Pet Deer

-
Image
"You want adventure. Every fiber of your being is screaming for it. Where do you find it? You find it in the voluntary adoption of responsibility." -- Jordan Peterson And some additional context to add is that the priorities for responsibility start with and for yourself. The deer in the neighborhood have become tame, quite tame. I think we are at the point where I can train them to eat from my hand. I dont feed them, but it is clear others in the neighborhood are feeding them. I am questioning whether it is right or wrong. It is not as simple as what you might initially think, running through loops of listening to the mezmoring voice David Attenborough anthropomorphising wildlife. Or what you learned as you slammed into a deer with your car. It's not that clear. The deer are not running out in front of cars in the neighborhood. They act more like the neighborhood geese, having full reign of the lawns, driveways and streets. We had a goose that demanded sovereignt...
Post a Comment

Solon NY Water Mill

-

I went and looked at the Solon Pond Mill. I was mistaken last time when I was up there in 2000. It was Summer and everything was overgrown. The mill is about an 1/8 mile from the building I thought might have been the mill. The mill is in rough shape. But everything is still there. I couldn't get underneath to see if the turbine was in good shape. I had heard that it was buried in muck. I suspect it is there, but probably in rough shape as well. It is a combination grist and saw mill, and could be restored to do exactly that. I am going to pass. I was thinking it would make a great homesite however. There is 3.9 acres (a lot for a mill) and you could build a nice house that looked period and work on getting an awesome water powered workshop out back. There is a planner, and it looks like a jig saw and I bet a few other pieces of woodworking equipment in there. All the shafting looks good. It is fun to think about the coolness of starting with logs and making furniture all out in that small mill with water power alone. The grist mill looked almost pristine. The floor has fallen through in an area of the shop above the creek.

The roof has fallen in over a portion of the sawmill. Definately a handyman special. The seller said that he had the design to rebuild the dam using precast. I thought that was a great idea. The mill pond is approximately 1/2 acre in size. There are lots of trees that would have to come down both in the pond and around the mill. They are too looming and destructive. One of the neat things is that the mill is right over the creek. It would look great restored, or at least functional. In the photos you will see a log of the grist mill tonnage over different years written in pencil on one of the belt ways.

More photos (self serve)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hey,
Very neat... man it would take 3-4 hours to get that thing cleaned up and working, huh!
GM
10:53 AM
Anonymous said…
It is actually "do-able". I can't help myself figuring out how to fix the structure without getting killed, drowned, collaping the entire structure or all three!

Thinking about this project helped me get more interested in the structure issues on my own barn.

I do think it would be awesome to have this water powered wood shop, over a creek out behind the house. It is set up to start from logs. I suspect they made fruit crates or something like that.

Someone is going to fix this place. I think it would be fun to help figure out what to jack, pull, push, lift, pry, nudge, swear, roll, and break to get the place back in shape.

Charlie
1:41 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks Charles for your posting. There may be a group of people after all that could be interested in banding ( or would that be belting ) together to do something with this. My email is cboeres@twcny.rr.com. I hope to have more info for you by way of the Cortland Historical society. Thanks, Chris.
5:07 PM
Anonymous said…
Couldn't be any worse than the house on Brownsville Rd...
10:35 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
I am flying this morning. We are getting off the beaten trail. We are going to Mt Heine on White Island and Williams Cliff on the side of Mt. Erebus. We are trying to determine if we have a found a better radio location at these two points. We are taking GPS, maps, a 900 Meg radio and ice axes. It will make the network simpler if I can prove these spots will work. Cravasses are common near Williams Cliff so we are on high-guard about where we will set the helo down. We may not set down at all. Cravasses are really problematic down here. They are hundreds of feet deep and they are very often covered with snow. Sometimes the snow may be 6 or 10 feet thick and may support equipment for a while. Then one day the equipment breaks through. Ice radar is normally used for traverses.
Read more
-
Image
Iceland was a real hoot. It is a mecca for off-road, drone-toting, adventure seekers. There is a surprise around every mountain or glacier. There is considerable variety to the landscapes and near limitless long vistas for reflections. I will go back again. Here is a multi-million dollar view of Iceland. Here are few stills from the drone. I flew both in the rain and in winds over 40 mph. This is just a small sample.
Read more

CAT D6 started after 30 years of Sitting!

-
Image
Well the big fun this weekend was that we got the CAT D6 Dozer running! After 30 years of not being run it now runs. When the diesel finally kicked it did not disappoint in the slightest. The thing belched a big black cloud of black smoke and the cooling fan emptied the radiator of 30 years worth of bugs parts and mouse nests all over us. The neighbor came over pretty much in disbelief. In thinking about it, he had only ever lived across the street, it appears, and he was maybe 40 years old. That machine had been a familiar static fixture for almost his whole life. Something simple like getting that big old engine running is truly a lot of fun and was satisfying. I don't have a video of the engine rebirth. It took more hands than two people have to work the controls required to get the thing started. Now it is a bit more work to get it to move. It appears the brakes and possibly other parts are stuck.
Read more

Back to the "Deep South" in Duluth GA

-
Image
I get a kick out of hearing the term "Deep South" in 2026. It is a crazy incredibly outdated label. I think maybe I should start saying the "Deep Northeast". I am a Yankee. My family came over on the Mayflower and moved to Upstate NY via Connecticut. Terms used in the revolutionary and Civil war days are generally inappropriate. My family is all but totally out of NY State now. I find the term "deep south" to be of the same thinking that the movie "Heidi" is what contemporary Europe is like. Watching the fireworks in Rochester, NY from the back yard of a house in the city made it look like a real war zone. It is a long drive between Berkshire, NY and Duluth, GA. Most of the 35K miles on the truck were spent in between. I drove the truck about 3k miles in 2-1/2 weeks. It was great to spend time on the farm. It was good to make some progress on needed repairs and improvements. I also felt good about making some new friends up there. I will be...
Read more