Busy couple of weekends. . . . .

 Sat. morning the 11th found my kayak class being cancelled, so we headed for the St Louis Zoo to see the new seal pond.

All new landscaping. . .

 . . . a new tunnel to see the seals under water.

 There's one!

 And of course the old carousel for a ride.

 Sunday the same weekend found us having a pool party for daughters friends from school.
Although a chilly day, the kids stayed in the water for a couple of hours . . . . .

 . . . . . and made sure all the pool toys were out.

 This past weekend, with the nice cool nights, found us heading for the woods and camping.
I think the first night got down into the 50's.

 A great symbol of camping about 30 years ago (with many still in use today), the good old Coleman stove.

The Coleman Company

I just love their lanterns and stoves and always drive my long suffering wife crazy when I pick up another old one.
(Don't tell her I'm working on a museum for Coleman)

 Elmo and company till mom wakes up.

 Daughter actually volunteered to do the dishes.

I think it was the chance to play in water that brought it on.

She even staged her own cooking show for about a half an hour.

We camped again at Cuivre State Park.



Cuivre River State Park

One of the buildings built by the CCC.

CCC

Wife getting dinner ready.

On the way home Sunday we stopped at St Charles County's newest park, Towne Park.

Built on an old farmstead, it is now an interactive learning park to encourage kids to be outside.

It has a fishing pond and trails. . .

. . . and the interactive area, with a log cabin sand pit.

Also on the property is the old farm house, 'The Pink Plantation.'

Here is the history of the farm and why it is called the Pink Plantation.

Clic on the image to enlarge.

A great couple of weekends mostly outside.

Stamps

Well the Post Office is about to issue a stamp for one of my early favorite authors, Edgar Rice Burroughs. His books were some of the first that really got me started reading. And, just like Sherlock Holmes, has become an icon of literature (for better or worse). The books are still in print, movies are still being made (neither at the pace of Sherlock Holmes) and most countries recognize Tarzan.

However, the stamp is not as nice as the books. . . . .

They should have used the Disney Tarzan at least.

A must see. . . . .

If you like really, really, really great wildlife art, you need to get to the St Louis Zoo soon.
They have on display in the Peabody building about 20 of Robert Bateman's great stuff.
Well worth a visit, and it's free, and the new seal pool is open. . . .


ROBERT BATEMAN

The final count . . .

Listed in Gold medal order, not total number of medals.
So GB came in fourth.
And although China was predicted to win the most, the USA took the total by a big lead.
Yea!
We don't think of ourselves as being bias, but I have to admit, there were countries I root for more than others.
If none of them are in the running, I always pick a favorite, usually by personality.

1	United States of America	46	29	29	104
2	People's Republic of China	38	27	23	88
3	Great Britain	29	17	19	65
4	Russian Federation	24	26	32	82
5	Republic of Korea	13	8	7	28
6	Germany	11	19	14	44
7	France	11	11	12	34
8	Italy	8	9	11	28
9	Hungary	8	4	5	17
10	Australia	7	16	12	35

Olympic Medal Count by population

Country                          Population                             Medals (so far)                         Persons per medal

China                  1,339,724,852                                   81                                     16,539,812
USA                      314,127,000                                    91                                       3,451,945
Russia                    143,100.000                                  60                                       2,385,000
Great Britain              62,262,00                                   56                                       1,111,821


But if you take it by how many athletes each country has at the games it comes to;


Country                              Medals                   # of Athletes                                Athletes per medal

China                                      81                             380                                            4.69
USA                                        91                             530                                            5.84
Russia                                    60                             436                                            7.26
Great Britain                           56                              541                                            9.66

If you want to see how many athletes each country has in what event, go here.

Connections. . . .

Fairly local and well known artist Billy O'
was on St Louis Public Radio's Cityscape this morning talking about his work and such and also talked a little about  . . . . .

 . . . . not quite as local artist
Bryan Haynes, who works I believe mostly out of St. Albans, and is the brother of. . . .

Michael Haynes
who, a one time fairly local artist, is a good friend and often posted here.
(By the way Michael, we are in need of an update of your present work).

Check it out at St Louis Public Radio.
Billy O' has a gallery viewing on Aug 18th in Ladue, it would be well worth checking out.





Kodner Gallery Missouri Masters Series Presents Billyo O'Donnell
Saturday, August 18, 2012
2:00 p.m.
Kodner Gallery, 9650 Clayton Road.
(314) 993-4477

Website: Kodner Gallery Website

Bryan will be at the Gallery on Sat. Sept. 15th from 2-4 displaying and presenting his work and methods.

Both would be an incredible treat.

It sounds like Billy O' has spent a lot of time this summer canoeing on our local float streams and it will be interesting to see the work that comes out of that.

QS #350; 'Shadow of the Bothy'. . . .

Americans will probably not be familiar with the word, but Europeans probably will be. . . .

First day of school,AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 
Of course, that was dad making that sound.
My little girl is growing up, off to school, next stop Oxford.

And first day we all had to meet for the walk up to the school. So we had a pretty good parade going on.

Mom and daughter, in the parade line,  no tears yet.

 In front of 'The Classroom"

 'This is my spot.'

No tears from daughter, a few from mom and dad.

She had a great first day, and was in no hurry to leave.

This is interesting. . .

In today's global economy, there's no easy way to determine just how American a car is. Many cars built in the U.S., for example, are assembled using parts that come from elsewhere. Some cars assembled in the U.S. from largely American-made parts don't sell well, meaning fewer Americans are employed to build them. Cars.com's American-Made Index recognizes cars that are built here, have a high percentage of domestic parts and are bought in large numbers by American consumers.

F-150 is back; Toyota, Honda and GM still lead


The Toyota Camry topped this year's American-Made Index, extending its No. 1 status to four years running.Ford's F-150 landed by a photo-finish at No. 2, falling behind the Camry by fewer than two days of sales. The F-150 was once a common AMI leader, topping the index from 2006 to 2008, but lower domestic parts content had dropped the best-selling pickup off the list. With its domestic parts content back to 75 percent — up from 60 percent last year — the F-150 returns to the AMI for 2012.


Toyota, Honda and GM combined for eight of the AMI's 10 vehicles. Honda fielded two vehicles, the Ohio-built Accord and Alabama-built Pilot, while GM's related three-row crossovers — the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave, all assembled in Michigan — landed at sixth, ninth and 10th, respectively. Besides the Camry, Toyota's Tundra pickup and Sienna minivan also made the list. The Jeep Wrangler's domestic parts content fell below 75 percent this year, but Chrysler fielded another entrant in the Jeep Liberty. Like the Wrangler, the Liberty is assembled in Ohio.

Rank	Make/Model	U.S. Assembly Location(s)	Rank in July 2011
1.	Toyota Camry	Georgetown, Ky.; Lafayette, Ind.	1
2.	Ford F-150	Dearborn, Mich.; Claycomo, Mo.	-
3.	Honda Accord	Marysville, Ohio	2
4.	Toyota Sienna	Princeton, Ind.	6
5.	Honda Pilot	Lincoln, Ala.	-
6.	Chevrolet Traverse	Lansing, Mich.	8
7.	Toyota Tundra	San Antonio, Tex.	9
8.	Jeep Liberty	Toledo, Ohio	-
9.	GMC Acadia	Lansing, Mich.	10
10.	Buick Enclave	Lansing, Mich.	-

Country days. . . .

As you can see in the above picture, our morning started out a little rainy. Our first real rain in about two months.

So loading up for our day required umbrella's for going back and forth to the car.

We arrived up at Shelbina in time for lunch at Martha's, . . . .

. . . . where they were having a very busy lunch rush on a Sunday after church.

We met up with Great Grandparents who were celebrating 71 years marriage.

Way in the back over Great Grandma's shoulder is Grandpa Charlie and Great Uncle Cary.

Corn-dogs and fries.

By the front door of Martha's.
(Next time I want to get there for breakfast!)

Then out to the farm to visit and help Grandma with some hard to reach projects.

Laundry this time by the often posted old cellar.

Side porch, nice and shady.

Front steps.

Of course, no trip to the farm would be complete without a 'mule ride'.

Wife and Grandpa getting fishin' stuff together.

Out to the pond.

Pink practice reel to learn how to cast.

Grandpa caught the first one.

Fishin' buddies.

OK, this time you get to reel in Grandpa's.

One step closer to fishin'.

'Ok, but once it starts wigglin', I'm out of here!'

Reelin' in one for mommy.

'OK, this time I'll hold it till it is out of the water . . .

. . .and maybe I'll look inside it's mouth.'

We caught probably eight small bass in about 15 mins.

You never really think about the things your child may not know about that you took for being a common house-hold item. But I was caught a little off guard when daughter asked what these were.

She didn't know what a clothes pin was.

Or that women usually made the clothes pin bag out of an old dress and a coat hanger.

We told her how they use make dolls out of clothes pins also.

It just takes one generation for things to become unrecognizable.

That's one of the reasons we go to the farm.

After fishin' we headed to town for an Ice Cream Social at the old Methodist church.

Lots of folks on hand, getting out of the hot sun.
No one was in a hurry to leave.

Even local politicians shaking hands and campaigning.

Once again, a great day at the farm.