250- Kind of a Big Deal!

I am aware that some folks are having a hard time celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the USA with all the tension in the political climate. However, I think it's a big deal. And I can say with a great deal of certainty that I won't be around for the 300th, so I'm making an effort to be a bit more celebratory than I often am on holidays.

The church that's near us had a fireworks display on Wednesday night. I'm not a big fan of fireworks. But I went out and watched some of theirs.

Today, White Pine Village had a day that was free to the public. This is a local living history musuem that has all buildings of local historical significance that have been moved to the site. It's really well done, with quite a lot of buildings now, but I hadn't seen it in a long time because it's also a bit pricey.

The entire village is built around this house, which is the first frame house built in the county in 1849. And it was in this location. All the other buildings were moved to join it. This was also used as the county's first courthouse, jail and general store.

I spent a bit over two hours there. A lot has been added since my last visit, and it was excellent. They were also giving away free ice cream! West Shore Bank, locally owned, sponsored the free day, and House of Flavors donated the ice cream.

I didn't show you any pix from the Patriotic Concert on Sunday, but I'll show you one now (that was taken Sunday) because the choir was also at the village today and sang their selections.

This is a lady dipping candles. The wiggly ones on the right are recently begun, and the ones on the left and the one she is dipping are nearly done.

I managed to catch one of the sawmill demonstrations. Of course, a huge part of the local history is tied up with logging and mills.

One of the local industries that operated into the last part of the 20th Century was Star Watch Case. And here is where I learned something new. I already knew what a pantograph is, and you probably do too if you've done any wood routing, or perhaps even some experimental kinds of art. It's basically a jointed quadrilateral frame that you can use to trace a design from one surface to another and make it a different size.

So, I did not know that this is how they made those detailed and fancy engravings on gold watch cases. The large flat disk on the left is a metal plate which has the design cut into it. Of course, it is large enough that you can see the lines. The watch case is at the other side of the pantograph. When the design is traced on the big disk, it is reproduced on the scale of the case at the other side. It's sort of like how micro-robotic hands work-- where you move your own hand a couple of inches, and the robot hand moves only a tiny increment.

And to end the day, David came to visit. Yes, the David that lives in Philadelphia. As a reminder, his wife is originally from Grand Rapids, so he tries to pop up here when they make the trip to Michigan. And the summer trip is even closer, since they all stay in a cottage only about 35 minutes from me!

The day started with a Zoom call, but it mostly improved after that. It was a good meeting, but I just am not a fan of virtual meetings. I'm glad I made the effort to get over to White Pine Village (and I saw a LOT of people I know). David helped me fix a computer thing, and also to clean the vacuum filter. I don't expect him to work when he shows up here, but it just sort of happened. And if someone mentions a computer problem around Dave he can hardly keep from fixing it! Then he showed me pictures from a recent trip he and Rachel took to London.

My tomorrow guests will not be here till evening, so I still have a little time to do the last bit of cleaning that is going to happen.

See Big Boy