Time to Spoil the Grandtwins, Day 1

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We are spending some quality time with the grandtwins this week, laughing, hugging, sharing meals, watching the Olympics and staying up much too late and loving every minute of it.

During the days we try to do something different each day, adding in a bit of geocaching along the way.

Over the weekend we took them to a Equestrian Eventing and Boarding Facility that was having a free show.  We were able to see jumping ring work and cross country riding that included jumps as well.

Yes, I took a few photos (the challenge and we had never been to a horse show.)

We did not see the more advanced students and horses.  This rider is convincing her horse to proceed through the water hazard, the grandtwins, who are taking riding lessons, told us the horses don't like the water hazards much.

Jumping, cross country riding:

Jumping in the ring:

And, this is what it looks like when the horse refuses to jump:

Several of the horses bolted at the sight of this jump, not sure why.  We saw 2 riders get thrown off at this  jump, they were not hurt, but, they were disqualified.

I know next to nothing about horse shows, but, found the experience interesting, the girls enjoyed the day quite a bit.

Man and I enjoyed our country ride (taking a lot of back roads) to and from the show.  The girls enjoyed seeing the horse shows, we all learned something.  WIN WIN WIN!

We spent the evening glue to the telie and the Olympics.




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120th Carnival of Genealogy :: Business and Commerce :: Donald E Bowen the Entrepreneur

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Jasia of Creative Gene is once again sponsoring the Carnival of Genealogy, the 120th! This month's them is Business and Commerce, the challenge is:

Did someone in your family own a small business? Was there a favorite clothing store, ice cream shop, shoe store, restaurant, gas station, etc. that your family frequented? Did you operate a lemonade stand when you were a child? This time around we are going to be researching small businesses and recording family memories of such.

I have decided to use this month's Carnival to put the spotlight on one of my father's entrepreneurial escapades.  He owned several business over his lifetime, he even dabbled a bit in real estate.  One of his dabbles resulted in a woodworking company he called, Carolina Woodworks Company.  He called his company a producer of "Heirloom Wood Desirables".  Now, he did not personally make any of these delightful little pieces, he had a very talented man hired for that.  I do remember he loved the equipment, the process, the smell of the wood.

So, without further ado, these are most of the pieces that I have found tucked in around my home, the inventory, as it were:

Paper Towel Holder

Left and below:  A child's toy, the game is to get the teddy to climb from the bottom to the top by pulling on the strings on each side.

Hanging candle stick holders

Baby pull toy, every child needs a green frog!

Wooden pill boxes, or trinket holders with painted lids.

The race car drivers.

The rest of the fleet of vehicles.

Train and camping trailer.

Whale

Family of ducks. VERY yellow ducks!

Gotta have a lot of whales, just cause.

The Angel

I value these delightful wooden pieces, toys and decorative items my father's little business produced.  Yes, to me they are heirlooms and desirable, just like my father, the entrepreneur, said.

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A New Old Cemetery Site, WOOPEEE

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

As a volunteer now and then I get to see something, or learn something or find something that is just so cool there are no good words to describe the experience.

OK, let's face it, many of my volunteer hours are tedious, filled with an overwhelming amount of facts, dates, names, places, columns, lots and lots of columns, filled with those names, dates, places,   I tromp around cemeteries in the sun and heat and deal with bugs and critters and headstones that cannot be read due to age.  I tromp around the courthouse pulling those big ole heavy dirty books down from shelves wayyyyyy up there to find a deed or a marriage or death or something to help other researchers that live far far away. Sometimes I read old newspapers with old microfilm readers that have scratched lenses and glass and dim illumination and faded newspapers; never mind that those newspapers never printed the obituaries in the same place from day to day.  I feel good some days to find a 4 sentence mention of someone's ancestor's passing after 3 hours of reading small faded print.

Then, there are days when I get to re-discover a long forgotten cemetery.  No kidding, let me tell you, that is a hoot!  And, here it is:

Luther Cemetery, Rome Township, Lenawee County, Michigan

Researchers in Lenawee County are blessed with a number of histories that chat about our county, townships, towns, cities, little burgs.  We have several active historical societies and several fine library collections of all these wonderful resources.  I have been collecting copies of as many of those books and papers and articles as I can get my hands on, I have a nice collection.  One work (which I do NOT have a copy of but have good access to in one of the local libraries) is the Adrian (Lenawee County) DAR 5 volume set of cemetery books titled, "Gravestones of Lenawee County".  This 5 volume set was published in the 1930s and 1940s.  It covered about 112 cemeteries in Lenawee County, some of which were already little more than a burial site long since moved or abandoned.  The "Gravestones of Lenawee County" is the back bone and basis of our current "Burial Records of Lenawee County" series we have been working on for well over 15 years.  In the last 12 years we have published 8 books of burials.  We have many more that need to be done.

We are working our way around the county, township by township, there is no order of publication, we publish when we get done with a township.  We walk the cemeteries, several times, we record the data in tables (that's where all those columns come in), we re-walk, we proof read, we compare each cemetery to the Gravestones series, we even include names of ancestors that were recorded in the Gravestones series that we can no longer find stones or markers for.  They were there in 1940, they still are, we just cannot find the stone now.

We borrow heavily from the Gravestone series, histories, tidbits, maps, whatever we can use, we do.

Luther Cemetery is NOT listed in the Gravestone series for Rome Township.  Luther Cemetery is not listed at the web site Michigan Cemetery Sources (link I had here was found to be broken as of October 2018), maintained by the Library of Michigan.  Luther Cemetery is not listed in the companion books by the Library of Michigan, "Michigan Cemetery Atlas and the Michigan Cemetery Source Book"  Luther is not mentioned anywhere except ONE place.  I found it in one of the articles/booklets I have collected about Lenawee County, in a work written by Ronald C. Ryan titled, “The History of Rome Township”.  Ronald's work was published in the Brooklyn Exponent (Brooklyn, Jackson County, Michigan) between November 5 and 8th, 1981.  I was using his work as one of the sources for the histories for Rome Township, when I read this one brief, but, amazing, breath stealing sentence:

“There was the Luther Cemetery ½ mile west of Springville Hwy., on Hoddinott Rd.  The graves from here were dug up and moved to East Rome Cemetery.”

That's it.  One sentence.  I read it several times.  I doubted my eyes, what I was looking at?  Ronald is naming a cemetery, giving an exact location and this is the first I am hearing about it?  Why isn't it in the Gravestones series?  Actually I have NO idea why it is NOT in the Gravestone series.  And, yes indeedy, I rechecked the volume of the Gravestones series that has Rome Township in it, several times.

Well, you know this sent me on a research tangent.  I pulled every map I had for Lenawee.  I got the magnifying glass out.  I studied and studied.  I doubted myself.  OK, I doubted Ronald.  (Sorry Ronald.)

On many of the early plat maps there are no road names.  To use these early plat maps I must compare the sections and the roads with the current maps.   I lay out maps and books of maps all over the house, on the back of the couch, all over the kitchen table,  some of the maps are quite large. I move from map to map.

On the 1916 Plat map, there is no cemetery to be found on Hoddinott Road.  Same for 1893, no cemetery to be found.  I can find the rest of the cemeteries I know to be in the township, but, no Luther Cemetery on the 1893 and 1916 maps.  Here is a section of the 1893 plat map, this is where Hoddinott Road is.  Do you see any crosses on there?  Crosses are the icons used in this series of maps to represent cemeteries.  Nope, me either - -

I have two more chances, the 1857 Plat map, which is extremely difficult to read, some townships have torn maps, with serious missing hunks.   I could not find a cemetery cross on the 1857 map in the correct section.   All that is left is the 1874 map.

I take the current large road map of Lenawee and the 1874 plat map of Rome Township and look at it carefully, slowly, with due diligence.  Finally I do indeed find a cemetery that is exactly where Ronald said it would be, on Hoddinott Road just a little west of Springfield Highway.  And, who owns the property this tiny little cemetery is on??

T. Luther

BINGO!!  I have my Luther Cemetery!

You can see the small cross icon which indicates a cemetery, look above and slightly left of the "2" from the section 27 number.  (It was a bit harder to find that little cross because my map was not this large, I got this graphic this large thanks to Sony and digital photo editing.  It is actually pretty easy to see here, when compared to the actual paper maps.)

Woopeee, I have just re-discovered an old cemetery, I have me a new old cemetery!

It was days before I was over the shock and stopped checking the maps and everything I could muster up from my personal library.  Admission:  I am still in a state of delighted surprise and slight disbelief.

I have me a new old cemetery site.  Really!

WOW!

Of course, now that I have made a fuss about it, one of the locals that have lived here all their lives will say, but, of course - - - - - could have told you that if you had only asked.

But, until they do  - - -

I have me a new old cemetery site!  Really!

Gosh that was fun!

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Tombstone Tuesday, Nope, NOT Going in There

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Recently while out cemetery stomping with my co-partner in crime (yes, that is a poor attempt at humor), I decided to try and snag a few photo requests for Find A Grave for the cemeteries we would be visiting.  I found requests for 1 of the 3 cemeteries on our agenda and requests for another in that particular township, which was along my route.

Some of the stones were easy to find and photograph.  One in particular was very worn, a death from 1860, we could just barely make out her given name. The stone was for a young girl, and ironically it is one that has helped me on another cemetery situation, who knew?  Well, surely not I, till I got home.

One of the requests was for a stone for a Joseph Decker, and this is the general area where I believe he was laid to rest:

See that stone buried in this bush, which by the way was a HUGE bush!  A bush that is 10 foot tall and 15 to 20 foot wide is HUGE, right?  I took the same photo and I selectively highlighted the area around the stone digitally, and it is still pretty hard to see.

So, I cropped the portion of the photo with just the stone.  You can see the stone is resting right up against the trunk of that LARGE shrub.

The stone was about 6 to 8 feet under the canopy of the shrub, I would have had to almost crawl in there.  I had no walking stick to push away the foliage.  It has been hot, heavens only knows how many critters were hiding in there trying to get cooled off.

I found these stones on the other side of the HUGE bush, we can read the surname on one, Baker:

I did not see any poison ivy in this batch of greenery.  I thought I spied several other stones in between the first and these two.  They were small like these.

Nope, NOT going in there.



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Wedding Wednesday :: Love Affair by Correspondence

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence


From the January 2, 1897 issue of the Michigan Messenger published at Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan.

"Mervin Teachout, of Oakley and Zena Lee, of Oberlin, O., were married.  It was a love affair carried on by correspondence."





*  Graphic courtesy of The Vintage Moth.

Allen County Research Trip, Moving to the Techy Side?

The research trip this week to Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the report continues:

So, even though my research results were not over the top, not breaking down any brick walls, not even putting a dent in any wooden walls, I had a great time, and the few tidbits I did find were wonderful.  I saw friends and blogger, Becky Wiseman of Kinexxions, dropped by.  Becky and I had not seen each other since May of 2011 in Salt Lake City and it was certainly good to catch up just a little.

And, there was the techy part of my experience.  I have serious love/hate relationships with all things techy.  I embrace them and I rant at them.

Most of my readers may remember that I chatted some last year about the Android tablet.  Man does my techy research and he was pretty sure that the Android was the way to go.  I was not so sure, I wanted the iPad.  He assured me the apps were coming, that it would do all I wanted, and then some.  Pricing was right, it did things he thought were important, had hardware goodies he approved of.  I wanted the iPad.  We purchased the Android.

Then, I waited for apps that I wanted, of course, my highest item on my wish list was a really good app to use with my family history data base.  There are apps, but, none of them made me over the top happy.  Over the next 10 months or so I used the Android for travel, maps in the truck connected to the net (most of the time) via the air card.  I tried several of the genie apps, I downloaded the Kindle reader and free books.  I still wanted the iPad.

The genie apps just did not thrill me.  I love multimedia in my data base.  I have well over 8,000 items, photos, documents, word processing files, sound bites, videos, all attached to my data base.  I wanted them (or most of them) on my Android.  Trouble was, the apps were not allowing me access to all of my multimedia.  Some apps allowed one photo per person.  SIGH.  I was ok with maybe not being able to access the really large word processing files, but, I was NOT happy with only being able to see one image per person.  That just left me flat.

(A bit of back story, at this time my main data base was RootsMagic.  I had been using if for years, I loved it. However, for several years I have been disappointed in a couple of issues with RM.  One was the word processor, and the other was it did not appear that RM was actively engaged with any app writers.  At least that is what it looked from where I was sitting on the fence.  Legacy, however, did have an app that it seemed to work very well on the iPad and on some Androids.  See that is another thing with the Androids, one app may work on one, but the developers cannot guarantee it will work on ALL Androids.  Yep, I wanted that iPad.

After MANY months of deep contemplation I switched my entire data base to Legacy Family Tree.  One huge factor in my change was that Families app that works with Legacy.  I am still slightly uncomfortable working in Legacy, there are a couple of small issues that I do not care for, however, I am learning, adjusting, determined to stay with it till I do feel comfortable using it.)

And, in April, we purchased the iPad.  The new one, version 3, which they call the New iPad. With 1 gig of Verizon connectivity every month.  (Man inherited the Android which he loves - - WIN!)

I am in love!  I put the non-glare screen protection on it before I ever left the store.  It works remarkably well, even in the truck in full sun.  I put Families on it, which works so well with Legacy it makes a gal's heart go pitter patter.  I have added a few other apps, including Adobe Reader.  I have the Kindle reader on it, the books all transferred just fine.  I can be online with it anywhere, any time as long as I have a cell tower that delivers.  The mapping works so much better with the built in connectivity.

And, this research trip I decided to see how much I could use the iPad and if I could do without the laptop.

How did I do??  As with many things, mixed.

Having Families meant I was able to look at my data base, anywhere, even in the stacks of the library, yes, I did that!  WIN

I made my to do list a PDF file, learned how to transfer it to the iPad, and loved having it there where I could look at it in the stacks of the library, and yes, I did that too!  WIN.

I realized that I did not like not being able to make notes on my to do list, you cannot write on a PDF document, and so, that is a NO WIN.  Contemplating sending my to do list to Evernote instead.  Or, maybe do BOTH.  Why both, well, have to say that PDF format of the to do list looked fab, and was very easy to study and read.  If it is in Evernote as well, I can make corrections or notes in Evernote as well.  Why not both??

Because I have connectivity via Verizon I was able to check my email, Facebook, Google Plus and surf the Allen County Public Library catalog, while, standing in the stacks, or sitting at my research table.  WIN.

I did some lookups for a friend, quick and easy lookups if you have access to the books in the library.   And, here is where I started thinking out of the box, err, iPad.  I decided to try using the camera on the iPad to take photos of the results I was finding for her.  I stood in the stacks and took photos.   WIN.

Here is what a photo of a page looked like, this one happened to be for some of my own research, and I have digitally edited it some for presentation here.  I cropped some of the page away, I re-sized the dpi and width and I changed from color to gray scale.  Note the book was old, the binding weak and it was quite easy to get the book and pages to lay flat.  I am perfectly happy with this image.

And, then, I had a small revelation.  I could email her those pages.  Right there, from the iPad, while in the stacks!  She was getting the emailed graphic of her lookup results before I could walk back to my seat in the library.  DOUBLE WIN!

I loved walking around the library with the iPad with my family tree on it (with ALL those multimedia events), with my to do lists, taking photos of pages out of books and emailing them to my friend while still in the stacks.  I loved being able to surf the library catalog while standing in the stacks, cause I was connected to the net.

I enjoyed taking photos of some of the images I was grabbing for myself.  That said, it is not easy for me to get a photo that is square, that needs a bit of practice.  Truthfully, if I cannot figure that out, I am not sure that in the long run it is a viable option for capturing quality images.  It is going to come down to how important is the image??  Data from a book, as long as I can read it, it does not make a lot of difference if it is square or not.  Images of photos??  That is another thing, and one I will be revisiting as I process the images I captured this trip.

For example, here is an image, I am not real happy with this, see the curve in the page.  Note:  this is a new book, stiff binding, I had other books lying under each side, trying to "get the curve out" and keep the book open.  Image was edited some, believe it was mostly auto correct and a bit of saturation increase.  If I had scanned this image with my little Cannon LiDE 210 I would have scanned one page at a time and would not have this curvature issue.

Now, I will be the first to tell you that I have not examined all the possibilities of using the iPad, in life or in research.  I am still learning, investigating.  I know several bloggers/researchers that have used their tablet for research trips or conferences and that is ALL they have used.  I am not to that point yet.  I am still using my lap top for my main work horse.  Will I ever get to that point, where I can go on a 2 day (or longer) research trip without my lap top??  Not sure.

If I cannot get images to please me, I may continue to tote along my little scanner, it does wonderful work.  That would mean I need the lap top.  I know there are files on my lap top that I will never transfer to the iPad, and I just know that there will be files on the lap top that I need when I only have the iPad in the middle of a research trip, that is Genie-Murphy at work.

So, Carol and the New iPad are moving to the techy side of onsite research, one step at a time.  Grade so far, ohhhh, A-, I was very happy with what I managed to do and learn during these 2 days of research.



* P.S.  Dear Legacy, it would be so super if you would add a count of the multimedia events to the "General Information" screen.  Maybe count my to do items, events, maybe even number of citations.  Ya, I know, I am looking at the Properties report from RootsMagic.  Really helps you keep track of your work ethic, I so miss that in Legacy.

** Disclaimer, you know the routine, Facebook, Google Plus, Evernote, Adobe Reader, Verizon, Families, Kindle, RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, Canon, Android, iPad and all other mentions of web sites or products are put here without any financial considerations back to Reflections.  I use the services, sometimes successfully, others, well, not so successfully.  Sometimes I speak highly of them, other times, well, I rant!
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Allen County Research Trip, Just a Few Finds

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This week I had the opportunity to take a 2 day research trip with the local genie club to Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I happen to LOVE Allen County Public Library and have been many times.  It is about 2 to 2.5 hours from home, far enough that I don't care to make it a day trip, way too much driving for just a few hours of research, however, a stay over trip is wonderful. Many times Man and I have stayed in a local campground.  He loves to shop techy toys and get trucks worked in Fort Wayne, several of our computers have been purchased there.  So, he has something to entertain himself with while I research.  WIN - WIN.

I mentioned on Google Plus and on Facebook that my research results were less than stellar.  This was due in part to the fact that I am at the point in my research where I have a LOT of brick walls, and the days of making reams of copies in 2 days at Allen County are pretty much behind me.  But, there is that ongoing to do list.  And, I must confess that there are a few items on that to do list that are rather old.  OK, YEARS old, like 10 years old.  These were obviously things that were interesting enough for me to add to the to do list, but, not so important that I wanted them RIGHT now!  Because in all subsequent trips to Ft. Wayne, I have left them for last, or ignored them on the list.

This trip, I decided to address some of these items, once and for all.

Results:  Pretty good, I did not necessarily find mind blowing happy dancing information.  I did address many of the older ones.  I pulled books and read some microfilm, looked good and hard, and decided they just didn't do me any good.  Those to do items will be deleted from the list.  That is a good thing.

Here is a sign of the times, some of the items were resolved not only by the books and sources available at the library, but, by Find A Grave.  I'll not say more about this at this time.

I did have a couple of new items on my to do list, several of these items could not have been done anywhere BUT the library.  One of the finds that was a lot of fun for me was to pull a copy of the work, "Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements & Antiques" by Charles H. Wendel, published in 2004, by Krause Publications.

Man's great grandfather, Wallace H. Lashbrook, who I have mentioned a time or two on this blog, was a traveling salesman, he sold farm machinery, just what types, I am not sure. I have one mention of something very specific.  He exhibited the Plano harvester and binder at the 1886 Michigan State Fair.  I found this image in the Wendel book, and even though it is not a harvester binder, it is a Plano product.

I think it will be a fun graphic to add to his multimedia events, adding some understanding and appreciation to his biography.  I was able to find a number of these graphics, for a number of the companies I believe he worked for over the years.  The names of those companies were derived from old city directories.  Gotta love those directories!

One of our members found this HUGE family chart.  Amazing isn't it??

I spent a bit of time doing some lookups for a genie friend and experimenting with new technology and toys via my tablet.  I'll write about that next.



* You can see and learn more about the Allen County Public Library from my post, Allen County Public Library, A Great Place To Research, August 29, 2010.

** Disclaimer, you know the routine, Facebook, Google Plus, Find A Grave and all other mentions of web sites are put here without any financial considerations back to Reflections.  I use the services, sometimes successfully, others, well, not so successfully.  Sometimes I speak highly of them, other times, well, I rant!
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Funeral Home Marker, Hiding Under The Headstone

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Midge Frazel of Granite in My Blood posted a question on her blog recently about a metal marker near the stone of her 2nd great grandparents.  I responded that it was a funeral home marker.  Then, I remembered this stone/marker.  Mary is not a relative or anyone I have been researching, she is buried in one of the local cemeteries I am helping record for the Lenawee County Family Researchers.

And, a closer look:

In my experience these metal markers are removed when a permanent stone marker is installed.  Not this time!  So glad that it was left behind, lookie:  FULL dates!


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How Young Do I Want To Be??

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Many that have read my blog for some time and those that have known me personally before I knew what a blog was, will readily remember that I have hated, many times quite passionately, what I call the learning curve. I have whined more than a few times, that the programmers should just leave my programs alone, they work for me, I am fine with them the way the are, thank you very much.

But nothing remains the same, my daddy always told me that, and on many levels of my psyche I believed him, however, somehow when it came to my techy software and the internet I fought that theory.

After many, many, moons and even more moans, I for some reason decided I was going to try a new approach, that of, and you might want to sit down for this, embracing the learning curve. My theory was, not that of, "if you cannot beat em, join them", but rather the one of, "well maybe this will keep my brain functioning and maybe help keep me young".  I hear you laughing.

So, I have been complaining less (for the most part, there are exceptions to this as well) and concentrating more on learning, stretching my comfort zones.

I have been doing this with software, web sites and with groups that I interact with, such as groups on Facebook and people I have circled at Google Plus. Social media stretches.

And, it is the social media that has proven to be probably the most challenging of all my stretching exercises. I am no spring chicken anymore and I found myself having thoughts that sounded to me like, well, old people thoughts.

So, I consciously exposed myself to younger ones on the social media scene. And, those that live different sorts of lives, with a lot of different interests from my usual fare. Many young families, where their focus is on having babies and potty training. Many families of all ages who are living and eating differently, gluten free, dairy free, and some names of diets that I have not ONE clue as to what they are talking about. Many families living different life styles, some are traveling and living in different countries even with very young children. I have read about families with bunches of kids, having numerous pets and living in a tent. They are working around the world in some fascinating places, and some places, that frankly, scare the beejeebies out of me.

I have been stretching my acceptance, trying to understand, reading about their struggles and their successes.

So, how have I been doing?? Well, mixed. I find myself fascinated and sometimes appalled and sometimes seriously concerned for them. I admit, I am having trouble reading about them when some of them are what I consider to be homeless (they don’t call it that, what positive outlooks they have) or jobless, or well, broke.

I am still not sure how I feel about this experiment of mine, but, found myself un-subscribing to a few groups recently. Maybe it is the horrible heat wave, but, I found I was no longer able to emotionally read about their struggles, it just hurt too much. Guess I pushed that comfort zone a bit too far.

And, all that said, I keep fighting to keep an open mind, to expand, to grow, to stay young.

I keep asking myself, just how young do you want to be??

Answer - - have no idea, guess I’ll go back out and continue to try to find the answer.




*  Graphic courtesy of clipartheaven.com
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Treasure Chest Thursday, the Googly Eye Doll, a Rerun Post

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Back on September 17, 2009 I ran this post for Treasure Chest Thursday.  I rarely do rerun posts, but, this morning blogger friend Barbara from Life From the Roots ran some more photos of her sweet doll, and the very first photo is of the doll sitting in her high chair, looking a lot like like my doll's high chair.  So, I decided to rerun my Googly Eye Doll post, for fun and because I am pre-occupied these days with cemetery books and web pages and face it, a rerun is sorta easy and very fast, although I did redo the photo in the digital editor a bit, the last version was a bit dark.  I hope you enjoy:

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This replica of a Googly Eye Doll was hand made in Germany. Son # 1 and his bride found a doll maker in Regensburg and brought this sweet thing home to me. Her oak high chair was made by Amish (either in the Elkhart County Indiana or Holmes County Ohio area).

I saw a photo of a very old Googly Eye Doll in a magazine and was immediately infatuated. I don't have a large doll collection, but I do have a few that caught my imagination and a spot in my heart. For me, it is usually love at first sight.

Tonight a little snooping on the Internet gave this description, "GOOGLY EYES: Big, round, side-glancing eyes, very popular on dolls from 1910s through the 1920s."

There were a lot of dolls with Googly Eyes for sale too! But I have mine and she is a treasure to me.

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Happy 4th of July From Reflections

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Be safe, stay cool, thank those that have served and sacrificed to give you freedom.  

Enjoy the burgers!!

*Graphic courtesy of Lee Hansen Graphics.
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Tuesday's Tip :: Dropbox, It Really Works

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

So, I have had a Dropbox account for some months.  I fussed with it now and then, I put a few sets of files in the account, and then, it sat there, because, well, I did not "get it".  I did not get the power it had when used for the correct purposes.

I have yet to figure out how to use Dropbox for my family history.  I need to do that.  I know who to ask!

But, I did use it for the last book project, you know that formatting project.  Ya, that one.

The project was at the point that I needed to print each and every page and take a good hard long look at each. At this point, each page was an independent PDF file.  There were 333 files, eventually all 333 would be linked into one very LARGE file PDF file.  I use PDF at this point because no matter what computer or printer I am using the pages will not morf or change or look funny.

So, I had never linked the Toshiba laptop to the ole Cannon 500 series printer I have here at the stickbuilt.  I not used that computer/printer combo since the Toshiba was purchased in April of 2011 in Salt Lake City. I'll just bet you know where I am going with this.  Yep, had a hard time finding driver software to put on the laptop to get it to print with the 500.  Since I deemed this a temporary FAIL and wanted to get back to work, I went the next route, haul out the prior laptop, the Baby HP and hook it up to the Cannon 500 and print away.  I knew the printer drivers were on the Baby HP as was all the other required software to do the job.

However, I needed to get all those 333 files over to the Baby HP.  And, well, SIGH, I had NO idea where the little flash drives were and I was feeling a tad bit lazy and decided I was not moving the external hard drives to the other desk set up (the kitchen table).

What to do, what to do.  In a moment of out of the box creative thinking, I for some reason decided to put those files in Dropbox and let the computers talk to each other that way.  No flash drives, no external hard drives, just the Toshiba, the Baby HP, Dropbox and the internet!  WAHHOOO.

After the "move" was set in motion I thought, oh, boyyyy, this is taking forever.    I was moving about 88 MB of data. Not really that much, but, that ole aircard is not the fastest in the west, so, it took a bit of time.  Like more than 5 minutes.  I will confess, I don't recollect exactly how long, but, think it was somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes to completely upload and download.  At this point, I was considering this a minor FAIL type project.   I mean, I could have moved the files via flash drive much faster (granted I could not find the flash drives, but, hey, minor detail, eh??)   But, the files eventually all showed up on the Baby HP and I forgot the time element and went about printing and proofing, printing and proofing, and then - - -

Then, I found a page, that needed redoing, and another and another, you get the idea.  I probably redid about 30 pages in all.  I would edit them on the Toshiba, resave them to a PDF file with the same name, transfer the new file to Dropbox and the Baby HP and I was ready to reprint.

This is when I realized the brilliance of Dropbox!  The edited file would go from the Toshiba to Dropbox to the Baby HP in ohhh, a minute or less.  Zoom, fixed, and ready and waiting at the Baby HP for a re-print.  No carrying the flash drive back and forth across the room with just ONE file.  And, yes, I would have done it that way, because I wanted to re-print and see the results page by page.  I wanted to do each page in order, one at a time, and work on it until I got it formatted correctly.

Dropbox is ok for a cloud storage facility, but, it's real power, for me, is transferring files between computers while I am working.  It was SWEET!  Yep, if you use a tool in the correct way it is a beauteous thing!

Dropbox is now a favored tool for the publication process.  I just wish my publisher was allowed to grab files from Dropbox when I called in an order.  Whooeee, would that be a time saver.  Ah, well, the fall back plan, the flash drive works (yes, I found it, it was hiding).




* The disclaimer, Dropbox, Toshiba, Cannon, and HP (for Hewlett Packard) are names and products copyrighted and owned by THEM.  They did not ask me to mention them, or endorse them.  They do not give me any gifts or $$ to mention them in my blog.  I use the products (or not), sometimes successfully, sometimes, well, not so successfully.  I purchase the computers, the hard drives, the flash drives, the printers, the air cards, all my computer techy toys.  I am using the free version of Dropbox.    Your experience with any of these products may mimic mine, and then again, maybe not.

** The Dropbox graphic is copyrighted by Dropbox.

*** There are other cloud storage sites that perform in a similar manner, I am going to try another soon.  I hear very good things about it, if it performs as I hear, I might use it instead.  No matter which site, it is the process here that is important.  Use the cloud storage sites to transfer files, a great trick, err process.
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