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.

This afternoon the whole family hiked up to one of the two sites behind the house. It is a decent walk for the boys, maybe one mile each direction.

Here is a picture of Will standing by the largest piece remaining. We will try to find the other site this weekend if the weather is nice.

“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

I’m starting Monday morning off a little tired. We had a busy day yesterday.

The boys went to their mother’s house in the morning, and I had about an hour to clean up breakfast and relax (that is, drink my coffee) before Susanna came home from church. Susanna and I then took the dogs for a walk into the woods, and spent some time trying to find the location of a airplane crash about a mile into the woods. In October 1944, two F6 Hellcat fighters were conducting night training and crashed. Both pilots were killed, and the wreckage is still in the woods in Preston. We found the crash site of one of the planes (after several wrong turns). I’ll have to post pictures later (no time this morning).

The hike took us all the way to lunch time. Of course Tucker ran off during the hike, but actually beat us home (which almost never happens, he usually wanders home an hour or two later). After lunch it was chore time. I headed to Home Depot to pick up a pair of 2×6 boards to sister the joist in the barn that was cracking, a pair of 6×6 posts to replace some rotted supports in the barn, and some concrete to pour footings for the new posts. However, the concrete needs to be kept above freezing for at least two days, and we had two cold nights forecast – so I held off on the concrete.

I was able to get the one joist repaired, but wasn’t able to get the second 2×6 put up (didn’t fit too well, and I didn’t have time to get it to fit). I also wasn’t able to replace the front post of the barn (no footing needed, it is already on concrete) – I may have better luck after I unload the lumber from the second floor of the barn. However, I was able to replace the middle post (and able to see how rotted the original really was). The next steps in that project will be to pour a footing for a fourth (an additional) support post (the middle post is not quite in the center of the beam). After the footing cures, I’ll add the support post.

In the meantime, I moved the entire stack of lumber over to one side of the bay in preparation of building a proper lumber rack. I’m a little too tired today to build the lumber rack tonight, and I need to sand the bookshelves and move them to the basement for finishing.

Last night was movie date night. Susanna and I went out for dinner and to see “The Descendants” in Mystic.

Today we drove to South Salem, NY to visit the Wolf Conservation Center.  There we spent about 30 minutes listening to various stories of wolves from mythology around the world.  Then we went outside to visit the wolves at the sanctuary. Will and Ben were excited to get to see wolves (and Will especially, since he loves wolves).

Outside we watched the arctic gray wolf, Atka as he was walked by on his way to an event in Rhode Island today (he visits 160 events a year off the sanctuary).  We then met two more grey wolves, Alawa and Zephyr and listened to a very informative talk about wolves and wolf behavior.

From the ambassador wolves (the more common gray wolves are not bred, but are kept as wolf ambassadors – never reintroduced to the wild and raised to be used to humans nearby), we headed up the hill to the pens with the pairs of Mexican gray wolves and the pen with the red wolves.  Here we learned that this center has two of the five (hopefully) captive breeding pairs of Mexican gray wolves in the world.  There are only approximately 400 of these wolves left, with most being in captivity.  The stock of Mexican gray wolves came from a total of 7 surviving wolves in the 1970s.  We were able to see the Mexican gray wolves from a distance, and on the way out, catch a glimpse of the red wolves.  The wild wolves are very timid around humans.

Overall, we had a great day.  It was a perfect visit and well worth the 2-hour drive each way.

It is still a little windy this morning.  Not quite the gusting wind that came through here yesterday.  It is interesting to be in an old house with a strong wind.  Lots of noise.  At least the sun is out today, even if it is just above freezing.

Today is a chore day.  I’ll be heading to the workshop shortly to finish the bookshelves.  My list for today includes a walk with Susanna and the dogs, painting the new door for the workshop, and moving stuff from the workshop to the garage in preparation for structural repairs on the workshop.

The boys have gone to their mother’s house for the next couple of days (as is almost always the routine on Sunday mornings).  Will helped me go over my plans for the kitchen island I’ll build next (after I fix the barn).  Will and Ben also started writing a blog.  It’s still new, so something fun to do – it will be seen if they stick with it for longer than a week.

I think the whole family is ready for spring and warm weather.

We had a slow Saturday morning.  Ben slept in until almost 7 and Will until nearly 8.  Of course Susanna and I are still getting adjusted to the time zone and we were up at 5am.

Yesterday the mailbox post fell over in the snow storm (no idea if it was just time, or if a plow/car bumped it).  This morning Will and I headed to Home Depot to get a new post.  $30 and 15 minutes of work later, we have a new post.

Not a very exciting house project.  Nor was it much work, but getting mail is nice.

This afternoon we are going to Mitchell College to visit the “Cat in the Hat” fair that the early childhood education department is putting on (and where Susanna is spending the morning).

I’m planning on taking Will to get new shoes after the fair while Ben goes to his piano lessons.  I know shoes aren’t that exciting, but he is complaining about blisters on his feet, so he wants to go shopping.

I think we will take a quiet day here – last night was “Bouncy Castle” night at the boys school.  Imagine 50 elementary school students running crazy around the gym filled with bounce houses.  Of course I think they should supply beer/wine/margaritas for the parents.  No point in the kids being the only ones having fun.