Sunday, July 31, 2016

Veggies for Anytimers...and Fish Chowder for me!

Foil wrapped veggies on the grille for the Kivela Anytimers Party...my garden isn't doing well this year between it being dry and my I had a sprained foot so for a month I just couldn't keep up:
Then off to the Putnam Farmer's Market:







The Party:
Most of it went, took home about 1/10th...so it was time to buy some Cod and make Fish Chowder! Put the cod, salt pork, and fish stock in the crock pot for three hours, then put the leftovers in for the last hour:

Monday, July 18, 2016

Socket-to-me...

On one of the internet forums I frequent someone asked, earlier this year, how you organize your sockets and this was my answer:




Impossible Dalmatians...

One can dream, can't one?

I will never have my dog act this together :D

(Both collected off the Internet recently)

One of them is not impressed with the Roomba zooming about. I can't imagine how often you have to empty a Roomba in a roomful of Dalmatians, every 45 seconds or so I'm guessing.

But I guess there are ways to tire them out. Maybe.

A visit to Salem...

As I'm still on "light duty" mostly recovered from a sprained right foot, sprained right wrist, and a previously pulled ligament in my left foot, I wanted something easy to do on Saturday without all the twisting and turning of working in the yard -- hey it would be a good day to go to Salem a scratch one off my summer bucket list of historical houses!

Initially I wanted to see the Hawaiin canoe Hōkūleʻa but it had left at 7am that morning, still I figured I could see the House of Seven Gables and the Peabody Essex Museum.

Oh Route 128...last 20 miles took me an excruciating hour

Gardens at the House of Seven Gables

No interior photographs allowed :( ... So a "Gable" means the ridge is at the same height as the peak of the main roof -- if it doesn't reach it then it would be considered a "Dormer" instead. I did not know that!



The sea wall here was built in the 1700s!
An American Elm on the campus, I haven't seen many of these in my life.

They have the house Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in on their campus too, I presume the quotes on the walls are from him.

Well back to downtown to go to the Peabody Essex Museum...coming around a corner and seeing an blue onion-domed church among all the old New England buildings amused me greatly!

Holy Cow...this place is much bigger than I was expecting!
I knew they had a good reputation, looking up later they're currently considered a Top 20 art museum in the U.S. in terms of square footage and endowment -- and after the current round of improvements is done around 2019 they expect to be in the Top 10.



The Seven Deadly Sins by Russell Biles...the photo probably doesn't do justice to the wonderful colors:

East India Hall, the original permanent home of the collections that would eventually become today's PEM. Built in 1825, I don't think I've been in space of similar size from the early 19th century.


The hand-blown glass windows are just...gorgeous. I love how the light is bent through the glass.

The museum collection began with items collected by members of the "East India Society" -- formed in 1799 by men of Salem who had gone around either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn as Master of a ship.

This ship is made of silver!
I know Japan is the land of Godzilla, just how big does the flowers have to be to fit in this vase? (Which was exhibited at the Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893)


I spent a couple hours here, and could've easily spent a couple more but by this time my feet were starting to ache and it was time to trudge home.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

A garage that is almost useful...

Was nice when the low tire pressure sensor went off, I could just pull in.

Still need an equipment shed so I can store the lawn mower, tractor, rototiller, etc. under cover and still have an open bay!

(I need to pull the right rear tire and take it to Sorels for a slow leak)


Sunday, May 15, 2016

First trip to Brimfield!

Saturday morning I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30am...so decided it would be a good day to finally go up to Brimfield early for a couple hours before starting on stuff at home. Just kind of gave me a taste of it, something I really would need to bring a little cart and spend the day to do it right.

I was far more tempted than I should have been at this giant yard rooster...and it was at a good price too. Good thing I wasn't sure it would fit in my truck. Fortunately it was gone on my way back to the card which ended any possibility of continued debate in my mind :D

Never saw firefighter plates that had a year & member number on them before. Cool.




One of the few things that caught my eye of "Oh, that looks really cool"...really cool being a price tag of $4,500. Had the price had one fewer zeroes and then half of that I might have dickered. (Photo isn't the best; it was a paper mache ad for horse collars from 1903).

Lickin' Lizards!

I'm smelling a summer challenge

From the 50 Most Historic Houses:

Connecticut: Mark Twain House
https://www.marktwainhouse.org/

Maine: Olsen House
http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/olson-house

Massachusetts: House of Seven Gables
http://www.7gables.org/

New Hampshire: Robert Frost Farm
http://robertfrostfarm.org/

Rhode Island: The Breakers, which I've been too before

Vermont: Hildene
http://www.hildene.org/

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Couple Fantastic Ladder Pictures....

April 18th (or so...) San Francisco had their 65' Ladder Drill Team out to kick off their 150th Anniversary Celebration doing a Stadium Raise:




April 30th (or so...) Boston just had to go an follow that up by throwing a 50' at a real fire and advancing a 2-1/2" over it:

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Coat Rack

After a week of rain that only broke this afternoon...I don't think my house has ever been this clean possibly even after I first moved in :D

I got tired of the old coat tree Ed had given me taking up so much room in my "foyer" by the front door, I didn't want more red oak and silver hooks like I did on the other wall, and I didn't want some flimsy big box store thing that I would have had to drill custom holes in anyway to match the 9-1/2" centered studs (nor would I want to trust drywall anchors for holding coats).

So some black iron pipe, which I assembled then cleaned with Purple Power and put in the oven for a bit to dry completely, then spray painted. 9-1/8" on center with the holes, which I figure is close enough to 9-1/2". Some brass screws that I thought made for a nice contrast, had to use a 1/4" ratchet to put them in between the force it took and the clearance with the top screws.




The Umbrella Picture

I forgot to get the brass screws for the new coat hook yesterday, so on a rainy Sunday morning I went back to Lowes. While there I decided to see if they perchance had something that would look good over the desk in it's new location and stumbled across this:



Wasn't even looking for something to put here, but I instantly knew it would look good in this spot.

Adding to the story, as I saw it Rhianna's We Found Love (in a Hopeless Place) was playing in the store. Since her video doesn't really match the mood of the pic, I'll use Lindsey Stirling's version:



Oh R2...

You are the droid I've been looking for :D


Oh my...the NSFW version: http://imgur.com/a/i7DUV