Amazing Information from Souhegan Valley Land Trust, NH

Purgatory Falls, Mont Vernon, NH 
Remnants of the Falconer Mill still visible

Remnants of an old water wheel from the Falconer Mill

I stumbled upon some incredible information in my hunt for a  post about Purgatory Falls in southern NH on my blog Outdoors Indoors over at WordPress.

Notice the gear in the photo on the Souhegan Valley Land Trust's album.

But since the photos on the Souhegan Valley Land Trust's Picassa web album have all rights reserved I found that the only choice I had to share them was to upload directly to Blogger or Twitter by clicking on a button provided. Now if I am breaking the law I blame the site for offering the option to upload the photo to a Blogger blog with a simple click of an icon.






I am fascinated by the history that I stumble upon when I am out hiking with my dogs in southern New Hampshire. I ran into remnants of this mill earlier this year and was astounded at how many different parts of the mill site are visible to this day.( I have photos of them somewhere. But click on the links here to view many more historical artifacts) I hike at other places with New England mill history evident but I don't think I ever stumbled upon a location where you can piece together so much of the workings of the mill.

Photos from one of my hikes out there are on my Outdoors Indoors blog. Click here for the specific post.

The information about the trails below is courtesy of the Mont Vernon link listed above. Please be advised (by me) that following the trails at Purgatory Falls is very difficult. If you can make it up and down the whole trail the first time you go you deserve an orienteering medal. Whatever the case, Purgatory Falls is always full of surprises and is a hiker and photographer's dream. 

"Purgatory Brook Watershed Trails-Mont Vernon

The Wah Lum Loop Trail, marked with orange diamonds is approximately 3 miles round trip and begins at the kiosk on Dow Road. A short spur trail across town conservation land brings you to the loop trail on South Wah Lum Reserve. If you take a right, the trail climbs up, crossing the Nadeau Forest, and onto North Wah Lum Reserve to the view, looking toward Pack Monadnock and North Pack Mountains. The Wah Lum Loop Trail then makes a very rocky, steep descent down toward the Purgatory Brook and takes a left, eventually overlapping with the class VI Dow Road & Purgatory Brook Trail. Follow orange markers along class VI road past Nadeau Forest and South Wah Lum, turn left back toward spur trail, or go straight on Dow Road back to parking area.

The Purgatory Brook Trail, marked with yellow rectangles and white blazes, is approximately 6 miles round trip, beginning in the parking area located on the Milford/Lyndeborough line after Fitch’s Dairy Farm. After a half mile hike into the woods, you come to the Lower Purgatory Falls. The trail continues into the town of Mont Vernon with part of the trail on private property, so please stay on the trail. The trail crosses into town conservation land along the Purgatory Brook and eventually overlaps with the class VI road, Dow Road and the Wah Lum Loop Trail (orange diamonds).   Just before a small wooden bridge the trail continues on toward the Middle Falls and then on to the Upper Falls.   Hikers should wear proper clothing & shoes and be familiar with the area as cell phones do not always work.   Some areas are steep and difficult especially near the Falls, estimated round trip time up and back approximately 3 hours.

Please carry out all trash and leave no trace. Passive recreation and hunting (according to NH State laws) are allowed. Camping is only allowed after making an appointment with the Conservation Commission and obtaining written permission. However, absolutely no camps fires or wheeled motorized vehicles are allowed."--Mont Vernon, NH 

Oh, and here is a photograph of the operating mill. 

Falconer Mill. Mont Vernon, NH

All for now folks. I have some reading and dreaming about New Hampshire's early history to do. Oh, and I better get back out to Purgatory Brook to dig around looking for all the precious items preserved by the hard work of the Souhegan Valley Land Trust and their donors. 

A New Chocolate Labrador Retriever Puppy

Introducing Ketli Hardy. Hollis, NH. 

I wanted to get some photos posted to show Ketli in her new life with us. I am experimenting with Blogger to see how user friendly it is... so far.. not so good. 

One of her first hikes at Woodmont Orchard

I don't think I want to go back to the car yet.

Something catches her attention

We hike at a variety of places to prevent me from getting bored and the dogs from getting bored. 

I love the outdoors. But I still have time to play with my stuff. 

Ketli running in Woodmont Orchard, Hollis, NH with her older siblings, Emma and Cabot

I offer household items to Ketli to stimulate her and encourage investigation. Notice the golf club cover and the change holder for snorkeling. 

So that is Riverview's Bucket List Hope..call name of Ketli. I took the Ket from the end of bucket and the li from the beginning of list. I hope to breed her if she passes all clearances for health and genetics.  Three of her first litter puppies are spoken for. Yes,  my three kids want a Ketli pup.

This blog was the first blog I experimented with. Now I have a blog about nature, photography, dogs and hiking with a New England focus.

I need to relearn how to use Blogger so I am going to try some experimental posts. My outdoorsindoors.wordpress.com has recently been my place to share chocolate Labrador retriever puppy blog posts. But I need to get back to hiking and nature posts there so I am going to put some puppy stories here. AND include lots of photos of our new puppy, Ketli.

If posting here seems more user friendly than Wordpress then I will work on the template and appearance of this blog. More to learn...

Where are You?

I'm back... I can not even find my blog so I am sure no one has found it in the past year. I have another blog at WordPress, outdoorsindoors.wordpress.com that is supposed to be focused on dogs, gardens, nature, hiking... outdoors stuff.

But  my mind flies to so many other topics that interest me or make me smile so I am going to put them here so I can speak of them. Fasten your seat-belts. We are in for a crazy ride. I hope I can help you a smile now and then.

Buster Playing at Home and in an Orchard

Outdoors Indoors

And speaking of the outdoors or should I say, bringing the outdoors indoors. I endlessly collect items during my hikes and on my travels to bring back home for some use or another. Or just for the sake of it because it calls to me. I think I should have been an archaeologist or botanist or historian or photographer. I probably need to explain each one in its own blog post.

I also swear that I am a descendant of Johnny Appleseed. As I hike the orchards in my town and surrounding towns I picture him with his burlap sack throwing seeds to start orchards like this years ago. He is wearing ragged overalls, a plaid shirt and a floppy wide-rimmed straw hat. He is tall and thin and he walks jauntily up and down the hills smiling.

The other day I sang the Johnny Appleseed song to my husband as we hiked. He was shocked I knew a song like that. (I learned it at Camp Mohawk in Connecticut.  Shout out to summer camps)
"Oh, The Lord is good to me.
And so I thank the Lord.
For giving me
The things I need.
The sun and the rain and the apple seeds.
The Lord is good to me."

Composer ?? unknown to me... Was it Johnny himself?

I think there was a "John ?" in real life who was involved in the apple business founding in America. As I hiked the other day his name was on the tip of my tongue. I just rattled it off to my husband. Can't remember right now.

Yes, "rattling off" is what I sometimes do when I am enthusiastic about something. But that is a topic for another day.

Who knew And Speaking Of would be about the infamous legend of Johnny Appleseed? Not me.

Blank

Woops, just stumbled across my blog and added a video. Then I went to start a blog thinking that in the past few days so many thoughts have come to mind that I should try to capture some. Well.. now my mind has gone blank.. nothing to say.

Here's one thought. I just got back from Spain. I have been practicing my Spanish. A surprise is that some words that I learned when I was in middle school or high school are not needed anymore. Words that relate to my life now are the ones I need. For example. I used to use hermana with fluidity. That was because I was talking about one of my three sisters. Now I need hija and hijo to talk about my children. I talked about amigos and amigas and mis padres when asked to write or speak about my family.  Now I need to chat about my husband, mi esposo. Life changes, needs change and I am glad that my trip inspired me to listen to and practice Spanish. After all, two of my hijas will be bilingual after their years in Spanish speaking countries. Hasta luego, Meg

Walking Down a Country Road Hike a Pup Pet Sitting.mp4

Lost my Blog...

It just took me over an hour to find my blog again.. so, speaking of frustrations with technology, passwords, searches.. I had recorded the title of my blog but wrote down that it was on "Blog This". Woops, it only showed up under "Blogger" which I had not written down. No matter what I typed in searches my blog would not show up. Guess there is no one out there who will find it if I can't even find it myself.

When I tried to log on the first time, Google "treated me" like a new blogger and did not find my blog to open for me despite the fact that I pasted its URL into the url location.  I had to exit out and go to my blog from my Google Home Page where I had just installed it by stumbling across it after an hour.

Growl, moan, stomp and yell... enough for now. At least I found it. I hope I find it right away when I am in a better mood  and can write odd ramblings about the world.

My son's 21st birthday...

Customize a digital slideshow

Brutal NH Weather

And speaking of... I was driving to pick up a dog for our hiking today and I had to stop a few times for school bus traffic, children crossing roads and parents lined up to drop their children at school.

My mind wandered to appreciation for the crossing guards and how little they are paid and acknowledged for their jobs in all types of weather, no matter what. They keep so many people safe and they have to stand in terribly cold weather here in NH to do their job. And, yesterday was a horrifying, brutal day. I struggled against the wind and cold to exercise the dogs. Frostbite threatened my hands and face. I thought of them and their diligence and commitment. I wondered how they had survived those hours in the frigid wind, sub zero temperatures. How many layers of clothes did they wear? How did they protect their exposed skin?

Maybe they should get "hardship or combat" pay for the worst weather. I know other professionals bundle up to deal with harsh conditions. But they are paid so much more than the crossing guards. It is a shame.

Kudos to all crossing guards. You are under appreciated. We need a day during the year to honor your service. Enough "boss" days and "teacher" days and whatever else days. Occasions are invented to fill the calendar. You all deserve a day too.