Kinnaird Castle

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40 degrees this morning and cloudy and a bit of a wind at times. 

Never even saw a peek of the sun

during my walk.
We did have a sunny afternoon though.

Had my usual walk all around town and the cemeteries and ball park.

Not much opportunities to take many pictures with it being so dark.

I've not walked around the Farm Loop because of the dark.

No street lights up that way!!

But still, at least I can get out to walk.

Didn't see any one else out walking.

Walked an extra mile to make up a bit for yesterday and

walked 7.2 miles

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This is especially for you Vee. 😊

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Ken was in the Navy and one of the places we got to go to was Scotland.

 We lived there for four years and part of that time we lived in

Kinnaird Castle which is located in Brechin.

The Earl and Countess of Southesk own the castle

and its been in the family for over 600 years.

Sorry for the poor quality of pictures. 

I took  pictures of pictures which weren't that great to start out with.

Back in the mid 70's when we were there the Earl had one wing of the

castle made into several flats and rented them out.

 We rented the Laundry Room flat.

The entrance to the flat was in the corner of the courtyard

and in the picture that is Ken in front of the kitchen window and

the entrance is down past him.

Here I am sitting in front of the kitchen window and that is our son

David in the playpen enjoying a bit of sun. 

 The flat wasn't anything fancy but we enjoyed our stay there.

The electric for the house was paid for using a shilling meter.

The meter was  located in the hall and you had to put shillings in the meter when you needed electricity.  The flat was heated by an electric heater which was called

an electric fire.

We only lived there for a little over 4 months.  It was just a one bedroom

and David was 1 and Debbi was on the way so we needed more room.
There was a very long narrow kitchen and at one end of the room
were floor to ceiling cupboards.
There was a decent sized sitting room,
and a long narrow bathroom with one of those big porcelain bathtubs.

When we first moved into the castle I sent everyone back home a picture

of the front of the castle and wrote,

This is our new home.

Once a year the Earl would open up the castle and we got a

tour of the rest of the castle.

Of course you have to have a ghost in a castle and this one was seen in the flat 

where our friends Barb and Todd (also Navy people) lived.  I can't remember the name of that flat but it was where the seamstress lived.

Barb tells the story of sewing a hem of a dress and didn't finish it.

When morning came the dress was hemmed.
Her explanation was that the ghost finished it.
That was her story anyway.

A guess if you're going to have a ghost is it good to have a friendly and useful one.

We moved out of the castle to a little house in the village of Montrose.

We lived there for about a year and then 

one more move on to the base in Edzell.

Would have been nice to stay off base but living on base

was convenient and cheaper.

We loved living in Scotland and I'd love to go back one day.

I cried when we had to leave.

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Back in April Ken brought home three large tree trunks that were cut down at our church.  A friend knew someone who had a sawmill on his farm was going to cut them into slab wood for us to use on the cabin up at HT.
So we brought the logs over to Don's house for him to cut them up.
Here are the tree trucks on the truck back in April.


 Don called,  said he had cut two of the trees and we could come and pick them up.  After lunch we went there and got the boards.
Here they sit out in the field.
These are some really nice wide boards and we love how they turned out.

Don helped load the lumber onto our trailer and here the trailer
sits up at HT all ready for the cabin.
Monday we will start putting them on the front of the cabin.

 Slab wood is also called bacon siding, or live edge.

It's been another good day.
Life is Good

A happy day to you.
happyone 🎈

 "Charlie Brown: A penny! Rats!

Why couldn't I have found a nickel?

What good is a penny these days?

Why do things like that always happen to me?!

Walks off frustrated.

Lucy:  Gee, he found a penny!

Why don't things like that ever happen to me?!"

~ Charles M Schulz