One woman, Dianne Bowders of York Township, posted a really interesting set of photos of buildings around York County, complete with detailed captions, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Ye Olde York Valley Inn

Dianne writes: "Ye Olde York Valley Inn was originally built between 1738-1747 in Springettsbury Township. The early stone inn was located 2.5 miles east of York near the site of WalMart along the Lincoln Highway/Route 30. George Washington and the Marquis de LaFayette were among its early visitors. Proprietor rules for the inn included that no more than five could sleep in a bed, and that boots were not to be worn while in bed. In 1962, a large portion of the stone inn was moved from its original location to Susquehanna Memorial Gardens in York Township where it serves as the cemetery office." Read more on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, 1730s York Valley Inn may outlast its namesake.

Billmeyer House

Dianne writes: "A front view of the beautiful Victorian Italianate York House or Billmeyer House, built by Charles Billmeyer in 1863. The house is part of the First Presbyterian Church complex. Thirty-five years ago the Church petitioned to tear down this blighted landmark. The restoration began after a prolonged battle between the Church and York's Historic Architectural Review Board who refused to grant permission to destroy the home. The home now stands as a beautiful testament to preservation." I've seen this spelled both Billmeyer and Billmyer - not sure which is now accepted! For more on it under any name, read Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Colonial York, Pa.? No, try Victorian York, Pa.

John Wright House

Dianne writes: "John Wright, Jr., built this ferry house and tavern about 1736 on the western shore of the Susquehanna River to meet the needs of westward moving travelers. Up to 150 to 200 wagons would line up in Columbia to await Wright's Ferry, often waiting several days before crossing to the west bank, now Wrightsville. The early Wright's Ferry consisted of two dugout canoes fastened together with carriage wheels. Cattle were were led across the River with the canoeist holding the rope for the lead animal, guiding others to follow. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is privately owned." Read more about Wrightsville's past in Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, There's more right with Wrightsville than wrong.

Dritt Mansion

Dianne writes: "Historic Pleasant Garden, or the Dritt Mansion/Zimmerman Center for Heritage, was built about 1738, the year when settlers streamed across the Susquehanna River. The land was first owned by Thomas Cressap and a log fort was constructed near this site (1729) to prevent settlement on the west side of the River. The Georgian style mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located about 3.5 miles south of Wrightsville at Long Level and is now owned by the York-Lancaster Heritage Region. On the first Friday of each month, the Susquehanna River Art exhibit is open for viewing." Read more about the Dritt family on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Native Americans help clean up Dritt family cemetery in new York County park.

Wallace-Cross Mill

Dianne writes: "Built in 1826 in East Hopewell Township, the mill once operated 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places it is now part of York County Parks and Recreation and is open for tours during part of the summer and on special miller days. The miller's house sits on the hill above the mill." Read more about the mill on Jim McClure's York Town Square blog post, Pioneering sisters operated York County grist mill.

Thank you, Dianne, for sharing these photos! Have any of my readers been to these places? Cross Mill in particular is on my "Top 10" list to visit next summer, and I'd love to hear about your experiences there or elsewhere, so leave me a comment!

Well, I got the greatest compliment yesterday! My sister Carol called from New Jersey and told me she was making it for dinner!

So of course, you know what I asked her... if she could send me a picture for the blog! And she did. Yum!

Now I'm excited to cook this again. And I think I want to find some more recipes that use Catalina dressing, because I like the taste a lot.

I don't normally do this, but I am hoping to engage in some gratuitous self-promotion here on the blog and get some feedback from you, loyal readers, in the process.

Here's the deal:

I have four "big things" going on online right now - two on the blog here, and two elsewhere. Here, in no particular order, they are:

1. Next week, I'll be guest-blogging for a good virtual friend and fellow Yorker, Debbie Jordan Kravitz, a professional organizer. I'll make sure to post a link when my post is up over there, but rest assured - if you're a neat freak like me, I think you'll love it!

2 and 3. I've got two new "blog series" ideas that I'm going to kick off as soon as possible - hopefully by the end of this month. I've gotten great response to series posts like yorkisms and what stores used to be. The two new series are also going to be occasional and, hopefully, very reader-interactive.

They are:

First, an ABCs of York County. I'll be taking suggestions each week for York County icons that begin with a particular letter, then we'll post a poll and let everyone vote for which gets to "own" that letter. Just think about it. Is S for Shoe House or Scrapple? And is A for apple butter, like that seen above, or the Accomac Inn? This should be fun.

Second, we'll do Names Around Town. Who was A.B. Farquhar and why did we name a park after him? Who is Norman A. Trimmer, for whom my daughter's school is named? (I don't even know the answer to that second one - yet!) We'll find out together, and again, I'll be taking suggestions as well as working through some good sources, like names in county parks and schools.

4. Finally, I am just finishing up something cool for the newspaper's Web site - a new user-submitted photo gallery. This is a great way for you to share your photos, whether you're in York now, from York but living elsewhere, or just a friend of mine with cool pictures. Hahaha! This is another case where I'm asking for your help! Remember the apple butter boil picture above by Jo? Well, she's helping me out by filling up the gallery with some of her great photos before its official launch. I'd love for ALL my readers to do the same. Just go here, click on "Submit photo," and fill out the form. And, of course, let me know if you have any problems or questions!

So what do you think? Willing to stick around with me for some more fun blog adventures? I'm really looking forward to it!

Go vote!

And check back to our Election Central home page throughout the night for the latest vote totals, videos, photos, stories and more.

That's all for your public-service announcement for the day.

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!

Starting today, the York County Heritage Trust Auxiliary is selling Schermer Pecans.

From now till Dec. 31, the trust said in a news release, you can buy 16 oz. bags of mammoth pecan halves and holiday-wrapped 12 oz. bags of chocolate-covered pecans, pecan-caramel clusters and cinnamon-glazed pecans for $8 each.

Pecans can be purchased from auxiliary members or at the Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St. in York, or by calling 848-1587, ext. 210.

If you're a marketgoer, there will be a sales table at Central Market from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays from Nov. 5 to Dec. 17 and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays from Nov. 7 to Dec. 19. Want to know more? Call 764-8782, 854-4209 or 757-1051.

Proceeds from the sale benefit the auxiliary's youth programs - the Junior Docents and the Junior Curators.

And, um, YUM! Eat up. Why is it that everything tasty is soooo fattening? I could eat a whole bag of these at once.

Well, that blog post ran in this week's Living section, and once it did, I got a letter from Julie Brown of Spring Garden Township. She wrote:

"Our neighborhood in Spring Garden Twp. has a booing going on every year. The kids love it! They can't wait to go out after dark, knock on the neighbor's door and run as fast as they can so as not to get caught. And even more than that they anxiously await a knock on our door and go running to see if we've been booed and what goodies there are. This year, as my kids were putting on their shoes the other night to go get
the booing started, there was a knock at our door and we were booed first. It
was pretty funny!"

The picture with this post is Julie's; she says it shows what her family put into the "boos" for their friends this year. The funny thing is, in the boo we received, we got one of those cups! :-)

If you're celebrating, have a safe and happy Halloween!

So, while I'm off partying and cheering, here's a look at some interesting sites featuring Yorkers:

· Chris on the AT is Chris Sheaffer's log of his hike southward on the Appalachian Trail - all 2,167 miles. Chris is a 2002 Central York High School grad. Read more about his undertaking here.

· A magazine for professional truckers honored a Windsor man, Jim Waltemyer, for 37 years of safe, accident-free driving. He hauls Federal Express freight.

· Speaking of vehicles, if you haven't seen the work of Prueitt and Sons auto restoration of Glen Rock, you're missing out. They do amazing things. Check out their "In Progress" photo gallery.

· Here are the memories of many Yorkers about S&H Green Stamps. Expect more from me on that subject in a future post, but in the meantime, if you remember those, leave me a comment!

Have you spotted news about Yorkers elsewhere? Let me know, because I'd love to feature it on the blog. And, it bears repeating - Go Phillies!

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...

Well, for those of you who guessed - Tracey was right - he was a crayfish! (She said crawdad, but hey, same difference!)

Notice I said "was."

Yeah, Ray is no more. He's a late crayfish. He's pushin' up the daisies. He's an ex-crayfish. You get my drift.

Now, since we spent a decent chunk of change on the nice habitat for him, we're left with a dilemma: What can we get instead? We'd like another aquatic or semi-aquatic pet that requires not too much care but that has a little bit of personality.

We're thinking about a turtle. Any thoughts on that, or other suggestions? Leave me a comment!

Now, see, nice people of West Manchester Township? This is why you should let Joan get a goat! It would have to look better than our lawn looks now!

He didn't know what dippy eggs were. And it took him some time to understand getting his drink served "awhile."

Clearly, all of my faithful readers need to go leave Sean some York County comment-love. (I saw that Jo already did!)

And in case you, too, are clueless... read more about dippy eggs here and read more about "awhile" here.

I was out sick the last couple of days and am coming in late to the Snyder's/Utz deal hoopla.

But of course I can't let a snack food story go unnoticed on the blog! What do you guys think? Is the whole Snyder's-buys-Utz thing going to be good for York County snackers?

And, of course, what should the new company be called? Snutz? Mike Argento says Synutz. I was trying to come up with something that plays on "schnitz," which is, of course, an original York snack!

C'mon. Weigh in!

My answer to come in a future post!

Among the activities:

· Anyone 14 and older can participate in fitness classes and use the fitness center.
· A free seminar, "What You Can Do About Your Cancer Risk," will be offered by Wellspan from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday.
· Free blood-pressure checks will be offered by Dover Ambulance from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday
· Free chair massages will be offered by Touch Of Life on Wednesday morning and evening.

There will also be refreshments and daily prize drawings. Want to know more? Call the Y at 292-5622.