And finally, Spring (and spring projects)

Okay, I know I have been posting a lot here recently.  The good thing is no one is forced to read it (ok, except Susanna).  And my life isn’t really that exciting (posting three times in one day is a good sign of how unexciting my life is).  In reality, I am am inspired by the booklet I printed from this blog earlier this year.  It is a scrapbook of sorts of what I did for 2011.  And since I don’t have the patience to sit down once a year and make a scrapbook (or the memory to remember everything I did) – I will turn this into my scrapbook.

Will and Ben were reading though the stories I wrote last year – it reinforces my belief that they should write their own blogs – they are fun to reflect on.  I have been encouraging Will and Ben to post once or twice a week.

Hmm.. this really doesn’t have much to do with spring… or spring projects yet.

Workshop step/landing completed

I did complete the two projects I had planned for the day.  I finished the footing this morning, and this afternoon I finished the step/landing in front of the workshop.  It turned out pretty nice, and will hopefully keep shoes from getting muddy when going to the workshop.  I only had to do one extra trip to Home Depot (to get more sand).  The lumber was picked up off Craigslist a couple of weeks ago (with the wood I used for the lumber storage rack), and the pavers were left over from the patio.

As you can see from the first picture, I wasn’t the only busy person today.  Susanna cleaned out the garage (or at least the bay with the kids toys/bikes) and got the patio furniture out and set up.  It was nice to take a break and sit out on the patio for the first time this year.  Now she is filling up the bookshelves I finished this morning…  It’s nice to not store all our books on the floor.

The weather should be nice this week – though still a little cool in the evening to eat dinner on the patio.  I did clean off the bicycle – ready to ride into work tomorrow if it isn’t too cold.

Will and Ben’s school makes the paper….

Article published Mar 17, 2012
Preston, Mohegans go back in time
By Claire Bessette Day Staff Writer
Officials re-enact signing of deed that created town in 1687
Preston – Mohegan Tribal Chairman Bruce “Two Dogs” Bozsum greeted students at the Preston Veterans Memorial School Friday afternoon wearing a deerskin vest and pants topped off by a beaded and feathered headdress.
About a dozen students quickly abandoned their lunches and surrounded Bozsum as he waved a fan of turkey feathers in their direction.
“Are you a real Indian?” one boy asked.
“Is he a real Indian?” another, who hadn’t heard, asked a schoolmate.
“What are you wearing?”
“Where did you get the feathers?”
The questions came faster than Bozsum could answer: He made the outfit himself, with feathers that he found or that were given to him by friends. Someone else made the soft, deerskin medicine pouch he wore.
“It holds all my medicines,” he said, showing bits of natural items in the pouch.
In addition to being tribal chairman, Bozsum is the Mohegan Tribe’s ceremonial pipe carrier, an important position in the social culture of the tribe.
Bozsum wasn’t the only visitor to the school for the celebration of the town’s 325th anniversary – one day early. Several town officials joined him on stage to re-enact the signing of the deed, when Mohegan Indian Owanaco – son of Uncas – turned over a 5-mile stretch of his land to the settlers who wanted to form the 36th town in the Connecticut Colony.
First Selectman Robert Congdon donned a long, black coat and tall, black Puritan hat to portray town founder Capt. James Fitch.
Selectman Timothy Bowles wore a wool vest with pants tucked into his high socks to play John Stanton.
Veterans Memorial School teacher Dan Rearick – who received the loudest ovation from the partisan crowd – wore a beret cap to represent founder Samuel Mason.
Former First Selectman Parke Spicer was the veteran actor of the bunch. He donned the white wig, spectacles and blue breaches he had worn 25 years ago to portray John Morgan.
“I had a jacket to go with this,” Spicer said. “It fit me 25 years ago, but not today.”
The Rev. David Cannon read a narration describing the founding of the town as the deed-signing participants surrounded a small desk, complete with feather pen and ink set for the signing.
“It was signed with the mark of Owanaco,” Cannon said, “which was the shape of a turkey. That is why the symbol of a turkey is so important to the people of Preston. This deed was signed on March 17, 1687.”
After the brief signing ceremony, Bozsum used the Mohegan language to address the students and the more than a dozen senior citizens who join the students once a month for a shared lunch.
“Greetings. Thank you all for coming today,” he translated. “The Mohegan people are proud to be friends with you. The Creator is good.”
Costumed participants then joined the audience as third-graders formed dance circles in front of the stage to perform the dance “Gathering Peas cods,” which dates back to the early 1600s. Fifth-graders followed with a localized rendition of a North Carolina dance game, “Sally Down the Alley.”
“Here comes Sally down the alley. Here comes Sally down the alley. Here comes Sally down the ally, down to Poqetanuck.”
Students took turns running between lines of classmates singing their names as they came “down the alley.”
Preston is hosting numerous events throughout the spring and summer to celebrate the town’s 325th anniversary. Students also are making town quilts that will be displayed and possibly sold later in the year.
“You’re going to be actually a part of history, as well as watching history,” Principal Kathy Walsh told the students at the start of Friday’s ceremony.
c.bessette@theday.com


A pretty good Saturday

After a rough start to the weekend (the boys were tire yesterday after school), we had a really nice Saturday.  The morning started with a trip to a farm (see the previous post) for the boys and me, while Susanna stayed home and worked on homework.

Taking a break from our bike ride

After the farm, Ben wen to his piano lesson while I took Will shopping for a birthday present for the party he is going to tomorrow.

We all met at home for lunch.  After lunch, I took the boys on a bike ride on the trails behind the house.  It was quite a ride – we wound up coming out on Middle Road and riding down the hill to our street.  We spend over an hour out on the trail – of course we had to walk bikes up a lot of the hills.  We had to cross a stream, navigate lots of rocks and downed trees.

After the bike ride, the boy next door, Justin, came over to spend the afternoon playing.   Three boys playing, and no fights – that is always a good day.  They even got me to play “ambush” for a while – I have to remember to pay attention – Justin was able to ambush me because I was just daydreaming watching the dogs playing in the yard in front of me.

Will putting his shoes on after walking his bike across the freezing cold stream.

A visit to the Sawyer Family Farm

This morning, the boys and I made a visit to the Sawyer Family Farm. I was given a great tour of the farm by Rob and Anna. It is quite impressive the changes they have made over the past year or so.

There the boys got to see the baby rabbits and chickens (and Will picked up both). After a full tour of the farm, Anna took the boys riding on one of the ponies. Will is interested in taking riding lessons – maybe we will put him in lessons a couple of times a month once they start offering them.

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Will riding the pony by himself
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Ben riding the pony by himself
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Ben hanging out with Vicki at the farm

(Almost) Finishing Projects

Bookshelves (Almost) Completed

Okay, so I didn’t finish any project.  But two of them are getting close. I had finished spraying the finish on the bookshelf case last night.

Today we moved it into the study.  Two of the four shelves are finished as well.  The other two shelves are in the workshop – built, but they need to be finished.  There just wasn’t room to do them at the same time as the carcase.

How did the bookshelves turn out?  Not too bad. There are places I could have made the joints tighter, but not a bad first try.  Also, the adjustable shelf pins seem a little loose in the holes – I’m not sure why.  I can also find a place where I messed up cutting the rabbet for the back.  However that mistake will be hidden by books.  I also can see where I didn’t do a perfect job with the router getting the face flush with the sides.  But it is big, and will hold lots of books.

Next time, I might just make the shelves fixed.  That will make the case stronger… but one will lose the flexibility of movable shelves.  Or maybe just make the middle shelf fixed (though there is no middle shelf with  four shelves…

I also made some progress on the lumber rack.  I don’t think it will hold all the lumber.  I actually know it won’t hold all the lumber. I’m just hoping to clean up under the barn, and move the lumber from the second floor of the barn to under the barn.  The wood was reclaimed from a barn that was torn down (a good find on craigslist) – I also got a couple of 4×6 beams at the same time.  Not sure what I’ll do with those though.   Just add to my lumber collection I guess.

Lumber rack construction

Now what to do this afternoon?  Maybe a drive to northern CT to explore?  Or maybe more work on the lumber rack (to make sure I can’t move tomorrow after restacking too much lumber).

A busy Saturday

We had a pretty busy Saturday – for having nothing more than Ben’s piano lesson scheduled.

I was able to finish the bookshelf case. Three costs of finish put on in the morning (on the outside). After lunch, we stood the case up and I finished the inside and back (three more cases). I still have the two shelves finished after the case is moved out of the basement.

The boy next door, Justin, came over to play with the boys after lunch and stayed until almost dinner. We also had Ben’s friend, Anthony, over for the afternoon. Needless to say it was an afternoon of boys running around like crazy.

I started building the lumber rack, but didn’t get too far. That will be Sunday’s project.

Susanna, Ben and I watched the final of Melodifestivalen in the afternoon.

It was really nice to have a day hanging around the house – last Saturday was spent driving to New York. It was a good chance to spend some time playing with the boys.

Will’s and Ben’s blogs

Will and Ben have each started their own personal blogs. It will be interesting to see how they change over the year. I told them I would print the blogs each year so they can have a journal of their year in their own words and pictures. So far they have a dozen posts each. Trying for one or two a week.

Of course the blogs are password protected (not open to the general public) and they get to approve who can read them. Since they are for family and close friends, I won’t post the links here – but if you fit into that and are interested in reading them lets know, I’ll send links.

World War II “Hellcat” Sites

“On October 19, 1944, two Grumamn F6F-5N “Hellcats” were practicing war maneuvers out of the Charlestown [Rhode Island] Naval Auxiliary Air Field when something went terribly wrong. The two planes collided over the Town of Preston, in a heavily wooded area in the eastern part of Connecticut. The young ensign pilots, both dead, were pulled from the burning planes. Reportedly, the Navy buried much of the wreckage in trenches near the impact points.

The Hellcat sites in Preston were well-known to aviation enthusiasts and local residents, but they did not come to the attention of professional archaeologists until SHPO began considering the implications of the State’s divestiture of the 500-acre former Norwich State Hospital. The SHPO requested that a complete archaeological survey be made of the property to determine what prehistoric and historic resources might be impacted by the State’s decision. In addition to inventorying dozens of prehistoric sites and the site of a Revolutionary War period tavern, the archaeological survey, conducted by PAST, Inc., recommended that the two Hellcat sites be considered eligible for the National Register.

Each Hellcat site has at its center a visible piece of wreckage from the aircraft. One site includes a landing gear strut embedded in the earth and the other site also has a landing gear strut, as well as a piece of adjacent air-frame. The archaeologists excavated a limited number of test pits to confirm that the apparent trenches were in fact where much of the debris from the aircraft was buried. No material was removed from the site. Instead, the locations of the visible remains were mapped using GPS. In order to create a reasonable boundary for each impact site, a metal-detector survey was conducted, working outward from the visible remains. The most frequent and early “hits” were chiefly small fragments of sheet aluminum. After a certain point, the hits dropped off sharply, defining an edge to the debris field.

Both of the Hellcat sites, including the debris fields of 9 acres for one and 1.5 acres for the other, have been designated State Archaeological Preserves. A recent state-sponsored publication on these Preserves was authored by Bruce Clouette.

For more information on the Hellcat sites and the Preserves program, contact Dr. David A. Poirier (dave.poirier@po.state.ct.us).”

-Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, Newsletter Number 65, October 2006