Recently in Spring Grove Category

Yes, Halloween has come and gone, but I'd be remiss if I didn't direct you to the stories of some paranormal happenings in York County that were recently told as part of our "Remember" series.

One of the stories happens to be from a good friend of mine, Whitney Stover, whose mom passed away a little more than a year ago. In addition to the event Whitney describes in the article, I was present for another "happening" related to it.

Whitney is part of a group of ladies that I scrapbook with occasionally in the Stoverstown area. One time, not long after her mom passed, Whitney looked at the door of the room we meet in and said, "It feels like she's just going to walk in at any minute and join us." The amazing thing? The door opened a bit, then softly closed. Now, this is a HEAVY outside door - and it hadn't even been cracked before. Needless to say, all of us there were pretty shocked.

Now, I'm sure there are some of you who don't believe in ghosts. I'm not one of them. I believe that I have seen things that were a bit out of the ordinary. When I was about 8 or 9 years old, at the house I grew up in (on Blackberry Road in northern Dover Township), I walked out of our bathroom, heading through my parents' room to go downstairs. As I walked into Mom's room, there was a woman standing at her dresser, looking into one of Mom's jewelry boxes. As Mom certainly had friends at the house on occasion, I didn't think much of it. The woman turned to me and said, clear as day, "You're Joan's daughter." Again, I didn't think much of it, just said, "Yes," and went on my way. Later, I asked my mom who the lady was - imagine my surprise when, as I described her, Mom told me that was HER mom, who died long before I was born, and who I'd never seen a picture of. And the jewelry box the woman had been looking at had been my grandmom's.

Strange things do happen in York County, and that one made a "ghost believer" out of me. So when I read the stories in this month's "Remember" installment, all I could think was, "Oh, thank goodness I'm not crazy."

How about it? Ghosts? Yes or no? Vote below, and leave a comment if you've had any kind of supernatural/paranormal experience!

Check out this awesome Wall Street Journal article about composting - including worm composting, with worms provided by a Spring Grove business!

Here's video of the composting process, including the worms at work:

What do you think? Are you into composting at all? (Hubby is!) But what about the worm aspect? I kind of draw the line there...

Yesterday evening, Hubby, Sarah and I took Coby the dog for a LONG walk on the rail trail.

We parked at Brillhart Station and headed two miles to the Howard Tunnel to find our next letterbox (this was No. 6), then hiked back.

What a walk! Even the dog was beat by the end. Here are Coby and Sarah at the tunnel (halfway point).

The good news is, while walking, we ran into my doctor and a friend, also walking. So next time he says I should exercise more... Hahaha!

Jo was kind enough to invite me to a recent apple butter-making weekend in North Codorus Township, which I ended up getting ill and missing.

But she was then even more kind and shared some photos of the two-day event with me. Take a look:

One of our recent Eight for Eight hikes took us to Raab Park in North Codorus Township, home of the former York Iron Co. iron mines - and a lot of bats, who hibernate in the old mine adits in the winter.

Besides seeing views like this, of huge drops made from the remains of former quarries, we saw the results of some recent archaeology camps for kids. The stuff they found was pretty neat - pieces of old buildings, old railroad tracks from the railroads that served the mines, all sorts of neat stuff.

It was one of the county parks that I'd never been to, so it was doubly neat. I'd definitely like to go back!

Found while surfing Flickr:

Some scenic views of York County by Flickr user Veender, of Lancaster County.

I especially like his restored cabin near Hallam and fields outside Jefferson.

(If you know of someone who's taking York County photos or video, let me know, because I'd love to share via the blog.)

Next in a series of profiles originally published by the Daily Record in 2002, from Census 2000 information.

Welcome to Jackson Township. At the time of the 2000 Census, 33 percent of residents 16 and older worked in manufacturing jobs, the fifth-highest such percentage in the county.

Up next will be southwestern York County's West Manheim Township!