Tuesday, November 30

uvm digital library -tennie tousainnt collection

Was waiting on the ok for this, which has arrived from the curator at the University of Vermont (UVM). The following are all photographs from a larger 66 photo collection at UVM that were donated by Tennie Toussaint, a columnist for the Burlington Free Press in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Tennie Toussaint Collection includes photographs of agricultural landscapes, logging operations, sawmills, barns, and bridges from the Danville area (that is northeastern Vermont though not quite the Northeast Kingdom). They show the sheer size and volume of logs that were in use at that time. To read about logging is one thing but the images of millions of board feet of lumber and mountains of waiting logs is instructive...

* * * * *


Dam with Piles of Logs in the Background. Dam is probably the source of power for a sawmill. Three men are standing on the edge of the water next to a small building. ©Tennie Tousainnt Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.


Men Loading Logs onto a Train Car. Group of men in the process of loading logs onto train cars for removal from the woods. Large piles of logs are on one side of the railroad tracks. ©Tennie Tousainnt Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.


North Danville Sawmill. Caption to Tennie Toussaint article in Burlington Free Press December 30, 1971 reads, "Taken at North Danville sawmill about 1900, this picture also could have been taken three weeks ago. The only changes are a small bridge in the center, which used to be wooden and is now iron, and the barn on the right is now gone." ©Tennie Tousainnt Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.


Two Men Standing on one of Several Large Log Piles. Note with picture reads "This picture was taken after steam was installed for power, about 1903. Note tall smoke stack." ©Tennie Tousainnt Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.

and one more for good measure...

Lucius Stanton and an unidentified friend enjoy a glass of cider. Used in a Burlington Free Press article (February 27, 1969) by Tennie Toussaint, "Early Vermonters Found Cash, Conviviality in 'Hard Likker': Potato Whiskey Ads Once Familiar." Caption for photo is "Lucius Stanton, right, and an unidentified friend enjoy a glass of cider in the front yard of Stanton's farm home above North Danville. The property is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Langmaid. This photo was probably taken about 1900." ©Tennie Tousainnt Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Vermont Libraries.

missed it -barbour shetland sweater

If you had been lurking on SierraTradingPost you might have snagged this Shetland wool sweater knit in Scotland. From Barbour. For $19.
But you weren't so you didn't...

Monday, November 29

w/e update -everything but the turkey

We were here. Home base for "the collection".

Oyster and clam knife. Prepping for 5 o'clock...
An old boy had left Pops a deer's liver that week so some serious venison paté was on deck as well.
Barn score. Paging DDC...
Using up some apples. This will be breakfast too...
When you dream of bacon, this cob smoked stuff is what you are thinking of.
Had another great visit with this older gent. Deer season just wrapping up.

These boxes used to hold wheels of Cabot cheese.
The Vermont Country Store in Weston VT has them onsite for $4 a pop.
Great for sorting toys, gloves, etc. Made of pine I think.
On Friday morning an ice storm left 1/8 inch over everything.
Beautiful to look at. Forget walking across the road though.

sartorial hero -peter venkman

Venkman in professor mode. Tweed jacket, rep tie, dual-zone watch.

Boat shoes deep into fall. Ray goes golden era Ivy with Izod, wool scarf and duffle jacket.

Sorry I didn't get to meet YOU sir.
Blaze chamois with elbow patches... in the dictionary under "next level".

Gotta be secure to wear Wimbledon checks.

I like her because she sleeps above her covers.... 4 FEET above her covers...
Peter knows the only way to look good after a hard day in your work clothes
is to have a strong-jawed woman on your arm. Point taken...

Thursday, November 25

turkey day -3

reblog of a comment from mütter-gern... Is there a turkey in your sitting room?


On the basis that you always need a great title before you actually write the book...

"The wretched thing used to wander into the breezeway and start nibbling plants! After the unfortunate episode on the car ride [pictured, cartoon from "The Message" circa 1978, when turkey held onto roofrack for drive into town... it fell off past the dump and the Merrills phoned us to say it was in their bathtub...] it (the turkey) never really recovered and did not survive to grace the Thanksgiving table. At least I made it into the local paper."

Wednesday, November 24

cranberry harvesting


Nantucketers set up these cranberry bogs about 100 years ago. Makes sense that they took cranberries (v high in vitaminC) onboard the whaling ships with them; easy guard against scurvy.

the norton project


If you were thinking of getting your dad a cool present, something thoughtful... then DO NOT watch the above. It will ruin your Christmas. OK, so they didn't send an iPhone to space, but the video nicely done... great reveal.

If you want to step up too, TheClassicBikeExperience in Essex VT did the work. [thx mystery reader sarah for this]

restaurant guy savoy

Love cookery, but happens that I am not doing the cooking for turkeyday... If you are, whatever you do, do NOT watch the following clip... completely lifted reblogged from TheWilliamBrownProject.



Directed by Jesse Salto and his brother.
Music by Eric Serra
DOP: Jacques Ballard

For the camera geeks, Salto writes;
"Shot on Canon MKII with various lenses. The first part (with the truck) was shot with the "manual" firmware and all the rest was shot two weeks earlier with the first full auto firmware."

Tuesday, November 23

turkey day -2


From a series entitled Pres. Roosevelt Enroute To Warm Springs Ga. For Thanksgiving by Margaret Bourke-White, 1938.

It was the next year, in 1939 that FDR moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday of the month under pressure from retailers (who believed no one shopped for Christmas till after Thanksgiving, so can you please Mr. President move Turkeyday a bit earlier...). The calendar printers didn't like that too well... It was then resolved to make Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday (not the last Thursday). wiki tells me that Bourke-White was the first female photo-journalist hired to shoot for LIFE magazine.

If you hit the jump to see the full set, it is noticable that you barely see FDR in any of the shots, more the hardscrabble crowd.





harris tweed -topman

In both US and UK branches of Top Shop you can now get a range of items woven by Harris Tweed Hebrides. Sign me up for a few ties and that overcoat; or maybe wait for the inevitable sale...

-via Style Salvage. Sidenote, 10e committed to resuscitating the lost art of the reblog...

sandbox -now you know



More at Sandbox. Like the GoPro shot off the back of the sled... but those choppers fly a little close right???

a select annotated bibliography of logging in new england

The history of logging in New England is a pet subject of mine and had the excuse recently to dig and discover some further materials. Sidenote: the actual felling of trees isn't as interesting to me as the minutia of the lumber camps and the extraction of logs (by horse or oxen), and subsequent springtime river drives... There has infact been a slight return to horse power in the recent decades (due to environmental, sustainable, and heritage benefits) though not referenced below.

A few of these are well known, hopefully you will discover something new. Included are journals, documentary films, books, [and a photo collection on tap, waiting on the OK], but is def' not exhaustive (I did not get to A History of Lumbering in Maine: 1820-1861 or A History of Lumbering in Maine: 1861-1960). Have not included John Irving’s Last Night in Twisted River: A Novel although it had some descriptions of camp life, as that was too far in the realm of general fiction.

I have included one item that might be termed historical fiction since it is based on confirmed truths of the subject and is well known. The author of that fiction also wrote another piece of historical research that is included; that incidentally features a large dose of tinder-dry Yankee humor. Marked it essential reading.
* * * * * *

Ames, Alfred, et al. From Stump to Ship. Bucksport ME. Distributed by Northeast Historic Film, 1985.
16mm filmed record of a Maine lumber business in the 1930s. B&W footage of lumber camps, a river drive, and a saw mill. Originally silent, the 1985 edit is narrated in a somber manner by humorist Tim Sample from text by the filmmaker Alfred Ames (then president of Machias Lumber Co.) who shot the film. 28 minutes.

Collin, Joseph R. “Old Boy Did You Get Enough Pie.” Forest History Today, 1996: 11-22. [n.b. this is a 40mb pdf].
Discusses cooks, the dining halls and cooking, in logging camps in New England and the rest of the USA. Conclusion: best camps are due to best food and those held onto the men. The woodsmen ate early and often with 9,000 calories a day the norm. Has become one of the most reprinted articles in the journal’s history. 8 large photos.

Hilton, C. Max. Woodsmen, Horses, and Dynamite: Rough Pulpwood Operating in Northwestern Maine, 1935-1940. Orono ME: University of Maine Press, 2004.
Detailed account. Includes figures for amounts of food, horses, men, hours, and dynamite needed in a year long logging operation. Starts at the cruising or walking of the wood lot in summer and ends at the sawmill after the log drive. Mention of Maine’s place as one-time center of world’s papermaking. Ends with 63 illustrations of equipment, by author, in style reminiscent of Eric Sloane. 213 pages and 2 foldout maps.

Holbrook, Stewart H. Yankee Logger: a recollection of Woodsmen, Cooks and River Drivers. New York: International Paper Company, 1961.
Highly personal memoir of a Vermonter. Begins with childhood dreams of becoming a “riverman” to working for various “realty” companies; meaning pulp wood operations. Contemporary forestry practices are discussed also the ongoing struggle of “letting light” into New England clearings. Loggers lexicon included. Author wrote many other historical pieces in this journeyman’s style. 123 pages. [Anyone read Holy Old Mackinaw??]

Pike, Robert E. Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country. Woodstock VT: Countryman Press, 1999. 22 short stories told using the literary mechanism of visits with an aged logger. Musings are in the Yankee tradition of flinty and dry. Informative book that has become a classic on the subject. River drives, camp life, debauched visits to town and the county fair are included. 292 pages.

Pike, Robert E. Tall Trees, Tough Men. New York: W.W. Norton, 1967. Nineteenth and twentieth-century descriptions from amalgam of sources; first person experience and interviews; all detailing lumber camps and forestry work in the woods of New England. Historic figures and the everyman logger described. Evidently many obstacles overcome by brute force or chaw of tobacco applied. Glossary of terms at back. Self-described as a “vivid, anecdotal history of logging and log-driving in New England." Essential reading. 320 pages.

Simmons, Fred C. Northeastern Loggers Handbook: U.S.D.A. Handbook No. 6. Washington USGPO, 1951.
Aimed at the novice woodsman who is taking up logging as a profession. Advice ranges from simply choosing an ax to skidding with tractors. Also chapters on saws, wedges, felling, bucking, skidding with horses and tractors, cable logging and hauling. Illustrations and photos accompany the text throughout. Glossary of terms included. No nonsense. 165 pages.

Springer, John S. Forest Life and Forest Trees. Somersworth, N.H: New Hampshire Pub. Co, 1971. 1851 text divided into two main sectionsL: logging in the Maine woods and river driving. Author gives firsthand, detailed accounts. Not pious; the drunken exploits of the spring drive are discussed at length. Full subtitle is revealing; Comprising Winter Camp-Life Among the Loggers and Wild-Wood Adventure with Descriptions of Lumbering Operations on the Various Rivers of Maine and New Brunswick. An intense portrait of life in the woods and working with trees, also notable for having being published prior to Thoreau’s Walden. Pithy writing. 259 pages. [this was a huge find for me... fantastic.]

Strickland, Ron. “Chester Chet Grimes Horse Logger and Storyteller.” Vermonters: Oral Histories from Down Country to the Northeast Kingdom. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986. 58-64.
1985 interview with Vermonter Chet Grimes, former logger and teamster as he describes using horses for logging work, various other teamsters and their habits in the woods. At time of interview Grimes had no indoor plumbing but would still spend social security check on his two horses, knowingly dubbed "hayburners." Interview edited but generally left in the vernacular.

Strickland, Ron. “Jim King, Woods Cook.” Vermonters: Oral Histories from Down Country to the Northeast Kingdom. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986. 65-68.
1985 interview with Jim King about his experiences as a cook for the lumber camps of northern Vermont. Discussion of cooking, meals served and especially types of bread baked. Interview edited but generally left in the vernacular. Includes short introduction.

Thoreau, Henry D. The Maine Woods. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Reader becomes an outdoorsman along with the author during three trips to Maine over an eleven year period. Detailed descriptions of sounds, tastes, fishing, camping, flora and fauna, inhabitants met, riding in and porting the “bateau” with rivermen. This is exploration of the forest, not so much contemplation or conservation as author perhaps known for. Periodic encounters with logging crews and camps. The last third features an “Indian” guide. Nineteenth-century adventure writing. Informative appendix. 328 pages.

Wallach, Bret. “Logging in Maine's Empty Quarter.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 70.4 (Dec., 1980): 542-52.
Focused on the interior of Maine. Describes commercial forestry management practices that have resulted in large tracts of same-age growth trees. Clear cutting was for profit and for pest control; debatable results with regard to pest control. Paper mills and sawmills are described. Detailed descriptions of a 1970s era workday clearing a “chance” by saw and skidder. [anyone w/ an academic account will be able to find this...]

Weiss, David, et al. Woodsmen and River Drivers: Another Day, Another Era. Blue Hill Falls ME. Northeast Historic Film, 2000.
Interviews with retired lumbermen interspersed with archival photos and footage. Demonstrations of camp cooking, axe sharpening and other day-to-day logging activities as well as recollections of river drives, millwork and schooners of early twentieth-century Maine. 30 minutes.

Wilson, Donald A. Logging and Lumbering in Maine: Images of America. Charleston, S.C: Arcadia, 2001.
A pictorial history of life as a logger in Maine. Approximately 200 images from private collections and the public domain dated 1830-1920. Details camp life and the logging operations but especially valuable as concentrates on the spring river drives and inevitable log jams. 128 pages.

turkey day -1

Photo above via RestoredPrints.com


Great recent article in the WSJ on J.J. Audubon and his fasciantion with the turkey. It was plate #1 in his Birds of America don't you know. Really deserving of its own post, but until you see Birds of America you have no idea of the scale.

Above; Sotheby's auction house worker Mary Engleheart, goes through a rare copy of a book of illustrations by John James Audubon's "Birds of America," in central London, Thursday Sept. 9, 2010. The collection of 435 hand-colored prints, made from engravings of Audubon's illustrations, measures more than 3 feet by 2 feet [i'm liking the bibliographer's term double-elephant folio -ed.]) because Audubon wanted to paint the birds life size. Photo via AP.

Further reading. That copy above from Lord Hesketh’s book collection, is being auctioned by Sotheby's on December 7th.

The whole story of the book and its publication is pretty wild. The University of Pittsburgh has the best zoomable/online version that I have seen. Remember the real plates are bigger than your desk...

[For a counterpoint, head to EvenCleveland to read about Benjamin Franklin and his thoughts on the old bird...]

Monday, November 22

fentiman's ginger beer


Big fan of ginger beer. This Fentimans is a storied brand from the UK that may be available in the states soon/now?? They also sell shandy (basically a mix of carbonated lemonade and beer) drunk by schoolchidren on warm summer nights in England.

Ingredients in their ginger beer:
Fermented Ginger Root Extract (Water/Ginger Root Extract/Wort Syrup/ Yeast)
Carbonated Water
Sugar & Glucose Syrup
Natural flavoursl; Ginger/Capsicum/Lemon/Speedwell/Juniper/Yarrow extracts
Pear Juice concentrate
Cream of Tartar
Citric Acid

book/tech -the heart and the bottle

Bit late on this one... We are longtime fans of Jeffers' books and tho' Heart and the Bottle is almost a year old now we missed it earlier. Review. This December an iPad version of the book will be released that looks like an intelligent use of the tech; inventive, creative, and (F word coming up...) FUN.

the 1939 clothier




The 1939 Clothier. Just stumbled on this westcoast/workwear/WWII (and more) inspired line. Available at Smith&Butler, CraftWorkwear and UnionMade. #wheelhouse.

Friday, November 19

dear santa...

Christies Lot 102. Sale Date November 25, 2010.

Walther air pistol held by Sean Connery as James Bond in the photo-shoot used for the main image in the poster and advertising campaign for the 1963 United Artists/Eon film From Russia With Love.

The air pistol, a .177 (4.5mm) Walther 'LP MOD.53' Air Pistol, Serial No. 054159, with 24cm barrel, blackened finish throughout, in original close-fitted Walther case with sight elements; accompanied by a letter concerning the provenance from the original vendor...
via Christies
It is an air pistol. Come on over after Christmans and plink cans off the deck with me. What, this? Just my authentic, actual 007 Walther. no bigs...

a brief guide to men's fashions

"First of all, the erroneous preconceptions of the Ivy League look must be erased. "Ivy League" refers to a bastardized version of the natural shoulder model, first produced on a mass scale about 1938. Prior to that time, only Brooks Brothers and J. Press promoted the natural shoulder.

Worn by about nine out of ten Harvard men, the Ivy look is smart and trim. It is supposed to make a man look masculine without the phoniness of padding. However, these effects are attained only by wearing a natural shoulder model which suits you. The Warwick model is slightly clubbier than the Andover model which hints of Madison Avenue. Both are appropriate for almost every occasion the college man encounters."

Read the reast of the article in The Crimson. Red hot. From 1968.

kate's homemade butter

Pops had a few Guernsey cows that he milked on and off for a decade maybe. Hell of a lot of work. We even made butter a few times, and cheese a bunch of times (fantastic). The butter was bright yellow (just read that may be because they ate grass rather than hay. ha!). Monet-dining-room-yellow. We took a big clean mason jar quarter full of cream and shook the hell out of it. Ball of butter formed leaving some watery milk. Good excuse to start collecting butter molds...

I love Cabot's butter, and could eat their seriously sharp cheddar till the cows come home [too much -ed.] but you have to give Kate's Homemade Butter a nod. Award winning real deal, literally made at home (in Dan Patry's garage) for the last 25 years, using rBGH-free cream. The wee girl on the package is Patry's niece, in a photo taken when they started the business.



via today's Kennebunk Post:
Kate’s Homemade Butter has started the approval process to move production from a residential area in Old Orchard Beach to a new facility to be built on Route 111 in Arundel [ME].

“It’s spectacular is what it is,” said Daniel Patry, founder and president of Kate’s Homemade Butter, of the location. “When we cleared the site for the building we were all shocked at what we had. It rolls nice, it will grow good hay for the cows.”

Since introducing his butter to the market in 1981, Patry has worked out of a 2,000-square-foot facility in Old Orchard Beach. The move to the larger building will allow Patry, along with his son, Lucas, who joined the company in 2005, to meet more of their butter demand. The larger production facility will also allow them to manufacture additional products... The company also plans to have its own dairy cows at the facility.

Thursday, November 18

fish fight

Fish Fight is a new campaign hub that will accompany British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's series Hugh’s Fish Fight that will examine aspects of the fishing/food industry. The first topic is discarding, also called bycatch. At issue; potentialy half of all fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back overboard dead.

Discarding is not limited to the North Sea, it’s a massive problem throughout EU waters. Some of these discards are undersized fish, and some of them are species for which there is currently little market. But much of it is “over-quota” fish: prime cod, haddock, coley, whiting, plaice, and other major food species, for which the fishermen have run out of quota.

But in the pursuit of other fish for which they do still have quota, they cannot avoid catching large numbers of the “wrong” species. It’s an inherent problem in what is known as a “mixed fishery”.

The fish are being thrown away because to land them would be illegal. Only a tiny proportion of these fish will survive. For obvious reasons, fishermen hate discards. Conservationists hate them too.

Even politicians don’t like them. But they are an unavoidable consequence of the current Common Fisheries Policy [CFP -ed.]and the quota system. The very same rules that have been devised with the aim of protecting stocks (principally quotas and minimum landing sizes) have become the reason that so much fish is being thrown back into the sea.

The CFP is under review and due to be reformed in the coming months.
Further reading in this article from today's Independent. Clip below doesn't blow you away but I hope this series is good, seeems like Hugh has some eyes on him right now.

Wednesday, November 17

danny macaskill -way back home


Saw via Kottke. You remember Danny right? Been looking forward to another edit from this guy...

lochcarron -travel rugs

Posted about their ties and the mill once before, but again, Lochcarron are a family owned mill in Selkirk, Scotland. They weave 700 stock tartans... many available in "super soft" lambswool as lap rugs. 56" x 72". Online from TartanRugs for a C note.