wheels of Monterey, 14-year-old school bus

Saturdays at noon one of the 14-year-old students rides home from school in this cart, waiting here for a late rider.

wheels--sold

Sold the Garelli moped today. Bought by a local tech school student. Manufactured in Italy in 1980, it was sold to me by Elton Moshier for $325 in 2002. I sold it for $50. As is. Rear tire flat, rear brake out, headlight out, but the horn beeps and it runs. A green machine.

"the wheels on the bus go 'round and"...wait

...this thing is not a school bus, although it is a friendly yellow. This is one of the two new Three Mile Island generators, made in France, now wending its way north along the Susquehanna River. Milton and I found it yesterday at the intersection of Highville Road and River Road in Manor Township. One hundred wheels supporting each generator. The driver of the "nuclear" pickup stopped and looked at the drying tobacco. I asked if she knew what it was. She didn't have a clue.

wheels of Monterey--military?

It's a slow week. So let's look again at the wheels around here. These have been parked here all summer.

wheels--open air

An open buggy (not shown here), once the standard courting vehicle, is now considered conservative or old school. Two-wheelers are relatively new on the scene in Monterey.

small wheels

Here are two more. Speed blurs.

wheels of Monterey skinny

Sit on the front porch for two hours and see lots of wheels. No commentary. Just two pics. Buggy wheels are skinny. Scooter wheels are whatever.

more wheels

Two hay wagons. Why no hay on them? Farmers share wagons sometimes. They're being taken from one farm to another farm.

wheels of Monterey, wide

Today steamroller wheels came to smooth out new gravel spread on the Miller lane. Behind this roller is the schoolhouse yard where we saw tiny mower wheels last week.

small wheels of Monterey

You can't see Pop with the weed whacker, but here is son on the tiny wheels, mowing the schoolhouse yard. If industrialized society had twice as many big horses and half as many 18-wheelers....

wheels of Monterey, backwards

Wheels going backwards. Or, backward wheels. Actually, cutting edge micro-industry. Mph? I'd guess 20. Distance travelled like this? I'd guess 1.5 miles. Why backwards? Sheds would block the view forward.

wheels of Monterey

Two Monterey grade-schoolers take the pinto pony on a spin Saturday afternoon. Is it a pinto? I don't know. Made me think of one of the first pop songs I remember listening to, "Across the Alley from the Alamo," a 1947 song sung by the Mills Brothers. I would play the record on the sly at my Grandpa/ma Lehman's farmhouse in probably 1950.

Listen to it--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMfnaR5yUzs

three more wheels

Now the wheels. Reminds me of going down the snowy hill on sleds hooked together, or of pulling a wagon behind a go-cart.



The main thing is--the wheel has been invented. If you are wondering where the tires fell off--well, I'll have to tell you about the Amish genius for avoiding flat tires.

wheels of Monterey

While I made rhubarb punch, this team of Percherons passed by the window, pulling a set of wheels. This is early hay. Some neighbors made hay a week ago in April.



As soon as the team pulls the equipment around the corner we'll see the wheels. And have a sip of punch.

paw paw tree

Contractor John Thomas planted a paw paw tree on Friday, close to the cherry trees. That's his pickup in the driveway. Shortly after this shot the burlap was removed.

The paw paw is native to somewhere American. My mother planted one in about 1980 but it never bore fruit. Local people here, particularly Pennsylvania German types, think of it as a local wonder. It appears to be related to the plum. The fruit is tropical, as exotic as you can get in the temperate clines where winter freezes out fancy notions plants get in their heads at the end of a languorous summer of lavish living.

Having just listened to the audio version of the Stephen Ambroise book on the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805, I learned that Lewis identified a plant west of the Mississippi as a paw paw. I'll let wikipedia sort that out for now. It is native. It is not hybrid fancy.

Notice freshely rototilled garden behind wheelbarrow--which is another wheel for my Eby Road catalog of wheels.