The (Almost a) Blizzard of '22

Near blizzard conditions, worst during the day on Saturday? Sounds like time to test the Jeep in craptastic conditions!

When I left...
When I got home...






Approaching Allen Hill @ Route 6




Divided section of Route 6 headed towards Danielson.



Maple Street




Route 44 approaching Route 21, Putnam



Route 21 in Putnam/Thompson



Was planning to go to Eric's, got about half way there when I decided to turn around.

After going through Putnam, with the temp dropping a bit and driving into the wind, the snow was melting and freezing to the wipers in a way making me stop every ~10 minutes to clear them.

Seemed better once I turned around. Got a little warmer headed back south, but still took a lot of wiper fluid, but at least I didn't stop again once I was headed back home.



Route 6 headed back into Brooklyn...





The Day After...





It's a good day to stay in the house and cook.

Who am I kidding? With that temp I'm not going out plowing when I can work from home and temps in the 40s and 50s are forecast in a few days. Just hunkered down and didn't even put on socks for a week (laughed when I went to put socks on the following Saturday and realized they were still all folded from Sunday laundry :D )

Jeep Run -- CT/RI Borderlands

Not much snow on the ground. I'm still pretty amazed what the Jeep can do; wasn't even aired down. Used my rear lockers a few times on obstacles to be safe but likely didn't even need that. (Only felt like one time they actually "locked" up while grabbing on a particularly difficult spot.)











Helped this guy mostly with advice...he had gotten through the worst of it, his vehicle more than capable of the rest. He chickened out looking at some large puddles (mostly due to ice blocking the road drainage). He was trying to turn around and having to use traction boards and a shovel. Got him headed back in the original direction of travel and told him which was the best option for him at a four way intersection ahead just out of sight.


At the end, there was a serious accident at Route 44. Had to turn around several folks whose GPS were telling them to take their mini-vans and such up Olney Keech Road to bypass it. At least they wouldn't have made it more than 250' past where the pavement ends on that road this time of year.

Snow finally...

When you hear something rolling down the aisle at work and it's a Christmas tree going by...

When you are shopping the day before 4-8" of snow is forecast, and you find Nirvana:

When you wake up the morning of a 4-8", and from the bedroom window you're suspicious so you pee then go open the front door...

Yeah dog, that's not 4-8"
Ended up 14" of light and fluffy. Crappy photo, but it looked gorgeous in person -- had a coyote in the woods past the swim pond.

Restocking the garage bar...gingerale was just out in case Eric needed a mixer.


Got most of the Jeep vacuumed and re-arranged. Need to work on the tools behind the seat a little more.



And got the oil changed. Sort of. Needed it desperately, didn't have the right weight or the right filter. But I threw some 5w30 in for now which is fine, and I'll do a short interval oil change. Probably good to do that anyways.

Probably try and put it in next weekend for another round --
-- Rotate tires
-- While tires are off, need to grease front u-joints, and the passenger side has one steering fitting I can't reach with the tire on ramps
-- Check the rear diff
-- Air filter
-- Probably just replace the oil filter one night after work this week, and give the oil a couple weeks before I change it.

Crazy Brooklyn Finn Reaps Harvest of Death with Axe

Well here is a bit of Brooklyn, Connecticut history I did not know until today -- when a post in Plainfield history facebook page of old "this date in local history" from a local paper (probably from 50 years ago even at that time) had a one line mention "Brooklyn Man, Lipponen goes beserk, kills several before hanging himself."

Victor Lipponen had some sort of pyschotic break following the birth of new child. Saturday evening his wife reported he started paranoid talk about people out to kill him, and Sunday afternoon murdered his newborn son, a nurse, and two neighbors, gravely injured his wife and injured several other neighbors.

They lived on southside of present day Route 6, west of Windham Road and east of the west end of Appell Road. (I know a street number I'm pretty sure it is from following land records...we'll skip publishing that here though.)
I was able to find the following two are listed as buried in South Cemetery:
Lipponen, Paavo, son of Victor, born 1920, died 1920
Lipponen, Victor, born 1889, died 1920

Three others I did not find cemetery records:
Selma Louniala; nurse killed at the Lipponen house
Elsie Kimber
Christian Ritter

However public records confirm their deaths:

Also, a daughter who died on 3/21/1920 is buried in South Cemetery:
Lipponen, Esther, daughter of Victor, born 1918, died 1920

There is no mention in the news articles of her being injured or spared; not sure if they sent the young kid away simply to relieve work on the new mother, or if maybe she was already sick (adding stress on the family situation) and sent away from the infant.

The wife did survive grave injuries, as she and not her estate is listed as selling the farm a couple years later.

First the short article from overseas, I will follow it with the Norwich Bulletin article from 19 January 1920 divided up in sections for easier reading online:

From the Norwich Bulletin:

Even a century ago "The Brickhouse" was part of giving directions along Route 6!

Um...this part again:

That would be my great-uncle Serge J. and Josephine H. Doyen's place on present day Route 6. This the Serge who would be the scion of the Fisher Island Doyen branch of the family. I'm not certain the exact location without more research, but it was on the northside of Route 6 somewhere in the vicinity of the "ox bow" of the short abandoned stretch of Route 6 to possibly the first place west of Cherry Hill. He bought it as a 21 or 22 year old in 1919.

In addition to the mentioned Deputy Sheriff, Harry Lathrop was a Town Constable in 1920. Connecticut State Police did not start building out their rural troops around the perimeter of the state until 1921. (Troop D in Danielson I think was on the early side; it was there by '24).

The DeCarlo place was on the east side of Stetson, immediately north of Robbins Road.

The original:

Some more information -- found Elsie Kimber's grave online: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37185705/elsie-rose-kimber

Small photo catch up...

So...first few weeks back from the trip I didn't have a lot of ambition, then Friday after Thanksgiving I came down with a hell of a cold that took me out for four days and two weeks to really get back to normal.

But did get a few things done...

CO2 tire inflator for the Jeep. The 12v pump I have works fine, but it gets hot as hell -- I didn't use it on the trip because finding a place to rest it without risking melting some camping gear was going to be a challenge.

Since these photos, I've gotten a fabric sack that I hope will keep it from forming condensation when there are temp swings outside.

Bottle cost $178 at Airgas, plus $20.50 for it being full. In the future though I should be able to just exchange it for $20.50 for a full bottle similar to propane exchanges.




So much to clean up after I finished getting the Jeep ready for the trip...



And @#$%#@ mice in the main tool box. Got some moth balls to try and deter them.



Everyone needs an Otter :)



Sigh...monitor I bought on the trip. Bought a sound bar, and AppleTV so I can stream my phone to the monitor (I hope). !@#$! it needs WiFi and the AppleTV can't reach the one in my house (the iPhone just barely does). So I have a WiFi extender being Amazon'd in tomorrow.