Southern Illinois Storm Damage

We have had a few e-mails from blog friends to check on us since Harrisburg was hit by a tornado on Wednesday.  We live about thirty miles north of the damage, so we are OK.  The known death toll now is at six, with many more injured.  Click Here to see a brief report on WFIW Radio's news page, and Here for a photo album they have assembled. 

Another Titan Engine Update From Gary Bahre

 Gary Writes:  "A few photos of the update's on the titan project, all is done that can be done till the castings return, yes we have compression."

I'm betting that we will see this one running at Pinckneyville in August.

Monster Maul Demo

Ever since our recent post showing our log splitter, we have been seeing searches for Monster Mauls in our hit counter. We aim to please, so we broke out our old Sotz Monster Maul for a brief demonstration on black oak that we brought in this weekend. The trick to using a Monster Maul is to LIFT it, not swing it as you would an ax. We used this old maul for nearly thirty years, and there weren't very many chunks that it couldn't handle.

You Can't Face Monday Without Cornbread

Back To The Old Grind!

Video by TheOldMillSquare 

Chuck Childers, Miller for The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, TN, gives a brief overview of how we still grind corn meal the old fashioned way, the kind you can't buy in your grocery store. www.OldMillSquare.com

Not A Victrola

This old photo is my double-great-grandmother Lovilla, and my great-aunt Bessie, around 1917 or 1918.   Bessie married a photographer, so we have several photos from their courtship and early marriage.  Carl bought a Stroud Aeolian Duo-Art player piano for Bessie, and she kept it all of her life.  Back in 1970, I visited her in Burlington, Iowa, and made a few repairs to the player action so she could play it again.  One of her favorite songs was Sidewalks of New York, which is played in the video.  This song has always been a favorite of mine, too.  Funny thing; Aunt Bessie didn't like the song, Bye Bye Blackbird, and I find that every time it comes around on my MP3 player, I bump it to the next song.



Uploaded by mechanicmusic45 on Jun 16, 2010

An old standard on Vocalstyle roll #13391 as played by Osgood and Black in 1925. Written in 1894 by James W. Blake and Charles B. Lawlor.

Take a tour of a Duo Art player piano courtesy of Pianosyncrazy! 

Playing Misty for Y'all

Posted by pianomn199

Weekend Steam: Oldies But Goodies

At Blists Hill victorian village, Ironbridge, there is a working replica of the first operational steam loco designed by Richard Trevithick in 1804, predating Stephensons 'Rocket' by some 25 yrs. Sadly it was very heavy and not reliable enough for its initial backers to continue with. Trevithick then continued to work on steam engines for the mines. By cjb12121.



0-2-2 Stephensons Rocket leaving the Avon Valley Railway; by 1235train.



Riding on the carriage behind Puffing Billy Replica at Tyseley 100 Celebration. Really fascinating to watch how it works.But the lads driving it were as sooty as a pair of chimney sweeps mucky job. By EMuckSteam.

Crankin' It Up

Fiddle and Banjo by Bill Chitwood and Bud Landress. Late 1924 or early 1925.

Titan Engine Progress

Our friend Gary has been working on his Titan, and he just wrote to us and sent photos along so we could see how he is doing. "Just a little update on the Titan, the cylinder is back on the base the piston is also installed. The head is in Kentucky getting a new butterfly made it should  be back before long. All the small parts for the push rod are built, pins and roller; they control the decompression function for starting. The clutch is off the engine; several parts are still stuck on it. The wheels and drop center frame rails for the cart are out back waiting on nicer weather to build a cart. The parts that have to be recast have been sent off for casting, that part will take several months to turn around. After I have it running the way it should, a tear down, sand blasting and paint job will finish it. My friend in KC is building the water tank and fuel tank, that might be done by the time I see him in June. Gary"

The frame was made for Sears engines, which were made with a base that reached below the bottom of the flywheels.  Titans built for use on the farm were made on a short frame and mounted on a cart (See Photo Below); industrial engines were mounted on a sub-base (Like Gary's engine) for stationary mounting.

IHC without sub-base; on cart. (Mt. Pleasant, 1987)

Let's Tip Another One

This tree is a post oak that was struck by lightning last year. It was an easy tree to set up, but it was weighted opposite to the direction we wanted it to fall. The wood was solid; there wasn't any side lean, so wedging over was no problem.  I made the front cuts, punched through to make a hinge, cut out half the back, set the orange wedge to hold the tree off the saw, completed the back cut, and we started pounding.