Mary Yonkers

First I must beg forgiveness. Last night I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of the summer, but I didn't have my camera with me.

BUT

I did have my scissors

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Wildflowers

Attitude adjustment: Since my property is heavily wooded I have hard time growing flowers during the summer months. BUT the field across the road has lots of beautiful flowers.

My Promise: Next time I will take both my scissors and the camera. Hubby drove his SUV with 4-wheel drive through a lot of muddy ruts along the corn rows, etc. (PS He is a great guy!)

The sunset was awesome!

Every state, region, business and organization would like a piece of the stimulus pie the gov't is dangling in front of us as the solution to the economic crisis.

For The Arts and Charities and businesses like the auto industry stimulus money is their 'life-line' for survival.

In the Erie county the race is on to get $$$$$$$$$$ from the gambling pot, fees paid by the Presque Isle Downs Casino to Erie County for distribution. Law suits, tempers and cries of 'playing politics' are raging this summer.

However, quietly in other sectors, organizations are asking for donations of time and the expertise of volunteers. A few have come to my attention this summer.

• The Neighborhood Art House/Erie, PA is asking for donations of time to read to children during the Hooked on Books Summer InternProgram run by Dr. Dolores Sarafinski & Edinboro University. Listen to the wonderful message on their answering machine 1-814-871-7422. "A caring adult, an eager child and a good book equals a life-long reader."

• Catch--A--Dream takes persons, eighteen and older, with life-threatening illnesses fishing or hunting. www.catchadream.org "Making dreams come true require many parteners" therefore hunters & fishermen as asked to donate their time and expertise to those individuals less fortunate than they are.

• Vacation Bible School I had a very rewarding week volunteering in the kitchen during VBS at my church. In conversation with the Director of the VBS I offered to be on the commitee to review, revise and write the program for 2010. Oh yes, the teacher in me is re-surfacing.

Wayside Presbyterian Church, Erie, PA

• Job Stimulus: Look in Your Closet Help others by donating unused clothing and accessories.

I can just imagine how much more room I might have in my closet if I got serious.

As Monique Hailer said in her comment on this post, "It's about coming together!"

A Peaceful Ending to Another Day Spent on the Water

All is calm on the waterfront

If you look closely you may be able to see a little color reflected in the water and the sun almost dead center as it descends into the trees. Some boats were returning from a day spent on Presque Isle Bay or Lake Erie. Other boats were just going out to enjoy the sunset from the water or fish.

After dinner I prefer Sittin' on the Dock by the Bay and listenin' to the sounds of the water & watch the sky change colors.

Tomorrow will be another day . . .

Happy 150th Birthday: Oil Industry

Do you know the birthplace of the modern oil industry? Many people would guess Texas, Oklahoma or the Middle East and not the backwoods of Pennsylvania.

August 27, 1859 Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in the Venago Oil Field along the banks Oil Creek in rural Pennsylvania.

This event ushered in the modern petroleum industry that today provides us with fuel for light, heat and transportation. Many modern products contain petroleum or are derived from its byproducts such as plastics and pharmaceuticals.

Today it is hard to imagine the remoteness of Drake's well and the challenges faced getting oil to market without good roads or rail lines. Early photos from that era depict rugged & heavily treed terrain that was often hampered by rain & mud. The creeks and streams leading to the Allegheny River were the early highways used to get the oil barrels to market in Pittsburgh.

Prior to Drake's success in Pennsylvania other attempts to drill commercial oil wells had been made in Germany and Canada. Several factors contributed to Drake's success in Pennsylvania.

• Native Americans often found oil seeping from rock formations near streams which are plentiful in Pennsylvania.

• An oil sample from a 'natural seep' from the land leased by Drake was analyzed by Dr. Benjamin Silliman at Yale University. Dr. Silliman concluded that the crude oil from this area was superior thus ensuring the financing of Drake's well.

• The major factor in Drake's success was the formation of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company by co-founder, George Bissell, a New York lawyer and promoter, who hired Drake.

• Drake's well was a riparian well on bottomland, near Oil Creek, a well-known oil seep. Riparian means "on the bank of a stream."

And the rest is history

www.oil150.com

www.oilregion.org

www.drakewell.org

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Are you considering a Real Estate career? Join me in class. www.alankells.com Mary Yonkers, Instructor

Career options: www.howardhanna.com

OIL QUIZ

• Did you know that the first commercial oil well was drilled in western Pennsylvania 150 years ago spawning the petroleum industry as we know it today? Venago County is now known as the Valley that Changed the World as told in new documentary film produced by WQED Multimedia & The Oil Region Alliance. www.oilregion.org

• Did you know that the use of oil has been documented in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Sumeria, Assyria and China? Oil was used to waterproof boats, embalm pharaohs, grease chariot axles and for medicinal purposes. The Chinese used bamboo pipelines and transported oil & gas in (Chinese) junks, the precursor to the modern supertanker (?).

• Did you know that Native Americans introduced the early settlers to petroleum products and how to collect it using blankets & ladles?

• Did you know that the quest to drill for oil was fueled by the high cost of whale oil for lighting? The price was topping $100/barrel and the whale population had been been gravely depleted.

• Did you know that the oil tanker RR car was invented by Amos & James Densmore to haul oil from wells in NW Pennsylvania?

Why the backwoods of Pennsylvania ??????????????????? (See Birthplace of Oil Industry)

www.oil150.com

www.oilregion.org

www.drakewell.org

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Are you thinking about a career in Real Estate? Join me in class. wwww.alankells.com Mary Yonkers, Real Estate Instructor

Career Information: wwww.howardhanna.com