Archeology at Poplar Forest

Lots of folks might pass right by this, but I like discovering what reality was back then.  Interpretive signs tell of finding clues to slave diets:  Bones from opossum, rabbit, raccoon, white-tailed deer, squirrel and ground hog indicate that slaves hunted these animals for food.  Raccoons may also have been killed for their pelts.  Bones from fresh water fish suggest that residents spent some of their "free time" fishing.

Now, I have eaten rabbit and deer.  I've even shot at a 'coon eating my chicken's feed.  Granpa killed one climbing our White Georgia peach tree.  (Granpa truly does love his peach cobbler and homemade peach ice cream...)  Opossum are nasty, scary lookin' critters with jaws full of razor-sharp teeth.  I'd shoot one of them in a heart beat given the chance!  But these animals as steady diet?  I don't think so.


The signs also share which plants slaves (and probably all peoples then) used for medicines and food:  amaranth, carpetweek, dock, goosefoot, jimsonweed, knotweed/smartweed, pokeweed, purslane and verbena.  Today we haven't a clue what ANY of these plants even look like!  I'm guessin' we'd starve to death if someone took away our supermarkets...

During reconstruction a literal rats' nest was discovered.  Somehow they determined that the lil' rats started stealing items around 1846 and continued until the 1960's.  (Now, how did they figured THAT out???)  The neat thing about discovering a rats' nest is that normally decaying objects didn't decay.  But the rats stole anything and everything they could get their lil' paws on:

 










                             Newspapers                                                                             Corn cobs

Wooden items, bits of fabric, fruit and nuts. 

Rebuilding Poplar Forest

The basement and wing of Poplar Forest was for Jefferson's ever-necessary wine cellar, French-style  kitchen, and routine things such as laundry, servant quarters, etc.

All of the bricks were made on-site by hired men or slaves.  Because they were, Jefferson had bricks of three different shapes made so that he could achieve his perfectly octagon-shaped home.  Very, very few nails were used; it was mostly mortise and tenon construction where wood or timbers were used.

Subsequent owners removed the roof and added a second floor.  When it was finally claimed for history tourism, quite a bit had to be done to restore it to Jefferson's original plans - right down to the use of  old growth or "antique" wood and replicating the construction techniques.

An interpretive sign says, "Jefferson spent most of his life ordering and reordering glass from Europe and then Boston and Philadelphia."  If you consider the number of windows he had at Monticello and Poplar Forest it's easy to see why!  In June of 1819, a major hail storm broke out 77 panes of glass just here.  Naturally, the restoration required glass and they were faithful to use hand blown panes just like Jefferson would have used.



The walls of Poplar Forest were over a foot thick.  Jefferson had the window openings beveled so more sunlight entered the rooms.  I laid a brochure down at the standard 90 degree angle so you can see how much of an angle was used.

I wish I had thought of this in the building our log home.  The logs are 9" deep and then we have window trim, too.  The angle would have been nice as I have about as many windows for light as Jefferson did, but our glass is tinted for privacy.

Thomas Jefferson's Private Retreat

Monticello was well known.  People were constantly coming to visit.  Poor ol' Jefferson could hardly get anything done for all of the entertaining he did for "drop-in" guests - almost a moral requirement in the 17 and 1800's.  When he was a young man he inherited Poplar Forest plantation.  It was just a few days travel by carriage from Monticello.

In 1806 (the same year Lewis and Clark completed their famous exploration of Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase) Jefferson began construction on a small place at Poplar Forest. 

No, really, it was small - only 2 bedrooms, a dining room, study, and two small rooms that could be used for storage.  One of the other tourist wondered why only two bedrooms.  BECAUSE IT WAS A RETREAT!  About the only people Jefferson invited to Poplar forest were two granddaughters.

Jefferson retreated here for the purpose of solitude.  He studied his books, reflected on issues of the day, attended to correspondence with friends, to refresh and regroup his thoughts... 

Spring Flowers

Wisteria close to the farmhouse

Lilacs? Wisteria? at a sidewalk cafe in Petersburg, Virginia

I love Azaleas!

 

If you look very closely on the right side of the tree you will see PINK Dogwood blossoms.  This is not a case of two trees planted side by side.  After seeing this, we began to pay closer attention to all Dogwoods.  Surprise, surprise!  We found LOTS of these around Virginia.  We're thinkin' the two trees have been grafted together in order for this to happen.  Just thought we'd like to share pretty things with you!

John is such a good picture-taker!

American Goldfinches and Buzzards

The American Goldfinch is a fun little bird.  When he flies, he "bounces."  They're very acrobatic.  Their feathers are brightest in color in the Spring.  I wish the feeder would hold still, but the birds seem to think it's their very own playground and they to enjoy it.  Makes for difficult picture taking though...

We've seen buzzards drying out their wings on wet, dewy mornings before.  It's always fascinating to us to see them just sitting there, stock still, waiting for the sun and breeze to dry their wings before they try to take flight for the day.

Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Orion Capsules

Before the shuttles, there were capsules.  Now, think about it.  Someone comes to you and says that they're gonna strap you to some monster rockets, launch you into space, then let you drop like a rock thousands of feet back to earth and splash down in the ocean.  You might ask, what keeps me from sinking?  How about a flotation collar?  Alan Shepherd took on the challenge and was the first American in space.

Project Mercury ran from 1959 into 1963.  Think about the state of computers in that time frame.  What I get in a laptop now, they used entire floors for in the 60's.  No computer in this capsule, huh?


After that, in just two years, Project Gemini put ten manned  flights into space.  They were practice runs for landing on the moon:  orbital maneuvers, EVA's, rendezvous and dockings in order to return to earth.  The Gemini capsule was supposed to try out a paraglider wing for a more controlled re-entry landing.  It was an inflatable delta wing.
 

Notice the capsule in the background has wheels - all the better to roll to a sweet stop.  (The one in the foreground was for our understanding of what they looked like on the inside.)  There were too many technical difficulties to overcome in too short a time frame, so the concept never became operational.  Ultimately the paraglider wing took hold and was used for hang gliders.

The final capsule to evolve was the Apollo series.  Three astronauts died in Apollo 1 on the launch pad when the cabin caught on fire.  Apollo 13 was an amazing show of American ingenuity.  (You might remember a movie called "Apollo 13" with Tom Hanks.)  Ultimately the Apollo program would take three astronauts to the moon, with two of them actually walking (and playing golf) on the moon.

The Orion capsule being built by Lockheed Martin is part of the Constellation program began in 2005.  A test flight is scheduled for 2014 with the first manned mission to take place after 2020.  However, the Obama Administration's cancellation of the Constellation program was signed into law October 11, 2010.  The bill now moves the U.S. space exploration objective more toward a near-earth mission and an eventual Mars landing.

The Bark of the Dog-wood

No, really.  The "bark" of the Dogwood.

The name for the tree originated in Europe.  It had something to do with the bark being used to wash dogs. (I won't tell you why the dog needed washing.  That's my little secret.)  

But there is more to the Dogwood that just it's bark.  Back in the day everything medicinal was from nature.  Nowadays it's concocted in a laboratory using chemicals that mimic nature.  I'm not sure which is better for us - but I'll take whatever works!

Before quinine the bark of the Dogwood was used to control fever.  Two scruples of powdered Dogwood bark would treat colic, agues, and lots of other miseries.  (A "scruple" can be compared to an "iota."  My momma used to say I didn't have an iota of sense.  She also said, when I asked for some kind of treat at the store and I had a fit when she said no, Momma would look at me with one of those looks and say, "I don't care one iota," so I'm guessin' a scruple can't be very much, huh?)

Some folks think the name Dogwood came from "dagwood," dag being ancient language for meat skewer.  The Dogwood is exceptionally heavy, hard wood and would have been excellent as a skewer.  How hard is it?  Dogwood is so hard that it's been used as a wedge for splitting logs!

Dogwood is also important to the textile industry, because of it's hard, tough, resistance to abrasion: the more you wear on it the smoother it becomes without snagging threads.  The shuttle-cocks used for pulling yarns back and forth to weave textiles on looms are often made of dogwood.

Dogwood is also used in making golf clubs - definitely a need for hard heads there...

From Confederate Balloons to Tuskegee Airmen

During the Civil War both the Union and Confederate armies used hot air balloons for advance observation platforms.  (Refer to "Lee's Hill" post dated December 6, 2011)  Now I got to see what the Confederates made one of their balloons out of!  Dress silk!  They oiled the fabric (what a shame!) so that it would hold air better.

This fabric was used to construct a balloon that was used at the battle of Gaines Mill in Virginia.  Federal troops captured the balloon it in July, 1862.

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The Tuskegee Airmen was an air group that fought the Luftwaffe over Europe.  But while part of them were dog-fighting over there, the rest were battling segregation and racism over here!  That's right, the Tuskegee Airmen were black.  This particular plane:

was decommissioned from the Army in 1946 after having been used at Moton Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama as a trainer of primary flight skills.  It was then used for years as a crop duster before essentially being lost to history.  In 2005, Air Force Capt. Matt Quy and his wife, Tina, got their hands on it, named it The Spirit of Tuskegee, restored it, and took it to air shows all over the country to bring its history back to life.

In 2003 Congress established funding for the 19th Smithsonian museum:  the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  It will be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and is scheduled for completion in 2015.  The Spirit of Tuskegee will be moved there then.  The Quy's did an awesome job restoring this!

1,000 Years of Rockets!

 
The rocket probably originated in China 1,000 years ago.  The gunpowder rocket spread throughout Asia, then reached Europe by the late 1200s.  It served mainly as a firework or signal rocket, although Congreve, Hale, and other war rockets became widely used in the 1800's.


In the 1880s, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky of Russia realized that rockets could function in a vacuum and began formulating his theories of space rockets.  American Robert H. Goddard had similar ideas and undertook the first modern experiments.  He started with solid fuels in 1915, then switched to more powerful liquid fuels in 1921.  Goddard continued experimenting until his death in 1945.


Goddard established many firsts, but due to his secrecy, his actual influence upon modern rocket technology is questionable.  Other independent experimenters appeared in the 1930s and laid some groundwork.  However, modern rocket technology owes more to World War II developments -- especially Germany's V-2, the world's first large-scale, liquid-fuel rocket.


After the war, both the United States and Soviet Union developed large-scale rockets based on the V-2.  The Space Age began in 1957 with the launch of Russia's Sputnik 1, and since then rocketry has undergone enormous technological revolution including nuclear, electric, and other forms of rocket propulsion.

Nike-Cajun Sounding Rockets,

Regulus I Cruise Missiles, Nike-Ajax Missles, Orbital rockets, Titan rocket engines, Navaho rocket engines

And the always fun Rocket Man!!

There are hundreds more rockets and one-of-a-kind planes here.  Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, Virginia is an absolute MUST SEE for yourself!

Now, These Were Brave Men!

Can you imagine flying back then?  This was the world's first military plane:

It was 1908 and the Wright Brothers had been trying to get the military to buy a plane since 1905.  Finally, the Board of Ordnance and Fortification and the U.S. Signal Corps put specifications out for bid.  Cleverly, the specs were written in such a way that only the Wright Brothers could build it!  The contract was for a quantity of one, if it met all the flight tests, etc., for $25,000 plus a bonus if the aircraft exceeded speed and flight time.  It did, and the final cost to American taxpayers was $30,000.

During flight trials on September 18, 1908 there was a propeller malfunction, a crash, and the first fatality ever in an airplane.  Orville Wright was seriously injured in the accident, also, but as soon as he recovered, trials began again at Ft. Myer, Virginia.  The final test was a cross-country flight of 10 miles with a passenger. This flight also served as the official speed trial for the plane.  The specifications required a minimum of 40 mph; they averaged 42.5!  Mission accomplished!

The Army purchased it that year, used it to train pilots in the fall of 1909 and in 1910, then donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1911 after acquiring other aircraft.  Designated Signal Corps No. 1 by the Army, it is generally referred to as the Wright Military Flyer.  That means that the Smithsonian has had this airplane over 100 years!!  It certainly looks brand new to us!

Billy Mitchell followed as the famous World War I airman.  After the war, he was the one that convinced the military that naval vessels were dangerously susceptible to aerial attack.  He demonstrated this fact by leading a group of Army bombers to sink the captured German battleship Osfriesland.

Then, in May of 1927, Charles (Lucky Lindy) Lindbergh became the first person to fly around the world solo.  (Well, almost solo.  There was this fly that got trapped in the cockpit with him that he talked to and that helped to keep him awake!)  His plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, is on display in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.   Over the next five or six years, he made many more historic flights all over the world.  Lindbergh also flew fighter planes in World War II in the Pacific theater.

Robert Goddard invented and launched the first liquid fuel rocket in 1926.  In 1942 the German Messerschmitt became the first true operational jet plane.  But it wasn't until the Russian's launched Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 in 1961 that man flew the first spacecraft.  Just think:  in only fifty years we went from the first military plane barely able to lift off the ground and travel 10 miles to rocketing into orbit! Amazing!

More Planes

I am writing this blog to stay connected to our kids and grandkids.  If you don't want to see any more planes, don't look.  :-)  But, I'm guessin' y'all don't mind because we've had almost 7500 hits to our blog in the few months we've been publishing!

A Flying Wing

The first working "flying wing" design was by Northrup in 1941 for military use.  Fifteen B-35's delta wing bombers were built, three actually flew, but they had some "issues," so large production contracts went to Convair and planes with conventional fuselages.  Northrup later partnered with Grumman and in 1981 a military contract was awarded for their now-famous Stealth bomber.  It would take years of labor before actually taking flight, and it was the use of in-flight computers that made that possible.  It could carry as many bombs as the equally famous B-52, but it's design and high tech features made it very difficult for radar to detect.  There are currently 21 of the Stealth bombers in use today.

Pilots loved to decorate their planes.  Maybe your Uncle Bubba can fill in the blanks about some of these aircraft.

Being a woman I was attracted to the bling of this satellite: 

But we came to see the shuttles!!

NASMuseum

On approach, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum next to Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport is great architecture:

That hanger is huge beyond belief!  Housed inside is everything from the Goodyear blimp's gondola to the famous planes from World Wars I and II, the supersonic Concorde from Air France and the S.S. Discovery.  These are all the real deal, folks, not replicas, not 3/4 models.  It is really stunning stuff.

Parking was $15, but if you take a car full of people and entrance to the museum is free then it isn't too bad.  There is a nifty sculpture named Ascent in the parking area:

I love its simplicity and elegance.  The panels on either side of the walkway list the names of people who are dedicated to flight.  To me the panels resemble airport blast shields.

One of the first planes we see is the R-71A Blackbird.  What a cool plane!

The next plane is a Vought F4U-1D Corsair.  It's a cool plane; look at the dip in the wing just as it comes off of the fuselage.  The whole reason that was done was to allow ground clearance for the huge propeller.

By V-J Day (Victory in Japan Day), September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11 to 1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft.  That means they took out eleven enemy planes for every one loss of an Allied plane.  Even Charles (Lucky Lindy) Lindbergh flew one of these in bombing missions against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific!

We have family connections to the Vought:  our sons paternal grandfather worked at LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought).  He also worked on (and received an award for) the planning of DFW airport.  He was a pilot and owned three airplanes at one point.  One of my favorite stories is about his getting a sewing machine for his birthday one year, so when their grandmother's birthday rolled around he bought her one of those three airplanes!  That's what happens when people stay married for decades ... :-)

I think their maternal grandfather also worked for LTV (back in the 1940's), but he was working at General Dynamics in Fort Worth when he met my mom.

The Kawanishi N1K2-Ja Shiden Kai (nicknamed by the Allies, "George") was the best Japanese naval fighter produced in quantity during World War II.  This is one of only three remaining today.

Notice the size of the wing ABOVE "George"!  I think it is the wing of the Enola Gay:

She is the actual airplane that delivered the atomic bomb over Japan ending World War II in the Pacific.