That's the one!

Tom Bowdler said:

 

I believe we stayed at that KOA a couple of times when visiting Longwood Gardens.

Good Memories,

Tom

RT 162 outside of West Chester. Right next to the RR tracks. 

Thanks for the update.  Property in the Orbisonia area is really just a pipe dream. Ideally, we would find a really run-down shack that had water, electric and sewer. Tear down the shack and pour a concrete pad for an RV. maybe put up just a roof with no walls to park under. Nothing to maintain when we are not there except grass which could be cut by contract.  That dream was hatched long before kids moved to Denver and grand kids happened.

Enjoy your time at Finger Lakes. Had hoped to get out that way this year, but life is just too weird this year.

Ric,   Please say Hi to Roger and the gang at FLLS for me.  I ran on Roger's railway several times and set up my portable in his front yard.  My Catatonk Shay steamed well down to the lower part of his property then chugged up the hill but came to an abrupt halt when the "tunnel" under the step to his porch was too low for the Shay's stack height.

I believe we stayed at that KOA a couple of times when visiting Longwood Gardens.

Good Memories,

Tom

23 July, 2020 - Finger Lakes Live Steamers in upstate New York.  The official name of the closest village is Marengo, NY.  We sit between Clyde, NY and Lyons, NY, about 1 mile south of the New York Canal System (Erie Canal) if you want to look at the area on GPS.  Club tracks are visible to the satellites.  Had a chance to see the Neowise Comet with help from Roger Caiazza and a set of binoculars.  If you want to see a great picture of the comet, check out ''Pat Bonish Photography" from Cedar Key on Facebook.  The guy is a master with a camera and a good friend.  I've been working on a new boiler for the 7.25 Clishay.  Want to fire it with propane, instead of coal.  With our travels and my age, coal is just too much trouble.  Also working on a velocipede for the 1.5 scale tracks.  This is an interesting adventure.  Have been successful converting and running the Rail Buggy on 7.5, 7.25 and now 4.75 track.  Little bit of a high center of balance and a little bit like riding a motorcycle.  A trip around the track once is enough for my back, but fun.

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Big adventures have been operating on the Number 1 Gauge track.  Have run car cards/ waybills twice here at FLLS.  And twice at Roger Caiazza's home layout, "The Leatherstocking Route".   He has a garden railroad circling his back yard with 4 stations/switching locations.  Each is a complete swtching puzzle.  We operated one day with car cards, stopping at every other location, one day and then operating a second day running a "milk train" with a switching list as Roger and another MR operating the way freight.  On the milk train, you made a complete loop of the railroad between each switching location.  Both Car card/Waybills and Switchlists proved challenging and quite enjoyable.

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Last week we took a 4 day trip south to the "World of Ken Brunts" in extreme southern Pennsylvania.  Stayed in a nice KOA campground along the Brandywine.  Pretty, old communities on narrow roads.  Yep, getting there with the coach and getting back out was part of the adventure.  Operated on Ken's RGS railroad on Wednesday and that's when Dave Marconni delivered "the Evil Twins".   He had some relationship with a cat, that he was developing, and didn't stay very long.

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On that Thursday is when Ken and I made a pilgrimage to the EBT.  Lots of work being done in preparation for the 60th Anniversary of Tourist Operation on the weekend of August 15th.  Quite impressive.  Station is being repainted, switches in the yard are being tuned and re-ballasted and ties are being replaced on the 5 miles of track between Orbisonia and the picnic wye.  There are large bundles of new ties everywhere.  Easily 50 bundles, with around 25 ties in each bundle.  People working all over the area.  This is very promising.  There is a feeling of prosperity in the area, that wasn't there in the last 20 years of our visits.  New houses along the roads and a large lumber mill between Orbisonia and Mt. Union. 

Jan and I have never visited this time of year, lots of vegetation blocks your view of many locations where you could see the track in March and even October during the Fall Festival.  2 organizations working with the old trackage.  The East Broad Top Foundation in the Orbisonia area and the East Broad Top Preservation Association in the Mt. Union area.  Lots of signage up in the Mt. Union area trackage warning of trespassing and a white rail fence between the engine house, the bank and McDonald's parking lots.  Vegetation is so thick you wouldn't want to walk in the area anyway.  We did walk around Orbisonia Yard, but stayed well clear of workers.  No one challenged us and we had a nice conversation with the paint contractors at the station.  They were the same business that repainted the Bed and Breakfast, this last Spring, and it looks great.  

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Jon mentioned in another post about future plans.  There is a real nice cabin off 522 south of Orbisonia., that Jan and I dreamed over once.  This was back in the late 90's and retirement was just a dream and a wish of what we could/would do.  My dream then was to still to do the "circle route" of the Mississippi River System and the Intercoastal.  That also included upper New York and the Erie Canal.  Well, we explored the Erie Canal for 2 weeks in 1997 on an 18 foot sailboat and now we sit a mile off of it every Summer. 

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Amazing how this World turns.  Still walkin and talkin, as my friend from Long Island says.  Still self-isolating and we are very blessed.   

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3 July, 2020 - Finger Lakes Live Steamers, Marengo, New York - well this is proving to be about as weird of year as can be imagined.  On the Memorial Day Weekend, we did get to the Michigan Central Railroad in Metamora, Michigan.  No Ops, but a good time for a week.  And then back to Carlyle.   Yesterday, Jan and I arrived at the Finger Lakes Live Steamers.

Setup on this beautiful property in the heart of Amish Country there are few masks and social distancing is easy.  But if you want to work on your hobby, this is a pretty good place to endure this strange Summer.

I am making my own cream separate. Nothing more than a plastic jug with a tap on the very bottom. I did this with a iced tea jug thingy and worked great but the tap is too far off the bottom. So I am going to make my spigot on the very bottom. That way I should be able to get all the milk off leaving the cream. 

The raw milk ibam getting is from a certified dairy. My sister works at a feed mill and the dairy is a customer. Not sure what they have to go through to get certified but its 100% organic and raw. And is certified "clean" disease and pathogen free. In idaho at least it is available, we can even get it in the supermarket. 

That's awesome Devon!  Nice to hear you can get raw milk.  We raise miniature Nubians and are best goat gives us 1 gallon a day.  It's illegal here in RI to sell raw milk unless you say it's for making soap.  We just give ours away to family, friends and fellow employees.  Actually, we have so much that I end up pouring it on stumps (Calcium is an active ingredient in some of those stump rotting products).

Next level - CREAM SEPARATOR!

I want to play with goats milk. We had dairy goats as a kid. I grew up on goats milk and for the longest time had a hard time drinking cows milk, seemed weird and foreign. I know there are some very good goat cheeses.

I heard about cooking pasta with whey. Seemed odd but glad you reported on it. Might have to give it a try. And I just looked up the recipe for Gjetost. I will give that a try also. I see ricotta is a whey cheese too.

I have to say it has been really kinda rewarding seeing all the stuff I can make with milk. I mean I knew this stuff was made with milk but I am getting it all at once, which is great. Out of three gallons of raw milk I have made about a pound of butter, got about a gallon of buttermilk (which I have used to make biscuits from scratch and country gravy, added it to mash potatoes so far), I got about a pound of cheese, and 1 1/2 gallons of whey which has so far made the caramel sauce. And I still have lots of buttermilk and whey to go. So I am getting a lot of mileage out of 3 gallons of milk.

Very good Devon!   We raise dairy goats and have made many different cheeses as well as Dulce de leche (carmel sauce) and even paint!  Another cheese have made from whey is Gjetost.  It's a Norse cheese that has a peanut buttery carmel taste.   Also, we use whey instead of water to boil pasta.  The whey sticks to the spaghetti and gives it more "grip" to hold the sauce!

-Dan

So I decided to make my own cheese. My first attempt is white cheddar. Its white because I forgot to buy annatto which is the colorant that gives cheddar the orange color. But since it does not add any flavor I am running with it. So I made my own dutch style cheese press for pressing it. The picture of the cheese is after the first pressing which is 10# for 15 minutes. The next two pressings should really give it the compact block form (I hope). The second pressing is 40# for 12 hours and the third pressing is 50# for 24 hours. Then you air dry it for a couple days and then wax it and age it for 4-6 months (or longer) depending on how sharp you like it. Longer it ages the sharper it gets. I will set this aside for 6 months and then see what I get. Adjust for future batches.

As a byproduct of the process you produce a lot of whey. I ended up with 1 1/2 gallons of the stuff. Well I googled uses for it and one of the uses is making caramel. Thats one of my favorite things and I have made it with milk. But wasn't sure about whey. Its better than milk. It has an awesome flavor. 2 Qts of whey makes a little over a pint of caramel sauce.

I would think the cameras would have to be very rugged in addition!

Cameras in cars are normal these days, and now they’re showing up in RC vehicles too. Cameras come in different forms and types. RC cars deserve the kind that is tiny, possess a decent wide-angle, are flexible enough to cover different angles, and have night vision.

RC cars with an FPV camera

1. DEERC DE36W Remote Control Car with 720P HD FPV Camera
2. DeXop Newest 2.4Ghz 4WD Off-Road Remote Control Car with HD Camera
3. KOOWHEEL RC Car for Adults and Kids with FPV Camera HD 720P
4. Hobby-Ace Drift RC Vehicle with 0.3 MP FPV Camera

For more details, You can visit RC cars with an FPV camera.

   Greetings, Marwen, and welcome to LSC!

   What kind of trains do you run, and are you looking for cars that are compatible in scale and time/era ?

   I have a lot of 1940s, '50s, and '60s cars and trucks on my layout, 1:24 scale diecast (supposedly "collector" models, meaning more expensive), but none of them run around, so I can't hlep you, but I know there's plenty of guys here who can.

I love Remote Control toys. Such as the RC train, RC car, RC plane. I have 2 RC trains but there is no RC car at this moment. I want to buy RC cars with an FPV camera. Can any member suggest to me? Which RC car best for me? Please share the details.

This is the time of year when a bunch of warblers come through our area.   Caught a shot of this Scarlet Tanager over at Monticello Park in Alexandria last week.

We saw LOTS of neat warblers, but getting pictures is another issue entirely.

On our feeder, we get a steady supply of cardinals (I can't help but think of the males as flying tomatoes, their red contrasts so much with the background), gold finches, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and gray squirrels.  

Wow, great pics!

Same here. Biggest group is the golden finch((yellow) have a couple of dozen or more at a time on the feeders/ground.

We have had a pair of Baltimore Orioles hanging around ..eating suet and oranges .. Humming Birds , cat birds, gold finches , Cardinals  .. etc ...