Caught this little fellow outside the kitchen bay window this morning. He and his buddies are frequent visitors to our back yard where Jeanine sets out her own hummingbird nectar recipe. When things settle down a bit at work, I will endeavor to get a nicer photo rather than shooting through the window.

Jeanine requested a photo of this magnificent Cobb salad which I am posting a little delinquently with apologies. A lucky man is wise to know he is a lucky man.

It pleases me to no end that the kids have all developed into excellent photographers. The first two images are by Kyle and the third by Maya. Had Nico remembered his camera, I am sure he would have had some wonderful images as well.

Maya will be interning at MarkForged again this week. Today she was given her first design project. She was asked to create a machine for measuring the tension of our fiber extruder assembly and completed her design in one (long) day. It features a sled to which a digital force gauge is secured that slides along the length of an aluminum rail on one end and a registration and anchoring post for the device under test (obscured intentionally) on the other end. A fiber is passed through the extruder and clipped to the force gauge which is then pulled along the track while a maximum force reading is recorded. The design works very well and will be used extensively this week to test new extruder refinements. The magnetic clip may look funny but using it has greatly increased the speed of testing.

Pathetic is the only way to describe my soccer scrimmage this morning. It is incredible to me how much conditioning I have lost in the 4 weeks since my last game. Each year it seems to get harder and harder to maintain the level of fitness I need to be competitive.  Starting Monday, I need to start training seriously for the fall season.

I spent the afternoon editing video footage from our recent tidal bore rafting adventure on the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia.

Our return to the United States was by way of the Nova Star ferry into Portland, Maine through the Casco Bay. We were greeted by the Portland Headlight locate on Cape Elizabeth. The light station, completed in 1791, sits on a head of land at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor. It is the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. The light station is automated, and the tower, beacon, and foghorn are maintained by the United States Coast Guard, while the former lighthouse keepers’ house is a maritime museum within Fort Williams Park.  Running to the other side of the ferry, I had a chance to photograph Fort Georges and an abandoned light house.

Digby Neck is a peninsula extending into the Bay of Fundy. Along with Long Island and Brier Island, it forms the northwest shore of St. Mary’s Bay. On Long Island, we hiked the 1.5 mile trail and descended 235-steps to the viewing platform for Balancing Rock, a narrow 30 foot tall vertical column of basalt, balanced on its tip. It was only a matter of minutes before the kids figured out a way off the platform and up to the rock formation for a closer look. A second short ferry ride carried us to Brier Island where our exploration and another short hike took us to a seal colony on the Bay of Fundy side. Jeanine was hoping to find seals all vacation long and it was wonderful to satisfy that desire on our last full day in Nova Scotia. The colony included some two dozen seals with several pups.

On our return to Beaver Lake, we paused in Annapolis Royal. It was the French settlement of Port Royal (briefly Charlesfort) until the Conquest of Acadia in 1710 by Britain. The town was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for almost 150 years, until the founding of Halifax in 1749. It was attacked by the British six times before permanently changing hands after the Conquest of Acadia in 1710. Over the next fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital. Our tour of Fort Anne and its dry moats helped us to understand why it was able to resist so many attacks. Our visit to Annapolis also included a brief tour of North America’s only tidal power station and a visit to Ye Olde Town Pub, allegedly the smallest pub in Nova Scotia. Here we sampled Rapee Pie, quite possibly my new favorite food in the world.

Our new place is quite wonderful, located on Beaver Lake just outside the town of Meteghan River. The kids (led by Nicolai) opted for another round of golf while Jeanine and I did a little touring in the area.

We visited the lighthouse in Gilbert’s Cove and Église Sainte-Marie, a Catholic church in Church Point, the largest and tallest wooden building in North America. The church is exposed to the strong winds from St. Mary’s Bay, so 40 tons of stone ballast were used to stabilize the steeple, and canvas, rather than plaster, was used for the walls.

This morning we packed up all our gear and left the Atlantic coast destined for our second Airbnb on the Bay of Fundy coast. Along the way we paused briefly at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park where we enjoyed many encounters with the residents, a small sampling of which is shown here.

By midday, we reached South Maitland where we had reservations for a tidal bore rafting adventure. The greatest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy with an average spring range of 47.5 feet (vertical) and an extreme range of 53.5 feet. The tide rises so rapidly that it creates a wave, called a tidal bore, which travels against the current up the rivers which feed the bay. The bore is only a foot or two high but the interaction of the river current and the competing tidal current set up enormous standing waves which make for insane white water rafting. Our guide was a 16-year veteran of the river and maneuvered us expertly into the biggest water on the river. The boat was filled with water more often than not. I took more videos than photos but none do justice to the intensity of the waves.

Thoroughly exhausted after our two hour adventure, we drove to Wolfville where we had reservations at the Troy Restaurant, owned by a relative of Maya’s friend Maddie. There we celebrated Kyle’s 23rd birthday in style enjoying some of the best Mediterranean food I have ever sampled.

Everyone slept in this morning (we all stayed up late last night to complete a jigsaw puzzle) before setting out for the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market. It was nothing to write home about but did get us into the city where we walked along the waterfront and eventually jumped on to a Harbor Hopper tour (Halifax equivalent of a Boston Duck Boat). It was an equally informative and enjoyable tour which offered great views of the city from both land and sea. After lunch, the kids commandered the car so they could play a round of golf while Jeanine and I took a vigorous walk to nearby Gammon Lake.

After two full days on the move, the family opted for a “relaxing” day at the beach combined with lots of exercise. Jeanine started the day with a bike ride while Nico and Maya took the kayaks out for a spin at high tide. Kyle ran to the beach where a lot of soccer and Frisbee took place in addition to the occasional splash in the ocean. My exercise came in the form of chasing the kids around with a camera.

Our ferry docked in Yarmouth at 7am. After clearing customs we were directed by a local resident to the Grand Hotel for breakfast. With full bellies we worked our way up the southern shore with stops at Shelburne, Mahone Bay (for lunch), Lunenburg (home port of the Bluenose 2 sailing vessel), Blue Rocks (my favorite), and Peggy’s Cove. We reached Halifax in time for dinner at the Economy Shoe Box restaurant (gets an A for ambience but only a B for the food) after which we strolled down to the waterfront where we caught one good and one bad act of the Halifax International Busker Festival. Another 30 minutes of driving brought us to Lawrencetown where we are renting an Airbnb home for the next three nights. The place is right on the water and could not be more magnificent.

The Nova Star ferry operates between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia where the family is destined for a one week vacation. The 1-year old Nova Star measures 528 feet in length and has a 30,436 HP engine which propels the vessel along at 21 knots. The over-night voyage takes ll hours during which we spent most of the time sleeping in our cabin. In addition to accommodations for 711 passengers, the boat features a casino, several restaurants, a Karaoke bar, a piano bar, and an outside dance floor. While waiting to board the ferry the kids entertained themselves playing hacky sack. We set sail at about 8pm with a pilot boat escorting us out of the harbor past Fort Scammell on House Island.

To celebrate the achievement of several important milestones at work, I organized a team outing at F1 Boston, an indoor high-performance kart racing venue. After the finals, we gathered for a group photo. I raced a total of 40 laps, half of them in the final, and was totally spent by the time we finished. We retired to the billiards room where we enjoyed a light dinner, darts, and pool.

I received a complimentary copy of a thermal camera from a new company called Seek Thermal. It plugs into an iPhone and offers some extremely interesting photographic possibilities. I plan to put it through its paces over the coming weeks and share my feedback and images with the company.

I enjoyed a break from my normal responsibilities at work to do a photo shoot on location with one of our customers today. The images will be used for an online case study being prepared by our marketing folks. With no prior notice, I had to make do without any lighting equipment which I would have normally used for such an assignment. Because our customer was working in an open office, I had no opportunity to stage the environment which further limited my shooting options. I made the best of the situation and am pleased with this hero shot of our printer in which I used a slow shutter speed to get good exposure on the computer screen where our Eiger software is running and to create motion blur on the user for a sense of motion and activity. In the future I may have to carry my lighting gear with me at all times so that I am not constrained by available light should I get another last-minute request for photos.

I hesitated to publish this photo of Will earlier but have decided it is too cute to stay hidden on my computer, possibly never to be seen again. Subject to an objection from his mother, it will remain here for eternity.

What better gift to give a newlywed couple than a bicycle built for two? Such was the choice of the best man at Sarah’s wedding last weekend. My board presentation, held at the offices of Matrix Partners, one of our A-round investors, went well but the meeting consumed much of the day and once again I found myself without time for new photos.

With my first MarkForged board of directors presentation tomorrow, I had no time for photography today. This picture was taken during my weekend flight to Indianapolis in the vicinity of Newark Airport where I had a connection.

Jeanine’s niece Erica lives just outside of Louisville, Kentucky where we drove this morning to visit her, husband Nick and their kids, Lilly and Will. Jeanine stayed for another day while I flew back to Boston.

Jeanine and I flew to Indianapolis where she was born and we lived together for almost 20 years to attend the wedding of Sara Parker and John Thoe. Sara’s mother, Becky, was my administrative assistant and office manager at Truevision, the company I co-founded. I have known Sara since she was 7 years old, watching her grow from an effervescent little girl to a radiant woman.

In total there were four Truevision alumni at the wedding including Becky, Brian Thome, and Valerie.

While in town we stayed with Jeanine’s sister and brother-in-law, Lauren and Bob, and had a chance to visit with her nephews Luke and Gabriel (pictured below with his son Bradley on his back).

Because this post is being created in the future, I have the option to use a photo that has not yet been taken. This is a photo of a meal I will enjoy two days from now while visiting with Jeanine’s niece, Erica in Kentucky. I was just too busy with work for any new photos today.

Day three for Maya at MarkForged saw her operating our huge Haas CNC milling machine. Programming was done by our engineers and her job was to load material, start the machining process and unload the completed parts. The smile on her face the first time she started the mill (which hums like a jet engine when running) was priceless. I had an equally satisfying day as I met with a vendor who has a component that will work nicely for a design I have in mind, got promising results on a new carbon fiber line I am experimenting with, interviewed a couple of potentially interesting ME candidates, and visited one of two sites which are in the running for our new office.

On her second day of interning, Maya graduated from soldering and crimping to 3D CAD design and printing. The CEO gave her a photo of a retention clip used by one of our customers to keep the fiber from jumping off our dispensing spools. Maya took it from there. She made measurements of the spool, used OnShape (a program she had begun teaching herself only yesterday) to complete the design, and Eiger (our software) to prepare the part for printing. By the end of the day she had designed and manufactured her first part and it worked perfectly.

Maya started an engineering technician internship at MarkForged today. She was immediately productive, spending most of the day making cable assemblies (crimping connector pins to wires and soldering connections). She worked for 12 hours on her first day, demonstrating that she could keep up with anyone in the shop. I could not be more happy. Even though she worked ten feet from my desk, I was also very busy and barely had five minutes to check in with her. Our two hour round trip commute, however, gave as plenty of time to chat and compare notes. Did I mention how happy this makes me? More importantly, I think Maya had a great time and even better learning experience.

This evening I taught Maya how to solder. Pictured here is one of her practice assignments. She starts an internship at MarkForged tomorrow which requires this skill. As with anything that involves great manual dexterity and attention to detail, Maya was a natural, producing perfect solder joints from her first attempt.

There is something intensely satisfying about eating food that was grown down the street. We are very fortunate to live near Verrill Farm where we are members of their CSA. I stopped in today for lunch after an exhausting soccer workout in the blazing sun and high heat. I managed 5 goals in the small-sided scrimmage including the game winner. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on a document describing my initial impressions of MarkForged after one month on the job. It will be part of a read-ahead package for the Board of Directors that needs to go out next week and I am glad to have it completed ahead of time.

Nico returned late this evening from Georgia where he spent the last three days at a speaking engagement for Camp Coleman, a program of the Union for Reform Judaism, serving campers from the Southeast United States.  In addition to sharing his personal story he played soccer with the kids in each of the eight sessions he conducted. He looks exhausted but his main complaint was that he did not bring a soccer cleat with him.

I hope to augment this post with a picture of him at the camp which he is presently trying to obtain.

On the opposite coast, Kyle has been offered an internship with Decker and Co, a leading Asian emerging and frontier specialist broker. He is seriously considering the offer but has not made a final decision yet.

Maya returned this evening from her near 3 week adventure in France near the border with Italy. She was there with her friends, Sarrinagh and Emma and Emma’s family. Her exploits included paragliding, class 5 white water rafting, hiking in the Alps, and sampling the fine local cuisine. She returned with a treasure trove of photos a few of which are featured here today.

Having taken Monday as a vacation day and been on the road for two more, I found myself crushed by work upon return to the office. I arrived home at 2am this morning, was in the office by 10 am and worked passed midnight. No time for pictures today so here is another from South Dakota.

Our business meeting this morning wrapped up by 10:30am giving my colleagues and I a few hours more for exploration before our afternoon flight. We visited Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park only to find all tours fully booked. We did come across a heard of bison and had a chance to enjoy lunch/dinner at the Purple Pie Place which also featured exceptional ice cream.