4th of July Parade

I went to the Pittsfield, MA 4th of July parade and it was a good one. The black clouds started to form and we got a few sprinkles, but the rain held off long enough to get the parade in.

They had a 5k run before the parade with approximately three hundred runners.

The parade lasted 2 hours with many marching bands, fire departments, floats, old cars, clowns and of course the Shriners with their little buggies. The Adams, MA. fire department looked good in their long coat uniforms, and the old fire apparatus was outstanding.












They had to pull the balloons down in order to clear the signal lights.











This parade is billed as the 6th largest in the nation, with bands and fire companies coming from New York, Connecticut, Vermont and some as far as Maryland.

Summertime in Lanesborough

I walk up to the farm every morning at 6:00 am. A lot of you already know my walking schedule. It hasn't changed in 23 years.

The 3 steers are there to welcome me, and some times I bring carrots for the donkeys and horses.


Maggie and Penny's favorite place is in the shed, and Penny is usually laying down. She is a brat.

The one steer was playing peekaboo with me, looking through the branches.


We have had one campfire so far at my brother Donny's and tried to have another one Saturday night but it started to rain so every body ran for cover. I ran to my nephew's and watched the NASCAR race on his new 47 inch flat screen TV.



I took some pictures of some of my neighbors houses. Some are really nice.





This is the truck I used to drive once in a while when I was back here. A friend of mine owns a paving business and I would help him out if he got in a bind. My brother drives for him summers, then goes to Florida for the winter.


This is my sister-in -law Patty at the order window of a popular fast food place in North Adams,MA.
A herd of goats that I walk by in the morning.

This is the Old Stone School that my wife and a lot of my friends attended in the late 30's. It was a one room school and had an outhouse out back. ( It's still there).

The 4thof July parade was great. I'll put pictures in my next blog.

I Made it to the Farm

It's me again with some more BLOG material. It is still raining here, so I haven't done too much. I plan on going to the 4th of July parade in Pittsfield on Saturday, and the new road to Mt. Greylock is open, but I haven't gone up yet because of the weather.

I stopped at the Lebanon Valley Speedway on my way in, as it is only 15 miles from my farm. I talked to the owner and asked him if he had records from back in the early 50's when I raced stock cars over there. They had records from 1958, but nothing earlier. He said he was just a baby when I was racing there. I took a picture of the Speedway sign and of turn 1 & 2.



While riding thru Lebanon,NY. I decided to try and take a picture thru the windshield while I was riding. It was a piece of cake as it wasn't raining for a change.

I arrived at my sister-in-laws(Patty) about 1:00pm and she had just taken some chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. They sure were good..
I made a few phone calls to let some of my friends know that I had made it to the East coast. 2707 miles, and was sure glad to get off the bike for a while.

The next morning I did my 6:00am walk up to the farm and back. The horses & donkeys were in the tractor shed but I don't know where the cows were. Probably underneath the big pine trees as it was raining.
After breakfast I washed the motorcycle and put the cover on it and soon after it started raining again.


Later in the day I walked down to my younger brothers house to visit and took a picture of the big house that I was born in, and also took a picture of the church where I was married. It is still a beautiful church.



Friday we had a 3 family tag sale and I put my tent ,sleeping bag etc out to sell. No more sleeping on the ground going back. It's motel time. About 3 hours into the tag sale it started to rain so we all rushed around trying to get everything covered. We were soaked to the skin by the time we got the tarps over everything. We had a better day Saturday, as it didn't start raining until 1:30. We packed everything away until sometime in July when we will have another one.

My niece Ruth Ann ( Boochie) had a " Burn your homework" party for her kids, Brandon & Jaclyn, and about 10 of their friends. When I got there, they were all running around soaking wet where they had been squirting each other with the water hose. Later they found a big mud bog and some of them really got muddy. Afterward Ruth Ann had pizza for everybody and then ice cream sundaes.

It was a great party and everyone had a good time.

The lady with the camera is Ruth Ann, and the single picture of the girl covered with mud is my great niece Jaclyn, and the boy sitting in the chair eating the ice cream sundae is my great nephew Brandon.






The kids had a big bonfire going , burning big cable spools.


I took a picture of Mukluk Duck in Patty's flower bed. Linda Tate gave it to me and I carried it in my kayak for 2 years.

The Walton Farm sign at the gate was all knocked over and it was because Maggie (the donkey) was rubbing on it scratching her neck. I am going to remount it outside the gate so she can't knock it over again.

I took Patty and Phyllis to North Hoosic,NY. for lunch. It was a real nice diner,and 2 fantastic ladies running it. The food was delicious. A lot of the locals eat there and every body seems to know each other and get a friendly greeting as they come in the door.

After lunch we went to "New Skate". It is some kind of a religious cult in Cambridge, NY. The nuns make cheese cake that is really delicious and the monks have a monastery nearby that is beautiful. Looks like Patty bought somthing good.

We went by Jiminy Peak ski resort that has a wind generator like the ones that they have in the wind farms out West. This single one provides the power to run the resort at Jiminy Peak.

I have a family of wild turkeys at the farm. I have been able to get pictures of the mommy & daddy, but the chicks are hidden in the tall grass.

I finally found the cows!