Criminals DO NOT pay attention to laws !!...

Iron Artifact Preservation...

New Iron artifact recently found in the river and now making its home in the electrolysis bath for cleaning.

About a week ago I was included in a sit down with a older gentleman who described how he has used this same process on Civil War artifacts. I found it interesting when he described a published description of exact amounts and ratios to mix the solution to obtain optimal electrolysis performance. 

He then described the process that we both use to obtain Optimal performance. 

"Just keep throwing more solution in until you see the needle spike"...

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"The Voyage of Life" by Thomas Cole...

I was first introduced to the series of paintings by Thomas Cole by my cousin Paul Kovalski what must have been 25 to 30 years ago at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC..

I continue to make it a point to visit this series of paintings when in the gallery and each time I see something different in the paintings. If you are ever in the gallery get one of the handheld audio tour units in the main rotunda and be sure to visit this series.

Below is a video of this series that will describe "The voyage of life". The detail in the actual paintings is much better and well worth the visit...

Maury \ James River Batteau...

Recently while working a stretch of the Maury River I came along a Iron piece that was hollow at the large end and tapered to a point. I did not know what it was when first found but knew it was old and had been in the water for some time.

The item sat next to my chair at home for a day or two and I picked it up several times looking at the craftmanship and rust from being in the river for a extended period of time. After being out of the water the rust oxidation grew as well as small flaking of the Iron...

The stretch of river where this was found was known to be used for river transportation by barges called "Batteaus". Long flat boats that could transport loads of up to 15,000 lbs in some cases and only draw 12-15" of water. These batteaus would steer themselves down the river by use of long rudder type poles on both the bow and stern but also guided by smaller poles on the port & starboard sides also.

It is believed that the Iron point found is a tip of one of these guide poles used on a batteau. The river where it was found is all bedrock and boulder with very little sand. 

It was decided to place the Iron point into a electrolysis bath and after several days at low voltage the item cleaned up nicely. Showed the piece to Chief Diver Chet Nesley who cleaned it up some more and suggested further cleaning and then sealing it with polyurethane...

 





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"Don't have the Votes Anyway".....

Ran along several of these signs yesterday while driving the Augusta area and it reminded me of what both Emmett and another local State Senator told me recently. Both of them often come into where I work and back when they were headed to Richmond after Governor McAuliffe's use of his veto-pen, they both told me the same thing with a smile.

"Don't have enough votes anyway"...

Is what I heard from both of these Republican State Senators when we discussed several of the items that Terry-Mac used his veto pen on. Both times I got the feeling that these Senators had no interest in fighting for what the voters elected them to do and with that it's time for "Career Incumbents" to go...

Besides these signs (Poor quality and design) I have heard several times radio messages telling us how Hanger continues to fight for low spending and low taxes, and other "Conservative" issues. But yet Emmett has shown several times he is more than willing to sign up with and support the Democrats when he should be fighting for the "Conservative issues" that he claims to support during campaign time...

Truth is Emmett as well as the other State Senator will cake walk in the next election. Hanger has two GOP primary opponents that will "Split" the vote thus handing Emmett the primary election and continue his "Career" position. Hanger also has the cash that the two challengers lack and let's not forget the "Local media" that also looks out for their own interest. The voters have handed the GOP the Majority in the House & Senate both nationally and in the State of Virginia both but with "Career politicians" our conservative values and policies continue to lose ground...

Time to remove the incumbents but not going to happen this time and memory of a challenge from within his own party will be short lived for Emmett once he wins the primary.....

Pretty much says it all....

You "Right for Lifer's" just don't care about your cause enough....

Last week I posted a photo and article regarding the low and even non existent coverage of the recent “March for Life” walk in Washington D.C. With over 200,000 people attending. This article showed that many of the mainstream media outlets such as ABC, CBS, CNN, etc disregarded the march altogether

I have a ongoing conversation via email with a co-worker who says there was no or little coverage because the “Right for Lifers” do not care about their cause enough so they do not get the coverage in the mainstream media.

“They got about as much coverage as they deserved. It was a peaceful rally. They filed their permits and went home. They didn't care enough to engage in civil disobedience. I don't think they care enough to generate the press they want. They also don't have the numbers”...

This is what I get when I work with younger 20 to 30 year old's and several “Progressives”...

At times in the company board on the computer we have an area where political issue are discussed and it's about a 3 to 1 ratio “Progressives” to “Conservatives” so needless to say there are many times where you are discussing a issue that the other person got their information and viewpoint from the Comedy Channel via Jon Stewart. Frustrating at times but I was once reminded by a 24 year old co-worker who I was debating a 9-11 issue with that he was 10 years old when it happened.

Here I am old enough so at the time of 9-11 I had the knowledge of history and knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor to compare this attack to. In comparison my co-worker had the history and knowledge of the Teenage mutant turtles......

Catherine Furnace and the Library.....

Took a ride over to the Shenandoah Library, which is only open 3 days out of the week and have missed it several times, to do some research on the Shenandoah River and Iron production during the 1800's. Was not able to locate a book that was listed in the online catalog and which only this branch of the library system has a copy. The librarian said "oh we have that but it's not kept on the shelf it's in a special place". She then proceeded over to her desk where the desired book is kept in a cardboard box under the desk (High security).

   

The book was well worth the wait and was full of some great information concerning the Catherine Furnace that I just visited a few weeks back and history of transporting Pig Iron down the Shenandoah River to Harpers Ferry.

One of the more interesting things found was when it came time to leave the Librarian asked if I had seen the model of the Catherine Furnace that was in the library. It turns out several years back a relative of somebody who actually worked the furnace back in the 1800's made this model and it shows the layout of the site in detail.

All that remains now is the actual furnace structure as well as several stone walls that supported the roadways and other foundations. Above is a photo that includes Red lines that I drew in to show the span between the top of the furnace to the Wall\roadway nearby. The Iron ore would be dumped into the top of the furnace along with the charcoal and limestone. Along the nearby water stream would be a large water wheel that powered a large air-bellow that fed forced air into the furnace to get the heat needed to melt down the ore. This Iron would run out the bottom of the furnace into troughs and into individual bars called "Pig Iron". 

This photo of the model shows in detail what the ramp would have looked like and puts the whole project in perspective. There are many foundations and stone walls in the area and a return trip is planned for some looking around time.....

*There is a local legend that the handprint that can be seen in one of the iron support arches above one of the furnace openings (you must look up while standing under it) is Noah Foltz's handprint; he having been forced to put his hand, along with a rat's tail to show his betrayal to the Confederacy, before the iron cooled.

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Just some random thoughts......

The Free Two Years of Community College "Bone"....

This past week President Obama came out with his newest idea of giving away two years of free community college to any “responsible” student. Interesting how he announced this prize idea on Facebook as compared to going in front of the mainstream media who might actually come up with a coherent, well thought out question, (Who pays?) but I will get to that in a bit. I think Rush might have hit it when he said that Obama is throwing this “bone” to his simple minded (economics) base because many do not know or understand, the hit they are about to take at “Tax Refund” time…

Rush predicts that many who took advantage of the subsidy money they took to buy into the “Obama-Care” program do not understand that is “taxable” income and will affect their tax-returns. Again, many of the simple minded (economics) base that Obama counts on, look forward to a large tax-return as a “bonus” when in fact all year long they paid too much taxes and the government is simply returning the overage without interest. The expected “bonus” tax return might just be greatly reduced or eliminated this year because of “Obama-Care”. Makes sense why Obama announced this “bone” via Facebook video and post…

Fact is much of “community college” is already financed by the government in forms such as “Pell grants” and other programs and are obviously counted on by these colleges. I recall when I lived in the Florida Keys and decided to take some marine biology courses since I was working on a sportfishing charter boat for a living. I had no intentions of becoming a “marine biologist” but took the courses to increase my knowledge in the area I worked in. I went in to register for my first introductory course at the registration office and when it came time to pay I pulled out cash to complete the transaction. The woman behind the counter looked at me with a funny look and asked if I was really paying with cash. She then said she had to find the cash box to make change and this took several minutes and help from another worker to locate the box. They then had to go into their own purses to make change for me to complete the transaction. She then asked me why I was not using the Pell grant program, which I could have since 80% of my income was cash and could easily be hidden, but I said I was paying straight out. Guess what happened when I went to the bookstore to buy my textbooks and paid with cash?....

Unfortunately many expect and take advantage of government programs to “do for them that which they could, and should do for themselves”…  Obama will once again take advantage of this…..

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