The next Wildernest project - Wildernest Chapel

I was going to keep this off of the radar for a bit but decided to go ahead and put it out there. There are still other things to do so this won't happen right away. I'll work on it in small pieces and beg for help when I need it but we won't go down and put it up in a day. I've got the design and the place so all that's lacking is the material and the time - although I've got enough material to get the floor/foundation done. It will be very small - just 8X9 but I hope to put a classical finish to it. We'll put the stained glass window from the deck in it.

It's in a clearing along the Orange Trail about midway between the split in the trail on the east side and the Treehouse but 40-50 feet off of trail. I think it will be nice. We know what chapels are for and this little structure in this secluded spot should make it work that much better.

Mushroom Village

Growing in what's left of the mulch pile.

Who are these people and why are they doing what they're doing!!!

Bribes to remove this picture from my blog will be considered - briefly!
Snap Fish pictures

Ruby-throat Fall Migration

We've got a lot more hummers right now and I think it must be from the start of the fall migration. It's not unusual to see a dozen or more and they're emptying a feeder a day. I went out this morning and stood where Glynda is in this picture - actually a little closer - and after a few minutes the hummers just ignore you. I did this last year but it was an even more incredible experience this time! More of them closer at the same time and you feel the air from their little wings on your face and arms as another one goes eye-to-eye six inches in front of you. It's almost scary!

Moonflower

Mary Travers 1936-2009

Mary Travers - Gone to flowers!

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary died yesterday of Leukemia. Their music meant a lot to our family. Listen to her voice from many years ago.

A Popcorn Morning

Actually, they look more like little marshmallows. On the way to the mail box this morning we saw these little white fellows scattered all along the driveway. They're some type of a little fungus. They're attached to the ground but not on a stem like their cousin mushroom/toadstools. It looks weird but makes an interesting picture! (I set them on the leaf for contrast, set it all on a glass table, and then took a flash shot. - Then I dusted the table and did it over again.)

I'm feeling lucky to have the picture. Yesterday, the camera was on my desk after uploading some pictures. It was really sitting on some papers. Pancho tried to jump up on the desk, caught the papers, and pulled the camera off onto the floor. When I picked it up, it didn't work. After a few frantic moments I realized that I just needed to reset the lens to get it working again. A slight twist and all was OK!

I've got the Master Gardener certificate - BUT - Alex has the pumpkins!

We both planted pumpkins seeds this year. I planted earlier and got off to a good start but later I lost all of my plants to bugs. I treated them with the wrong stuff and the plants died within a couple days. But in Alex's garden, they are thriving! It looks like our Thanksgiving pumpkins will be home grown this year. But hey Alex - wait 'til next year. I'll grow them bigger then!!!

A Sad Tale of a DVD Production - but All's Well That End's Well - so I've heard!

Jennifer had a Murphy's Law story the other day. Here's mine! It began when Bev asked me if I could do a DVD for them for their anniversary...

I enjoy working with the program (Roxio) and have made 5 or 6 DVD's so I said sure! The hardest part was not copying the 180 or so pictures that she wanted - I setup the Nikon on a copy stand and made relatively short work of that. Getting them in decent order was a challenge and Bev had to help with that. Then we had to get the music in and sync the pictures to the music. It took another week to decide on the music but finally it was on and it started coming together - the pictures, the movement (pan and zoom) within the pictures, the transitions, and the sync. That's the fun part!

But, when the project was about 85% complete I started getting error messages and program shutdowns. I didn't think I was going to get it done but finally did although I lost some of what was done and Bev had to help arrange pictures again. I played it through completely on the PC (about 14 minutes worth) and it was all good. Then I burned the DVD. Problem - nothing on the DVD. Did everything I could think of, it looked OK, but nothing on the DVD. So I finally talked to the owner of Bulldog Computers here in Quitman. The error message prompted for a CD but I didn't have one as the program was on the PC when I bought it at Bulldog. Thomas said it was a known error. I took in the PC, he did the reconfigure that was prompted for in the error message and it should be good. Brought it home. DVD would not burn.

Talked to Thomas again and he said to bring it back and he would uninstall and reinstall the program. He did that and, being the nice guy that Thomas is, he upgraded me from Version 7 to Version 9 in the process. He even put in another DVD drive just to be on the safe side. (Thomas is not accepting any money for all of this.) Version 9 looked a lot different so I learned the program again and finally realized that the "make a DVD" function is turned off in the trial copy of Version 9. Thomas says to bring it back and he'll put Version 7 back on it but I decided to just start from scratch on Glynda's PC. It has the same program and she has Version 7.

Now you can't just email or transfer the file to another PC. It does not actually save the pictures until you burn the DVD, it saves the picture address so if you put it on another PC - it's nothing but "can't find the picture" messages. I put the pictures and music on a couple CD's and loaded the pictures on Glynda's computer and put in another 4 or 5 hours on the new copy. It was moving along OK but then, sitting at Glynda's PC, I crossed my legs. It's a little tight there and when I did that, I kicked the DVD player door that was open. I kicked it pretty good and broke it pretty good! So now, I'm not gonna be able to burn the DVD when I get it finished.

I packed up my PC and Glynda's PC and took them to Thomas. He said "You did what?" A few hours later I picked-up both PC's - mine now with Version 7 of the program, Glynda's with a new DVD drive. (Thomas did charge $40 for the new drive and $20 to install it. He said the old one that was stuck in the half-open position didn't want to come out!)

Back home I hooked them both up. Started up the DVD program on mine, open the Bev&Alex file, burned it to a DVD, and - Success!!!! It burned!!! I've even done some more editing now to make it even better and burned a couple copies of that. It's all good! (Wonder if I'm gonna, some day, start getting that error message again?)

And here's one more documentation post

This is the zip line clearing from the Treehouse to beyond the east bridge. Actually the zip line is in the picture too and you do need to do the double click bit to see the details that are too small to see otherwise. Daniel and one of Alex's friends have both been down the line in beta mode several times and there were some interesting things happening there that resulted in lowering one end of the line and raising the other as well as moving it towards one side. We also found that getting the line too tight can actually slow down the ride and a rider can get stuck up there. Not that good if you're traveling in hanging mode (no seat), but all turned out well. In clearing the area we found that if a tree falls on the line it will hold up the tree - even though it puts a lot of tension on the line. We also found that if you cut the upper portion of the tree off, the zip line can do a good job of picking up and tossing to the side the base of the (pretty big) tree. There are still some small, very high branches that will need to be cleared away from the line by some stud (Daniel) riding slowly down the line with a pair of lopping shears. We will have to build a launch platform in the tree about 7-8 ft above the Treehouse deck and riders departing from there will clear the rail around the Treehouse just fine. We need to improve the stopping method - currently using "drag butt" but that's infinitely better then "tree stop" or "bail and roll". Needless to say, we need to buy a safety harness before any little ones make the trip. (Riders will have to sign waivers as well as prove attendance at church the previous Sunday.) No animals were harmed in the construction or testing of this zip line. One person did experience a "damn" minor skin puncture on their right hand.

Thursday's Picture

Actually, the two weeks are done and went really quickly! But here's one more picture. It's a little ant hill along the trail - about 3"-4" wide. There are a couple ants in the scene but they're really hard to see!

Wednesday's Picture

Today's picture lacks artistic merit but it does mark a significant event. It was taken in Winnsboro and it's the drink menu from the only place in miles where you can walk into a nice atmosphere and have a bottle of beer such as Bass Ale. They serve wine too. It opened yesterday and it's a very well done, small establishment (six stools at the bar and eight tables)and meals are available. It's part of Winnsboro Bakery but also has it's own entrance from the street behind. It sorta felt like "Cheers".

Tuesday's Picture

This is another "assignment" shot for the master gardeners. The first one was for hand tools, this one is for the full size variety of tools and emphasizing planting shrubs in the fall.

(We bought the plants in the picture for Glynda's church and we planted them there today around their sign.)