Wordless Wednesday - Country Roads

Southern Indiana 1980. Infrared Photo digitized ...Copyright © 1980/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Lesser Yellowlegs

During a recent outing on Lake Superior to explore some islands, we felt extremely lucky to have the company of a trio of Lesser Yellowlegs for about half an hour. We landed on one of the local islands and as soon as we were out of the boat we noticed first one, then two and eventually three of these entertaining little birds. We watched them for a long time as they worked the protected shoreline of a small cove on the island. They were loads of fun to watch!

Cloud Galaxy

Last night we headed out to try and do some photography of the annual Perseid meteor shower. For about the past week we have been seeing quite a few meteors streaking through the sky each night, but last night was supposed to be the "peak" of the shower. We stayed out from about 10:30 PM until 3:00 AM and while we did see a lot of meteors, it didn't seem to be quite as many as last year. The view of the Milky Way Galaxy is what really stole the show. We started off our evening at Paradise Beach just south of Judge Magney State Park and the view of the Milky Way over Lake Superior was tremendous. As we sat and enjoyed the view we heard wolves howling off in the distance. A couple of hours later we packed up and headed to one of the fire towers in Grand Portage. When we got there, however, a very large cloud bank was moving in from the west and we were only able to get a few shots in before the Milky Way was completely obscured by the clouds. In this photo you can see the edge of the cloud along the bottom of the photo. I thought it made for a pretty interesting image to show that cloud advancing over the Milky Way with the fire tower in the foreground. It was a fun night outside, and to go along with hearing the wolves we also saw a pine marten and a small rabbit, both of which ran down the road in front of us at different times. So, not only a good night for stargazing but also a good night for wildlife!

What Our Hands Can Do

Looking over these photos from the Friday after Thanksgiving, I noticed something interesting: Almost everything pictured here is hand-made.The dress I am wearing was made by my mother. The hat and scarf were made by me. Even the bicycle was hand-made by an Italian frame builder for Bella Ciao. This combination was not intentional, but once I noticed it, I found it striking.

My mother knitted this elaborate wool dress for herself in the early 1980s and wore it all through her 20s and 30s, after which point she gave it to me. The dress suited her much better, but that has not stopped me from wearing it since I were a teenager. It only occurred to me recently how remarkable it is for a dress like this to survive being worn for three decades by two different women - neither of whom are at all gentle with their clothing. And yet here it is, still looking fresh and current.The tailoring, the textural variation, and the attention to detail are incredible by today's standards - and my mother made tons of this stuff when I was a child, while being a busy career woman, too. (I remember seeing her knit while speaking on the phone and reading a book about mathematics at the same time... )



While my own attempts at knitting are fairly pedestrian compared to my mother's past projects, they do have one feature in common:longevity. I knitted this scarf back in grad school, and 8 years later it remains alive and well, while countless store-bought ones have since fallen apart. My friends, for whom I've made clothing as far back as high school, give me the same feedback - some of them still wear the things I made in the mid-'90s. Noticing this was a big reason why I started to knit and sew again this year: I am not that great at it, but the stuff I make lasts and fits me better than store-bought.



Over this past year I have done something a little nuts: I've sold or given away most of my clothing - stuff that I had collected and saved for more than 10 years. When I was younger, I was into edgy fashion and quirky designers, but lately that interest has all but faded - replaced by a curiosity regarding how far I can go making things on my own. Aside from knitting, I have been cutting up some of my remaining old clothing and handsewing "new" clothes out of it. Hopefully I will get a sewing machine for the holidays, which will allow me to take things further. In the past I have dabbled in making my own fountain pens as well. And eventually - maybe, just maybe, I would like to try my hand at building bicycle frames - or at least designing them à laGrant Petersen.



While my framebuilding days are not yet on the horizon, I do have enormous respect for bicycles hand-made by others, and an insatiable curiosity about the process. Whether independent framebuilders such as JP Weigle, Peter Mooney, Royal H.and ANT, or small manufacturers such as Mercian, Rivendell, Velo Orange and even Pashley andBella Ciao - I am impressed by the sheer amount of work and consideration it takes to get the design, the construction, and the finishing just right. The more I learn about the process, the more overwhelming it seems. In a world of homogenous, mass-produced goods, it is amazing to witness what our minds and our hands are capable of creating.

Memorial Day Weekend

With the great weather and long weekend lots of climbers have been summitting. We've had successful summits via the following routes: Kautz Glacier, Tahoma Glacier, Liberty Ridge, Fuhrer Finger, Ingraham Direct, Emmons Glacier, and Gibraltar Ledges. The daytime sunshine has also been turning icy glaciers into good corn snow for great riding/skiing. The snow in Paradise still reaches the parking lot making for fun descents.

Climbing ranger David Gottlieb has just returned to Mount Rainier after another successful first ascent in Nepal. He and former climbing ranger Joe Puryear climbed Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters). Check out http://www.climbnepal.blogspot.com/ for more information and some rad photos.
The weather continues to look clear and sunny for later this week. Come on up and enjoy the routes while they're still in great condition.

Walcote circular, via Gilmorton and Kimcote

Led by Barry, with me and Gordon. Pretty flat, good underfoot - mix of arable and cattle country. 7.5 miles. No rain while we were out. At least 26 stiles.


We had a last minute change of plan when we discovered the A43 was closed and that side of Corby was as near gridlocked as I have ever seen it. So we headed back across Corby and past Market Harborough. Thanks to Barry for a last minute alternative to my walk.



I've driven past Walcote countless times on my way to the M1 when heading north, but had never stopped. As so often there is more to these villages than meets the eye of the passing motorist-in-a-rush.



We find a place to park, and set off north along Brook Street, taking a footpath west, to the left just before the road divides. The path soon turns north once more, along the field edge and over a few fields before turning north west and passing the corner of Winterfield Spinney.



The path zigzags a bit through fields north then west, but when two paths meet between Oback and Thornborough Farms we turn right in a northeasterly direction. In the third field we take the left hand option when the path divides. This takes us to the left hand corner of the field, across another one, then along the edge of a third, very smelly today, as it's recently been manured. Good job we don't intend to eat in any posh pub.



We turn left and walk uphill for a few hundred yards along the Lutterworth Road, which is busier than we expected.

The footpath goes off to the right, and heads north north east to Gilmorton. We pass the old motte in a field near the church - no public right of way, so we sneak a peek through the gate.





Our path goes through the churchyard, where we take a break.

Gilmorton Church

An unusual memorial bench.

The church porch was built to celebrate Victoria's diamond jubilee - the stained glass is clearly Victorian, and we think the carved head above looks like the lady herself.





We leave the church behind us and walk through the village.

Grey skies today!

We turn right along the road to Kimcote, and when the road bends to the right we take a path straight ahead. It looks as though there was once a village or similar here - lots of lumps and bumps in the ground, but nothing on the map.



This runs parallel with the road just south of Bruntingthorpe airfield/ proving ground.





We follow the path to the north of The Lodge, and then turn south towards Kimcote, over more fields.

Kimcote church

We walk past the church and cross the road to Poultney Lane, through the village and farms. The road turns into a footpath past sewage works, and then gradually leads southwest towards Walcote.

Globe artichokes - yum!

The not-so-swfit River Swift.

We meet the road, cross the mighty Swift, and at Woodside Farm, we turn left on a footpath which takes us back to the village.



Wildlife note: There are still a few swallows feeding up on the plethora of insects - mainly daddy-long-legs - before they leave for the sunny south.

Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing

Since it was an extra long weekend, we both were able to pick a thing to go and see/do and then we picked one together. My pick was the Drag Racing Museum that was nearby. I have been excited about this museum since we got here. I love all things to do with cool cars of any type. Nathan is a little less enthusiastic about them. When it comes to them being in a museum, it works out perfectly though because it is the only kinds of museums that I want to spend as long in the museum as Nathan does.



While he reads every single written word in the museum, I look at every single thing on the car that I think is cool. Then I take pictures of every single thing I think is cool. Which means I end up with way more pictures than is reasonable. Then I go home and look at them...over and over again. I really love cool cars.



This particular museum was founded by Big Daddy Don Garlits. His bio is extremely impressive. His cars were extremely impressive. The museum was extremely impressive. We had a great time visiting this place!




There is not a lot of information about the museum online, so I did not know just how much would be here. I was hoping there would be enough that we would feel it was worth the time and money. It went way beyond that, having far more there than we expected and it was laid out very nicely making it very easy to learn a lot along the way. Alongside of the displays were posters, signage and even movie clips.





There was information about the drivers, some of which were women. There were stories about the times when the reality of how dangerous this is reared its ugly head. At one point Garlits had an injury that sliced through his foot, tearing his foot in half. One of the outcomes of that injury was some engineering design changes such as moving the engine behind the driver instead of in front of the driver. There were pieces and parts of the cars that had been in accidents.



And of course there were rows and rows of the awesome cars! We highly recommend this neat museum if you are in the Ocala area. There are two museums on site, I will come back and share about the other one after I get the pictures cropped and edited. That might take days because I took even more pictures at the other museum! Living the life in interesting Florida!

Tombstone Tuesday :: Elizabeth Helms Jones

They (whoever "they" are) say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, I hope that Amy Crow over at Amy’s Genealogy, etc. Blog is flattered that I am helping myself to her theme of "Tombstone Tuesday" for a series of blog posts. . . Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!

I have a large "collection" of photos of gravestones from various cemeteries that I've visited and plan to eventually post them at Find A Grave. But until that happens, I thought I'd occasionally post some of the family grave photos here at kinexxions.


Masonic Section, Greenhill Cemetery, Columbia City, Indiana

OUR MOTHER / Elizabeth B. Jones / DIED / Nov. 17, 1883. / AGED / 79 Yrs. 7 Mo. 14 Ds.

The text inscribed below her age is not legible.

My post on Grandma Jones, whose maiden name was Helms, was one of the first ancestor biographies that I posted here at kinexxions.

It is the guy having the most fun....

that wins every time.These guys are having some! Make sure to dbl click this one and watch it full screen.



INSPIRATION!











Brian's web site again:



http://www.getstrongergolonger.com/journal//5/19/buck-north-face-trilogy.html

Midsummer Moonrise at the Spirit Tree

Last night's moonrise along the Lake Superior shoreline in Grand Portage, MN. After a perfect evening of paddling our kayaks on a local lake we headed back home for a quick bite to eat before heading out again to watch and photograph the moonrise. The waters of Superior were incredibly calm as the moon slowly rose between the tree and the Susie Islands. The night was so calm we could hear the cackle of gulls nesting on Long Island on the opposite side of Wauswaugoning Bay.

Arches Revisited

Ten days ago I left Hovenweep National Monument and continued north toward Moab. My intention was to stay a few days and spend some time at Arches National Park. I immensely enjoyed my visit there, about a year ago. However, after a stop at the visitor center, where I learned that most of the campgrounds in the area were already full and booked for the weekend, I resumed driving. There is a State Park at Green River about 45 minutes northwest of Moab and, as luck would have it, they still had quite a few campsites available. It was mid-afternoon when I checked in and before the sun set the campground was full.



The next morning (Friday the 13th), I decided to stay at Green River State Park for the weekend. It was a gorgeous day and after doing a few chores in the morning took a drive over to Arches National Park.





One of the numerous formations at Arches. It was late afternoon and nearby formations cast their shadows, slowly creeping ever closer to this formation.





Another formation silhouetted against the skyline.



The snow-capped La Sal mountains rise up in the distance and dominate the horizon



Balancing Rock. From this angle it really does looks like it is doing a balancing act.



But as you walk around it, the angle of view and perspective change; it is securely attached to the base rock. In time, the wind and rain will erode the base further and some day, in the distant future, the balancing rock will be no more.





And, of course, the setting sun marked the end of another beautiful day!

Deteriorating Dress Guards

I've had my Raleigh Tourist for close to 3 years now and, not counting the brake pads, the only wear on the bike over the course of that time has been to the aftermarket dress guards. These dress guards were acquired new old stock from a connection in Portugal. They are very simple - essentially a bunch of elasticised cords. And I love them: the simplicity of the design does not detract from the elegant form of the iconic loop frame, while being sufficient to do its job. Unfortunately, over time the cords seem to have lost their elasticity and are now kind of saggy. Some have even begun to disintegrate and I've had to cut them off. I am surprised that they've lasted such a short time, and it's a bit of a pain because the number of holes they require in the fender is unique to them. I will have tobother the person who gave them to me for another set, or attempt to make my own.




Assuming that my experience is not a fluke, it might explain why so many vintage bicycles are found with holes in the fenders but no dress guards: Possibly, this accessory had an inherently short life span due to the elastic degrading.I assume the elastic is natural rubber, which would make it sensitive to heat and humidity - same reason it is so rare to find intact original rubber grips.




Those who are making dress guards today (I know there are a few of you out there now) might want to keep this in mind. I'd be curious to know what types of cords you use and how they have held up. If I make my own dress guards, I would like them to last next time!

Finishing What You Started

"The hardest part of this for beginners is usually the cleanup," Mike said at the start. "It's a lot of filing. That's what breaks people."




"Oh," I said. "Well, that shouldn't be a problem. I've done filing."




Going into this, I was worried about many things. The measuring, the cutting, the alignment, the brazing. But filing I could handle. I thought back to my days of intaglio printmaking (etching on metal plates). The person who taught me insisted that everything had to be done from scratch and manually - from cutting sheets of metal to preparing the plates. The latter involved beveling the edges at just the right angle, then endlessly filing, sanding and buffing them until the bevels were perfectly even and smooth, polished to a mirror finish. His insistence on this level of prep work had more than a few students in tears before we even touched ink or got anywhere near the press. But for some reason I stuck with it, eventually got the hang of it, and continued to use this method after I began to work independently. It just didn't feel right to do it any other way. Now whenever I see an etching, I can't help but look at the edges in search for file marks. All of this is to say, the prospect of filing for hours did not frighten me.






So how do I explain what happened a week ago? I don't want to exaggerate it into some dramatic melt down, but it was certainly a low point. A very long day, throughout the course of which I grew increasingly quieter and less bouncy than I had been up to that point. This was supposed to be the last day. So maybe it was the discrepancy between having believed I was almost done, and discovering more and more little things needing to be finished. All these little things added up, and taken together amounted to a lot of work. Bridges, bottle cage mounts, eyelets, braze-ons for cable routing.I had been awake since 5:30am. By 5:30pm, I was so tired that I had a hard time focusing. By the time we mocked the whole thing up to make sure the wheels, tires, rack and brakes all worked together,I was no longer fully present. At this stage we decided that the frame was finished - "good enough." But the feeling of satisfaction or at least catharsis that I had expected at the end did not come.




At home later that evening I did nothing and thought of nothing, feeling utterly dejected. It wasn't until the following day that I could even get myself to look at my pictures of the finished frame. And then I finally felt something: panic. "Good Lord, how could I leave it like this? This is notfinished!" I could see smears of brass and silver. If I zoomed in closely enough, I could make out uneven surfaces. I had filed away at these areas, but apparently not enough. Mike had been right: like most first timers, I had flaked out on the cleanup. With horror, I imagined him powdercoating the frame as it was, uneven shorelines and all. Or, worse yet, putting the finishing touches on it himself, whilst chuckling "I knew the finishing would get her!" So I phoned him, trying to stay calm. He had not powdercoated the frame yet. And yes, fine, I could come over to continue working on cleanup. This put me in a fine mood.I showed up bright and early on a Friday morning full of energy.



Somehow I maintained that energy for an entire day of using nothing but some files and emory cloth strips. All I did from 9:30am until 5:30pm, with a break for lunch, was file and sand, and it was tremendously satisfying. I guess having reached that low point my previous time at the shop, there was nowhere to go but up.




Mike had to go out for much of the day, and I was mostly on my own working on this. Not being able to seek feedback (Does this part look even? Did I file too much in this spot?) added a new layer of excitement to the process. When he returned, I think he was pretty amused by how cheerful I was after being at this for hours.






One of the trickiest parts to clean up was the area around the Grand Bois fork crown. Those curly-cues make it difficult to get the file into that little space and chisel away at the extra filler material without gouging the crown or blades in the process. It took me longer to get it to this state from this state, than it did to do the initial post-brazing cleanup. The trick is to dig into the shoreline build-up with the tip of a file, then angle the file just so to lightly and gingerly clean up the rest.






But the most challenging part of all was the seat cluster. My beautiful seat cluster! We made the seat stay caps from scratch to look exactly the way I wanted; it was the coolest thing ever. But during brazing I got a bunch of silver all over the caps, and was now terrified that in cleaning them up I would ruin their perfect concave surfaces. So ever so lightly, I dug into the tiny bulges with the tip of a file, using the most delicate micro-movements I was capable of to remove the filler material but not the steel underneath, then polished with an emory cloth until I got the stuff off. This took a while!




And so it went.The pictures here show the frame close to the point where I stopped, but not quite there.I didn't have the energy for pictures by the time I was done.






If you are wondering about the uneven looking surface from the sanding marks, they disappear after the frame gets sandblasted. The headlugs started out looking like this after brazing, then this, and eventually ended up as you see them above.




Don't get me wrong: The finishing on my frame still isn't "good" by real builders' standards. In fact I would not mind continuing to work on it, but unfortunately we are out of time. But at least now I can live with the state I left it in. And no matter how the bike turns out, I got the feeling of catharsis and closure I wanted out of the process. I learned how to build a bicycle frame (and fork!), from start to finish.

Sunday at Ohiopyle State park

Laura in non typical climbing clothes, imitating an old west gunfight?

Are you sure we're going climbing?

Last night it was a tough call whether to pack for big ice or mix climbing. Laura and I are itching to get in some real local ice and were hoping to climb at SCII. After a little discussion we decided that conditions would most likely not be favorable enough to climb. So we packed up with mixed climbing in mind, leaving the sharp crampons and ice screws at home for a better day. Ohiopyle State park would be our destination. We were going to enjoy the results from yesterdays work. I put in some time equipping a line that we've top roped before at Bruner Run. Its a beautiful line up through overhangs and seams with some funky corner moves. It'll involve spicy gear placements in between bolted blank sections. The route overhangs about 15' in 55' of climbing.

Doing work son!

Steep, overhanging, mixed climbing

Figuring some moves, clearing some cracks, all in a days work!

The sign at the gate on Bruner Run Road. If the gate is open drive to the crag

at the bottom,otherwise its a steep walk down and back.

We set off to Bruner Run only to find the gate at the top of the road leading down to the river closed due to current icy conditions. Bummed by the road closure Laura and decided to visit Lower Meadow Run instead and save the new line for another day. Instead of heading straight to Lower Meadow, we decided to go check conditions at SCII to see how they faired after the several days of warm weather last week. Upon arrival we found the summit to have quite a bit more snow blanketing the ground. We booted up and hiked down to check it out. Conditions are looking way better than I expected. Here's a photo of what it looked like today.

Laura checking ice conditions dressedin

her Patagucci SCII camo edition softshell

Conditions looked better than I expected and some of the ice obviously made it through the last warm up. If the temps stay cold at night things will most likely continue to improve. For now the water is flowing nicely and there is still hope for some climbs this season. After a quick look we hiked back to the car and made the drive back to Ohiopyle to climb at Lower Meadow.



We hiked back across the bridge and up the stream to the crag. The icicles were hanging everywhere. The Main Flow has touched down and is building quick, but will most likely not survive the week as have most of the ice lines. The mixed lines are dripping, but climbable. Caveman is running the most and will involve some serious wet misery if climbed. Anger Management has some usable ice on it, but the finish is not in its thick icy state. Usually this line is about a grade easier without the ice up there, but rules out any pro from the last bolt to the finish. We decided to climb Season Finale a traditionally protected M6 R. This climb is always spooky. Its only about 35' long but packs quite a punch. The minimal gear placements are in questionable rock with the only solid piece being 5' from the finish, after the crux. The climb went well with a little mind management and some encouragement from Laura. I thought I was coming off just after placing the last and best piece on the route. I was getting pumped quick. There was no fear of falling and being injured at this point, but there was the fear of having to repeat that piss poor protected crux again. I hung on and made the last few burly moves to the anchors. Here's some shots of me on the climb.

Making the most of the ice?

Getting a pice below the crux

Working through the crux

A little further to the anchors

The ground shots don't do this route much justice. What it lacks in height it makes up for in spice. Most find the line to be much harder than expected. Here's another perspective. Laura cleaning the route.

Laura starting up

Laura hanging tough through the crux

Getting rough

Removing the last cam fried Laura and a hang was in order

A short rest had Laura cranking through the thin ice finish

It was a great climb and I'd highly recommend it to anyone thats solid at the grade and proficient at placing gear! If you think its a little over your head and aren't ready to tie into the sharp end, don't feel left out. Its an easy hike to the top and the ring anchors make it easy to rig this climb on top rope and provide hours of fun mixed climbing practice.

Unfamiliar with Ohiopyle climbing? Get in touch... I'll provide the info you need to get climbing in this neck of the woods.