Posts from the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
Dinosaur tracks
If the world experienced the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, what can be said of the image below – taken just outside my backdoor? Looks like a dinosaur track to me. Well … it is … sort of. Birds and dinosaurs belong to a group of animals known as theropods; dinosaurian theropods just happened to go extinct while other theropods did not, and these gave rise, genealogically speaking, to the animals we know today as birds. You might be interested to know that features which link ancient theropods to those we recognize today include the three-toed foot, the wishbone (furcula), air-filled (pneumatized) bones , and in some cases feathers and brooding behavior.
The mystery image is of wet footprints left by chickens on a flagstone walk. An image of the real (dinosaurian) thing, below, was taken from another WordPress blog, View from Passenger Window.
Bridging the gap
This gallery documents restoration of a lenticular Silver Bridge discussed earlier. Clicking any of the images will take you to a carousel view with captions; ESC will bring you back to this post. Hovering an image will reveal the date on which it was taken and thereby provide a timeline upon which the work was completed.
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- Bridgeless span.
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- Western span.
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- Eastern span.
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- Delicate morning maneuvers.
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- East meets west.
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- Conjoined spans.
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- Decking.
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- Road work on the approaches.
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- Completed restoration.
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Very silver bridge
The image is of the historic Silver Bridge which spans Pine Creek just before it enters the Susquehanna a few miles from our home. The bridge comprises a lenticular truss (a term which refers to its lens-shape) and is one of only five such bridges remaining in the state of Pennsylvania. The Silver Bridge was damaged in 2007 and because it is historic, and architecturally unusual, it was disassembled and removed for reconditioning, rather than being razed and replaced. Restoration included repairs to structural members or fabrication of replacement sections for members beyond repair. The decorative castings and latticework that had been removed or damaged over the years were replaced. We got into the habit of driving by now and then to see if there had been any progress, and one day, last summer, discovered that what looked like a giant Erector Set had been deposited at the site. After that we made weekly trips to photograph the rebuilding. Half the span was put together in a scaffolding on each bank, then mammoth cranes were used to pivot the halves out across the water to join them. Our beloved Silver Bridge finally received its restorative coat of … silver … paint this week. You might be interested to know that the bridge was originally made from wrought iron and built in 1890 at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars; this now completed restoration cost more than five million.
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Report card
So … you’re driving in the car … you turn on the radio and hear an intriguing story only to blank on the primary source for the report. Has that ever happened to you? I was on my way home from town this morning and one of the news items on NPR concerned a report on the current status of global sustainability. Because I did not catch the original source I did a quick search for it when I got home. Although I am not absolutely convinced that the following is the source for the NPR story, the conclusions are the same. Visit the Global Footprint Network (the figure below is from there, World Footprint). Similar findings are at the 2012 Living Planet Report. The bottom line to each of these sources is, at current rates of consumption, Homo sapiens is using the resources of the planet at a rate of 1.5 Earths each year. Remember that a sustainable rate of consumption is one at which the Earth is able to replace resources as rapidly as they are used (1.0 Earths per year) - like running on a treadmill and going nowhere. We have currently overshot this breakeven rate by 50%. The bad news is that, by all indications, this rate of consumption is increasing and is predicted to reach 2.0 Earths by 2030, and 3.0 Earths by mid-century. The big players in this unbridled and selfish consumption are Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and the United States. The most depressing aspect of this is, given all that we have been doing in support of global sustainability, we still can’t get the train to stop or even slow down – at all. It’s like a bad dream … you’re driving and see something in the road ahead of you … you hit the brakes … they don’t work … you push again, harder this time … to no effect. We must redouble our efforts to reverse this phenomenon … wake up, recycle, get by with less stuff, and tread lightly … these are all investments each of us are going to have to make in support of our not-so-distant futures. Let us agree to start today.
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Fire
I have commented before on the importance of water, wind, and the value of land unspoiled. The last of the Greek Classical Elements, which I have not made mention of, is of course fire. We have heated with wood for more than 20 years. When we arrived at Pairodox there was an oil furnace in the basement – it was destroyed by flood in 1996. We learned shortly after that our home could not be insured without a source of heat which was deemed to be permanent. Wood stoves were not considered to be either reliable or permanent so we have had a propane furnace in the basement for more than 15 years and have used it once. We heat the south end of the house, including the second floor by convection, with a large stove which generates 75k BTU/h. We also have a smaller wood burner which generates 15k BTU/h; this unit does double duty by cooking our food and by heating the north end of the house, upstairs (again, via convection) and down. We have always purchased pole wood from a fellow who runs between loggers and folks like us who don’t want to pay premium prices for prepared firewood. Poles need to be cut, split, and stacked to dry well before the start of heating season. So yes indeed, we have a great respect of fire and an appreciation for the heat it provides when confined within the steel and cast iron walls of our stoves. On an ecological note, there is no doubt that wood burning releases carbon into the atmosphere and may contribute to climate change. We believe that the release of carbon from wood combustion and the sequestration of the same in living wood itself is a breakeven proposition. As stewards of nearly 50 acres of Pennsylvania forest – we believe that the carbon removal realized by the trees which comprise that wood lot tips the carbon economy of the farm toward a net negative atmospheric contribution. For people in our circumstances we feel that wood burning is less damaging to the environment than burning fossil fuels. The images show smoke from a wood fire, flames at approximately 1000°C, and the flame from a propane torch which burns a few hundred degrees hotter. [Given the drafts of the chimneys servicing our stoves the use of a torch to start our fires is a significant time saver.]
Eggsaggerated
Do you remember the song, One of these things? It used to play on Sesame Street when I was a kid. Here’s that familiar first verse ..
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
Now, look at the photo and play the game …
If you selected the second egg from the left you win. It is a double yolker.
Double-yolked eggs aren’t particularly unusual and even folks here at WordPress have written extensively about them. Unusual eggs of this sort occur when ovulation occurs too rapidly, or when one yolk becomes joined with another. Those who know about such things have observed that double-yolked eggs are more likely to occur in young layers as their hormonal cycles aren’t quite as regular as they will become when they are more mature. Our observations agree and we have noticed other sorts of anomalies in the eggs of young layers as well; these have included oddly sized eggs (mostly very small), oddly shaped eggs (simple asymmetries), eggs with very thin shells, and even ‘egg’s without shells (which are quite a delight to pick up)!
Bird(brain) feeder
This shot was taken through our kitchen window this afternoon. It’s no wonder we go through birdseed so fast. Neither of us has a real problem with this sort of behavior; if we did we’d put a stop to the same animal pilfering cat food from the back porch. Given this bent I’m not sure why we have adopted the double standard which precludes raccoons and opossums from doing the same?
(literal) Reflection
Your Mother was right when she told you that things aren’t always what they seem. The photos show a Silver Maple growing by our lower pond. My older daughter grew the tree from seed while we were still living in Indiana. When we made the move to Pennsylvania she dug up the sapling and brought it along. The image on the left shows the tree and its reflection in the still waters of the pond below. While reflecting on its reflection (sorry) I decided to borrow one of my father-in-law’s photographic tricks and focused (literally) on the water. The photo on the right is the result rotated 180º but otherwise unaltered. The ground into which the tree appears to be rooted is the lower bank of the pond. Pretty nifty, don’t you think?
Coliforms … friend or foe
I have already mentioned that our domestic water supply is drawn from a surface spring. Having been raised in the city, this fact had been perhaps the most significant hurdle between me and rural living. I remember thinking .. water doesn’t come from the ground .. in order for it to be safe it must emanate from pipes .. right?
We recently had our water tested (see posts about the Marcellus gas shale industry) and can report that the results were well within recommended levels for things like iron, sodium, and sulfates as well as for compounds of particular concern (such as arsenic, barium, strontium, and methane for example) when fracking is occurring in your neighborhood. The test parameters which fell outside of recommended levels were those for total coliforms and fecal coliforms. I’m sure that anyone who reads this is now aghast .. positive for coliforms! Take a deep breath. Coliforms are gram-negative bacteria found ubiquitously in water, soils, on plants, and in the digestive systems of mostly warm-blooded animals. Although a number of these may cause serious human disease, most comprise part of the normal (human) bacterial flora and are considered opportunistic pathogens; that is, they cause disease when host conditions are ripe to do so. The presence of coliform bacteria does not necessarily indicate that your water is unsafe; its presence however may indicate that other, potentially pathogenic, organisms may be around. If you look into our spring house you will see lots of little critters (mostly pill bugs, centipedes, and spiders) crawling about its walls. If you peer into the reservoir itself you will see a number of salamanders and newts darting about. We were told by pervious owners of the farm that they used to put a trout or two into the spring each year. They’d allow these to feed and to fatten until it was time to harvest. We suppose the trout also acted as the proverbial Canary in the Coal Mine and would be a real-time indicator of water quality as well. If you look around the spring house the surrounding wood is busy with the traffic of a variety of wildlife including birds, domestic dogs and cats, deer, raccoons, possums, and mice; and more unpredictably bobcats, bear, porcupine, and foxes. The place is teaming with the activity of warm-blooded animals (which harbor and deposit fecal coliforms). To discover the presence of coliforms in our spring should come as no surprise – we expect them to be there. It is wrong to conclude that the presence of these organisms makes the water unfit for consumption. For years we drew our domestic water straight from the spring. To put those of you who might be concerned about the presence of coliform bacteria, pathogenic or not, you will be glad to know that we now have a UV filter in place which instantaneously kills any biologically active material in our incoming water stream including bacteria, viruses, and protists such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Our water is excellent. It is soft, clear, cold, and delicious. We are grateful for it – coliforms and all.
Double take
I have passed this facility at our local market several hundred times, yet only yesterday, noticed a phrase in the advertisement which accompanies it. Please do not misunderstand, it is a wonderful thing that purified water can be so readily available to consumers in this way. To be clear, the motivation for this post came from the surprise that I registered when I read the phrase … “Like Water Used to be!” My first thought was, Does water not taste like it used to? And, if so, When did this happen?
I am aware that there are global concerns about water; and, in particular, the availability of clean drinking water to nourish an ever-growing population (human and otherwise). A quick gathering of statistics brought the many problems into clear relief; 884 million people do not have access to safe water and 1.4 million children die each year as a result of diseases caused by organisms which are found in unclean water. I am also aware, in some general sense at least, that there are significant water issues in the U.S. as well. What took me up short however was the realization (made so clear by the statement which is the focus of this post) that a number of folks apparently do not have access to water that is both delicious and pure … like [it] used to be.
I suppose I had thought that the real issues of water supply and quality were somehow concerns of countries in the developing world. What shocked me was the uncomfortable realization that these issues affect my world too. Sure, I know that there are worries about U.S. water supplies and that one in three counties here will experience greater risks of water shortage due to global climate change in the near future. Perhaps the fact that fifty billion units of bottled water are consumed by Americans each year should have given me a hint. The fact, which I was able to ignore in my little clean-water corner of the world I call home, is that water quality is enough of a local issue that facilities like the one shown above are here and they are here to stay. This negative realization is made more worrisome, for us, by the encroachment of the Marcellus gas shale industry. We wrote, in an earlier post, about the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on our own domestic and agricultural water supplies. Let us hope that the situation never, ever, mirrors that reflected upon by Coleridge in verse: Water, water, every where … Nor any drop to drink.
It was windy
I was moving bales of straw when I noticed shafts of light entering between the boards which comprise the wall of the Big Barn. As it pierced the darkness of the haymow the light illuminated dust that I had disturbed. The wind stirred the chaff into wild waves and turbulent eddies that reminded me of schools of small fish darting frenetically in response to unseen threats or other influences.
Moody waters
We took a walk this morning. The sky was overcast and the river seemed moody … cold, dark, and quiet even where it was moving quickly. Living the way we do has made us come to look at and to appreciate water in ways which we used not to. Water which supports our livestock is drawn from a drilled well near the barns; that which we drink flows from a surface spring which emerges just outside the house. Our supply of domestic water fluctuates with the mostly seasonal vagaries of the surrounding water-table, one of many constant preoccupations. Although we have always had water, there have been times when its flow rate has been very low. Just two summers ago we needed to dramatically limit consumption, and showers and laundry were very carefully scheduled. Luckily there have also been times when we have not had to worry about such limitations.
We recently commented on the local development of Marcellus shale gas deposits. One of the techniques used by this industry to extract previously untapped reservoirs is called hydraulic fracturing (or fracking). Fracking involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into rock formations deep within the earth; this fractures and expands existing fissures in the rock and allows natural gas to rise to the surface. Our fear is for the potential for methane gas and, more insidiously, dangerous chemicals to migrate along these fissures and to pollute our water. Many of the chemicals used by the fracking industry are known to be toxic to humans and other animals, and several are known carcinogens. Potentially toxic substances include petroleum distillates such as kerosene and diesel fuel (which contain benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, and naphthalene); polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; methanol; formaldehyde; ethylene glycol; glycol ethers; hydrochloric acid; and sodium hydroxide.
Our concern for water is genuine. It is not hyperbole to argue that without it … this place ceases to exist.
On knitting lace
The project highlighted in our post entitled Knitting Lace is now done. Joanna has been working on this wedding shawl for our daughter Celia; its structure is based on traditional Estonian lace patterns and is made from nearly ¾ of a mile of 2-ply, lace weight, hand-spun yarn made from the fleece of a three-year old Shetland ewe.
For knitters, lace presents its own challenges and rewards. For one thing, it is less forgiving than other knits. If you drop a stitch or accidentally omit an increase or decrease in plain knitting and don’t notice it for a few rows, it is still pretty easy to fix. Mistakes in lace are often very difficult to fix after-the-fact, which usually leads to backtracking, ripping out down to the mistake and knitting it over. On the other hand, mistakes in lace are usually easy to catch within a couple of rows, when the pattern doesn’t align properly.
While being knitted, a lace fabric is generally a bunchy, unprepossessing object. It doesn’t really bloom until it has been blocked, dampened, and pinned to dry in its finished shape. Then suddenly the pattern appears in all its intricacy.
Shetland wool is ideal for lace knitting. Its long-staple makes it possible to spin it very finely into a nice, even, lace-weight yarn, and the resulting fabric, whether knitted or woven, has high luster and surprising softness. It is no accident that the legendary ring shawls, so fine they can be passed through a wedding ring, were traditionally knit with Shetland wool.
The gallery below is comprised of a number of images showing the finished shawl . Hovering an image will reveal its title; clicking an image will take you to a carousel view and you can then move forward and back as you choose. ESC will bring you back to the gallery view.
I will close with a note concerning the images which appear on this Pairodox Farm blog. All photos are taken using point-n-shoot cameras (Nikon’s COOLPIX p7000 and Sony’s DSC HX9V); post processing is done using Gimp V2.6.
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Summer kitchen
We traveled to visit friends this weekend to talk over the recent performance of our Sheep-to-Shawl team at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. As discussion waned I took a walk around some out-buildings. One particular structure there has always intrigued me, an old summer kitchen. In the days when cooking was done over a wood-fired cookstove the summer kitchen was used to avoid over-heating the main house. All warm-weather cooking, canning, and perhaps laundry was done there. I once wrote the following about an old barn which lies on the Susquehanna flood plain within a few miles of Pairodox, ”Each year, after harvest, this solitary structure emerges from the crops which shielded it from view. I delight in watching how the lights of sunrise and sunset illuminate and reveal its character. I enjoy imagining the animals it may have housed, the feed it may have protected from the elements, and the machinery it perhaps harbored from the snows of winter and the flood waters of spring time. The structure, revealed, speaks of rest and rejuvenation after a long season of hard, productive, work. This rest is important and every bit as much a part of the yearly cycle of events as spring rains and summer sunshine.” Every time I see this summer kitchen the same sorts of thoughts run through my mind. How many meals has its now sagging walls surrounded? How much history, expressed in human generations, has it weathered? What did it observe of the lives of so many that worked the surrounding fields? The building now sits and is subject to the inexorable pull of entropy, if you look closely it lists to the east. Its siding is weathered and some of its windows are long absent. If it could speak it might recount stories only known as fragments by those still with us who have heard them.
There was a summer kitchen on our place when we first arrived. It was to the north-east, only a few feet from the house. It was quite old and deep with the sediment of birds, rodents, and other transitory inhabitants for which the aging structure provided shelter from summer heat and winter wind. We thought it would do nicely as a chicken house and tried to move it (closer to a source of water) at a time when we were not yet fully schooled in such things. The structure collapsed, in transit, as we tried to negotiate a small gully. It was beyond repair so we burned it in place. I’ve always regretted its loss. It would have been nice to have been able to resurrect the structure and to wonder about its history, meals prepared, lives lived and lost, and lessons we have yet to learn. Old buildings intrigue me and I wonder whether they have anything akin to a soul. I believe that they do and that this is something we all have felt when within the confines of these structures. If it can be said that structures have character, then perhaps is it this that we wish to rekindle and come to know when we renovate? There has been much reward in renovation for us. We have done so for our home and for a number of pieces of farm machinery. On a practical level, renovation has often been our only option when funds were unavailable to do otherwise. On another level, however, we have always been pleased to have been able to make like-new. There is a very old saying in the family which shows how it is that we have adopted this attitude: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Next time you think about throwing something out and buying a new one, do yourself and the earth a favor and consider making like-new.
‘Morning,’ sunshine
A recent post entitled Clearing presented a gallery of images taken during a colorful sunset we had here after a nasty spell of weather. It’s only fair then, if one documents the end of the day in this way, to give equal time to the start of the day as well. This image was taken over the weekend when we were fortunate to experience a particularly beautiful start to our day.
