Skid steer loaders in Usa

Not so emphatically, we made another good trip to the dalles, oregon, buy reversible ploughs in california for our car club's spring mini-meeting. Doesn't mean using the old willys yet, but more like socializing, and really fulfills the two-date requirement for the moment. This year, as in the past, we traveled to the capital city of the dalles, oregon, as a fairly main option for a tourist lunch - although i believe as a future planting season such a method turns out to be a different place, since everyone came to the dalles with nothing to do.

We left thursday afternoon, immediately as soon as my daughter got home from school. Got on the i-84 freeway and . Just drove west. Seriously. It's 84 west, almost to the end.

I love road trips so much! I've talked about traveling with the chevy volt, and so much of the effort remains the same. Although our company solely use it to examine to the metropolis and back on battery power, the solar consumption on the highway isn't terrible (however to not great - 35-38 miles per day at 70 miles during), and the body weight and configuration give it stay an unattainable dependable equipment to examine on the highway. I've driven numerous automobiles many miles on the highway, and the volt is the best of my favorites - it's boring, in virtually all good senses. However, i do make a recommendation to switch the vehicle to "sport" for highway driving - it's more responsive, and you don't have to push the speed pedal too hard at the same time. I can also report that using the hold mode (or the mobile android versions, if anyone has a 2012) is quite helpful, in case you think you're going for a long highway drive. The volt 1st generation gasoline engine is not as powerful as the electric motor, and any in mountain mode storing more charge, you can exceed the capacity of the battery pack at any time while actively climbing (but the motor will wear out). If you switch the room to a hold signal in the initial stages when there is a lot of charge left, it starts to behave healthy and full of power. I reset the stretch film from hold mode after the last pass, but moving down the highway with a nearly full battery is nicer when you should be making climbs.

And i just love that framing of the interstate sign with the sunset.

Sorosis park

We had an uncluttered morning, for which reason we went up to the mound at sorosis park - and among them is an awfully nice big wooden play structure for your little ones! It's made in a castle theme and has some interesting elements, even sound pipes connecting the various blocks of the play screen to "shout through the pipes" - which is apparently a lot more fun than just shouting through the whole play structure!

Not far from the gambling house there is a polar sun dial, in case the human hasn't tried what time it is today. It's a relatively robust design. Will have to make solar time for the human lot sometime. I am impressed with the simple elimination of the difficulties of standard and daylight saving time.

in the hour that people were in it we besides saw some categorically friendly squirrels. They were absolutely calm towards you, and almost tried to steal any half-finished breakfast foods from one of the tables. I don't have squirrels here, and i grew up with them, so i just love looking at them all the time.

One of them also quite calmly dived into a container looking for sustenance. Curiously, this one was the most promising of the very skinny group squirrels.

The big, fat squirrel seemed more than happy to just snack on the grass or whatever people they managed to get in the grass.

Columbia gorge discovery center & museum

We also went back to the columbia gorge discovery center & museum that we wandered into last year. There are tons of cute tables there if you want to have a picnic lunch, and the waterfall to the left is a great place for group photos!

If you go there, plan to be there at either 11am or 2pm to watch the raptor shows - they have a range of birds they rescue, and they love showing them off!

They put a lot of time and effort into creating the exhibits, and it shows - many of the migration to the west exhibits are artifacts set against paintings that give a sense of the area and environment. The oregon wilderness is not a pleasant place to cross, especially in the summer.

I'll build a raft and float down the river, please!

I didn't realize that a huge chunk of the western united states was once one county. Vasco county, created in 1854, had an area of 130,000 square miles - that's more than the area of all modern u.S. States except alaska, texas, california and montana.

The museum has a wall display showing the size of the county over the years until it eventually shrank to something resembling a normal-sized county. Quite a loss of territory in 60 years!

The cash register is from around 1900. I can't say i like the current flat glass tablets any better than this work of art. This kind of aesthetic, where everything is well designed and beautiful, regardless of function, is one of the appealing traits of the steampunk movement. Turning everything into black mirrors didn't improve the situation.

Given my recent interest in older styles of lighting, i was happy to see old incandescent bulbs in some of the "old town" exhibits. If you're going to reproduce scenes from the early 1900s, they probably won't be lit with leds. If done right, this lamp is low wattage and should last a very long time.

In addition, the kerosene lamp (dead flame, if you're paying attention) was clearly not used. And the wick is more than a little high.... But you can see the reflector behind it, which was used to make sure all the light was directed in the right direction.

The embossing of the leather appears to be simple "brute force" - pressing the steel patterned disk into the leather very hard. On the right is the handle, on the left is the embossing wheel, massive jaws that allow you to work large pieces. Pick the wheel, press it into the leather.

Similarly, leather punches simply pressed the stamps into the leather hard enough to make an impression on them and, if desired, cut them to shape. Lots of brute force.

The exhibit also features a life-size "board house," a structure adapted for life in the rainforests of western oregon. In the past, homes and buildings were designed to fit local climates. You couldn't build a house in western oregon the same way you could in the eastern deserts of the state. Unfortunately, we have lost much to the tendency to build the "same standard house" everywhere and rely on mechanical climate control to make them livable. Such construction is not designed to last a long life, one way or the other. Houses should be built to suit local climatic conditions and be livable without high energy costs for air conditioning and heating.

This is a simple form of construction based on what there is no shortage of - wood. The roof protects you from the rain, and the rest of the details require little attention.

There's also a very large sturgeon carved out of a log.

The firehouse museum at city hall

If you'll be downtown during the week, stop by city hall. In the back of the building, you'll find an antique steam fire engine, hand pump and other exhibits related to the city's fire department history.

This is an 1879 amoskeag steam fire engine. It was rated at 550 gallons per minute and was stored with the boiler preheated and coal already put in it so that in the 10 minutes or so it took to get to the scene of a fire (by horseback), it had time to build up steam and was ready to pump water from any available source. In 1892, the city added a system of fire hydrants, which greatly expanded the capabilities of this type of pump. This machine remained in service until 1915 when the city switched to motorized engines. At 6,700 pounds, the horses tired quickly when towing it.

I imagine it would have been much fatter in service. You can see the little oil cups used to lubricate the bearings.

And continuing the "but we don't make pretty things anymore" theme, these old steam gauges...

Before the advent of steam pumps, towns used hand pumps. These were still superior to the bucket brigade, but they were heavy, difficult to use, and still limited to having water sources near the fire.

This isn't a very large museum, but it's worth a look when you're in town!

The dalles downtown

Continuing the theme of "explore all the parts of town we could find," we spent a day or two finding and photographing our family with the various murals downtown - and enjoyed being downtown as well. If they're too big for a regular camera, there's nothing wrong with taking the camera up to the sky to get the full scale of the mural! It's really impressive the amount of work that went into painting the walls downtown, and it's much more interesting to wander around than the usual bland walls. I wasn't sure how people would react to a family running around town with a drone to take pictures of the murals, but the few people who did pay attention were very happy that we were having fun downtown. I continue to be amazed at how many people don't notice a quadcopter 15 feet in the air...

In one of the parking lots, i discovered one of the most amazing things i've encountered in my life. It was an old gmc truck that appeared to be in perfectly working order, which is not unusual in my world. But... Look at its finish. Look at how shiny it is. That's not normal for an old truck.

Upon further Buy Forks Construction USA California investigation, it turns out that the worn finish has a layer of clear lacquer over it. The entire truck trim is coated with a nice matte clear coat, which is clearly visible from this angle (look at the headlight to see the reflection). I have no idea what, why, and..... Anyway, why. Judging from the bare metal, the existing patina has been sanded down with sandpaper or a wire brush in some places, and at this point i have no idea if this is actually the original finish that was cleaned and protected, or if someone paid a lot of money for a "weathered finish" that was applied over the bare metal. But someone went to great lengths to protect the aged finish in its current state, and that just baffles me. I guess it's an "old truck for show"? 

We stopped by klindt's booksellers, which has been in business since 1870. I've been going back to paper books lately, eschewing the modern digital mediation of everything, and it's nice to see local bookstores doing well. Yes, we did buy a few things here!

There's also a very interesting outdoor "food/beer/games/gathering" area that i'd like to figure out how to create locally. It wasn't crowded at the beginning of the season, but there are several food trucks (or "little kitchen houses") around the perimeter of the site, a good selection of tables around the edges and under the canopy, and a few other places to sit. The tables in the center have various outdoor games on them (i saw a connect 5 game), and judging by the "no alcohol beyond this point" signs, they serve beer somewhere.

I'm not sure if these are propane, wood or gas fireplaces, but they're just great for long face-to-face conversations with a group of people. I'll talk more about this in some future post, but i have a solo bonfire "smokeless fireplace" and i use it weekly with a group of people all winter long. Bonfires after dark are just a great environment, and if you're against digitally mediating all human interaction, you should figure out how to make a bonfire.

This site is apparently still under construction, but the shade structure in the center has some tinted corrugated materials. It's a fairly simple structure, and i imagine it's a pretty popular place to socialize on summer evenings. I may have to come back here this summer to see how things are at night.

Old st. Peter's landmark

Finally, we had a tour of old st. Peter's landmark, a former catholic church built in 1897. In the late 1960s, the parishioners of the church moved out, and a group of citizens got together and saved it from demolition. It's now a museum and still hosts weddings and various other events.

Of course, if you're going to bring a sky camera, it's worth examining the sculptures on the higher level more closely.

Inside, it's just a very, very beautiful church building. I have no idea what the original construction cost was, but it's pretty obvious that "cost was not an issue". It's an interesting contrast to our current church building, which was built around 1915 and is a very simple, utilitarian building.

There's a lot of very intricate marble work in front.

We just don't do structural columns like that anymore.

There's a decent organ in here, which unfortunately i didn't get to hear. I really like pipe organs.

The gospel writers each have their own corner on the dais.

I don't know where the images they used came from, but i'm assuming they weren't based on actual photographs...

And they have a beautiful set of stained glass windows.

Some depict scenes, some are just artistic patterns.

Once again, i miss the style of the old churches. Just a different way of looking at the world.

The dalles!

After two years of exploring the dalles, it seems like we've visited most of the interesting tourist spots. If anyone has any suggestions for next year, i'd love to hear them!"

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