Missing from our patio is a small table where one might enjoy a morning coffee, dining with a friend, or working on a laptop. Jeanine and I selected the pictured metal base which arrived yesterday. We are still deciding on a natural stone or live-edge wood top. Our plan was for a 28″ diameter top but after making a cardboard mockup at that dimension we have decided that a 30″ or 32″ top will work better. Thus far, however, we have had little success locating a suitable candidate.
It never ceases to amaze me how many varieties of mushrooms there are. Pictured above is one I discovered at the Road House. The top half looks like a pie you might find in a fancy restaurant.
I have a low tolerance for tools that irritate me. When it comes to sucking up dust, my shop vac is among the best available. Even so, I hate using it because the power cord is a pain in the ass. There is no place to stow it on the machine and it is very inflexible. This morning, I decided to address both shortcomings. I replaced the power cord with a very pliable one and fixed a cord caddy to the side of the vacuum. One hour of work transformed this machine into one I will enjoy using for the rest of my life. While I was at it, I decided to upgrade the mobility base for my combination sanding machine. When I originally built it, I decided on two fixed caster and one pivoting caster. The arrangement worked but the base was not as stable as I would like. I decided to add an additional pivoting caster and to reposition the exisitng one. Another good investment of an hour.
Since completing her book, Jeanine no longer participates in the writer’s group of which she was a member for many years. She was thrilled to be invited to a party to celebrate the 90th birthday of one member and the 70th of another. To resolve a scheduling conflict, she offered to have the party at our house. I was evicted for the evening and decided to have dinner at a sports bar where I watched coverage of the Olympics.
Pictured below is the same group celebrating a birthday in our Mattison Dr. home back in 2017.
Kyle hosted a barbecue for Erica and Lily on the last day of their visit to Massachusetts. We enjoyed several rounds of bocce, the newly introduced Olympic sport of boyfriend lifting, and a tour of his patio project that is rapidly approaching completion. Tomorrow, they leave for Vermont where they will spend several days visiting with Jeanine’s sister, Susan.
With Maya as her coach, Lily made her first kayak excursion this evening. Within a few minutes, she looked like a duck in water. Earlier in the day, Lily and her mom were the guests of our neighbor Dave who gave them a floating tour of Fairhaven Bay aboard his small electric-powered boat. Unfortunately, the battery died and he had to row back to shore. Despite the setback, the group got to see two bald eagles during their outing.
At the request of a neighbor, I have joined a project to map the location of water chestnuts along our stretch of the river. Water chestnuts are an invasive species that grows among the water lilies that line the river banks. The originator of the project hopes to use AI to analyze aerial photos to delineate where the water chestnuts are. I offered to provide the aerial photographs. Pictured below is a low-resolution panorama of a partial segment of the river that I stitched together from several images. The map below identifies the path of my drone flight and the location where the images were captured. It remains to be seen if the goals of the project can be achieved and I will certainly report on the outcome in a future post.
Our visit to the Museum of Science today started with a showdown between Erica and one of the resident felines. I enjoyed resting in a perfect-sized chair while exploring an exhibit on perspective. The Electricity Theater was a big hit with Lily as were the interactive exhibits. I have been to the MoS many times and always look forward to discovering what’s new. On this visit, I was pleased to see an iRobot Roomba within the artificial intelligence exhibit as well as a robotic dog created by Boston Dynamics.
Erica, Jeanine’s niece, and her daughter Lily are visiting us for the next few days. Lily (just turned eleven) enjoys building things and making jewelry. I thought building a jewelry box would be fun for us to do together. Like Maya, she has an engineering-oriented brain and was quick to learn how to safely use the miter saw and table saw. Over the course of an hour, she was able to complete the box sides and apply a water-based finish to the top. We will be ready to begin assembly during our next work session.
This pair of damselflies elected to use the outside of my office window as a mating site. If not for the yummy dinner waiting for me, I would have set up my tripod and done a better job of lighting the backlit scene. I have a feeling, that this will not be the last time I get such an opportunity.
It is always exciting when we get a new first time visitor at the River House. The Muscovy duck is a large, domesticated waterfowl native to Central and South America. It is known for its distinctive red facial caruncles (fleshy protuberances), which are more pronounced in males. Muscovy ducks have a unique appearance, with glossy black plumage that can exhibit iridescent green and purple hues. They are generally quieter than other duck species, producing a soft hiss instead of quacking. Muscovy ducks are hardy birds, well-adapted to a variety of environments, and are often kept for their meat, eggs, and as pest controllers in gardens and farms. This morning one was perched on a log right in front of the house and was most cooperative as I moved down to the bank to photograph him.
Noddle’s Island was historically one of the Boston Harbor Islands. Most of the original land of Noddle’s Island now makes up the southern part of the neighborhood of East Boston; it is now part of the mainland since the strait connecting Noddle’s Island to Hog Island and that connecting Hog Island to the mainland city of Revere was filled in the early 20th century. The original contours of Noddle’s Island were also greatly obscured by the 20th-century construction of Logan International Airport, which filled the tidal flats between Noddle’s Island and Governor’s, Bird, and Apple islands to its east.
After another morning spent spreading wood chips, Jeanine and I scouted the Sailing Center at Pier’s Point where we encountered the above-pictured pavillion. When we walked out to the end of the pier we were treated to a commanding view of the Boston skyline which now includes the 600 foot tall One Congress Street building, the new global headquarters for State Street.
During the construction of our new house, I needed a way to shuttle my tools and parts to and from the job site. The pictured stack of portable toolboxes and parts organizers was the perfect solution and served me well. Now that I am fully ensconced in my new shop, these have just been collecting dust and I listed them for sale this afternoon.
For the second day, Jeanine and I worked on spreading wood chips around the house. Although not very glamorous work, it is a good exercise. Despite hours at the task, the pile of chips does not seem to be shrinking and we have two others just like it elsewhere on our property, the donated remnants of tree work done by our neighbors.
For the second time in as many days, the Concord Bridge used one of my aerial photos in their reporting. Pictured above is the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Concord. Earlier this year the last inmates were transferred out making way for the sale of the complex by the state. The future use of the site is up in the air and will no doubt be the source of much debate within the town.
Earlier this week, I was asked by the Managing Editor of the Concord Bridge if I would take aerial photographs of various places in town for the paper. I agreed, starting with the Concord-MCI prison for an upcoming article on the future of the now-decommissioned facility. Other locations on the list included Walden Pond and Warner Pond. Tragically, there was a drowning at Walden yesterday, and I was asked to provide the images I had shot the day before, one of which appears above.
Moments after sharing my photos I found two of them included in this posting on the Concord Bridge website.