Skip to main content

Leaf peeping and just getting out for a bit.

       I have to be honest, I wasn't sure if or when I would get back to this blog.   It is easy to make excuses but honestly, I've not done much of anything to improve the "homestead" in over a week or two; and that honestly bothers me.

An old Caboose in Stoneboro
    I do tend to be a lazy man and I just feel that I should be doing more to help prepare this home for the coming winter, but so far the temperatures have not dropped below the mid 40's and the last  two days have been a pretty consistent rain, which makes doing anything outside unpleasant at best and down right near impossible at worst. 

    What this has allowed the lovely Sue and I to do however is spend a little time traveling, exploring and finally getting our new pellet stove installed.  Well Sue grew up in this particular part of Western Pennsylvania, I did not.  We decided to go sight seeing, take in the wonders of Autumn and just relax for a bit.  

    Now generally speaking I would get all geeky about going to Oil City and the surrounding area, after all this was pretty much the birthplace of the modern oil industry and the term "wildcat" - given to someone that drills for oil in unproven areas - was termed when one of the early oil explores placed a dead wild cat on top of his rig.   According to legend, he struck it rich the next day.   Now true or not, it's an interesting little piece of history.  Oil City State Park is full of old abandoned towns and sites that date back to the area's brief Oil boom in the 1860's.

    Plus, even though the peek leaf peeping season seemed to have passed us by, it was a good opportunity to get out and take the back roads some. 

    To many of these roads became irresistible to drive and we kept an eye out for the odd deer or bear to wonder out.of the surrounding woods, sadly we didn't see much of any wildlife at all.

    Their are actually three nice walking tours that you can take but the most accessible one to take is actually around the park office itself.   Petroleum Center is now officially an abandoned town, lasting but a scant seven years (1866 - 1873) it was the center of activity.   President U. S. Grant stayed at one of it's luxurious hotels.  Millionaires were made overnight and the town earned the reputation of being very similar to Sodom and Gemorrah.  There are a variety of historical markers and photo's around to review.

    Well we personally didn't hike any of the trails or visit Drakes well, we figured we would be able to do that some other day.  Plus, it's not everyday that you get to ride on an old train as well.  Which again, may be something for a lazy spring weekend.   

An old railroad bridge

View of an old bridge in the park

Same Bridge, Different view

  

     Overall it was really a good day out and about and sometimes you just need to get away and do something different.   

    I've already talked about the pellet stove enough, and I'm probably going to talk about it more in the future, but it was finally installed yesterday night.  We are planning on whitewashing the fireplace to lighten up the room in general but that is a project for the future.   If your interested in more sight seeing photo's or of the pellet stove them go to my personal Facebook page.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

Why didn't Erie, PA develop into a bigger city?

          Recently I had to travel up to Erie, PA for business.   It's about an hour north of me and is a rather small city, having just under 100 thousand people living in it.   It played an important role in the founding of America,  - where it was the headquarters for Oliver Perry's flagship Niagara during the battle of Like Erie in the war of 1812 .            It was also a important shipping center, being Pennsylvania's only access to the Great Lakes which was the easiest way to trade with parts of Canada at the time as well as move goods to the cities of Detroit and Chicago, which in the mid to early 1800's were just starting to develop.  It was also directly north from Pittsburgh which was a major industrial city at that time.     Yet Erie never really grew beyond it's humble beginnings and I wondered why.   Like any good sleuth I turned to the intern...
3 comments
Read more

Honoring the past - Thinking more about "invasive" plant species.

 Recently I've been giving some thought to invasive species.  I had received both positive and negative feedback on the blog post concerning kudzu and recently I came across a very well hidden, and very small, wild cherry tree while doing some yard work.  Since it's against the house it would have to be removed since the root systems could damage my foundation.   A buddy of mine at work was asking if I was going to transfer it, his logic being that it was a fruiting tree that would not only attract a variety of pollinator's but that the deer would eat the bark and cherries, keeping them away from the garden (which Sue and I swore we were not going to do this year).  It occurred to me that I was going to have to do a slightly better job of identification, since black cherries are native to America , where as other types of cherries are not.  Being able to make a precise identification would be helpful.   I used to be able to identify all these tre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Paradigm shifts and Project 2040

In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, “ There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. ” His observation has been echoed by people ever since and changed a bit over time, but has remained a stark warning. Only anarchy the way most people think of it rarely occurs.  We have found that people are more likely to band together when their communities face some sort of disaster, be it from war, plague or natural disaster.   We are all too familiar with pictures and videos of communities digging through the rubble of bombed buildings searching for survivors...but how many of us remember the moments during the Covid epidemic of people singing from their balconies?   When you have a community; people will always help people.  Despite these bleak times the things that make us human - our compassion - will see us through. Recently my life changed due to issues with a car .  While, in the scheme of things it was a minor crisis it did make me think if things coul...
1 comment
Read more