Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Shades of Fall.... 'n a History lesson

Hi Ya bloggies.......

I tell ya.....we hardly ever get ta post anymore....'n we hardly ever get ta visit yer blogs anymore too.....

Now why do ya suppose that's happenin' ?

Maybe cause we have a real old person that we have ta depend on ta visit 'n ta post.......

What do ya think ????

I'm here ta tell ya that this is a long post.....cause if we don't get ta tell ya all about it now......we will never get ta tell ya at all..........

It's the Fall.....'n if ya have never seen the trees in the Fall.....ya have never been in heaven.....no siree....

Fer sure......

We love ta go ta the cottage.....even more so now cause we have DSL up here 'n the OLD ONE takes pictures.....'n we can get 'er ta upload 'em now too.....

Ya can biggify any of them by clicking on them........

So here is Northwestern Pennsylvania in all it's splendor....'n here's what the dirt road our cottage is on looks like right now....


We got ta go on long walks this visit cause the Ps weren't real busy 'n the weather was warm and sunny and the road was dry.....

We get ta run around without leads cause we're pretty good about staying with Gram 'n Pap....

Me 'n Mom are always sniffin' around tryin' ta find out if there are any vermin hidin' where we can't see 'em.....
We get ta check out McCarthy's place ta make sure any stray vermin are cornered there too....

We check out Uncle Donny's place too 'n we usually find neat stuff there...

'N what we found on this visit was not a disappointment......

Just look at what we found in Uncle Donny's back yard......

Can ya guess what it is ?????

Can Ya GUESS ????
Can Ya????
Why it's Bear Poo.....yep....in all it's glory.....just messin' up the yard....'n providin' great smells fer the 3 of us.....wowee......'n Gram made sure that we didn't roll in it..... cause .....well....now... that woulda been a real mess fer her ta clean off us.....


Gram 'n Pap said that we were going on a real road trip ta visit a special place......so we all got inta the car 'n drove up ta Warren, Pa and then onta Kinzua Dam.......


The Kinzua Dam, in the Allegheny National Forest in Warren County, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest dams in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
The dam is located 6 miles (10 km) east of Warren, Pennsylvania along Route 59, within the 500,000-acre (2,000 km2) Allegheny National Forest. A boat marina and beach are located within the dam boundaries. In addition to providing flood control and power generation, the dam created Pennsylvania's deepest lake, the Allegheny Reservoir, also known as Kinzua Lake.

Lots of the places that we would have liked ta visit were closed fer the season but we found a boat launch where we could stop and walk down by the water......'n out on the water too on a floatin' dock....

My Mom sure would have loved ta go in the water but Gram said "no" so we all stayed dry....

It was cool walkin' out onta the dock but it bobbed in the water 'n that was pretty scary......

We got ta read some of the signs that were posted....rules....a ton of 'em....but me 'n Toby just sniffed all the signs that other dogs left behind.......


We saw some fishermen fishin' from the shore.....no boats were out in the water....none that we could see anyhow....but it was a work day so that may be why too....

This is what it looks like when water is let outta the dam.....pretty....isn't it ????

And the scenery is just beautiful too....this is right below the dam......

Kinzua means "fish on a spear" in the Seneca Iroquois language.

Construction of the dam forced the departure of Pennsylvania's last Native Americans, the Seneca, who now live near Salamanca, New York, near the northern shore of the Allegheny Reservoir, which covers land flooded by the dam. Inundation led to the evacuation of both the Cornplanter Reserve (PA) and parts of the Allegany Reservation (NY).[1] It also led to the destruction of the grave of Seneca religious prophet Handsome Lake. Construction of the dam was begun in 1960; in 1961, citing the immediate need for flood control, President John F. Kennedy denied a request by the Seneca to halt construction.[2] A lawsuit against breaking the U.S. treaty which guaranteed perpetual Seneca ownership of the land had been argued by the Quakers but it lost in Federal court.

Authorized by the Flood Control Acts of 1936, 1938, and 1941, actual construction on the dam was begun by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1960 and completed in 1965. The main purpose of the dam is flood control on the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. This dam controls drainage on a watershed of 2,180 square miles (5,650 km2) or an area twice the size of the state of Rhode Island. Side benefits derived from the dam include drought control, hydroelectric power production, and recreation.
The total cost of construction was approximately $108 million. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, Kinzua more than paid for itself in 1972 when tropical storm Agnes dumped continual heavy rains on the watershed, bringing the reservoir to within three feet of its maximum storage capacity. Over $247 million in downstream damages were prevented.


'N the scenery is just breathtakin'.......'n there's 24 miles of it ta enjoy too.....

The next picture was taken right above the dam.....


During the summer season, the waters are full of boats but on Monday there was nothing but cool blue water.... ....'n we pretty much had the place ta ourselves too.....

Well we sure hope ya enjoyed our Fall scenery....'n our trip ta Kinzua Dam too....because we sure did...
Oh yeah, we also got Gram ta take a picture last night out the slidin' glass doors.....



Good night everyone....we sure hope that yer week is goin' well 'n that yer weather is as super as ours has been....
We just LOVE THE FALL !!!!!
This is Dewey Dewster reportin' from Grand Valley, Pa in the hills of northwestern Pennsylvania......Penn's Woods at it's finest..........

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