RUNNING LATE - AGAIN!...JANUARY 18 2012....


Today I will talk about our day trip while visiting the kids in Kearneysville WV.

Our first stop was Shepherdstown WV.   Specifically to see the old mill.  And old it is.  Pre-Revolutionary War old.  Quite a piece of our history.

The downside to this is that there is very little history that I have been able to track down.

This is the mill from the front.  Quite a beautiful old building.  This mill is located in Shepherdstown WV on Town Run, a stream of water on it's way to the Potomac River.  It was the water from this stream that propelled the mill wheel, which in turn propelled the mill stones, which in turn ground the flour and corn meal.

The mill was built in 1738 - you can see the date on this end of the mill - only 118 years after the landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  It is old.  And built by hand.  Still standing today.  What does that say about today's structures?

The next picture I am going to show is from the side-street, looking through the underbrush.  If it were summer, and the leaves were on the trees, you would not be able to see this end.  Look closely, you will see the remains of the mill wheel, which was 40 feet in diameter, the largest recorded mill-wheel.

The mill was built by Thomas Shepherd Sr. as a two story structure with a smaller overshot wheel.  The present 40 foot diameter wheel was built in 1894.  The third story of the building was added in the late 19th century.

After leaving Shepherdstown we traveled on north on Route 9 until we came to the following Mail Pouch Barn.  This is the only MPB left in this three-county area of West Virginia.

From there we traveled on to Berkeley Springs and the Castle.  That will be a story for another day.  There is a lot of history connected to the castle.

We had such a good day that we are planning another longer photo shoot, wherein we will visit Washington DC and all that stuff.  As they are both Army and stationed in the area, they know where to go, how to get there, all the good stuff that makes a photo-shoot really fun.  

Every morning when I get up there is always something to look forward to, sometimes so many things I wonder how it will all come to be, but the planning is one of the best parts.

So get up in the mornings looking ahead, making a plan, even if you don't follow through, it is fun to do the planning, and God Bless.