Friday's Hunt v 2.8

It's Friday, so that means it's time to join in Friday's Hunt, hosted by Eden Hills.  As usual, we have 3 topics for interpretation this week:  the letter H, week's favourite, and single.

The Letter H
I'm a little bit off the beaten track with my choice today, but bear with me.  I blogged a few days ago about my visit to the Campbell Carriage Factory Museum.  When the carriage business began to decline as cars began to be available, the carriage factory added the funeral business to their services. The woodworkers who built carriages were able to build caskets instead, and other workers provided services such as transporting the deceased.  So, for the letter H, I give you, a hearse!

There were two hearses on display at the museum.  The one pictured above was for fine weather use, and the other, pictured below, was for winter use.  As you can see, the winter hearse is a sled style, designed to be used in the snow, whereas the summer one has wheels.

Both would be drawn by horse (of course).  The museum had some helpful information about horse harnesses too!

Week's Favourite
I have to say that my favourite thing this week was the fact that I finally brought my 2 sheep home again after their 2 years and 8 months in "boarding" elsewhere.  I am really excited to have them with me again, and I suspect they'll be regular blog fodder!  However, since I just blogged about them yesterday, here's another favourite - my little chipmunk friend who often amuses me.  I watch him (or her) from my home office window.  I think that at some point, this little cutie had a tail injury, but that doesn't detract from the cuteness!  I've been getting better pictures of the chipmunk now that I have the zoom lens.  I really love both these pictures.

Single
For the letter E, a few weeks ago, I shared a photograph of my Echinops ritro.  At the time, it wasn't yet blooming, but has just started to do so.  So far, only a single one of the ball-shaped flower structures has started to bloom.  You can see it in the background of this shot - it has a purple hazy look to the top of it.  All the other "flower balls" are still waiting to open.

It's just starting out - the tiny blooms open from the top down.

When I was taking the picture, I noticed that somebody was trying to photobomb my shot!  A single tiny spider wanted to be part of the action.  Look closely and you'll see it - a lime green little spider towards the bottom of the photo.

Campbell Carriage Museum

This weekend, while my parents were visiting, we decided to go to the Campbell Carriage Factory Museum.

It is a wonderful museum based in the actual factory buildings which were constructed in 1838.  It includes the main factory building as well as a blacksmith shop (not the original, but another one from the same era that was moved to the location) and a storage barn.  It was a beautifully sunny day, so the views of the Tantramar Marsh behind the museum were really beautiful.

The main building is divided up into sections that highlight the stages in the construction of carriages. Many steps and stages are involved in the construction of the wheels, which seemed to be the most complicated part of the carriage building process, and also the most subject to failure.

The wheels begin with a hub, which is made from a solid piece of tree trunk.  The hub is created on the lathe and needs to be dried for months (up to years for large ones) to ensure that it will not crack. Here are a lot of hubs in different sizes that they have at the museum which have been drying for a very long time!



Holes are drilled in the hub for the spokes to be inserted.

The insertion of the spokes takes place on a device called a wheel cradle.


Then, the rim is fitted to the spokes with the aid of special tools that helped ensure the right amount of spring to the wheel in order to make it stable, round, and even.


Finally, the wheels had a metal "tire" that was added by the blacksmith.

Other parts of the carriage building process included construction of the "box" on which the seats are mounted, the upholstery of the seats, and the assembly of the undercarriage, including springs.

The carriages also had to be painted.  The paint area was quite amusing - the door next to the area, and the floor under the paint bench, were thickly crusted with old paint.

It is believed that in order to ensure the right consistency, the paint was splattered onto the door to see if it was sufficiently sticky.  What a mess!

One of my favourite areas of the museum was the display of decorative accents one could choose to have on one's carriage, if one so desired.

These 'goose neck' hooks, for example, were designed to hold the reins.

Overall, we had a great time at the museum.  In a future blog, I'll share some more pictures and information about this interesting part of local history.