What A Difference!

Connie bakes our bread, a good whole wheat bread.  She has made it the “old fashioned way” but has used a bread machine much of the time in recent years.  However, she has been somewhat distressed that her loaves of bread do not turn out as they have in the past.  It seems they just don’t raise as they should and sometimes the tops are not nice and rounded.  Recently she baked a loaf that looked nice but was quite “squatty,”  much shorter than it should have been.  She decided to try an experiment.  She had from time to time found that potato water seemed to help.  So, upon removing the first short loaf she started another loaf of bread.  But this time she cooked a small potato, mashed it up in the water which it had been cooked in and used that as her liquid.  Here is a photo of her results.

What a difference a little potato water made!

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Visit To The Nashville Zoo

Darryl and Anne had taken their children to the Nashville zoo some few years ago and had wanted to go back.  On Wednesday, October 7th we all made the trip.  The zoo may not have as many animals as some but the exhibit areas seem to be more spacious, allowing the animals more space in which to move around.  Here are a few pictures taken during our visit.

We stood and watched for quite awhile as this elephant played with the log.

Naomi was quite insistent that we go and see the giraffes.  We all enjoyed watching these long necked animals.

  The children were able to go through a tunnel and look into the meerkat enclosure.  Below is a photo of one of the little critters.

We also enjoyed viewing the exhibits of fish, snakes, etc.  Here is one photo taken in that area.

All in all it was a very good day!  There were some things we missed seeing so we will have to go back another time.

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Recent Excursions

Last week we took a number of excursions with Darryl and family (and Danny on a couple).  We visited and toured Diamond Caverns near Park City, Kentucky.  Connie and I had taken our grandchildren from Wisconsin, Beth and Cory, as well as Jessica, during the summer of 2004.  Darryl and Anne had been there even previous to our visit.  The younger children had not been there or were too young to remember.  Below are a few photos taken during our visit.

Leaving the caverns we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky and visited the Historic Rail Park and Train Museum.  The museum was quite interesting but the real highlight was being given a guided tour of several restored rail cars.  Again, a few photos.

Here we are preparing to enter the caboose that is on display.







In this picture we are standing in the dining area of the personal car of the president of the L & N Railroad.  This was used not only for dining but also as a conference room.

         In the picture on the left we are in the dining car.  On the right is a photo of a post office car, one of two in existence.

The next day’s excursion will be covered in the next post.

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Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

The above proverb has been credited to the Dutch, the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Germans, the Swedes and others.  No matter where it originated it seems to bear a lot of truth.  Life moves on and though at the time we often don’t recognize it we grow older.  And, sadly, we don’t gain the wisdom or the smarts we should.  What gets me to thinking about being older?

Last weekend Connie and I made a quick trip back up to Illinois to attend a family reunion.  There were 15 of us first cousins in attendance.  There were gray and white haired cousins.  How could that be.  It was just a short while ago that we were all “kids.”

Here is a photo of the cousins taken in front of my parents home in the spring of 1952.  The names of those attending the reunion last weekend are in capital letters.  A photo from the recent reunion is on below.

Front row, L-R, Connie, HELEN holding JIM (or is it JOHN), VERA ANN holding JOHN (or is it JIM), BETTY, FRIEDA with GLENN in front of her, Margaret, REVA, KAY with her arm around REVA, BRENDA.  Back row, L-R, Larry, Roger, RONNIE, GARRY (that’s me), ELLIS, Patricia Sue in front of ELLIS, Jeannie, Grandpa Arlie, Diane being held by Grandpa, Sandra in front of Grandpa, GENEAN, Donna being held by GENEAN.  Lyle, Mike, Lorie, Penny, Kayla and KATHY were born after this picture was taken.  Roger, Patricia and Grandpa Arlie are deceased.

  From L-R, Kathy, John, (Jim for some reason didn’t get in the picture), Reva, Brenda, Glenn, Ronnie, Ellis, Betty, Garry, Kay, Vera Ann, Helen, Frieda, Genean.  As you can see we have all aged some in the last 57 years.  I do believe we are all a bit smarter than we were then as well.

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