Monday, March 21, 2011

Some Odds and Ends

With the three weeks of steady rain here in Northern California and some personal stuff going on, we've not been able to travel like we had planned so.... here's some fun stuff to look at until we head off to Chico next week to hang out at the Sierra Nevada Brewery for some tours and tasting.
Weather, goats, birthdays, zydeco, a movie, breadmaking, a new tool pegboard and a 60 year old guy running.... Lots to look at...enjoy all the photos.


Looking our our front window, south, with the rain clouds coming.

We've got some Groucho Marx disguises so we can go to the brewery multiple times during the day...hiccup.
Now...for the REALLY fun stuff...
Kim offered to help out with a local goat farm. She spent the day feeding over 50 baby goats (called kids).

Sarah, the owner, milking some momma goats. She makes goat milk soap which Kim LOVES.



So tiny. Kim picked them under her arms to feed them. She called them "her footballs".

It was also Kim's birthday in February and my Dad's in March. I got Kim a handmade rubboard from Louisiana and we took Dad out to breakfast for his 89th birthday.


Unwrapping the box.



She was so not expecting it. You can see how much fun she had playing it in the video below. Oh, and notice we still have our artificial tree up.



 


We bought a Breadman breadmaking machine at a garage sale for $2 !! ...and watched in amazement as the bread got mixed.

KIm is praying for it to Rise, Rise, Rise!

the Before photo of our tools to put on the new pegboard

Clever way to hold it in place while I secure it to the wall.

Wall BEFORE.

Wall AFTER.

For the first time in 5 years, I stayed in shape during the winter...zooooooom.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Amazing California State Railroad Museum

Kim and I went up to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento a few weeks ago when the town opens up all the museums for a day for free! We got there an hour early and got there ahead of most of this line that ran around the block! Kim has been trying for years to get me to go to this museum and, when she finally got me there, I enjoyed it so much. Thank you Kim !


They must have over a dozen trains from all eras inside. Passenger, Coal, Mail Trains, Personal Trains.....wonderful exhibits.


Next to each of these trains were many glass enclosed displays showing details for each one and other side interests to railroading in general including the engineering tools used to make the tracks themselves.


Engineering Tools used in the railroad industry

Wheel defect guages and caliper in canvas pouch - 1950s


Southern Pacific Rulebook - 1930

Literature of the day regarding railroading

These are some of the "high-class" choices

Some passenger Give-Aways once you board

Some of the First Class treatments for the passengers.

Drafting Scales and Protractor

Drafting Tools
Upstairs, on the third flor, was devoted totally to toy trains, from decades ago to more recent. How many of us used to play with these trains when we were kids? I sure did.





HO Scale trains


N Scale Trains (Kim's hand for size comparison)
And, of course, the happy couple outside afterwards.

All the photos were taken with my Droid phone.

Waaaaay too much to take in just a couple of hours....and it was a bit crowded due to the Free Day. We'll have to come back and take a more liesurely journey.

The photos seems small but if you click on them, they'll enlarge for you to see more detail.

Happy Railroading!

Kayaking again...finally!

Finally, we got back on the water. This time at Meacham Lake in upper state New York, just on the north edge of the Adirondack Mountains (yo...