Creepy Cloud

a few days ago this huge black cloud crept in . . .

Got an Ark?

That's G's mom - flooded in!

in front of G's parents' and aunt and uncle's houses

poor guy has new riverfront property

this is the new river on Lime Kiln Road

crazy fool on Harpers Ferry Road down close to Mills - she made it!

this is torrent coming out of the actual Frog Hollow - water is coming off the ridges from around off Chestnut Grove Road

G's dad doing his best to keep ahead of it

It hadn't been this high in the hollow in a long while.

Today the river and creek will rise, but all the branches in the hollow have gone down. We had lost power for most of last evening, but all was back on by about 8:15 p.m.

Spring on Canal Road

Fun with Fungi

The hunters return successful!

Those are mountain morels, ladies and gentlemen.
(in George's special mushroom bag that supposedly allows for the seeds to fall out and spread around as he continues to hunt . . . do mushrooms have seeds??)

Wash and rinse . . .

the only thing he cooks anymore . . .

Ready to soak overnight for some frying tomorrow night for dinner!

The Yellow Season

over yonder in WV

yup, Harpers Ferry from MD

Stacy and Marlin's house in Antietam proper

blooms on the turn in Antietam

our own yellow beauties

And guess what Miss SG found ~ the first mountain morel of the season ~ up by the wood pile ~ it seems too early for them, but it is the yellow season (forsythia then daffodils - now the pink tree blossoms are out and a few white ones too -- soon the tulips and redbuds will bloom - that's the good time for mushrooms) ~ The last two seasons have been horrible - very few and far between -- maybe this is a sign of a fun fungi harvest to be!

An Afternoon Up to the Ridge

March So Far in Pix

First there was snow ~
Then there was flooding

Then the stink bugs came out . . .

Michael's Home in White

My mom, sister, and I lived on Grandma and Papa's farm, Michael's Home, from the time I was about 4 until I was 12. I loved those years at the Null homestead just north of Taneytown. I'll write much more about the farm in another post, but here are a few pictures that my aunt Susie found when looking through Grandma's photos. We don't know who the photographer(s) was.

Susie thinks this was taken in the very late 1800s. That's Michael's Home at the top of the hill. Many a Null grew up there. I love that shot of the horse-drawn sled in action!
This one appears to have been taken in the 1940s or 1950s. Notice the Taneytown water towers in the background, south of the farm.

Uncle Ed believes this one was taken in the 1950s or 60s. Its vantage point is situated where there is now the Meadow -something or other development. That's the main barn with the silo, the small dairy house in the middle, and the horse barn on the left.

Zeppy Snow

My great-grandmother's brothers were a little odd (see pic below); Clifton and LaVerne Zepp were both artists -- photographers and painters -- and they lived together in Taneytown in a big yellow house on Mill Avenue until they died. For a long while their mother Lizzie lived with them too and at some point their grandmother also. I'm not sure if the house was originally one of their parents'; I'll have to research that a bit more.
The house is now apparently owned by Antrim 1844, a fact I discovered this week when I was looking through their website to prepare for a stay there in February after the 2nd Annual Tanner's Touch Valentine's Day Gala. As I was looking at their rooms, I happened upon The Zepp House, which according to the map, must be their former house.

Both brothers were painters -- I believe they favored oil -- I clearly have more research to do in that area. But I remember that I was so proud that my elementary school had a huge purple and pink colored mural of a pond and swan scene in a stairwell that one of them had painted. I can't imagine it's there any longer. But our family does have many of their paintings -- most of them are Impressionistic in style of farm and woods scenes. I remember at least one of Antrim and another of Crouse Mill. I'll post photos of those in another post with more details about them. But today I'll share two photo slides of theirs; I'm not sure which took them. The first is of Antrim, likely from their house, in the snow.The second is of an unknown creek, I'm sure in the Taneytown area.My grandmother, their sister Gladys, also produced hundreds of photo slides -- I have many of them in my basement. Her favorite theme was clouds.

The siblings got their talents honestly; on the 1900 census, their father Edward Peter Zepp describes his occupation as "artist." He had a professional photography studio above the square in Taneytown. He was also a local band leader and music teacher.

Ancestry: Beth-Judy-Charlie Null-Gladys-Edward Zepp

Blog Ideas

We have a 2 hour delay this morning, and even though I'm supposed to be at work on time, I have to go in late and take personal or vacation days (accumulated) because there's no before-care at school for Sylvie (and George leaves for work in the morning before our system even makes the call) . . .Anywho, I've been sick with a nasty cold-turned-sinus infection for about a week now, and I spend hours on end at night trying to get back to sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I've turned to thinking about all the stuff I need to do and want to do -- one of them being blog more often about more interesting stuff. So, here's the list of topics I'd like to dip into if I ever find the time:

• my artist great-great uncles, the Zepps
• the Salty Dog Tavern across from Harpers Ferry
• the Poole's Store at Seneca
• my grandmother Helen Null
• Tanner and his battle with cancer
• Is Frog Hollow really a hollow?
• more on morel mushroom hunting
• the C&O Canal around these parts
• Antietam Ironworks in more depth
• moonshine-making past here
  
• Bernie Adkins
• the building of Michael's Home
• Michael's Home and the Civil War
• my grandmother Ann Ziegler
• George's great-grandmother Cordie Otzelberger
  

Do you have any ideas for me to explore? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!