Union Mills Homestead

We visited the homestead of Union Mills one Sunday afternoon. Purchased tour tickets and joined up with a tour in progress in the grist mill.  It dates back to the early 1800s.

It has been in operation recently but I think they need a full time miller at present.

The Homestead began as 4 rooms in 1797.  It has been added on in stages.

It has remained in the Shriver family the whole time. They kept detailed journals and rarely threw anything away.  The house is filled with household items dating back from colonial times to 20th century.

Washington Irving stopped here as did James Audubon where he watched a Baltimore oriole build a nest.

The tour took us inside where no photos were allowed.  Here's the back of the house.

Besides the mill and farming there was a tannery here.

The Homestead is not far from Gettysburg and as that battle loomed troops from both sides passed through here.  Two Shriver brothers who lived here and across the street were divided in their loyalties.  After the war they went back to being partners in their business concerns.

By the way this is the same Shriver family as Sargent Shriver, head of Peace Corps and father of Maria Shriver, broadcast journalist and former First Lady of California.

Donald Trump vs. the United States of America

Just the facts, in 40 sentences.

By David Leonhardt

Opinion Columnist

Sometimes it’s worth stepping back to look at the full picture.

He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election.


He urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 presidential election.


He divulged classified information to foreign officials.


He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat.


He hired a national security adviser who he knew had secretlyworked as a foreign lobbyist.


He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels.


He genuflects to murderous dictators.


He has alienated America’s closest allies.


He lied to the American people about his company’s business dealings in Russia.


He tells new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather.


He spends hours on end watching television and days on end staying at resorts.

He often declines to read briefing books or perform other basic functions of a president’s job.


He has aides, as well as members of his own party in Congress, who mock him behind his back as unfit for office.


He has repeatedly denigrated a deceased United States senator who was a war hero.


He insulted a Gold Star family — the survivors of American troops killed in action.He described a former first lady, not long after she died, as “nasty.”


He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.”


He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”


He made a joke about Pocahontas during a ceremony honoringNative American World War II veterans.


He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American.


He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as “rapists.”


He has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.”


He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women.


He enthusiastically campaigned for a Senate candidate who was accused of molesting multiple teenage girls.


He waved around his arms, while giving a speech, to ridicule a physically disabled person.


He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents.


He has called for his opponents and critics to be investigated and jailed.


He uses a phrase popular with dictators — “the enemy of the people” — to describe journalists.

He attempts to undermine any independent source of information that he does not like, including judges, scientists, journalists, election officials, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office and the National Weather Service.


He has tried to harass the chairman of the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates.


He said that a judge could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage.


He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign.


He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs.


He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud.


He has refused to release his tax returns.


He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him.


He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country.


He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents.


He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.


He has called America a “hellhole.”


He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.

Reprinted from The New York Times.  Sorry don't know how to undo the margins I picked up when copying this.

Christmas Card Prep

I've started making Christmas cards.  I prefer making them to buying them.

Today I finished a batch of 15 cards.

This one was the proto type.  I didn't like the real red bow so found something closer to the color of the bird to use.

I used two punches for the wreath and stamped and punched the bird.

I have card bases for 15 more of these but will have to use other designer papers since I ran out of what I used for these.

I know its early to be doing this but we are heading to Barcelona Oct 1 for two weeks which is prime card making time.  In fact I'll be missing a cardmaking session at my friend's house and here at Vantage House while I'm away.

Dan's Birthday Flight

For Dan's birthday which is next week, I gave him the gift of flight courtesy of  iFly!

It's a large tube that he will enter - above on left.  At the bottom is a huge fan.

Looking up in the tube.  For his very first and last flight he won't go higher than the divider and someone will be with him the entire time.

Here he is in his flight suit.

He opted for the helmet.

There were 7 people during his time period.  After a classroom orientation they filed in and sat to wait their turns with instructor.

Here he is going though airlock.

The instructor stays upright and the wind doesn't lift him up.  Dan going horizontal is carried by the wind.

For his second flight another instructor comes to take him up and down.

Couldn't post the long video I took of Dan.  Too long Blogger says.

Here's one of his instructor. The one below that is a short one with Dan.