Getting Ready for Pouring Cement
Forty Yards of Cement will start arriving Wednesday morning
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We have spent several days preparing for the big pour of 40 yards of cement for the footings of the Earth Shelter House walls, the post footings and a much smaller footing for a decorative wall that will be built along the front of the property.
Since it is just footings, we have decided not to employ a cement team to finish this pr... | 
Brunch at Palo’s on the Disney Magic
Everyone 18 or over should do this at least once in their life!
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On the Disney ships Magic and Wonder there is an adults-only fine-dining restaurant experience that we always find unforgettable. Palo’s is a reservations only restaurant that serves some of the finest food I have ever had with the finest service I have ever had.
Before this trip, our Palo’s experience on the Magic... |
New Disney Show Villains Tonight
Disney Magic 3/23/2010
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For any of you about to cruise on the magic, the new show Villains tonight is out and amazingly fantastic, we were on the 7 night western Caribbean cruise last week and on 3/23 and got a preview of it, the big wigs from Disney called it a soft opening or the final dress rehearsal before the main premier this week, but let me say the show did not d... | 
Mickey Mouse Haircut on the Mickey Mouse ship
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It has been almost two years since we were last on a Disney Cruise Line ship and almost three since we were on the Magic. At that time we cruised across the Atlantic to Barcelona and the Canary Islands.
Getting ready to cross the Atlantic I discovered my usual short haircut was getting a bit long so I went to the... |
More Snow in North West Arkansas
This neither normal for the Ozarks nor is it RIGHT!!
It has not stopped yet. The warm weather gave us hop but we awoke this morning at our normal 6:00 AM to a dusting of show on the ground.
Currently it is 10:00 AM and it is still falling. KSPR Weather promises that is should stop soon, though! | 
WOW, What a week in Vancouver
At it is not even at the mid point!!
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I have followed the Olympics for years but this past few days have been the most exciting I can remember in a long time.
Jennifer has always followed the figure skating religiously, but the competition between the USA and Russian Federation was incredible! Even though Lysacek won the highly deserved Gold Medal, Pl... |
Arkansas Snow, January 28, 2010
One foot of snow, no school, snow forts, good times!
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Thursday, January 28, 2010 was the one year anniversary of the great 2009 ice storm and we were once again in for a big'un'.
Val, at the age of 14, drives himself and Adam to and from the bus stop every day. It is only a mile and it is good level road.
After school as he drove... | 
Video of the footings
It is slow and hard work
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Today we dug for a couple hours and did not get far. We keep running in to veins of very hard rock. This slows my progress a lot!
I drive the back hoe, Val takes the removed dirt with Onslo, the smaller tractor. To keep things cleaner, I dump the back hoe right into the front end loader on the other t... |
PTO Generator installation complete
Now we can be off grid when the power goes down.
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In preparation for the inevitable power outage we will eventually have, we invested in a PTO generator for the property. It is a generator that hooks to the back of the tractor. When researching generators, we discovered that we could easily spend $10,000 on a generator big enough to keep us running if needed.
With a little researc... | 
Salzburg Natural History Museum
Page 1 - Introduction
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Today, we arrived at opening time at the museum. To do this we had to leave very early in the morning, before the sun was up. Cruised the Autobahn at a high rate of speed and found a surprisingly close parking place less than a block away from the front door!
Now this museum is not small... it is 5 large floors of fantastic exhibit... |
Salzburg Natural History Museum
Page 8 - Space Hall
On the second floor, the space exhibit we fascinating to look at! It is the first time that I have ever seen a space exhibit outside of the USA, and it was apparent, too.
Now don't get me wrong, all the exhibits I have seen in the USA are good, but there is a definite bias shown in the display. Whether by design... | 
Salzburg Natural History Museum
Page 9 - Reptile Zoo with and extensive collection of poisonous snakes!
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Easily, the most impressive part of the museum was the Reptile Zoo. I have been to many museums, zoos and exhibits, but this exceeds any I have ever seen. There are over 50 terraria housing about 200 animals. These exhibits are designed so well that you can come within inches of the specimens and study every detail of movement, markings and more... |
Hohensalzburg Fortress
Page 1
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The Hohensalzburg Fortress is perched high on the peak of Festungsberg. The castle served as a refuge for the Archbishops when ever they felt threatened. The best way to get to the fortress is by taking the funicular. You can walk up the mountain if you wish but the funicular is quick, inexpensive and very comfortable. The ride takes less than a mi... | 
Neuschwanstein
Germany
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Next we headed to Neuschwanstein, It was a glorious scenic drive up the mountains. It is quite a walk up a steep hill to the castle but in the royal fantasy they offer horse drawn carriage rides up and down the mountain. I had to do this, there is just something so fairy tale about riding up to the castle in a horse drawn carriage. we squeezed in,... |
Salt Mine
Salzburg, Austria
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Today we headed to Salzburg Austria to the Salt Mines of Halein. It seems 250 million years ago slat deposits were formed by the sea and over the course of the formation of the alps enclosed then in rock and the Durrnberg Salt Mountain was formed. We took a tour of a former working salt mine. After purchasing our tickets and adorning our white jump... | 
Germany - The Alps
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Today we went into the Alps in on a castle day. The Alps were very impressive how the foot hills have trees and the peaks are barren because it is too high for anything to grow. This is the first day we ran into real snow that was several feet deep, the higher we went the more snow there was (logically). It was a clear day and absolutely... |
Space Shuttle Launch
STS-124 , May 31, 20085:02 p.m. EDT
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After many months of hard working on the house. We decided that after school let out we were going to take the boys on a vacation. To keep it a surprise we didn't tell them.
The kids got out of school Thursday, so Friday morning we went to Kansas city on the rouse of going to one of out favorite restaurants The Rain Fores... | 
Toy Story Musical
New Show on the Disney Wonder May 2008
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We we on a 4 night Disney Cruise the end on May after the boys got out of school. We had gone to Florida to view the Space shuttle launch ad decided to make a quick family vacation out of it.
Disney premiered a new show on the wonder to replace Hercules the Muse-ical in March. We had heard so much about this show that we... |
First day in Munich Germany
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Today we slept in a little trying to get rid of our jet lag and did some work this morning. As a reward this afternoon we headed to the Marienplatz to the Christmas Markets. It was the most amazing experience I have ever had. In the center of the platz and all the r... | 
Deutsches Museum
Munich Germany
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Today we went to the Deutsches Museum, according to the guide book this is a great museum for kids, so we thought we would check it out. We packed a picnic lunch and headed to the u-bahn. The museum sits on an in the Isar River, so unless you take the S-bahn you have to walk across the river. We didn't mind except we walked the wrong way. The stree... |
Deutsches Museum - Aeronautics
Munich Germany
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The history of fight begins nearly 200 years ago with balloons. There were two rival balloon systems the hot air balloons developed by the Montgolfier brothers and the gas balloon by Robert Charles. The first manned ascent in a balloon was by the Mongolfier brothers from the garden of la Muette castle near Paris in 1783. They were howeve... | 
Deutsches Museum - Boats and Marine Navigation
Munich Germany
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In the Boats and Marine Navigation section the Fishing Boat the Maria that is called an "Ewer" was built in 1880 for use in the North Sea as a commercial fishing boat. It was one of the last of it's kind. The vessel took over most of the room, and was at full mast, there were cutaways showing the some of the quarters and conditions that they crew l... |
St Peter's Church:
Munich Germany
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Today we went to see Munich oldest church (1180) Peterskirche or St. Peter's Church aka Old Peter., located conveniently between the marienplatz and the Market in the old town square.
This church It has recently been rejuvenated with gold leaf and the alter and organ loft are striking. In the second chapel is a bizarre relic of the... | 
Rothenburg, Germany
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Today we drove and spent the day in the mideval town of Rothenburg on the tauber river. We got to Old Town Rothenburg around lunch time, it is about a 3 hour drive from Munich and we ran into construction traffic. We had packed a sack lunch, so we picnicked in the card before we headed into the city. You can actually drive in the city walls but it... |
