Photographing Cemeteries and Mausoleums

We've been spending as much time as possible outside this week. The temperature is cooler, but we've had a lot of sunshine for Ohio --- and you have to take advantage of that whenever you can! We have spent quite some time working at cemeteries for FindaGrave.com. On Wednesday, we went out to Amish country to the fabric store, and we found two cemeteries out there that we spent a few hours photographing. The second cemetery out there was a little one that has a few new burials in it and a bunch of 1840s and 1850s stones. It's in really, really bad shape, though, with some of the old stones and graves actually washing down the hill into a little stream. There was something there that we'd never seen the likes of, and it made a couple interesting photos. The caretaker's shed stood in the corner --- and looked like it had been standing there for a long time. Decades ago, they seem to have put up a sign, and I guess, since that one got rusty, they added yet another sign to the same effect. To paraphrase: "Please, send money if you want us to mow around your plot." Uh, all these people paid for these plots with the stipulation that the cemetery would upkeep the area.
Anyway . . .



So, on a different day this week we were at another cemetery. This place is in better shape than the last but not as great as it should/could be in. They have a mausoleum there that looked fairly large, but nothing spectacular. And, there were six photo requests on FindaGrave for graves inside, so Mom called the office to see if we could get inside. Turns out that the place is locked all year (except on Memorial Day), but the lady who runs the office said she'd meet us out there in the afternoon and let us in for a little while. I made sure that the camera cards were empty and that all the batteries were charged. It turns out that there were about 200 graves in there! And the place isn't even full. We were able to photograph everything in about forty-five minutes, but Mom and Elizabeth are still working on uploading them.



We're celebrating Easter with the Keultjes's! In fact, we're even going to church with them --- then, it's back to their house for egg-hunting and Dinner. Mrs. Furr and others are over for Dinner, so that should be really fun. I can't wait. Tomorrow can't come soon enough for me. Still have some getting ready to do, though, which means that I should probably stop here and get to it! More later.