Montgomery, Alabama

and you know what is interesting about this city...yep, the State House.

This is the first peek.  The dome with the flags.

This one  is the seventh one to visit.

Montgomery became the capital in 1847 and is located on "Goat Hill."  The Dexter's had a goat farm on this location, and the building is on Dexter Street.

To our left is a statue of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, in 1861.  

This is a view of the floating staircase from the second floor. It is the most fascinating thing to me.

It is a three story spiral staircase, but the view from the first floor is the entry with all the security stuff that makes it unsightly.

Just had to show another view...hey, it is shaped in an S...I have a lot of pictures of just this staircase!!!

They think it was built by a freed slave by the name of Horace King, a bridge builder and engineer.  He also served in the Alabama legislature.

This is what you see as you enter, a statue of the first woman governor, Lurleen Wallace.

Behind her is the Fallen Heroes room.

This is looking up into the Rotunda.  A beautiful stained glass skylight dates from 1906.

There are lovely murals depicting the history of Alabama, circling beneath the dome.

This was another beautiful feature of this building.

This is just one of the murals.  It is of Jefferson Davis being sworn in as President of the Confederate States of America in 1861.

There is a total of eight murals with beautiful vibrant colors.

This is the old House Chamber. It has been restored to its original appearance.

Notice the lavender painted walls, and no desks...just wooden chairs without any cushions.

This caught my eye.  What a beautiful stove.

I meant to ask about it, but forgot.

Our tour was a self-guided tour, and the stove is not even mentioned in our literature.

The old Senate Chamber, where delegates from the seceding southern states organized the Confederate States of America in 1861.

It has been restored as well.  Notice the spitoons on the floor.

From the gallery above, you get a good look at the whole room.



Upon leaving Montgomery, we traveled back to Selma on the National Historic Trail where the march for voting rights was led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  The march ended on the street in front of the Capitol.  It was a five day march back in 1965. There were over 300 people who participated in the event.

The famous bridge, Edmund Pettus Bridge where the march began.

Until next time...

Up the Hill and Around the Curve

as we make our way to work each week.  This is our last week to spend at Moosehorn for the season.  We have been busy routing signs, painting the edges and installing them.  Bill brought in some mums for the four planters and I got them planted as one of the last things to do.

We also re-installed a couple of counters. Hopefully these will work right and get an accurate count.  This one was reading 100%...that's great. Now to keep the spider webs out!!!

Well, this finishes up our last week of work...now to get things ready for travel.

Next, up on the roof I go, hoping I don't have an accident.

Somebody has to do it...I'd rather it be me.

Wallace gets to do the rest while I am busy inside.

We had a pizza party, and Bill asked me what my favorite memories were...oh, there are so many!!!

We had a great time, sharing funny things while we ate.

Our spot is now empty.

Any what a lovely spot indeed.

We turned in our keys.

We said our goodbyes.

Here we are in Woodstock, Virginia at a Wal-mart for the night.  We were the only ones until THIS pulled in beside us. Did you notice, it is a Prevost.

We stopped here to visit some friends who are camp hosting at Big Meadows...Lunda and Mel. We had a great visit with them.

We are now at a Corps of Engineers campground in Demopolis, Alabama...site 31.

We are recuperating from our time on the road from Maine (all one nighters).

We move on to Louisiana Monday for our three month stint at Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge...same place as last year at this time.

BUT, we took a little side trip yesterday and will share that maybe tomorrow...stay tuned.

Until next time...

Musings

What a wonderful view...this bench is next to the new office building at the refuge.  We are sitting here thinking about all the things that have happened this summer.

One of the last things I failed to mention is when the Secretary of the Interior stopped by for a little visit...Sally Jewell...she is the one in the center with the blue jacket.  She spent some time talking with each one of us and then wanted to hike a trail...of course it had to be the Charlotte Trail.  I'm sure glad I spent some time trimming, mowing and cleaning the interpretive signs on that trail...she did not seem to notice though.  It was a nice visit.

We have had a wonderful summer with our Moosehorn Family, but it is time to move on to our next destination...Louisiana.

Until next time...

Open House

We moved into the new office June 23...next thing to do was open house.  We have been planning it for some time and it finally came to fruition.

Bill Kolodnicki, project leader, gave the welcoming.  In attendance were two state representatives, the mayor of Calais and a rep from Homeland Security.  There were about 40 people for the ribbon cutting that started at 2:00 pm, with others coming and going throughout the evening.  It ended at 7:00 pm.

The refreshments were laid out on the conference room table...the picture was taken before the fruit bowl and punch were put out.

We had a video of the building while it was being built projected on the screen.

I arranged two vases of flowers for the table and reception desk, and prepared my favorite punch of lime sherbet and 7 up (which was a big hit).

With our limited budget, the black-eyed Susans came from the refuge.

The building is geothermal and supported by a solar system, with a back up generator in the event of emergencies.

The cake was delicious.  The photo is actually the back of the office.

Several of us bought or made the desserts.  I baked peanut butter crisscrosses.

Until next time...

Catching Up

Wallace was asked to rout these signs for the entry and this was the design they asked for from the sign committee.

We now have a one way road taking you to the new office building.

It will take a while before people get the hang of it.

Straight on takes you to the visitor cabin.

I filled in at the office while Peg was out on vacation.

The phone system is much better in the new office, but it took a while to get all the bugs worked out.

I arranged and hung the collage and photos on the wall.

I baked these peanut butter crisscrosses for the staff meeting.  I have baked oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip as well.  Chocolate chip has been their favorite.

With blueberry season in full force, we have been enjoying pies too.

It sure is nice to have a man around the house. He has chain saw cert. Anyway, we came across this on our way to monitor wildlife. It did not take long and we were on our way.

We have several of these scattered around to help us keep up with visitation. Look who visited and signed in. Jimmy Houston. He has a fishing show on TV & we have watched his show.  Pretty neat!!!

We monitor water levels once a week giving us the opportunity to be out on the refuge. We let the biologist know what the levels are and let them know when there is beaver activity.

We also note any and all wildlife we see.

This deer with her fawn have been seen regularly around the refuge.

It was nice of them to pose for this photo near the blue goose sign.

This is a picture taken at Acadia National Park...Thunder Hole. For some reason we did not stop here on our previous visit, so, since we had some extra time before our departure for Petit Manan (the tour from our previous blog) we decided to check it out.  It was low tide so it did not THUNDER very loudly.

But, now we can say we have seen all we want to see of Acadia.

Bill had picked up two of these display cases and asked us to put them together...we found only one was complete and in working order.

We hauled those cases to three different places before we found a place high enough to put them up.

Wallace got to take the mower out for the day.

I'm still mowing with the little John Deere.

We were asked to be on the look out for purple loosestrife. We found the first clump that has been on the refuge since we have been coming...7 years.

It has now been eradicated.

While out doing our water readings, we happened upon this northern water snake.

This is me with Bill. The refuge had a booth at the Blueberry Festival again and we helped tend the booth.

We snapped this picture on Charlotte Road as we were returning to the refuge. He was intent on chowing down on some berries and paid us no mind.

The new office building. 

We are getting ready for open house on the 28th...come by and see us!!!

My little blue spotted salamander friend. It lives near our visitor cabin. Be sure your hands are free of anything that could kill things you pick up, including insect repellent.



Until next time...

Bar Harbor, Maine

for another puffin trip to Petit Manaan. The island is one of four owned and managed by US Fish & Wildlife. It is part of the Maine Coastal Islands NWR. 

This photo was taken upon our departure as the sun was setting.

Linda Welch is a biologist who accompanied us out to this island in 2007, where we were privileged to disembark and spend a wonderful experience among the birds they are working so hard to protect. I was so glad to see she is still at it.

Since I was not blogging back then, I thought I would share a little about our first trip.

This was the boat we took in 2007. The dingy took us to the rocky shoreline.

It was already turning out to be a great day of fun.

We managed to make it to shore without a problem.

With me were two other Friends of Moosehorn members.

Now, let's get a close up of some of the birds, and learn about the work that is being done to protect them on this special island.

We also walked to the top of the lighthouse, the second tallest one in Maine. What a view...the birds and their nests scattered all over.

Wallace got to hold a baby puffin while Linda made preparations to weigh it.

Here I am with a precious tern chick. We wonder where these birds are now...maybe among the many we see on this trip.

Gray cheeks...young puffins...with one Razorbill to the left...and a Common Tern flying by in the background. 

These chicks were anywhere and everywhere, but we were very careful to watch our steps.

The islands are closed from April 1 to August 31...nesting season.

And this is the boat we took today...on the left...as we are boarding.

Since there were over 100 people on board and since we did not get on the island, it was not as fun as our first trip there, but we did enjoy the day.









Until next time...