Sun Sets On Our First Day

The corner of our abode catches the setting sun.........

............as it sets to the west of Fisherman's Village.........

We're Off.....Up ...Up...and Away

We are sitting here at Columbus airport waiting for our flight out to Cancun.....
We want to take all of you with us so we will be blogging as we go much like we did on our trip to Yellowstone.
Hope you enjoy the adventure through this part of the creation......

Quiet and Unassuming..???

In yesterday's edition of the Newark Advocate there appeared an article about the new Licking Valley High School Principal. The first words of the article were indeed descriptive....

Here is the article in its entirety......

HANOVER -- Quiet and unassuming, Licking Valley High School Principal Wes Weaver recently received an award from his National Guard unit and is in the running for a state award.
Getting him to talk about it was not an easy task. He would rather talk about his unit and its wonderful track record and commendations.

"I feel my Guard unit is a very high performance unit, as they have won the outstanding unit award for all units, including Air Force," Weaver said. "That has happened three times since I've been in the unit. This is very gratifying to win this award because there are a lot of quality people in the unit."
Weaver received the senior noncommissioned officer of the year honor for the Air National Guard 121st Air Refueling Wing, out of Rickenbacker Air Base. He works in avionics, which maintains all electronic equipment on the planes. Weaver was nominated for the award by his supervisor because of the leadership he has shown.
"We've trained a lot of new young personnel in my shop the past few years," Weaver said. "I feel I was able to bring my experience as a supervisor and a teacher as I work with a lot of younger guys, who are only 18, 19 and 20 years old -- a group that I can identify with, as I work with a very similar age in my day job."
This is his 21st year in the Air National Guard. Weaver was 17 and had just graduated from Licking Valley High School when he joined the military. Since that time, he has traveled to 25 countries and been deployed four times during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The longest time he has been away from home is 45 days.
"When I joined, I did it for the college money, the tuition assistance," Weaver said. "Then I found out I loved it. It's a great organization to be a part of."
Weaver and his wife, Cheryl, live in the Valley area with their daughters, Zoe, 11, and Addy, 9. Weaver also has a stepdaughter, Chelsey, 22.
His current enlistment is up in January 2009, and he is not sure if he will re-enlist. There are several guys from Licking Valley in his unit, including Clay Davis, Brian Carpenter and others. "I will see how it goes," Weaver said. "I have seen so many foreign countries that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I may stay in longer if I am able."

Is this the "quiet unassuming" person we've come to know and love...... ???? You be the judge.....


.......at any rate..................
CONGRATULATIONS, SON!!

Birds in the Back.......

During a recent snow I got these shots....

Some Winter Scenes From Around The Homestead

Bill's Botanical Waterfalls Create a Crystaline Cascade

A Walk In The Woods

Today we went walking the Black Hand Bike Trail on this cold wintery day................

For the first time since I was at Toboso on a research trip with an Archeologist I found a pair of Indian Mounds at BHG.

The Hopewell Indians, here at the time of Christ, created a whole complex of mounds....many of them circles or part circles such as these.....

The sky was clear and blue and the sycamores looked particularly "stately."

Interesting Features...

..........a survey marker in the middle of the woods along the black hand bike trail..............

............these grooves caused by a drill bit possibly used to quarry stone for the Ohio - Erie Canal......

..............and can you figure this one out......??? Why are these unsnowed upon leaves in the middle of the woods????....

How about where a deer laid the night before during the snow and then walked away....

To Those In This Community Who Have Gone On Before...

These pics were taken near Black Hand Trail and are an old cemetary that I intend to return to and learn it's history....

Most of the stones are sandsone and have not weathered well.

.....on a sad note....

This is a very old Kingpost bridge across Brushy Fork Creek at Claylick. It is a beautiful setting and a wonderfully preserved bridge with a very unique arcitectural style unique for it's time. It was carefully taken apart and moved here by the Evans Foundation for it's esthetic beauty at the west end of the Black Hand Gorge Bike Trail.

It's beauty can be seen and enjoyed from a distance.......(I took this with my telephoto lens)......but don't even think about going to it.....

............You would be cited for Criminal Trespassing by Greg The Preserve Ranger! He has erected a sign making it "OFF LIMITS." Soon I will be mounting a charge on the Department of Natural Resources to right this and a couple of other "Wrongs" as a result of Ranger Greg's calls of bad judgement!