Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Museum. Show all posts
Friday, May 3, 2013
Bale Grist Mill
Serendipity As we passed the Bale Grist Mill while travelling along the Napa Valley Highway Sally saw that the big waterwheel was turning, so we stopped to investigate, even though we had been told that the mill was closed. Sure enough the mill was open, as a group of school children were being shown around. We were fortunate enough to be invited to tag along with them. The tour was fascinating. The grist mill is quite large, so all the mechanical processes could be seen easily. We followed the energy path from stream to mill stones. The 36ft diameter wheel is an overshot, so the water flows over the top of the wheel, using its weight to drive the wheel (as opposed the an undershot wheel which uses the speed of the water to turn it). It was surprising how little water was need to drive the mill. The wheel is attached to a shaft which transfers the moving energy to the rest of the mill. There were a couple of take off points so that the energy could be used to move grain round the mill. Interesting were the vertical bands with small pockets attached to them, which were used to raise (or elevate) the grist (which is wheat which has been separated from the chaff) from the ground up to the hoppers used to feed the mill. Once lifted there is machinery to separate the grist from grit and weeds. The mill itself is composed of two granite mill stones dressed with an accuracy of less than a millimeter. The 1100 lb bottom stone rotates at about 200 r.p.m. The mill stones should never actually touch each other, so the corn/wheat is milled (cut up) rather than ground, so the top stone must be accurately placed, using a ring, or 'eye' on to a small shaft, called, for some reason 'The Cock', when the eye is correctly placed then the top stone is then centred on to the rotating lower stone, this is known as being 'cockeyed', strangely we now use the term in a reversal of its original meaning . The mill will produce a variety of flour grades as it works, though the miller has some control over the flour as the top stone can be raised and lowered to roughly determine the grade of flour produced. However as the stone is encased the only way to tell just how big the gap is is to send a small amount of grist through and feel the size of the flour produced, this is done by rubbing the flour between fore finger and thumb, hence the saying 'rule of thumb' At its lowest it will produce finer flour. Too low and the mill stones make contact and the heat of friction will burn the flour, making a smell,, rendering that batch of flour useless, hence the miller must keep his 'nose to the grindstone' to ensure that it is not burnt. The ungraded flour is then elevated again by the 'Run of the mill' elevator (referring to ungraded, or generalised flour being run right through the mill), to be separated into four grades of flour. Fine, Fair, Middlin and bran. The most average flour grade became known as 'fair to middlin'. Once graded the flour is then dropped back down to the ground floor to be bagged. Interestingly milling is a continous process, with a large amount of grain being held in the hoppers, so the grain a farmer brings in is not necessarily used to make the flour he gets out! The miller will assess the farmers grain for quality and ratio of grain to grit/weeds and tell him the % of flour that he will get back, which leaves a lot of room for diasgreements I would think. We learned all this as Jim the miller showed us all round the mill, with the belts, shafts and gears clanking away quietly in the background, finally he actually used the mill to produce some pollenta (a course corn flour). It was a fascinating process and we really enjoyed just being there, watching and learning.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
April 22nd - Doc and Clara Ride the train in Railtown
Monday 22nd
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Doc and Clara Ride the train in Railtown
Monday 22nd
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
April 7th - Calico
Calico Ghost Town.
We were indeed camped right next to the Ghost Town, however the weather now interfered with our plans. A storm was blowing in. Only wind, but expected to be up to 60 m.p.h gusts. Looking at the weather charts it seemed that the Jet Stream had taken an unexpectedly Southern route, down the west coast, crossing the Mojave Desert and New Mexico and swinging back North up the Great Plains. This meant havoc for the North and West of USA. The west coast got cold. The Southern states (thats us) got gales, the Rockies Mid West and Northern states as far as the Great Lakes got snow. Warm wet air sucked in from the gulf, meeting the cold dry air sucked down from Canada met and dropping up to 30 inches of snow. It won’t last long, but it is big.
By Monday afternoon we were prepared to brave the wind and go up to visit the ghost town which had originally been a Sliver Mining Community. It was very twee, but poorly described. We then noticed that some of the buildings were not original 1880’s. We eventually found out that a guy called Walter Knott bought the town in 1950 and was determined to restore it to its original condition as ghost town, Walter Knott is well know for his amusement park in Anaheim, Knotts Berry Farm, right next to Disneyland. Which incidentally started as a farm in 1920, where Walter developed the Boysenberry. The wayside farm stall then opened a chicken restaurant, which developed entertainment bits, which then became what is claimed to be the first theme park in 1947m, complete with its own ghost town. Its history has some fascinating parallels with Calico and also many of the activities and places that we have seen on our travels in the West. Read about it here……. Knotts Berry Farm History
The county of San Bernardino was given the park and have kept it going ever since, so really it is only a pseudo ghost town with many buildings form the 1950’s, still a good bit of fun with the train, the mine, the main street, the sheriffs office etc. we then went down to Peggy Sue’s Diner for dinner.
Calico
Calico Ghost Town.
We were indeed camped right next to the Ghost Town, however the weather now interfered with our plans. A storm was blowing in. Only wind, but expected to be up to 60 m.p.h gusts. Looking at the weather charts it seemed that the Jet Stream had taken an unexpectedly Southern route, down the west coast, crossing the Mojave Desert and New Mexico and swinging back North up the Great Plains. This meant havoc for the North and West of USA. The west coast got cold. The Southern states (thats us) got gales, the Rockies Mid West and Northern states as far as the Great Lakes got snow. Warm wet air sucked in from the gulf, meeting the cold dry air sucked down from Canada met and dropping up to 30 inches of snow. It won’t last long, but it is big.
By Monday afternoon we were prepared to brave the wind and go up to visit the ghost town which had originally been a Sliver Mining Community. It was very twee, but poorly described. We then noticed that some of the buildings were not original 1880’s. We eventually found out that a guy called Wlater Knott bought the town in 1950 and was determined to restore it to its original condition as ghost town, Walter Knott is well know for his amusement park in Anaheim, Knotts Berry Farm, right next to Disneyland. Which incidentally started as a farm in 1920, where Walter developed the Boysenberry. The wayside farm stall then opened a chicken restaurant, which developed entertainment bits, which then became what is claimed to be the first theme park in 1947m, complete with its own ghost town. Its history has some fascinating parallels with Calico and also many of the activities and places that we have seen on our travels in the West. Read about it here……. Knotts Berry Farm History
The county of San Bernardino was given the park and have kept it going ever since, so really it is only a pseudo ghost town with many buildings form the 1950’s, still a good bit of fun with the train, the mine, the main street, the sheriffs office etc. we then went down to Peggy Sue’s Diner for dinner.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Merci Train UPDATE!!!
I do so enjoy discovering things.
While looking into the Merci Train we both had the feeling that they were familiar, but could not place where, or if we had seen one before, So I returned to the Merci Train website and checked more carefully the locations of the boxcars in all states we have passed through. Using Google maps, satellite views and Street view I could then cross reference the locations with our photos. I looked again at Jackson, we were so close to that one. The boxcar in Bristol, Tennessee was close to us, we may have driven past it, but the map shows that it's location cannot be seen from the road. Lastly I looked at Louisiana. The boxcar was displayed at the Old State Capitol, well we had visited the new State Capitol, but could not recall going to the old one. However as soon as I brought it up on Street View I recognized the building, so then checked on our blog archive - found it on 21st October 2012. We had heard about the Downtown Friday Concerts, a series of concert held in a public square, just by the Old State Capitol Building Friday evenings, this week was to be Zydeco! So we had driven into Baton rouge after lunch and parked the car nearby. As we arrived early we had toured the Old Capitol and then gone for a coffee. I re-read the blog. But while I have recorded our visit to the Old State Capitol, there was no mention of the Merci Boxcar and no photos of our visit. In fact I had been quite dismissive of the exhibits there, with the exception of the fine staircase.
So I then checked the Photo Albums on Picasa and lo and behold, there was and album showing our visit and a careful search showed that in the background to a couple of the pics and one video is the Louisiana Boxcar!! More than that, I then searched through our photo archive and found it! We had actually had a look at it and examined it close up, but I had not included the picture in the blog. So here are those pictures.
Oh I am so easily pleased!!! But I had tracked down that little niggle. Yes!
While looking into the Merci Train we both had the feeling that they were familiar, but could not place where, or if we had seen one before, So I returned to the Merci Train website and checked more carefully the locations of the boxcars in all states we have passed through. Using Google maps, satellite views and Street view I could then cross reference the locations with our photos. I looked again at Jackson, we were so close to that one. The boxcar in Bristol, Tennessee was close to us, we may have driven past it, but the map shows that it's location cannot be seen from the road. Lastly I looked at Louisiana. The boxcar was displayed at the Old State Capitol, well we had visited the new State Capitol, but could not recall going to the old one. However as soon as I brought it up on Street View I recognized the building, so then checked on our blog archive - found it on 21st October 2012. We had heard about the Downtown Friday Concerts, a series of concert held in a public square, just by the Old State Capitol Building Friday evenings, this week was to be Zydeco! So we had driven into Baton rouge after lunch and parked the car nearby. As we arrived early we had toured the Old Capitol and then gone for a coffee. I re-read the blog. But while I have recorded our visit to the Old State Capitol, there was no mention of the Merci Boxcar and no photos of our visit. In fact I had been quite dismissive of the exhibits there, with the exception of the fine staircase.
So I then checked the Photo Albums on Picasa and lo and behold, there was and album showing our visit and a careful search showed that in the background to a couple of the pics and one video is the Louisiana Boxcar!! More than that, I then searched through our photo archive and found it! We had actually had a look at it and examined it close up, but I had not included the picture in the blog. So here are those pictures.
Oh I am so easily pleased!!! But I had tracked down that little niggle. Yes!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Tuscon Botanical Gardens
Sunday
A short drive along Grant takes us to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. We took a picnic and hoped for a pleasant day. we were not disappointed. The gardens are well laid out, though rather specializing in desert type plants. There were lots of succulents and cacti as well as a lot of aromatic plants and herbs.
Of most interest was the butterfly and orchid house. We spent a fair amount of time there trying to identify butterflies and take photos.
We had our picnic in the shade of a grapefruit tree then explored some other areas. We stumbled across an landscape gardening competition, a bit like Chelsea Flower show, but only four local entrants, still it was interesting. The last area of note was what is termed a community garden, quite common in mexico, what was attractive was the prayer tree, on which people hang trinkets and icons as a prayer request. This had been simplified to small wooden hearts which had been decorated. It was a very peaceful area.#
Quite an enjoyable excursion.
I get hung up on taking nice pics, so here are some more.
Monday was designated a quiet day, we lazed around in the sun and then mid afternoon took off to the local Texas Roadhouse for our first steak of this trip! Very nice meal, then a quick waltz round Walmart, which happened to be next door.
Tuesday
Time to move on, having sucked Tucson dry of all its tourist adventure potential we are starting our drive West, not far, Picacho State Park is only 34 miles away, but is an isolated State Park in the middle of the Saguaro Desert, even if it is only a few miles from the Interstate 10 and a railway. We plan to try and chill out for a couple of days in the heat of the desert before moving on to see a bit more of Phoenix at the weekend.
A short drive along Grant takes us to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. We took a picnic and hoped for a pleasant day. we were not disappointed. The gardens are well laid out, though rather specializing in desert type plants. There were lots of succulents and cacti as well as a lot of aromatic plants and herbs.
Of most interest was the butterfly and orchid house. We spent a fair amount of time there trying to identify butterflies and take photos.
We had our picnic in the shade of a grapefruit tree then explored some other areas. We stumbled across an landscape gardening competition, a bit like Chelsea Flower show, but only four local entrants, still it was interesting. The last area of note was what is termed a community garden, quite common in mexico, what was attractive was the prayer tree, on which people hang trinkets and icons as a prayer request. This had been simplified to small wooden hearts which had been decorated. It was a very peaceful area.#
Quite an enjoyable excursion.
I get hung up on taking nice pics, so here are some more.
Monday was designated a quiet day, we lazed around in the sun and then mid afternoon took off to the local Texas Roadhouse for our first steak of this trip! Very nice meal, then a quick waltz round Walmart, which happened to be next door.
Tuesday
Time to move on, having sucked Tucson dry of all its tourist adventure potential we are starting our drive West, not far, Picacho State Park is only 34 miles away, but is an isolated State Park in the middle of the Saguaro Desert, even if it is only a few miles from the Interstate 10 and a railway. We plan to try and chill out for a couple of days in the heat of the desert before moving on to see a bit more of Phoenix at the weekend.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Arizona Desert Museum
Friday
Today we drove out from Tucson into the Sonora Desert to visit the Desert Museum.
A museum dedicated to the desert. Fortunately we took lunch with us as the visit took longer than we anticipated.
We followed the guided walk along its paved paths, visiting sections about the desert. It's geology, climate, minerals, animals, plants, birds, insects and, yes, fish!
The highlight was visiting the hummingbird enclosure, where we spent nearly an hour. It was lovely to see hummingbirds with their young, or sitting on their nest, or just bombing around finding nectar in flowers, or from the feeders. A great day that gave us a good insight into the Sonora Desert.
These and all ourblogs are indexed by date in the list on the right hand side of this page
Today we drove out from Tucson into the Sonora Desert to visit the Desert Museum.
A museum dedicated to the desert. Fortunately we took lunch with us as the visit took longer than we anticipated.
We followed the guided walk along its paved paths, visiting sections about the desert. It's geology, climate, minerals, animals, plants, birds, insects and, yes, fish!
The highlight was visiting the hummingbird enclosure, where we spent nearly an hour. It was lovely to see hummingbirds with their young, or sitting on their nest, or just bombing around finding nectar in flowers, or from the feeders. A great day that gave us a good insight into the Sonora Desert.
The visit prompted me to put a couple of more specific blogs up, so just before this blog you can find:
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