October 2013

Lost my last' Does any one else have a horse runs real close at full run.?

Oh no! Just spend an hour writing about Wales and it didn't post!  
Will try again tomorrow.

OH NO SILVER.................see you soon!

Day 11 … 1 Sept, 2013

This day started in the best kind of way for me. It started with a delicious home cooked breakfast and a pleasant chat with our delightful hostess, Gunilla. Her command of the English language was very good and she has a good sense of humor also. Our plans for the day were to drive up into Norway and make a loop in our travels. Gunilla strongly advised us that the “lower part” of the loop would not be such good driving and that by the time we were there, it would be late in the day. She also suggested that we stop and see a park and waterfalls.

Both of us enjoyed seeing the rural scenery of Sweden with its clean countryside and neat, well kept homes and farm settings. There is a LOT of timber grown in this region and even the forests were clean of brush and debris. As a side note, we sold some timber a few years back and no real effort was made to clean up the debris. Our tract of timber had been “thinned” and we saw a lot of the “thinning” of timber in Sweden. I just wish our loggers here at home had been a bit neater in their work. I was still on the road then and not here to supervise. Live and learn!!

One thing we did note was the predominant use of red paint on houses and outbuildings. Here is a little comment I found about this paint: “Falu Rödfärg is not just a house paint, it is Swedish cultural history in a tin. The history of Swedish red paint can be traced right back to the 16th century and today it is as natural a choice for architect-designed detached houses and public buildings as for summer cottages and boathouses.” And if you are more interested, this site will give you the historical background on this paint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falu_red and if you REALLY are intrigued, here are some photos to show you. Now, can you find the grey goat in this collection of photos? https://www.google.com/search?q=falu+red+paint&client=firefox-a&hs=5wM&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=yCZpUp_8AYW52wWyooHIBA&ved=0CFQQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=579

Up the road from Falun is the small town / village of Sarna and our interest here is a small, old, stave church. A stave church is all wood, but I would hesitate to call them of “frame” construction. Also, they are very old … going back to medieval times. This will explain in better detail just what a “stave church” is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stave_church I’m hoping this site comes up in “English”, but there should be a “translate” button if not. THIS is the church we saw and there are several old farm type outbuildings out behind it also. We loitered around for nearly an hour and nobody else came there. It was quiet and peaceful and I felt I was in His House in Sarna, Sweden. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://www.alvdalen.se/sv/Kultur-och-fritid/Kyrkor-och-kapell-i-Alvdalens-kommun/Sarna-gammelkyrka/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgammel%2Bkyrk%2Bsarna%2Bsweden%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DV62%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official

From Sarna, we went on up Rt. 70 and crossed into Norway and turned around. We were so close to the large body of water, but just could not spot it from the road. This will show you an aerial photo of the area with the border marked. We were only about 100 metres inside Norway where we turned around: http://mapcarta.com/17774212 There is a large stone monument beside the road that has been split (sawed) and I presume the border is the split in the monument. Another large stone (boulder like) is on the opposite side of the road and it has a long vertical line and the words “Norge” and “Sverige” on either side of the line. Also the date 1888 appears above the Norge and 1891 appears above Sverige.

Driving back down Rt. 70 … retracing our route … we stopped at Fulufjallets National park. We had stopped at a store near Sarna for directions to the waterfall that Gunilla had told us about, and drove down a road for 11-12 Km and decided we were on the wrong road. Asked at a different location and got better directions and found we had been on the correct road … just not far enough. The parking lot for the falls trail was 22 Km!! I have no idea how long the trail was to the waterfalls as I wimped out almost within earshot of it. Carol bravely HIKED on to the falls and came back raving about it. This is the highest waterfall in Sweden. I like this short video as it shows typical scenery leading up to it: http://vimeo.com/28523606 I just noticed that Carol made the comment in her book that “We needed 4 maps and directions from 3 people to find this place, but it was well worth the effort.” I’m glad she enjoyed it, but I just gave out and couldn’t make it all the way.

We drove on back to Falun and Gunilla’s and made our evening meal out of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And THEN, Gunilla kept bringing out several different snacks /sweets and we were actually FULL by time to go to bed. That was not part of her expected B & B services, but we sure appreciated the gesture. I rinsed our plates as is my usual habit at home!

Good night...tomorrow will be a real interesting day for sure.

ark, help! something is going on here! we are all losing these nice long posts we are trying to post....me too....what is wrong? Any ideas....not just me this time .....thank goodess, thought it was just me and my puter.....

I hope this goes.................

I wonder if our "reply" will only send a specific amount of kb's and if it's over that, it won't
"send".................

 

I meant mb's.......................

Day 12...2 Sept.

Today we had to say goodbye to Gunilla and be on our way to more adventure. I mentioned the Dala Horse a couple days ago and we really wanted to see where they are made. If you’ll recall, the place was closed when we were by earlier. I’m a “horse lover” so anything to do with horses is a treat to me. Learning of the Big Dala Horse and seeing and standing under it was just an imperative to go to the factory.

We left the B & B at 9:30 AM and drove northwest along the lake almost to the town of Mora. In the small town of Nusnas we made a beeline to Grannas factory and shop. This business started in 1922 and produces approximately 100,000 per year in 20 sizes. As a reminder of the story behind the Dala hores, you might want to review this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalecarlian_horse. And this site gives even more information about the various styles of what became known as Dala Horses: http://www.grannas.com/mainframe.php?page=hurgammal&lang=eng We were surprised that a tour of the factory was not available, but rather “go on in and watch”. The folk working in the factory with large, powerful and old woodworking saws and equipment seemed to pay us no attention as we stood close and watched them work. When we finally got around to watching a lady doing some hand sanding, we asked her a couple questions and she was very polite and readily answered us. We were able to watch each step in the mfg. Process before heading across the street / parking lot for Carol to do some “serious” retail therapy. We left with what amounted to a small herd of horses, a couple yards or so of a couple different cloth patterns and some other smaller things as souvenirs and gifts for family at home. I “helped” with the decisions on what to buy.
I wish that we had had more time in this area of Sweden,but we needed to move on down the highway.

Old antiquities always fascinate me such as the burial mounds, the brochs and stone circles we have seen in Scotland and England on previous trips. Solleron is a small island in Sweden’s 2nd largest lake and has a population of a bit more than 900. It is a pretty and neat little village. There are some viking burial mounds scattered over the area, but they were not marked. I guess if we had not been under stress to put some mileage behind us, we might have done more to locate them. I’m satisfied we did see some in a small pasture, but it just looked like a big pile of rocks. In doing my computer research now for this blog, I came across this web site that I think you’ll find interesting. Please take a few moments to scan or read this as it explains the writer’s feelings when “returning” to the family’s ancestral homeland: http://faerytalebook.blogspot.com/2012/11/ancient-burial-mounds-of-sweden-my.html

Leaving Solleron, we made good time as we headed in a southerly direction. We were not on a main road, but it was a good road nevertheless and the countryside was rural in nature and not so populated. Our map showed the next town to be Leksand and we needed to make a right turn there at the “T” intersection. This we did when we got to the “T”, and we then drove for miles and miles without seeing any route numbers or next town signs, etc. We’ve always sort of had an attitude that we were never really ‘lost’ but might be locationally challenged. Wrong!! We were L-O-S-T in a foreign country with very few if any signs of habitation around and worried about running out of daylight! Finally spotted a lady out in her yard (a farm yard) and we stopped for some directions. She was as helpful as she could be but spoke very little English. She did, however, put us on a road that led to another town where we could get better directions. Next stop was a dual stop at a gas station and a McDonald’s!! The kindly girls in the gas station verified that Sweden had very recently changed some route numbers and that our map(s) were labeled wrong. THAT explained the near fiasco when we first got to Falun!! We were both so bummed out that even McDonald’s was good comfort food. While inside McDonald’s, we were asking the young cashier to verify the route number and direction we were on. She tried, but a friendly truck driver overheard the conversation and took me to the window and pointed out how we needed to go. I didn’t quite understand if he was an active driver or retired like me, but we each recognized the similarities and professional challenges we had in common as “truck drivers”. “Keep the shiny side up!”

We motored on to the town of Jonkoping, Sweden and our stop for the night at Villa Bjorkhagen. We arrived after dark, checked in and found our cabin. Check the little thumbnail photos #23 (lower right) and #28 to get an idea of the cabin we stayed in: http://villabjorkhagenjonkopings.staywhizz.com/ We got our clean clothes out for tomorrow and Carol did some hand laundry and hung that to dry and we were gone to bed … safe and secure but very tired from the terribly frustrating experience of being lost.

This day had been quite a challenge with the experience of being lost, but we knew that tomorrow would definitely be a better day!!

See you in the morning for breakfast!

For what its worth, I've been trying to keep each day blog to "around" 1000 words. This last one was 969 words and I don't know how the word count is affected by the site references. I write each one off line and then do a copy / paste thing to here. Then I skip over all the gobbledy gook stuff and hit send. Wish I could be more help as I know how frustrating it is to have something long written out and lose it for unknown reasons. Maybe JINX is back in town...??? the little ()*&^%(^ !!!

I think RICK and GRAYMARE are probably on the right track about why posts get lost. Another thought I had was that if you stay online and connected to this website for a long time, it may time out and drop the connection when you post. You don't notice it has been dropped until your post doesn't go through.

Sooooo, I would write the long post somewhere else, like in an email or a word processor program, then copy and paste it here when you are finished. If you lose the post, you can just recopy it again from your email or word processor page. I have no control over these situations. Sorry.



Ivan and I had a very nice lesson today. He was mellow, I was mellow, no one got their knickers in a bunch.  
Areion remembered everything from her last lesson, which was three weeks ago. She did great! Lori says when Areion figures out canter departures, she is going to be great. They looked really good together.

It has been soooo cold all day, and windy. I was outside in it most of the day. I discovered I can ride Ivan at a posting trot with no problems, but my newly constructed neck decoration doesn't like sitting trots. I can feel the stitches pulling. We did posting trots.

RICK:
Guess who I have tickets to go see on Monday? Bill Clinton! He is campaigning for the Va Democratic governor candidate, apparently they've pulled out the big guys for this race. He'll be at Va Tech Monday afternoon. We've never gone to a political rally before, it should be very interesting.

ARK, I didn't know you spoke Greek so fluently, now IF I understood Greek, I'd know what you said!   I've done really short posts and sometimes they go thru, sometimes not!

Rick, you are never too old to ride! Just saddle up and go for it! It is a very relaxing
, peaceful way to spend some time.

OL Man, need more information on the horse being close?

CB:
It is your computer and/or your connection to the your server and the website's server. I cannot do anything about any of those things. It is to your advantage to write a post somewhere else, like in your email, then copy it and paste it here. Then if your connection has been broken, you still have the post somewhere else so you can copy it again. That is about as easy as I can explain it.

I've never copied and pasted anything, so don't know how to do it....sounds like some others are having probs getting their posts on here also....
I'll keep trying, but ifn ya don't hear from me its cuz I can't get my posts to show....

We got our coggins done on Tank, Cinnamon, and Rocky Wednesday....and met the new vet....it was our anniversary present to ourselves! Vet did a health inspection for Zeus the new horse for Audrey....he passed! He was impressed with TAnk, I used a fly swatter to smack some bot flies that were buggin him and he just stood there and let me do it, never moved a muscle.


Sweet Dreams y'all.

ARK, GRAYMARE, RICK: Just read about your suggestions why my post disappeared and think you're right - I spent a pretty long time writing about the Welsh adventure and yes, it was a long piece of writing too, so I think I just got 'logged out', without realising it.
So now I know, I will now Log Off again and write it out (longhand - CB, I'm with you on this one, haven't learned all the finesse of computing yet!)

I'LL BE BACK! (quote, compliments of Arnie S)  

It's official. Summer is over, winter is coming. Travis and his buddies took all the piers out today. Mine is sitting neatly stacked waiting until spring to see more action.

Ellen: I got some firewood into the basement today and just now lit a fire. The house was "cool" for me last night and today. Funny thing is that it is actually warmer outside today than inside. We would open doors and windows, but the lady bugs are swarming by the mega-gazillions and we don't want to invite them indoors.

Off now to try to get Day #13 written and published here. Carol "officially" finished her scrapbook project today. It is a two volume edition. When I do this next blog, that will be at the end of volume one!!

See ya / love to all

Rick & SNOOP ... who says he will have another "unvarnished truth" report!!

Day 13…

We started today with a rather modest “all you can eat” breakfast buffet that was filling and warm. This was set out in the small cafe that was part of the Villa Bjorkhagen. Food was acceptable and warm and filling and we were happy with it. However, we’ve had better breakfast meals in B & B’s. So be it … time to hit the road again. We got stuff down from drying, packed luggage in the car, turned in the key and gone!!

Even though we covered a fair amount of kilometers today, we had some interesting stops along the way. We were in the area of Sweden known for its crystal / glass works. A more proper terminology for this area of Sweden would be Glasriket (the glass realm). Some might also know of it as the Kingdom of Crystal. We did a few sideline things also, so its not all about glassblowing and crystal, etc. From this Wikipedia site, you can click on some of the blue / highlighted words and take some side detours also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Crystal

Our first stop was in Vaxjo to see its cathedral. Carol had read about this in a reference travel book and just had to see it and the “double needle” spires. This cathedral is part of the Church of Sweden which is affiliated or derived from Lutherans. I really haven’t been able to find a suitable web site for reference for readers of this blog, but I’ve located a bit of information buried inside an advertisement for something else: “The Cathedral in Växjö is built on the spot where St. Sigfrid founded a wooden church. His relics were kept here until the Reformation, when they were destroyed. The cathedral’s present appearance, however, is shaped by work done during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The church has a fine painting of the Last Supper, an eighteenth century work by Georg Engelhard Schröder. A modern altar cabinet by glass artist Bertil Valliens now dominates the sanctuary. “ So, I can say that this cathedral is very old, has some beautiful artwork inside and we were delighted to have spent some time there. Here you’ll find a lot of photos of the cathedral and inside views as well as other views around the town. I would like to point out the beautiful, global shaped piece of glass and wrought iron art work called the “Tree of Life and Knowledge”. It is (if I remember correctly) approximately 4 feet in diameter and the top is about 8 feet from the floor. It really is worth looking at on the 6th row down and right side: http://www.google.com/search?q=cathedral+of+vaxjo+sweden&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=ep9tUrv1MOLh2QWAt4GoBA&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1282&bih=599 I really wish I could do this with some of Carol’s photos.
From Vaxjo we went on to Kosta and looked for and found the Kosta Glassworks http://www.glasriket.se/en/Glassworks/Kosta/ Here I’m quoting from Carol’s book because I haven’t found a website that shows us stuff like I want to show you: “We went on to the Kosta Glass Works and watched the process of making crystal stemware. We didn’t have a tour with a guide, so what I have is just what we learned by watching. This shop was making only one shape of goblet, and the teamwork was phenomenal! One man would heat a measured amount of glass on the end od his ‘blow pipe’ and blow it to the shape he wanted. A second man then brought a glob of hot glass and applied it to the bottom of the shape and the first man cut exactly enough to form the stem and base. He hand turned the glass while applying enough pressure against the end to flatten it to form the base. When three goblets were finished to this point and placed on a special rack, another man lifted them with a special form and took them to a separate area where the tops were formed and smoothed -- we did not see that part of the process.” Unfortunately, we did not see any of the multicolored artistic stuff being done. You might want to check this site for yet another bit of information: http://www.artglassvista.com/eng/facts/341-Kosta_Boda.html This short youtube video shows some of what we saw. When you see this video, note on the right side of your screen some related videos that might be of interest to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5LciMzU1vU As might be expected, there was an outlet mall associated with the glass factory. There was one big store that had some beautiful stuff for sale but way too expensive for our budget. We passed that one and went into another building that reminded us of a typical American type mall with shops for any and every thing and not really related to the glass factory. I chose this opportunity to sit on a bench and let Carol do the looking. She bought a small glass boat shaped candle holder! I determined that my eyes had not been damaged in the glass factory by a 20 minute examination from the inside out.

Leaving Kosta, we drove to Ystad and found the Beach House … arriving “after hours.” This B & B is probably better described as a hostel and there is a definite “season” there. We experienced once again some of the trials and joys of getting lost and arrived at the Beach House around 7:00 PM. The office was locked and no signage outside telling anybody when it would reopen, etc. Fortunately, there was a young man outside sitting on a picnic table while smoking a cigarette. We asked him what the “deal” was and he said he could get us in. He opened an outside security box and there was an envelope there with our room key. The parking lot was sand and gravel and not easy to pull luggage across … and our room was up a rather steep flight of stairs. (Oh my aching back and tired feet and legs!!) We found the room to be clean and spartan. However, there were no sheets or towels in the room … and … the office was closed until morning. Fortunately there were 4 duvets in the room and we used them for bedding. We slept on one and used the other for cover. The beds were bunk style. I guess the Beach House would have been a better experience had we not gotten lost and ran late. We did NOT have a phone either. Here is a site for the Beach House. We were on the second floor of the main building and had PBJ’s for dinner and for breakfast also so as to use up the last of our groceries!! http://www.booking.com/hotel/se/beach-house-bed.en.html When you look at this, we were in the large blue building on the second floor. Please note the customer review box in blue.

This was our last night in Sweden … see you in the morning when we get lost again in Malmo, Sweden trying to turn in our car and then walking to the train station!!

we had a very nice Halloween party on the base for kids and parents....free games, free food, haunted house....it was great. The GD's were here and they got to dress up and get loads of candy! The girls rode Sat and Sun and Audreys 14.2 hand horse she calls Zeus did great. Very willing and quiet. JOey rode Tank and he kept trying to bite all the horses on the arse the whole time! He is a big character! After Sundays' ride we had a picnic with hamburgers and hot dogs, pot salad, beans, deviled eggs, fruit salad....full weekend! We took Otto to the party and folks were taking pics of him, he was a ham! We dressed him in a devils costume! Jessi took her weiner doggie Simon and dressed him up in a hot dog bun with mustard costume. All lots of fun.
Hubby is building an escape proof dog kennel for Bozo my lil horndog male weiner! It will have a wire roof on it and a wire bottom also. I won't be having all my females bred by him unless I want him too! He dug tunnels, climbed fences, climbed and jumped out of the hor
\se trailer, nothing, and I mean NUTHIN was gonna stand in his way!

So glad to see your post CB................sounds like you had a fun week end.

I thought of something the other day and forgot to tell you........have Jesse show you how to copy & paste.........it's very easy but far easier to see an example rather than me posting it here on the board. Flessa taught me years and years ago. I kept missing one of the steps, then when I got it, it is beyond simple. She told me the missing step. I wish she & Two Pony would show up again. It would be easiest if Jesse could show you. Anyhow, food for thought to save you a big bag of frustration.

Tomorrow one of our friends is having a kidney removed.........needs prayers. We are leaving around 6A to be there for him.

Prayers for ALL.

I will try to nail Jessi down dometime! and get her to help her ol' mum! She is one busy lady! and then going to school at night too....she just collapses in bed for a few hours of sleep! She is similar to a drill instructor with troops that have kind of screwed off and gotten in trouble. They come here and get reschooled in military issues and the way it needs to be, not what they what they want it to me....and when she has troublemakers, she takes them running...now she has the option of riding in the golf cart, but she runs with them....what the troublemakers don't know is that she is training for a marathon, she has already done half marathons....LOL...that's my girl! They tend not to give her any more lip or trouble after the first ten miles!  She also teaches classes during her work day, military classes...and then if these troops don't pan out, she is one of leaders that sign their paper work to get out or put them out.
But I'll try to pin her down sometime. She is

Happy Halloween to all the kids and big kids at heart!

Good HUMS for your friend Graymare!

Much positive thinking and huge prayers for your friend Graymare!!!!!!! Some hugs to go along with it can't hurt anything either. ((((( ))))))

ANOTHER dreary day here .... ackkkkk could use a bit of sunshine ... hope I don't have to wait until I get to AZ for some sun....... That isn't long, but would be kind of nice to see it in Minnesota too. LOL

Big prayers for your friend that all goes well, Graymare.

Carol, it's been rather dreary around here today too. Not all that cold, but not pleasant to be outside either.

CB, I'm going to try to tell you how to copy/paste. Hope it works.
1. Highlight what you want to copy.
2. Press "Control" and "C" at the same time.
3. Go to where you want the copy to be.
4. Press "Contol" and "V" at the same time.

That should do it.

CB, make sure "control C" is pressed correctly together.........that's the part my fingers would goof up.....Once I slowed down to make certain I pushed together, it worked great...........same with "control V"...............

It all sounds/reads confusing but is really very simple after you do it once or twice...........
Anyhow, if Jessi shows you, you will see how easy it is.............

It's been raining here since about 11:00 last night, and still is. So, our little trick or treater will be around tomorrow.

No trick or treaters here. Families now are having their own parties and here, we had church festivals on Sat evenings. There have been no children out anywhere near our house. Odd, but parents are keeping their children really safe.

I expected the 5 kids from next door over after school but our area is closed down this year........a shame as I now have to eat Tootsie Rolls for a LONG time. Not quite as good as fudge, but chocolate........poor me. Somebody has to.  

Awww, poor Graymare, having to eat all those Tootsie Rolls. I didn't have any trick or treaters either, so I've had to make the sacrifice and eat some extra Rice Crispie treats. (I LOVE them.) I hope the little owl comes early tomorrow so that there will still be some left when she comes.