Grammatical Errors On Blog Posts ::

Or, truth be told, grammatical errors anywhere just drive me nuts and I just found one in my post down below about the Jeff Black appearance in Columbia. My fingers are often too far out in front of my brain and when I meant to write "hear" it appeared on the blog as "here". Sounds the same but obviously the meaning is different! I edit 5 personal web sites as well as 2 NASA web sites and I really try to diligently police my grammar, syntax, and spelling before I publish to the world, but it seems I sometimes come up short.

I suitably chastise myself and I will continue to try to do better!

I'm still trying to schedule a trip to Camden. I'm committed to photographing a horse show this coming weekend and there is the upcoming launch of the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission in mid May by Space Shuttle Atlantis so everything is still up in the air. I'm afraid I can't get away during some certain time periods around a launch window. Once the orbiter flies I'm set loose.

Little Baby Birds ::

Somewhere down below there is a post with the photograph of the birds nest in my wreath on the front door. Well, the eggs hatched out at some point today so I have these little tiny birds living on my front door. I'll post some pictures in a day or so when the baby birds are something other than little balls of feather fluff!

A New National Park? ::

Interesting! I'd really like to see this happen.

Posted on Sat, Apr. 25, 2009
Camden park has a shot
Battle site’s chances improve for national park designation
By JOHN MONK
jmonk@thestate.com

After nearly 30 years, the struggle to win coveted national park status for Historic Camden and Battle of Camden sites may be at its most hopeful point.

A bill that would fund a $250,000 National Park Service feasibility study for the site is in a subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee.

That — in addition to acquiring more acreage around the site, among other things — could improve the chances for the coveted national park status, some say.

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., who has been working this issue since the early 1980s when he was first elected to Congress, knows it might take more time — maybe years — to get the $250,000.

“The account out of which this is funded is a very tight account,” said Spratt.

“Basically, what you have to do is get in line. If you don’t have your request in, it may not come up this year, and it may not come up next year, but if you get in line and wait your turn and work it — especially with a meritorious project like this — eventually you get it funded.”

To get funded in Congress, the project has to run a gantlet.

First, it must win subcommittee approval in the House, then get committee approval, then pass a floor vote by the full House. Then, the same process is repeated in the Senate.

If it survives both chambers, it still might face a presidential veto.

The $250,000 already has gone through that process to win approval, or authorization, for spending. Now, Spratt is trying to get the actual spending, the appropriation, approved.

Something similar took place almost 30 years ago.

In 1980, local Camden officials won federal funding for a $250,000 study.

But that study concluded there were too many modern-day encroachments to make the site, a 1780 British garrison on the outskirts of Camden, a national park.

In much of the 1980s and 1990s, efforts to win national park status moved slowly.

But in the past five years, state and local groups and officials, including Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, and Rep. Laurie Funderburk, D-Kershaw, have worked to acquire land — today, the site is 107 acres — to save a crucial American Revolution battlefield nine miles north of Camden.

It is the site of the 1780 Battle of Camden, where as many as 1,000 Americans patriots were killed in a lopsided British victory. It helped spur Americans on to change course and fight on to victory into the next year.

“The Revolution was a very near thing,” said Spratt, “and the Battle of Camden is an indication that it might have gone the wrong way.

“It helps to appreciate the effort and resilience of the Revolutionary forces. They were able to spring back from something like Camden and win Cowpens, Kings Mountain and the other major battles of the war in the South.”

The current effort by Spratt, local officials and more than two dozen organizations to push both the Historic Camden and Battle of Camden sites for proposed national park status stands a far better chance of approval than the lone Historic Camden site in 1980, said Historic Camden executive director Joanna Craig.

“We’ve been working on this a long time, and there’s been more accomplished in the last four or five years than ever before,” she said. “We’ve moved mountains.”

Jeff Black In Columbia ::

Jeff Black is playing at some place called The Warehouse in Columbia tomorrow night, April 24. I highly recommend Jeff's music and if I were around there tomorrow, which I will not be, I would go.

Check Jeff's site out at http://www.jeffblack.com. where you can here hear some of his music. Looking at the map I suppose that The Warehouse is not far from the state capitol.

Little Kittens Nursing ::

The little kittens are becoming more active, but here they are nursing just a short while ago:



They live in the garage so I now have to be careful entering and exiting!

Springtime ::

So, here we are in springtime again. Thunder is rolling from the west and we'll have even more rain soon.

Here is one of my cat blogging photographs of Missy.




And we now also have 2 week old kittens. Missy had 4 little female kittens and they're just now finding their way around. I'm taking orders if anyone wants one! Just let me know.



I have a blog friend, Kate, who lives outside of Boston and she posted about a week ago that she had left her christmas wreath on her front door and now had a bird nest in it. As it turns out I had also left my wreath up so I decided to check it and, sure enough there was a bird nest.




And inside the nest are 5 little blue eggs so I'm trying not to use the front door right now. There is also a nest on the back porch which I haven't looked into yet, but I'm sure there will be little birds there soon.



Remember, get your kitten while you can! The mother is a really great cat who is intensely affectionate and does not stray.

Bad Weather Last Friday

I had taken last Friday off work in hopes of getting some grass cut before the rains moved in, but it was not to be. In fact I got caught out driving in the wind, rain, and hail. Below is what is left of a really nice huge old oak tree just up the street from me.



Apparently there was some significant damage to areas around Lake Guntersville which is just south of me resulting in hazard warnings to boaters from floating debris.