Saturday, May 08, 2010
RANDOM OWL ADDICTION
yes. i watch molly and the owlets. but I DO NOT COMMENT and and and i flirt with pergrine falcons and eaglets.
RANDOM 341 OBJECT
Antique TOY RAILROAD Train ENGINE, Flywheel Drive, OHIO-$77
What a fantastically decorative old steel toy! It dates back to just after the turn of the century, and nobody has messed with it. If ever an old toy railroad engine was meant for display on a library shelf, this is the one. It’s large enough to draw attention, and the color is warm and mellow.
It’s over 14” long and stands 6 ½” tall. The width of the engineer’s cab is 4”.
Try not to think of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
I hear the train a comin'
It's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine,
Since, I don't know when,
Sooner or later I’ll have to fess up to the fact that I don’t know who made it, so it may as well be now. It’s driven by a heavy iron flywheel. Once you scoot it across the floor a few times and really get it spinning, it will take off like a cockroach. At least that’s the plan. If you want this one to work better and go faster, you’ll need to grease him up a little, or whatever magic toy collectors do. (Then again, maybe you wrap a string around the axel and pull if off quickly . . . same theory as a top.)
Ohio seems to have been a haven for makers of steel toys with flywheel drive mechanisms. I know of at least four, but I’m certainly not qualified to make an attribution. They were:
Dayton Friction Toy Works
John C. Turner Company in Wapakoneta, Ohio
D. P. Clark, also of Dayton
And, Schieble Toy & Novelty Company.
Strange, isn’t it? All these guys working on toys in Dayton right around the same time the Wright brothers abandoned bicycles in pursuit of loftier ambitions.
Need something a little more interesting for that executive desk than a coffee cup full of pencils? Here ya go . .
RANDOM BEAVERS
World's biggest beaver dam discovered in northern Canada
OTTAWA (AFP) – A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world's largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space.
Researcher Jean Thie said Wednesday he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park.
Average beaver dams in Canada are 10 to 100 metres long, and only rarely do they reach 500 metres.
First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray.
Construction of the dam likely started in the mid-1970s, said Thie, who made his discovery quite by accident while tracking melting permafrost in Canada's far north.
"Several generations of beavers worked on it and it's still growing," he told AFP in Ottawa.
a good thing charlie gumm is gone. he had a jihad out on beavers. and red squirrels. he blamed beavers when our family lake was high, but it wasn't their fault. he loved going out to but dams.
RANDOM 341 OBJECT
Scare NIPPON Blow-Out PLAQUE, Bison / BUFFALO in RELIEF-$334
I never dreamed I’d be able to offer one of these extremely difficult to find round Nippon plaques on eBay. OK – That’s because I’d never even heard of them, let alone discovered one for myself.
And fortunately, the one and only one I’ve ever found turns out to be in exceptional condition with no chips, cracks or other goofiness. Let’s take a close look, shall we?
It’s big.
Diameter = 10 ¾”
Depth = 1 ½”
The two American Bison stand out in deep relief and with excellent detail. But there is actually more to the decoration than the Bison. Although subtle, the rolling terrain of their territory casts shadows at sunset, which adds authenticity to the use of the yellows, lavenders and greens in the background. The foreground is deeply textured to give you a feel for their immediate setting.
The two American Bison stand out in deep relief and with excellent detail. But there is actually more to the decoration than the Bison. Although subtle, the rolling terrain of their territory casts shadows at sunset, which adds authenticity to the use of the yellows, lavenders and greens in the background. The foreground is deeply textured to give you a feel for their immediate setting.
This has little to do with the piece itself, but it’s one of those details I love. The ole gal went to a lot of trouble to make absolutely certain her plaque didn’t fall to the floor due to a weak hanger.
I tried to take a picture at an extreme angle hoping to give you better idea of the depth of the creatures. It didn’t work, so you just have to take my word for it; they’re raised above the surface even more than you think.
I tried to take a picture at an extreme angle hoping to give you better idea of the depth of the creatures. It didn’t work, so you just have to take my word for it; they’re raised above the surface even more than you think.
Friday, May 07, 2010
RANDOM TEXAS
1st town we hit, big honeymoon? wedding? vacation spot w/ a lake. more pics
