Photos

Day 9, August 8

2011-08-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

Day 3, August 2 (Actually taken Wednesday morning)

2011-08-03T12:06:00.007-05:00

Day 1 -- July 31

2011-07-31T22:24:00.004-05:00

Allen TC-3 for free anyone?

2011-06-05T16:16:00.002-05:00

Click on a photo to make it bigger

Watertown Missions Trip Pictures

2009-06-29T19:11:00.031-05:00

Click on any picture for a larger view. 34,000 square feet of building takes a lot of hands to fix up!

1937 Frazee Pipe Organ

2009-06-29T16:33:00.042-05:00

Here is the sanctuary. The organ pipes are behind the 3 windows at the front with the gold grill cloth. The console is just sticking out on the stage on the right. It was tucked in at some point to make more room for the choir.

Click on any picture to see a full size view. Here is the swell box.

Swell reservoir, and the ends of the swell sliders

Swell regulator, swell slider motors, and patching the leather on the oboe slider motor.

The pedal division: 2 ranks. The back row is the 16' Open Wood basses, then a row of 16' Bourdons, then a row of Open Wood trebles. On the offset chest to the side are the trebles to the Bourdon.

The great division: These open diapason basses still have their Woodberry stenciling on them, though no longer presentable. Some have been painted black where they would be in view without the grill cloth. Apparently the church must have tried having no grill cloth because there is a lot of black paint to try to hide various organ parts, and it must have still been considered unsatisfactory visually because the grill cloth was finally added.

The great trumpet sounds amazing.

The console

The choir division

The access hatch to the chamber, the most generous I've encountered yet!

(Klann?) Stop Tab? Anyone got some?

2008-07-10T17:03:00.004-05:00

Does this look familiar to anyone? Its from a console from maybe the 1950's with a mechanical memory combination action (even mechanical pistons) and no relay, just a contact in the console for every pipe valve, wired directly from key contact to windchest.

What I need are a handful, maybe 5, blank ones, and one engraved Salicional 8. But would also take a randomly engraved one or 5 to play with.

It uses this type of spring (I've got enough springs but would certainly take more):

The List

2007-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Congratulations! If you are reading this then either you are the music coordinator of my church, or were really really bored and "mousing" around. ;-)
1) Lyons -- O Worship the King (bbbb)
2) Beecher -- Love Divine (###)
6) Come, Thou, Almighty King (#)
17) Nettleton -- Come, Thou Fount (##)
40) Great is Thy Faithfulness (##)
42) Coronation -- All Hail the Power (#)
44) Sagina -- And Can it Be That I Should Gain? (bbbb)
45) Lyons -- Ye Servants of God (#)
55) Madrid -- Come, Christians, Join to Sing (###)
62) Crown Him With Many Crowns (##)
70) Nicaea -- Holy, Holy, Holy (bbb)
84) Hyfydol -- Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (b)
87) Antioch -- Joy to the World (##)
89) Gloria -- Angels We Have Heard on High (b)
93) Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (b)
99) Regent Square -- Angels From the Realms of Glory (bb)
126) Toplady -- Rock of Ages (bb)
137) Christ the Lord is Risen Today (c)
142) Duke Street -- Jesus Shall Reign (##)
185) Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken (bbb)
186) Aurelia -- The Church's One Foundation (bbb)
272) The Solid Rock (b)
290) Finlandia -- Be Still My Soul (b)
380) Rise Up O Men of God
449) To God Be the Glory (bbbb)

Not in CMC hymnal:
All Hail the Power (bbbb)
Of the Father's Love Begotten (bbb)
St Columbia -- Shepherd somethingorother (##)

On the Roof Again!

2007-12-05T02:38:00.000-05:00

These were taken from my roof. The first roof you see here is my other roof (over the apartment). Then a bunch of neighbors roofs. Not sure why this came out so foggy looking, but it looks kind of cool in a way! Surreal. Below is looking into the backyard. Sailboat being snowed on.

Second Snow!

2007-12-03T15:11:00.000-05:00

First Snow 07/08

2007-11-28T18:37:00.000-05:00

Pictures of my street after our first real snow of the year. Above was taken at about 2AM... kinda dark. Used the night setting and a "tripod" (upside down trash can) but still dark. But when the sun came, below, the snow was still collected on the tree branches.

The Thanksgiving Group

2007-11-27T23:29:00.000-05:00

These are all folks from my church who got together for Thanksgiving Dinner at the home of Steve and Linda.

Above from left to right: Dan, me, Belinda, Stephanie, George, Becky
Below: Andy (not me), Eric, Linda and Steve, Robert and Terri

Bach Toccata and Fugues, and Preludes and Fugues

2007-11-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

(Listen)Piece: Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV563
Recording: The
Dedication Recital, First Presbyterian Church, La Grange, Georgia
Organist: John Weaver
Organ: Wicks Opus 6363, First Presbyterian Church, La Grange, Georgia
This is the piece in the aforementioned video, in its entirety (both videos showed only the fugue)

(Listen)Piece: Toccata and Fugue in d (yep, the famous one)
Recording: (1975) The Virgil Fox Bach Book
Organist: Virgil Fox
Organ: Aeolian-Skinner Organ Opus 1118, The Riverside Church, New York City
This is a very symphonic and dramatic interpretation. Very cool, though not very baroque.

(Watch) Here's a more baroque approach of the above, from youtube.
There is a higher quality version of this video for free download at Organs and Organists Online. You have to login but an account is free and instant to get. Once logged in, go to "download center", then "online video", then "Toccata & Fugue in d minor, BWV 565", then "Download Video". It streams in low quality meanwhile.

(Watch) Fugue in G Minor, played by Ton Koopman on a Silbermann organ built in the early 1700's. Yep, Bach was alive then! Bach was also a personal friend of Herr Silbermann. See if you can imitate Ton's head movements! :-P I tried, but failed. :-)

A Bit of Kitchen and Bathroom Progress

2007-09-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

Above: I made a spice rack above the cabinets. It really works well so I'm going to continue the shelf above all the cabinets. Its a bit high but all of us can reach it. Below, I made a pots/ pans rack I was going to buy one, but the ones for sale require much more ceiling height, or else just hang really low, and cost three digits. This one barely cost two digits.

And here's the renovated shower, from a few weeks ago. I paid someone to do this one. Came out fantastic. The tub is old, but the fixtures are completely new and the tile is all new. I don't have "before" pics but it was getting pretty nasty. The tiles had been leaking for years so the wall was all rotten. Not anymore. As you can see in the edges of the pictures, the rest of the bathroom still needs work.

Zoomed in on Champlain, and Zoomed out on George

2007-09-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

Zoomed in on Lake Champlain. Above can be seen Shelburne Bay, Juniper Island, and The Four Brothers (islands). Below: Burlington Bay in the middle:

Below: Mallets Bay at the right of the picture, and beyond it, South Hero and North Hero:

And now on the way back down, a couple of cool pictures of George:

At the Summit!

2007-09-17T15:43:00.000-05:00

The other group we met up there offered to take our picture. This is me, George, and Seth

Summit Panorama

2007-09-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here I just did a 360, starting from the sun (west, toward Lake Champlain) and turning counterclockwise until I got back to the sun again:

Don't worry, that is not George and Seth in this picture:

Camel's Hump, Over the Ridge

2007-09-17T15:18:00.000-05:00

Here we have just passed the treeline and have arrived at the first big view. I just pointed to the left and then panned to the right. The Long Trail (which we are on at this point in the hike) follows the ridge seen below:

Below: if the sun didn't burn up this picture, you would see Lake Champlain in the distance. You actually can see it a bit, mainly on the far right:

Below are the rest of the pictures from the same spot. This is Seth and George:

This is looking up at the rest of our climb. The trail goes around, not straight up of course. Does look like a good rock climb though! Probably could free climb this one though I'm not sure I'd try it myself:

We did try to take one of all three of us on auto, but it came out really really terrible... even worse than the one of just me. Better luck next time!

And this is me:

Actual People!

2007-07-26T20:37:00.000-05:00

Me, Seth, Becky:

Me on top of ski lift to take picture:

Seth at the gorge:

Becky, Seth, and me at Sterling Pond:

Noelle and Christine:

Sterling Pond (which is at the summit)

2007-07-24T23:31:00.000-05:00

Sterling Pond... Summit

2007-07-24T23:23:00.000-05:00

For these two pics I climbed to the top of the ski lift tower, for an unobstructed view:

The Gorge

2007-07-24T23:17:00.000-05:00

Below is George comtemplating the jump. He ended up doing it I think three times.

This is the waterfall feeding the particular swimming hole George was jumping into

Paused for Swimming

2007-07-24T22:41:00.000-05:00

Pam and Alyssa in the water. I got in too after taking the pictures, but the camera doesn't like water.

The "Valcour" went by while we were hove-to:

Sandbaggers

2007-07-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

The Sandbaggers are in town! I asked what was going on and apparently these are replicas of the boats that oyster fishermen used to race for sport. It started out as just crab fishing sailboats racing each other, but soon specially built boats were used. There were strict rules on hull size, but no restrictions on sail size, so sail size got totally out of control. So they were ballasted with 50 or 60 pound bags of gravel that the crew moved from one side of the boat to the other each time the boat changed tack. Not a single-hand situation! The skipper was at the helm, the sail trimmer tended the sails (and actually did much of the steering with the sails), and 10 or so other people moved the "sandbags" around.

The sport died out in the late 1800's when the rules changed, but these two replicas travel around and introduce people to sailing by having them crew, using water bags instead of sand bags to keep from scratching them up. I may just give it a try while they're here.

Here's their website. Quite fascinating. Check out the video here (click on "The Sandbagger"). And here is a beautiful picture of "Bear" under sail.

Gone Solo

2007-07-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of hours of solo sailing between passengers, so I explored around and took a few pictures. Here's something I never tried before today (I'm getting a lot more confident with sailing in tight quarters)... sailing into and back out of the little cove where the Friend Ship and the Spirit of Ethan Allen III dock. The Spirit was out on the water, but the Friend Ship had just come in and was docking when I sailed in. Below, I'm looking back as I sail back out. Above, I'm looking to my right.

And below is what I saw to my left

Below: Back out in the channel, a picture of the boathouse

And a picture of my future boat :-)

A little closer:

Some of the moorings by the breakwater:

Here a little 12-foot boat caught my eye

A guy also sailing alone, I decided to say hello

His name is Greg, turns out he goes to North Avenue Alliance Church and knows my pastor from when he used to attend that church, before starting his own church. We sailed in formation for an hour or so. He has an O'day 17 he's restoring, similar to my Tanzer, and seeing how much faster the Tanzer is than his 12' O'day, and knowing the O'day 17 would be similar, got him pretty pumped to finish that project. He is interested in fixing my boat, so maybe it live on after all. We'll be getting in touch again soon. If he can fix the rotten floor and paint my boat for the same money I'd spend on buying another similar boat, and have it ready by spring, I might just go for it.

Here's the Northern Lights coming around the breakwater

Usually they are the ones taking a picture of me.

These guys with a cool classic sailboat got their sails raised and slipped away before I had a chance to say hello. I could have caught up with them eventually, but didn't bother this time:

The Organ Pieces

2007-07-19T04:17:00.000-05:00

Above: George was about to take a picture of the loaded truck's contents, when Guy came running in

Below: The Saab must earn its keep too. Guy put these two cool old chairs in to take home. I should have brought my trailer so I could have brought home the oak kneelers for firewood. Someone bought all the pews but left the kneelers.

We stuffed all this stuff into a 10'X20' Storage unit somehow:

Below, the big fat 16' diapason pipes, which were mitered to fit in that tiny space in the chapel:

Peter and Guy in the storage unit:

The old combination action machine:

The truck is finally empty again:

Ivie Chapel, Inside

2007-07-19T03:51:00.000-05:00

Andy and George, your celebrants for today...
we were pretty pooped by this point... but almost done loading the truck

Below is the opening that the organ spoke from. Kind of a strange setup. A big building with high ceilings, yet the organ was stuffed into this tiny chamber. Not sure why.

Another view of the space where the organ was:

Below is the view as you come in the door where we had the truck parked:

Ivie Chapel, Outside

2007-07-19T00:00:00.000-05:00

A sign by the road at the chapel reads:

"Ivie Memorial Chapel
Built in 1931 by Alvine E Ivie as a memorial to his daughter Florence Ivie Abbott who died at the age of 27. Designed by Jens Frederick Larson, this late version of an English Perpendicular Gothic church hosts a mosaic tile altar and alabaster lights. The cornerstone of the church contains memorabilia of her life. The chapel was donated to the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire. It is now overseen by The White Mountain School (formerly St Mary's-in-the-Mountains School) in Bethlehem."

Kind of a sad story. He had this chapel built in memory of his daughter who died of influenza, and gave it to the Episcopal church, who did accept it but never really found a use for it other than a very occasional special service or wedding. So, essentially, this beautiful building has just sat there all this time. Now the adjacent country club has purchased it for the 15 or so acres it sits on. They don't know what they will do with the chapel either, but they're stuck with it now. They've sold all the furnishings, the 10 tuned bells in the tower, and the pews. Walker Pipe Organs got the Aeolean player pipe organ, along with 20-something rolls, and hired George and I to provide extra muscle.

I've been either full time or part time in the pipe organ business since 2002, and one of the cool things about it is exploring some of the most unique architecture around. I must say this is one of the most unique ones I've seen... not just the architecture but the story behind it. Kind of a time capsule, since the building was so seldom used. The ivory keyboards on the organ are like new, other than the usual yellowing... I'm not sure I've ever felt unworn ivory before.

Seth's Room as it Stands so Far:

2007-05-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

The walls and ceiling are painted! The wall above is an outside wall, so now that the closet is gone, might be a good place for a small window. Won't happen this year though. Below shows the now inter-room door that will be blocked off for now. Still need to patch the missing trim, paint all the trim and doors (there are 3 doors in this little room now!), seal off this door with sound insulation, patch the floor, and the most difficult part remaining: Putting the wiring back up. It will have to be reconfigured a bit now that the closet is gone.

The Progression on Seth's Room

2007-05-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

So, the first step was to remove all the external wiring, so the rest of the wallpaper could be taken down, the old closet ripped out, etc. I took pictures of all of the wiring so I could put it back together later, from the pictures. This is the door from the hallway into the room:

Here is the wall of the closet that has now been removed. Here I have already taken a whack at it:

The other wall of the closet, about to be torn down. This outlet will need to be relocated:

The closet for this room, which will remain (the closet being torn down actually goes to the adjacent room. That room will have a freestanding closet for now).

Here's where the wiring loop ends. Well, almost. From here it goes into the closet for the closet light, and then into the bathroom for the GFI outlet:

Here George and I have just finished tearing out the closet. Gaping holes in the walls and ceiling and floor obviously are left in its wake:

Now the walls have been patched, and now have primer on them. I've decided to retain the door of the now-gone closet. Someday this room and the adjacent room together could make a good master-suite. Meanwhile, the door will be covered with a piece of plywood and filled with insulation for sound-deadening between the two rooms:

Standing where the torn-down closet was, looking back at the closet for this room, again primed, ready for paint:

Snow in April!!

2007-04-15T18:28:00.000-05:00

Now THAT'S a Cool Car. :-)

2007-04-13T20:24:00.000-05:00

1989 900 Turbo (emblems removed)
5-speed
A/C
power sunroof, mirrors, locks, windows
heated cloth seats
78,000 miles

Picassa Experiment

2007-04-12T21:43:00.000-05:00

Flickr Square:

Flickr Thumbnail:

Picassa Thumnail:

Flickr Small:

Picassa Small:

Picassa Medium:

Flickr Medium:

Picassa Large:

Flickr large:

Up on the roof!

2007-03-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

It snowed again! About a foot this time. Last time it was Valentine's Day and now St Patrick's Day. Last time I took pictures from the 1st story roof, so I figured the pictures this time should be from the tippity top. In one sense, its a pain to have to shovel the roof every time it snows, but then again, its kind of neat to have an excuse to go up there like this.

First Bedroom Renovation Wrapping Up

2007-03-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

Below: Just a quick reminder of what this looked like before:

Up On the Roof

2007-03-03T06:25:00.000-05:00

The foot-deep snow here is left over from the last storm, which was about 2 feet but George and I shoveled it off after about 1 foot. Today I shoveled off the rest, plus the fresh stuff that just fell today.

Below: Next I need to climb up on the upper roof and shovel that off. That was easier because it was scraped clean after the last storm:

The ole' sailboat is hanging in there in the back yard:

The White Whale as seen from above. Notice the "for sale" sign in the window. More on that soon:

This little porch roof got a little bit of damage after the last storm. Snow came sliding down the main roof onto it, and dislodged it slightly from the house. Will need to address that when warm weather comes:

Snow!

2007-02-15T20:34:00.000-05:00

Down with the Wallpaper, Part II

2006-12-31T04:13:00.000-05:00

So, for obvious reasons, this wallpaper cannot stay in this bachelor pad:

Here's where George tried tried to scape it off just with a putty knife. It didnt' work very well, but when the steamer hits this wall it will work fast because so much has been removed already:

And here's Guillaume having some success with the steamer, though its taking a while:

I'm In!

2006-12-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

So here's my temporary bedroom while I fix up the other bedrooms. The orange and yellow paint had me a bit freaked out at first, but I couldn't believe what the green curtains and headboard did for it! The quilt totally doesn't go though. It might work if not for the green, but the blue and green can't coexist, methinks. The carpet is blue though. I think the quilt needs to be yellow in order to transition from the blue floor to the green curtains. I like the quilt though, so whatever room becomes mine permanently will have its color scheme planned around that.

The room is just 8X10, but it really doesn't feel very cramped because for the first time in my life I have enough storage elsewhere in the house that nothing needs to be in the bedroom except what, well, needs to be in the bedroom. Amazing what a difference that makes!

So anyway, here's the 360 degree tour of what will be my bedroom for a while:

Yellow lake charts seem to fit the colors pretty well

There's no room for a dresser plus the desk in this 8X10 room, at least not witout looking crowded, so this shelf if my dresser for now. The plan is to put 3 ~~underdrawers~~, er, um, you know, those bins that go under the bed, well, under the bed. So I can put the clothes in there. Still trying to figure out where hanging clothes will go.

This doorway goes into the unheated garage. Behind the plastic is sort of a closet/entryway sort of thing that someone cobbled together in the garage that has an uninsulated door and openings all over the place for the wind to just breeze through. So for this week I just put up a layer of plastic on each side of the doorway, next week I'll insulate it in some temporary fashion. Ultimately this will get some kind of insulated door. To be really proper, it should probably just be walled off, but I want to have access from the apartment to the house without going outdoors and this is the only place that can be done.

Next on the to-do list... laundry facitilities before I run out of clean clothes! :-)

Down with the Wallpaper!

2006-12-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

It just peeled right off! But, uh oh, I didn't even notice these water stains until I saw them in this photo as I uploaded it. Not surprising; the roof above this room is known to have problems, which will be addressed next spring. So, in the meantime, I'm going to ignore it. No sense tearing apart and fixing a wall that doesn't have a sound roof over it. Once the roof is squared away, I'll open this up to make sure there's no rotten insulation in there.

That big corner thing is a closet from the adjacent bedroom. This bedroom is tiny, almost too tiny to be used as a bedroom, but if I tear out this closet it would be usable and that's what I'm going to do. There's another spot in the other room where I can build a closet... the other room can spare the square-footage more easily than this one can.

And there's the 60-year-old wallpaper, killed in 30 minutes on my way to work!

The House

2006-11-29T16:05:00.000-05:00

The tarp covers the opening where a garage door will be:

The building on the right attached to the garage is a one-bedroom apartment. It consists of a bedroom, living room, kitchen/dining room, and full bath with full basement and unfinished attic.

Below: the front and side entrance to the apartment:

The back of the house needs some attention:

Nice Yard:

Good neighbors to the east:

Good neighbors to the west:

2006-10-29T04:50:00.000-05:00

BeetleBus

2006-08-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

Now THAT's my kind of car! Van. BeetleBus. Whatever. I've seen this van around Burlington maybe 2 years ago, and been meaning to get a picture of it. I didn't think it would happen at a gas station in Randolph, one hour away from Burlington. Amazing how natural it looks to have a beetle on top of a bus. Somehow I don't think an Escort on top of a Club Wagon would have quite the same effect.

Cape Cod 1

2006-08-09T03:12:00.000-05:00

Sailing 7/17/06

2006-07-18T00:08:00.000-05:00

For the late afternoon/ early evening sail, Guillaume (finally!!!) and Sam, on the phone as usual. :-)

For the Sunset/Evening sail, clockwise from left: Erin, Cat, Erica, Sam. (I'm guessing on name spellings).

Lori's Pics

2006-07-07T04:53:00.000-05:00

000_0540

2006-07-05T06:08:00.000-05:00

000_0540, originally uploaded by AndyofVermont.

Sailing 7/3/06

2006-07-03T22:38:00.000-05:00

Here's the photo's of the day in chronological order:

Above: Cat and Christine

Below: A parasailer who looked like he was having fun

Below:3 generations. This is Noelle, her mom, and her grandmother. Grandma was not about to be left out of the action and did a fine job with the jib sheets.

Below: They wanted to take a picture of me from my photographers seat.

Then Dan came with me but I forgot to take a picture of him, but he's appeared here before.

Below: This is Megan, Betsy, Lori, and Lauren , who were in town visiting GMS2006. Betsy and Lori were fellow leaders with me in GMS2003. Lauren was in GMS2005. All are from Penn State.

Below: Cat came back (they thought she was a gonner but the Cat came back, the very next day... ok, enough of that) with Mark. They are both in the UVM med program.

Below: Hannah, Lydia, Lea, and Heather. Hannah is the only one who walked the plank today.

Below: Cat came back (she just wouldn't stay away... de dum, de dum, de dum dum dum... oops sorry, tune just keeps coming back...) with Doug and George.

Below: They also wanted to take a picture of me from my photographer's perch:

... and then Brad, Cat, Christine, and Sam joined me after dark to watch the fireworks from the boat. I didn't take any pictures, but I think others did and hopefully they'll email them to me soon. We finally docked at midnite!

Betsy and Peter

2006-06-28T03:03:00.000-05:00

Singing Bowl of Nepal

2006-06-28T01:29:00.000-05:00

This was the gift Jason and Nicole gave me for playing the organ for their wedding. It's a singing bowl, handmade in Nepal. With it came this description:

Singing bowls are used for meditation in the Buddhist faith. The symbol on the inside of the singing bowl is the lotus flower. A diamond, which is symbolic of enlightenment, is inside the lotus flower. Written on each petal are the words 'Om Mane padme hu' which means, 'the more you go inside, the better you will be able to get enlightenment'. The letters on the outside of the bowl read BISWOBAJRA, which means the same.

Wow. What a bunch of hogwash! But cool bowl, and cool letters.

Costa Rica Ox Cart

2006-06-28T00:53:00.000-05:00

This is the ox cart from Costa Rica that I got to take home! Each table at the dress rehearsal had one of these as its centerpiece, filled with chocolate covered coffee beans, also from Costa Rica. These were provided by the groom's parents who are missionaries there (he grew up there). Each of the two officiants of the wedding and the organist (that's me!!) got to take one home. Very cool. It's a model of the full size ox carts.

It's almost as cool as the singing bowl I recieved for doing my last wedding gig in Philadelphia.

Sailing 6/12/06

2006-06-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

Paul and Dan came with me first, starting about 2:30 in the afternoon. It looked like the wind would be pretty light, but it ended up being pretty pleasantly intense at times. Paul seemed to enjoy driving. We ventured over to Juniper Island, about 1/3 of the way across the lake. Juniper is privately owned. It has a dock on the burlington side and I assume there is a house somewhere on it. If so, its hidden by trees.

Below, Burlington as seen from the lake:

Below: The top of Windfall as seen from the bottom of Windfall:

Below: The north half of Juniper:

Below: The south half of Juniper:

Below: A closer-up of the boathouse of Juniper Island. We were going to dock there just to say we did it, but there didn't seem to be any dock yet. I guess they haven't put it out for the season yet. Of course, technically, if we had docked we would have been tresspassing (I think?) since the island is privately owned. Then again, the dock would be in the water, which is not privately owned. Hmm.... Well, in any case, I suspect we wouldn't have been put in jail. Just shot at maybe.

Below: After returning to the Burlington Boathouse, I picked up a new crew of deckhands. Here we have Peter, Becky, Christine, and Sam:

Below: Sam had to go, and Megan came onboard. So we ventured back out to Juniper Island also, but I made the bad decision to actually go around the island, which blocked all our wind and made us pretty late getting back. Never again when I take a picture will I say "everyone look pretty, except Peter". I didn't realize he'd take me so seriously. ;-)

Below: One nice side effect of being out so late was watching the sun go down. This was around 8:30 I guess. We got back to the boathouse around 9:30.

1870's Ryder Organ in Newport

2006-06-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of "junque" around the organ naturally, since its in someone's garage.

Some of these facade pipes are actually part of the Open Diapason rank, but they do not speak well... languids sagging severely. Kind of like the ones at CMC. Could be fixed, but might be easier to obtain replacements and leave the facade pipes in place just as "dummies" for show. The 15' height is at the top of that middle pipe. As you can see, the height does drop off quite a bit at the sides, and even more so at the back. The ceiling here in the garage is sloping, and the top facade pipe is actually touching the ceiling.

Bourdon Restoppering... Removing the Pipes

2006-06-08T02:52:00.000-05:00

The microphone for the organist's monitor was resting on top of the first pipe to be removed, so I climbed up to move that first. Peter took all the pictures.

Now lifting out the first pipe:

Now to try to figure out how to get it down out of the organ loft:

Just another angle:

Turns out down the hatch was the best way (originally I thought I'd pass them over the balcony railing, but it was difficult to get them there). Peter was below to catch them:

Success! Now all I have to do is fix them....

Under Sail

2006-06-07T09:08:00.000-05:00

This one looks like I'm just leaving the dock, but actually I'm sailing past the dock:

Unfortunately, the sun was in front of the camera, so the pictures are a bit dark. We'll have to do this again in the morning when the sun is behind the camera.

Its too bad I had the motor mounted... the pictures would look way cooler without the ugly motor sticking out. Will remember for next photo shoot

That's all!!

2006-04-19T14:03:00.001-05:00

Home Sweet Home

2006-04-19T14:03:00.000-05:00

The day after Easter (the yearly final exam for all church organists. I passed mainly because I only messed up when the brass ensemble was drowning me out, so no one noticed.) I headed south to my parents house to take care of some long-needed purging of stuff. More on that in the next day or two, once I figure out how I'm going to scan some other pics. In the meantime, here's some scenery from home!

Above: The view when I firsted turned into the driveway
Below: A closeup of the address sign seen in above picture. The eagle was carved by my late maternal grandfather from a piece of wood found on this property, and the address sign was made by my dad from a kitchen cabinet door:

Above and below, the view of the house from the eagle, one zoomed, one not

Above, the view straight out from the front door, not zoomed
Below: slightly to the right of above view, my old beehives that my mom won't throw away because she "might use them someday". Ha! So that's where I get it from. They are a nice decoration for the front yard though. (I can't use them someday because I'm now allergic to beestings. Good thing, cuz that frees me up to do things I'm not allergic to, like sailing.)

Below, some of the "animules". The little goat is just about 3 weeks old. My mom is milking the mama goat each morning, but letting baby goat have the afternoon milk.

Below, a carving by same grandfather of the best dog in the world, the late Misha. I don't remember where the sugarhouse carving below that came from, but my mom has had it in the house since before I was born, so its pretty special too. I'll ask her soon where it came from. I know she told me a long time ago but I forget now.

Below, the famous stone mill ruins about 3 miles out of town. Amazing to think that area residents used to punch in and punch out here every day. I suppose its safe to say that no one alive remembers it being in operation, but there must be some people who's parents or grandparents worked here. I need to find out the history of this place. The pipe organ workshop where I used to work is nearby.

Magnets (medium size picture)

2006-04-14T15:23:00.000-05:00

Magnets (small picture)

2006-04-14T15:22:00.000-05:00

Magnets

2006-04-12T15:35:00.000-05:00

Winker Project Complete

2006-04-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

My church had a workday this past Saturday, but I couldn't make it, so I decided my contribution would be some work off-the-clock on the pipe organ later that day. My winker project had left some wind leaks that were a bit noisy, so I was hoping to get the project buttoned up before Sunday morning, and I did. First I bought this nifty hole saw at Home Depot and pulled the winker mounting plate back off to drill out the windhole, as seen below:

Then, below, I needed to plug the mysterious hole in the winker. I glued a piece of cardboard over it and clamped it with the winker springs until the glue dried. Notice that the leather gasket at the mounting flange is folded over. That was a major culprit in the leaks. I thought I just had a screw hole misalignment problem. This problem was easier to fix than the problem I thought I had.

Below: The winker is mounted again, the wind turned on, and the winker inflated! The only leak is at the bottom of the mounting plate. The gasket on the chest has an indentation caused by the previous cover plate that had so many ripples in it. I also discovered a deep check in the chest running through the bottom screw hole on the left vertical side of the opening. I should have just seen it, but I discovered it by the fact that the screw wouldn't hold. Need to fix those. The check should be fixable onsite without removing or de-piping the chest using a router and grafting in a new piece of wood. But for now, the winker project is done.

So how does it play? Well, it made a big difference. The wind wavering (and the resulting tone wavering) is nearly gone in most normal playing situations. Its still pretty noticeable in large chords on the bigger pipes. I think its liveable now. I'm going to say what any good organbuilder would say when he can't get the wind system 100% stable: "... a subtle flexibility that enhances the instrument's intrinsic musical qualities." ;-)

Winker installed (almost) on great main chest

2006-03-27T23:39:00.000-05:00

First of all I needed a piece of wood to replace the subfloor-grade plywood that someone used to blank off what I think used to be a windline from this organ's tracker days. I stopped into Northend Hardwoods on Williston Road just before they closed Monday night and they cut me off this piece of milled maple for free! Its a bit rustic on one side but that won't matter for what I'm using it for.

Fortunately the gasket was on the chest, not the cover, so I didn't have to do any gasketing. The big pipe mouth you see here belongs to the bottom C of the Great 8' Open Diapason. The pipe on the offset bracket fed by the paper tubing is the bottom C of the Great 8' Dulciana. Quite a contrast in scales!

Below I've screwed the old plate to the new one to transfer the hole pattern with a drill:

Below: I've drilled all the holes and countersunk most of them. I exaggerated the countersinks only because I needed to in order to use the short screws that I already had. Just too lazy to run to Home Depot again. I stopped to take this picture while waiting for the countersink to cool back down! In this picture you can see that this board was near the outside of a plainsawn log, which makes me a bit nervous that it won't expand and contract very much while screwed to quartersawn pine, which will expand and contract. But then... I'm replacing plywood that doesn't expand or contract at all and that didn't split anything. So... hoping for the best. Thoughts anyone? I think when I take the plate back off to drill the 1.25" hole I'll drill the screw holes in the maple a bit bigger so the screws can bend to allow for different expansion rates.

Below: I've screwed the plate to the chest, and its ready to receive the winker bellows, except for the fact that I didn't have a way of drilling a 1.25" hole where the X is. I'll do that next time. Just ran out of time and needed to put things back together so the organ can still be used. It's not really visible in the picture but it appears that the 2X4 leg has caused a split in one of the dovetails... presumably because of the crossgrain situation. Bad news if so. But anything can be fixed. This chest is coming due for releathering (one high note already non-functional), so it could be fixed then and more proper legs made.

Winker installed:

Access plate installed on winker, now ready to turn the wind on and see what happens. When I did, the winker did not inflate. Turns out there is a hole in it that I now think is there because the winker was previously mounted remotely. So air is now just coming out the centerhole for the future 1.25" wind hole, and then out the hole in the winker. Small enough of a leak that the organ will work ok for now. My April project will begin with plugging the hole in the winker and drilling the hole in the plate to 1.25". I'll either have to borrow a bit for this or run to Home Depot and buy one (I'm leaning toward the latter if they're not too expensive, and if HD actually has them).

Winker installed on Octave 4/2 Unit Chest

2006-03-23T15:13:00.000-05:00

I started by removing the blankoff plate where a winker used to be in a previous installation. The gasket was a bit of a mess, but the winker bellows has its own gasket, so I just scraped this one off. The yellow and black screwdriver is sitting on the great and pedal wind regulator, which is the one that supplies this windchest via the black flex hose shown here. Below the winker is now installed on the chest. It was originally mounted vertically but in our installation it interfered with the flexhose and the regulator, but I was able to mount it sideways and have it just miss everything. The only snag was that the screw holes were way too big for the #8 screws, so I went to Home Depot and grabbed some #10's, and they still weren't big enough, so I inserted pieces of plastic zip-tie into the holes and then the #8 screws and they grabbed then. Next time I'm in the wood shop I'll slice off some slivers of wood that can be more permanently glued into the screw holes.

Below, the blower of the organ is turned on and the regulator and the winker bellows have inflated. I adjusted the spring on the winker so it is normally about 3/4 inflated so that it has some movement in either direction. So when a big chord is suddenly played, it can collapse to supply extra wind for a moment, and when the chord is released it can inflate a little to absorb the impact. It makes all the difference... I can still make the tone waver if I really bang on the keys, especially in the bass, but most normal playing situations its no longer noticable to my ears. Now just need to do the same thing to the great main chest, which will be a bit more work but not too bad.

Canal Schooner in Hibernation

2006-03-12T01:59:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was having a very bad day and went for a long walk to think about things and relax and pray. As is often the case I ended up at the waterfront and decided to take this picture of the Lois McClure 1860's class canal schooner. In the summertime it looks like this. I even helped build it a little bit (very little). I took several other pictures around the waterfront but they ended up being pretty redundant so I delorted 'em.

I'm happy to say that the days following that bad day have been very good, and getting better!

...and here's me helping build it back in the summer of '03. I think I was maybe scraping some of the goo from the glue joints or something:

Cincinnati

2006-03-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

Below is the trolley thingie at the Detroit airport:

Winkers for the Great

2006-02-21T14:21:00.001-05:00

The wind system is a bit unsteady on the great division. It was on the swell too, but we added these winker bellows to steady the pressure soon after we first installed the organ. The close one is on the swell main chest and the one on the left side of the picture is for the facade swell spitzprincipal unit chest. (None of the swell division is actually enclosed. There was no room in our space. I'm hoping to rearrange things eventually to allow for it).

Below is the bass end of the great main chest. I'd like to add a winker there:

Check out the nice joinery on these 100-or-so-year-old slider chests. They don't make em like this anymore! They've sure been adulterated since as you can see, with 2X4's, sheetrock screws, subfloor-grade plywood blankoffs, and very slow-repeating EP action (replacing what I assume to be tracker). But they work! The chests are marked "Opus 406" but I do not know the maker. The seller said it was Hook and Hastings but I have confirmed that to be impossible. Opus 406 was back in the 1880's or so, when the company was E&GG Hook, and is still extant.

I was hoping under this blankoff plate I'd find mounting holes for a winker, but nope, looks like there used to be a windline here:

But no big deal, I'll make a new plate out of some plywood that is not quite so subfloor-grade and mount the winker to it. I also want to mount a winker on the great octave unit chest, below. That square plate with the 4 screws covers where one used to be, so that should be easy, though I think I'll have to mount it sideways in order to clear the wind regulator:

The Church Mouse

2006-02-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

The console has a little cutout at the bottom for the control cable in a previous installation. Unfortunately, the cutout is right out in the open in our installation, but fortunately, it provides a home for the church mouse, provided by Beth B.

Here's what the organ looks like presently. We left a gap in the middle where some of the Dulciana bass pipes were going to go, but we ended up installing them behind, and the gap remains. I have a new plan in my head (to go on paper soon) to put the Open Diapason basses in front of the railing in a decorative way. Should look cool, and also free up some space behind.

Accessing the Tall Pipes for Tuning

2006-02-21T14:13:00.000-05:00

My first actual construction project was pretty simple. The organ needs tuning, but access to the tall pipes is tricky. I decided to build a stool to make it easier. I had all sorts of grandiose plans for a portable 3 step stair type thing, but in the end the simplest solution turned out to be the most suitable. A wooden box. Here its shown on its side, 10" tall. On end, its 20" tall. This is just high enough to reach the tallest metal pipes which are around 10' tall. The tallest wooden pipes are closer to 12' high at the top, so I'll still need to use the ladder for that. I figured out that I can put the existing wooden ladder on top of the Pedal Bourdon chest and pretty much access everything.

Standing on the box on its end, I can just reach the highest metal tuning slide:

More Christmas Party Pics!

2006-02-21T09:15:00.000-05:00

Here's the only picture of me submitted so far. I'm pretty sure someone took a picture of me dancing, but for now you'll just have to assume I'm lying when I say I danced! ;-)

Things started falling apart after midnite. Maybe the sugar from the punch was getting to us? ;-)

2006-01-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

I found this clock at Recycle North while dropping off a couch for a friend. They sold it to me for $1.00 plus tax. All but one of the numbers had fallen off, and I assumed it didn't work, but figured I could put a new mechanism in it. Turns out it did work, and even the battery that was in it was good. So I went over to Michael's and bought some self-stick clock numbers for $2.50, and good as new!

Its a pyrographed scene of an old Vermont water-powered mill. On the back are the words "Made in Vermont by Cabin Crafts, W&M" pyrographed by hand, and a sticker that says "Cabin Craft, PO Box #1, Grand Isle, VT 05458, phone number 372-4634"

Surprise Birthday Party

2006-01-16T08:28:00.000-05:00

It was a surprise birthday party for Fawn (the one with the green and pink Leys). Becky thought she could hide from the camera so I snapped one more:

Below is my somethetimes roommate Andy (he travels a lot for work. Yep, we're both Andy)

I'm not sure exactly what this was all about. Someone said "Point to the maps" and I was like "um, ok" and this was the result:

As per usual, the ladies couldn't keep their hands offa me. Here I had a brief moment of peace:

But it didn't last...

...very long ;-) (y'all know I'm totally kidding, right?)

Just a quick shot to show what it looks like sans Christmas tree:

Our still somewhat-newly-weds (somewhat-new, not somewhat-wed)

Birthday girl unawares:

Birthday girl awares:

Decorated for Christmas

2006-01-16T07:24:00.000-05:00

My roommate was away when a ferocious pack of females came over and forced me to decorate, so you'll see a bit more of my personality in the decor than his (would have been all anime pics if he had had anything to say about it) :-)

You'll recognize some of the decor from my pad at the frathouse, but everything here (tree, white Christmas lights, lamp, cool Herschoff-I'll-bet yawl picture, porthole-like mirrors, curtains, futon, and sketchy couch) are new, or new to us at least:

This picture was in my previous place. I rescued it from the trash pile at a friend's house a year or two ago:

Same Lake Champlain charts, but with proper cheap frames from Malwart now:

This picture is of no particular personal significance except that it has a sailboat in it. Came from Christmas Tree Shops, as did the Herschoff yawl pic:

Kitchen window decorated with my roommate's airline licquor:

Every Christmas tree needs toys under it:

Big Project for Somebody

2006-01-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

As per usual, today's photoblog entry is the result of taking a walk instead of driving. I spotted this on my way to the bank. Looks like someone's got some work to do. But when/if they finish, should be a real classy hole in the water. These photos were actually taken back in December but I'm just posting them now:

Christmas Party 2005 Foyer and Library

2005-12-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

Christmas Party 2005 Founders Room

2005-12-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

Car-less for a Day

2005-12-05T02:24:00.000-05:00

I needed to get my car to the shop one day in early November, and decided instead of bothering someone to give me a ride home, I'd use the bus system (I've been increasingly trying to find excuses to use the bus lately... its fun!). The bus does not go by the mechanic's shop, but it is a short bike ride from the shop to the nearest bus stop which is near St. Michael's College in Colchester. All the Burlington buses are equipped with a bike rack on the front. So I drove to the shop with the bicycle (and without brakes, which is what I was dropping it off for!), left the key, and rode the bike over to St Mike's. While waiting for the bus, I took these pics. See what you miss when you drive?

I'm in a field across the road from St Mike's, facing southish.

The tallest peak you see below is "Camel's Hump":

Here's Camel's Hump, normal zoom:

This is facing sort of southwest. You can see the Burlington International (ha!) Airport control tower there:

The Falls

2005-11-06T21:11:00.000-05:00

(From "Photo Blog")

There's a hydro plant w/in a short walk of my new place, and the other day I decided to walk down and take some pictures. These will also have to count as my fall pictures. I've lived in Vermont most of my life, and this was the least exciting year for fall colors, but after taking these pics I realized that even a disappointing year is still pretty good here!

Above: Looking down into sort of a cave in the ledge. Below: in the cave looking out.

Below: standing right at the edge in the cave looking out and down

The rest of the pics are from under the bridge. I just turned in a circle clicking every few degrees:

Looking Around the Frat House

2005-10-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

And here are 8 pictures from Januaryish 2005 I took while turning in a circle on the street corner in front of the house. I am facing NorthWest in this pic. The house looks really nice in the snow like this. The exterior of the house is almost exactly as it was in 1913 when the house was built. The only changes I know of are the addition of an emergency exit door in the back, and the omission of the white picket fence on the roof above the dormers. The roof was burned by a moonshine still explosion in the attic during the 1930's prohibition, and when the roof was replaced, the fence never was. Otherwise, things are as they were, which is pretty remarkable. Even the outside chandelier hanging on the front porch appears to be original, judging by early photos I've seen:

Looking West toward the lake and down Pearl Street:

Looking Southwest:

South:

Looking Southeast. That's Prospect Street we're looking down.

Looking East up Pearl Street, which soon becomes Colchester Ave:

Northeast, and North Prospect Street:

The sidewalk of North Prospect Street:

Here's a couple of pictures of the UVM Green right in front of the house:

The steeple belongs to Ira Allen Chapel:

My last window glass replacement job, about a week ago. Window pane replacement seems to be the primary skill required by a fraternity house facilities manager:

View from the famous Room 13 on the 3rd floor where I was replacing window panes the other day. That's Lake Champlain in the background, and the Adironack mountains of New York beyond that:

The frat guys love to destroy things. When I tried and failed to give away this 1910 Estey pipe organ console, at first I was not sure how I'd dispose of it. Suddenly, I realized... of course! Let the frat guys wreck and burn it. They are eternally grateful. I plan to photograph the desctruction process if it happens slowly enough. It sat like this for several weeks. Esteys are tough... I think they got discouraged. The magic marker writing on the wood on the lower right says "From Andy. Please smash and burn. The tubing is lead, so don't burn that. I'll dispose of it later. Enjoy!"

Here it is after a little more smashing:

Fall 2005:

The nextdoor neighbors to the west:

My Nest: The Living Room

2005-10-25T07:38:00.000-05:00

Hi.

The ceiling is 12 feet high in this room! That's more then the width and almost as much as the length of the room (those are about 9' X 9', plus the 3' X 4' nook where the dressers are). Yep, this room would be bigger if it was tipped over on its side! So I tried to take advantage of some of this height with the plants and some storage up high. The storage and high plants could only be accessed by ladder, and sadly during the last month of my stay (September 2005) I neglected them from being so busy that the top one died. Very sad! The spider plant pulled through though:

This is me pretending to read. This was the first night I owned the digital camera and I think the very first photo I attempted with the camera in "automatic" mode:

There was no place where one TV could go and be comfortably visible from both couches. So... I had two TV's! Sitting on the brown couch, you'd watch this one:

...and sitting on the red couch, you'd watch this one:

...clever huh? I just used a "splitter" so both would play the same TV show or DVD simultaneously. I now think this is a great way to set up any living room, to avoid the sacrifice on "socializing" one usually has to make in order to make the one TV the "focal point". I'm not sure if we'll do this in the new place... depends on what roommie has to say about it.

There's a little bit of storage space up here, over the stairs which act as an internal fire escape to the 2nd and 3rd floors:

A norfolk pine that was given to me by a friend who moved away. Its quite a bit bigger now, I'll post another picture of it soon. This was last winter I think:

On the south wall I hung the 2 Burlington area lake charts. (On the backs of these are the northernmost and southernmost reaches of Lake Champlain). In this chart, Burlington is the city directly below the big red rectangle on the lower right:

At first I had no idea how to decorate with these wall colors. Early in the painting process, I noticed after the paint sat all night and separated that green was a major component of both the wall and trim colors. So I just went nuts with green. I found the green plate at a junque store, and made the plate hanger out of a coat hanger (quite nice even if I do say so!) and friend loaned me the curtains. The ship photo is by a girl in my church, maybe 12 or 14 years old at the time she took and developed it. A friend of mine found out I liked the photo when I was helping him fix his car in the photographer's Dad's garage, and bought a copy of it from her for me for Christmas. Um, so, yeah, basically I paid for nothing you see here, except maybe 50cents for the plate. A lot of elbow grease went into patching the sheetrock and the plaster on that wall though! (The protruding part is sheetrock, the part behind the plate and picture is original plaster and lath. Both needed quite a bit of work when I moved in)

Closeup of the famous spider plant:

The brick you see outside the window is part of the outside wall of what I call the "bedroom". Its a protrusion in the back of the house for the stairwells. The "bedroom" actually used to be part of the stair landing from the first floor to the basement:

Here's where the plants huddled for the winter:

Both lake charts that feature Burlington. On the left, Burlington is the city directly below the big red rectangle. On the right, its to the right and slightly below the compass circle at the top:

The now-almost-empty 11-foot-high storage. The fan doesn't work, but looks cool and matches the rest of the decor of the room (ie... it is green):

I took 2 of the dressers of the house and stacked them, and this was my primary clothing storage, although the top drawer of each dresser housed a lot of my tools and supplies I used for repairs around the house. All the junk to the right of the dressers is leftover supplies that the fraternity paid for:

Here's a photo that shows how badly I need to vacuum the floor, and also clean the lens:

Becky's photo is entitled "Morning in Mystic", because, well, it was morning. And it was Mystic.

My Nest: The Bedroom

2005-10-25T07:37:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture I took last winter. Sort of shows how the clothes hung over the bed. I still say this is a clever use of a small space (but with high ceilings), even if I do say so. Its about 9' X 6'. Also shows the curtains that were up before I moved out.

Here's the daytime view out the larger window. Not too impressive, I suppose, but that's what I see when I get up in the morning:

A closeup of one of my windowsills I'm so proud of :) Unfortunately, some tape from the plastic I put up last winter stuck to the wall below it and made a nasty mark. :(

Before winter came, the aloe used to live here on the bedside table like this. The windows are a little drafty, so all the plants moved to the living room couch where there is a large window with a good tight storm. By the time summer came, I had a night job and had to sleep in the day with curtains drawn, so the bedroom was no longer conducive to healthy plants. So they never came back in. Aloe's cousin (not sure what it is exactly, but its sort of aloe-esque) used to live on the windowsill.

The Blues Brothers poster is blue and so got banished from the living room, which is where my decorating efforts were concentrated, and where green was the theme. I put up the shelves to act as my "closet". Clothes were hanging from the all the way around. It might seem weird to have clothes hanging right over the bed, but I think it was far preferable to lofting the bed and hanging them underneath, even though the latter seems much more culturally acceptable (ie... I wouldn't have looked like such a weirdo if I'd done it that way).

Below is the daytime view from the window above, from the same angle:

My Nest: The Office

2005-10-25T07:36:00.000-05:00

The doorway from the sticky-floor foyer into my world...

Welcome! The photo below shows how my office and bedroom used to be part of the stairway to the basement. The stairs to the right going up were a freestanding affair in 1913, but now surrounded by walls. Before one could go to the basement from either side of the grand staircase. Now (since, I don't know... maybe 1940 or 1950?) access to the basement is only from the right. Too bad about the stairs loosing a lot of their romance, but it does make for kind of a cool, though very small, room. Its not really a clean rectangle, but the dimensions are something like 4.5' X 5'.

All the door trim, baseboard, and the windowsills that you see below were made by me. Fun stuff. I'm particularly proud of the windowsills. I didn't make that closeup door trim though, just the door beyond the desk. The closeup doorway is an old, huge doorway that originally (in 1913) was to the left of the grand staircase in the foyer, but when my room was created it just became part of the room, and the door itself was eliminated. I did all the painting too before I moved in. Man, I wish I had taken "before" shots of this room. It was a mess. I did a lot of sheetrock and spackling too. I didn't choose the colors, and hated them at first, but then I figured out that green goes with it, and decorated that way. I like the colors now.

In the picture below, you can just see the famous spider plant

This is my "office" from which most of my website entries were born until the move. It was a closet of sorts before I renovated. The indentation in the wall behind the computer monitor was to make more room for the hanging clothes. I tore out everything from the "closet" and redid the wall when I realized a desk would fit in there, freeing up much needed space in the tiny "living room".

Everyone has been saying that it looks like I have two computers. No, only the monitor on the left is actually a monitor. The thing on the right that looks like a monitor is actually the CPU turned sideways with a giant blue factory sticker stuck to the side of it. Until the last month or so of living here I just had a laptop, which was much more appropriately sized for this desk. If I was going to live here long with a desktop computer, I'd have to spring for a flat monitor I think.

Below, a group photo on the wall of the original crew of Navigators students and recent grads who comprised the very first annual GMS in the summer of 2003. There's a big version of this photo in another set. I always kept this photo right on the wall over my desk until the "great crack" incident.

I had to do a lot of clever things to survive in such a small space. One of them was to sort of hang this filing cabinet off a stairstep and put blocks under the side that was overhanging. Worked pretty well as long as I didn't breathe or sneeze on it wrong...

GMS 2003 (3)

2005-10-25T05:57:00.000-05:00

Alistair's Team:

JT's Team:

Sara's Team:

Guillaume's Team:

Chris's Team:

Kelly and Meredith's Team:

My Team:

Brian's Team:

Lori's Team:

Everyone:

Everyone some more:

GMS 2003 (2)

2005-10-25T05:47:00.000-05:00

Usually we ate at the other place, but once a week we had a BBQ at Lambda. Here's a picture of everyone hanging out at one. As usual, everyone looks pretty cool except me. I guess I'm practicing my chicken walk or something... not quire sure.

Behind the scenes at the BBQ:

A little billiards in the Founders Room:

A bit of chess in the Founders Room:

Doug and Guillaume trying to look grumpy:

Trover and Liz being all studious (Bible studious, I think):

I'm not sure if we ever got a "normal" picture of Brian all summer:

Julie and Mike with Andrea's ferret

GMS 2003 (1)

2005-10-25T05:31:00.000-05:00

At the start of the summer of 2003 I had never set foot in a frat house. Hard to believe now! I was living in southern Vermont, but decided to come back north and return to school. I quit my job in June instead of waiting until fall so I could help with the first annual Green Mountain Summer with The Navigators. I put in my last day of work, and then drove up to Burlington a day or two later and moved into this house along with a bunch of other college students and recent grads. I wasn't so recent a grad; I was the oldest at 28, but I tried not to be too public about that.

Green Mountian Summer is a Christian training program for college students. Learning to "know Christ and make Him known". It was easily the most fun summer of my life. It consisted of teams of 4 or 5, one of them being the team leader (I was one of those). The regulars got jobs in the area, working about 40 hours a week, and the team leaders worked part time. I didn't get an official job because I was helping a little extra behind the scenes, and also took it upon myself (yeah, what a sacrifice, huh?) to fulfill the promise of sailing that was made in the brochure! Two fraternity houses were rented for the summer to house all the students. One of them was Lambda Iota, which is the one I stayed in.

When we arrived there was quite a lot of cleanup to do:

and while we were there we tried to leave the house in much nicer condition than we found it:

On Sunday evenings we had a praise and worship night in the Founders Room, with a different guest speaker each time:

Here's all the participants that helped with the music. Philip is seen playing the trumpet by ear:

This is a car that was abandoned by a frat guy that moved away. The fraternity brothers that were staying in the house for the summer called him and asked what he wanted to do with the car. He said just have it hauled away. So of course they decided to smash it first. Some of the Christians staying in the house found out about this and joined in. This was the ice breaker that seemed to start a neat relationship that neither the frat guys nor the Navs students will forget. Unfortunately this relationship proved difficult to duplicate in 2004, and in 2005 the Navs decided not to rent Lambda Iota, but they might come back in 2006 and make another go of it.

The car smashing became sort of a yearly tradition after that. I found another car for 2004 (another Taurus!) and in 2005 I provided my own Jetta for the cause.

Above is frat guys and friends Rob, Halsey, Emily, Ben, and Ned. I still see Rob and Ned quite a bit. Below is Scott, Ben, someone I don't know, Chuck I think, and is that Wally on the right?

Flying a Hull

2005-10-19T17:15:00.000-05:00

Catamaran, Much Faster

2005-10-19T17:14:00.000-05:00

"Champlain"

2005-09-27T01:27:00.000-05:00

This is "Champlain", a ferry operated by Lake Champlain Transportation serving the Burlington, VT/ Port Kent, NY route across Lake Champlain. Of all the ferries operated by the company, this is my favorite. Its not as old as the Adirondack, which serves the same route and is the oldest American double-ended ferry in operation. However, the Adirondack has been changed beyond recognition from its original 1913 appearance, while Champlain has remained essentially unchanged since it was built in 1930.

For some reason, Champlain has been sitting tied up at the dock like this for the entire summer, and it has me a little worried. Part of what makes Champlain my favorite is that it is still powered by its original Fairbanks Morse 6 cylinder diesel engine. This engine is a true working museum piece and there are few, if any, others of its type still making a living for themselves. It runs so slowly that you can see the individual puffs of smoke from the stack as each cylinder fires (I think 250 RPM is the max). Parts are obtained by traveling to abandoned mines throughout the country, and beyond, and other places where such engines may be sitting abandoned. It is well known by the mechanics that run this engine that someday replacement parts will no longer be available and the engine will have to be replaced. This will be a sad day, and seeing the ferry sit all summer makes me wonder if that day has come. I stopped in the office when I took these pictures to ask, but the receptionist declined to say anything beyond "the boat is being repaired". I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Lake Champlain will not be the same without the sound of the old Fairbanks Morse chugging away.

You can meet the entire ferry fleet, past and present, including Champlain here.

Catamaran

2005-09-22T19:33:00.000-05:00

Typical Theater Organ Console

2005-09-21T02:31:00.000-05:00

Here's what a theater organ console usually looked like. They almost always used this "horseshoe" arrangement of stop tabs that sort of wrap around the organist. The keyboard and pedalboard dimensions are the same as for church organs. The organ in this picture is apparently not in its original home, as this does not look like any silent movie theater I've ever seen.

July 4 Sail

2005-09-06T06:38:00.000-05:00

Sailing with Cat, Reva, Stephanie, Andrea

2005-08-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

Battery Park

2005-08-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

I walked down to Battery Park last week. Here's the pictures.
This is Beansie's, where I had lunch. Its been here since 1944, though this can't be the original bus because it looks more like it was built maybe in the mid to late 1960's. It stays parked here at the north end of Battery Park. Beansie's was featured in the movie "Me, Myself, and Irene", which was partly filmed in Burlington, but it was given a different name temporarily for the movie. Don't watch the movie, though, whatever you do. One of the worst movies ever.

This is the ferry Adirondack on its way in. Its the oldest double-ended ferry operating in the country. Its not as cool as Champlain though because its powered by modern diesels. It was originally steam powered, long before Lake Champlain Transportation owned it. The Champlain still has its original 1930ish Fairbanks Morse 6 cylinder diesel, one of the few if any other such engine still making a living for itself.

Now its inside the channel, almost to the ferry dock.

Now I'm standing in one place on the lookout wall of Battery Park, taking pictures as I rotate in a circle. Above, looking southwest, you can just see the roof of the Burlington Boathouse through the trees. Below, that car is on the boatramp I nornally use adjacent to the Coast Guard station.

Now looking essentially west at the Adirondacks of New York. The Spirit of Ethan Allen III cruise boat is out among the many sailboats. The coast guard station roof can just be seen below in the foreground.

Below, zoomed out to normal

Beansie's is north of me, and below, there's the pavillion behind me (to the east)

squawl coming

2005-08-11T01:37:00.000-05:00

Pictures of the squall as taken from the 2nd story of the Burlington Boathouse, where I found shelter while waiting for the storm to pass so I could sail again:

The squawl is coming in.
The squawl is at its peak in the picture below. At this point I'm having trouble holding the camera steady with the wind.

The rest of the pictures below are of the storm letting up.

The calm after the storm

2005-08-11T01:36:00.000-05:00

I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using? Its the Friend Ship ahead of us, and the wind was so light that I couldn't figure out how to set my sails and he got way ahead of me, but I'm not certain he wasn't using the motor.

The blue-roofed brick building is the Coast Guard station adjacent to the boat ramp that I use. Battery Park is above it and those condos on the right.

The cruise boat heading left is Northern Lights, and right behind it the ferry Champlain is docked, not being used for some reason (must be down for maintenance)

Navs Parents Weekend Sailing

2005-07-24T13:32:00.001-05:00

Navs Parents Weekend Skiing/Tubing

2005-07-24T13:23:00.000-05:00

Rhode Island/ Mystic Seaport, CT Wedding

2005-06-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

My friend Guillaume came to the wedding too, along with lots of other people I know from Burlington. Sometimes I wish I could be more like Guillaume, swallowing my pride and not worrying about what others think.

This was NOT one of those times

The reception was at the Mystic Art Association, right on the Mystic River. What a place!

The Argia is coming. Cool! I want it.

The Argia is going! What a cool boat!

Some of the slips. I like the ketch in the middle there, even if the aluminum masts painted gold are cheezy. If I wanted to pretend my mast was wooden, I think it would be more tasteful to paint it white or some other color than try to use gold as a faux-pas clear wood finish. Just me. But I'll take it, just the same. :)

Here comes the wedding party.

The wedding party has arrived.

The couples arriving

The newlyweds arriving

Just a cool old boat motoring by. Dismasted cat-rigger?

The hotel we stayed in was quite a contrast to the Philadelphia hotel from last weekend!

Views from Hotel

2005-06-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

Someone answered all my questions about Philadelphia! See comment at the bottom of the post.

Southeast cool courtyard. Never got a chance to go down and check it out, but looks nice

Same thing, closer. Same courtyard, zoomed in and looking more downward. The shape of the building is bizzare. I can't imagine what that skinny wing on the left is used for... its like 4 feet wide by 20 feet long. That would be a funny-shaped bedroom.

Southeastish. Walt Whitman Bridge maybe?

Looking south. The trees to the right are lining the east side of 12th Street.

Same general picture, zoomed in. ~~I'm guessing that's Veteran's Stadium.~~ Nope, its a local high school.

The roofs of 12th Street. Now moving slightly west of south, looking at the houses on the west side of 12th street.

Roofs of 12th Street, different angle. I'm curious about some of those roofing materials. I only recognize the second and third house as asphalt shingles... the others are new on me.

The Coolest Rooftop Porch in View. Now we're looking west. The roof of the house on Cypress and ~~Carmac~~ Camac. Nice. I like those glassy doors.

Looking right down Cypress Street from my west window. The cool rooftop is in the distance there. Fawn street turns left across from that red car. The building on the right is a big apartment building or maybe another hotel that goes from here all the way to Spruce Street

The tallest near skyscraper, we're looking northwest

Same thing. I like that gothic looking building in the middle. Anyone know what it is, and/or its address? Not to mention the skyscraper. I almost walked over to the skyscaper just to check it out, but really didn't have time.

The next day was much more clear.

When we decided to stay one extra night, I had to move to a new room. It was on the northwest corner instead of the southwest, but only on the 3rd floor this time. It was room 301. 601 or 701 would be on the same corner but high enough to overlook everything. Here is that same apartment building across the street.

Same building, wanted to show the human view a bit better.

Spruce looking West from 301.

Looking North up 12th Street From 301. A bit of gay pride I guess across the street there.

The Hotel Room

2005-06-10T09:02:00.000-05:00

I stayed at the Alexander Inn. It was a great hotel, highly recommended, and very reasonable in cost. If possible, go for room 608, 708 (one double bed), 601, or 701 (two double beds). These are corner rooms high enough to see over the tops of all the surrounding buildings. The level of service is no fancier than the Days Inn, but the building is loaded with character and the employees care a lot more.So here's a picture hanging in my room, 608. I guess the wine makes you feel like you are dancing with a beautiful, nude woman.

The west window looking across Spruce Street and down Cypress Street. The blinds are hard to see, but were very cool. I'm going to try to find out where I can get them. The slats are wooden.

A more abstract painting over the bed.

The South bay window. Same cool blinds.

The hotel is loaded with curvey walls... great for character.

The bath is small, but nice

A Short Walk Down Spruce Street

2005-06-10T03:42:00.001-05:00

Photos from "What's Happening", post from 6/10/2005 entitled Philadelphia Wedding

Looking Down Cypress Street from Front of Hotel.

Turned Left onto Fawn Street.

Beautiful House on Fawn Street.

Cypress and ~~Carmac~~ Camac. Here's the front of that house that had the cool rooftop porch with the glassy doors.

My Hotel. Now I'm standing at ~~Carmac~~ Camac, looking down Cypress back at my hotel. All those pictures from the room were taken from that 6th story window, and from the bay window on the right side.

Coffeeshop at Spruce and 11th.

Spruce and 11th. All the north/south numbered streets (11th, 12th, 13th, etc) seem to have trolley tracks running down them. I'm pretty sure they are not used anymore. It would be fun to find out the history of them, and how they were used. Was there a trolley for every street that ran up and down? Did the trolley turn to the next street at the end, and go in a weaving pattern? I'm not sure, but the tracks sure look nostalgic.

Side Street. All the side streets are gorgeous like this. This a couple of blocks from the hotel.

Another Side Street, a block or two from the last one. There is no escape from the beautiful architecture.

Big Building on Spruce. We're facing West on Spruce, back toward the hotel a few blocks away.

Hi! A cat and aloe plant in a 1st floor window on Spruce Street.