A FALL CRITTER--

I found this caterpillar on a fallen branch while both of us were meandering along the driveway today.  The lens on my camera was my Canon 17-40 mm, f/4 L, my usual walking-around lens.  To do the photo I set the lens at minimum focus distance and maximum focal length on the automatic mode then simply held the little branch in front of the lens and moved it about until I found the composition I liked.

I positioned myself so this happened with the critter back lit by the early afternoon sun and a dark woods in the background.  The shutter speed was 1/200th of a second and the aperture was f/8.  That shutter speed was sufficient to stop any blur from either the critter or the camera moving and the aperture was small enough to give sufficient depth of field to keep the critter in focus while obscuring the background detail.

The odd shaped white lines in its fur are evidently from a piece of stray, weedy fuzz.

The little caterpillar was virtually motionless during its portrait episode.  No matter how hard I looked I could not find its head as it appeared to be climbing the small branch.  When we were done I laid the branch in the shady weeds with an expression of appreciation for its cooperation.

That's when I noticed its direction of travel was to the left.

Unless it was backing up, that would put its head on the end opposite where I was looking, of course.

MACHINES OF WAR--
As treasured collectibles

The proud owner of this portable, 700+mm missile (above) regaled me with minute details of his treasure.  "It had a range in excess of 20 miles and even had nuclear capability--but never was used in that role,"  he continued.

Value?  He wasn't sure But, after pondering my question he was able to account for more than $40,000 invested in its purchase and restoration.  If I add sweat equity it's probably worth more than $60,000" he thought.

I wondered if his wife knew this.

The show had other vehicles from the popular deuce and a halfs (2 and 1/2 ton trucks) to an armored personnel carrier to a track driven missile loader to an outstanding, military version of a dune buggy on display at this, their third annual event at the Planktown Hardware near Shiloh one recent weekend.

It was fun to wander around the vendor tables and ponder current uses for some of the displayed paraphernalia.  I could visualize a .30 caliber machine gun mounted on the tripod (right) while it sat in a woods in front of a fairly desperate squirrel hunter.

Or, how about the mag or grenade pouch pictured below the tripod?  "Mag" stands for magazines, for your 30-06 M-1 Garand, rabbit rifle perhaps.

Can you envision a current use for a supply of grenades in that same pouch?

I watched one hobbyist fiddle with his lurching, WW-II missile transporter-loader.  It evidently was balking at the taste of modern day fuel.

The show was put on by Ohio Motorpool, Inc., a group of fellows from around Ohio who enjoy the hobby of collecting, operating (sometimes) and displaying old military equipment.

It reminded me of a bass fishing expedition in Quebec, Canada a dozen years or so ago.  One of my fellow fishermen specialized in vintage, military radio equipment.  I was a short-wave radio listening enthusiast then so I enjoyed helping him assemble his rig including an hour or so heaving his long, wire antenna over some challengingly tall trees.

That night, with a cooperative ionosphere, he was able to coax his signal to another vintage equipment pal located in the mountains of Colorado--who was then talking to a mutual friend in south Florida.

I had hoped to tell you more about this show but the vice president of the group who lives just a couple of miles from me failed to show up for an interview.

Kinda reminds me of my hypothesis about today's standard of excellence being mediocrity.

That's lady friend Sue Brooks taking a peek at a marvelously restored military "dune buggy" for lack of an official name.  Wouldn't my inept friend, the vice president of the group, be surprised if I showed up at his house in this thing to encourage him to explain why he did not show up for this story!

General James Hedges; 6th in series

OHIO'S HISTORICAL MARKERS
Richland County

To take a close peek at today's historical marker you will have to enter the parking lot of Mansfield's Masonic Temple on Middle-Bellville Rd., and drive around to the west side of the building.  The marker is very close to the building, just north of the main entrance.

To find information on Gen. James Hedges, you will have to work harder than that.  Since I have been doing research on-line, I never have encountered a subject with less information available.

From the marker itself, you will learn Hedges arrived in Ohio in 1803 and worked as a deputy (US) surveyor in Richland and surrounding counties.  He wound up owning 19,000 acres in Richland county and became one of the city's founding fathers in 1808.

In 1811 he had the privilege of naming the first male child born in Mansfield.  The name given was Mansfield Hedges Gilkison.

In the book "A Pioneer History of Richland County Ohio" General Roeliff Brinkerhoff says, "In the early part of the summer of 1809, the father of the writer drove the first team into the town of Mansfield.  A party consisting of himself and family, Capt. James Hedges (afterwards known as Gen. Hedges)...and Johnny Appleseed dined on the public square....This was the commencement of the city of Mansfield."

The square then was a field of stumps remaining from recently cleared trees and a blockhouse.

The marker goes on to explain "Hedges served in the War of 1812....In February 1818 he obtained the Deposition for Mansfield Lodge #35, Free and Accepted Masons" which explains the location of this historical marker.

Hedges died in 1854 from rheumatism and was buried July 4th in the Mansfield Cemetery.

BOOK REPORTS--

American Tempest by Harlow Giles Unger

Sub-titled, "How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution", Unger's book will have you feeling like you are walking the streets of Boston in the mid 1700s.  It is a marvelously crafted portrayal of life in those years leading up to the Declaration of Independence.  You will learn there were many "tea parties".  You will feel like you are peeking over the shoulder of John Hancock or Ben Franklin or Paul Revere and their colleagues who incubated the birth of our nation.  This should be required reading for all students, in fact, all US citizens.


The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille

Another outstanding novel by a favorite author.  The daughter in the title is the lead character; a vixen with a nuclear powered libido whose escapades involve a host of fellow officers at her Georgia army fort.  Eventually she is murdered and the heroes of the story, two military cops with the Army's elite undercover investigative unit, are embroiled in a whopper of a whodunit.  It's a hard-to-put-down read with a happy ending.  Thank you Mr. DeMille.


For the Love of Physics by Walter Lewin

Yup, this one is about "physics" the scientific, not the anatomical kind.  Dr. Lewin has been a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for more than 31 years and is the kind of teacher we all should dream about.  A photo on his book's cover is perfect; showing him swinging somewhat capsized in front of his classroom doing a very personal demonstration of a pendulum--and, in the process, teaching us about gravity and Newton's laws of motion.  Horray for Dr. Lewin and all teachers like him who bring passion to the learning process.

A Time for Patriots by Dale Brown

This story lands somewhere between being a primer for Civil Air Patrol cadets and a rewrite of a 1940s era script for a Sky King radio show with bushels of fictional, war fighting appliances.  Nevertheless, it was a quick read for the brain candy it mimicked.

FUNERAL HOME and TANK--

Follow up

We drove by the site of yesterday's story on the tank in the front yard of the funeral home and...

...the tank was gone!

I began to have visions of the blog's "Pen" being "Mightier than the sword."

But, that would be a stretch.

It turns out--between the time the photo was taken and the blog story was published (maybe two weeks), the tank was moved to a veteran's post in Ontario.

A FUNERAL HOME
and a tank!

For some reason I found the above scene humorous, although, the operation of one could lead to the need for the other--and, that would not be humorous at all.

This scene exists on the east side of Mansfield where that town's largest American Legion post went out of business awhile back.

Sometime later, a funeral home moved into the site.

I'm sure the funeral home folks wrestled with the very obvious question, "What DO you do with that multi-ton tank in the front yard?"

Even though it still is wearing its desert camouflage paint job, it is quite obvious to most passers-by.

I could think of several very effective solutions for use of the tank when I pondered the craziness often experienced in vehicle traffic.

Can you imagine swinging the tank's main gun around to the rear when you are experiencing one of those insane tailgaters?

Just joking, of course....

Hemlock Falls; 5th in series

OHIO'S HISTORICAL MARKERS
Richland County

Speaking of historical, the Black Hand Sandstone underlying Hemlock Falls dates to the geologic, Mississippian Period of some 350 million years ago.

About 200 million years ago a river known as the Groveport flowed from the Appalachian Mountains through here and turned south in what we now know as the Bunker Hill valley, passing the present locations of Butler and Fredericktown to join the pre-glacial Teays River.

The Illinoian Glacier blocked the Groveport about 150,000 years ago and a new riverbed was formed; known today as the Clear Fork.  Waters you see flowing over Hemlock Falls today are tributary to the Clear Fork and ultimately travel down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.

The feeder stream that feeds Hemlock Falls today splits in the forest above and forms two falls; one about 60 feet tall and the other nearly 100 feet.  Views of both falls are quite accessible by a moderate hike from the Mohican Outdoor School which owns the falls property.  You can contact them at 5370 Bunker Hill Rd., Butler to arrange your visit.

The above photo reflects the scene you will see as you proceed northbound on Bunker Hill N. Rd., approaching the Mohican School and their sign in the background.  This is about one mile north of the intersection with SR 97 east of Butler.

The small photo left is a file photo from a previous blog story on the falls.  Do a search for Hemlock Falls (above left) for lots of photos and several blog stories we have done on this marvelous venue.

Then do yourself a favor and take a hike--so to speak, of course.