Bezabor: PickleFest, Mohawk encounter (posted from home)
Saturday, 20 May-
Today Labashi and I went to Dillsburg, PA for the PickleFest. Actually we were more interested in seeing the Dill Tavern and an ‘Indian encampment’ in its back yard (there was also a Civil War encampment but I’m more interested in the French-and-Indian-War times). We took an informal tour of the tavern and it’s great to see how authentically the reconstruction is being done. As we stepped outside, we met author John L. Moore, a storyteller from Northumberland, PA, who was selling his booklets about the Pennsylvania frontier (one title is “Traders, Travelers, and Tomahawks”). I went for his sales pitch about his works being true tales based on historical research (as opposed to a novel representing the times) and bought copies of each of his three booklets. As we talked, he told a story about his grandparents looking for (and seeing) Lucky Lindy as he flew across Pennsylvania after his trans-Atlantic flight.
Then we met the highlight of the day, a re-enactor playing a Mohawk warrior (I think he said a Caughnewaga Mohawk). This guy was fantastic. He was dressed in skins and had painted his shaved head a startlingly-bright red accented with black. He had a top-knot which I still don’t know how he did it—I think part of it was a real pony tail but the rest was a bright orange nest of spiky grass or small reeds. But the really great part was his encyclopedic knowledge. We spent an hour and a half with him as he explained all the things he had on display to the small group. After the others moved on, we somehow switched to historical events like Braddock’s campaign in 1755, James Smith and his ‘Black Boys’ (see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/28055678/28055678_part_03.pdf#page=15 and scroll down to page 56 for a great read), the burning of squatter cabins by PA government officials (one of my great-grandfathers was one of the settlers whose cabin was burned in 1750), Pennsylvania’s frontier forts, etc. What an incredible guy. He will be at Pinchot park sometime this summer but I have no other info on that yet. I’ve got to keep a lookout for that event and go talk to him some more.
At lunch time we walked up the street to the Maple Barn and had a roasted pork sandwich, then another highlight for the day—fried pickles. That was my first taste of fried pickles and they were great. I believe it was the spices sprinkled on the lightly-breaded pickle slices that made them so good.
After we returned home that afternoon I spent much of the late afternoon and evening on the web looking for more information on the subjects we had discussed with the Mohawk.
Friday, 19 May-
We spent the morning with the new graduate (and hubby), then took a leisurely drive home. With rain threatening late in the day (and a new Netflix shipment in hand) we decided we needed a movie. We watched ‘Broken Flowers’, Jim Jarmusch’s somewhat-weird film about an aging Don-Juan (Bill Murray) who receives an anonymous letter, apparently from one of his lovers, telling him he has a 19-year-old son. We enjoyed the film but I think I’d like to have seen someone new in the lead role—someone we could more easily see as a former Don Juan (who Jarmusch names ‘Don Johnston’). But we did like Jarmusch’s choices regarding the female characters in the story.
That evening we watched another movie, ‘Everything is Illuminated’. Elijah Wood was terrific in this story of a young Jewish man who goes to the Ukraine to try to find the woman who reportedly saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Good movie. And it was interesting to follow it up by reading the author's web site.
Thursday, 18 May-
Today was a special day. We drove to the Fairfax, VA area to attend the graduation ceremony for our sister-in-law at George Mason University. She’s over 50 and graduating with honors (and a 3.9 grade average!) after working full-time at a local post office and taking courses part-time for many years. Afterward, we celebrated at a nearby restaurant, spent the evening talking and watching a movie (‘The Producers’).
Wednesday, 17 May-
I drove the Miata into town to exercise it a little and to pick up some laserjet cartridges for Labashi. She’s doing a large mailing for a book project she manages and will be printing several thousand pages. Later in the day I took the KLR to Rocky Ridge park and jogged an hour on the west-side double-loop and outer-loop trails.
Tuesday, 16 May-
Today we had rain threatening most of the day. I made a run into town in the morning to pick up another six-pack of Heineken so I can use the cans to play some more with the penny-stove design. That afternoon I thought I’d sharpen the blades on the mowers and then mow as much as I could before the rains started. Sure enough, it started sprinkling while I was taking off the mower blades. But that stopped after a few minutes and I was able to complete the mowing—a good workout for the day.
That evening I received a call from my brother. He had built an alcohol stove, improving on the design. He had decided that the penny-stove design needed more surface area in the center to transfer the heat of priming to the main fuel chamber so it would vaporize the fuel better. His stove blooms consistently within 30 seconds and has many more jets.
I spent much of the evening exploring the links at zenstoves.com, looking at the many different designs.
Monday, 15 May-
I spent most of the morning looking at the Great Roads/Great Rides web site (www.greatroadsgreatrides.com). I had noticed a few errors on the web pages and thought I’d let the webmaster know. That turned out to be an all-morning-and-some-afternoon project to both find and explain the errors but also to explore the many links the site took me to.
Later in the day I went jogging along the creek near my home. I thought that would go a little easier than it did. As it turned out, I developed cramping in one leg, perhaps brought on by the highly-crowned road surface. I was able to jog about 40 minutes but it was slow going.
That evening we watched the 75th Annual Academy Awards Short Films DVD. We were surprised to see that the finalists really weren’t all the good. The award winners were the best of each category (‘Animated’ and ‘Live-Action’) but even they seemed only to be exercises to demonstrate film-making skills rather than interesting films in their own right.
Saturday, 20 May-
Today Labashi and I went to Dillsburg, PA for the PickleFest. Actually we were more interested in seeing the Dill Tavern and an ‘Indian encampment’ in its back yard (there was also a Civil War encampment but I’m more interested in the French-and-Indian-War times). We took an informal tour of the tavern and it’s great to see how authentically the reconstruction is being done. As we stepped outside, we met author John L. Moore, a storyteller from Northumberland, PA, who was selling his booklets about the Pennsylvania frontier (one title is “Traders, Travelers, and Tomahawks”). I went for his sales pitch about his works being true tales based on historical research (as opposed to a novel representing the times) and bought copies of each of his three booklets. As we talked, he told a story about his grandparents looking for (and seeing) Lucky Lindy as he flew across Pennsylvania after his trans-Atlantic flight.
Then we met the highlight of the day, a re-enactor playing a Mohawk warrior (I think he said a Caughnewaga Mohawk). This guy was fantastic. He was dressed in skins and had painted his shaved head a startlingly-bright red accented with black. He had a top-knot which I still don’t know how he did it—I think part of it was a real pony tail but the rest was a bright orange nest of spiky grass or small reeds. But the really great part was his encyclopedic knowledge. We spent an hour and a half with him as he explained all the things he had on display to the small group. After the others moved on, we somehow switched to historical events like Braddock’s campaign in 1755, James Smith and his ‘Black Boys’ (see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/28055678/28055678_part_03.pdf#page=15 and scroll down to page 56 for a great read), the burning of squatter cabins by PA government officials (one of my great-grandfathers was one of the settlers whose cabin was burned in 1750), Pennsylvania’s frontier forts, etc. What an incredible guy. He will be at Pinchot park sometime this summer but I have no other info on that yet. I’ve got to keep a lookout for that event and go talk to him some more.
At lunch time we walked up the street to the Maple Barn and had a roasted pork sandwich, then another highlight for the day—fried pickles. That was my first taste of fried pickles and they were great. I believe it was the spices sprinkled on the lightly-breaded pickle slices that made them so good.
After we returned home that afternoon I spent much of the late afternoon and evening on the web looking for more information on the subjects we had discussed with the Mohawk.
Friday, 19 May-
We spent the morning with the new graduate (and hubby), then took a leisurely drive home. With rain threatening late in the day (and a new Netflix shipment in hand) we decided we needed a movie. We watched ‘Broken Flowers’, Jim Jarmusch’s somewhat-weird film about an aging Don-Juan (Bill Murray) who receives an anonymous letter, apparently from one of his lovers, telling him he has a 19-year-old son. We enjoyed the film but I think I’d like to have seen someone new in the lead role—someone we could more easily see as a former Don Juan (who Jarmusch names ‘Don Johnston’). But we did like Jarmusch’s choices regarding the female characters in the story.
That evening we watched another movie, ‘Everything is Illuminated’. Elijah Wood was terrific in this story of a young Jewish man who goes to the Ukraine to try to find the woman who reportedly saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Good movie. And it was interesting to follow it up by reading the author's web site.
Thursday, 18 May-
Today was a special day. We drove to the Fairfax, VA area to attend the graduation ceremony for our sister-in-law at George Mason University. She’s over 50 and graduating with honors (and a 3.9 grade average!) after working full-time at a local post office and taking courses part-time for many years. Afterward, we celebrated at a nearby restaurant, spent the evening talking and watching a movie (‘The Producers’).
Wednesday, 17 May-
I drove the Miata into town to exercise it a little and to pick up some laserjet cartridges for Labashi. She’s doing a large mailing for a book project she manages and will be printing several thousand pages. Later in the day I took the KLR to Rocky Ridge park and jogged an hour on the west-side double-loop and outer-loop trails.
Tuesday, 16 May-
Today we had rain threatening most of the day. I made a run into town in the morning to pick up another six-pack of Heineken so I can use the cans to play some more with the penny-stove design. That afternoon I thought I’d sharpen the blades on the mowers and then mow as much as I could before the rains started. Sure enough, it started sprinkling while I was taking off the mower blades. But that stopped after a few minutes and I was able to complete the mowing—a good workout for the day.
That evening I received a call from my brother. He had built an alcohol stove, improving on the design. He had decided that the penny-stove design needed more surface area in the center to transfer the heat of priming to the main fuel chamber so it would vaporize the fuel better. His stove blooms consistently within 30 seconds and has many more jets.
I spent much of the evening exploring the links at zenstoves.com, looking at the many different designs.
Monday, 15 May-
I spent most of the morning looking at the Great Roads/Great Rides web site (www.greatroadsgreatrides.com). I had noticed a few errors on the web pages and thought I’d let the webmaster know. That turned out to be an all-morning-and-some-afternoon project to both find and explain the errors but also to explore the many links the site took me to.
Later in the day I went jogging along the creek near my home. I thought that would go a little easier than it did. As it turned out, I developed cramping in one leg, perhaps brought on by the highly-crowned road surface. I was able to jog about 40 minutes but it was slow going.
That evening we watched the 75th Annual Academy Awards Short Films DVD. We were surprised to see that the finalists really weren’t all the good. The award winners were the best of each category (‘Animated’ and ‘Live-Action’) but even they seemed only to be exercises to demonstrate film-making skills rather than interesting films in their own right.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 11:44
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