Friday, May 1, 2009

Back with a dead car

Well, fresh green ooze comes from the battery. My son locked it up and transferred a closet full of stuff into my car for the trip home which in this town is about 1/2 mile. That's an advantage, but I rescued him nonetheless.

My husband is coming home in an hour or so from his trip to John H. Kerr Lake for enviromental inspections. He has seen an osprey and its nest, a tremendous, giant turtle (- must be an import, n'est pas?)and last night a raccoon found the have a heart trap. John H. Kerr is inspected and ready for summer adventures, so all you girl scouts can go ahead and pack.

He also got to see the dam, the turbines which turn to produce great amounts of hydroelectric power. That is something I would like to see. I am fascinated by all the ways to acquire power which all essentially boil down to boiling water, turning a turbine with stream and twirling a magnet. This includes the Nuclear Power plant as well. The power in the uranium nugget just heats up water, turns the turbine which turns the magnet and moves the electrons in metal wires... Isn't that something? Heat, steam, movement, electric power. .... The dam supplies the movement in the kinetic energy from falling water so no boiling is required. Someday we will figure this out with the sun. Don't you think every single flat industrial roof facing skyward should be filled with photovoltaic devices..

Rambling... well.

I reread my last blog and made links when I realized that the Latta Plantation and Nature Preserve owned previously by Duke Power links to the Cowen's Ford. This was the scene of the last invasion of Mecklenburg by a foreign army or should we say retreat as the British left the Hornet's nest in a panic. The great dam owned by Duke Power today sits pretty much exactly where Cornwallis crossed the river. It was the battle where we lost General Davidson.

I've looked high and low on the webpages of Davidson college, Town of Davidson and the county of Davidson. I'm sure it must be named for General Davidson, but I don't see anything there. I must have missed it. He was one of the Greatest NC Revolutionary heroes. The whole county is a marvelous place so I've include this link to a book I found there called, "A Delicious Country: Yadkin Valley, 1670-1770," by Jim Daniel and published by the Davidson County Historical Museum in 2006. Is has great background on the whole of the Yadkin Valley history. That is a prelude to the Revolution.

No comments: