This bald eagle is the same scale of a traditional carousel horse and is capable of being ridden by an adult.  It's body and tail are elongated and the rider would sit on the bird's back.

THE CAROUSEL WORKS

Celebrates 25 years in Mansfield

Imagine a place of employment where all employees have the delightful task of ultimately making their customers, young and old alike, happy.  In fact, 23 of their 28 employees are artists.  They have created 45 new carousels and restored more than 20 antique ones.

The Mansfield Carousel Works has been hand-carving carousels since 1991 and sending them around the world where they are featured everywhere from cruise ships to zoos.

To celebrate their anniversary earlier this month, the shop held its first open house in 18 years.  Even with that gala event going on, seven of their 28 employees were in Kansas City that weekend to assemble one of their latest creations.

Resident artists display a panorama that ultimately will be featured around the inside rim of a new carousel (top) and one of the panels which will appear around the outside perimeter of another carousel (below).

Currently the shop is working on new carousels for the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, and others for the Bay Creek Resort in Chesapeake Bay, VA, as well as customers in Dayton and Detroit.

How about having a carousel animal created just for that special someone in your life?  They do that too.  Cost for a single animal on a display pole--an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 dollars; largely depending on its complexity, of course.

THE CAROUSEL WORKS--

While the factory is modern, adults and children alike enjoyed a boat-load of enchantment at Mansfield's Carousel Works during a recent weekend open-house.  It was the first open-house in their 22,000 square foot facility near the Mansfield airport in 18 years.

The one-time event was held in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Carousel Park in downtown Mansfield.  Please stop by Saturday and join us on our delightful visit.

COMMENTERRY--

A tip-of-the-hat to my son Brian and wife Kathy who simply showed up one recent day and built a new set of masonry steps at my place (pictured above).   Their project replaced an aging, and sometimes challenging, set of stone steps in a often-used rock garden wall.

The walkway leading out of the photo, lower left, goes toward the lower deck and boat dock on the edge of the 1 1/2 acre pond. 

I cannot imagine being an aging parent without the support they have provided all these years.  Can you see my appreciative smile?

                                   *          *          *

This week's winner of "Life's Biggest Pain in the A**" award is the Dish satellite tv outfit.

Do not ever consider dropping their "service" unless you are prepared for a world-class run-around. 

Here is a summary of my dismal experience:

I put my service on hold for the three months we were in Florida this past winter.  When I got home and discovered my service had not been restarted as they indicated it would be, I began to review my notes on this process.

That's when I discovered they had almost exactly doubled my monthly charge in the two plus years I was with them.  My original bill was $34.13  With no changes in service prompted by me nor any notification that came to my attention, my bill had grown to $64.88 per month.

This was "bundled" in my monthly bill from Century Link--my local telephone company.

I was long aware of Dish's marketing gimmick of making a selection of 200+ channels sound like some sort of bargain when about three or four of them were worth watching--occasionally.

That's when I decided I didn't need TV anymore.

Then, the hockey-like scrum began.  It took me more than 15 telephone, email, and "chat" efforts to finally achieve their assurance of our divorce.

These contacts involved getting mired in continuous loops of automated choices of assistance, none of which involved a termination of service when that was the announced intent of my contact.

Once, I actually reached an English speaking human who promptly rewarded me with a disconnect buzz on the phone line when I mentioned the phrase, "terminate my service".

Usually my request to terminate was rewarded with a barrage of well rehearsed sales pitches.

Finally, I received a box to ship my receiver and remote controls back to them.  That was followed a day or so later by a recored phone message that I would face financial execution if that wasn't done proptly.

Their stuff was returned April 30th.

I hope the divorce is really final!

BIRD MIGRATION
and a snow shovel...

With a Spring season that seems bent on ignoring the calendar it is no wonder a couple of my feeder birds seem confused these days.

That's a male American Goldfinch, the lower of the two birds in the photo, with his dining pal, a Dark-eyed Junco, above him on the thistle feeder.

You cannot help but notice the goldfinch is already decked out in his splashy breeding plumage.  That's just fine, but, I don't usually see that happen when there still are juncos present.

Juncos tend to winter here then scurry north, far above the US/Canada border where they enjoy their breeding range and raise their young.  The peak of their Spring migration is usually in March or earlier April. 

The goldfinch, now splendidly attired in his mating finery, also spent the winter here but he was dressed very much like his lady counterpart in a drab, army-green feather suit.  It's the arrival of Spring that sets his hormones to dancing and his color to become canary-like in hopes of attracting a desirable mate.

Migration is not something to set your clock by, however.  So, soon, no doubt, the junco will be on his way north.

In fact, maybe I am partially responsible for his delayed departure.

I wonder if he is confused by the fact I still have not had the courage to put my snow shovel away.

MARCH OF DIMES
March for Babies


It rained and stopped--and rained some more that Saturday morning.

But that didn't matter.

This event was about helping kids.

And, a lot of that happened that Saturday morning too.

My friend, Don Karger and his Culligan water troops gave Fogeyisms the opportunity to record the event.

Here is some of what we saw.

...punctuated by the final picture of a damp but dedicated volunteer passing the memorial to kids that needed more help still.

PASS THE CIGARS PLEASE--

On this rainy Spring morning, three days after they hatched, 6 Canada Goose chicks explore the edge of my pond; the two in the right foreground being the last to squirm out from under momma goose's protective canopy of spread wings.

Often she will gather her brood and stuff them under her wings out of the inclement weather--or just for their periodic naps.

Just as often the rambunctious chicks will only tolerate mom's comfort for a few moments, then, first one, then a second chick will wiggle to freedom with their siblings following quickly; launching themselves on another browsing tour of their new world. 

Poppa goose is just out of the frame to the right watching carefully that his family is safe from any threat that might appear.

On a soggy morning in Lexington recently MARCH OF DIMES volunteers and participants went about the business of their slogan, "Working Together for Stronger, Healthier Babies," with a benefit fund raiser along the Richland B&O Bicycle trail.  Last year the walk raised $30,000.  Please stop by Saturday and Fogeyisms will share some of what we saw.