Finally caught a break!

Sorry to have been so long since the last post -- it's been chaos here the past couple of days. Yesterday we went to Strawbery Banke (2.5 hours away) and then to Peter Spang's house in Manchester-by-the-sea (in Mass. -- I had to ask). The day before that, we were at Hancock Shaker Village and then at a dinner with a Deerfield bigwig. Two late nights, and another one coming tonight. But we got this morning off, hurray, partly because we didn't get back to Deerfield last night until midnight, and partly because our intended plans fell through.

I really loved our outings, what nifty museums and what larks to learn so much that I just didn't know. I'll post more about them and everything, but I thought I'd just share a couple of the best pictures, to keep you interested & to rub in your face the fact that I get to do these awesome things. Heehee.

Me and the parents on Mt. Sugarloaf from their visit. Mom just sent it and I love it so I thought I'd share. I do love my parents.

Hancock Shaker: the dramatic entryway looking into the village (featuring their wonderful round barn) from the visitor's center. I really liked it here, in no small part because I made friends with a calf who licked my hand with her scratchy tongue and had huge eyes. Aww. Also, the behind the scenes tour was AWESOME.

Strawbery Banke. Cool museum -- their current textiles exhibit that goes throughout the museum is wonderful. If you're wondering whether you should go check the place out, but think you've seen everything there: GO. Because you haven't seen this. The historic textiles are amazing.

View of P. Spang's private beach. We got to go swimming there. The water is so clear that you can see all the way down, even when it's 7 feet deep. Gorgeous. Can you see Boston on the skyline?

P. Spang's private island that we swam out to. Fun rocks to walk around. Made me wish I had been a kid growing up here: I would have built a fort and made up fantastical stories about pirates and caves and monsters and it would have been AWESOME. Very Swallows & Amazons, but on the ocean. Gorgeous gorgeous.

Chillin' with the Mosquitoes...

Began training with in the Ashley House -- it's a chaotic house. Lots going on and very few coherent threads. And the guide that was there, Stephen, who I've met a couple of times, is a former professor at Allegheny! He was in the Poli Sci & Sociology departments a while ago. Though we had a few mutual acquaintances. Strange.

So the museum has finished redoing all the glass in the visible storage, which means the curators and whatnot who would usually have already met with us are now doing that. Lots of fun. We've had a textiles seminar with Ned Lazaro, a lecture on clocks with Phil Zea, one seminar on silver and base metals from Amanda Lange and another on ceramics. There's crazy large amounts of information to remember. My first notebook is almost full - I've only got a couple pages left.

Papers continue apace, although there's lots of work to do and I'm not sure if they're going to be good enough. None of us are though, so at least I'm not the only one.

I'm sitting out front of the museum store right now, it's about 20 of 11 at night, and we're being eaten by mosquitoes but this is where the internet is, so...

Parents are still out at sea, it's weird them being out of reach.

Tonight we went up to Shelbourne Falls, which is about 25 minutes away. I was there before, remember? Glacial potholes? Bridge of Flowers? Anyway. We walked around and then had dinner in a cute little place there. I drove the Mini & Josh drove the van because his daughter came too & there were too many of us to fit in the one place. Josh drives surprisingly fast and on the way up there, a car got between us and then slowed down to a crawl, so I tried to pass it once, at which point the two girls (though not the one boy) freaked out and started shrieking. Which freaked me out, so I didn't do it -- that time. I did later, though. And because I had snapped at them about trusting me (and not panicking because it was super distracting, they managed to keep the panic under control. Honestly. Girls. They're also squeamish about bugs, so I squish 'em for them. Me and Bekah are the only ones that don't start screaming over them.

Battery dying so I'm going to post this before I lose it all...

Hanging Out at Wells-Thorne

I'm spending the afternoon today guiding in the Wells-Thorne House here in Deerfield (if you've ever been, it's the shockingly blue one at the south end of the street). It's going well, today especially: there haven't been any visitors! The professional guide and I have just been sitting out here chatting, and I'm also working on some of the different projects that I have for the Fellowship.

Speaking of those, we're all feeling overwhelmed: we have so much to do in our projects and yet so little time to accomplish them. By the end of the day, we're exhausted and hardly want to focus on more mental undertakings. But it's all good -- we're all having a great time and getting along well and all that.

In fact, yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of July together by grilling hamburgers in the driveway of the Allen House. It's paved, and there's a grill here so I scrubbed it off and Ryan grilled some burgers. We had oven fries and cole slaw as well. And for desert we'd made a red, white, and blue cake. We brought out a computer and listened to some music -- we actually ended up line dancing in the driveway. Or trying to, at least. We're not very good, but it was great fun. I think some of the other fellows have pictures so I'll try and grab copies of those.

Can you think of any naturally occurring blue foods? We couldn't: blueberries were rejected as being purple.

Gotta go.

A Post in a Stolen Second

In the Library doing research on my paper on the printer & I'm reading his newspapers from the spring of 1812 on microfilm. I came across this funny little poem he printed in one week's edition, as a not subtle reminder to his subscribers.

“Altered from the Carlisle Herald. 

PRINTER’S SOLILOQUY.

‘’Tis strange! ‘tis most prodigious strange,

That our subscribers are too carless grown,

‘Bout paying their arrears. They cannot think

That we alone, who publish to the world

News from all nations, and to spread

Useful instruction through our spacious land,

Can, mean while, live on air. ‘Tis flesh and blood

That works the press, and turns the blackened sheet,

Well stor’d, and ready for their eager eyes,

This flesh and blood must be recruited oft

As well as theirs, for soon the worst must stop.

This calls for CASH. And then how many reams

Of paper are struck off and scatter’d wide,

For which no length of credit will be given,

If given at all – besides the types and ink-

And many things required by those that print,

For which our money must be answerable.

Oh that our readers would consider this!

And while they laughing look the HERALD o’er,

And gather information from its page,

Would pause, and this one simple question ask,

‘Do not I owe for one, two, three or more

Quarters past, the Printer, who supplies me with

This sheet?’ And oh ! That they would only add,

‘I’ll go even now and pay them,’ so should we

Well pleas’d receive, and with light hearts pursue

Our useful toil, while conscience would applaud

Their conduct, and give relish to the treat

We may prepare. Come then, good friends, and soon!”

Parents have probably left by now -- unless they're still in the Flynt Center. I think they had a great time here in Deerfield (right? I hope?) and I'm really glad they did. It really is a place worth visiting even though it's out of the way, tiny, and may seem uninteresting. Don't be fooled! It's awesome.

Have to scoot, limited Library time. I really just wanted to share the poem, I thought some of you might get laughs. Oh that Ansel Phelps, what a joker.

Wooden Boat Show

So today, since it's vacation time for the Fellows and for my parents (and Rufus & Cathy!), we all went down to the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic Seaport. It was really cool.

There was an excellent combination of vendors who were selling things/showing off their projects as well as a great number of wooden boats themselves. It was a hot day, but not too bad and once we got water, it was fine. I chatted with a guy from Wooden Boat Rescue, which kind of struck me as hilarious. Seems like we rescue everything: dogs, cats, horses, wooden boats... Anyway, he was telling me about what different kinds of woods they used and why and how they restore a boat. But when I asked him if he thought that a boat that was 90% replacement wood was still the same boat as it was before, I realized that Deerfield has gotten too far into my head. Ahh! I spent a solid amount of time look at the different kinds of woods used and trying to identify them and reason out why they were being used there instead of a different kind of wood ... Oh, Material Culture Boot Camp! You have taken over my little brainsickle.

There were a ton of dogs out, too, which was wonderful. For anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me, you know how I am about greeting dogs that I pass. Or that pass me. Or that cross within a 50 foot radius of me. And since I don't currently have a dog of my own, mooching off other people's has become a priority. In fact, I know many of the dogs owned by people on "The Street" in Deerfield. I know their owners only as "Jake's woman" or "Samantha's guy." I keep wishing they would just leave their dogs with us for an afternoon or evening so we could get all our dog therapy done in one blow. But I digress!

Dad had a great time poking around, he ended up getting some books that are signed & remarked. Here's what I learned: when a book has been "remarked" by the illustrator, it means that he (or she) went through and rather than signing like the author does, drew a unique picture in the book for you. He (in this case) also signed at the bottom of the picture, but it's really nifty because each of Dad's books has this totally unique illustration in it that was done especially for him. They're maritime-y books, of course.

The wooden boats are beautiful: you can tell how much time, ingenuity, pride, and dedication go into the creation and maintenance of these things. I think the best part of the show was witnessing the love these crafts-folk have for what they do. Wooden boats are fine and all, but I don't really know that much about them. What makes the whole show so special is seeing all the passion the people there have for what they do.

Pictures from the Second & Third Weeks

Sunset one evening, looking out across the street from the Wright House. There are incredible sunsets (and sunrises) there, it's ridiculous. I love the colors at sunset.

Five of the Fellows on top of Sugarloaf Mountain right after sunset. From left to right is me, Ryan, Rebekah, Stephanie, and Lauren. Abigail wasn't with us.

Four of the Fellows at Old Ship Meeting House in Hingham, MA. From left to right is Abigail, Lauren, Ryan, and Stephanie. There are other pictures that have all of us (but on someone else's camera) so hopefully I can share those soon?

Topics of the Summerthing

So two of the major components of the Deerfield Program are the research paper and the object study papers. I delayed writing about my topics because I didn't want to jinx it, and then the internet and me went through a silent contest phase. But now that we're friends again, let me tell you what I've chosen to do.

For my object study, I'm going to look at Deerfield's recently acquired 1835 map of Springfield (Mass), done by George Colton. I'm looking at who Colton was (unclear), how it was printed, why, and all that kind of thing. It's really cool: it's a wall-hung roller map. It has rivers and creeks and streets and labels and stuff all over it. It's cool. Paper front, linen glued on the back. It has an engraving by "R. O'brien based on a sketch by Elwell" -- he grew up to become a famous engraver, and Elwell became a famous painter. But I have no idea who Colton was! There are a couple of possibilities, but no way to know for sure, or even if my different possibilities are actually the same guy. Whatever.

For my research topic, I'm doing a study of a newspaper (and job) printer in Greenfield, Mass. The library has one of his account books from 1818 - 1826, although it would be much more helpful & interesting if there were more than just one... I'd like to get to Greenfield to see if they have any other things of his. He wasn't an astounding printer, there's a copy in the library of something he printed in which he misspelled "benevolent" and "school" (which he spelled "sgool"). Anyway, he printed the town's newspaper for 58 years while also doing job printing (including books). I'm not sure yet what kind of equipment he had, although I'm hoping to learn more about that. Also, he had some rocky business partnerships throughout his career, on again off again with several different partners. So I want to look at why that happened. At some point in there he was also a Colonel in the militia and in 1855 was on the governor's council, so he clearly became an important dude. I'm mostly fingers crossed that this works out at this point.

Anyway, here's hoping my brains don't leak out of my ears. Again. I had to duct tape my ears while I was comping (thesis) to keep my brains in -- may have to do that again.

Holy Crap, There's Internet Here!

Sooo this is the first time that I've had internet access in a while, so this is very exciting. I haven't been writing posts to put up because we've been so busy that by the end of the day, I'm too exhausted to even think about writing anything. Which is really stupid now, because I'm so far behind that I'm not sure I can do anything justice. Which is a shame. Because I'm sure you're all desperate to know the details of my life.

I have a list of things -- from last weekend! -- of things to remember to post about, so I'm going to consult with that and slowly work my way through them. I'm fairly certain that I won't catch up, but I'll at least try. And then I will get back to doing the back-dated entries and posting them when I can. Also, I now have a bag that will carry my laptop so it'll be around with me (aka the internet) more. Yay!

And now of course, I don't have the list with me (it's upstairs). I'm an idiot. It's fine.

I'm at Rufus & Cathy's now, it's the Fellows' Weekend Off, and my parents (co-incidentally) are here, too. It's nice to be on break, although I had to bring a lot of reading with me to feel justified with the time off. We'll see if I actually get any work done (doubt it).

Outside the Flynt Center

I'm sitting outside the Flynt Center borrowing the wi-fi. I've posted some back dated entries. I've been writing 'em during the week and saving them post here. So read them chronologically (ie backwards) and then hopefully a nice little story will unfold. Otherwise, it could get weird.

Also, happy father's day to Dad! I know I talked to you earlier today, but I didn't even realize it was father's day so I didn't say it. So I'm saying it now. I love you!

The crafts fair was great fun today, although I've been told that it's pathetically small in comparison with how it used to be in the past. This could be something to do with the $7 entrance fee, but I didn't have to pay that so who knows. I did walk around and see all the different things, which was fun. There was a dinosaur theme to the whole fair which made it about 100 times better. I love dinosaurs. Lauren took some pictures, so hopefully I can get those from her soon and post them here so you can see. I, like a genius, brought my camera and then left it with the other Deerfield people at our booth. I got a thing of fried dough (YUM, and don't any of you judge me) and 6 books from the "buck a book booth" which I am very pleased about.

I was at our booth from 2:30 to about 3:45. We left early, under the guidance of the woman in charge, because the whole place was winding down and no one new was coming in. I had a nice time chatting with the guides who were there. Deerfield opened the Wells-Thorne House for free tours, which was nice (also convenient since it's right at the entrance to the fair). The guides were there to facilitate that. I guess we were there as support and to answer other questions about the place, although mostly we just chatted because no one seemed particularly interested in us. Oh well.

Saw some great dogs there, including two Leonburgers! They were very friendly: one of them sat on me while I bent over to scratch its ears.

I'm going to try and upload some pictures now, but the internet is straining. I'm sitting outside the building and the connection's not that great through the walls. We'll see.

The Connecticut River, as viewed from the top of Mt Sugarloaf, which I hiked a bunch with Jess and then drove up yesterday with Lauren and Abigail. We want to go back and hike it & picnic later, but didn't have time that day. But it was too great a day not to go up and look around.

Abigail and Lauren on Sugarloaf. They have more pictures (with me!), I'll try and get some of them soon.

This is for Cathy: Flat Tapping does his Deerfield readings!

Shelburne Falls, the glacial potholes. I only saw them briefly, but I can't wait to go back. Also, we've all learned that right now you can't, it's all closed Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are up there filming something. It's called "Labour Day."

What do you all want to know about? What can I tell you about that will answer questions?

Gone From the Internet So Long!

So I realize that I haven’t posted since Monday, and I have been writing entries mostly every other day, but it’s hard to post them when the days are so busy. Today was a nice resting day, it looks like weekends might be something of a breather sometimes. Although we’re doing so much travelling soon and then there’s these papers that we have. So we’ll see how long this lasts. Some of the other Fellows and I were laughing about how we keep hearing stories about Ben (our assistant tutor, a Fellow five years ago) and other people had these adventures. But how?, we asked. When did they have time?

Lauren, my roommate & fellow Fellow, just got an iPhone. We went to the AT&T store today to buy it & set it all up & all that. It’s weird: I didn’t want one for the longest time, because I didn’t want to be constantly in touch with the world. But now I’d like one: it’d be nice to have an easy way to keep not out of touch with the real world. I know there’s so much going on out there. MT is off in India having crazy rocking adventures and Janny is at home preparing to move to Europe. So much is going on in the world and I don’t know what any of it is. The real importance is keeping in touch with the world and my friends and family.

This weekend is the Deerfield Crafts Fair. It’s all around Memorial Hall and on Memorial Street. Typical looking street fair thing. Lauren and I went over in the afternoon to get books out of the Library in the middle of it. The amount of books I brought back was unfortunately heavy. My shoulders hurt. If there’s anything left in the cartography section from my object paper.

Did I mention? I should. My object (for my object study) is a map of Springfield from 1835. It’s cool. We’re all frustratingly lacking in details about what we need in this object study – so I can’t really tell you too much about it. And my research project is going to be a study of a newspaper printing business in Greenfield between 1818 – 1825. I’m looking forward to learning about that – although not the amount of stress that I’m anticipating from the thing. Hmm.

I need to sleep, but I’ll try and write more tomorrow before finding the interwebs and getting on the posting side of this.