Monday, April 29, 2013

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma - we made it!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a state rich rich rich in resources and beauty.  It's the leading lumber producer in the nation and its nickname is a popular category of trees, especially around Christmas time.  This state has the Pacific ocean bordering it and holds first place in the nation for growing apples, lentils, dry edible peas, hops, pears, raspberries, spearmint oil and sweet cherries.................Two very large, beautiful and rugged mountain peaks loom and one of these erupted in May, 1980...............The largest city in the state is known for manufacturing aircraft, missiles and ships and the population of this state really likes their coffee.  Some very special people live in Vancouver, a city of 164,000 people near the border with Oregon..........The capital city isn't even among the top ten largest cities of this state and its name sounds a lot like the worldwide sports events that take place every four years.................We're so happy to be here and in the pictures you'll see why!   ......P.S.  There's another very special stop just ahead!!!!!!!!!!!




Where in the world are Grandpa and Grandma - catching up

If you look at the shape of this next state, it looks like one of the Snow White's seven dwarfs sitting on the floor.  It's capital looks like it rhymes with noise but it's pronounced differently.  This state entered the union on July 3rd, 1890.  Gold was discovered at Orofino Creek in 1860 and gold always brought lots of prospectors.  Today there are many ghost towns where the prospectors would live and then leave.  This state also has mines for silver, antimony, lead, cobalt, phosphate rock, vanadium, zinc, and mercury.  Agriculture is one of the major industries and about one quarter of the nation's potato crop is produced here.
Tourism outranks all the other industries.  Large elk herds draw hunters from all over the world and the mountains, lakes and streams draw water and snow sportsters.  Fun nonsense fact:  There is a song about the states and I think it starts with  "What did ___ ___ boys.  What did ___ ___?"

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma - moving west

The state we're thinking of is a big one.  It's very big in land mass but relatively small in population.  It was purchased from France and joined the union on 11/8/1889.  The early history of the state was concerned with mining - copper, lead, zinc, silver, coal and oil.  It's nickname is about something that could be made into jewelry.  The capital is a female name.  One large beautiful National Park has 26 glaciers, clearwater lakes and breathtaking mountain scenes.  Besides tourism, the state is known for raising grain, sheep and cattle.  The state's name is taken from the spanish word for mountain.  ..................Nonsense fact:  Try to picture a little big horn and you'll have the name of a famous battle that was fought in this state.



Saturday, April 27, 2013

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandpa - weather delayed

We'll do two of the states through which we traveled now - I'll call them sister states and their names are pretty much alike.  One is a bigger sister and it joined the union on the same day as its little sister, November 2, 1889.  The explorers from France found this territory but the states have names from a native american Indian tribe.  The little sister state has gold in "them thar hills" and an artist carved humongous faces of four different presidents into a mountainside.  This state is the second largest producer of sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.  Agriculture is one of its main economic endeavors. Its capital is a French first name. ............A fun nonsense fact - It has a portion of the state that makes you think that evil is done there but that's not true!..............The bigger sister state is much bigger in size and its capital starts with a "B".  90% of its land is devoted to farming and its tourism is concerned with hunting of waterfowl, grouse, pheasant and deer.  The farms grow wheat, barley, rye, sunflower, cattle, sheep and hogs...............This state is in an ecological conundrum right now because a fracking process is producing oil but possibly contaminating water and land and air.  ...........A fun nonsense fact - the capital is named the same as a jelly doughnut in Chicago.

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma - delayed edition

Well - this will be a little catch up on our game.  The next state that we will describe is a very large state that has the largest freshwater lake in the world on one of its borders.  The name of the state was taken from a native american word meaning, "sky tinted water."  One of its other borders has the largest river in the United States washing by.  This state has 10,000 inland lakes.  Its capital is named after my brother and Bing's brother..........There are some very large cities but the tall grass prairie where the Prairie Indians hunted bison covers acres and acres beyond the cities.............This state entered the union on May 11, 1858.............A few square miles in the north of this state produce 75% of the nation's iron ore and one of its cities is the largest inland harbor for  the international shipping trade.  A fun nonsense fact:  The mascot for its nickname is an underground rodent..............Can you name this state?????



Thursday, April 18, 2013

Where in the World are Grandpa and Grandma?

We're on our way, Great God, we're on our way!  We're thinking of a state that entered the union on May 29th, 1848.  That made thirty states here in America.  The explorers from France poked around and poked around and found quite an exciting new territory.  There were borders with two of the five Great Lakes.  There were 14000 lakes,  so we're  hopeful they knew how to swim.  The early settlers found hills and valleys and rivers and dells.  Some of the land was agriculturally rich and some was glacially rugged with rocks.  Nowadays this state is a leader in the production of paper, dairy products and cranberries.  An interesting nonsense fact is that many times you may see people of this state wearing large yellow triangles on their heads. What state is this??           P.S.  5,686,986 people live in this state and some of them are among your favorite people!



Monday, April 8, 2013

The Rain is Helping

Oh Good!  The rain is helping dissolve the snow.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

A Frozen April Shower

It snowed again last night.  We're hoping it turns to rain and washes these little critters away!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A Trapped Camper

Oh, woe is us!  Here's a couple of pictures of our camper.  We'd like to put the camper on our pickup and hit the road.  I wonder if a hair dryer would help melt the snow piles which impede us.  Bing sprinkled the wood ashes on the snow this morning hoping that the darkness would absorb instead of reflect the sunlight.
Today we're finally going to go above forty degrees, so we're hopeful!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Angels in the Snow

All little children born in the northern states are introduced to making snow angels.  A person just flops to one's back and waves one's arms and legs on the snow covered ground, back and forth in nice large arcs.  Then, as a child can do,  one hops up and admires the large snow angel left behind.  It's fun but Bing and I had occasion to have real angels help us in the snow.  It was about ten days ago.  We were all lined up to make our annual trek to the nearby maple woods to tap, (drill holes), in the chosen trees so that we could insert the spiles and hang the bags to collect the sap to produce some maple syrup.  Last year was a devastating one for maple syrup production because of record setting warmth and we hoped to make up for it this year.  The trouble was that this spring is setting records in the opposite direction and we still have about 24 to 30 inches of snow in the woods. It's hard to walk in deep snow and we weren't sure we'd get all 65 spiles in, even if we divided the task into a few separate events.  Then, the heavenly intervention occurred.  Bernie, our son, Jamie, our grandson and Matthew, Jamie's friend, offered to help.  Wow, what a gift.  The boys ran through the snow like it wasn't there, they stomped the paths and climbed trees in between assignments.  Bernie helped Bing with the drilling and placement of bags and all 65 spiles were inserted with paths stomped from tree to tree and out to the ATV trail.  We are so grateful for this angelic help and when the tasty sweet treat comes to fruition we'l be sure to share with them.  Thanks, angel guys!!