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pub-lius · 1 year

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Goreg Washesaton for richie my beloved

so you may have noticed that this ongoing series of my research of "every historical figure" (/t) for @thereallvrb0y has been on pause for a few weeks and thats bc ive been STRUGGLING to find the rest of them, and i cant. so if anyone needs information on those people, i might just post the bullets from my notes bc im not doing all that work again FKSFKSH they still exist somewhere within my 3000 posts, but i cannot find them bc tumblr sucks <3 anyway, now for

George Washington (pt one)

Georgie was born at his family's plantation, Popes Creek, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, a date that I have memorized for some reason when I don't even have my dad's birthday memorized (sorry dad). His parents were Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. Augustine was a very prominent plantation owner in the area, and also a justice of the county court, so he was a big deal. His first wife, Jane Butler, died and left him with two sons, Lawrence and Augustine Jr., and their daughter Jane.

George was the eldest of the kids from the second marriage. His other siblings were Elizabeth, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred.

The family eventually moved to another one of their properties, Little Hunting Creek, which would become Mount Vernon. They moved again four years later to Ferry Farm.

Augustine Sr. died when George was 11, leaving most of his property to the eldest sons from the first marriage. The remaining income maintained Mary and her children, and George would have been responsible for helping manage their plantation.

George never received a formal education since the funds for that were used on his older brothers. He only received instruction from private tutors. He would have studied reading, writing, basic legal forms, geometry, trigonometry, manners, penmanship, and comportment. I already made a post about his rules of civility, which was a big part of his education.

Mount Vernon, where I got most of my sources from on Washington, of course, has a lot of information on slavery, but I'm not really qualified to talk about all of that since I think it deserves its own separate research, but here's the link for that.

The Washingtons were, however, deeply entangled in the global "institution" (that phrasing makes me uncomfy, it sounds like a business yk). Washington inherited 10 enslaved people from his father, and went on to "inherit/purchase/rent/gain control of" more than 500 enslaved people.

Washington expressed racist sentiments up until the Revolutionary War, which greatly changed his perspective on the definition of liberty and who it applies to. He expressed wanting to free the enslaved people he was responsible for, but couldn't because of the backlash it would cause from him being an international celebrity. He would end up freeing the 123 enslaved people he was able to in his will (that's a whole complicated legal system designed to keep people and their families enslaved for as long as possible and it's honestly exhausting).

Anyway, back to the white people history. Washington got his first job as a surveyor, and it was the only thing he got formal training in. In the mid-1740s he got two surveying jobs (one of which was for a They were going to lay out lots within a large tract along the western frontier of Virginia, and into indigenous territory. He learned more surveying and gained important knowledge of the frontier (*foreboding dramatic movie sound effect*). At the end of the first day, he was shown "a bed of straw with one Threat Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Fleas etc. (sic)" He made a promise "not to Sleep so from that time forward chusing rather to sleep in the open Air before a fire. (sic)" This experience ended up being very important to him and getting him out of that cushy rich kid life (*another foreboding dramatic movie sound effect*)

His professional career began in 1749, and recieved a commission for the new Culpepper County (*insert Turn: Washington's spies theme song*), which was probably by the recommendation of Fairfax, who was working on the Governor's council. By 1752, he had completed nearly 200 surveys, totaling more than 60,000 acres. Honestly, I think that if he lived his entire life as just a surveyor, he wouldn't have gone gray in his 40's.

in 1753, Governor Robert fucking Dinwiddie that was this man's NAME in REAL LIFE learned that French troops had moved south from Canada to construct forts in the region south of Lake Erie, which was declared British territory. The area had commercial potential, and Dinwiddie was concerned that the French would fortify the forks of the Ohio River. So, he sent Washington, who was a major in the Virginia militia, to deliver a diplomatic eviction notice to the French in 1753. If that date sounds familiar its bc Georgie is about to have a few major fuck ups that you learned about in middle school. This was known as the Allegheny Expedition, but I have never called it that. It is and will always be the Ohio Eviction.

The expedition was aided by Christopher Gist and local indigenous people. They were escorted by O-non-dowa-gah (also known as Seneca) chief Tanacharison, two Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and one from the Lenape (Delaware Nation).

This trip was rough. During the trip, Washington hiked for days through snowy woods, fell off a raft into the icy Allegheny River, nearly drowned, and had to spend a freezing night on an island without shelter on the 900 mile journey. I hate to say it, but this dad could beat up your dad. They reached Fort Le Boeuf on December 11, thank fuck. Washington's account was published by Dinwiddie in Williamsburg and London, giving him a reputation at the age of 22.

Despite all that effort, the French just ignored them lmao, bc like what's this little freak gonna do??? So, Dinwiddie dispatched Washington, now a Lieutenant Colonel to assert Virginia's claims a few months later with around 150 men.

They ended up skirmishing with French soldiers on the way, and killed 10 men, including the French commander, Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville. The English under Washington (that's fun to say) retreated to a makeshift fort called Fort Necessity. Washington was forced to surrender when the French surrounded the fort with their indigenous allies. In those surrender terms, Washington accidentally admitted to assassination. This was the start of the French and Indian War, or the Seven Years War for my European fanbase (im so funny).

Washington resigned after that bc his dick was small and he was embarrassed. But, don't worry, his dick regrew and he returned to the frontier in 1755 to serve as a volunteer aide-de-camp (foreshadowing) to General Edward Braddock, who was kind of serving. Braddock had been sent from the King to drive the French from the Ohio Country.

A battle started near the Monongahela River (none of these places have easy names). There was a lot of confusion and troops fled in confusion back to Virginia. Washington was attempting to rally the troops, and had two horses shot out from under him and four bullets shot through his coat. Also Braddock died whoops.

Washington was given command of Virginia's entire military force. He was ordered to protect the entire 350 mile long frontier with a few hundred men, bc everything that happens to this man is fair. This provided him with very necessary experience in commanding troops in stupid ass situations. Eventually, the British took the forks of Ohio in 1758 and Washington retired.

He married our iconic queen Martha on January 6, 1759 and they kissed a lot. He spent 1759-1775 overseeing the farms at Mount Vernon. He constantly worked to improve and expand the mansion and surrounding plantation.

During this time, he established himself as an innovated farmer. In the 1760s, he switched from tobacco to wheat as his main cash crop. He experimented with new crops, fertilizers, crop rotation, tools, and livestock breeding. He actually had some hot takes, but I'm literally the only person who cares bc that shit is actually boring (in case you were wondering, chicken shit doesn't make good fertilizer).

He also expanded the planation to include flour milling and commercial fishing. THEN he built a gristmill, and then began making whiskey, producing over 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey at its peak. Mf slayed.

This era is referred to as the golden years, which I mentioned in Martha's post and everything is wonderful and fine and Washington is happily retired with his family :)....

SIKE time for part 2

#george washington #history #american history #founding fathers #french and indian war #seven years war #do it for richie 💪

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nesbittrealtyblog · 1 year

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Effective Property Management Services in Mount Vernon

Nesbitt Realty provides the best real estate and property management services in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Our staff is ready to serve you by offering, starting from the day of your move, our cost-effective services that are tailored to your specific needs. Please visit our online page or call us at (703)765-0300 to learn more about our services. We offer free consultations and all staff members are available to help you at any moment.

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thechanelmuse · 5 years

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Plantation reviews: Some white people don't want to hear about slavery at slave sites

“It was just not what we expected.”

“I was depressed by the time I left.”

“ … the tour was more of a scolding of the old South.”

“The brief mentions of the former owners were defamatory.”

“Would not recommend.”

These are a few of the apparently negative reviews posted online about guided tours of Southern plantations, some of which went viral Thursday after former Colorado congressional candidate Saira Rao tweeted a screenshot of one.

Approximately 12.5 million human beings were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and shipped to the New World from 1514 to 1866, according to historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. One in eight died en route. Most were sent to South America. In 1860, the Census counted approximately 4 million enslaved people in the United States, according to PolitiFact.

“Would not recommend. Tour was all about how hard it was for the slaves,” wrote one reviewer of the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana.

Slaves who lived on plantations typically worked 10-16 hours a day, six days a week, according to the University of Houston’s Digital History. Children as young as 3 were put to work.

“I was depressed by the time I left and questioned why anyone would want to live in South Carolina,” read one review posted to Twitter about the McLeod Plantation in Charleston.

In 1860, 402,406 people were living in South Carolina not because they wanted to, but because they were enslaved. They made up 57 percent of the state’s population, according to census data.

“I felt [the African American tour guide] embellished her presentation and was racist towards me as a white person,” another McLeod visitor wrote.

In 1993, historian Clarence J. Munford estimated the value of the labor performed by black slaves in the United States between 1619 and 1865, compounded with 6 percent interest, to be $97.1 trillion. In today’s dollars, without further compound interest added, that would be $172 trillion.

“Our guide Olivia offered a heavy bias with only the hand-picked facts that neatly fit her narrative and for a large part weren’t germane to a plantation tour,” one person said of the McLeod Plantation, according to a review posted to Twitter, before following up with the racist comment, “I found it amusing when she told us some freed slaves fled to northern cities like Baltimore and Detroit where they continued to thrive to this day!”

As many as 100,000 people escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad, according to historian James A. Banks.

“There is really nothing good you can say about slavery but I felt [the tour guide] took it too far. His information is correct but I think he left off part of the story,” one review read.

This month, Virginia will commemorate the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in 1619, which ushered in 246 years of brutal subjugation for millions of men, women and children. One of those slaves was named Angela.

“If you’re looking to visit a traditional plantation, look elsewhere,” one review read.

Many plantations, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, are working to present a more accurate image of what life was like for slaves and slave owners.

For those who may prefer a fuzzier, less accurate portrayal of plantation life, “Gone with the Wind” is streaming on Amazon and iTunes for $3.99 — a low price but still higher than the average slave’s wage, which was $0.

Source

White people are something else. Absolutely strange and whiny as fuck. Why would those white people go to those plantation tours and then complain? Because they are drawn to white power (at the expense of people who aren’t white). They assumed they would see a plantation still furnished with decor from the past and see everything through the perspective of a slave owner rather than the dark, horrific history of how the home and entire land was built and managed by “his/their property,” enslaved Black people who were raped, whipped, tortured, and lynched on that land. They brought out their own white guilt.

I always find it funny that white people will bring up the Holocaust to “make it make sense” for other white people as if empathizing with white Jews will immediately translate to those white people empathizing with Black people (Black Americans, in this case).

(Just in case someone tries to be an asshole and flip the subject because I stated “white Jews.” Jewish is not a race, but rather an ethno-religious identity. I expounded on it at the end of this post here. Carry on.)

As for that other tweet about white people’s obsession with having weddings/events on plantations. I immediately thought about Blake Lively and her attraction to the Antebellum South. She got married to Ryan Reynolds on a plantation, and had a photo shoot on another plantation for her fashion line, Preserve. 🙃

#plantation tours #whiteness #white people complaining

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historybehindassassinscreed · 6 years

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In Game:

George Washington was the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, and served as the first President of the United States from April 30th, 1789 to March 4th, 1797.

Born in the colony of Virginia in the British colonies of America, Washington joined the Virginian militia during his youth and participated in the French and Indian War with the British Army, fighting against the French and their indigenous allies. During the war, he ordered the burning of the neutral village of Kanatahséton.

Due to the lack of progress of his military career in the British Army, Washington instead turned to politics. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Washington supported the Patriots. Following the creation of the Continental Army, the Continental Congress of 1775 appointed Washington as its Commander-in-Chief, though he didn't feel he was worthy of the command.

The Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton, also known as Connor, subsequently protected Washington from the Templar Charles Lee, who was angered that he had been passed over for the position. Though the Continental Army suffered many losses under Washington's command, the aid of Connor and his apprentices managed to gain the army small victories.

However, Washington fell out with Connor when the Assassin discovered he was responsible for the attack on his village, Kanatahséton, and signed for a second burning after Lee manipulated Connor's people into siding with the Loyalists. However, the Assassins continued to aid Washington when necessary, such as the investigation of a conspiracy at West Point.

After the Continental Army emerged victorious against the British Army in 1781, Washington obtained an Apple of Eden. It gave him a nightmarish vision of what would happen if he were crowned king of the United States with its power in his possession, and so he passed the Apple to Connor for it to be disposed of. This experience strengthened his belief in the Republican Constitution of the United States.

In Real Life:

George Washington was born February 22nd, 1732, the first child of Augustine Washington and his wife Mary Ball Washington, at Wakefield on their Popes Creek Estate in the Colony of Virginia. He was then a subject of the British Empire, under the reign of George II, descended primarily from the gentry of Sulgrave, England. His great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656. He was a tobacco planter who accumulated land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson Augustine.

Washington spent his early years in the rich open farmlands of Virginia's Tidewater region. His father was a moderately wealthy planter, justice of the peace, and county sheriff who had 10 children, four by his first marriage to Jane Butler and six by his second marriage to Mary. Washington was one of seven surviving children, including older half-brothers Lawrence and Augustine, and full siblings Samuel, Elizabeth (Betty), John Augustine, and Charles.

He had early educational opportunities, learned mathematics, and soon launched a successful career as a surveyor which enabled him to make significant land investments. He then became a key leader of the Virginia militia in the French and Indian War.

(Image source)

In December 1752, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. He saw action in the French and Indian War and was eventually put in charge of all of Virginia’s militia forces. By 1759, Washington had resigned his commission, returned to Mount Vernon and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow with two children.

By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on American colonists by the British, and came to believe that it was in the best interests of the colonists to declare independence from England. Washington served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 in Philadelphia. By the time the Second Continental Congress convened a year later, the American Revolution had begun in earnest, and Washington was named commander in chief of the Continental Army.

Washington proved to be a better general than military strategist. His strength lay not in his genius on the battlefield but in his ability to keep the struggling colonial army together. His troops were poorly trained and lacked food, ammunition and other supplies (soldiers sometimes even went without shoes in winter). However, Washington was able to give them the direction and motivation to keep going.

Over the course of the grueling eight-year war, the colonial forces won few battles but consistently held their own against the British. In October 1781, with the aid of the French (who allied themselves with the colonists over their rivals the British), the Continental forces were able to capture British troops under General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia. This action effectively ended the Revolutionary War and Washington was declared a national hero.

In 1783, with a peace treaty signed between Great Britain and the U.S., Washington, believing he had done his duty, gave up his command of the army and returned to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life as a gentleman farmer and family man. However, in 1787, he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and head the committee to draft the new constitution. His impressive leadership there convinced the delegates that he was by far the most qualified man to become the nation’s first president.

(Image source)

At first Washington balked. He wanted to return to a quiet life at home and leave governing the new nation to others. But public opinion was so strong that eventually he gave in. The first presidential election was held on January 7th, 1789, and Washington won handily. John Adams, who received the second-largest number of votes, became the nation’s first vice president. The 57-year-old Washington was inaugurated on April 30th, 1789, in New York City.

He promoted and oversaw implementation of a strong, well-financed national government, using the economic plans of his Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, while remaining impartial in the fierce rivalry between Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. When the French Revolution plunged Europe into war, Washington proclaimed a policy of neutrality to protect American ships, while the controversial Jay Treaty of 1795 normalized trade relations with Great Britain. He set numerous precedents that have endured, such as the Cabinet advisory system, the inaugural address, and the title "Mr. President". His seminal Farewell Address strongly warned against political partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.

In December 1799, he caught a cold after inspecting his properties in the rain. The cold developed into a throat infection and Washington died on the night of December 14 at the age of 67. He was entombed at Mount Vernon, which in 1960 was designated a national historic landmark.

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-9524786

https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/biography/

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington#French_and_Indian_War

#Assassin's Creed #People #Multi-Game #AC 3 #AC Ro

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travelingtheusa · 3 years

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VIRGINIA

2021 Jul 7 (Wed) – We have been working furiously on finalizing plans for the NY Caravan. We have had to change some things. One restaurant said they are changing their prices every week because of the high price of chicken. Really??? How do you run a business like that?

We set off for NY tomorrow, traveling through PA. Joe & Diane and Rick & Brenda will travel with us. Ed & Sue were supposed to go with us but they are stuck here getting their rig fixed. Maybe they’ll be able to join us in a day or two. Hank & Brenda will be meeting us at the next campground in Intercourse, PA. We will be there for 3 nights. The pre-caravan is on!

2021 Jul 4 (Sun) – We took Ed & Sue and Joe & Diane over to the PX and Commissary this morning. Neither of them is retired so they are not entitled to shop in either store. We show our ID and they get to buy what they want.

After lunch, we did laundry. Sheba hawked up a hairball last night and left it on the sheet. So we pulled the sheet off and took it along with the rest of the dirty clothes, over to the laundry room.

We all enjoyed a barbecue for dinner. Afterward, we watched the fireworks that people were setting off across the bay. There was quite a bit.

2021 Jul 3 (Sat) – The four of us went to Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill. It was quite interesting. Washington had to be convinced to put the stills on his farm but once he did, he had five installed. His first year of operation, he made more money from whiskey sales than he did from all of his other endeavors combined. With his gristmill, he was producing flour, grits, cornmeal, and livestock feed. He was quite the entrepreneur.

We stopped at the post office to pick up a package the Rick & Brenda have been waiting for, but it hadn’t arrived. Then we shopped at the Commissary. Brenda made hamburgers and baked beans for dinner. We put out hors oeuvres and drinks for happy hour. Joe & Diane and Ed & Sue came over to join us for dinner. (Ed and Sue were supposed to be here but their RV and car both broke down on the way to Fort Belvoir. They are currently staying at a hotel on base while they wait for repairs.)

After dinner, we all gathered around for a campfire.

2021 Jul 2 (Fri) – Joe & Diane lent their car to the couple that broke down. Not only did their motorhome breakdown, but their car did as well. Both are getting worked on today. Since Joe & Diane lent their car to their friends, they needed a ride to the commissary. We took them at 9 this morning. They picked up some items at the PX, then food at the commissary.

At 1:00 PM, we met Rick & Brenda and drove to the Pope-Leheighy House. It is a home that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a beautiful architecture and we enjoyed the tour. Located next to the house was Woodlawn. This was a beautiful colonial home built by George Washington for his nephew and granddaughter-in-law. He gave them the house and 2,000 acres from his Mount Vernon property. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour the house. They were just finishing up a needlepoint display and they had taken all the house decorations down for the display. They will be putting everything back together and opening to tours again after July 25.

At dinnertime, I cooked zucchini chips and Paul barbecued an Alaskan salmon. Rick & Brenda made the salad and cooked up some scallops. It was a good meal. Afterward, we had a campfire.

2021 Jul 1 (Thu) – We went food shopping at Amazon Green today. It was a near digital experience. They have a shopping cart with a scanner. You dial up the app on your smart phone. Then as you pick up each item you want to buy, you scan it on your phone. Shopping bags are already located in your shopping cart; you put the items you scan in your bags. When you are done, your credit card is charged (Amazon has that info on file) and you leave. You have no need to go to the cashier. We changed our minds at the last minute and did not use the app. I do not like anything that holds on to the information about my credit cards or bank accounts. We shopped the old fashioned way.

I went to Great Clips for a haircut. I tried to talk with the hairdresser but she spoke very poor English and she was hard to understand. After I got home, I did more chopping on my bangs as I felt they were still too long.

We stopped at Baja Fresh for lunch. It was a kind of Mexican fast food place. The food was ok. I cooked an elbow macaroni dish for dinner which we shared with Rick & Brenda.

I drove to the campground office to pick up the check-in documents for 3 folks coming into the campground. The office closed at 3 and they still weren’t in. George & Sue arrived and I gave them their paperwork. Joe & Diane arrived later around 6; the couple traveling with them had a breakdown and they left them on the road waiting for a tow. Joe & Diane will be traveling with us through Pennsylvania to the New York caravan.

2021 Jun 30 (Wed) – We drove over to WalMart to get an oil change in the truck. While it was being serviced, we walked across the road to Panera Bread and had bagels for breakfast. We then walked next door and wandered through the World Market then Home Goods looking for new rugs for the RV. We didn’t find what we wanted.

When the truck was done, we drove back to the base PX and bought a new grill. Paul and Rick had priced the grill on the internet last night and the PX was the cheapest price. Add to that the fact that they don’t charge tax in the PX and we had a real good savings.

Merlin came by us wearing his face mask. He said he started feeling bad last night and worse today. So he went to the base hospital and got tested for COVID-19 . . . just in case.

Bonnie has had diarrhea for on and off for the past five days. We cooked chicken and rice for her one day. It seemed to help then things got worse again.

Two rigs have dropped out of the New York caravan. That brings us down to 16 paying rigs. One more drop out, and we will be at the threshold for canceling the caravan. Hope we don’t lose anyone else.

2021 Jun 29 (Tue) – The four of us went to the National U.S. Army Museum. It is new and we haven’t been here before. We spent over 3 hours wandering around the displays. There was so much to read and look at. We had lunch in the cafeteria. During our visit, we found out that the museum only opened in October last year, 2020, then closed a month later. They just reopened 2 weeks ago.

After we got back, we had dinner together. Brenda made pasta and I made salad. Everything was very good. Merlin was too tired to join us.

2021 Jun 28 (Mon) – We went into town to look for a grill. We couldn’t find what we wanted. We went to the PX and looked for an RV dealer nearby but there were none. We picked up pet food at Pet Smart and found a toy for Sheba. We were delighted! Lunch was at Famous Dave’s. I had ribs and Paul had burnt tips. The food was on the spicy side.

Rick & Brenda came over for drinks. We made margaritas. Another SMART member, Merlin, pulled in today.

2021 Jun 27 (Sun) – We went into Washington, D.C. for a 12:15 p.m. admission to the International Spy Museum. Brenda & Rick drove. We had been there in 2013. The building and entire area was totally different from when we were last there. The place was huge! You could easily take 3-4 hours to see everything. The museum was very crowded and it was difficult to get near much of the displays. But we all managed to enjoy the place any way.

When we got back to the campground, Rick & Brenda brought their grill over and we enjoyed steak, potatoes and salad. We visited afterward as it was too breezy to work on the travel guides. We have time to get to them. There’s no hurry.

2021 Jun 26 (Sat) – We did our laundry early this morning. The laundry room was full of gnats and other flying insects. We brought wipes to clean off the tables and machines so we could fold our clothes. It was gross!

We also drove to Food Lion to pick up some groceries and to Office Depot to get the printed copies of the Travel Guide. We stopped at McDonald’s for lunch; something we don’t do very often.

We drove to George Mason Gunston Hall with Rick & Brenda this afternoon for a 2:00 p.m. tour It was an 1800th century home of one of America’s founding fathers. Mason wrote Virginia’s Bill of Rights, which Jefferson later modeled to write the Bill of Rights for the new nation. It was a lovely home and had several outbuildings on the property to explore as well.

Afterward, we stopped at Fair Winds Brewing for beer and BBQ. We all sat out on the patio and enjoyed beers (except me since I don’t care for beer) and food. When we got back, we started work on putting the travel guides together. It was slightly breezy and made it difficult to work but we were able to get 11 books done.

2021 Jun 25 (Fri) – We finished up the Travel Guide this morning. Brenda and Rick picked us up and we drove first, to Office Depot, then to Occoquan, the quaint little town we discovered a few years ago. We had lunch at a restaurant on a patio overlooking the Occoquan River. There were several people in kayaks and on paddle boards.

After lunch, we walked down the picturesque street with its historic buildings. We popped into a chocolate shop and had a wonderful visit with the owner of the establishment. He gave us quite an education on cacao beans and the chocolate process. We all bought chocolate bars.

More walking and exploring, then we stopped in to the VFW Lodge. We sat at the bar and ordered cocktails only to be told they only serve wine and beer. It didn’t fit the bill so we left.

We went to a Tiki Bar on the river and had cocktails on the patio then returned to the campground around 5:30 p.m.

2021 Jun 24 (Thu) – We pulled up stakes and left Fort A.P. Hill at 10:15 a.m. It was an easy two hour drive to Fort Belvoir. We had our site number already so we drove directly to the campground rather than stop first at Outdoor Recreation. Oops! There was a gated entry into the campground and no room to turn around. I called the office and got the gate code and we parked on our assigned campsite. After set up, we hurried over to Outdoor Rec, got checked in, got our permit and other paperwork, then rushed to the main gate to help Brenda & Rick get passes onto base. They were already there and walking out of the visitor center with their passes. We got in front of them and led the way to the campground. Since we had the gate code and they knew their site assignment, we led them directly to the campground. We advised them to sign in at Outdoor Rec after they were set up. They didn’t hear (or understand) what we said and took their time setting up. By the time they went over to check in, the office was closed (open from 9 to 3).

At 4 p.m., Brenda and Rick came over and we had happy hour until 5:30 p.m. When they were gone, I popped a pizza in the oven for dinner. Gene (President of the Nomads) and Sharon stopped by. They are only here for the one night. After pizza, we played card games. SYN (Screw Your Neighbor) and Kings in the Corner were a lot of fun. They left when the sun was going down and it was getting cold.

Tonight was the last Supermoon of the year. It is called a Strawberry Moon, because it is when the strawberries are in season. It was a beautiful sight.

2021 Jun 23 (Wed) – We stayed in the campground all day working on the Travel Guide for the caravan. We are pushing to get this done so we can get it copied at the next town. There won’t be any big towns after we leave Fort Belvoir.

2021 Jun 22 (Tue) – We packed up and left Verona at 9:25 a.m. It rained on and off during the drive to Bowling Green where we are caped at Fort A.P. Hill. It is a fairly new campground with full hookups. The campground is about half full. We have a pull through site with no shade. We are only here for two nights. We will try to finish up the travel guide so we can get it copied while we are at Fort Belvoir. We don’t think there will be any big cities between there and when we start the caravan in New York.

2021 Jun 21 (Mon – First Day of Summer) – We stayed in the campground all day today, working on the travel guide and maps of the NY Caravan. We only have a few days left before we start to join up with other members of the caravan in D.C. We are almost done.

2021 Jun 20 (Sun) – We drove to the Grand Caverns this morning. I bought a two-for-one ticket on Groupon and $40 tickets wound up costing us $19.99. That’s a pretty good deal! The caverns were fantastic; every bit as phenomenal as Mammoth or Carlsbad Caverns. The rooms were huge and there were lots of speleoforms to admire. In addition, they had formations called shields. No one knows how they form but they seem to be unique to these caverns.

We went to Rack ‘Em Smack ‘Em for lunch. It was a ribs place. They were OK. Paul had mac & cheese. Still pink like them put ketchup in it. After the caves, we went to the Barren Ridge Winery. We were supposed to make a reservation ahead of time but didn’t. They were able to seat us out on the patio any way. I didn’t like any of the white wines. Paul liked one of the reds and we both enjoyed the port. So we bought 2 bottles of port and one bottle of the red wine.

I cooked some meatballs for dinner that we had bought at the supermarket the other day. They were so spicy hot! I took one bite and pushed them aside. We wound up heating up a pizza for dinner.

The campground pretty much emptied out today. I am glad we left for the day so we didn’t get caught up in all the activity of so many trailers moving out.

One of the campgrounds we will be going to upstate during the caravan tried to call but I told them to get back to us on Tuesday when we move. Hopefully, the cell phone signal will be better.

2021 Jun 19 (Sat) – We worked on the travel guide. At noon, we packed it in and drove into town for lunch at the Edelweiss Restaurant. It was a German restaurant with an authentic German waitress. The food was good, as was the wine and beer. Next stop was at PetCo to pick up dog food then to Kroeger for groceries and cat food. Since the cell phone signal is so bad in camp, we made a couple of calls to friends and our grandson while we were out and the signal was good.

The campground is chock full of campers. There is a lazy river that runs next to the campground where they have tubing. Groups of tubers walk by with their big tubes on the way to the launch point. The day is very warm and muggy. I bet the water feels good.

Bonnie woke Paul up at 2:30 a.m. She has diarrhea. She’s been good for a long time. We stopped giving her the supplements and goat’s milk when we started making sure the food we give her is AAFCO approved. That seems to have been good enough. We’ll see if this is one day or another bout.

2021 Jun 18 (Fri) – Work on the travel guide is going slow. The problem is the very poor internet signal here in the campground. We just can’t connect which makes it impossible for Paul to get the maps done.

We finally took a break at noon and drove into town for lunch. Staunton (pronounced STAN-TEN) is a very lovely, historic town with lots of brick buildings and round towers. We had lunch at the Clock Tower Eats & Sweets. The food was bland and unappealing. And the waitress was slow.

After lunch, we walked down the block to the Camera Heritage Museum. What a fascinating place! The museum, if you could call it that, was a small store front jam packed with cameras from all eras. The owner followed us around the store as we admired all the cameras, regaling us with stories of cameras and pictures. His collection was amazing, yet he said it only represented about 25% of his total collection. He is trying to raise money to buy a building that can house his collection. Trip Advisor voted him among the top world attractions. Quite an honor. Unfortunately, he needs to raise millions of dollars before he can reach his goal. He only has four years left to do it.

When we returned to the campground, there was a long line of RVs coming in. We sat in our chairs and watched droves of campers arrive all afternoon long. The campground of more than 200 sites filled up almost completely. There are lots of children and golf carts. The smell of outdoor cooking and campfires fills the air. We tried to have a campfire but it was too hot sitting in the sun in front of the fire. We got up halfway through and went back in to the air conditioning to watch the fire through the window. Lol.

2021 Jun 17 (Thu) – We went to the Augusta Military Museum. When a soldier returned home after the Civil War, he found all the schools burned down. Wanting the boys/men to have a decent education, he built a school. It later became a military academy when it was obvious that better discipline was needed. But it was not intended to be a preparatory school for military service, although many of the boys went on to service in the military. The school remained in service until 1984 when it closed due to financial difficulties. The museum was in the home of the former schoolmaster and exhibits were displayed in four small rooms on the first floor. We also watched a half hour video about the school and the men who attended.

Next, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. The interior had tables and booths arrayed around a large, open room. The waitress was very fast and efficient – a delight down here in the south. The food, however, was terrible. I had a chicken salad wrap that had too much vinegar in it. Paul had a mixed wrap that was very dry (it was ham, turkey, cheese, tomato and lettuce). It needed mayonnaise. His mac & cheese was pink, making us think they put ketchup in it.

After lunch, we went to the Stonewall Brigade Museum. It was all about the history of a local unit from the French & Indian Wars to today’s Gulf War. It was small compared to many other museums we have been to but it accomplished its purpose. The campground is filling up. It will be full this weekend. The camper next to us has two large dogs that they don’t leash. In addition, the owner doesn’t pay attention to what his dogs are going so that means he’s not picking up after them. We will have to make a complaint.

The Verizon cell service around here sucks! I can’t open the mail and other postings just sit there. The Internet is inaccessible at this point. Even in town, the service is severely limited. This town must be down in a big hole. **sigh** Not even the cell phone booster we bought is helping.

2021 Jun 16 (Wed) – We rode to Staunton today. First stop was at the Yelping Dog for lunch. It was a pizza and taproom. We each had a glass of wine and a sandwich. After lunch, we walked up and down the street. The town was very quaint and had lots of historic buildings and shops.

Next, we went to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum. There were three buildings. The first one we entered was the home that Woodrow Wilson was born in. He only lived in the house for 18 months then his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. There was lots of family in Staunton though, so they came back to visit often. Woodrow Wilson always thought of Staunton, VA as his home even though his family moved several times. He was the only president to earn a doctorate despite the fact that he had a learning disability that made it very difficult for him to read. What an interesting character he was!

The middle building was a private home where they placed the ever popular gift shop. The third building was the museum. There was a display of a WWI trench. That kind of thing always makes me shudder. It was thought to be so cutting edge in its day yet it was so barbaric. Ugh. We walked through rooms with lots of plaques to read and artifacts to view.

2021 Jun 15 (Tue) – We packed up and left Fancy Gap at 9:30 a.m. The weather (finally) was clear with blue skies. It was a long drive. We stopped at a humongous truck stop. They had 500 parking spaces for trucks with a truck wash, medical testing for drugs, a clinic, a steak place, a fast food eatery, and fuel station. We just parked to use the bathroom and walk the dog and then were on our way. We arrived at the campground at 1 p.m.

This is a KOA. It is a large campground spread out over low hills with lots of grass and trees. It is very pretty to look at. There is a river and waterfalls at the back of the park. They rent tubes for campers to float on the river. There are lots of things to do – a large pool, four hot tubs (currently closed), pool tables, a video arcade, horseshoe pits, etc. We have a 30-amp and water hookup but no sewer. The bathrooms are pretty far away. There are rabbits everywhere! They even have signs us warning not to pick up or chase the rabbits and they sell food to feed them. The cell phone signal in this campground is the pits! I can’t post on Facebook and it is difficult to research anything on the internet. This will be a tough week since we have to start coordinating with the various campgrounds and venues for the caravan.

We spent the afternoon and evening working on the travel guide. Things are starting to come together nicely.

2021 Jun 14 (Mon) – We took a ride into town for lunch at the Gap Deli. The food was pretty good. Afterward, we drove around the area for a bit. This a beautiful area. Lots of greenery and well built homes.

2021 Jun 13 (Sun) – We stayed in the campground today, working on the paperwork for the caravan. We did the laundry and bought dinner from the office. The smoker was going all day and the smell was very appealing.

2021 Jun 12 (Sat) – We took a break and went for a drive, stopping at 13 Bones for lunch. The ribs were not that good yet the place was packed. We figured it must be something pertinent to this region. We also stopped at WalMart to do some shopping. Returned home in the worst rainstorm. Ugh. Thunderstorms rolled through and poor Sheba spent the day hiding in the closet.

2021 Jun 11 (Fri) – We stayed in the campground all day working on the documents for the caravan. Our tail gunner had put together maps but we couldn’t get the program he used to mesh with the program we are using to create the Travel Guide. Paul wound up having to recreate all the maps. Ugh. What a waste of effort!

We had lunch and dinner at the KOA BBQ office. We met a couple parked to us from NC. We had a very interesting conversation until our dinner was delivered. Ray asked for information about SMART. Paul gave him a magazine. We would have given him a brochure but it got rained on the other day and we lost all the brochures we had sitting out for people to take. We will have to send for more.

2021 Jun 10 (Thu) – We went food shopping at the Food Lion today. Before then, we stopped at Aunt Bea’s Dining Room for lunch. It was a kind of cafeteria. You picked your food from a variety of items on a hot table, then sat at a table in the dining room. It was ok.

2021 Jun 9 (Wed) – We took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway today. There are so many lush, green trees in this state. We stopped at the Mabry Mill, an historic Appalachian homestead on the parkway. It had a mill, a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, and other artifacts. A ranger was working in a shed on a weaving loom. She explained the process to us and showed examples of her work. It was an interesting stop. Also along the Blue Ridge Parkway was a rail fence exhibit that showed several different types of fence made by wooden posts and poles.

We stopped at a winery in Floyd. You could only have a tasting if you were fully vaccinated. Since I am not vaccinated, we sat out on the patio and had a glass of wine with bread, cheese, meats, and fruits. Neither of us enjoyed the wine but the experience was nice. It rained pretty hard most of the day.

The program for the Max Air Fan in the kitchen arrived. Unexpectedly, it worked! The fan is now in action again. How wonderful!

2021 Jun 8 (Tue) – Well, I am back from New York. It was a long 3 weeks. I had originally planned to help out my sister, Susan, after knee surgery but she changed her mind and cancelled the surgery. My plans were already made so I left them alone. I stayed at her house and borrowed her Tesla during my stay. That is quite a car! Great for a speed demon like my sister.

I had a PET scan at Memorial Sloan Kettering. The results were spectacular! There were no metabolically active lymph nodes. Unfortunately, my oncologist moved to Texas and a new doctor was assigned to me but could not fit me into her schedule. I will see her at my next appointment. I asked the nurse if I could stop the chemotherapy but she said to continue as usual until I talk with the doctor.

I also saw the cardiologist. He ordered a stress test which I passed with flying colors.

I got to visit with my brother, Chris, and brother and girlfriend, Dennis & Denise, over the holiday weekend. I took my grandson, Caiden, out a few times and visited with my daughter and husband, Lilah & Kenny. I also stopped over my Cousin Claude’s house and visited with him and his daughter, Kathy. I also caught up with our friend, Jan, who happened to be outside in her garden when I drove by. She had knee surgery and is recovering nicely. And I got to have dinner with my daughter, Gina.

Susan volunteers at a wildlife rescue center and I was able to go with her twice. That place was overrun with raccoons, squirrels, and ducklings. Wow! There were many other types of animals and birds there as well. Susan’s daughter, Sharon, flew home for a few days and we went into the city for a day. Sharon has ongoing dental treatments at a specialist in New York City. Except for less people and cars, everything looked the same.

My flight home was disrupted by thunderstorms and I wound up spending a night at a hotel in Baltimore. But I ultimately made it home to my honey. While I was gone, Paul got the Spyder Control program fixed and we are back on the road! We were afraid that we would have to cancel the caravan if we didn’t get the problem resolved. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

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johnnyccdc · 4 years

Photo

I was only able to score some “before pics” of the massive 1st Inaugural #GeorgeWashingtonWhiskeyFestival held at the @mount_vernon property yesterday. It was a big day for me as this marked the first time I’ve worked a festival side by side @catoctincreek owner @scohar70 since my first trial event after obtaining my position as their Virginia Sales Manager and getting a chance to meet the industry famous PodCast Host/Executive Producer Mark Gillespie of the longest running whiskey related podcast, @whiskycast - In typical John Shope fashion who can’t seem to handle any level of celebrity appropriate out of child like excitement and admiration, I shouted out to Mark “Yo Mark! I listen to your shit!” to which he replied in his iconic reporter esque voice “You listen to my shit?” - I suppose I couldn’t have imagined it going any other way! The event was a huge success for @catoctincreek and we’ll definitely be returning to next year’s festival! Who else was out there enjoying the event? Cheers! #CatoctinCreek #Distillery #Rye #Gin #Brandy #Virginia #Purcellville #Spirits #Cocktails #Restaurants #Bars #Hotels #WhiskeyCast #WhiskyCast #Bartender #Mixologist #CraftSpirits #Alcohol #VaSpirits #VA #VisitLoudoun #MountVernon #Booze #Drinks #Drinking #Food #DrinkRyeAndProsper #SPOCK #Whisky 🥃🖖🏻 (at George Washington's Mount Vernon) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4r_EFvhFOm/?igshid=hdyejpfa6m2j

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coolchicksfromhistory · 7 years

Photo

Martha Washington (1731-1802)

Art by Emma Boys (tumblr)

Martha Dandridge was born into a world of privilege. She was the eldest of eight children. Martha’s father owned five hundred acres of land and between 15 and 20 enslaved persons . Although the family was wealthy, they were not among the richest family in the colony of Virginia. As a child, Martha developed a love of reading and learned the household skills that were expected of all but the wealthiest women.

In 1750, eighteen year old Martha married thirty-eight year old Daniel Parke Custis. Daniel was from one of the wealthiest families in Virginia. His family owned over 17,000 acres of land, had almost 300 slaves, and sat on the highest governing body in the colony. The couple had four children, only one of whom survived past the age of seventeen.

In July 1757, Daniel died and the newly widowed Martha took control of his estate. Widowhood empowered Martha and gave her almost all the same legal rights as a free man. But less than a year later, she met George Washington and the couple began planning a future together. Because Martha was so economically secure, the couple’s marriage in January 1759 is considered a love match.

Martha and George had a close and supportive marriage. George handled the family’s business affairs and participated in Virginia politics while Martha focused on the children. The couple had no children together, but George took an active role in the lives of his stepchildren.

In the 1770s, George became involved in the growing movement for American independence. Although Martha did not seek a public role, she became a well-known figure due to her husband. In 1775, fears of kidnapping led Martha to leave her home and stay with various friends and family members. Although there was no kidnapping attempt, Martha’s quiet life had been upended by her husband’s political activities.

During the American Revolutionary War, Martha attracted a great deal of attention and she was feted whenever she visited a new city. The attention flummoxed Martha who had never left Virginia before the war, but she rose to the occasion, working to build morale and fundraise for the troops. At Valley Forge she visited with injured soldiers and organized a sewing circle to mend garments. She also hand copied documents for George and occasionally acted as his official representative in public.

Martha’s sole surviving child died during the Revolutionary War and after his death, Martha focused her attention on raising her grandchildren. George’s election to the presidency again uprooted Martha’s life. The couple moved to the temporary capital in New York City and later Philadelphia with their two grandchildren and seven enslaved persons. With George occupied, Martha was responsible for managing both the presidential household and their property in Virginia.

Martha Washington was the first First Lady of the United States, but the term was not used during her lifetime. Instead early Americans borrowed a term from Great Britain and called Martha Lady Washington. Martha was aware that she was setting the template for the spouses who would come after her and she took on a more public role than she would have chosen for herself. She instituted weekly receptions which helped strengthen the new government.

Setting a precedent that would eventually be enshrined into law, George declined to run for a third term as president. In March 1797, George and Martha retired to Mount Vernon. George died in 1799 and Martha followed him in 1802. They are both interred at Mount Vernon.

Past Cool Chicks from History posts about Women of the American Revolution can be found here. Past Cool Chicks from History posts about First Ladies can be found here.

More information about Martha and George’s relationship with the institution of slavery and the enslaved members of their households can be found here, here, here, and here. If you are interested in a humorous look at the lives of the enslaved persons of Mount Vernon, check out Ask a Slave on Youtube.

#draw a cool chick #American Revolution #first lady

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topworldhistory · 4 years

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Among the names the future first president gave his dogs were Sweet Lips, Venus, Trulove, Taster, Tippler, Drunkard and Madame Moose.

George Washington is widely known as the first U.S. president and Revolutionary War hero who supposedly cut down a cherry tree and wore wooden teeth. But few may know the founding father was also a dog lover who even bred his own unique breed.

Andrew Hager, historian-in-residence of the Presidential Pet Museum, says Washington’s love of dogs likely developed from his love of fox hunting. In colonial America, Hager explains, dogs were valued for their ability to work and aid their human companions. "This doesn’t mean that Washington did not appreciate his dogs," he says, "but that it was a very different appreciation than a modern pet-lover might have. Dogs kept at Mount Vernon would have been used for specific purposes. We do know, however, that he visited the kennel on a daily basis to see his dogs, so there was some affection there.”

Washington Bred Hunting Dogs for Speed

George Washington and Lord Fairfax, mounted on horses, on a fox hunt with a slave managing a team of hunting dogs.

Washington, Hager adds, wanted a speedier hunting dog, and hoped to breed that speed into the hounds he already owned.

“When his good friend, the Marquis de Lafayette, heard about this, he sent General Washington a group of French hound dogs in the care of young John Quincy Adams,” he says. “These dogs were much more aggressive than Washington’s usual hounds, and were eventually bred with them. This created the new breed, although it’s important to note that Washington wasn’t thinking about the breed in any sort of legacy way. He just wanted to improve his personal collection of hunting dogs.”

According to Mary Thompson, research historian at Mount Vernon, many dog breeds were developed through selective breeding over many years.

“The fact that American foxhounds have a lighter build and longer legs than English Foxhounds suggests that Washington and others who were developing this new breed wanted a good hunting dog that was faster than the English dogs,” she says. Thompson added that American foxhounds also work more individually than as a pack, with each dog being willing to take the lead.

The American Kennel Club recognizes Washington as the father of the American foxhound, noting the breeds of Bluetick Coonhound, American English Coonhound and Treeing Walker Coonhound were also “likely influenced by his quest for a superior dog.”

Thompson adds that Washington kept many dog breeds, each with their own speciality. There were herding dogs, hounds, non-sporting dogs, terriers, toys and working dogs at Mount Vernon.

“In fact, we can document the presence and/or knowledge of breeds in every group currently recognized by the American Kennel Club among the dogs in Virginia in the 18th century,” she says. Breeds at Mount Vernon included Briards, Dalmatians, English foxhounds, French hounds, Greyhounds, Italian Greyhounds, mastiffs, Newfoundlands, pointers, spaniels and terriers.

Washington often gave his dogs names, too. Some of note: Sweet Lips, Venus, Trulove, Taster, Tippler, Drunkard and Madame Moose.

According to Thompson, many of the dog names seem to relate to singing or music: Droner, Hearkwell, Music and Singer, for example.

“Each foxhound had a distinctive voice, which was important as a way to tell one dog from another when hunters were following behind them after prey animals,” she says. “Sweet Lips may have gotten her name because Washington liked the sound of her voice as she was hunting.”

Birds & Deer Also Kept at Mount Vernon

Washington meeting with Marquis de Lafayette at Mount Vernon, surrounded by a couple dogs along with other animals seen in the distance of the property.

And it wasn’t just dogs taking up pet residence at Mount Vernon. Thompson says the Washington family also kept several varieties of pet birds over the years, including canaries, green parrots and a cockatoo. There is evidence they may have had goldfish, as well.

“For a number of years, George Washington had a deer park in front of the mansion, with varieties of both American and English deer,” she adds. “Some of them were said to be so tame that they would eat out of people’s hands.”

Thompson and Hagar both relay a story of Washington’s dog, Sweet Lips, influencing his political career. When the future president was sent to Philadelphia as a Virginia representative to the Continental Congress, he took the dog with him.

“While walking the dog through the streets of Philadelphia, he was spotted by Mayor Samuel Powel’s wife, Elizabeth,” Hagar says. “She inquired about Sweet Lips, and the conversation led her to invite Washington to dinner. Through the mayor and his wife, Washington met several influential Philadelphians, men who later promoted him as a candidate for general of the Continental Army. Years later, in 1787, these same men promoted the idea of Washington as president.”

But, Hager notes, Washington’s attitude toward dogs (and their owners) could also be dark. When Washington worried at one point that his slaves’ dogs were killing his sheep, he ordered that most of their dogs be hanged. And pups that didn't meet his breeding standards were not kept.

“As someone who worked hard to breed dogs for specific characteristics, he had little use for mixed breed dogs,” he says. “Puppies that were not ‘true’ were often drowned on his orders.

"While not uncommon for the time, this is obviously disturbing to modern sensibilities.”

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/33HswLx December 03, 2019 at 08:20PM

#Worldhistory

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

Text

In the Pipeline: Ryan Cos., LCS Start Work; Tukka's Scandinavian-Style Project - Senior Housing News

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=4976

In the Pipeline is brought to you by the Senior Housing News Architecture & Design Awards. Sign up for the SHN Architecture & Design Newsletter from SHN for updates on architecture and design trends, the annual SHN Awards Competition.

Construction: Planned

Affordable Assisted Living Community Planned in Indianapolis

An affordable assisted living facility with 124 units is slated to open in Indianapolis.

Integral Community Development recently secured a $17.2 million loan for the community, which is called Oasis at 56th. Commercial real estate services and finance firm Walker & Dunlop helped arrange the loan through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) New Construction program.

As planned, units at Oasis at 56th will have access to a commercial kitchen with a dining area, resident and personal care rooms, laundry facilities, an exercise room, cafe, and transportation. Each of the assisted living units will come with a living area, accessible bathrooms, and kitchenettes with cabinets, sink, refrigerator, and a microwave.

Third Latitude Margaritaville Planned in Florida

Margaritaville Holdings, Minto Communities USA and St. Joe (NYSE: JOE) have teamed up to pursue the development of a new Latitude Margaritaville active adult community in Bay County, Florida.

The newest Margaritaville community would initially have 3,000 homes, but the surrounding St. Joe’s Bay-Walton Sector Plan is entitled for up to 170,000.

Residents who move into the planned Latitude Margaritaville Watersound in Bay County would have access to amenities such as a resort-style pool, fitness activities, game and hobby rooms, arts and learning programs, live entertainment and Margaritaville-themed food and beverage concepts.

Read more about these plans on Senior Housing News.

Construction: In progress

Ryan Companies, LCS Break Ground on Clarendale Community in Tennessee

LCS, Harrison Street Real Estate Capital and Ryan Companies US have broken ground on their second senior living community in Nashville, Tennessee.

The $50 million project, Clarendale at Bellevue Place, will have 195 independent living, assisted living and memory care units. Amenities include restaurant-style dining venues, a bistro, pub and billiards room, wellness center with fitness and therapy facilities, salon, covered parking and a large community room.

This is the second project in Tennessee for Ryan Companies and its project partners LCS and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, and the group’s seventh project overall. Clarendale at Bellevue Place is anticipated to open in November, 2019.

Work Underway for ‘Modern Scandinavian’ Community in Wisconsin

Developer Tukka Properties and operator Tealwood Senior Living have started work on their fourth joint construction project, Kettle Park Senior Living in in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

As planned, the “modern Scandinavian” community will span about 130,000 square feet and house 100 independent living, assisted living and memory care apartments. Amenities include a bistro and multiple dining areas, flexible activity spaces, an arts and crafts room, library, salon, fitness and wellness spaces and a theater.

The project’s design—which took inspiration from the designs one might see in a small Scandinavian village—features light colors, Norwegian-style roofs and farmhouse-style porches. Iconica designed the building, and is also managing the project’s construction. Tukka and Iconica also partnered with interior design firm Henricksen.

If all goes according to plan, work will wrap up in the summer of 2019.

LCB Holds Groundbreaking for Connecticut Project

LCB Senior Living on May 9 held a dedication and groundbreaking celebration for The Residence at Selleck’s Woods, a new independent living, assisted living and memory care community under construction in Darien, Connecticut.

As planned, the community will have 105 units, and is on track to open later this year in the fall. When it opens, the community will be a “modern, luxury senior housing experience,” and have exclusive Emerald Suite concierge services for residents.

Construction Begins for Florida Community

The Palace Group, a South Florida developer and operator of senior living communities, has broken ground for The Palace at Weston, a 320-unit community

The community will occupy a 7.5-acre site adjacent to The Palms at Weston, an active adult condominium community that Palace Group completed in 2008.

The Palace at Weston will offer independent living, assisted living and memory care services in three separate but adjoining buildings. Amenities include a theater, fitness complex with a yoga room, fine-dining restaurant, plaza and bar, library, arts and crafts area and a courtyard with a swimming pool.

TD Bank awarded the Palace Group a $95 million loan for the construction of the property. Coastal Construction LLC, is the project’s general contractor, and Salazar Architectural Group designed the community.

The Palace at Weston’s leasing center is expected to open in late 2018, with a grand opening currently slated for 2020.

Other noteworthy projects:

Planned

— Officials in Naperville, Illinois, have given the go-ahead to plans for a 174-unit senior living project.

— Westminster Canterbury Richmond, a senior living community in Richmond, Virginia, has plans to add 125 independent living units.

— A university in Spokane, Washington, is seeking to build a senior housing building with 47 units.

— A mixed-use development in the works in Woburn, Massachusetts, could also include four assisted living complexes and a 100-bed memory care community.

— An affiliate of Kayne Anderson Real Estate has purchased 20 acres of land in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the construction of a senior living community with about 250 units.

— A senior living community in Longmont, Colorado, is seeking to become a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) with the planned addition of four new skilled nursing cottages.

— Brightview Senior Living recently got the green light from a local zoning board to build a 190-unit community at the site of a vacant shopping center in Wayne, New Jersey.

— A 200-unit senior living community is part of a mixed-use development proposed in Orlando, Florida.

— CaraVita Village, a senior living community in Montgomery, Alabama, has plans for a $3.5 million facelift.

— Work for a new senior housing development in New Albany, Ohio, could begin as early as this fall.

— The city of Huntington Beach, California, could soon get a new assisted living community with 44 units.

— A developer has proposed building 220 assisted and independent living apartments in Mount Vernon, New York.

In progress

— Construction crews are currently laying the foundation for a 130-unit retirement community in Moosic, Pennsylvania.

— A 44-bed assisted living community is coming together in Hollywood, Florida.

— Work has begun for a $4 million assisted living community with 28 units in Caledonia, Michigan.

— A senior living community in Sarasota, Florida, recently broke ground on a $20 million expansion project to add a new heath, rehabilitation and memory care center.

Complete

— Construction has wrapped up for a 159-unit senior housing community in Littleton, Colorado.

— The city of Roswell, Georgia, has a new 101-unit independent living community for low-income seniors.

— A nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about Alzheimer’s disease has opened a memory care community on the Hudson Hills Senior Living campus in North Bergen, New Jersey.

— A $1.5 million facelift is complete at a senior living senior living community in Glendale, California.

— The city of Tucson, Arizona, has a new assisted living and memory care community.

Written by Tim Regan

The post In the Pipeline: Ryan Cos., LCS Start Work; Tukka’s Scandinavian-Style Project appeared first on Senior Housing News.

Credits: Original Content Source

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jpaulbrown · 7 years

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The federal government is so inefficient it is criminal! The real estate that it owns and does not use, but that should be sold could help to reduce the national debt!

Guess Who Owns That A Northern Virginia utility needed to cross a small parcel of private land near the Dulles Airport access road. Utilities contact property owners and negotiate such easements every day, but in this case county property records showed that the land was owned by the Federal Aviation Administration, which apparently owns the entire 28-mile length of the access road, along with several separate adjacent parcels. When the company contacted the FAA to work out the easement, to their surprise FAA replied that it did not own the land in question. Property records clearly showed otherwise, so the utility had to spend money on lawyers and paperwork to prove to the federal agency that it owned the land, before an easement could even be discussed. Do you know how much land you own and where it is? The U.S. government does not. Not even an educated guess can be produced, despite years of congressional hearings, legislative mandates, and executive orders. Congress’s auditor, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has studied the issue and published several reports over the years, all with similar conclusions. Namely, the government has no idea how much property it owns, where it is all located, who manages it, what condition it is in, or how well it is being used. Mind you, we’re not talking about national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, or BLM land. The"public lands,” as westerners understand that term, comprise some 650 million acres, a third of America, mostly in the West, and are fairly well mapped. Rather, we’re talking about real estate as most of us understand that term – buildings and vacant lots. One friend in the real estate business recently looked for available riverfront lots in Washington, D.C., with the idea of developing high-end homes with private boat docks. Those are among the most valuable properties in virtually any major city, but my friend found out quickly that there would be no such developments in D.C. and many other cities for one simple reason. The federal government owns that land. The Maryland side of the Potomac River is federal property from downtown D.C. all the way to West Virginia. So are most of the remaining lands on both sides of the Anacostia River, along with the Potomac south of Washington all the way to Mount Vernon. Valuable real estate like that sells by the square inch in major cities, not by the acre. Yet the government spends billions maintaining such property – lands for which there is often no stated government purpose. The National Park Service owns the land under RFK Stadium, no longer used by either the Redskins or the Nationals and subject to much debate about future uses. But unlike most such discussions in other cities, the U.S. government is the key player, though any resemblance to a park ended when it leased the area for a stadium almost 60 years ago. The National Park Service also owns and maintains miles of city streets all over Washington, D.C., as well as dozens of buildings that are not occupied by government agencies. You might also be shocked at how much real estate the government owns in Denver, Grand Junction, Las Vegas, Seattle, Detroit, and hundreds of other cities. Congress has tried for years to get a complete inventory of exactly what property the government owns, so intelligent decisions can be made about what is still needed, and what could be sold. Yet no department or agency can produce such an inventory. The Interior Department testified in 2005 that it used over 100 different property management systems, and 12 years later nothing has been done to consolidate them. The Pentagon reportedly has over 300 different land management processes, and cannot say how much property it owns. Nor can any other department, nor the General Services Administration (GSA), officially the government’s property manager. The problem goes well beyond buildings, by the way. It is the same with real property (land and buildings), personal property (vehicles and equipment), and intellectual property (patents and copyrights). In all three cases, the federal government is a massive property owner, but cannot produce an accurate list of what it owns. A 2014 GAO study would have embarrassed any other owner: government records showed some buildings in use that were, in fact, falling down and empty; and others labeled uninhabitable that were, in fact, occupied. GAO estimated there were 77,000 buildings government no longer used or needed. But there remains no process for identifying all of them, much less doing anything about it. They won’t tell you where all these buildings are, because they don’t know. Greg Walcher is president of the Natural Resources Group and author of"Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take it Back,” now in its second printing. He is a former head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. More information: http://gregwalcher.com A version of this column appeared in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel September 15, 201Sincerely, J. Paul BrownFormer Colorado State Representative(970) 759-4157

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tenfactsaday · 7 years

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10 Facts a Day on... George Washington

Today is a special day; today is George Washington’s 286th Birthday! I chose some interesting, non-militaristic and non-Presidential facts about America’s First President. Enjoy!

1. Let’s start controversially, shall we? Washington’s famous “I cannot tell a lie” was, in fact, a lie. According to Jay Richardson of George Mason University, “Ironically, this iconic story about the value of honesty was invented by one of Washington’s first biographers, an itinerant minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems.”

2. As a young man, Washington had red hair. A popular myth is that he wore a wig, as was the fashion among some at the time. However, Washington did not wear a wig; instead, he powdered his hair, as is represented in several portraits, including the well-known, unfinished Gilbert Stuart depiction called the "Athenaeum Portrait.

3. George Washington was the first child of Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789), born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

4. Washington was actually born on February 11, 1731, according to the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22, 1732.

5. Washington began his career as a professional surveyor in 1749 at the age of 17. He subsequently received a commission and surveyor's license from the College of William and Mary and became the official surveyor for the newly formed Culpeper County. He completed his first survey in less than two days, plotting a 400-acre parcel of land.

6. In 1753, Washington was sent as an ambassador from the British crown to the French officials and Indians as far north as present-day Erie, Pennsylvania.

7. On January 6, 1759, Washington married wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis, then 28 years old. Together they raised her children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis. Later, they raised Martha's grandchildren Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together; his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile.

8. Washington's marriage to Martha greatly increased his property holdings and social standing, and made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men. He acquired one-third of the 18,000-acre (73 km2) Custis estate upon his marriage, worth approximately $100,000, and at least 85 “dower” slaves and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children, for whom he sincerely cared

9. In 1766, Washington started switching Mount Vernon's primary cash crop away from tobacco to wheat, a crop that could be processed and then sold in various forms in the colonies, and further diversified operations to include flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, hog production, spinning, and weaving, and (in the 1790s) he erected a distillery for whiskey production which yielded more than 1,000 gallons a month/

10. Washington was the only prominent Founding Father to arrange in his will for the manumission (freeing) of all his slaves following his death. He privately opposed slavery as an institution which he viewed as economically unsound and morally indefensible.

#10 facts a day #10 facts #george washington

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sherristockman · 7 years

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America’s Burgeoning Cannabis Industry and the Road to Public Acceptance Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Marijuana is easily one of the world's most controversial plants and, in the U.S., has endured a particularly rocky history. While smoking marijuana was once viewed as an act of political dissidence against the Vietnam War, today the plant is recognized as an invaluable medicine and smoking-hot commodity that's generated billions of dollars in revenue in states where it is now fully legalized. Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level and is considered by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroine, LSD and ecstasy. Yet, a total of 29 U.S. states and the District of Columbia now have some form of legalized marijuana; while eight more states — three of which adopted the measure in November, 2016, and include California, Nevada and Massachusetts — allow recreational use of the plant. Regardless of whether or not you support cannabis, there's no ignoring the fact that it's currently undergoing a revolution in the U.S. and is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. Our Founding Fathers and the American History of Cannabis The above documentary, "The Marijuana Revolution (2016)," details the fascinating journey of marijuana and the various challenges faced by its proponents throughout history. As the film notes, marijuana was once regarded as a harmful and addictive drug used mainly among black jazz musicians and Mexican migrant workers. Today, the majority of Americans support cannabis either as a medicine, for recreational use, or both. Surveys show that at least 4 in 10 Americans have tried marijuana, while nearly 60 percent support full legalization. A 2013 survey found a majority of physicians — 76 percent — approve of the use of medical marijuana.1 CNN's chief medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta also made a highly publicized reversal on his marijuana stance after the production of his two-part series "Weed," which aired in 2014.2 So how did this plant, which has been around for centuries, overcome its bad reputation? Perhaps a better question is how did marijuana earn such a bad rap in the first place? In order to understand the American history of cannabis and its transformation, it's important to start with our Founding Fathers, who cultivated the plant for industrial purposes. George Washington, for example, is said to have grown more than 100 hemp plants at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Cannabis is called hemp when it's being used for its fibers, which are extracted from the stem and constructed into rope, clothing and paper. Hemp plants are low in tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) levels and therefore do not get you high. During the 18th century, hemp was viewed as an important cash crop. It was used for rope by navies around the world, and as a thick durable linen ideal for clothing and packaging heavy materials. Additionally, hemp seed oil was used in soaps, paints and varnishes. Marijuana Transforms From Being Viewed as a Useful Medicine to Addictive Zombie Drug As depicted in the film, cannabis eventually grew popular for its medicinal properties and was used for treating many ailments, including insomnia, menstrual cramps, nausea, muscle spams and even depression. Modern research has only expanded on these health benefits, now recognizing marijuana as an effective treatment for cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and Tourette's syndrome, as well as a host of other diseases. However, the concept of cannabis as a medicine quickly began to fade when people started using the plant as a recreational drug in the 20th century. Those frightened of marijuana began to demonize it, using provocative terms like "devil weed" and "drug addicted zombies" to deter people from smoking it. Harry J. Anslinger, a former railroad cop and prohibition agent, was one of the first powerful voices to come out against the plant. He used fear mongering and racism to sway public opinion on cannabis, targeting minorities including African Americans, Hispanics and Filipinos. Anslinger described the average marijuana user as being a minority entertainer who relied on the drug to create "[s]atanic music, jazz, and swing." He said the plant caused "white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others." In 1963, the U.S. government funded the propaganda film "Reefer Madness," which warned that using marijuana just once could turn you into a drug-addicted zombie. The authorities also changed the plant's name and began using the Spanish word "marijuana" in an effort to give it a negative connotation associated with Mexican migrant workers and other minorities. Shortly thereafter, the sale and use of cannabis in the U.S. was made illegal through the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. An Act of Political Dissent Anslinger may have started the war on weed, but President Richard Nixon continued it. While his wife spoke convincingly against marijuana, Nixon persuaded Congress to pass the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, classifying the plant as a Schedule 1 drug. Divided over the nation's involvement in the Vietnam War, some Americans began smoking weed as an act of political dissent. Subsequently, Nixon retaliated by arresting "pot-smoking Vietnam protesters." Slowly but surely, the public once again began changing its views toward marijuana. By the mid- to late '90s, California, Oregon and Maine approved medical cannabis, with Nevada and Colorado following close behind. Marijuana's Projected Growth Rate Outpaces the Smartphone In 2012, Colorado became the first U.S. state to fully legalize cannabis, opening the doorway to a realm of unimaginable possibilities in terms of innovation and revenue, ultimately leading to a new pastime embraced by an emerging culture. Colorado's legal marijuana market quickly flourished, generating up to $100 million a month in revenue just three years after the state approved recreational use, according to the film. The state of Washington saw similar numbers and in 2015 reported earnings of an estimated $1.4 million a day. That same year, the legal marijuana market was valued at roughly $3 billion, and is predicted to reach $10 billion over the next five years, outpacing the growth rate of smartphones. While the Obama administration promised to stop allocating resources to fight marijuana legalized at the state level, it's illegal classification under federal law carries both pros and cons for the burgeoning pot market. A positive is that small mom-and-pop shops have been allowed to thrive, leading the way in product innovation. Legal pot markets are producing a vast array of products including weed-infused coffee, tea, breath mints, candies, cookies, pie and many other edibles. Some innovators are even trying to create a global pot brand called "Marley Natural," while others have established Yelp-like sites such as Leafly,3 which review and rate dispensaries, as well as various strains of marijuana. Pot's Illegal Status at the Federal Level Keeps Big Business at Bay Because cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug at the federal level, it cannot legally be transported across state lines. As a result, the development of centralized growing and processing plants aimed at achieving nationwide distribution have been stalled. This has deterred Big Business including Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, and Big Agriculture from entering the lucrative marijuana market. But that doesn't mean they aren't thinking about it. Legal marijuana is proving to be more valuable than several of our nation's most widely produced crops. For example, one acre of marijuana is worth 2,000 times more than tobacco, 13,000 times more than corn, and nearly 43,000 times more than soybeans, reveals the film. A Cash-Only Business One of the biggest cons of marijuana being illegal at the federal level is the fact that it forces pot operations into an all-cash business. Banks are federally regulated, which means marijuana businesses are prohibited from depositing their money into banks. They cannot perform credit card transactions either. Having to manage and store significant amounts of money in cash is not only a headache, but incredibly risky, as it makes marijuana businesses more susceptible to theft. Another major con is that pot companies in Colorado must maintain around-the-clock surveillance. Whether they're watering plants or packaging product, employees in the marijuana business are always on camera — a requirement some describe as intrusive. In the documentary, cannabis entrepreneur Daniel Curylo, owner of Cascade Crops, says that the surveillance makes him feel like a second-class citizen. "We're a bunch of regular guys who work like 10,11 or 12 hours a day, every day. We pay our taxes. We're good people," he said. Pot's status as a Schedule 1 drug means that state marijuana operations are regulated like an illegal enterprise. However, despite the obstacles, legal marijuana has still managed to go mainstream, transforming the way Americans view and use cannabis. Legalizing Medical Marijuana Could Help Control Opioid Epidemic The worst effect marijuana can have on us is a hazy or slightly catatonic feeling, according to current research noted in the film. But the plant remains far less addictive than alcohol, cocaine, heroin and cigarettes, and may even be useful in curbing America's growing opioid epidemic. In fact, recent research found that medical marijuana lowers prescription drug use. The video below features W. David Bradford, Ph.D., whose study was published in the journal Health Affairs earlier this month.4 As reported by The Washington Post:5 "[R]esearchers at the University of Georgia scoured the database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013. They found that, in the 17 states with a medical-marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply compared with states that did not have a medical-marijuana law. The drops were quite significant: In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication. But most strikingly, the typical physician in a medical-marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year." According to Bradford, the Medicare program could save $468 million per year if marijuana were legalized in all U.S. states.6,7 Already, $165 million was saved in 2013 in the 18 states where medical marijuana was legal that year. To find out the legal status of marijuana in your state, see governing.com's marijuana state law map.8

#VitalityPath

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