Over the Highways and thru the Snow, to Grandmothers House we go

Today I visited my Grandmother in the very small village of Castile, NY
Mom and Dad were with me and we went out to the "Hawley Lumber Yard" restaurant in the nearby town of Perry. Dad's first choice, "The Hole in the Wall" restaurant was closed today. We had a leisurely lunch and over two excellent deserts (shared by everyone at the table) of coconut creme pie and a chocolate fudge pie topped with coconut and ice cream talked with Grandma about our family history, past relatives and other genealogy topics which Dad, Mom and I did not know about.





After lunch Dad played with the dogs Cody and Toby back at the house. Aunt Liz was hosting a bridge tournament out of town.






A cold front had moved through the area last night, bringing winds, snow and a high of 9 degrees today! The winds bring a local weather behavior called "lake effect snow". Unlike a larger snow storm which affects a broad area, lake effect is long bands of snow

mixed between areas of no snow at all. To understand what I am talking about, do this: grab a state map, put your hand over it with your fingers stretched out. Whatever your fingers cover, that would be getting snow. In between your fingers, sunshine. Like these pictures taken 15 minutes apart. Sunshine in the first, snow in the second. And we drove out of the snow five minutes later.

On our way home I took the scenic route and took the road which follows Oatka Creek. The name comes from the original Seneca Indian name for the creek, O-at-ka (translated: Queen of Water).

It has a three mile section of class II-III rapids on it, and is known for its excellent brown trout fishery.

Dad and I had canoed it several times when I was in Boy Scouts and I had fond memories of the creek. He also remembered an early spring canoe trip when there was still ice on the water and we dumped the canoe, soaking us both with cold, cold water.

Christmas with the Cousins

The Christmas party on Mom's side of the family:











back: Makenzie, Mike, Megan, Paul, AJ, Peter, Penny, Donny, Joel, Karen, Steve, Ann, Jim, Michelle
Julie, Kim, Mike, Jack, Nancy, Erin, Josh, Jake, Ben, Zack, Danielle, Denis










Kim and daughter Megan











Penny & Don, Steve, Peter










Jack and Megan pose for Megan's new camera











Julie & Daughter Makenzie with Aunt Ann, Julie's Mom











Some of the cousins - Zack, Jake, Ben, Josh look at the new DS

The Peppermint Pig Tradition

Ben and Jake break the peppermint pig Christmas Eve 2009, continuing the tradition. The pig is made of hard peppermint, which tastes almost like a candy cane. Traditionally, after Christmas dinner the head of the household places the pig in a velveteen pouch and smashes it with a metal mallet. It is then passed around the table, so everyone gets a turn. Typically, each person recalls something good that happened over the last year. The first Peppermint Pigs™ were and still are only made in Saratoga County, NY, in the early 1880's. This is near where sister's family now lives, so they picked up the tradition.

Jake flies his Helicopter

Jake flies his new toy helicopter Christmas day

Relax and Take a Break the Holidays

Relax and Take a Break the Holidays for a minute:



The historic dam on Black Creek in Churchville. Built in 1810 by Samuel Church for the saw mill and flour mill. The dam for the mill remains today, with a small park next to it.

Christmas Scenes

A few pics from Christmas Eve dinner. We get things going by opening the party crackers








Ben finds something funny during dinner










Wearing the crowns from the party crackers, and Bob wearing his toy prize -- a scrunchie -- on his ear, we bless the evening meal.








Christmas Day with the family; Laughter, gifts, silliness and love.

Being a Tourist in my Hometown

Unexpectedly, there was sunshine today! I thought I'd take advantage of it and be a tourist in my hometown and take a few pics of familiar places.






























The mighty little village of Churchville, population 1,500, was founded in 1810 by Samuel Church. He build a saw mill and flour mill powered by Black Creek. The dam for the mill remains today, with a small park next to it. Flour milling remains a major industry in Churchville, with the "Star of the West" flour mill located near the railroad tracks continuing flour production to this day.

The Johnson House Restaurant, built in 1885 was originally a general store until it was renovated by Hiram and Ruth Johnson in 1946, and remains a steak house restaurant to date. One one side of the Johnson House is Walker Bros. Funeral home, and on the other side is the Riga public library. The library is on one of the four corners of Main street and Buffalo road, which is the main intersection in town.

Up on the hill behind the Citgo gas station on the corner is the Cobblestone schoolhouse, the United Methodist Church and Catholic church. The cobblestone schoolhouse was built in 1843 and represents a style of architecture of building with small (2.5"-10") uniform
rounded stones. Typically, cobblestones were laid in horizontal bands with each stone supported by a V-shaped mortar joint. Some cobblestone facades exhibit stones painstakingly matched in size, shape, and tonality of color. A banded or striped effect was achieved by laying alternate rows of stone of contrasting color.

In the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age left numerous small, rounded cobblestones available for building and the Pre-Civil War architecture in the region made heavy use of cobblestones for walls. It is estimated by some that 90 per cent of the cobblestone structures are with 75 miles of Rochester, NY, including Churchville. Today, the fewer than 600 remaining cobblestone buildings are prized as historic locations.

Behind the United Methodist Church and old schoolhouse is the Catholic church, directly across the road facing it is the Presbyterian church.

West on Buffalo road is the Churchville Elementary School, where I went to school for grades 1 though 6 before attending Jr. and Sr. High at the combined Churchville-Chili High school. (That's pronounced Churchville-ChI-Lie). Built in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration Project, until 1950 served grades 1-12 after which the combined school district for the vilage of Churchville the the town of Chili was formed.

'Downtown' Churchville is small, with the town offices in the middle building and various small shops surrounding it. Some years back the village had all the electric, phone and cable lines buried, beautifying the block immensely.

North of town is bordered by Black creek, on the other side is the large 742 acre Churchville public park. The park features a softball field, soccer field, tennis courts, playgrounds, a golf course, a natural ice skating rink and a disc (frisbee) golf course, five lodges and six shelters.

The former New York Central (now CSX) double-track mainline crosses on South Main Street and sees some 70 trains daily.

A visit with Aunt Esther

Today Mom, Dad and I drove out to Westfield, NY, way down at the western tip of New York just below Lake Erie and visited my Great-Aunt Esther at her home. We drove to the little town of Ripley and had lunch at Meeder's restaurant for some home style cooking and more importantly, some delicious home made pies. I had a slice of tangy, slightly tart rhubarb and left nothing behind on the plate!




This part of New York is grape country, the Westfield town logo is a bunch of grapes and the big juicing companies (Welches, to name one) all have processing plants here. As a kid I remember walking to the end of her street which dead-ended in a grape field and picking bunches left on the vine on the end rows which the machines could not harvest.

I wanted to see the Lake (Erie) so on our way back from lunch we stopped by the old (1898) Portland Harbor in the town of Barcelona which is just five minutes from her house and now has public docks on it. Overlooking the little harbor is the 40 foot conical tower constructed of native rough split field stone and a keepers residence. The tower was lit by naturally occurring hydrogen gas (natural gas) from a spring source some three quarters of a mile away, the first publicly light building to use natural gas in the United States. More info can be found here.

Back at Aunt Esthers house we had a nice chat catching up on events and other happenings, and exchanged gifts. All too soon it was time for us to go, driving two hours back through several snow flurries but thankfully not bad weather.

White Trash

White Trash is a party mix/snack my brother makes up every year during Christmas. Consisting of Cheerios and Chex brand cereals, pretzels, peanuts and white chocolate, this sweet and crunchy mix is a popular favorite and an easy one to bring to parties. It's a standing 'must bring' to several of the holiday gatherings I'll be going to.

If you want to make your own, you'll need:

* 9 cups assorted unsweetened cereals (Cheerios, any of the Chex)
* 3 cups salted nuts
* 2 cups pretzel sticks
* 2 - 12 ounce packages (4 cups) white chocolate chips

Cover large surface with waxed or parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, mix together cereals, nuts and pretzels. In a microwavable bowl, melt white chocolate chips in microwave on 70 percent power for 1 minute. Stir. If necessary, continue to microwave in 10 to 15 second increments until melted. Stir melted chocolate into cereal mixture until well coated. Quickly spread out over covered surface. Once cooled, break-up and store in resealable containers or bags.

The fruitcake is ready!

Let me start out by saying I basically agree with the sentiments reserved for store-bought "kept in a tin" fruitcake that most people are familiar with. Those things are nothing like mom's homemade, aged fruitcake!Doesn't that look yummy! Moist and tender, this cake is almost all spoken for by the time it is made by neighbors, aunts, uncles and siblings. If you want a piece, you better look for it on on the cookie plate when it first comes out because the pieces go quickly!

The 1915 SouthBend Lathe ready for use

Here it is after a cleaning: Steve's 1915 SouthBend lathe




Dad and I will move the shop around a bit and put this new machine "into the stables" with the rest of his wood working ones.

Lions Christmas Giving Day

A number of Churchville Lions and friends braved the cold 20 degree weather to deliver food and toys to 59 families in the Churchville, NY area on Sunday. Steven and Zack tried to keep warm while Lions Bill gave directions to Denis., Lion Ray and Ann. Each family received at least two boxes of can goods, oranges, apples, a bag of potatoes and a ham for their Christmas dinner. All boxes were delivered in less than two hours and we enjoyed hot cocoa, coffee and Fran deNormand's famous brownies and choc. chip cookies to celebrates another good deed done.

It's Cookie Day!

The tradition continues...Dad and the boys (just me this year, Steve had to work) take over the kitchen and make the Christmas cookies. Mom wisely flees the house and goes shopping. There's a message in that action - she'd rather spend time with the shopping masses than at home when we're in the kitchen! All kidding aside, this years cookie crop includes Russian Tea cookies, Peanut butter clusters with a Hershey's Kiss on top, Chocolate Chippers and of course, Cutouts. Yummy!

A typical upstate snowy morning

A shot of the barn in the backyard looking out the kitchen bay window, with snowflakes in the air and blue 'Three wise men' globe ornaments on the window ledge.

A Garbage Plate Dinner

Tonight my brother Steve and I went to Wimpy's Burger Basket for a garbage plate. -- This one is a base of macaroni salad and home fries, two burgers, mustard and topped with a spicy meat sauce. Served with two slices of Italian bread and butter. Red Hot sauce optional. Yummy!




































The Garbage Plate originated here in Rochester, NY at Nick Tahou's Hots. Wimpy's is closer so that's where we go. Steve likes a base of home fries and baked beans, two cheeseburgers and meat sauce.

I look forward to having a plate every year when I visit my parents.

The family home

Monday, 14-December-2009 a typical overcast day for Rochester. The Family Home that I've known all my life. Mom and Dad have pictures of the pine trees (there's a row of them on the right) when they just planted them--they were only two feet tall!

Mystery Lathe

My brother Steve picked up this lathe a couple of years ago and it has been in storage ever since. Thinking I had a metal lathe project to do for Dad, I've been pumping Steve to move it out of storage and bring it to Dads place over Christmas. Steve called his buddy Shawn Monday night and brought it over.

I spent Monday evening looking it over and putting it back on it's legs, and most all of Tuesday taking it apart, cleaning and reassembling it.

The question was: Who made it? Although there is a serial number on the bed, and the number "10" on various castings, there is no makers marks. I took down the vital statistics (10" swing, 42" work length, etc.) and a couple of pictures and posted it to my favorite old iron bulletin board, the Practical Machinist. Within four hours of my posting I had my answer!

Steve has a SouthBend 10, from 1915-1920! Most likely this model was sold by Sears Roebuck & Co since it does not have the SouthBend name tags. Also, his model was likely treadle-powered, not motor or lineshaft since the legs have the bushings for the foot treadle and flywheel. See this website for and early example this model, stunningly restored.

Wow! I can't believe he has such and old SouthBend! Now to finish the clean up efforts so it can be used.

The Mikado is Alive!

Major milestone tonight down in the shop -- We ran the Mikado engine for the first time on air and it worked! HoorayHoorayHooray!



Here's the Video:

New position

I've just accepted a position that I interviewed for with the Global ERP team within Monsanto. Starting Monday 4-Jan-10 I will be the "ERP Master Data - Business Analyst" lead. I'm very excited (and nervous) about changing jobs. This position will get me in on the ground floor of the main IT system at Monsanto, and gives me a path forward to the future.

I'll be part of a team which has global resposibility for Master Data in the SAP systems including design, configuration and set up of customoers, vendors, materials and plants at the global and regional level.

Time to start packing boxes, although I only have to move one floor over!