Category Archives: Praise

More Vacation in NH, 2nd post

This picture from my daughter’s FB.  There are loads of covered bridges in New Hampshire.  We drove over several as we went around the area.

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Again, credit to Sarah’s FB for the next photo:

That’s Son Aaron, and his daughter.  The stream is in the valley below the Cathedral Ledge Lookout.

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There isn’t any flatwater in this part of New Hampshire.  So forget about paddling.  Not much is flat at all, hey its in the White Mountains!  They r noted as the most rugged Mts in New England.

Now it’s not positive where the name came from.   But I’m going with the obvious:  Snowy peaks.

 

This Corn will Change Your Life

“Its just sweet corn”  you say?  But have you ever had sweet corn from Hayner’s Farm?  ??

WELL, HAVE YOU??    If you haven’t, you NEED to.

It’s fresh, picked daily M_Sat.  Sunday is the day of rest.

    

You need to get there early in the morning.  It’s put out around 9 am.  And it sells out

E-v-e-r-y DAY!!

Zoom in close to the husked corn – It’s perfect!!

Now get u some, cook it up, LOAD on the butter and salt.

THERE, admit it, your life is so much better now.

Case closed, best corn in the ‘verse!!

 

Corning Barge 05

So here’s the (exciting?) conclusion.  After he attaches and shapes the handle, there is a sharp point where the semi molten glass was cut, or stretched, whatever.  Strategically applied torch melts the point and it smooths out.

Way too hot for hands

You got it ok??

Separated, its free!

Now we need sloooow coooling!

Safely inside

So the glass needs like a day to gradually cool down, they put it into this kiln that is, if i remember correctly, around 1000 degrees.  If it was left out to cool, that would be way to quick and the thermal stress would destroy it.  Anybody ever bust a glass or ceramic item by putting boiling water into something that was too cold?  Ya like that but i guess u could say, in reverse.

So they also make lots of colored glass at Corning, here’s a shot of some

Anyway, working with glass is kind of amazing.

You can buy stuff like you see here from the Corning web site

I don’t know which of the glass you see there is made at Corning, I think some is.  But they sell all kinds of glass stuff from all over the world.  There is a 4th of July sale on now, with free shipping.

Corning – its all about glass!!!!!!

Corning Barge 04

OK so now we need to add once more to our project, here is the master getting more glass for it

Get Ready!

Touchdown!!

Snipped off the right amount:

Forming it

Gravity Assist –

Both ends on

More forming

Voila!  Handle!

Though i have given lots of pics, to see this done in person is really something special.  Remember this guy is an apprentice, with 4 years experience.  Just getting started in his skill-set.  In fact just the show b4, these two dropped the project in a failed transfer – Shattered into a hundred pieces.  I spoke to the learner after and he said this was his first successful pitcher.  Awesome.

June 30, July 1 Little Falls. GO SEE IT

July 3, Ilion Hurry!!

 

Corning Barge 03

This is where it really starts to get cool.  Ya i know it already been pretty cool (well actually its HOT!)

Anyway look as the master gets more glass ready

Now he joins onto the ‘bulb’ with his piece, our apprentice lines it up

Hey look here!  now we detach from the original blowpipe, we have the piece by the other end!

Now reheat the piece, got more magic to perform

Now it time to pierce it!

Then he makes it wider

WIDER

Wider still –

The pear shape is gone!  This will not be a big light bulb.

So did you go see the barge??  HURRY its traveling away!

The 27th – Amsterdam. 28th Canajoharie.

June 30, July 1 Little Falls. GO SEE IT

Corning Barge 01

So i was going to come up with some catchy cool name for this series of posts.  But as i went through and selected pics to put into this, i realized there is really only one possible name i could use.

The Corning Glass Barge is in Waterford NY Today and Tomorrow, June 23, 24 2018.

Tickets are free, or you can just show up and hope it’s not too full.  Even if that was the case you can watch and see pretty good from the shore.

Clicking on the line above will take you to the website for the barge.  It is just one page of Corning’s awesome website.  Everything Corning is there.  You may already know, there is an AWESOME museum out in Corning NY that is a real treat.  I went many years ago and seeing the program today made me want to go back and see it again.  btw – all the pictures in this series were taken with my personal communication and photo device, that has Corning glass as an integral part of it.  Yours too.

Yes, that’s right you almost certainly use Corning glass daily.  in your hand.  with your finger.

Your smartphone screen is almost certainly clad in “Gorilla Glass”  a corning product.  Your welcome.

SO enough from me, let’s see some Corning magic!!

OK this is a glass furnace, aka the “Glory Hole”

The first bubble blown into the glass.  This guy is just starting his career, he has been doing this for 4 years!  Ya you don’t just pick this skill up in a month or so.

So now he adds more glass to his project.

The semi solid glass is real hot (you knew that!) but its constantly wanting to flow downhill.  To counteract this the glass maker keeps the pipe rolling.  As it droops, he rolls.

Now he has blown it bigger with the added glass.

And bigger still.

 

So stay tuned for more awesome stuff as we watch this raw glass get turned into something useful.

And b SURE to GO SEE for YOURSELF!   The barge is in Waterford Today, Tomorrow.

The 27th it will be in Amsterdam.    28th  Canajoharie.

June 30, July 1  Little Falls.

HURRY UP.  the barge is moving west, just like the glass company from NYC did long ago, on barges, on the Erie canal, to Corning NY.

IF YOU CAN CATCH THE BARGE WHILE IT’S AROUND YOU WONT B SORRY!!!!!

ok enough shouting.

Tour around the world in 1 hour

Impossible you say?  Well here’s my passport, with all the visa stamps:

Nine countries in just over an hour.  The kids at Spa Christian each did one country, In depth projects for the past 2+ weeks.  All had a display board, and a computer slide show, which they explained as we watched using their prepared note cards.

2 Asian, 4 from Europe, 2 Island nations and one from South America.  I should be exhausted by all that travel.  Of course some of my grand kids were among the presenters, Thanks to Brendan and Connor.  Here are their displays:

They also had a food from their country, which they shared with each other at lunch.  Lots of work went into this.  Good Job to all!

Canoe Restoration 05

Ok here’s the last canoe post.  All i have left to show you is the finished product.  Mostly, because even though i did this in 2017, i still have to put the last cross-member in.  The last one needs to be remade becuz one end was rotten.  I have a piece of the ash ready to cut and shape, but we used it like you see here with just a center thwart.  When i make and install the last one i will share it here.  So u see a couple shots with the seats and the center crosspiece in. The seats are pressed cane, like a chair seat.  They looked fine, but were not.  kinda funny, i never sat on them until our annual canoe trip.  As me and Aaron sat down to paddle, we both immediately broke through the cane.  So the seats don’t look like that anymore, they r blown out.  It was quite uncomfortable, the rear end drops into the opening and your weight tries to conform yer butt into the rectangular shape. We ended up sitting on our life vests.  So when i get to the center thwart i will show you the repaired seats as well.

    

So here’s the reason to own a canoe – the trippiing in the Adirondacks!! Woo hoo –

Blue and Green

Have u learned that color can have the same effect as perhaps chemical stimulants? Well i know there r studies to back this up, though i cannot direct u to any.

I just want u to think how u would feel if every room in your house was painted Chinese Red.

Ya, just the thought of that set your teeth on edge huh? Recipe for insanity.

So this is one of the primary reasons we all love to be outdoors in places like parks, the beach, etc.  Our senses r flooded with soothing colors.

So i submit to you a few pics that illustrate the point.  Those same studies i cannot direct u to also tell us that Blues and Greens give us the calm peaceful mood we all need.  Check out these pics and tell me u don’t feel better about things:

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and here’s one i thought u might like just because its cool:

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Till next time – Peace and Long Life!

Camp Visitor

So you saw some of our crew enjoying the lake swimming.  I went in but just for a quick dip.  But that was during the warm afternoon.

Twice in the evening we had a visitor show up.  Came without a boat.  Underwater.  No, not in a submarine.  He was a little skittish of us but was very interested in some small fish the kids were reeling in.

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This guy was huge.  Just the shell was around 18″ long!  His head about the size of a baseball.  A little frightening.  Like i said he was a little afraid of us.  But i was quite afraid of him.  I’m sure his jaws would be able to chop anyone’s finger or toe off.

And the claws – WOW.   Like an inch long, full curl and razor sharp.

The way these turtles eat is they get hold of something, won’t let go and rip it with the claws until the piece in their mouth can be swallowed.  A real dinosaur.

He let us have the day shift at the water and we let him have the evening watch.