[Gathnet] A very late note from Pilgrim Rest.

[stuart g gathman]

Dear Gathnetters,

The Christmas season is over and things are getting back to normal here 
at Pilgrim Rest. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

We have been having a wonderful wet winter this year. Both Holinbeck 
river and Loose creek are running in full strength. This hasn’t happened 
for a number of years. Even with my deteriorating hearing, I can hear 
both rivers from which ever part of the yard I am standing. I love the 
sound of water falling over rocks. Unlike Jon's home (last gathnet 
email), Pilgrim Rest is several hundred feet above the water. Our 
greatest problem is that my dirt road to the barn is now only passible 
by foot or by tractor! It needs a lot of work to get rid of the ruts 
made by the rain.

We celebrated New Years Day by having a picnic lunch with Rachel (who 
was spending the weekend with us) down on the rocks on the bank of Loose 
creek. The sun was warm that day and it was one of those special times. 
Rachel was wading barefoot in the stream and the sun was warm and 
bright. It is hard to imagine for 1 January because I always remember 
the snowy Januarys in Illinois and Virginia.

We had our quarterly doctor's checkup last week and did well. Anne 
however has a chloresterol problem. I have unfortunately gained a few 
pounds over the Christmas holidays because of all the goodies available 
and over which I have no self control . Back to Adkins for me and less 
milk and butter for Anne.

For those who might be interested, our built in microwave went on the 
blink for the last time a few weeks ago. We are replacing it by a shelf 
with lighting on the bottom. We can then put the much cheaper individual 
microwave ovens on the shelf and save some room.

Our Physics lab last week was a success from what I hear. We studied 
waves using a "ripple" tank sitting on top of a view graph machine and 
projecting the wave images on our old movie screen. The tank has an 
automatic wave maker making a variety of waves with which one can do a 
number of experiments with. The kids enjoyed playing in the water. We 
also used two computers each of which was used to simulate a ripple 
tank. This allowed even more experimentation with waves. The kids set up 
a model Tsunami with the coast line of India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia 
as boundaries. They then watched the simulated wave curve around Sri 
Lanka and head for Africa! I though this was a very timely extension of 
their experiments to current events! Those kids are a lot of fun to work 
with.

Love to you all, der alt Grossvater