Scotland - Day 5

On March 13 we got up and drove to Stirling, a town in the middle of Scotland. There was still very much snow on the ground, so there were not many people there. I enjoyed this a lot. Here is a picture of the front of the castle, from the parking lot. We took this picture when we came back later in the week when the snow had melted.
To the right, out of this picture this is a statue of Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce was one of the very famous early kings of Scotland. He was made king after William Wallace died, who I will talk about in a little bit. Here is the statue in the snow looking over the town of Stirling:

Bruce and his father were on the side of the English at the beginning of the war, but they switched when the Scots won. When he decided to finally be on the Scot's side, he was continually being beaten in the battles. He tried seven times to drive out the English and free the Scots, and seven times he was defeated. When he was in hiding in a cave, he watched a spider on the wall trying to spin a web. It tried seven times, and the eighth time is succeeded. Therefore he was encouraged to try again and he succeeded. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It was taken a few days after the previous one:
Here are some pictures from inside the castle:
First a picture of me in front of the Forework built for King James IV in the years around 1500. This is from the first time we went there:
Some guns on the Grand Battery, which is part of the Outer Close which is one of the two main courtyards.There where statues of Kings on the wall of the palace which was built for James V and was started in 1538.
During one of the sieges of the castle, some of the statues were knocked out of place:

We video-taped (or thought we did, more on that later) one of the speeches I did to our family on Scottish history. Here are a few good scenic pictures we took at various times from there:

After spending 4 hours there, we went to Wallace Monument, a monument to the Scottish hero William Wallace. When we got there, they were not selling tickets at the bottom of the hill, because the walkway was icey and slippery, and many people were turning back before they got to the top, but the Horns pressed onward and upward.

At the tower there were three levels.
There was a room about William Wallace's history. They had Wallace's sword in a case:
There was a room of Scottish heroes, and one about building the monument. When you climbed 220 feet and 246 steps you reached the crown, or top. It was very cold and windy there since it was sleeting, snowing, and freezing rain. I got really cold when I did my speech on the battle of Stirling Bridge out there.

Stirling Bridge was Sir William Wallace's first large engagement with the English. He had fought in several small battles, one of which we visited later. The English held Stirling Castle and Wallace was on Abbey Craig, the place where the Wallace monument now stands. The English decided to attack the Scots over a narrow bridge. Here is a picture of the battleground: (the old bridge is right next to the new bridge, which is in the middle of the picture).

Wallace waited until some of the English went over the bridge, and then attacked. He drove them into the loop of the river and destroyed them. The other English which had not crossed retreated back to England. This was one of my favorite battles. I enjoyed this day of our Scotland vacation.

Scotland - Day 4

Today was Sunday so we planned to go to a church some friends recommended, but when we woke up, it was snowing and there was already a lot of snow on the ground. When we saw the snow we decided not to go to the church because the church was about 2 hours away. When we decided to stay home it kept snowing, so there was enough snow to build a snowman. So Daddy went out with us and helped us to build a snowman. Before we went out, somebody had already built a snoman that was about 2 feet tall. We built one about 5.5 feet tall. We had to show those Scots how to build a REAL snowman! There was about 10 to 12 inches of snow on Sunday.

Scotland - Day 3

This day we went to Jedburgh Abbey, Melrose Abbey, and Dryburgh Abbey. Since we spent the night in Jedburgh at a bed and breakfast the night before, we went to Jedburgh Abbey first. Jedburgh was founded no later than 1138. In 1875 the abbey was finished, except it still had no roof. The abbey was founded close to the English border by King David I and Bishop John of Glascow.
This is a picture of the hall of Jedburgh Abbey.

We walked around the abbey for 1 1/2 hours and then we drove to Melrose Abbey. Melrose Abbey was founded in 1136. It was raided by Richard II in 1385. Alexander the II and Robert the Bruce's heart are buried there.

This is a picture of the gravestone of Robert Bruce's heart.

We spent about 2 hours at Melrose Abbey and then we went to Dryburgh Abbey. This abbey was raided by England in 1385. Dryburgh Abbey was mostly ruins and not as nice as the other abbeys, although it had an intact chapter house.

This is a picture of Dryburgh Abbey from the graveyard.

After we had walked around Dryburgh Abbey for about 1 hour, we went to a statue of William Wallace. We stopped and took a short walk to the statue.


This is a picture of the statue of William Wallace that we saw.

I liked the abbeys because they were very nice and almost grand. After we went to the abbeys, we stopped at Smailholm Tower. It was built around the middle of the 15th century in Northumberland of the border country. Walter Scott played in the tower ruins as a "wee, sick laddie" when he spent time in his family member's farmhouse on the property due to an illness. I liked it because it was not ruined and it was a nice small castle.


Then we drove to the condo in Alberfoyle where we stayed for a week.

Scotland - Day 2

On the second day in Scotland we went to Chester's Fort, Warwick Castle, and Dunstanburgh Castle. Chester's Fort was a Roman fort at Hadrian's Wall. This is a picture of Chester's fort with my father in it:
This is a picture with Joshua in it: Then we went to Warwick Castle and it was closed. We walked around it and took some pictures. Here are some of them. This is a Picture of the keep: This picture is of the gate: This is a picture of all of us except Stephen: Since Warwick Castle was closed and we had time left on our way to Jedburgh, where we spent the night, so we went to Dunstanburgh Castle. Dunstanburgh Castle was built in 1313 by Earl Thomas of Lancaster in Lancaster, a historically remote region. It was altered in 1380 by John of Gaunt. There was a long hike up to the hill. This is a picture of it on the hill: This is a picture of the old Gate House:
This is the new Gate House:

This is a picture of the hole where they pured boiling oil down. It is is called a murder hole:

Scotland - Day 1

For a short while we will be doing day by day posts on our trip to Scotland, which happened a year ago today. We left a year ago yesterday and drove up to Baltimore, and got stuck in traffic around Washington, but we got to the airport about two hours ahead of our flight which left about 8:00 pm. Daddy bought us sandwiches to eat on the plane. We flew to Iceland and then got on another plane and flew to Glasgow, Scotland. We arrived there in the morning, but we could not find where to get the rental car. We looked all over until we finally found it. We had asked for a small car, but our luggage would not fit in, so we got an upgrade to an SUV with a GPS. It was a good thing we had the GPS, otherwise we would have spent the entire trip looking for the places we where supposed to go. We finally got the car and drove south to Hadrian's Wall.

Hadrian's Wall is a Roman Wall that was built in England to protect the Romans from the wild Scots. We went to the Roman Soldier's Museum which was pretty interesting, and then to a settlement called Vindolanda which was there before Hadrian's Wall was built. It was a large place, and my favorite place was the reconstructed tower. Here is a picture of it:



Here is Daddy in the top of one of the towers:



Here is a picture of the real wall and towers:


Also in Vindolanda was the site of an early church:



We slept at a bed & breakfast in the town of Wall, which is, as you could guess, near Hadrian's Wall. We enjoyed our stay there very much. We slept in a little cottage that was old. It had a wooden ladder which you could pull upstairs, so when the raiders or robbers came you could just go in the upstairs and not get hurt. The bathroom was very cold because it did not have a heater.

Fort Building

Stephen and I have recently been working on a fort in the woods. It was originally just trees knocked down by storms. A few years ago we built a barricade. Then that fell down and we dug a small trench. Two Saturdays ago we began to work some more on the fort.
Here is a picture of Stephen in the new fox-hole:



Here is a picture of the wall I built:



A picture of the front of the fort from the inside:



Here is the last wall which is on the left if you are inside facing the front (This picture is not up to date) :
We will probably be working more on this fort in the future.

Wintry Weather

We have had only two really small snow storms. They were both about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and melted very quickly. One night it rained, but then the rain froze on the trees and plants. It looked nice. Here are some pictures of one of the small snows:

Those are Kater's footprints in the snow on the back deck. We hope that we will get more snow later this year.
Here is a picture from the small ice storm:

Books

We bought a total of 24 books on the Faith & Freedom Tour. Altogether the thicknesses add up to two feet. That means that each book is approximately one inch thick. The total number of pages is 8237, and the average is 340 pages. We still have not read all the ones from other years. I enjoyed the tour very much. I really liked Lexington and Concord.

Kater update

Kater, our cat, has caught many mice. Just this morning she caught one. She also likes to catch birds, but she has only got one that we know of. She sits at the bottom of a tree with a feeder on it, waiting for a bird to come close enough to pounce. We have seen her sit in one place for more than an hour, waiting for one to come. When she pounces she misses, because the bird feeder is too high. We definitely have fewer birds in our yard since we got the cat.
Kater also gets stuck in the garage. For some reason she likes going in, and then gets shut in; but she is ready to come out when we come to get her.

New Counter Tops for the Kitchen

Daddy has decided to start tiling the kitchen counter tops. To start doing that we had to rip off all the laminate that was on the counter tops.

This is a picture of Joshua, Stephen and Stephen Breagy working on removing the laminate.

We invited Stephen Breagy and his father to help us rip the laminate off. It was hard to rip the laminate off. We used putty knives to get it off and Daddy cut himself once. After the laminate was ripped off, Daddy started laying the backer board on the counter top and wall. Daddy used mortar to cement the backer board onto the counter. After that was laid on, he started to lay the tile on the counter tops.
This is a picture of the tile. You can see the blue and green dots in the backsplash and the tile on the counter tops.

After the tile was laid on he started milling the wood for the trim. Joshua helped him to make the trim outside in the garage. We decided to have wood trim instead of tile trim because the wood trim wouldn't be as cold as the tile and it was hard to find a type of tile that had trim to go with it. Then he brought the wood trim inside to start finishing it with stain. When he had put on a coat of stain, he put the wood trim on the edges of the counter. Daddy working on the counter tops in the kitchen.

He drilled holes in the trim and stuck them on with wood glue, then he hammered finishing nails through the holes. As he was putting the wood trim on, he was making sure the edges were as smooth as they could be. After all the wood trim was put on, he put wood putty over the nails so they wouldn't show much. After the wood putty had dried, he took his sander and went around the border and sanded the wood putty off until it was smooth. He also smoothed the corners and trim with the sander. Rachel went behind him and helped vacuum the dust that he sanded off with a vacuum. This is a picture of the granite with the wood trim on the countertops.

Then he put stain and 2 coats of polyurethane on the trim. Daddy has plugged the stove in a couple of times for us to use. We have no sink in the kitchen. We can not get the sink in until after Daddy grouts; hopefully he will do it soon. He had to wait for the polyurethane on the trim to dry before grouting. The kitchen will look really nice when it is done.

Jamestown 400: part 2

Stephen and I are also working with three other boys from church. One recent advancement was finding the secret website. We were able to get in and have already answered some questions. The main purpose of the treasure hunt is to encourage people to learn about the providential history of America, especially in Jamestown. There are three phases to the hunt. In phrase one you must crack the mystery in the Vision Forum catalog. If you are one of the first 1000 to complete phrase 1 by March 31, you will receive a special prize. The first 100 winners of Phrase 2 before May 15 will be invited to join the actual hunt for the gold in Jamestown. We do not expect to be in the 1000 or the 100, but will be going to Jamestown for the 400th anniversary celebration with our grandparents in June. To start on the hunt, order a catalog. For more information go to this page.

Jamestown 400: Part I

Joshua and Stephen are working on the Jamestown 400 treasure hunt. The Jamestown 400 is a hunt for 400 gold coins to celebrate the founding of Jamestown. The hunt is done by Vision Forum. Joshua and Stephen have been searching the Vision Forum catalog for clues. The clues involve searching history. The point of the hunt is to learn the providential history of our nation.

"Deep within the ancient lands of the Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown triangle, rests a treasure of historic proportions.

Hidden somewhere near or by the ancient landmarks of our colonial forefathers, lies a trove of buried treasure. Golden treasure.

Resting within a bolted wooden chest are four hundred solid gold coins with a value in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Whoever cracks the mystery of the Jamestown 400 becomes the sole owner of the treasure trove.

But to crack the code and find the four hundred gold coins, you must take a journey through history that will reveal America’s greatest national treasure — the providential hand of God in the life of this nation." from Vision Forum

This is a picture of the recreated fort at Jamestown.

Catnapping

When we came home from Plymouth, we couldn't find our kitten. So we went around the neighbourhood trying to find her. When we couldn't find her, we went back to the house to eat breakfast. This was Wednesday morning. After lunch on Wednesday, we went to our neighbor's house who had put food out for her while we were gone, and asked them when they had last seen her. They said they had last seen her on Saturday. So we went around calling her again, and asking some neighbors about her. When we were going back towards our house, we saw some of the boys from our neighbourhood coming home from school.We asked them if they had seen our cat.Then one of the boys said that his mother had taken her to the pound on Tuesday. So we went to the pound in our county where we thought they would have taken her. That pound hadn't seen her, so we went to our neighbor's house that had taken her, and we asked her where she had taken her. She said that she took the kitten to her friend's house, who lives across the county line, because she was afraid the kitten would freeze. So she said that her friend had taken her to the pound in her county. So we were pretty upset. The other pound was closed that day so we called and gave a description of our kitten, and asked if they had her. The next day someone from the pound called and said that she was there, so we went and got her from the pound. She was glad to be home, and we were glad to see her! Next time we leave home, she will stay in our garage.

Faith & Freedom Tour Monday

Monday was the last day of our tour. We went first to Lexington, and saw the statue of Captain Parker, the commander of the minutemen at Lexington. Mr. Potter explained the battle of Lexington to us on Lexington Green. He formed us up into a line, and had someone stand where the British did so we could see how the battle looked. Then we ate lunch and boarded the buses for Concord. We drove along the road which the British retreated, and then we came to the bridge of Concord. There we saw the other minuteman statue. On it was part of a poem which was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson which said this:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

We sang this to the tune of "The Old 100th Psalm". After going to Concord we drove to Harvard and spent the rest of the day there. Then we drove back to the hotel and got ready for the closing dinner. Mr. Potter asked history questions and if you got one right you won a prize. Stephen was "right enough" with his answer and won a guide book to Jamestown.

Faith & Freedom Tour Sunday

On Sunday, after church we went to the Forefathers Monument in Plymouth. At the Forefathers Monument we heard Dr. Paul Jelhe speak on the importance of the Forefathers Monument. Hammett Billings (the builder of the monument) showed some of the Pilgrims beliefs in the monument. At the top of the monument there was Faith:
Faith was put on the monument in 1877. There are four things on this part of the statue that are important:
1. Faith is holding an open Bible. This represents that the Pilgrims used the Bible and it is being opened by the Holy Spirit. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower had the Geneva version of the Bible.
2. Faith has her forefinger raised to heaven. This represents that the Pilgrims believed that the only way to the Father is through Jesus his Son. This was one of the reasons that the Pilgrims split from the church of England.
3. The star on Faith's forehead represents the honor and glory of the minds of the Pilgrims and reformers. God made the mind so the glory goes to God.
4. Faith is stepping forward with her left foot on Plymouth rock. Faith is looking in an easterly direction, which is the direction they sailed from England.

On the side of the monument there was Morality:
Morality was put on the monument in 1878. Morality is holding the ten commandments. In her other hand she is holding the scroll of Revelation. Morality has a collar around her neck. There were also Liberty, Law, and Education on the monument. In the monument there were many important details. We should recognize that details are important.

Faith and Freedom Tour Saturday

On Saturday we went to Burial Hill, the Copps Hill Burying Ground, the Old North Church, the Paul Revere House, and the Paul Revere Statue. First we went to Burial Hill. For the first part of our time at Burial Hill, Mr. Phillips talked about some of the people buried there. After he had finished talking our family walked around Burial Hill, looking at the graves.

This is the grave of William Bradford, who was the first governor of the Plymouth Colony.

Then we went on the buses to go to the Copps Hill Burying Ground. There we gathered around the Mather Family's gravestone, and Mr. Phillips and Mr. Potter talked to our group about the history of the Mather Family and why they were important, and their impact on the founding of America. One of the things they said was that they collected many books for their library, and Cotton Mather wrote about 450 books.


After we walked around the Copps Hill Burying Ground a little, we then went to the Old North Church where William Dawes hung the lights in the church steeple for Paul Revere. When we were in the Old North Church there was a tour guide who gave us a little bit of the history of the church. Most of the things in there, like the organ, were very old.


After we went out of the Old North Church, we walked to the Paul Revere House. There we went on a tour of the upper and lower floors of the house. After that we met with the other groups on our tour at the Paul Revere Statue. There Mr. Phillips talked a little about Paul Revere, and then he had one of the girls on the tour come up and recite "Paul Revere's Ride" for us. After that we ate in Little Italy with the Linder Family that used to go to church with us, but then moved to New Hampshire. After dinner we headed back to the hotel.