Gettysburg

If you want a historical or education field trip and find yourself heading to Gettysburg, these places are definitely on my list of places worth visiting:

1. Gettysburg Diorama - If you like miniatures, you will LOVE this. If you need to see the large picture or no little about the Battle of Gettysburg, this exhibit not only explains it very well, but brings the little details to life.

Loved the spreaded cotton balls for the smoke...from a distance it looked very realistic!

Not only did they have canyons in the fields, they also had soldiers
(from both sides) taking down fences.
A true but sad fact.

2. Gettysburg National Park - a tour Yes. You can drive yourself around and look at a book and look at monuments, but here's some of the special things you're learn with a tour guide.

This is one of the US regiments that fought the 26th NC Regiment. (We hired a personal tour guide rather than deal with the lift on the tour bus, and he pointed out some extra things for us.) Almost everyone in this regiment were school teachers.

After the war, vets from both sides returned to the site and showed exactly where their units had camped and fought. As a result, most regiments have foot markers in each corner of the square where they fought. US regiments also have their own monuments, as opposed to the South, who only have State monuments. This is the far left corner of North Carolina's marker.

Bobby's great-grandpa had six older brothers who fought in the war. Three of them never came home. One died in Gettysburg, fighting with the 26th North Carolina Regiment. From the marker showed earlier, his regiment had to climb over three such fences while fighting. (In other words, they crossed through three different farms trying to conquer their assigned area.)  I look at an area that is so pristine and beautiful, and find it heart-breaking that it was one of many scenes of devastation.

This marker shows how far the 26th came (you can't even see the first fence or the NC camp site/monument from here).  As most of the Confederate soldiers were buried in mass graves with no names or markers, our tour guide said this field (between the fence and marker) is most likely where Needham Bryan is buried, (basing it on the fact he died July 3rd, which is the day they crossed the last fence). 

"Ten paces"  - that's how far the men had to go when the cannons opened fire.  I walked to the stone wall, "the high water mark" and it was more than ten steps for me. Although, I imagine if I were running in attack mode and in fear of my life, it might be less than 10 paces.

Bobby looking across the field on our "take our time" trip the 2nd day.

One of the areas where soldiers tore up farm fencing to add to rock fences as ways of making barricades.

Our tour guide gave us the stories behind many of the monuments, but this one was one of my favorite. A PA regiment was standing near a tree during the battle, when a cannon ball hit the tree, causing part of it to fall, along with a nest of baby birds. The men stopped fighting, and put the nest and the baby birds back in the tree before resuming the fight. This monument for that regiment illustrates that story, as well as showing the regiment crest, backpack, rifle, and ammunition box. We did see one or two other tree statues, but this one looked fairly realistic and truly captured the humanity of a group of boys in the middle of a very trying time. New York's regiments also had incredible monuments, especially the ones from the group of engineers or firefighters.

3. Dwight D Eisenhower farm

and for #4 and 5, pics will come tomorrow
4. Christ Church  - Sat night presentation of civil war music and poems
5. Wax museum of Presidents and replicas of First Ladies' gowns to the inaugural ball 

laboring

I married into a farming family. My father-in-law was a firm believer that if you were going to plant something in your yard, it better be practical (i.e. food producing). When we got married, he gifted our yard with six pecan trees. When we planted apples trees and pear trees (though one turned out to be ornamental), he nodded his approval. After we planted an oak, maple, and sycamore, he scowled and asked me if I was trying to be in Better Homes & Garden magazine. When I laughed and told him no, I just wanted a few shade trees without fruit or nuts under them, he smiled and said "That's good, then."

A few years ago we planted different flowering trees and shrubs along one of our property lines. My husband laughingly asked me how many of them were going to be edible. After they were planted, my brother-in-law asked the same thing. At my laughing answer of "none", he smiled and shook his head and said "Daddy wouldn't approve."  Several of those plants didn't survive. This weekend we replaced five of the eight that needed replacing: two flowering bushes, two blueberry bushes, and one fig tree. I guess we should have planted food-producing stuff all along.

We still have an apple tree to replace this fall.  I joked about getting one while we were at the farmer's market getting everything else, but the tree was quite tall and realistically wouldn't fit in Bobby's van. Maybe one day this week I can borrow a pickup and go back and get it. And the idea of getting two pawpaw trees is still floating around in the back of my head.

Having all this planted means more to cut around, but I think in a few years we're going to be very happy with the result. I've mulched the plants twice in the last year and a half, but putting mulch out is the same as telling the chickens "Here's a treat! Come and scratch through it and make a mess!" because that's what they do every single time. I would love to have a stone wall about hip high that runs about 2-3 ft behind all the plants, but that's not in our budget. If it weren't for the cement and digging a trench and leveling it with sand before starting the wall, I think that would be a project I'd tackle myself. But something about the thought of working with cement stops me short (which is probably a good thing).

So here's to hoping that in another year I can post a picture of nice-looking trees and shrubs!

a happy exhausted

For those of you who don't live near us, the property adjoining ours was sold about 6 years ago to our county for the purpose of building an elementary and a middle school. The town of Garner denied the building permit on the elementary school because of a political issue, then politics got VERY ugly around here with the school board getting a Republican majority that behaved very rudely and the NAACP came in full force and responded just as rudely back. Numerous lawsuits and newscasts later (plus a downturn in the economy), the plans for both schools are no longer even listed on the county's website as future school sites. Meanwhile, the county has leased the land to the city of Raleigh as a place to dump storm debris (trees and such) from government locations during the next five years. Our discussions of "what we want as a fence" on the property line stopped being discussions and are now 95% reality.

After evaluating prices and dreams, we finally ordered trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation. Granted, these are seedlings, so it will take at least 5-10 years before they actually look like real trees, but we were able to order ALL of them for the price of one grown tree from a local nursery. The downside? We have to do the work. Needless, to say, I'll be barely moving at the gym tomorrow (if I make it all!).

However, and here's my happy dance coming:

Our property line now consists of 6 hydrangeas, 6 forsythias, 6 crapemyrtles, 4 dogwoods, 1 Japanese maple, 1 smoketree, 1 sassafras, 6 rose of sharon, 1 red maple, and a weeping willow.

5 giant steps away from our property line is 16 southern magnolias (for a natural fenceline) with 10 red cedars on the way. I figure if the county is going to take their time about building, and their "buffer zone" between us and the school was only going to consist of 4 dogwoods and some shrubs, then I could spend $20 and help them out and plant trees in their buffer zone for them. By the time they ever get around to building/or selling, I should have a semi-decent tree/privacy fence in place on the buffer zone they promised in the plans. And if they tear it down, I'll only have lost $20 and one day of my time.

If every thing lives, I should have cool pictures in the spring! :)

FYI: And if you ever wondered, chickens are almost as bad as dogs for digging in the spot you just planned.

a day of rest, a day of work

Thursday found us up early (after a very late night!) and headed out to be with family. It was a great day, and I enjoyed playing with my great nephews (the nieces were a tad occupied). When we got home, I got to talk with 2 of my 3 siblings, and then we headed out to "black Friday" shopping...a first for both of us. We were home and in the bed by midnight, with only minor complications. (Some idiot decided to play with Bobby's van; we had to take two parking spaces since there were no handicap spots available; thankfully everything was fixable.)
This morning we were up and at 'em at our normal time, and I was very pleased with the amount of work we accomplished today.

holes dug for property line seedlings coming soon

and the hole size

outdoor nativity set up, minus light

my new nativity window clings

Christmas tree #1 is up...the nativity

More early shopping in the am, then family stuff, and Sunday we head back to the normal routine!

craziness

It's been of those weeks. You know, the kind where you have something every single night and your to do list, which you're not at home to do, keeps growing larger. And today was supposed to be our next to last day of extreme craziness. Until I did what I do best...I got sick.

This morning, with help from my brother-in-law, I was supposed to install a new wire for the underground fence. The one we put in previously was breaking, causing the dog's warning signal to disconnect. He had other things to do this morning, so we didn't get started until around 11am. Yeah, the hottest part of the day. So I get a headache, then I get way too hot, and get sick. So poor Tim finished the remainder of the yard, and it took him almost all day.

One guy did show up and helped for a little over an hour. He was returning to Charlotte, had just finished a job here, and the guy didn't pay him. So he was looking for any kind of work to help him buy gas to get home. I think he was our temporary angel.

We were supposed to go to Duke this afternoon to visit Lauren, but I didn't get back up until almost 4pm. So maybe I'll get some laundry done before bedtime. Maybe.

at wit's end

During Bobby's first hospital visit, Linus's collar was discovered in three pieces in the yard. I haven't had time to replace it, so they've both been in the pen. Tonight I go to feed them, and Lucy's collar is chewed in pieces with the plastic clasp totally missing. It was partially buried.

We have put in an electric fence. It quit working. We bailed them out of the pound. And again. We then called a professional company and had a new electric fence installed, and then had it repaired. Now the dogs refuse to wear their collars. I'm at my wit's end. Any suggestions for my vagabond wanderers?