Saturday, April 20th, 2008 was my children's first taste of war.  Not a real battle, but a Civil War Re-enactement at Mahaffie Farmstead in Olathe, Kansas took place.  We positioned ourselves on the Union (blue) side and enjoyed watching camp life in the hours leading up to the battle.  Here's one of my favorite photos from the day.  This soldier just reclining back makes me think back to my own ancestor who fought in the Civil War, Rueben Davis of Greene County, Missouri and wonder about his war experience.

There was a historical society, present who took my email address down.  I hope they send me more details, soon.

The Civil War Re-enactment at Mahaffie Farmstead had an array of cannons from both the North and South militias.  The re-enactors were simply awesome at their task and were very well trained in these antique firearms.

Two photos are attached to this article one of a Union Artillery unit and of child in the crowd plugging his ears before the next battery sounds off!

 

 

 

Here's another shot from the Civil War Re-enactment on April 19th.  The smoke just blew out from a canon the left of these officers.

I took this shot with my Canon 10D...here's the lowdown on the settings...

• Shutter Speed 1/750
• Focal Length F/4.5
• ISO-100

 

 

 

Some questions have no rhyme or reason behind their answers. In fact I may never want to know the answer why Chris would have such an attraction to pigs. Her most annoying ability is to mimic pig sounds, and she's a city girl! I don't even know if she's heard pig mumblings outside of the movie Charlotte's Web. Maybe she heard them at the Deana Rose Farmstead? In any event here's a photo in her honor...

Taken with my Canon EOS 10D.

• Shutter Speed 1/90 sec.
• Lens Aperture F/4.5
• Focal Length 155mm
• ISO Speed ISO-100

Having seen numerous individuals with Parkinson's disease, I'm glad that the State of Missouri is doing something about making more known about this infirmity.  I'm especially proud of the Granby man who's making this happen, as he's my Father!

Neosho Daily News

Special thanks to Kevin Wilson for being a part of this experience.

Kevin Wilson, Missouri State Representative

Every time I see the PBS special on crop circles I wonder how the hoaxers create them. Little did I know I could ask one of my neighbors! Mowed into his field is the world PEACE and a peace symbol right beside it. I would never have known this until I went to I accidently saw "it" when looking up driving directions. Click here to see.

Living in the city took quite an adjustment period. I don't know if I should even say that I'm fully adjusted as I tend to look for opportunities for my children to have many of the same experiences that I had growing up. Case in point...the pumping of water into a basin in Overland Park's Deana Rose Homestead ( http://www.opkansas.org/_Vis/Farmstead/index.cfm ).

I should admit that I didn't *really* have to pump water from a well growing up!

 

 

This photograph was taken on a Canon EOs 10D, more stats below.

• Shutter Speed: 1/1000
• Lens Aperture: F/4.5
• Focal Length: 135mm
• ISO Speed : ISO-100

Along the main drag in Estes Park, Colorado is a small stream, the locals call it a river.  It runs behind most of the restaurants and always seems to be the favorite stomping grounds of the kids.  In fact I remember back in 2006 when my 3 year old son decided to get too close the rivers edge.  Fortunately, I was close by and fished him out.  I can't believe how wet I got carrying him the three blocks to the car.  At least I managed to snap a few rounds off and got this one decent pic. 

My Canon 10D is one of my best memory makers.  It's snapped 10's of thousands of photographs and filled more than 1 hard drive up with the glimpses I've captured.  The issue I have is that I haven't always tagged the images with very good meta data.  In fact most of my images have almost no data associated with them, just some random file name that has no meaning.  Here's one of those images that needs some more info.  I took this picture in the park across from the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, KS, but I have no idea who the artist/sculptor is and I sure wish I did.  If you know, please, post in the comments.

Now, it's not that I'm against tagging or anything, but I just haven't found a really good methodology to do so on Windows XP for free.  I tried a flavor of Microsoft Expression that did a fabulous job of tagging and made it super easy to keep tagging my photos, but the $200 price tag just doesn't fit my budget.

Chris got me a wonderful gift for our 9th anniversary. My close friends know that I am by nature amused by the toys of my past. My small town lifestyle gave me much more time in my youth to explore toys, especially the yo yo. The big three tricks, Around the World, Walk the Dog and Rock the Baby were in my repitoire in the 80s. With my new Yo Yo I'm able to perform a whole new set of string tricks, like Double or Nothing and the Brain Twister. The new Yo Yo is a 2008 Edition 888 by Yo-Yo Factory, bought from YoYoGuy.com. Here's the link: http://www.yoyoguy.com/PN/YF16/Whats-New:-Yo-Yos/888