Newark Strawberry Festival 2014

In the face of $4 gas, I won't be attending the annual Strawberry Festival this year.  I can only imagine many other people have had to make the same decision.  The economy suffers from the greed of the power companies and until we make them accountable, events such as the Strawberry Festival take a back seat.

Gasoline Blues

This morning I saw that gas is at 3.99 a gallon.  This is very frightening.  At the same time, so many shade trees are being cut by the power company.  This means I am going to roast in what has been a very cool apartment, but with the cost of energy rising and natural solutions (such as shade trees) being destroyed...

$4 gas damn near it shut down our economy a few years back.  Most of the gasoline that we use in this country is to fuel our tanks and vehicles of war.  The military doesn't pay for that, we do!  The year of the crash and $4 gas, the oil companies made a profit.  What should we do?  I know what I am going to do.

Please Slow Down

There is absolutely no excuse for cars to be driving 40 and 50 miles an hour between the stop signs of Hoover and Granville on Eddy Street.  Please, if you are driving down our street respect that we have children playing and pets that are not fast enough to get out of the way of speeding cars.  I might add that even the drug dealers do not drive this way.  Please think about it, and please slow down.

Brass Wire

It is hard to believe, but Newark has no source for 18 gauge brass wire.  I use this for brass feathers, and I use it for rivets.  I can only speculate that when all the mom and pop hardware stores went to big box stores, this item (along with many others) became obsolete.  I ran into this problem last winter when I tried to buy a solid brass bolt for the butt end of Brians knife.  All the local hardware stores carried bolts that size, but they were brass coated.  I can't use brass coated anything, because I reshape them with grinding wheels and sanding belts.  I had to find real brass bolts online.  While I was looking locally for the big brass bolt to finish the pommel, I scoped out the brass wire knowing I would need it to make rivets.  I became alarmed.  I am still alarmed.  I feel confident that I can still find REAL brass in Columbus, but the transportation cost exceeds my budget.  I purchased this role of brass wire on eBay, and it has free shipping.  As I take stock of everything I may need for upcoming projects, I am finding that buying local is not possible.  I miss the mom and pop hardware stores.  Hopefully someday, they will come back.

Photography Class Tonight

This may be the very last photo I took with the borrowed Canon.  It had 4 megapixels.  The Nikon has 14!  Tonight I am attending a beginning photography class at the local library.  Hopefully I will learn some helpful tips.  I haven't taken a photography class since college days.  This was back in the day when we developed our own film and printed in dark rooms.  It seems like ancient history now:)  Yesterday, I taught art for the first time in about 20 years.  I have 3 delightful energetic students, and I have high hopes for what we can accomplish this summer.

Laura Belle Bolen O'Flaherty

Through Facebook connections I discovered a woman who had posted some of my ancestors on her family tree.  This is Laura Belle Bolen O'Flaherty who later married an Armatrout.  She was born in Virginia, came to Old Hanover had a son (Henry).  Henry Bolen O'Flaherty was my grandfather Russel Bolen O'Flahertys Father, which makes Laura Belle my Great Great Grandmother.

My grandfather Russel is the middle child in the front of the photo flanked by my uncle George and my Aunt Mary.  Laura Belle (my Great Great Grandmother) has her hand on Aunt Marys shoulder and standing to her right is Georgiana Harsh (my Great Grandmother).  My Great Grandfather Henry is the tall younger man behind Uncle George.  I have not discovered who the older gentleman in the photo is, but it is probably an Armatrout (Laura Belles 2nd husband).  This was a great find.  I have been looking for Laura Belle since 2008 when I began studying my family tree.

Jackson Browne David Lindley - The Crow on the cradle

I have fond memories of this song.  Memorial Day Blues!

Patriotic Cat

Syd and I are enjoying the wonderful weather, and playing with the new camera.  The camera has a pet setting as well as a smile sensor of some kind.  There is lots to learn and we are both happy little campers.  I have lots of pictures of Syd from the time he was was a kitten 10 years ago up till now.  No matter which holiday, he seems to like to get in on the action, or in this case being part of the decorations.  Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend everyone. 

Getting Reaquainted With Nikon

My new Nikon arrived this week and I have been experimenting with it, downloading software, and practicing using it.  This camera has more than 3X the megapixels that I had on the Canon (2013-2014).  The built in projector is fun, and I am guessing will help me in my future sales.  There is still so much to learn, and I look forward to showing my readership what I am capable of.  I used Nikon in college, and briefly borrowed a digital Nikon in 2009.  I like the product and am happy to own a Nikon again.

Cat Saves The Day

We don't hear too many tales about cats saving owners from disaster.  This cat was on it!

Calamity Ware

Our everyday dinner ware was called Blue Willow.  I get Kickstarter campaigns in my daily email as a result of grant seeking opportunities.  Most of the time the Kickstarter projects are new technology which are neat projects but not art.  Calamity Ware caught my eye this month.  It is made like the traditional Blue Willow pattern but with some disaster included in the design.  The Kickstarter projects are either totally funded (crowd funding) by pledges.  If the project meets the goal by the time limit, then the project gets funded.  If pledges are not met in time, the project is dead in the water.  Calamity Ware has met its goal in plenty of time.  Some of the backers will get dinner plates with hopefully the disaster of their choice.  I think it is a great idea, and I commend the artist. 

New Business Card

In 2011 when my landlord purposely destroyed my kiln, instead of paying rent the following month, I purchased business cards.  It is a necessary expense that is difficult to come up with, and I only buy them when I am completely out of them.  In the past, business cards preceded a move, and the address almost always obsolete.  I don't put my physical address on my business cards anymore.  Instead I use the electronic addresses that move with me no matter where I go.  In 1999 I started using the double crescent as my logo.  At the time, I wondered how to make the logo with a black background, but did not have the knowledge or the tools to make the graphic.  It has taken years to get the design I first conceived, but here is the result several years and several business cards later.  My friend Jeanne used the paint tool on my computer to fill in the black around the design.  I look forward to trying that tool, and applying it to other projects.

Whistles And Bells

A friend of mine dropped by yesterday to help me design my new business cards.  Even though I don't have a smart phone, lots of people do.  This symbol can be scanned and take a prospective customer to my website.  It was an option that I did not know I had till yesterday.  It is a tool that I can add to this blog (which is not my website), and I am guessing is going to open up all sorts of possibilities for me. 

The Blimp Comes To Town

It is pretty unusual to see the Goodyear blimp in Newark.  But there it was the other day, right in my neighborhood.  I look forward to better resolution in my upcoming photos with a camera upgrade.  Thank You Ohio Arts Council! 

Taking Some Time

I have been taking some time off from the daily blog to work on my family tree.  Speaking of trees, they chopped down a bunch of them in my neighborhood.  It was Asplunde, and my neighbor said they were hired by the power company.  I think they did a butcher job on the trees in order to cause us to run our air conditioners night and day.  We used to live on a shady street, and there is no money in that for AEP.  This is just my opinion, and my observation from other streets in other towns as well as this one.  It is sneaky and it is a violent act.  By the time the sleep walking population catches on, the culprits who ordered it, as well as these old trees will be long gone.  The most empowering thing I can do is leave during the hot summer days and seek out public air conditioning that I won't have to pay for.  I may not have my air conditioner installed this summer.  Damn those bastards to hell!

Bolen Family History

Facebook connections can glean magnificent results.  Two of my Facebook contacts have directed me to ancestors on the Bolen side that go all the way back to Nathanial Boling.  The name was changed when the family came to America.  This painting is Bolling Hall which is a museum.  Here is what is written about the hall on the site Bolling Family Society.

Bolling Hall is one of the oldest buildings in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is currently used as a museum and education center. The building is about a mile from the centre of Bradford. Its surroundings are suburban in character.
Before the Industrial Revolution,Bradford was a small town and difficult to defend as it lay in a basin. However, Bolling Hall occupies a commanding position on a hillside. The earliest part of this building, dating from the 14th century, has been interpreted as a pele tower, although Bradford is somewhat outside the typical geographical area for these defensive structures.
The Manor of Bolling (Bollinc) is first mentioned in Domesday Book and was at that time in the possession of a man named Sindi. The manor then came under the control of Ilbert de Lacy. By 1316 the manor was owned by William Bolling, and Bollings owned the estate until the late 15th century when control went to the Tempests who held the estate until 1649. The estate changed hands several times thereafter until eventually it was let to several tenants until being presented to Bradford Corporation in 1912. It was opened as a museum three years later.
During the second siege of Bradford in 1643, during the English Civil War, the house was a Royalist base. On this occasion the Royalists took the town, which had strong Parliamentarian sympathies, and it was thought that the victors would put the inhabitants to the sword. There is a legend that a ghost appeared in the bedroom where the Royalist commander Earl of Newcastle was staying to tell him to "Pity poor Bradford". There is usually material on display relating to the English Civil War including a death mask of Oliver Cromwell. In the 18th century parts of the house were modernized by the architect John Carr, following a fire. The Bolling chapel at Bradford parish church, now Bradford Cathedral, was restored by the Tempest family in the 17th century but did not survive the twentieth-century rebuilding of the Chancel.

Where I Will Be Today

I will be happily in Columbus Thursday!  "Takin care of business"

Tune In My Head

I can so relate to this!

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

Modern Mattock

I'm curious as to how the Mattock was used in pioneer days.  According to Wikipedia:

• The head of a pick mattock combines a pick and an adze. It is "one of the best tools for grubbing in hard soils and rocky terrain".^[2] The adze may be sharpened, but the pick rarely is; it is generally squared rather than beveled.^[2]

• The head of a cutter mattock combines an axe with an adze. Thus, it has two flat blades, facing away from each other, and one rotated 90° relative to the other. The blade is designed to be used for cutting through roots.^[2]

Pioneer Tools

A buddy of mine stopped by the other day to show me 3 antique tools he has in his vast collection of such things.  I admit, I am glad that I don't have to try and use these in order to survive.  The first tool is called a Foot Edge.  We speculated that it might be called Foot Edge to remind the user to keep his feet out of the way while chopping.  The second tool is some sort of seeder for planting.  The third tool, some sort of corn cutting implement of destruction.  As I write about the Lemert family coming to Licking County in 1817, I am well aware that the cabin they built that first year did not come in a kit.  Trees had to be cut, land cleared, very possibly in hostile unknown territory.  As I research more about this whole area I encounter stories of wild panthers, hostile Indians, deadly diseases.  These folks were brave to say the very least.  What is left of them are stories and some of their tools. 

Syd Loves His Outside

Syd has been enjoying Spring.  When I was out picking violets with my friend Jeanne, Syd came along with us.  Sometimes he seems more like a Labrador retriever than a cat.

Just Another Day On The Farm Blog

Thanks to Aunt Sue for giving me this link to wild violet syrup!  This is to go with the blog I posted yesterday on edible flowers.  I have quite the crop of violets this year, and I intend to capitalize on it.  Not only are they pretty, they are yummy!