Old Tools

Old Wagon Wheel

Conestoga Wagon

In the decade before the American Revolutionary War, the Mackey family, my ancestors, sold their farm in central Pennsylvania, loaded their belongings into their wagon and travelled on the Great Pennsylvania Wagon Road to western North Carolina, a journey of over 500 miles (850 km) to start a new life on the frontier. Their wagon was probably a Conestoga, the most common type of freight hauler in the colonies at the time. The typical Conestoga was 18 feet long (5.5 m), 8 feet 3 inches wide at the hubs (2.5 m) and 11 feet high (3.4 m). It weighed about 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg) and had a cargo capacity of five tons (4.5 metric Tons). These wagons were typicaly pulled by a team of six or seven strong horses. The distinctive curved shape of the cargo box was designed to prevent the cargo from shifting on the primitive roads of the time. The wagons were not cheap: the cost of a Conestoga in the 1770’s was about $250.00 or $5,600 in today’s money. Horses and tack cost another $1,200 ($36,300 current value.) This model is based on the drawings of Donald W. Holst in Conestoga Wagons in Braddock's Campaign, 1755, by Don H. Berkebile, Smithsonian Institution, 1959. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29653/29653-h/29653-h.htm

Wells Fargo Stage Coach

Between 1852 and 1869 the Wells Fargo company built the largest stage transportation system in the world by their own efforts and acquiring other stage companies along the way. The iconic stage coach used by Wells Fargo was built in Concord, New Hampshire, by carriage builder J. Stephens Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downey and cost $1,100. For the first nine years the company provided mail and passenger service between Saint Louis and San Francisco on the “Butterfield Line”, a route that passed through El Paso, Texas, Los Angeles, CA, and the California Central Valley, a distance of 2,757 miles (4,437 km.) The trip took 28 days. With the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, a new rout had to be found passing through Denver and the Rocky and Sierra Mountains. When the transcontinental railway was completed in 1869, the stage coach service was no longer viable and was terminated.

Cerveza Polar, Venezuela

Cervecería Polar brews the dominant beer brand in Venezuela. The Polar brand of beer is brewed using a classic Pilsen recipe adjusted to be served colder than the Czech tradition due to Venezuela’s tropical climate.

I have a personal interest in the company and the beer: I worked for Polar for five years in Caracas as the firm’s first Corporate Treasurer and as financial/investment consultant for an additional two decades.

#Polar #beer #Venezuela #Blender #Cycles

Chimay Trappist Beer

Chimay beers have been brewed at the Scourmont Abby at Chimay, Hainaut, Belgium, since 1862.

From the brewer’s web site (http://chimay.com/):

“Chimay is an authentic Trappist beer: this means that it is brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery, under the control and responsibility of the community of monks, who are involved through the process of making and marketing the beer. Most of the income generated by this activity is devoted to the needs of the community and social works”.

#Chimay #beer #Trappist #Blender #Cycles

Christmas Card 2016

Toy Peddle Car

On a visit to Brussels a few years ago, I became interested in my, then, five-year-old granddaughter, Anya’s pedal car and took a lot of photos of it. Later research showed that this toy is a Chinese copy of the original Murray Comet pedal car made in the 1940s and ‘50s. These days authentic Comet cars sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars

Leffe Belgian Ale

Leffe was traditionally (since 1240) brewed at the abbey in Dinant, Belgium, although I've seen on the web that, since it's acquisition by InBev, it has been brewed in the big Stella Artois brewery at Leuvan.