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You Are On: About Us Page 1
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About Us Page 2
Page 3
WHERE ON EARTH?
(new monthly photos below
the 1st 2 paragraphs)
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Here is a sunset photo we took near our new
home that houses our entire business..

and the Sunset oil painting our customer
Sandra created from this photo that now graces our bedroom as a headboard
to the bed, and the teak elephants:

and
another painting of Sandra's that we purchased and hung in the bedroom
also, of a pier ocean sunset: 
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| AS OF
12/31/03, we no longer need a
storefront and have gone to strictly our net business, thanks to our online
customers!
WE
CAN EXPLAIN THE WEIRD STUFF IN OUR STORE! REALLY!
Glenn Reed used to have a shop in
Myrtle Beach of shark and marine related items. He closed the shop in
1994 and "went walkabout" with Darel, his beloved wife, for the
remaining years of her life with M.S., meeting Heidi Lee who had been
doing arts & crafts shows with her line of jackets, scarves and
jewelry. Heidi joined the "family" with Glenn, Darel and
their two cats, and for the next four years, they both cared for Darel.
They combined their businesses, traveling in a Class A motor home, touring
the country while doing 40-50 arts & crafts shows per year, with the
wire-wrapped shark's teeth and gemstone bead necklaces Glenn was now
making and Heidi's work with something for everyone!
Prior travels of Glenn and Darel have
included 54 countries covering all continents except South America.
This included 8 summers chaperoning high school students on a six-week
educational tour of Europe. Road trips of the new "family"
resembled what they called the "poor Charles Kuralt
tour-with-no-sponsor" as they found the back roads and small towns
that ALWAYS hid fascinating people, stories and treasures just waiting to
be discovered. Darel enjoyed every bit of it - an ever-changing
scenery of interesting things that kept her mind more active than
most. Glenn had already been "an avid collector with a short
attention span", so when they all settled in Boulder City, Nevada
(midway between Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam) there were oodles of weird
things in the store right away. They have since added considerably
to the shop's inventory with things that "wowed" them.
Darel's condition merited staying put, hence the choice to open the store
instead of traveling further.
The store was educational in nature,
for all ages, with self-guided information cards throughout the store
describing where things were made/obtained, and how they were made.
If they don't make it themselves, they either know the artist &
technique or have dug the materials and met the miners themselves!
Their store was on the Approved List for educational sites for field trips
in the Clark County School District. During the school year, they
gave weekly educational seminars on varieties of the way-too-cool stuff in
the store.
The store theme was to display
beautiful things from all eras and continents for others to see, learn
from and perhaps purchase. We hope you enjoy the "mentally
nutritious journey" through the website in the same way.
Darel passed away in June of 2000 in
Nevada. She was a gentle soul with admirable stamina under the
circumstances - she is sorely missed. For those of you that knew her
and her struggle with M.S., she never allowed the disease to beat her, and
fought right up to the very end. She died with a sense of
fulfillment - she knew that she had touched at least one child's life and
made a difference. It turns out that she did that many times over,
as so many of you parents know from the experiences your children had in
their contact with Darel.
Heidi comments that Glenn's faithful
care of Darel kept her comfortable right to the last, keeping his promise
that she never be put in a nursing home. Not an easy promise to
keep, especially those last few years. Many never knew what an
effort this took. A quote from one of Glenn's friends was "what
a statement that makes about the kind of persons we all can
be". How true.
Glenn and Heidi got married in June
of 2001 (classic drive-up chapel, Las Vegas style wedding!!) and continued
to run the store successfully. After 9/11, which changed the Hoover
Dam tourist traffic considerably, they decided by 2002, for several
reasons, to relocate back to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area.
The Nevada store had been open for 3 years by the time they packed it down
and moved. They opened the store in Myrtle Beach in June of 2002 for
18 months, at which time the website and Ebay business had grown
phenomenally so they could not justify keeping the storefront open.
So they closed it down and have been running the net biz from their lovely
country home, 20 minutes drive from the beach, since December of
2003. They continue to travel and come home with new weird things
every time, they can't seem to stop!
So now you know "the rest of the
story". We trust you will enjoy the growing inventory you see
on the website, even the past photos of the 2 stores, and latest
travels. Welcome aboard! |
| JULY
2008
Fourth of July, our flag is waving proudly

Every afternoon we have a big thunderstorm,
here is the view off the back porch of the cameo building and the
dinosaurs in the back yard through the torrential rain pouring out of the eave troughs

One of our wild kitties, enjoying the coolness
of the swing

Our fat, well fed raccoon family eating the
cat food under the umbrella that keeps it dry. Glenn took these
photos from his office window with the zoom lens


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| MAY/JUNE
2008
We have known of a mother black bear and 3
cubs that have been visiting our side yard every night. Now they are
visiting the yard during the day!

The young male (we think it's a male because
he's bigger than the other 2 cubs and usually feeds separately. Here
he is standing guard at the crossover path at the ditch:



It looks like the bear is smelling the flower,
when in reality the hibiscus bush is considerably closer to the camera:
And taking baths in the bear
pool...together! One cub entered the pool, then mama, then another
cub..I don't know why the side of the pool (which is a boy's plastic car
bed) didn't split. We'll have to write the manufacturer and tell
them how sturdy it is!


Then exploring a short ways beyond the
hibiscus bush "barrier" before realizing they were "out of
bounds"..

Here is Mama bear that came alone this
morning. She has apparently broken her left front ankle which has a
large lump on it (or a snake bite), we have noticed since she began
coming, as she limps but can put weight on it. We hope it heals
without an infection, we will continue to worry.
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| A
rare sighting for South Carolina! A wood stork (Mycteria americana),
usually found only in Georgia and Florida, wingspan up to 5 feet across,
striking black & white wing markings, has been visiting the pond down
our road. What a treat!


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| A
small type of wren is building a nest in our barn birdfeeder!

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| This
year's flowers are flourishing, thanks to Glenn's generous fertilizing
with Miracle-Gro. Japonica camellia, wildflowers, yellow calla lily,
rose:


Day lilies that grew like weeds, 5 feet tall!





Hibiscus:
One of the flourishing flower beds:
Mimosa blooms, resembling an exotic Fourth of
July fireworks, from a tree down the road:

June
23, 2008 The Texas Rose (a species of Hibiscus) began blooming
yesterday. The blooms are as big as dinner plates. We have
been awaiting their arrival. Many more to come, the stems are over 5
feet tall with a dozens of blooms on each of the five stalks. A
testament to Miracle-Gro, I'm sure, and Glenn's loving hands:

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| Mama
cat deposited one tiger striped kitty on our porch carpet with a clear
message - help! She apparently didn't have enough milk for her whole
litter this time. This is our "stray cat"...one of
them. So we fed the little female with kitty formula first with a
bottle, a large spoon, then a saucer. We discovered that baby
kitties don't immediately figure out the right angle to lap milk, they
tend to inhale milk from a bowl while trying to drink. So now we
know why a kitty will step INTO a plate to drink from the far edge of the
milk, so its nose is out of the milk. We also treated the baby's
eyes, she has steadily improved and can hardly be called one of our
pampered "stray" cats anymore, as she romps up to the porch as
soon as she sees us step out in the morning. Notice the evolution of
progress:


Here's my tough big guy:
Little Miss Bitty Kitty checking out the
sprinkler head:

Mama boots, with her litter and a couple
of her mother's (Big Mama's) litter. Boots' litter is 2 weeks older
than Big Mama's litter:

Big Mama lapping milk with the kitties:

Big Mama, acting lovey, and another female we
call Mrs. Black who did not bear a litter this year, thank goodness!
Update 6/14/08 This kitty has now
disappeared, the casualty of one of the many predators in these
woods. We are glad we had some time to help a young creature,
however long her life. Fat
& sassy raccoons (there are 5 or 6) share the space under the storage
building, and the cat food amicably with the cats. The umbrella
keeps the food dry..another pampering by Glenn:

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| June 18, 2008
Friends Frank, Cathy, their kids Josh, Noah and baby Danielle during
their annual visit, posed under Mr. Cave Bear, and photos from the Fresh
Catch Seafood Restaurant down the road

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| MARCH
2008
The
hyacinths, azaleas, irises and crocuses have been out for a couple of
weeks already, here in South Carolina, here's one of our hyacinths..

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|
February 10, 2008
Open letter from Glenn:
It is with a very distinct
amount of pleasure that I make my following intentions known to our loyal
customers, friends and fellow business associates.
I have reached a point in my
life where I have had the pleasure of building a very successful
business. My ever-growing curiosity over the past 38 years has led
me to the far reaches of the earth, pursuing my dream of finding the
strangest, most bizarre oddities that you see on our website.
These past 11 years, Heidi has
been involved in my business. Early on, our businesses were combined,
creating another whole dimension encompassing many beautiful categories of
things we have found from new travels together.
So I have decided it's time to
hand over the reins of this partnership to my lovely and capable wife
Heidi, making her the sole proprietor of Where on Earth effective
retroactively to January 2008.
I will continue to support
Heidi, but in a much different role. This change in management will
allow me more time to pursue other creative choices. Working on
gator skulls and cameos and restoring our cave bear skeleton is like putting together model planes and cars
that I never got to play with as a kid, now I can do so with even less
distractions...

One weekend's work with cameos
& eyeglass loops: 
I hope you will
join me in further support and interest in Where on Earth as we continue
our travels to find the unusual, as well as educational endeavors.
As a sign of her mutual
interest, she has taken a quantum leap in the new direction of the future
of Where on Earth. Heidi has made her first sole selection, a large
addition to our outstanding collection. It is with admiration and
love that I share with you and showcase - Direct from Romania - The
Romanian Cave Bear Collection (link below)
Cave Bear Fossils
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| AUGUST
2007 |
| The
strangest, largest grasshopper we've ever seen (at least 3" long,
yikes!), on a leaf near our back porch:
Anyone have more information on this creature?
Thanks to Theresa in Nova Scotia, she identified this as an Eastern
Lubber Grasshopper. Thanks! |
| Yellow
mushrooms sprouted overnight:

and a lovely white wildflower sprouted nearby:

Glenn came home with a 50 pound
watermelon. It took the two of us a week to eat, but eat it we did!

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| JUNE-JULY
2007 |
| This
is as close as the bear has walked to my office window, early one morning:
A rare day visit by big papa bear, he usually
comes at night. Magnificent.

THE BEAR BATH
The juvenile (over 200 pound) bear actually
sat in this white Tupperware water dish one day in July, he was so
hot. We took pity, and found a boy's plastic car bed, sealed the
screw holes, and filled it with water. It only took two days for Mr.
Bear to decide to take a bath, a ritual he performs at least once a day:




Today he was a good boy and cleaned his claws
during his bath (smile):

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| BEARS
EATING
They go from the cracked deer corn pile, to
the cat food, and back again




What big PAWS you have:

Carrying off a half a bagel we put out for the
coons:

Occasionally stopping to scratch an itch:

Heading over to the cat food for dessert:
On the far right you can see one of the cats
eating from the large dish, this is a daily occurrence. A few times
the bear has playfully chased the cat, who is not alarmed but plays along:

Just for fun, he stretched high on the tree,
reached around and knocked off the tree face, then sat and played with it
(no damage done):
We finally figured out why the fence rail was
broken, it wasn't deer jumping the fence at all!

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| A
rare visit by two juvenile bears, not necessarily siblings. One
stayed at the corn, one at the cat food, then warily changed places:


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| A
shy deer visited the yard during the day:

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| Just
one of many van loads full of flowers:

The tiger canna lilies are awesome that Glenn
planted for the first time this year:

Note the fly on the left side that has lit on
the petal:

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| The
hibiscus "trees" we planted have bloomed phenomenally this year,
even we can't believe how large and how many blooms have come out:





An interesting beetle on this hibiscus:

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| Our
bushes bloomed in July (single & doubles), my memory of the name of
these bushes escapes me (a type of myrtle?) not azaleas:
and the Crepe Myrtle bushes:

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| Our
red "Mary Jane look-alike" plant blooms beautiful red flowers:

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| We
found a few strands of Spanish moss in the woods 4 years ago, transplanted
it to this tree in our front yard, here are the results:


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| Glenn
weed whipping in the gentle rain, around the dinosaurs:

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| Our
Texas Rose (hibiscus family), the blooms are the size of dinner plates!

Below you will note Glenn enjoying the fruits
of his labors, from the comfort of the swing

We peek outside each morning, wondering what
new blooms have arrived. |
| Tiny
yellow flower clusters & berries bloom in our "island" in
the side yard. Note the visiting ant in the 2nd photo:

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| Also
an incredible array of day lilies, thanks to Glenn's hard work of planting
and nurturing:






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| And
our "fall mums" blooming in July:

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| Beautiful
bouquets of flowers in the flowerbed:

Fooled you! These ones are glass:

Wildflowers blooming in the side yard that
Glenn planted earlier:

Few roses, but here were two beauties:

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| And
a Japonica bloom from the bush beside the front porch, just one bloom
fills the air with a delicious heady perfume:

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| A
photo of a mimosa bloom from friends Bob & Laura's tree when we were
there for supper:

|
| Ok
so we had a weird mushroom this day:

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| Our
two of our herd of cats, descendants of Hairball who is with us no
longer. The gray cat we call Gray Ghost is the alpha cat of the
group. They are still semi-wild but enjoy regular meals thanks to
Glenn:

Close up, then panning away so you can see how
invisible the cat is where she is hiding:

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| Let's
not forget the family of raccoons raised under our storage building, they,
the cats and the possums eat comfortably within sight of the bears.

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| Our
favorite Sherman's Fox squirrel, accompanied by red cardinals and blue
jays makes for a pleasant view from my office window:

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| Glenn's
June birthday, a morning surprise visit from our neighbors Craig &
Lisa and family, they trooped over in their bathrobes to make us feel
right at home. Cake by Craig. As good as it gets.
We won't say how old he is, but he got his
first train, thanks to good friends in Virginia. A kid at
heart. Nothing wrong with that.

Another gift of tree faces to make the woods a
special place:

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| Frank
& family visit each June. Here's Frank with daughter Danielle
checking out the lily garden:

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? And
gator? Not this toddler, she thrives in our weird home.
(remember, they're just rugs but they DO still look alive).

Danielle's first real visit to the beach


Enjoying the feel of the waves

Danielle with mom, and her two brothers Josh
and Noah
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| Dinner
with our neighbors more-like-our-kids Craig & Lisa at the Brazilian
restaurant experience at the Rioz in Myrtle Beach

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| MAY
2007 |
| Beautiful
amaryllis blooms off our back porch surprised us, we have never seen them
bloom here before. We actually had four blooms on one stalk within a
week:
Glenn has gone to the industrial strength/size
of home-made cat feeder to take care of our "stray" critters
when we are gone (cats, possums, raccoons, rabbits). Of course, now
the bears think this is a major food source too, so he has had to
reinforce it even more since this photo was taken:
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| MARCH-APRIL
2007 |
| Cardinals
and a blue jay enjoying the bird seed and water tub:
Enter our ever-humorous Sherman's Fox squirrel
("Sherman" for short)

As our smiling Tree Faces look on:

Our "stray" cats sunning themselves
before their daily milk treat:

And a lone turkey has visited our yard the
past few mornings:
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