The Empty & Closed Town of Hobbitville - Rainy Day In Salt Lake City / Allen Park Sugar House
Hobbitville in Salt Lake City
Transcript
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welcome everyone adam the woo here has
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the recording of this monday june 13th
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2022 wearing an appropriate t-shirt
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half of
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dobby the house elf
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face
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from the
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harry potter franchise
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i am going
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to hobbitview which is located really
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close to the corner of
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1300 east and downington avenue i have
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parked on not a through street
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and right off of the semi-busy
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thoroughfare
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is a legend of salt lake city
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folklore in history
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into a magical place of hobbitville
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i will be going it is right
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past that fence line and as always in
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these adventures i'm inviting you to
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join me he's a free elf
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now i know an elf is not a hobbit
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and
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but it's the closest appropriate t-shirt
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i had packed on this
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journey that i have been on i have been
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gone for a heck of a long time from
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celebration florida
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i'm in utah right now wearing a kind of
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appropriate t-shirt for hobbinville join
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me it's also rainy 55 degrees give or
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take
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wet and cool and crisp
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shall you and the reason i parked on
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that side road is because even though
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visitors
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are now welcome here on trails and
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natural lands public lands
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in salt lake city there is no parking
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right here
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in this area
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so i had to park a just a city street
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over now i was here probably about eight
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or nine ten years ago
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really did not document this
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thoroughly
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or in the proper fashion
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so i am back to see what has changed now
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these gates
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are open as of right now but since the
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last time i was here about a decade ago
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they had closed it off
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fenced it off locked it down and there
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are even some rumors
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that when people would try to jump over
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the fence some of the caretakers of the
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property
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would run them off
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in certain by certain means
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i don't know if that's true and i i just
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love stories and folklore like that
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too low they build
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who built beneath the stars
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that is what is written on that concrete
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slab
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right here and you can see
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people watching over the property this
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is pretty exciting
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to be wandering through here on a wet
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cool crisp
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utahian day
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utah day
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a day in utah
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it's just going to be a casual video
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a little walk through if you will
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this is pretty neat
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see god in the clouds or hear
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him in the land
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and you can really see why they refer to
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this
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or it was given the name hobbitville
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because it looks like hobbits
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lived here
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and according to what i was reading
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there were homes here and people did
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live on this property
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right here at allen park drive this is
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now
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just known as allen park you cannot
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drive down this road
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and certain areas you can't even get
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over to like it looks like i can't walk
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over there unless that gate is unlocked
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even though there is a chair and a table
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back there
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just as i suspected
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there's a lock on that one we'll not be
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hopping over the fence
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a little apartment complex right next
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door
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to where the hobbits resided
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obviously lord of the rings
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probably one of the most famous hobbit
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tales
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and then of course the hobbit
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which i remember reading that i had like
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a a book
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when i was young of the hobbit even
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before
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the movies and all that there is a
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peacock walking across the top of that
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roof
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look at that there's a peacock walking
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across the top
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of that roof up there
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that is awesome
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i think the rain really does add to the
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ambiance of this
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all nature is but art
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i see there is a bench here can't i get
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over to the bench
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these new fences have been put up a very
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beautiful rock fountain pond here
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no water in it oh there's another
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peacock over here
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next to they were cones
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do you have a hobbit name
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do you embrace the hobbitisms
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of this area
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yeah you see some of the remnants down
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here
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what was once here some of the rock
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formation the benches
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it looks like it's been kind of sort of
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mode
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pretty fascinating
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seems to be quite a few peacocks i've
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already seen two
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but there are
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murmurings of others
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in the area but one is perched right up
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top there
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right at the pinnacle you have chosen
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the perfect spot
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to roost
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this archway is awesome
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i do have to wonder what they're going
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to do with this property
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what makes me think that is so where the
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fences are obviously
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still part of the same park see there's
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a port-a-potty there there's some
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construction looks like there's been
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some demolition
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over there in the distance
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and i i'm curious if they torn down
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some of the former buildings
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and if that's going to continue i hope
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not because this is a pretty fantastic
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place a magical place
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i mean any place that hobbits lived
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hope i almost just tripped on that
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little speed hump there
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okay this even has an address so this is
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one three one eight
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and one three two zero
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so one three one eight was on the second
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floor
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look at the wood banisters leading up
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the staircase there
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i like the theming a lot
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and it looks as if the door on the side
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that wooden door
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adjacent up the stairs
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is completely open you'll be able to get
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in there that's probably why
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we decided to put the fences up
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just to keep people from snooping around
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going in where they're not supposed to
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go in
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a few other people just walking by out
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there a lot of people walk through here
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just to get a stroll
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okay here's some sort of cage
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possibly a pair it was down in there
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and it's always nice when you see these
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little placards these information
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items
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accomplishments of dr george allen
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dr george allen is who we can thank for
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this area
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he is the one that created what is known
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as hobbit land
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the allens grew to family from two to
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six
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the allens purchased the eight acre
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piece of land that allen sits on allen
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park sits on originally farmland
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they transformed their home into an
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urban
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oasis
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he also helped establish the tracy o
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aviary almost said the different word
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the zoo and zoological society here in
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the area and served as the president for
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the sugar house chamber of commerce
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and that is what this building is known
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as
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some call it the sugar house
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where dr george allen
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resided
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there's another home up there
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on the ledge of that
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hill over there some more writings on
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the concrete kind of tough to tell what
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it says
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something about
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should something shall never
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something something a tree
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the raindrops falling on the umbrella
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soothing sounds
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the bird chirping in the distance
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oh up on the roof
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are three or four metal geese see if i
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can zoom in on this
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so you got the real bird up top there
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the peacock but then you also have these
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fake metal ones
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oh there's a squirrel hello squirrely
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coming over my way squirrel
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hello there
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come on over squirrel say hi
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you recognize who's on my shirt it's
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dobby the house elf he's a free elf
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i thought that squirrel was gonna like
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go over and say hi to dobby on my torso
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i always like when animals squirrels and
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stuff come up and say hi
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up there there's a squirrel up there
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it's the same one
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there's a very friendly and
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rambunctious squirrel
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i see you squirrel
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there's me in the
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reflection of the window
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man it'd be so cool to be able to go in
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this house
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but as stated of the other property
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or the other home
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there are
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addresses so that's this is 1338
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so probably a searchable address
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there's a squirrel still up look at that
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squirrel's going up the side of the roof
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way up there
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okay the squirrel just went into a hole
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in the roof
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the squirrel has gone in the house
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inside a hole on top of the roof
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and it appears as if there was a pool
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adjacent to the sugar house
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fall into disrepair but quite a piece of
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history
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i bet living here back in the day was
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pretty dang awesome
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you walk out of the house go over here
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take a dip in the pool
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a lot more standing here than i was
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expecting i really expected not to be a
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whole lot of
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facades like this
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but there's a lot to
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look at and explore
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this old metal fencing here
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love this kind of stuff
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see the foundation has buckled there
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now this looks like something out of
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wizard of oz and the tornado hit if i
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just see the
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wicked witch's feet down there
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just kind of giving me those vibes
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i'm really glad i brought this umbrella
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it was like a hundred percent chance of
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rain today so i grabbed the umbrella
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well i was in my car
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kind of backtracking a bit because i
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missed all this
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oh my gosh this is a bridge down here
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a decayed falling in bridge
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with the address 1343
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leading up to a cabin a desolate
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cabin back there
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wow
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remnants of hobbitville
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look at that bridge going over the river
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and this was a real neighborhood at one
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time
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cars would drive through here you still
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see where it says slow please
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back around to that
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that home and this
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has lost its head
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this concrete animal has no noggin
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anymore
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the noggin
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is gone now sometimes when a horseshoe
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is upside down or right side up it is
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either lucky or unlucky when it's above
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a door frame
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this is kind of sidewise
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so it's up for
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opinion on whether that's lucky or
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unlucky looking at this pool now i am
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not a skater
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i mean i could get on a skateboard i
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could kind of hold my own going straight
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but i can't really jump off of anything
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or you know do any tricks or anything
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like that
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you know i had a bad experience on a
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bike going down a slide once it would
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probably end even worse if i was to take
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a skateboard in that pool plus
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it is frowned upon it even says right
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here no skateboarding because the first
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impression
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anyone who's proficient on a board would
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have would be like that would be a
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really awesome skate spot
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oh to see this one
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upside down
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this one right side up
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seeing this back in his heyday or being
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here would have been pretty dang awesome
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there is a deer oh my gosh
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there's a deer over here okay i'm zoomed
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way in but there are two deer
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look at that two wild deer
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oh that is amazing that deer is eating
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a piece of foliage
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both the deers it's a steer coming over
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my way
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the deer just made eye contact with okay
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the deer hears me talking
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hey dear
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i don't know if that deer is going to
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make its way over here if it's just have
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a little snack
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okay the deer hears
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the peacock
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i'm very friendly here
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i might get a little closer okay here
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i don't know what to do i've never
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experienced this before
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i don't know if this is
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if they approach what should i do i mean
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but imagine they're friendly but i don't
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know i'm not
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an expert on deers
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this isn't
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so freaking cool
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okay you going away dears
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okay they're gone oh my gosh that was
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awesome
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i'm gonna be thinking about that for a
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while that was that was like a magic
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moment
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might not seem much or translate much to
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video but being that close to those
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beautiful creatures just wandering
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through the woods
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making eye contact with them is pretty
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there's another one of the old homes
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older buildings down there
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i just noticed my camera was on a weird
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setting so it might have been kind of
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kind of washed out a little bit but i
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think i got it corrected
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might not be too noticeable but
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i did notice and change one of the
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settings so should be
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back to its usual
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usual look now
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so it was a little washed out before
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that's why
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but i have
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corrected it
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you've
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always been the caretaker
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i was so excited by the deer
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if i wasn't paying attention to any of
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the settings were correct
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i must have like
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turned it with my thumb or finger
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without noticing
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it could all just could just all be in
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my mind too it might not have been
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noticeable
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and this creek also has a history as
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well
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the early 1800s building boom
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prominently the extraction of red and
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white sandstone in this canyon an
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electric railway system was in salt
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installed
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in 1907.
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a little waterfall down there
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they have sealed off the well the
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wishing well
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whenever i see a well i always
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want to throw a quarter or coin in there
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and get the snow white vibes
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that looks like snow white's wishing
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obviously the one at disneyland
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only goes down a few feet and there's a
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grate over that one probably goes way
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down
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into the ground very unsafe if that was
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open if you were to fall into that
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okay this fireplace says mary rose
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on the side of it
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and it looks to be an outdoor fireplace
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as well as an indoor
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that's interesting the fireplace
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is on the outdoor
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of 1401 allen park also
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is a bird sanctuary in the city
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well maybe not almond park but allen
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park has some information about a bird
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sanctuary
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being in the city you could see some
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cedar wax wings some cooper hawks
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cooper's hawks
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and maybe even a european european
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starling
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out here probably on a
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much less drizzly and sunnier day
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they're probably all nested up right now
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an entire housing development
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now behind a new fence off limits
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to visitors but
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it is a city park and you are allowed to
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walk where i am walking which
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for many years
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was not allowed
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i am thankful to be able to traverse
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through here
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and have reached what looks to be like
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the end of the development hobbitville
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into a cul-de-sac a roundabout
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here at this end
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the very unique
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item here in the middle
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this rain on my camera is probably not
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healthy for the
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for the equipment i'm using but
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as you walk the quiet paths of allen
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park you will find dozen of concrete
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monuments
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and set with mosaic artwork dr allen
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created these in his later years sharing
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his passion for poetry with the visit
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with his visitors aha
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according to his daughter mary rose that
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was her house with the fireplaces said
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mary rose
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they'd find discarded tile in local tile
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stores dumpsters
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and they would use that
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to put the wording
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on the mosaic poetry
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i love that
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a rendition of a guy holding a fish with
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a very unique hat on
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1436.
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see the wires up there where the lamp
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used to be
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kind of protruding out of the top of
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that metal pipe 1419 has a sphere in
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front by the staircase
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also some deer
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on the sign that says 1419 there's also
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these pots of these little bowls around
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that are placed here
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possibly for the peacocks possibly for
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the deer
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maybe other animals but they are kind of
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scattered around too the caretaker
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leaving food and
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water or other substances out for
24:05
for the animals to eat which is nice
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or possibly just a little rock wall to
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keep people from
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falling down over there into the water
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which is behind this little poem
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and there's another look at that bridge
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another bridge that leads over to a
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house that is unaccessible at the moment
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wooden bridge
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tucked away back there over the river
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used to be a garden of some sort but the
25:08
painted rocks there
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entryway to the garden
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through that and then a couple seats
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in fact you can kind of make out the
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words here saying something about a
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garden
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or concrete
25:29
poetic sag
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oh that peacock is still perched up
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there look at that
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peacock has not moved and here's another
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damaged archway
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leading down these stairs
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little fake relics of these
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concrete stairs and you got like some
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sort of archway here that could have
26:28
gone up and over and then connected back
26:31
with this piece
26:32
of the archway these stairs would have
26:34
gone down to the stream down there
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the sugar house behind me
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probably would have been a good place
26:49
for a house elf
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however
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dobby is free
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nice meeting you and your dear friends
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too
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there is an etiquette when in allen park
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allen park is home to unique artworks
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historical structures and wild birds
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use quiet voices allow others to enjoy
27:47
the nature sounds
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walk your bicycle
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lock it at the front of the property
27:54
look and take pictures
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that do not touch
27:58
like no dogs are allowed
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close to dogs
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there was a council meeting on july 20th
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doesn't have a year
28:10
but said no more dogs
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peacocks are allowed though and that's
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gonna do it for today
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again
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a little bit different type of video a
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rainy overcast
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wet dreary cold 50 degrees here in salt
28:31
lake city
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day
28:34
exploring hobbitville