ExcitingMind

STONE WALL RE-CONSTRUCTION

2011-09-06T13:59:00.068-04:00

Exciting News! Re-doing the stone wall out front at the farm has begun. The backhoe is Mike's. The dump truck is Ray Welch's. It's a big project and it'll take a while, but it's finally underway.

First the old wall has to come down. Here Mike is piling stones so that the mason can grab them conveniently later on.

Then the new wall can be built up. That's Dwight, our expert mason, and Mike taking a break on this sweltering Saturday. The new wall will be set back two feet and the lawn sloped toward the top, eliminating some of that hump and providing visibility when pulling out of the driveway.

(Ohhh yes, the memories here...Remember the old swing under the maple tree, which stood about where the dump truck is?...)

FORTY-TWO DEGREES NORTH...Prologue:

2011-03-07T11:06:00.144-05:00

The year was 1778 and the Revolutionary War was entered into a crucial phase. Washington's Continental Army had endured the awful winter at Valley Forge, become revitalized, and was embarked on fresh campaigns against the British. Most of these actions took place in New Jersey, along the Atlantic seaboard. But the conflict was by no means limited to set battles between King George's redcoats and the patriots in this theater.

Well to Washington's rear, another front had opened up with a vengeance. From their base at Fort Niagara, near present-day Buffalo, the British encouraged the Iroquois Confederation to launch attacks upon vulnerable settlements inland, especially along the branches of the upper Susquehanna River, the Susquehanna country, as it was called. Thus the Continental Army could be pressed from two directions.

The result was a series of Tory-and-Indian raids and their subsequent massacres. These were effective not only in halting the advancing of settlements but as instruments of terror upon the colonists.

Attacks upon Cherry Valley and Wyoming Valley, to name two, caused mass evacuations of settlers from the Mohawk and Susquehanna countries. In the aftermath of Wyoming, the exodus was so frantic, so desperate, with scores of women and chidren perishing in the panic, that it came to be known as the Great Runaway.

All of this and more revolved about an invsible line, a veritable axis of activities -- 42 degrees north latitude. Eventually, years later, this would mark the boundary between northern Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York State. Previously it was known only to the likes of map makers and the aristocracy who had commissioned them.

42 degrees north -- in various ways and means, this meridian and its environs were claimed by three colonies, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; two Indian nations, the Algonquin and the Iroquois; one long-time European power, England; one great power in the making, the United States; as well as various land companies and fur trading empires.

Accordingly, it was a territory in general free-for-all -- a hodgepodge of land-grabbers, trappers, traders, Indian villages, roving clans and tribes, rogues, cut-throats, both of the light- and dark-skinned varieties, missionaries, Bible-verse-quoting settlers, with a few British operatives and associated guerrilla units thrown in. No one authority dominated, except for who held the advantage in numbers and weaponry at any given time.

Where this all played out was appropriate, to say the least -- a sprawling, wild expanse where the brooding silence was broken only by the bawling of wolf packs, the screams of eagles or the on-rushing of water over stones or tangles of roots.

For travelers making their way through, it often was cloaked in perpetual twilight. Virgin forests had formed into leafy canopies through the millenniums, penetrated only by shafts of sunlight. Pioneers reported that they could barely see their fingernails at arm´s length before them even at mid-day.

By and large, the only thoroughfares were waterways or dusky Indian paths, where from time to time would be encountered what were called the "glades of death." Here, sudden violence could be unleashed from behind the trunks of giant trees. The dull thunk of war clubs bashing in skulls would intermingle with wide-eyed screams of victims, to echo off and be lost in the vastness of the wilderness.

For that time, this was the Great American Frontier. Indeed, a century-plus before the Old West rode and blazed its way into popular culture and consciousness, the epic frontier of the Rio Grande, the colorful Colorado and the mighty Columbia was yet another...

One equally as important, equally as dynamic and equally as violent -- the frontier of the lesser known "Susky-hann-eee," as the Algonquins called it, the Great Winding River; the wide and stately Hudson, named for the famous explorer; and the rapidly flowing Delaware, named for Baron De La Warr and cutting through one of the few interior valleys that, up until then, had not been hit by raids.

[CHAPTER ONE FOLLOWS]

Baling Hay

2010-07-01T21:48:00.004-04:00

Mike on his restored 1954 Super H

Mike And HIs Farmall 240

2010-07-01T11:06:00.001-04:00

'84 Toyota Pick-Up

2010-07-01T10:34:00.011-04:00

A real workhorse about the farm

Bolens Mower

2010-06-29T19:41:00.010-04:00

Image of Summer -- Choconut, PA

Chasing Charles Lindbergh:

2008-04-04T11:40:00.012-04:00

Nov. 1927--When The "Lone Eagle" Landed In Susquehanna County, Penna.

In May of that year he became the first person to fly the Atlantic Ocean--one of the epic acts in the history of humanity, one which overnight catapulted him into worldwide fame.

Then on Nov. 4, fresh off a triumphal tour that had taken him to 48 states and 92 cities, he was flying from Long Island to Buffalo, New York, when he had to make a landing in a hayfield due to weather.

As written in the book Choconut Township, The Way It Was: Stories, Illustrations & Photographs Of Local History: "The guest of kings and presidents was about to board with farmers and a quiet parish priest. Upon an unsuspecting Choconut, dropped the most famous man in the world..."

The photo above shows "Lucky Lindy" (2nd from left) in that hayfield. The author grew up in the farmhouse in the background. His grandparents and mother hosted the celebrity flier there for a few hours.

To read about that memorable evening and why for much of his life the author has been on the trail of the famous aviator, go to http://www.mauitime.com/ (Click on "archives," July 19, 2007 issue)

Cruise Ship Blues:

2008-03-26T08:32:00.007-04:00

It sounded like a job too good to be true--working as a naturalist on a cruise ship sailing from port to port in the Hawaiian Islands. In the wintertime, no less.

But while onboard the naturalist embarked on a "study" he hadn't intended--unwittingly gathering data on the behavior of the human animal. The findings rocked him more than a 50' wave!

Stand by to weigh anchor: Coming soon to this site--Part I of this contemporary tale of the sea, by James Mordovancey. Read of love and life while touring the islands...

Life On The Pacific Whalers:

2008-03-22T12:45:00.020-04:00

Tired of political primaries and endless gray days? Want to try a tale of the sea? Take a journey back in time, to the era of Tall Ships & Cachalots.

From the author of Choconut Township, The Way It Was: Stories, Illustrations & Photographs of Local History by James Mordovancey comes an account of America's sea-going heritage. In gritty detail, experience life before the mast on the Pacific whalers. Marvel at some of the epic journeys in the history of humanity and how they affected a burgeoning nation.

Experience it now at http://www.mauitime.com/ (Click on "archives," Dec. 20, 2007 issue) But be forewarned--you could be exposed to rolling decks and bursts of salt spray!

Zen Traveler:

2008-03-20T14:31:00.011-04:00

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Because it's taken years and years, but he's finally figured out how to travel light. On this trip through Hong Kong, Macau, Borneo and Lantau Island, off the Chinese Coast, site of the world's largest sitting Buddha, he was roughed up by everything from typhoons, to 7' monitor lizards to fruit bat soup, but he was ready for it all.

Jack Kerouac used to say, "I rode around this country as free as a bee." The author of On The Road, Satori In Paris and The Dharma Bums, among others, not only was a disciple of Zen but a disciple of simplicity of travel as well. "

Achieving minimalism" takes on a mystical aspect, according to Kerouac and many other devotees of Zen travel. By inspiration from a Higher Consciousness one becomes truly "outfitted," both mentally and physically, for what comes down while on the road. And only then can one zip around as free as the proverbial bee.