Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Crazy Moravia

This here photo is looking in to the old colonial industrial quarter of Bethlehem

If you find yourself hangin' out in downtown Bethlehem (Bethlum is how they say it around these parts) you can't help but notice the beautiful old college named after the Moravians. Who the hell are the Moravians? As if you don't know. Just in case you're a little rusty on your reformation era churchies here's a bit of a reminder; catholic-ish folks from Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of my people) who, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Moravian settlement in Georgia (1735-1740), settled in Pennsylvania on the estate of George Whitefield. Moravian settlers purchased 500 acres to establish the settlement of Bethlehem in 1741. Soon they bought the 5,000 acres of the Barony of Nazareth from Whitefield's manager, and the two communities of Bethlehem and Nazareth became closely linked in their agricultural and industrial economy.
Walking around present day Bethlehem one is treated to all kinds of great old buildings. The Moravians started a college here in the 1880's on some land from their church, and strolling through the grounds of the campus is like being transported back to...well, some other time. It's actually really pretty and the leaves
falling in the autumn air really adds to the feel.
Here is one of the entrances to the Old Moravian Cemetary (1742-1910). The stones all lay flat on the ground for some damn religious reason, and it's wild to find stones of people born in the late 1600's. Apparently the Moravians were friendly with the Injuns and quite a few can be found buried here 'bouts.

Creepy
door knobOne of the many sweet old houses around town.



There is a cute, but also kinda late-in-the-season-to-really-enjoy-it Garden down here called the Miller House garden. As the name indicates, the garden graces the house of the miller who ran the grist mill, which ran until the 1950's!That's the miller's house behind the ruined mill. Behind both is the Bethlehem Hotel, built circa 1910.


The trout stream running through the old industrial area.



The 1762 waterworks is considered the first municipally pumped water system in the country. Since Bethlehem is built on a hill, it took quite a bit man-power to deliver the everyday water needed to live and work, so, voila! The waterworks!

Next time on Lelko Blog...Hawk Mountain!!!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Jeez, I guess it's been a while...what haven't we done since last we visited? Well, for one, we haven't gotten any jobs. Oh, I guess I sorta work and make money as a Guy who drives people around, but it ain't steady. Not that I'm complainin'. Just sayin...


We've had the good fortune of experiencing some nice thunderstorms (ya know, where the sky gets all green and dark and there's lightning about fifty times a minute and it frickin rains like mad, that kind) which we've both missed since living out west.
Our Dumb Grey Cat has some kinda sore on her foot that she won't stop chewing on, so we had to give her the old cone-around-the-neck (known as an elizabethen collar ), but you know how cats are..she can still somehow reach it, so it's been a vigilant week for us. Also, she hates us.
Though it seems like a million years ago, it looks like we went to Bushkill Falls in the last few weeks. It was totally awesome. We took the long hike, which wasn't really that long or difficult, but there were signs every few hundred yards warning us how dreadfully strenuous it was. Now, we are not in any way very excersise oriented, but it was not a tough walk. How fat and out of shape are these people? And what miracle brought their lazy asses up to the Poconos? This was before the cat thing, so we had a little more free time on our hands (and feet).

Hey ya know what I hate? The state. Not this state, as in Pennsylvania, but the concept of the state (you know, a monopoly on force), and i feel like I haven't spent enough time here on Lelko Blog making this clear. So, may I direct you to our Permanent links to the upper-right. The road-side blog is fun, but the others are something you should at least peruse, because the quicker we all get over this whole 'it's okay to be slaves' thing, the quicker we can all have the option of Complete Liberty .
But, hey, who am I to rain on your parade? Let's get back to those all important giggles ("you're not human tonight, Marlowe").
Apparently the indians around here were very short and shiny. Who woulda thunk it?
This was near a living, old-time farm where you can go and watch them do old-time farm stuff, like, I don't know, animal husbandry or something. The farm was closed the day we went, but maybe we'll make it back for the old-time Halloween they do. As a side note, we were thinking of some hi-larious costumes, like the sexy quadruple amputee, cos, you know, Halloween is all about being a sexy something or other. At least that's how it appears judging on what they have in the windows at each of the 812 halloween store near us. What a boon for the economy halloween is...
Dill, pesto, tomato, Raw cheddar-stuffed mushrooms. All raw baby! Yeah, we've been doing pretty good with the Raw foods. I'd say we are about 80-90% raw these days, and feelin' fine.