Warther's Carvings Museum

Our last visit while in Ohio was to the Warther Museum. It is an amazing place and I recommend a visit if you are in the area. It showcases the talents of the late Mooney Warther, an amazing craftsman who, though he only had a 2nd grade education, reproduced steam engine trains in such detail and beauty that train engineers cannot find a flaw and the Smithsonian has declared them priceless. He didn't sell his train carvings, but made a living by making knives. We have a set and love them, Curt's mom has had a set since her wedding and loves them too. They are the best.

On the grounds they have some trains, which we had some fun with.

Throughout his life, Mooney had a great admiration for Abraham Lincoln. Here he reproduced the presidential funeral train. The following picture shows a detail, Lincoln in his coffin inside.

Another trademark of Warther's was his pliers he carved out of a single piece of wood.
See that piece of wood in the lower left corner of the previous picture, well after over 30,000 cuts that one piece of wood turned into this "pliers tree". Absolutely unbelievable.

These carvings are out of ivory and various hardwoods, a lot of that being ebony. What you can't see in these pictures is that the parts actually move!

I have many many more pictures from this experience that I'm going to have to send my Dad, while going through the museum I just knew how much he would love it and wished he could see it too.

Memorial...

While in Ohio this weekend we visited Curt's grandparents and great-grandparents grave.
As it was Memorial Day weekend we couldn't help but notice how many people buried there were veterans. We are very thankful for past and present service to this country.

Bed and Breakfast

We stayed at a bed and breakfast called the Hasseman House for the weekend. We enjoyed it very much.

The woodwork throughout the house was amazing.

Details, details, beautiful details....

This was our room. It was on the second floor and had a bay window overlooking some fields.

This was our bathroom.

driving through Ohio

Kirtland, OH

Saturday morning we were up very early and headed down to Kirtland, OH. Our first stop was to tour through the Kirtland Temple, which is now owned by the Community of Christ. I am glad that this building is in the hands of people who will take care of it and who value it, but it seems sort of commercialized in the way you pay for a tour, the way they ask for donations multiple times throughout, and in the way they have a gift shop set up.

There was no picture taking allowed in the building, very disappointing for me, but I did find this old picture online. I loved how the early saints mixed and matched their styles inside. In the woodworking of the interior trim there were many classic themes, such as dentil, fluted columns, gothic arches, and egg and dart motifs; but there were also many patterns I don't recognize, such as the circle pattern on the lowest level of the upper arch in the picture below.

We then went down to the sites that the church owns. We first went through the rebuilt lumber mill and ashery that Newel K. Whitney owned and operated for the benefit of the early church. Very interesting, I had not previously known all the uses they had for ash.

This is a sample of how beautiful and lush Kirtland is, which brings a new perspective on what the pioneer's impressions must have been when they entered the Salt Lake Valley for the first time.

Newel K. Whitney's home. They had it good and had a summer kitchen attached to the home, as well as the typical winter one inside.

Curt and I in front of the Newel K. Whitney store.

These are pictures of the small, special room above the store where the school of the prophets was held.

The Johnson Inn.

call me crazy

I am against my husband getting a motorcycle.
He had to agree to give up all motorcycle buying privileges before I would marry him.
I think that he is an excellent driver, but there are a lot of idiots out on the road.
Yeah, I'm one of those weirdos who wants her husband to come home to her at night.

Now dirtbikes are a different story. We'll someday get a few of those.

On dirtbikes generally you can avoid accidents by being an excellent driver.

IKEA dishes

These are the dishes I got from IKEA last year. For $44 dollars I got 6 bowls, small plates, and large plates of both colors, so 36 dishes. Yeah, I love them. I can buy singles if I break any (cross your fingers, I haven't yet). I like how they look. You can set a table with all one color, or you can do every other place setting with alternating colors, or you can do beige bowls with gray plates, or vice versa. Yep, they're fun.