More Activity at the Feeders

All activity at the suet log isn't good. Yes, a female Downy Woodpecker showed up briefly yesterday. And the House Finches and a female Northern Cardinal helped themselves to the seed feeders. But the true sign that my suet feeding days are done for the winter was when the Common Grackles show up, they can make short work of a suet block. This fellow here, though, has been an issue all winter. Had to use a little negative reinforcement. It will probably be for naught.

Miscellaneous Fire Apparatus

No firehouses this week, I finally ran out of them and I don't like taking them with snow. So here is a collection of fire apparatus I've shot in the past year. Most haven't been posted before. We'll start with the 1981 Hendrickson Pirsch pumper. It was once Marion's (Franklin County, Pa. Co. 8) it now serves the Franklin County Public Safety Training Center. Second is the Baltimore County Water Resources vehicle parked at Cockeysville's station. Third is a National Foam pumper I saw parked at the Whitehall Township (Lehigh County, Pa.) municipal building. The door reads Lederle Laboratories Fire Department, Pearl River, NY. Fourth is Shippensburg Area EMS's Medic 73, a 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe. Fifth is the Vigilant Hose Company of Shippensburg's Tanker 52, a 2012 4Guys International 3000 gallon tanker. And lastly is FDNY Reserve Engine 99. The back says it is from the Bureau of Training.

Heading the Flock North

More snow geese leaving Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area last week.

Louisville Gentlemen (PG 195, 196 & 197)

The streets of Louisvuille, Kentucky had it's share of Painted Gentlemen in addition to the fine archetecture. Along Main Street at Floyd Street was the very ghostly Grocery Co./Taylor sign (PG 195). On the other side of Main Street, the west side, there was the Fort Nelson Wholesale Grocers and Provisions J. Zinsmeister & Bro. (PG 196) and across the street at the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum was the Falls City Clothing Co. Manufacturers. (PG 197). And don't pass an awesome neon sign. It was right beside the Falls City ghost, see it?

St. Pauls, Shaefferstown

I couldn't just drive by this church in Shafferstown on the way home from Middle creek last Sunday without at least a couple of shots. Even with the parishoners showing up for church. This is St. Pauls United Church of Christ, 1304 Heidelberg Avenue, Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, Pa. The original congregation began here in 1765, this church was built in 1858.

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Vigilant Hose Company firefighter at a structure burn class at the Franklin County Public Safety Training Center last  April.

Shippensburg Firefighters Activities Center

Shippensburg Firefighters Activities Center, 33-35 West Orange Street, Shippensburg, Pa. Co-Owned by the Vigilant Hose Company and the Cumberland Valley Hose Company, Cumberland County Companies 52 and 53. Built in 1991 and opened in early 1992 the main purpose of the SFAC was to provide a place for the two companies to hold Bingo and other fundraising activities. In 2003 an addition to the office area along Orange Street created a small training room and an area for the local District Justice, including offices, a reception area, meeting rooms and a court room.

Think Spring

It's here! See, winter wasn't that bad after all. Before you know it we'll be pulling weeds and mowing the grass and sweating and turning the AC up a little bit. Is it fall yet?

Tundra Swans in Flight

It wasn't all about the geese at Middle Creek. Plenty of Tundra Swans there, too. Like the Snow Geese they winter down south and migrate north as far as the Arctic Circle. Middle Creek is a stopping off point to rest and feed before making another leg. I don't know who made more noise though. There was a constant honk, if you know what I mean.

Snow Geese in Flight

You know, a long time ago we had a speaker at our fire company banquet who spoke about teamwork. He used the migratory fight of geese to drive his point home. He told of why gees e fly in the classic "V" pattern when they make these epic journeys. How the lead goose broke the current of wind so that the goose behind him used this new current and the goose behind him didn't have to work as hard. And so on back each side. And they would switch out who had the lead. He told us that this is how a volunteer fire company should work. Making each persons work easier when we work together. I think we got it. Then he asked why one side was always longer than the other. We all had our theories. When we were done he explained that one side was always longer than the other because there were more geese on that side.

More from Middle Creek.

MIddle Creek

Yesterday morning I took my first trip to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Lebanon County. I had been watching the watchers for the best time to go and this past week it seemed like the place was pay dirt. Counts last Wednesday were like 60,000 Snow Geese and almost 5,000 Tundra Swans. Well, the numbers weren't quite that good Sunday morning but I at least found the place and am now acquainted with the area. Maybe next year the ice cover will be less, I think that would make a difference. Maybe evenings are better. We'll see.

Post number 2300!

Shippensburg Area EMS, Station 2

Shippensburg Area EMS, Station 2, 119 Lurgan Avenue, Franklin County, Shippensburg, Pa. Cumberland County Company 73. SAEMS started this sub-station  in the west end of Shippensburg to improve response times during busier times. Service started in July of 2011, Monday through Friday 8am 'til 7pm. On February 1, 2014 the ambulance and crew moved across Franklin Heights Avenue into West End Fire and Rescue's station.

Chambersburg Fountain in Pink

Another view of the fountain on the square in Chambersburg. That is the Franklin County Courthouse in the background. This was taken during the annual Ice Fest.

19 West King

Guerrilla Tattoo, 19 West King Street, Shippensburg, Pa. I took this from the truck window while waiting for the Earl Street traffic light. It was the day of the heaviest snow this winter. 19 West King was a photography studio prior to the tattoo shop. I've always intended to go through town and take pictures of the businesses and have actually taken a few. maybe that should be my goal for this summer.

Michaux Barn

These old stone barn ruins sit along Michaux Road in the Michaux State Forest near Pine Grove Furnace. I've taken pictures of this old barn a few times over many years. I actually had a picture of this barn on my dorm room wall when I was stationed in Germany 1985-1987. There was no fence around it then. There's a picture from that same day of me sitting in the second story window. The history of this barn is believed that it could have been built by Hessian prisoners from the Revolutionary Battle of Trenton, here on the Bunker Hill Farm.

Melting Winter

Ever so slowly, day by day the sun climbs higher in the sky. Stretching a little bit more north than the day before. The temperatures start to rise. The snow starts to fade. Before we know it we will have forgotten about the constant snow and ice. Pretty soon we'll forget about the shoveling and be complaining about having to mow and pull weeds. And it'll be too hot to go outside and do anything....

Westphal Hose Company No. 5

Westphal Hose Company No. 5, 715 North Queen Street, Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. Part of the Martinsburg Fire Department, a career department with two stations, Central Fire Station and Westphal. Established 1905. The building is in the East Martinsburg Historic District which was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

This picture was taken with film around 1989 sometime.

Last Trip to Munich

These pictures are from my last trip to Munich in late March 1987. I would leave Germany and be discharged two weeks after this. It is also my only trip down with my new Canon AE-1 35mm camera. That camera and I saw a lot over the next 20 years. Image a DSLR lasting 20 years. The Haus Neumayr is is a hotel, I think. The Bayerische Vereinsbank is now a part of Hypovereinsbank and the 6th largest German financial institution. And the bottom picture is Frauenkirche again and the Virgin Mary on top of the Mariensaule. The face? I don't know where in Munich or what is it, sorry.

Rathaus-Glockenspiel, Munich

This is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel on Marienplatz in Munich, Germany. The Rathaus is the town hall, it was built in 1908. The Glockenspiel is the music played when this larger that life cuckoo clock chimes at 11am and 5pm every day. The chimes re-enacts two different stories, the top is the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V (he founded the Hofbrauhaus, reason enough for a celebration). The bottom is the story of the Cooper Dance during the plague of 1517.