Category Archives: Picture

Creation out of destruction

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Tree sculptures.  Just like the Gulf Coast folks who commissioned artists to carve the hurricane killed live oaks, inTruro they have 20 wonderful sculptures cut from elm trees.  Dutch elm disease struck Canada just as in the US and they have lost essentially all of their elms.  The artists melded local history with natural beauty to create some enjoyable work.  I think I like the eagles best but the lumberjack is fun too.  There is a nod to the Canadian First Nations People and Girl Guides too (their Girl Scouts).

Nature is indeed pretty cool.

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The Salmon River meanders, chocolaty brown between sharp edged banks and around low flat bars before it disappears around the bend out into Cabequid Bay to the Bay of Fundy.  20 or 30 people stand around waiting and watching.  Splooshes randomly get our attention as sections of the unstable silt banks dry and collapse.  Gulls and a few shore birds hang out in the still shallows.  It is a tranquil scene.

The tidal bore appears.  A wall of churning, silty, salt water is pushing upstream and creates a wall about a foot tall that spans the river.  The bore moves at about 8 miles and hour they say and currents collide and rejoin creating transient patches of whitewater and calm as it passes.  The event ends with the river 7 feet deeper and slowing upstream.  We wandered on to check out other things but the process just maintained its rhythm…quiet tranquil river heading out to sea alternating with churning chocolate colored rapids carrying life and sediment far back upriver.  We are going to check it out again tomorrow.

Campobello Island-FDR’s vacation spot

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It is an interesting US and Canadian partnership. The Island belongs to theCanadabut the US Parks system jointly manages it as the Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

FDR’s Summer Cottage

We got some clear sky so actually saw lighthouses and cliffsides.  Unfortunately no whales but a few ocean birds.  It was still a fun time.

There are huge net covered circular pools out in the bays…they are raising Atlantic Salmon. I wonder if they still get to call it wild salmon?

What a cool idea

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They put an observation deck in the top of the tower of the suspension bridge over the Penobscot narrows. We saw mountains 72 miles away. They had a full size display of a bridge section showing the structure too. Cool.
The Fort Knox (yes, just like the one in Kentucky…named after the same guy) Historic site includes a very good restoration of the fort that protected the narrows since the 1840s. It is one of the most fully restored forts we have visited and worth at least a quick visit.

Eight huge waterwheels

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Two of them are synchronized! We toured the restored Saugus Iron works. They harnessed the Saugus River to run really impressive equipment to produce wrought iron rod. The wheels powered bellows for the smelting furnace…two pours of 1000 pounds of iron a day and bellows in four reheating furnaces. A huge wheel and really impressive structure ran the “hammer”. A 500 pound drop hammer used to work the raw iron. Oh, the noise! even when it ran about quarter speed for the demo. Finally two synchronized water wheels ran a roller-splitter that thinned then pinch-sheared heavy rod into nail size strips. Unfortunately it doesn’t run any more but still a marvel to see such intricate timing and machinery driven with wooden shafts and gears and powered by water. Here, they claim, we are seeing the birth of the US steel industry. Great stop.

Check this out

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Here is what a foam cup looks like after a dive a couple miles deep. The scientists (must be a little bit of curious kid left in these folks) wrote notes to themselves on cups then hung them in a mesh bag on the outside of the sphere during their dive. It’s about the size of a thimble when they come back up.

Geek day

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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. We took the reservations only guided tour through their labs and across the institute’s docks. We saw Alvin, the manned deep sea submersible. Actually we saw the old one and the new one they are building. In March 2013 it begins diving trials with an ultimate goal of 21,000 feet. They do some impressive work from a really tiny space…maybe 6ft diameter sphere inside that houses 3 people. Can you say claustrophobic?