Cut Sand Stone

Last week I said I would follow up on these cut sand stone buildings out here. Being out here is where history was made. Cowboys and wild west kind of stuff. Water is a problem out here as it is all through the west. The railroad was a maker or a breaker out here in the old west. Here is a railroad rest stop and hotel. It is in bad shape now and has not been used by the railroad in maybe a hundred years now.

Railroad rest stop

When I was a boy we some times went to the airport on a Sunday to see planes landing and taking off and if a commercial plane landed you could walk up near the plane and even talk to the people getting off. This was back in Greenville, South Carolina in the 1950s. One thing that has changed is how people dress. Back then every one getting off the planes were dressed to the nines. The stewardess as they were called back then looked like models and had a body to go with there uniforms. Now that I’m and old man and have traveled for years on our old sailboat Pam and I built things have changed with traveling on boats and planes. We fly two or three times a year to and from our boat mostly now in the Caribbean. We used to fly a lot when we were working in nuclear power plants. What has this got to do with old time railroad travel? I have seen pictures of travelers through out the west even on stages coaches and the women were gorgeous. Slim trim and dressed. “O!” how things have changed. Now in an airport you see people making a statement on just what they can get by with. I don’t care if some people like to get naked if they are going to be near other people I don’t get it on a plane. If you weigh 400 pounds clothes help. Recently on a plane boarding for Jamaica they were saying a very large women should use a cover up. She was dressed in blue jeans and a tee shirt that was cut in slits all over and it was obvious she did not have on any under wear top or bottom. Seeing this old railroad stop I can only imagine the people that stopped here in their fine clothes and were allowed off to rest or maybe eat even stay the night before going on their way. Now air travel all there is to the imagination is how in the world did these people get this way. All these places where the train stopped had water. Steam engines needed lots of water. Even here in the little town we live in out here the tracks are gone but they have a well and sell water to farmers they call the railroad well. Here is a mansions that shows the money that was here and the money that is still out here.

Beautiful place.

A lot of these grand houses have been left to rot. This one is well maintained. This is a huge barn that was left to rot and shows how thing change.

When we were here last winter this was still standing.

There are a lot of grand barns that are falling in now because farming has changed. Farmers don’t need barns anymore. There are still a lot of fine churches out here built in cut sand stone and churches are not as priority out here anymore so I wonder how these building will fair in the further. I will put some of them in out blog later.

 

Some Things About Kansas

To all of our followers, we are still in Kansas out on the prairie. They’re having a heat wave here it’s gets to a hundred degrees every day but at night it hit 59F last week. We run the AC during the day and in the evenings and open the windows at night. The wildlife is great out here and when we go anywhere we look to see what might be steering. On our motor bike it’s a different thing. You don’t what to run into a bunch of wild turkeys or a heard of deer. Out here there can be 50 in a herd of deer. Raccoon families in the road can ruin your day on a bike. This week we were ask to see if we could put a headliner in a tractor. Can you believe that tractors have heat and AC. Stereo systems head liners in the closed cab of these giant tractors.

Working on big tractors instead of boats.

Happy Cows

There are always cows. Lots of cows out here. You do get use to cow droppings. You can some times smell cows even in the bigger towns. We have traveled a lot in the US and the old family home cooked food you could get in restaurants in most towns are gone now. Here it’s the cattle sale out here on Thursday. Some older women cook there. You can get real food there. We are here with in driving distance to the old cattle towns where gun smoke and gun fights were common. Our son has a wagon wheel off and old prairie schooner they called them out here. Its a big wheel. This is where it was happening in the old west. Traces of this is everywhere out here.

One of the old limestone buildings.

An old home stead lime stone house from after the Civil War where this was the frontier. Maybe next week we can do some of the old lime stone building out here. There are still a lot out here. Some that were beautiful are falling in now with the farmers out here wanting the land not houses. That is how we got this house. Most women don’t want to live out here that hasn’t changed much where if you want a pizza you may have to drive maybe 50 miles to get it having one delivered is not happening. With our life of sailboats and traveling on the ocean being here is defiantly a change. The adventure goes on.

Enjoying Kansas

For all out there that like to read about out travels we live off less money than most people can believe. This is the reality of Life. What you want to and what you can do. Right now life is good out here on the prairie in out little 4 room house. This is definitely a break for us in the Chinese virus and how hot it is in the Caribbean. How hot is it in the Caribbean? I have lost all fate in the news media so I don’t think it’s globe warming and that distrust stared at age13 when it was every where on TV and news papers that you couldn’t eat more that two eggs a week because of cholesterol. I was raised on a chicken farm selling eggs. Lots of eggs and I eat lots of eggs. As far as how hot it is in the Caribbean. We were in Louisiana on our boat one summer where the TV was saying the heat index is 117, Go check on you Grandma and bring your dogs inside. We had no air conditioner. We were complaining about it to some people on the dock where a little Louisiana boy said, ” It’s summer time and it’s suppose to be hot mister.” Out here every one is complaining about the heat. It got to 102F one day last week but the temperature fell to 68F during the night. That doesn’t happen in the Caribbean. Summer time and it’s hot during the day, it’s hot all night down there. Out here is a dry heat and we can sleep just fine at night. After dark we cut off the air and open the windows. We both like to listen to the night creatures. When I was a boy back on the farm maybe 60 years ago I could plow maybe an acre an hour and most people couldn’t do much better. Out here the tractors are huge with AC and stereo systems. With cell phones you can call your wife to bring a snack and ride with you plowing the last hundred acres for the day.

One of our neighbor’s tractor for plowing. He has more for different jobs.

We have put our son’s pet goat in our blogs a lot and it just shows how far we live out in the country out here where you can let your pet goat run lose in the yard and not worry about her wandering off or bothering a neighbor.

Her name is Fatso. She is waiting for her treat. Pam takes her toasted bread.

For the biggest part I have been working on the art show coming up but always taking time to ride our old motor bike.

Some of the Art work in progress.

Work in the garden or just enjoy the simple life people out here live.