A Visit

Just a quick post of some pictures of my daughter and her fiance. He is staying with us for a little while. He has moved here from Virginia about a month ago now. I have been meaning to write this post up for about as long. But things are really busy around here lately. He has found a job and settling in very nicely. For the first few week we had took him on a tour of the Valley here. So here are a few pictures of my daughter and him, and our visiting around. Hope you enjoy them.

here is Megan and Levi at a cemetery down in Martins Ferry Ohio. This cemetery is call Walnut Grove. My 6Th Great Grandfather and mother are buried her. Their names were Ebenezer and Elisabeth Zane. Ebenezer is the founder of Wheeling WV. He came to Wheeling in the year 1770. We wanted to show him alittle about our history.

Here is just a picture of the old stones in the cemetery. I don't know why I love old cemeterys. I think that they are very peaceful, and the headstones are interesting to read too.

Here is a Marker that tell all about the history of the area and the cemetery.

And here is the other side of the marker.


Here is a head stone of a young lady who died young. I liked that poem that they put on the stone.

Here is the poem that was on the stone. click on it and you might be able to read it too.

This is my 6Th Great Grandma. She died in 1814. I love what they wrote on her stone. Elizabeth Zane who died in January 1814 in the 66Th year of her age. Her life was spent in the constant exercise of domestic and christian virtue. I love that.

Here is a picture of Wheeling's Center Market. It was given to the city by my family along long long long time ago. Inside are restaurants and stores. And the two roads running along both sides of it are full of used book stores and antique shoppes. Great place to visit.

Here is a picture of the inside of one of the antique shops. I found and bought a really old cast iron pot in this store. I only payed $12 for it. It's from the 1860's or maybe even alittle earlier. I was a happy camper that day.


Then we headed to Cabela's. It is very neat inside.

This is Oglebay Mansion. We went there next. We didn't get a chance to go in, but we will be back some other time.

Here is Megs and Levi in the gardens at Oglebay park in Wheeling. It is so beautiful there.

Here are some of the flower that where blooming while we where there. I didn't know tulips came in purple.

Here is Megan in front of the fountain up at Oglebay by the mansion.

This picture is not of our trip, but of Megs walking on our back road across the street from us. I just really liked it. With the rolling hills in the background. God bless

Kelly

Weekend Goat Workshop On A Earthship

A couple of Sundays ago I went to a goat workshop at Ohio's first Earthship. The place is called Blue Rock Station. It is about 2 hours away from me. A earthship is a house that is made out of old tires, recycled trash, and is half way covered by the earth. Collects it's own water from it's roof and saves it in a cistern. The only windows that it has all face south to collect the sun's rays to warm the house in the winter, and the window are angled in such a way the it blocks a lot of the sun's rays in the summer to help keep it cool. It is a very self sufficient house. Well they were having a goat workshop on using herbs and natural thing to help keep your goat healthy. The workshop also showed how to make some types of cheese. It was a very interesting workshop I learned a few new things about taking care of a goat. I took lots of pictures so I will give you all a tour of the place.

This is the owner Annie, with her goat Tudy. The goat is a French Alpine breed.

This is a picture of the goat barn, where we did the first half of the workshop. I learned a lot about what helps keeps a goat healthy. I really enjoyed this part of the day. After we were done in the barn Annie's husband gave us a quick tour of the property, so that Annie could go down to there house and get the second part of our workshop ready for us.

As you can see it was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining and the red buds and other trees were blooming. They raise lamas, goats and chickens on the little homestead.

This is their pop bottle greenhouse. When they do a project on the property they always try to use recycled thing to build them. They also had a solar heated shower, and a composting toilet.

This is their chicken chalet (chicken coop). It is made out of all straw bale construction, and designed to collect all the water that the chickens may need. See the rain barrels on the side of the building.

This is the front of the earthship. Inside those doors was where we had our cheese making class. All the doors except for the two front darker colored doors where put in as windows, and they were recycled from houses that were being remodeled. It is made of a straw bale and tire earthen wall construction. The small holes and one large hole above the door was actually made of colored glass bottles. And from the inside it made a beautiful stain glass kind of thing. You will see what I'm talking about a little bit later, because I have put up a picture a little bit lower in the post taken from the inside of that room. I'm almost sure that everything that they used in building this house was recycled or given to them.

This is also in the front of the house. See how the window are angled to catch the winter's sunlight, and angled in such away to keep out most of the summer's sunlight. At the very end of the building is a solar water heater.

Here is Annie again. She is showing how to put the cheese curds in a press. Before we had our cheese classes we were invited to partake of some English tea and cookies, and to try some goats cheeses the she had made ahead of time.

This is that picture that I had talked about earlier in this post. See how it looks like a stain glass window in a way. The straw bale walls are covered in a stucco made out of mud, straw, and sand.

This picture was taken a little farther into their house. The main part of their house was very open. the kitchen and the main living room are connected together. See how the sun comes in and lights up the whole room. See how the ceiling is slanted in a V shape. That is so the rain water will collect at the bottom of the V and run into their cistern. That wall behind the ladies talking was made out of old tires pack full with clay soil, then stuccoed over.

This is Annie and I. In her living area. That wood burning stove is the only thing that heat their whole house. The wall behind us is another wall that is made out of tires and stuccoed over. I had a very good day of visiting and learning. I will be inviting Annie to come to my house sometime this June for a 18Th century tea party in my garden. Well hope you all enjoyed the post
Kelly