Campfire Starters

     I'm always on the lookout for ways to turn trash into useful items.  I recently made campfire starters out of some old, faded cupcake papers, cotton yarn, woodshavings, and candle wax.

I found these faded pastel cupcake papers deep in the pantry.  

I also found two small balls of cotton yarn.  Cotton is great for making wicks.  Don't use synthetic yarn because it will melt instead of burning.  I laid cotton strands in the empty cupcake papers.  I experimented with the wicks, placing some across the cups so that there were two wicks - one on each side.  I also coiled the strands in the bottom of some of the cups and centered those wicks.  It took more time to fill the cups with the centered wicks, but the finished product was prettier. 

I filled some wide mouth jars with candle wax.  I had a block of wax from a candle making project.  This was a great way to get rid of the leftover wax.  It is even better to save old candle stubs for making campfire starters.  I placed my jars of wax in a pot of hot water that was simmering just below the boiling point.  It takes a while to melt the wax and you shouldn't walk away from it while it's heating on the stove.

I filled the cupcake papers with wood shavings.  Then I poured melted wax over the shavings until the wax reached the top.  I let this sit overnight to dry. 

They look almost good enough to eat.

     These fire starters worked like a charm, unlike crumbled newspaper that may or may not burn long enough to allow larger pieces of wood to catch fire.
     There are other ways to make campfire starters.  The finished product might not be as cute, but it functions just as well.  You can replace wood shavings with dryer lint, sawdust, shredded paper, or some combination of these things.  Instead of cupcake papers, you can make the starters in the cups of a paper egg carton.  If you use an egg carton, place a barrier under the carton before filling the cups with melted wax so you don't get oily stains on the underlying surface.  Once the wax cools, cut the egg cups apart. If you use egg cartons, there is no need for wicks.  Just light the paper edges.
     I made my campfire starters inside.  I was very, very careful, and I did not make a mess.  However, accidents happen.  Working outside or in a garage, using a hot plate rather than the kitchen stove, would be ideal.  If you drip a little wax or make an oily stain, it won't be the end of the world if it happens on the garage floor or the picnic table.  Dedicating an old pot for the task is also a good idea.    
   
           

Woodturning in Hainesport

     It seems I always want something a little bit different.  Recently, I desired a grouping of wooden candle sticks in a mid-century modern design.  I found some for sale here and there, but nothing that satisfied my "vision."  That's when I started looking for a local woodturner who could make exactly what I wanted.  Imagine my delight at finding that woodturner, Philip Hauser, right here in Hainesport.
     Phil began woodturning thirty years ago when his wife gave him the gift of a two day woodturning course.  He is an officer of the DelVal Turners, and he hosts a monthly hands on workshop at his home.  He'll display his work at the Hagley Craft Fair on October 14th and 15th in Wilmington, Delaware.  https://www.hagley.org/

Posing by his lathe, Phil cautioned that safety gear is a must.  He wears a full face shield when the lathe is spinning.

These are just some of the tools that might be used for a project.  

Phil explained that the wood decides what you will create.  This bowl retained the bark edge while the bark on another bowl made from the same piece of wood crumbled away.

This sphere from an unknown species of wood has particularly interesting graining because it came from the crotch of a tree.  I think it looks like weather patterns swirling around Earth.

Making a bowl is a two part process.  First, you make a rough shape like these bowls on the top shelf.  Then you let it dry.  As it dries, it will go out of round.  After drying, the bowl is turned again to refine the shape.

These are my candlesticks.  I'm thrilled with them.

     The DelVal Turners meet on the second Tuesday of each month at The Friend's School, 110 East Main Street, Moorestown, New Jersey.  Meetings are held in the school's wood shop and start at 7:00 p.m.  Here's a link to the DelVal Turners' web site:  https://www.delvalturners.com/        
     The DelVal Turners' site contains a gallery of some of Phil's work:  https://www.delvalturners.com/members-galleries/philhauser/    

Turkey Vulture or Black Vulture?

     Sometimes people call them buzzards, but the big, black birds you see feeding on roadkill are vultures.  New Jersey is home to the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture.  Black Vultures, primarily a southern bird, are less common.
     The Black Vulture is a little smaller than the Turkey Vulture.  As the name indicates, it is black in color with white patches on the wings that are only visible when the wings are open.  The Turkey vulture has a black head when young and a red head when mature.  Turkey vultures like Black Vultures are easier to identify when they have their wings open.  The two birds also have different habits when they fly.
     Mike and I were out riding our bicycles when we saw a vulture sitting on the peak of a house.  It was searching for it's next meal.  Vultures are classified as birds of prey, but they rarely hunt and kill their food.  They prefer to find something that is already dead, then feast on the carcass.

Here's our guy on the roof of the house.  I think he's looking for lunch.

Look left.

Look right.

The bird's head is black.  Since the bird is not in flight, identification is difficult.  It could be a young Turkey Vulture whose head had not changed from black to red.  It could also be a Black Vulture.      

    

     This guy stayed on the roof for a long time.  We watched him for at least one hour.  We have been back every day since, but we have not seen our creepy friend.

Ecomuseum of Alsace (Écomusée d' Alsace)

     The Ecomuseum of Alsace, located in Ungersheim, France, is a living museum.  Many French rural homes, some dating from the 15th century, were deconstructed, moved to a plot of donated land, and reconstructed in the early 1980s.  The museum opened in 1984.  Over the years, the homes have been furnished with donations from Alsatian families.  Today the village features homes, farm buildings, shops, a school, a fortified tower, and gardens and fields.  It's a fun way to learn history, and you can touch everything.

This home was originally owned by the Gougenheim family of Kochersberg.  In 1890, it was occupied by the Vogler family.  It was dismantled in 1989 and moved to the Ecomuseum where it was outfitted as the village barber shop.

Hair Washing Stations

This complex came from Illkirch-Graffenstaden.  There are three parts - the house, a piggery, and a barn.  The house was built in 1804.  The barn that houses the blacksmith's shop was built in 1844.

The blacksmith is hard at work.

These ceramic stoves produced a moderate heat and stayed hot for a long time.  People who had this type of stove did not have to wake up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire.  The stove temperature was low enough to allow the family to sit on it.

The basement store room contained wine, oil, root vegetables, and crocks of preserved foods.

Most communities had a public oven for baking bread.  The housewife made her loaves and took them to the oven for baking.  In Alsace, however, each home had a bread oven.  The oven is in the wall, over the green shelves.

The bread oven protrudes out the back of the house.

Each stove had a reservoir which held hot water.  This was a mini-water heater.    

This barn came from Hirtzbach.  The part in the front that juts out and has lots of small doors with dots (looks like dominoes) is a pigeon loft.  This section of the building came from Oberhergheim.  Pigeons are good eating.  My grandmother made squab soup (soup made from baby pigeons), and it was delicious.

The inside of the red barn holds a collection of farm equipment.

This is an apiary.

These straw hives are called skeps.  They were invented somewhere between 800 and 1200 A.D.  Today we use the Langstroth box hive.  You have to destroy a skep to get the honey out of it.  A box hive can easily be opened for health inspections, and the box and some of the internal parts of the hive are used over and over and over.

My cousin told me the taller the haystack, the wealthier the farmer.  I think this farmer might not have had such a good year. 

This is how a one room school would have been set up.

Alsatians used walnut, rape (AKA canola), sunflower, and olive oil.  We learned about the milling process.

This gentleman presented a wealth of information about the four types of oil.

"Back in the day" the bath tub was in the kitchen.  The towel hung over this tub is embroidered with the advice, "Wash often in cold water to remain healthy and grow old."  I'll take my bath in hot water, thank you.

You can rent a place to stay over night at the Ecomuseum.  Since they have a restaurant with good food and plenty of wine and beer, I would be game for that. 

Hansi

     Jean-Jaques Waltz (1873-1951), also known as Hansi (Little John), was an artist and political activist.  He worked as an illustrator, creating charming drawings of Alsatian life.  

     In 1908, taking a pro-French stance against German control of Alsace, he published satiric cartoons which poked fun at Germans.  He used the psuedonym "Hansi."  His political activism eventually lead to arrest and a year long jail sentence in 1914.  He escaped from German controlled Alsace and joined the French army during World War I.  

     He was again targeted by the Germans during World War II.  He lived in Vichy France, a free zone not occupied by Germany.  The Nazis came after him, beat him, and left him for dead; however, he did not die, and he managed to escape to Switzerland for the remainder of the war.

     Jean-Jacques Waltz was a hero who was decorated in both World Wars.  In the case of Hansi, a paint brush and water colors turned out to be mightier than the sword.   

This is the Hansi museum in Colmar.  There is another Hansi museum in Riquewihr, France.

This candy shop in Riquewihr packages their sweets in tins decorated with Hansi's illustrations.

My French relatives sent this tray to my mother in the late 1940s or 1950s.  If this is not a reproduction of a Hansi drawing, then it is done in his style.  My mother kept this tray on her bedroom dresser for the rest of her life. 

More of Colmar, France

This is the House of Heads named for the 106 heads that decorate the façade.  It was built in 1609.

Lots of heads ...

... but none of them bite.

L'ancien corps de garde, the old police station, was built in 1575.  The loggia was used for swearing in officials or to pronounce sentences.

This guy popped out to see what's happening in the street below.

The Covered Market was built in 1865.

This was the cleanest, most attractive market I have ever seen.

There are lots of different stories about the origin of pretzels, but none can really be verified.  All I need to know is that they taste good.

Shops are elaborately decorated.

It seems every town has a boat ride.  This trip in the Little Venice area of the Lauch River was quite nice.    

What do six mature adults do when they see themselves reflected in the mirrored front of a building?  Why, they giggle and wave and take pictures of their reflection, of course.