helene part 3

 

A few days after the storm we were able to get to town to pick up some food. 105 had been partially washed out and there were a lot of trees or landslides that were covering the roadway. By the time that we were able to get out the road was being repaired and the slides had been removed. Most every road in the area has this kind of deep undercut along the ditch line. We were able to get back home with gas and supplies.

helene day 2

During the storm I was not anxious, but the day after reality set in. I started to feel a heavy heart as I attempted to clean-up the yard and I realized that this storm had caused major damage and that my family was fortunate compared to many people in the area. There was debris everywhere but we were starting to get word that things were much worse outside of our immediate neighborhood. We received word that Maya was safe in Charlotte and that they were in a hotel that had power, so we knew she was safe. We knew roads in and out of Boone were mostly impassable so we would need to arrange getting her back with us later.

We still didn't have power which meant our fridge was off, but luckily Jill had gotten ice the day before so we fixed up a cooler to transfer food to. The freezer was still keeping some cool in so we also transferred some food from the fridge to the freezer section. We knew we would be fine for water supply. We had stored a lot of water during the last election, and so we tapped into it, and I know had the fresh water supply from the spring that has a gravity feed to the shop. We would always be able to get fresh water from it (at this point I was glad I didn't install an electric water pump on this line).

I started ripping carpet out of our muddy basement and pulling out furniture that was ruined in the guest room. I made numerous piles of debris in the lower front yard and I started hauling the piles of stuff to my large burn pile. It was a full day of labor moving debris and eventually burning everything. We still had limited knowledge of what had happened around us, but we walked down the road with our dog and discovered that most of our neighbors were ok, but that there were many downed trees and wash outs near culverts and the various creeks.

You don't realize, until something like this event, how many creeks there are in the area and how water has to flow down extreme slopes in order to drain away. The water had to go somewhere due to gravity and it would just find a way and then cut and carve through the terrain. You begin to realize how our Earth has been sculpted by water and soil erosion over a span of time when you witness  something like this. You also realize how rushing water had the ability to carry anything away. A tiny home that was near the Watauga River was picked up and slammed into a bridge that it encountered. The impact was so strong that the roof that was above the bridge railing kept going and was protruding out into the roadway.

Later that day Jill and I got out in the truck to see if the Dollar General was open or to see if there was a gas station open, but we could only go a few miles up the highway before we got to a blocked area or major washout. A furniture store up the road had been flooded and all of their inventory was scattered across the highway. We checked on a local church at Seven Devils for a friend that Jill works with. It was completely flooded. We drove home and settled in for the night and hoped that our food would stay cold in the cooler through the night.

helene - foscoe, nc

Last Thursday, Appalachian State decided to cancel classes at 12:15. I had filled in for my collegue Lilith Nielander and I had taught her beginning Metals class at 8am while she was taking a group of students to New York City for a weekend visit. I then taught my casting class at 11:00 since the cancelation of classes was from 12:15 onward. I demonstrated the lost wax casting method and we cast some flasks that I had burned out overnight to test the new setup for the old kiln. Once the demo was complete I told the students to head out due to the storm. I stuck around and cast the rest of my flasks and a few students stuck around as well to work on projects. 

To be honest I wasn't expecting much from the storm. I stopped at the store on the way home and called Jill to see if we needed anything. We were both pretty chill about things. We had been getting rain for about two and half days straight due to a low front that had stalled out over our area and it had been a steady non stop kind of rain. When I stopped on the bridge that goes over Spice Bottom creek that crosses through our property I observed that the water level was up but not much more than anytime we get a major rain storm. I headed up the hill to the house and all was as usual. I went down to my shop to cut off the sprues from my belt buckle castings only to discover the roof was leaking in a couple spots so I set up buckets and moved a few of the tools around. 

Maya had gone to Charlotte for a music concert with a friend. We debated on whether she should go, but figured that she had really been looking forward to this, so we let her go. Later in the night we got a tornado warning around bedtime so we hustled the Liv down to the basement. There had been a tornado spotted near Grandfather Mountain so we waited things out for about 30 minutes. Jill and I told stories to Liv about tornados that we had witnessed in Illinois and the drills that we would do when we were kids in school. Liv were amazed as her and Maya have grown up in Wisconsin where we rarely had tornados and now here where we almost never would think of a tornado happening here in the mountains. This was the first sign that something was off. I kept reading that the effects of the hurricane would reach us by 6am the next morning. We would start seeing heavy rain midway through the night though.

I woke up early the next morning and the air had really warmed up and it was still raining. I walked the dog and went down to the shop to assess things there to make certain the leaks were not any worse. All was well, but the creek had gone up significantly and the wind was really picking up. I spent most of the morning sitting on the front porch as I watched the power of the storm. It was magnificent to watch at this point in the storm. The storm ramped up though and I thought to go check the basement. Once there, I discovered we were taking on rain through the drain in the floor. Water was back flowing in. I panicked to try and figure out why we were getting rain there. I assumed that our drain pipe that goes under our driveway and over the hillside was clogged. In the middle of the storm I decided to go get my hydraulic line that I use to unclog the pipe from the creek to the pond. Maybe I could unplug the pipe on the hillside. So, in the middle of the storm I am standing in the woods on hillside shoving a hydraulic hose of the pipe. By this time I am soaked to the bone and the line is clear. I go up to the house and go behind the house to discover that we have 3 -4 feet of water standing at the backside of the walkway between our house and garage. The ground slopes down there and the runoff from the hill behind the house has caused a steady stream of water to collect there. I waded in and tried to find a way to unclog the drain pipe there. Jill is standing out in the rain the entire time as she tries to help me and make certain I don't fall. I eventually come up with the plan of talking one of the gutters out of its drain pipe and rerouting the standing water via that flexible hose. I bent it over down into the standing water and eventually the water starts to recede in the area. By this time though our basement had been flooded and we now had muddy leafy water in the across the entire first level where I keep my 3D printers, laser cutter, office space, an extra bathroom, utility room, washer/dryer room, and guest room. At least I had stopped the flow of water into the house though. I went down to check the front yard and by this time the entire front yard was a lake but at the same time a rushing river. The little bridge that I built over our creek was fully covered with a rushing flow of water. My shop sits up slightly higher than the creek so water was not up to it yet, but it was inching closer. I forgot to mention that we lost power around the time that I discovered the water in the basement, so things were pretty exciting during the entire day. I kept watching the water level below the house in the front yard and debris from all over the neighborhood were floating across our yard. Like full trees, stumps, gas cans, building supplies, etc. By this time we have no cell service, no power and I'm thinking that I have severely underestimated the severity of the storm and what it was capable of doing...

case 150

 

Well that's mighty impressive...

serenissima battery

Up to this point the property of Count Volpi, founder of the manufacturer and race team Serenissima, this 1966 Serenissima Spyder appears to have been wheeled straight into storage after the ‘66 Le Mans 24-hour race. The Serenissima hasn’t suffered the patched-up race damage, bodywork alterations, engine swaps, and fumbled restorations which have sullied many other vintage race cars. It is the only surviving Spyder of the pair that were built, and Artcurial’s pre-sale estimate for the car is €1.3M – €1.3M ($1.48M – $2.05M). The car raced just once, at Le Mans in ‘66, and has remained untouched ever since.

In that famous race, all eyes were on the battle of the egos between Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari. The two automotive titans had spent months negotiating a deal whereby Ford would buy the Italian company so the former could go endurance racing, but Ferrari pulled out at the last minute, unhappy about losing control of his beloved racing team. In truth the Commendatore probably never envisaged his company under the control of the Americans; he wanted to force Agnelli, owner of Fiat, to invest in his firm. Ford hit back with a vengeance, not just aiming to embarrass, but to destroy Ferrari at their favorite playground—Le Mans. For the 1966 race, almost a third of cars entered were Fords, flush with high expectations despite the fact that all of the GT40s had retired from the previous year’s race.

Count Volpi had previously campaigned Ferraris, Maseratis, and a few Porsches wearing his coat of arms. In 1962, however, his relationship with Ferrari soured when he agreed to finance a fifth of a company called ATS. The firm in question was created by some of Maranello’s pariahs following an internal schism at Ferrari 1961 when a number of senior figures departed after serving Enzo an ultimatum: either his wife (who had been involved in running the company) went, or they did. Needless to say, Ferrari stopped providing race cars to Volpi once he cast his lot with ATS.

Volpi’s relationship with the new company would not last the year, but this impassioned lover of beautiful machines had now caught the scent of glamour which can only attend respected constructors. He had an itch to build something of his own. Girolamo Gardini, who had been Ferrari’s commercial and sports director until he left as part of the 1961 scandal, went to Volpi with designs for a passenger car engineered by Alberto Massimino, whose career had led him from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari via Maserati. In nine months a newly-conceived 3.0-litre V-8 was coming together on the workbench. Three months later, the Serenissima’s wheels turned for the first time.

Massimino designed the tubular chassis and all the mechanical parts, including the gearbox, while the body was penned by Franco Salomone. Following standard practice of the era, the first car was built as a draft, a kind of working prototype and design study. It quickly became a donor for the cars that followed. The second Serenissima, the 308V Jet Berlinetta fashioned by carrozzeria Fantuzzi, was more successful and gave birth to two Spyder variants, one of which is the car headed to Rétromobile. For Volpi, Serenissima was a laboratory, and its road models were capable of being driven by everyone (hence the synchronized gearbox).

The Serenissima Spyder sporting number 24 (with the numbers still visible on the white roundels) entered the ‘66 race at Le Mans with two Frenchmen at the helm, Jean-Claude Sauer and Jean de Mortemart. More than a half-century later, the Dymo labels are still stuck below switches and rockers in an astonishing state of preservation, with each function typed out in French. Unfortunately the adventure was cut short; the Spyder had to bow out of the race with a broken transmission after five hours.

Despite its poor performance, this Serenissima deserves attention. It’s a rare survivor from this largely forgotten manufacturer. The brand and the racing team disappeared in 1970, as competition became more professionalized and rising operational budgets prevented Volpi and Serenissima from being able to keep up with the big teams.

The sale of this Spyder this February is a reminder of how small companies could still compete in racing 50 years ago, one that feels particularly timely in light of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s efforts to rein in the outrageous budgets needed to effectively compete at Le Mans. Always rare, the Serenissima has now been transformed by time into something else: precious and serene, indeed.

-from https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/serenissima-spyder-is-forgotten-racing-relic/

Sold for 4,218,800 euros on 8 February, what fate now awaits the Serenissima Spyder? Will its new American owner conserve the car as it was at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans? Will he decide to restore it, thereby rendering it ineligible to take part in any major vintage car races like the Le Mans Classic? Only time will tell.

-from https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/serenissima-and-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-1966-2-2-51010






































I am currently creating a reproduction battery that mimics the Italian Magneti Marelli batteries from the era for the Serenissima shown above. AMS asked me to create a battery case that has the proper camera case texture, logo, and "tar top" look that the battery shouyld have and they are placing modern battery cells inside this box and wiring it to that is looks period correct. The car is to be put back into as raced condition to preserve its heritage and then it will be shown in a few months at Pebble Beach. The protptype battery that you see here is a proof of concept. I modeled the outside texture and box in Rhino  and then it was printed in PETG filament. The top outer surround lifts off and allows the top plate to be removed. The terminals will be wired to the battery inside so that it is functional from the outside and the lead bus bars are just visual to recreate the look of the original battery. I cast these components in lead. The red caps will eventually be 3D printed in red filament and will be removable, whereas, these were painted. I am also currently creating a German battery for the Porsche 550A that fits into the standard 6 volt battery location without modification. 

froebel

 

blocks

Lately, memories of building things in kindergarten and elementary school have been flooding back to me. Some of my earliest memories involve playing with wood blocks (most likely made and distributed by milton bradley, tootsietoy or playskool). At home I used a set of woodblocks that I assume my father had made for me. These blocks were various sizes made from smooth hard heavy wood. I used those blocks with most toys that I played with. The shag carpet in my room needed smooth roads for my hot wheels and matchbox cars to run on so that the carpet wouldn't get caught in the wheels of my cars. The blocks provided a smooth road surface and allowed me to build a network of roads for play to occur. Later I used these same blocks with star wars and gi joe figures to build structures. I assume that these blocks were cut off pieces from my Dad's shop. I'm trying to figure out if my little brother remembers where they ended up. Anyway, this thought was triggered my Wisdom of the Hands author Doug Stowe.

Physicists have noted and proven that if you take two particles, introduce them to each other and then thrust them apart to the furthest reaches of the universe, what is done to one is noted within the behavior of the other. The phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and may someday help us to understand higher levels of human inter-connectedness and inner-connectedness.

Friedrich Froebel had been born the son of a Lutheran minister and his mother had died at a very early age. He was a bright child and cherished by his father's second wife until her own children came along. At that point he was left to fend for himself to obtain the emotional support every child needs. At an early age he was sent to live with an uncle and became apprenticed to a forester, and it was there in the Thuringian forest that Froebel discovered a love of botany and the seeds were planted for what would become Kindergarten, a garden of children. In witnessing the wonders of nature he likely gained a first glimpse of the inter-connectedness of all things.

In college Froebel had planned to become an architect but had an opportunity to work as an assistant to Christian Samuel Weiss, a leading authority on minerals and crystallography. Helping to organize the collection of minerals for Dr. Weiss, Froebel was to witness how things of great beauty grow from patterns inherent within. Should children, given the right circumstances, not grow in the same manner? You see the impact of his work with Dr. Weiss in Froebel's development of his gifts, one through 6 which were designed to lead the child into an exploration of the structure of the universe and through association with other Kindergarten activities, construct their own place within it.

Many of us have seen, even before the internet and before facebook and tik tok, evidence of our inter-connectedness and inner-connectedness. Living in a small town and knowing a few folks, I'll think of someone as I drive through town and then see them coming toward me in the next car. This is not always the case but happens often enough to make me wonder. Under such circumstances, we don't need facebook to remind us that we are a part of one another and that what we do reflects who we are and may be guided by unseen patterns within.

And so, what are we to make of all this? Froebel had suggested three uses for the Froebel gifts. One was to use blocks to create what he called forms of knowledge. Forms of knowledge were used to represent numbers and mathematical constructs important to the growth of the child. Another use was to create forms of beauty. These were to develop the child's design sense through representations of symmetry and rhythm. The third use was to create what Froebel referred to as forms of life, representing the objects to be found in everyday life, thus connecting with the child's natural inclination to serve others by making useful things. So you take these three things, development of intellect, artistic sense, and inclination to serve and you have the formula for growth.

It's ironic that Froebel did not become an architect of buildings, but instead an architect for a system of education that allowed the child to grow from within, as a crystal or flower might grow. In his autobiography Frank Lloyd Wright said about his play with Froebel blocks and their impact, "I can still feel those maple blocks in my hands to this day."

I've become fascinated of late, by the simple realization that when a light shines upon an object, its colors are reflected outward without limit into the whole of the universe. So where do we set the boundaries of self?

The illustration from wikipedia shows an experiment demonstrating quantum entanglement.

If you are reading this, we are entangled.

Make, fix and create...

When Friedrich Froebel established the first system for educating young children, he created a series of playthings to provide children with focussed educational experiences. Up until that time, toys were intended for amusement and education was provided through books and instruction. Froebel's Kindergarten used play as its engine and his Spielgaben ("play gifts") were the fuel. During his lifetime he codified the series of Froebel® Gifts up through Gift 6. After his death in 1852, his followers extended the

series of educational toys by numbering other materials used in his school.

Froebel Gifts 2 through 6 (aka "the Building Gifts") are wood blocks in various shapes and quantities. Known most commonly as Froebel Blocks, these toys were made famous in the USA by the Milton Bradley Company. Milton Bradley himself was a strong advocate of the Froebel method. Josef Albers, Charles Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, and Frank Lloyd Wright are famous examples of children educated with the Froebel materials. The stone version of Froebel® Blocks made in Germany by the Anker Steinbaukasten GmbH factory (founded by Adolf Richter, a wealthy businessman in Froebel's village of Rudolstadt) were a favorite toy of Albert Einstein.

-https://froebelblocks.com/

Kindergarten as a concept was developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), a student of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel’s German kindergartens encouraged children to enjoy natural studies, music, stories, play with manipulative learning toys. He recommended teachers use geometric shapes and crafts for teaching and advocated the use of ‘gifts’ or playthings in the form of geometric shapes to promote learning and occupations or activities. Froebel also incorporated learning through expression, systematized play and social imitation. The first kindergarten opened in Germany in 1837; the first in the US was opened by Margarethe Schurz to a German speaking community in Wisconsin in 1856. In 1860, Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English speaking kindergarten in Boston. Over time, kindergarten was introduced into public schools with the changed purpose of providing an early academic foundation for 5 and 6-year old children preparing for 1st grade.

This set of blocks is the sixth “gift” in the series manufactured by the Milton Bradley Company. The blocks are in a square cherry wood box with a removable sliding top and a faded green label on one side. The box contains thirty-six wood blocks of three standard sizes: sixteen long, wide rectangular blocks; six long, thin rectangular blocks; and fourteen short, wide rectangular blocks.

Milton Bradley Company was established by Milton Bradley (1836-1911) in 1860. A mechanical draughtsman and patent agent interested in lithography, board games and puzzles, Milton Bradley became interested in the kindergarten movement after he attended a lecture by Elizabeth Peabody in 1869. Elizabeth and her sister Mary, who was by then the widow of educator Horace Mann, were devoted to promoting Froebel’s philosophy of creative play for pre-school children and helped spread of the Kindergarten Movement to America’s cities. These “gift boxes” are examples of school equipment made by Milton Bradley sometime between 1880 to 1900 for use in kindergartens. Milton Bradley produced educational materials free of charge for the kindergartens in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts and was committed to developing kindergarten educational materials such as these gifts, colored papers and paints.

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- https://www.si.edu/object/kindergarten-block-set-gift-no-6-milton-bradley%3Anmah_1825929