2010 thanksgiving

newest family member 1 month old, little miss d not so sure she wants mom to be holding another baby kids coloring christmas tree ornaments

quinton and declan, cousins

giving thanks

happy birds

i've been watering the grass because grass seed has been sowed. we haven't had any rain since the first week of October, everything is bone dry. my yard was a popular place for the robins. several took a bath in one of the puddles

wine gardens

view from the patio of the wine country gardens restaurant just down the road from boonefield village. i will go back next summer to get shots of the vineyards what is left of the grape vines

view from the road below

this barn is on the way and i didn't see it fast enough to stop on the way, but got in on the way back from lunch

scones and kitchen

one of the projects on my "honey do " list, this is laney's Christmas present. a kitchen any little girl would love, there is even a phone! i have been cooking for my aunt who has started dialysis recently. she's not sure what she can eat as she has to be on a special diet. the wonderous thing about this is i do do do not like to cook or bake. the one time i tried baking raisin bread you could have hammered nails with it. the only reaon i have a kitchen in my house is because the house came with it. i've gotten recipes off the kidney center website and have been cooking again. three or four recipes this day, kind of lost track. this is my first attempt making scones, these are cranberry and are actually pretty good. i have a muffin recipe that is also wonderful but i didn't take photos of them, i'll get them the next time

daniel boone home and boonefield village

daniel boone's home four story georgian style completed in 1810 and where boone died in 1820. the village is located in the Femme Osage Valley

again the weather has been wonderful, temperatures like summer, much to pretty to stay inside, so off i went with my friend c to the home of daniel boone. boonefield village is a collection of home from the era that have been gathered up and moved here from other parts of st louis and st charles. the homes are from the 19th century and represent life in the 1800's. the building above is the school house typical dog trot home, area in the center used as a breezeway to keep the home cool in the summer, one side typically used for cooking etc, the other was the living area

general mercantile store circa 1840.

the rear of daniel's home

the sappington-dressel home circa 1870, the home was taken apart and reassembled in boonefield village by 2 full time employees and 2 volunteers

on the top of the steeple of old peace chapel

old peace chapel circa 1840, seats about 100 people and is used for weddings, baptisms, renewal of vows.

looking back to the boone home the site is owned by Lindenwood University and is part of the university campus. schools use the area for field trips and re enactors make history come alive. there are special events throughout the year coming up is the Christmas candle light tour. i'm so glad i found this treasure about 20 minutes from my home

weekend travel 2

bird's eye view of the weldon spring site (taken from the internet)

the weldon spring site as seen from the road leading up to it. it is a huge limestone covered disposal cell. contained inside is uranium feed materials and their manufacturing wastes. i wonder if it glows in the dark????. the cell covers about 45 acres and provides long term isolation for 1.48 million cubic yards of chemical and low-level radioactive waste. from 1941 to 1945 as part of the ww2 defense effort the u.s. army produced explosives at the weldon spring ordnance works a 17,232 acre facility in st charles, missouri and should remain stable for 1,000 years. the busch conservations area is part of the acreage. this is either the greatest or worst government use of funds ever

stair way to heaven or hell. hell for some of the many workers who handled uranium ore without knowing how dangerous it was, hell for the residents of the cities of Howell, Hamburg, and Toonerville who were forced off their land in 1941 without compensation for the war effort so the munions plant could be built

view from the top is the highest accessible point in st charles county, the cell is 75 feet above the surrounding terrain. there has been some controversy about this site. people believe that the radioactivity has already migrated into the ground water before this site was cleaned up. the ground water that 70,000 citizens of st charles drink

observation deck

another view to east. the land around the cell has been turned into hiking and biking trails and a wildflower and grass prairie. i'll have to return in the spring to capture the prairie flowers

a group almost to the top

the layers of material that contains the waste. from 1957 to 1966 this area was used to process uranium ore concentrates and a small amount of thorium. in 1986 the department of energy designated the clean up effort here and it was finished in 2001

old wooden water line