Click above for a detailed forecast for Mustoe.
Last Update: 8 July 2008
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Click above for a detailed forecast for Mustoe. |
11 May 2008: The house project has taken our full attention for the past few weeks. Links to the various stages of this are just below.
21 April 2008: We had a pretty good maple season this year. Real spring is finally here, with warm weather, flowers, and green grass — and we are well and truly into our house projects for the year. The solar collectors are up and running and the kitchen has been stripped out, ready for renovation. The other big news concerns daughter Kathy, who has become a homeowner! Photos of Kathy’s house — 
8 July.
Char has made the newspaper twice in the last few weeks. March 14-16 she participated in a Garth Newel Chamber Music Retreat, pictured (below, left) at practice with Kathleen Dullea and Chet Swartz. A couple of weeks later she participated in a yoga workshop with Lilias Folan at The Homestead. Char is at far right in the group photo (below, right).
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4 February 2008: We are starting off 2008 just about the way we ended 2007. There was a short break in our house project but that is now back on track. John has been caving at least once a week but the exploration and mapping of the new Water Sinks cave is about finished unless there is a new breakthrough. It is now time to open our trees and begin maple season, weather permitting.
8 July. Our news summary for 2007 has lots of photos of our year’s events. [240 kB] Cleo died and we became great-grandparents. We began remodeling our house and bought a new tractor. John went on quite a few caving trips while Char spent most of her time battling the after-effects of her stroke. Much more.
Our news summary for 2006 has lots of pix. [190 kB] Clarence died, a granddaughter married, Char had a stroke, and Cleo got sick — plus all of the usual farm chores, musical events, and caving ventures.
In 2005-06 we added a large porch, nearly surrounding the cabin. This page tells more than anyone would want to know about this project. [About 500 kB]
News from 2005 includes Char’s big trip, a fence building project, starting construction of the new porch at the cabin, cutting firewood and playing music, and ends with the sale of our business.
Char began playing with the Allegheny Highlands Orchestra in Covington in 2005.
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Char made a cross-country trip in May–June 2005 to visit relatives in Kansas, Washington, and Minnesota. Click on the small photo at left to open a photo-diary of her trip. [375 kB]
News from 2004 includes our new tractor shed, fence building, land and road improvements, Char’s musical endeavors, and the national Christmas tree.
One of our annual projects is maple syrup making, or “sugaring off” as it is called locally. This page takes you through the process from tapping the tree to bottling the syrup. Recently updated for 2007 with the addtion of a few new photos. [310 kB]
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Click on the small photo of Rudy at left to open a photo gallery of our cats. [460 kB]
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Most of our friends know that I have been a rail fan for many years and that I have thousands of photos of trains. I have a page with a gallery of train pix, which is now entirely of a trip in March 2002 on the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley just west of here. I will add more to this page when I have some time.
Even before I was a rail fan I was a caver. My Caving Page presently has some historical photos of Butler Cave in Bath County, VA, a trip report for Sinnett Cave, a spring 2007 digging project seeking new caves, and a detailed report on a large cave just discovered in October 2007.
Our annual Christmas letters provide a capsule of events year by year.
2007 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [136 kB]
2006 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [47 kB]
We did not send a letter in 2005 due to moving the business.
2004 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [155 kB]
2003 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [174 kB]
2002 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [198 kB]
2001 Christmas Letter in PDF format. [153 kB]
2000 Christmas Letter in html format. [36 kB]
1999 Christmas Letter in html format. [58 kB]
Several people have asked about our Conservation Easement so we are posting it here for anyone interested. Such easements are an excellent way to protect one’s property from development beyond one’s lifetime and granting an easement provides some immediate tax advantages. Studies are now underway on the rare botanical communities in our wetlands. The subject of another eventual update!
My mother, Mary Heath Sweet, died on 15 July 2003. Please see her web page for her obituary and information about her memorial service as well as photo galleries and other material. She had been in declining health for some time so her passing was expected; however, it came more suddenly than expected due to a fall, which resulted in a broken hip. The hip was repaired but at her age and condition she was unable to make a recovery and died quietly in her sleep three days after being transferred from the hospital to a nursing home.
Road concerns have been pushed to the back burner by the threat of industrial wind development, but we remain concerned about unnecessary and environmentally unsound road projects scarring our landscape. The major issue is US 250, our main artery, but there have been some egregious projects on our secondary roads, shown here in 2002.
One of our best friends in Highland County died in October 2001. For those who knew David Allen I have prepared a rather extensive biography.
In early February 2001 Char went to Anacortes, WA, to be with her sister, Thelma Kallam, to help out as Thelma’s husband, Ralph, passed on from incurable cancer. She arrived just in time, as Ralph died only two days later. She stayed for a couple more weeks to help Thelma prepare to move to Orcas Island to live with her other sister, June. Obituary for Ralph Kallam. Other events from the winter of 2001.
We hosted a family gathering, or mini-reunion, in July 2000. Char celebrated by breaking her leg.
In 1999 we reconstructed our dilapidated little cabin. It turned into quite a project but it was finished by mid-2000 except for some porches, which have since been completed. We continue to be very pleased with the result. If you come to visit you will get to experience it first hand. [~400 kB]
Reconstruction of the dam was our major project for 1998. This is the story of a project that did not turn out exactly as we had hoped but it seems finally to have come to a happy ending. [~280 kB]
It occurs to me that perhaps some of our friends may not know exactly where we live. The map at right highlights Highland County.
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This page is designed for 800 x 600 resolution. If you have a higher resolution monitor it may be easier to read if you narrow your window a little. I’ll be adding more features to this page as time permits so come back again soon. Meanwhile, please drop a line to either or both of us!
J R S
| Write to us: | John | Char |