10E2605: That Sub-Zero Look

10E2604: Steele - orange 'steeletex' | $35

Natural Canvas Tote
Tall (17"L X 7"W X 24"H)
Steeletex base (tear and water-resistant, antimicrobial vinyl-coated nylon)
Made in Chelsea, MA
$35.  three-five...

 

Run don't walk... shop.

10E2603: Forestbound Carry All/On

With a nod to plumber's/utility workers bags...

• Fully lined with beige cotton canvas
• Large interior pocket (9" x 11")
• Leather boot, handles and buckle straps of top grain cow hide
• Removable leather shoulder strap with durable metal hardware.
• 17" wide, 13" tall, 7" deep. 
• Made in the USA.

Forestbound Original. $125. Only one of these in the 1940s frogskin style.  Insanity...
 

10E2612: Ursa Major - Mister Shave | Giveaway

File under Keep It Simple.  MISTER SHAVE! From Ursa Major, elevating your regime with products that work.

Giveaway time 10e readers:  How? Visit www.ursamajorvt.com and email me or tweet/RT at me and cc @ursamajorvt with your favorite ingredient in their products.  Winner of a Mister Shave box set will be drawn at EOD Friday - that's 5pm EDT around here... UTC-5.

Mister Shave gift set is boxed and ready to give and go - includes;

• Stellar Shave Cream (5.3 fl oz)
• Fortifying Face Balm (2.5 fl oz)
• NEVER any petrochemicals, sulfates, sulfates, parabens, synthetic fragrance, color, glycols, silicones or PEGs. 

Get a second set at www.ursamajorvt.com right now - Free shipping on all US orders.
Ok. SSsssshhhhhh. Secret info time. The best part of ordering from Ursa Major via that link above or here is they give you a few 'travel' ready samples... you get to pick... go on.  Stocking stuffer gold.


Pair it with a tiger maple handled razor while there... thirty bucks. Wood sourced in New England
Gillette Mach 3 and Venus compatible (comes with one Mach 3 cartridge) -see, face or legs...

10E2611: Walden doc, and bonus E.O.Wilson

Walden from Ewers Brothers Productions on Vimeo.

Not only a celebration of Henry David Thoreau, but a primer for those that did not quite know much more about him than one word - Walden. These places are 10 minutes away as I write this - desktop vacation for readers hopefully.  Notes by Jeff Cramer (archivist at Walden Woods Project), Doris Kearns Goodwin (historian) and E.O. Wilson (see below).   You may not be aware but Don Henley (of Eagles fame) had a huge role in protecting Walden Pond from development the late 1980s and his inclusion is worth the price of admission here, in this 20 minute short above created in cooperation with Ken Burns.

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Late to the party me... E. O. Wilson one of the interviewees in WALDEN above, naturalist, myrmecologist (studier of ants), the father of biodiversity - and natty professor.  Much more here.

 Staff Photo Justin Ide/Harvard University News Office.

In 1965, Wilson, then a young entomologist, was one of the first scientists to grab hold of Hamilton’s equation [rB>C, where r is a relatedness factor, B is the fitness Benefit to the altruistic organism, and C is the Cost of genetic fitness to the organism for carrying out the act of altruism]  and used it to explain altruism he observed in ant colonies. Wilson quickly became an evangelist for the idea, championing the theory that altruism had emerged through natural selection as a means to pass on genes to the next generation, not as a selfless act of moral transcendence.- via World Science

A rethink by Wilson followed much later - read the article to find out what happened next...

10E2610: Just Does Not Get Old

In August 1914, Ernest Shackleton and 27 men sailed from England in an attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross Antarctica from one side to the other. Five months later and still 100 miles from land, their ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. The expedition survived another five months camping on ice floes, followed by a perilous journey through stormy seas to remote and unvisited Elephant Island. In a dramatic climax to this amazing survival story, Shackleton and five others navigated 800 miles of treacherous open ocean in a 20-foot boat to fetch a rescue ship.

Putting it in one paragraph as above makes this experience sounds almost... tolerable?  Every new resource just reinforces the grit of these humans - not only the 5 months (MONTHS!) trapped onboard Endurance looking at your 26 crewmates, eating seal (later dog) but then ten months of sopping wet hiking, hauling, sleeping (only half had sleeping bags) - not to mention real actual physical dangers (falling through the ice of being attacked by various wildlife)... rowing on the open AntArctic Sea, with 100ft rollers...  Just mindblowing.

This book Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World is targeted at younger readers and gets right into the small gritty details. With more imagery and charts than ENDURANCE (great too) it is an instant stand-taller-spine-straightener-coffee-thankfuller read.

10E2609: 2018 USA Snowboard Uniform - by Burton

"Burton Unveils U.S. Snowboard Team Uniforms for PyeongChang Olympic Game" - heavily NASA influenced as you can see below.

Inspired by the rich history of the American space program, the 2018 U.S. Snowboard Team uniform is both innovative in function and retro-futuristic in design. On the futuristic side, both the competition jacket and pant have a liquid metal look, thanks to an exclusive iridescent silver fabric coated in very fine, real aluminum.  - link

The thermal and ladies bobble hat pretty great too - along with the liquid metal jacket/pants combo. There is a also a full 'suit' "created with bright white non-woven Dyneema® fabric, which is the world's strongest fiber" and gold tinted googles must be de rigueur no? Not just as reference to Olympic dreams but also NASA helmet faceplates.? Too easy...

See 2014 Uniform here.

10E2608: Local Stout - Coffee & Donuts

This Mystic x USD can though, chills. If you stop at the Mystic taproom in Chelsea you may as well knock on the door at Steele Canvas too...

10E2607: That Halloween Look

10E2606: Things I Didn't Win On eBay 4

10E2605: CELEBRATE THOREAU recap

CELEBRATE THOREAU 2 weeks ago for our local library group was a hit. Video below gives a good idea; talk on "Why Read Walden", a vintage roller organ and axe discussion and an oyster shucking demo (not on video). Good times!

Friends of the Acton Libraries, president Carol D. 

Acton Historical Society, Bill K. 

Bolts raffle- look at those prizes...

10E2604: Burton [ak] 2L LZ

via Burton

10E2603: For Your Pocket. Ballast.

Get em for Halloween and end up in your regular wardrobe... With a hop skip and jump from Wrong Side (Texas) have secured a slew of 21x21 bandanas in chivalry navy, or scattered stars. Fun-fact, the V that forms the chevron comes from the word for rafter - that V of beams meeting - with a probable latin derivative from goat (in reference to hind legs) or the French for roe deer (chevreuil) in reference to the V of antlers.  Have a good pile of these - can mail you one of each color for $10.

10E2602: 16/17 w/ Marcus Kleveland

Via YoBeat.  Clicks and beeps from https://soundcloud.com/kamandi-1/bloosamurai

10E2601: CELEBRATE THOREAU - Oct 1

Whether as a proponent of the sharing culture, or homesteader, or woods walker - even as a naturalist, observer and craftsman with the written word, Thoreau is worth another close look if you never really bothered before. Won't firehouse you with quotes here but check this event Oct 1 west of Boston - I am jazzed to be working with the local library group to arrange. If you are reading this then it is def in your wheelhouse. Pure 10engines...  Give them a like and follow on FB to help too - the Friends of Acton Libraries provides support for nine (9!) town and school libraries. Awesome.

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On October 1st, the Friends of the Acton Libraries present CELEBRATE THOREAU. This event to mark the 200th birth-year of Henry David Thoreau will highlight HDT's writings and celebrate outdoor living. There will be a mixture of academic and social activities for heritage fans, and families. This is a free entry event being held at the Gallery at Villageworks (525 Mass Ave, Acton, MA). Doors at 11AM.

Program;
“Why Walden!” - speaker Carol Domblewski, Friends of the Acton Libraries
"Acton In The Time of Thoreau" - speaker Bill Klauer, Acton Historical Society
Oyster Shucking Demonstration led by Twin Seafoods
Axe Sharpening Demonstration
Open Mic' - pick a reading from Cape Cod, Maine Woods, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, or bring a favorite passage.

Activities;
WALDEN The Video Game
Lego 'build a cabin' - deliberately!
Cider donuts and True West beer
Pick-a-prize raffle with gifts from; Huckberry, Randolph Engineering, FIELD NOTES, Bueno Y Sano, Acton Coffee House, Ursa Major VT,  Bobos Mountain Sugar, BERN, Steele Canvas, RMurphy and more.

All attendees will also receive an annotated bibliography of themed reading.

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https://www.facebook.com/friendsactonlib
https://www.instagram.com/friendsactonlib
https://twitter.com/friendsactonlib

10E2600: Pants Verticators

Filson - 2". $48

Walking Boss. $19.

10E2599: American Stonecraft

These food-safe food slabs, coasters and trivets are made from a fieldstone that American Stonecraft have gathered from farms across greater New England (you too PA!). They are sliced, ground, and polished in their Lowell, MA studio.  Each stone’s farm-provenance is permanently labeled on the underside. Not only are the stones responsibly harvested (I say this w a straight face - meaning the stones are taken from fields, not ripped out of stone walls...) but the team here also execute MENDING WALL DAY (Robert Frost reference to those just joining), and repair fieldstone walls in the wild. Fieldstone wall means stone wall created without binder material, simply chinked together.

Bowls are created too. Fantastic. Available online - or at the Boston Public Market space at Haymarket.

10E2598: 36th Peru Fair - Saturday, September 23, 2017

"The Peru Fair began in 1978 as the “end of the world tag sale.” but what had evolved is not what a tag-saler would ever dream of.  Each year approximately 100 exhibitors converge on the tiny village of Peru, Vermont located off Route 11...

Early morning of the fair, booths, displays, and crafts are set up, smells of food begin to stretch across and before too long, the parade of whimsical characters officially opens the Fair and music and entertainment fill the air. 

Proceeds of the Fair are donated to the Peru Scholarship Fund. The Peru Scholarship Fund is a non-profit organization that distributes educational scholarships to the children of Peru for higher education." - Via PeruFair.Org

There is a full-on pig roast ($15) and plenty of other food vendors around, hay and pony rides, music, demos and clogging. What else do you need? $6 entry donation to the Town of Peru Scholarship Fund. No dogs. Opening parade starts at 9:45 - coffee onsite.

You'd think Mid September in southern Vermont might be cool but it often happens to be a blazing hot day. Pace yourself beer-tent-animals...   Bring a bag of some kind for your homestead syrup haul. The roast lunch is pretty decent... 

 

10E2597: Dipped Enamel Service

Constructed from commercial grade steel and rugged porcelain enamel. 12 pieces total; four 9½"dinner plates, four bowls, and four tumblers...  USA. $230 shipped via Barn Light Electric.

10E2596: Cookbook Sale - West of Boston Aug 13th

Readers in the 617 and 508!  It is allllmost county fair time. Until then if you need a leafy drive on Sunday and some pastries as you browse cookbooks - come out to the Acton, MA farmers market this weekend.  The Friends of the Acton Libraries are slingin cookbooks - then you can pop by the nearby True West brewery and pour one out for Sam Shepard. sundaysundaysundaybethere!

Event link. Free.

Hey 'villens - short commuter ride from Porter Sq. Bring yer bike out if you want.