Volunteer Global connects travelers with service groups worldwide through its directory of programs and through its blog, which is updated daily with news, advice, and stories about volunteering abroad. Volunteer organizations both large and small are invited to create Travel Buddy accounts, where they can add profile pages, highlighted projects, press releases, and more to help recruit talented, passionate volunteers.

Robin Van Auken serves on the Volunteer Global advisory board and supports the organization’s mission.

 

Sarah of Volunteer Global

Volunteer Global’s History

Volunteer Global started as a research project in 2005—daunted by the number of volunteer abroad programs available for a summer trip, founder Sarah created a table comparing groups by cost, location, and more. And then she put it online for other travelers to use.

 

Where We Are Now

Since 2005, Volunteer Global has grown and changed dramatically; what used to be a one-page table has turned into a network through which volunteer organizations both large and small can market the great work they do. In winter 2011, Volunteer Global launched full time into the volunteer abroad marketplace.

The Volunteer Global team is here to help you find the perfect volunteer abroad program—travel with us or let us show you where you can go!

And if you’re a volunteer coordinator, join our Travel Buddy Program to recruit volunteers for your project and let our fellow travelers learn all about you!

 

‘Your Guide to Volunteer Travel’ eBook for Sale!

Your Guide to Volunteer Travel

Your Guide to Volunteer Travel takes you through the steps of choosing a volunteer abroad program, what to expect while traveling, and how to utilize your experience abroad even after returning home. The book also features stories about volunteering internationally, both from Volunteer Global bloggers Stephanie and Brittany, and from a few kind contributors.

The book concludes with a directory with hundreds of volunteer programs worldwide, with information on where you can go, what you can do, and how to sign up. Download your copy for $2.99 today!

• Amazon: Available here.
• Smashwords: Available in several different formats here. Includes downloads for Kindle, Nook, iPad, HTML, and more!

If you don’t have an e-reader, here’s a free application from Amazon that will allow you to download your copy and read on your PC, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, or other device.

 

Volunteer Global News

• Travel Buddy Of The Week: Great Primate Handshake
• All About Sports Volunteering Abroad
• Video Blog: Five Steps To Choosing A Volunteer Vacation
• Weekend Roundup: May 18, 2012
• Travel Buddy Of The Week: El Nomad Immersion Programs

O'Briens Keep in Ireland

I thwarted my husband’s vacation plans. Days before he purchased tickets for a Caribbean cruise, I suggested Scotland.
In the blink of an eye, I wasted months he spent researching itineraries. Gone were his plans to lounge poolside on the lido deck, dine on all-he-could-eat buffets and enjoy nightly live entertainment aboard a floating mega-mall.
He tossed them aside in an instant when I pointed out Scotland has spooky ruins, damp castles and foggy moors. We’re passionate about history and figure we can cruise when we’re old. Besides, who wants to spend December snorkeling in warm, tropical waters when they can stand beside the frigid waters of Loch Ness, which is close in latitude to Juneau, Alaska?
It’s been a dream come true, traveling abroad to ancient cities and world capitals, and we’ve added Rome, London and Dublin to our scrapbook.
There’s one vacation I would like to take, but he may not agree as readily to this idea.
As an American Archaeologist, my experience in the field abroad is non-existent. I’ve peeked at archaeological sites during my travels, and admired the results of antiquities research in various museums, but I’ve never had the opportunity to dig overseas.
I think my husband may pull out the cruise ship brochures when I tell him I’m looking at archaeological vacation packages. He doesn’t care to get dirty unless it’s in his own garden.
What most people don’t realize about archaeological vacations is the work you’ll do is a service to all humanity. When you contribute to an archaeological dig, as either a shovel bum or a lab rat, you are a “Steward of the Past.” You help conserve heritage for future generations.

Visitors volunteer for a day at Muncy Heritage Park and Nature Trail (Muncy, PA)

Without the help of volunteers, most archaeological sites wouldn’t get dug, either. Although there’s a lot of interest in prehistoric and historic sites, there’s not a lot of money for excavation and preservation.
One way museums offset the expense of archaeological research is to team up with volunteer vacation groups. It’s a win-win situation, since the volunteer not only gets to visit exotic locations, they get to play Indiana Jones.
And is it fun? Heck yeah!
Anthropologist Kent Flannery once wrote, “… archaeology is still the most fun you can have with your pants on.”
As an archaeologist, I’ve met hundreds of people who want to spend an hour, a day, a week, even a month working on my digs. Entire families have joined my projects, some flying across the continent to spend their vacations with me, squatting in the dirt, brushing soil from rusty nails, screening mud for artifacts. Others want to spend their time washing those artifacts and still others, identifying and cataloging them.
To this day, it amazes me that people will pay me to let them play in the dirt and lift heavy buckets.
It’s also fascinating that a person will excavate a piece of broken glass, then handle it with care given to expensive crystal. That same person probably walked by and ignored dozens of pieces of broken glass between the parking lot and the dig site.
So, what is the difference between litter and artifacts? Context.
Context makes material things important. We want to know, “What is it? Who made it? Where was it found?”
Context makes our memories important also. We want to remember, “Where did we go? What did we do? Who did we see?”
Because memories are important, my husband gallantly tossed aside our trip to the islands. Instead of dining from the trough on a cruise ship, we will have Christmas Lunch at Edinburgh Castle. We will board the Royal Yacht Britannia, walk the Royal Mile to Holyrood, tour Rosslyn Chapel, hike the ancient volcano of Arthur’s Seat and maybe pet a Hairy Coo (the long-haired cows of Scotland). We do have a short cruise planned; it’s just a smaller boat and we’ll be watching for the Loch Ness Monster. And with respect, we’ll visit the Battlefield of Culloden, where thousands of highlanders fought and died with brave hearts for their “Bonny Prince Charlie.”
These are memories we’ll treasure, most of them thanks to the volunteers who helped to preserve them.

If they can’t reach a screen, put ‘em on a bucket. Lycoming College student Kathleen Eierman works with two young volunteers at the Muncy Heritage Park and Nature Trail (Muncy, PA)

Since we can appreciate their efforts, next year, I’ll suggest we spare a few vacation days and work as volunteers at an archaeological site. Imagine being the person who discovered the golden horde now on display at the British Museum!
Perhaps you’ll consider a volunteer archaeological opportunity next time you’re making vacation plans. There are dozens available, from small historical society digs in local parks and pastures, to large university excavations at Roman ruins.
So why consider voluntourism?
Unlike college students enrolled in a field school and their instructors, volunteers on vacation can work at archaeology sites during the day, then skip the lectures. I know, roughing it in the field is supposed to be part of the charm of an archaeology dig, but I’m a woman in my 50s. I’m not interested in going to the bathroom behind a tree, sleeping on a cot, or eating dirt with my peanut butter sandwich. I want  dinner at a five-star restaurant, 800-count Egyptian cotton sheets, air conditioning, a private bathroom and wifi.
I want the selfish gratification of a vacation and the personal satisfaction of performing a good deed, and I can have both as a voluntourist.
So where do I want to go?
From an Iron Age hillfort in Scotland, to an ancient pottery mound in Italy, from prehistoric villages in Mexico, to underwater sites off the coast of Spain, opportunities are plentiful. There are dozens available, from small digs in parks or pastures, to large excavations at Roman ruins.
While perusing the Archaeological Institute of America website, I found an interesting project: a church site and graveyard survey in Ireland. There are a lot of interesting projects on the AIA’s Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin, and I like that I can sort them by geographic location.
Another resource is Earthwatch, although its expeditions aren’t limited to archaeology. This group offers paelontological digs as well as environmental projects working with elephants or dolphins.
I’ve also bookmarked Archeolink’s comprehensive website and plan to explore its numerous links to historic tours and volunteer opportunities.
Now how do I select only one? And, how do I convince my husband it’s a grand idea?

Google

Are you using Gmail? If not, did you realize that a Google account opens up a vast collection of useful and free applications?

Want to know how to do basic tasks like create or change a Google email account, make a blog, update your browser, chat online, upload videos, get driving directions, and transfer files between computers? These are simplified by Google so use the helpful videos below to learn more about Google Apps and Google’s suite of communication and collaboration products for businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools.

• Find Google Apps on the web at http://www.google.com/apps
• Find Google Apps on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleApps

Official Google Videos

• Create your Google Blogger Acount — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McRiRbyRxpE
• How to create an online calendar — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvt55YA5ff4
• How to change your email address — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ4XUsxqvG8
• How to share videos — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9GKl4xehLM
• How to upgrade your browser — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87S1GjE-17g
• How to get driving directions with Google Maps — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugCtYAGsCtA
• Change your default homepage — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8fk9HhHp2c”
• How to transfer files between computer — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2EmJAJ5-a4
• How to share a big file (Google Docs) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_QeVimqlE4
• How to share photos (Picasa) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Uyfi-yigsw
• How to make bookmarks — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYP8ggrVKs0
• How to browse the web with tabs — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piic445ymRY
• How to chat (Google Chat) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCBcpTs7AKw
• How to stop getting a newsletter — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGeFx0w-tsc
• How to get a new phone number (Google Voice) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-NrANWmExo
• How to video chat — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep1xhJK7CRg
• How to create an email signature — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJuO7fho2A
• How to make calls from your computer — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJuO7fho2A
• How to set up an email auto-responder — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHp0_UHz_g
• How to shorten a long URL — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g8jLCCxIc
• How to attach a file to an email — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4g8jLCCxIc
• How to copy and paste — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N92BaOnunGk
• Introducing Google eBooks — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKEaypYJbb4
• Mobile Editing in Google Docs — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAr5VoYdVBo
• Google Goggles Experiment Video — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-hXD33vXs
• Discussions in Google Docs — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zmOYziFKZw
• Call phones from Gmail — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-DzpAg0SdU
• Gmail Priority Inbox — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nt3gE9dGHQ
• Grandmother”s Guide to Video Chat — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDvgjV54wIg
• Sharing in Google Docs — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POIR37Hmydg
• Introducing a new Google Docs — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_hJ3R8jEZM

So you want to use WordPress but not sure how to go about it?

Wordpress

WordPress is a popular CMS used by companies, large and small, as well as individuals. There are two versions of WordPress — the .com and the .org. The .com is a free blogging software hosted on the WP servers similar to Google blogger. The .org version is a free script available for installation on private websites. All that is needed to update and maintain a WordPress website is access to the Internet, a web browser, and a basic knowledge of CMS.

Upon installing WordPress, an Administrator account with all Capabilities is automatically created. There are several types of roles assigned to people updating or accessing the WordPress sites. See the list below:

Summary of Roles

• Super Admin – Someone with access to the blog network administration features controlling the entire network.
• Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration feature.
• Editor – Somebody who can publish and manage posts and pages as well as manage other users’ posts, etc.
• Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own post.
• Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish the.
• Subscriber – Somebody who can only manage their profile.

There are two types of content (primarily) for a WP site — posts and pages.

Posts are often used for new information, such as essays or articles or press releases, and they are generally visible on the site in a chronological order, as well as searchable by tags and categories. Only posts have tags and categories. Often, post titles are placed in a sidebar widget.

Pages are generally static elements with information that does not change often. These are usually visible on the main menu/navigation bar.

Plugins are small scripts/programs that allow you to customize or add functionality to the WP site. For example, plug-ins are commonly used in web browsers to play video, scan for viruses, and display new file types. Well-known plug-ins examples include Adobe Flash Player and QuickTime. Common WP plugins you will probably use support Google analytics and maps, photo galleries, contact forms, social media sharing, etc.

When a plugin is installed, sometimes you will add it visibly to a WP site with a widget. Widgets go in sidebars, and sidebars can be on the side or in the footer. Common widgets are post listings, archives, tags, logins, and text. If you want special formatting of text — such as bold or links — you’ll have to do that with HTML.

Most people updating and maintaining a WP site will not bother with the plugins or widgets since these are set up when the site is created, however, plugins are updated by the third-party providers on a regular basis so clients may need to keep an eye on the dashboard and if a plugin needs updating, simply follow the simple directions.

The dashboard can be a bit daunting with WP, but for the most part it can be ignored. When you first go to the dashboard, there is a lot of content but what you need to focus on is in the left side-bar. That is where you can access the Posts, the Media (photos), the Pages, the Appearance, the Plugins, etc.

If you need to update an existing page, simply click on Pages and it opens a directory. Select the page you want to work on, make the edits, then look to the right column and click on Update. Same thing with Posts.

If you would like to add a new Page or Post, simply click on Add New.

The text editor built into WP is basically all you need — you can insert photos (images), video, rich text, links. If you click on the Show/Hide Kitchen Sink you’ll see a lot more choices. It’s up to you.

Also, you can enter edits in either Visual or HTML, depending upon your ability or preference. Most clients stay in Visual mode.

To learn how to use WP, consider watching some the many video tutorials available on the Internet. Below is a roundup of tutorials that may be of interest to you. Please let us know if any of these links are broken or if there is objectionable material. RVA cannot be held responsible for the shared content on Youtube.

WORDPRESS TUTORIAL VIDEOS

• Beginner WordPress Tutorial Video — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvcITIgP1lQ
• WordPress.com – Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU
• Updated WordPress.com – Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEWPnHY8D3E
• WordPress for Your Website Tutorial — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59f5mX9Dt4
• Using WordPress To Make Easy Websites (not blogs) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9bIsiB7GLk
• WordPress Tutorial – How to Make a Static Page Your Home Page — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOiAuJwUHoM
• Lisa Irby’s Favorite WordPress Plug-ins — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7y1iLH8O8
• Lisa Irby’s Installing Themes on WordPress — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mmUtpjPskg
• Learning WordPress Basics – for beginners — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9b0jzcq0C4&feature=related
• WordPress For Beginners – Part 1 — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJoodIiuy5I&feature=related
• How To Use Basic Features In WordPress — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0xluhNhYaQ&feature=related
• WordPress for Your Website – Tutorial #1 — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59f5mX9Dt4&feature=related
• Using WordPress To Make Easy Websites (not blogs) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9bIsiB7GLk&feature=related

2CreateaWebsite

Lisa Irby is a full-time web master and affiliate marketing expert. Her Youtube channel is for beginner webmasters andbloggers who need help with basic Photoshop tasks, WordPress, using various web tools and programs (FTP, etc.), writing HTML and CSS code, web design, etc. She offers advice for people with a bit more experience making their own websites, such as theme installation and CSS customization.
Find Lisa Irby on the web at: http://www.2createawebsite.com
Find Lisa Irby on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/2createawebsite
Read 2CreateAWebsite RSS Feed

* These links are resources used in creating the Social Media List below.

Social Media

Facebook Fan Page – Facebook Fan Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.

• FBLM app – Use FBML to create a landing page instead of sending people to your wall, as most people do, you send them to a landing page with whatever message you want to provide. For example, you can give a short description of your organization and tell people to click the “becomes a fan” button.
• RSS Graffiti app – This adds your website’s RSS feed, monitors for any update and publish it automatically to your Facebook fan page so you don’t have to share your posts manually.
• Videos – You can add all your videos to your Facebook fan page
• Events – It’s very easy to spread the word and communicate with the members of your Facebook fan page with events. You can send messages to all the members and can be creative with the type of event.
• Discussion – Open up a discussion and “debate” with your Facebook fans or ask them to share opinions with you.
• Polls – Add a poll to your Facebook site.
• Like Box – Use the Facebook “Like” boxes on your website to promote your FB fan page.

* Facebook – http://slymarketing.com/why-you-should-use-facebook-events

* Facebook – http://www.directcreative.com/blog/facebook-fan-page

Twitter – Twitter is a micro-blogging platform. Companies also use it to promote themselves. On Twitter you will have people “following” you, and you will be “following” others. “Following” is being updated every time a new post is added to one of your contacts’ profiles. Being followed is the same; every time you have something to add, all your “followers” will be updated. The more people that follow you, the more exposure your business will get.

• Don’t spam others about your specials
• Follow other users
• Be active in the community(tweet comments about others’ tweets often)
• Only post useful and relevant information
• Don’t tweet every 5 minutes. It becomes annoying.
• Engage in conversations. Retweet (reply to others’ tweets) often
• Don’t promote your company directly. Do it the smart way.
• Every time you post on your blog, invite people to follow you on Twitter
• Search for Twitter users whose followers’ base you would love to have for yourself.
• See who is following them and follow those users. They will follow you back.
• See who is following your friends and follow them.
• There are Twitter directories that are great to find members who are likely to follow you.
• Use Twitter’s search feature to find profiles that interest you. Use Twitter’s RSS feed to be notified every time a tweet containing a certain keyword is made.

* Twitter – http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business* Twitter – http://www.startupnation.com/series/132/9334/twitter-marketing-7-steps.htm

LinkedIn – LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 90 million members in over 200 countries and territories. There are 12 million small-business people on LinkedIn.http://press.linkedin.com Use it to:

• Acquire new customers through online recommendations
• Keep in touch with people who care most about your business
• Find the right vendors to outsource services
• Find the right vendors to outsource services
• Get answers to tough business questions with a little help from your real friends
• Win new business by answering questions in your area of expertise
• Raise funding
• Network with peers in your industry for repeat business referrals
• Convince potential customers of your expertise by sharing unique blog content
• Keep your friends close and your competition closer

* LinkedIn – http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/04/12/linkedin-small-business-tips

Hootsuite – Hootsuite allows you to take control of multiple social profiles (Facebook, Twitter, etc) from one dashboard so you don’t have to log into each one separately. Being a web-based platform, you don’t need to download a program onto your computer. You can access Hootsuite from any computer with a browser. Hootsuite allows you to schedule tweets on Twitter and status changes on Facebook and LinkedIn. That way, even people across the globe can hear from you while you sleep or you can schedule multiple reminders for special events or promotions way in advance

* Hootsuite – http://prinyourpajamas.com/use-hootsuite-like-a-pro

Google / Google analytics – The best statistics package out there right now. Google Analytics can generate up to 85 different reports that will help you analyze all possible data about your website traffic. It not only tracks visitors to your site or the number of page views, it can be used to see which content gets the most visits, time on site per visit, which ads are driving the most visitors to your site, it track the performances of your marketing campaigns, including AdWords, Adsense and emails and much, much more.

• Gmail Account – Create a free Google account, or if you have one, use it.
• Google Alerts – Get an alert when your name or keyword appears on the Internet
• Google Docs – Share files with members of your team
• Google Calendar – Keep track of events, meetings, put calendar on your website
• Picasa – Photo sharing application, can make slideshows, videos or collages
• Google Blog – Maintain a Google blog that pulls the RSS feed from your website.

* Google Analytics – http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools

* Google Analytics – http://www.artofblog.com/rss-email-stats

YouTube Account and Channel – Put your videos on your own YouTube Channel. Increase Internet visibility with effective keywords. You can use it to show off your expertise, share knowledge, market your products and connect with customers, colleagues and prospects.

• Upload recordings of presentations you’ve given, to demonstrate authority and public speaking skills.
• Share slides from presentations that weren’t recorded.
• Create short videos of valuable tips of interest to your clients and prospects
• Demonstrate your expertise.
• Conduct an interview with an expert.
• Turn your podcasts into videos, to expand your reach.
• Engage with the YouTube community by leaving comments and uploading video responses to videos on topics related to your business or industry.
• Enhance your videos using YouTube’s special features, such as annotations, audio swap, insight, language options and quick capture.
• Record an important meeting to share with employees, shareholders and others, as appropriate.

* YouTube – http://gigaom.com/collaboration/34-ways-to-use-youtube-for-business

Useful Applications

DropBox – Share large files such as photos, docs and videos with others. No more emailing large files. It is the “cloud” so you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection and web browser. http://www.dropbox.com‘

Livestream Video Account – Livestream is the simplest way to broadcast your events live on the internet and to mobile devices. Broadcast live or keep a library of your YouTube videos available on your Livestream account. You can chat, use Facebook or Tweet while broadcasting live. Livestream also offers you an extremely simple, customizable way to broadcast your Livestream feed directly on your Facebook Page. http://www.livestream.com

* Livestream – http://appbistro.com/facebook-business-app/products/livestream

MailChimp – MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. It’s like your own personal publishing platform. Use MailChimp for email lists. It also integrates with WuFoo. http://www.mailchimp.com

Wufoo Forms – Wufoo makes great use of Ajax to create a very nice user experience on the admin side of things. You can place your finished form in either an embedded iframe or on a dedicated web page. You can receive new responses by email or RSS, response data can be filtered and displayed in a variety of ways in the reports section and there is easy control over the look and feel of the forms your users interact with. There are many functions available. http://wufoo.com

* Wufoo – http://techcrunch.com/2006/07/05/make-powerful-online-forms-easily-with-wufoo

Your Website – This is your storefront. Make sure the information is accurate and all links work properly. Be sure to “blog” and make regular updates.

• Post upcoming events
• Use opinion polls
• Use forms for service requests
• Post links to helpful organizations
• Install Feedburner Feedsmith for RSS email subscriptions

*RSS Feeds – http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2010/07/rss-graffiti-automatic-updates-of-your.html

PayPal – Shop and pay online quickly and securely. Send money to anyone with an email address. Accept online payments for items you sell. Accept campaign donations and make donations. https://www.paypal.com

Mobify – Make a mobile versions of your website for the 9 out of 10 people who get their news on mobile devices.

Skype – Use Skype to connect with clients and business associates. Build relationships by working face-to-face with video and save on calls. Use it to grow your business, work flexibly and save money. Collaborate in real-time with colleagues and customers. Boost productivity with integrated collaboration tools. http://www.skype.com

VOD Burner – Use with Skype to record video chats and interviews. You can have both cameras on the screen at once, or just one. http://www.vodburner.com

Basic Website Design

Do you have an Internet site? If so, does your website convey the right message? Does it combine accurate information, beauty and usefulness? These are the most important aspects of website architecture, and creating the best impression can make a difference when you publicize on the Internet.

We have been building and supporting websites since 1998, primarily for individuals, small companies and non-profit organizations. We specialize in Content Management Systems, specifically WordPress, when building websites because these allow the client to easily access and update the site’s pages when necessary, and require very little training and no expensive software. An Internet connection and browser are the only tools and investment you need for maintaining your own site.

All web pages and graphics developed belong to the client when the project is completed. Clients provide text, graphics and videos for the site. If you need assistance with writing, editing, graphic design or videography, we can direct you to local resources who can help you create or refine your content.

The cost of a Basic Website is estimated at 20 hours labor. If the project exceeds the allotted time, the client will be informed and make a choice to continue on the hourly rate. Please contact us about more complex or involved websites for specific quotes.

All new sites must begin with a new host and The Omnibus is an affiliate of BlueHost.com. We highly recommend it and we also use its services. To register your new site and receive free domain name, CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM.

BASIC WEBSITES

The services we provide for a Basic Website include the following:

• Help with initial server setup (if it’s a new site)
• Up to 10 web pages
• Professionally designed template
• Installation of commercial scripts, plug-ins
• Installation of Google Analytics
• Assistance with editing content
• Photo galleries on specific pages
• Minor image editing, cropping, sizing, if needed
• Search Engine Optimization

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Hootsuite account creation, integration and assistance is available by CLICKING HERE

Google, YouTube account creation, integration and assistance is available by CLICKING HERE

(Prices are based on the client providing website content in computer files with standard formats. Creation of original text, images, multimedia, etc. must be quoted separately. Photo galleries with many images are quoted separately. Directories with many links quoted separately. Cost of plugins and commercial scripts are the responsibility of the client. Domain name registration and hosting costs are not included)

PROJECT SEQUENCE

Initial Phone Meeting – Tell us about your business. We will ask you a number of questions that will help me understand your company’s past, present and your goals. Upon your acceptance of the proposal and an initial deposit, we’ll set project goal dates.

Domain Name Registration – We will assist in registering the domain name for your project, if not already registered. Your company is listed as the legal registrant for the domain. At this time, we will assist you secure web hosting. We recommend using BlueHost.com.

Competitive Analysis – We’ll discuss other sites that service the same types of customers you do. We’ll see what works and what doesn’t for competing sites.

Keyword Identification – It’s important to know early on what the keywords are for the site. We will want to work your keywords into the web page coding and the actual text content. Site Structure – Because design follows form, we need to sketch out site structure. We will make a diagram showing how many pages will be created, their names and content needed, and then identify database structure and function.

Design – Next, we will select a site interface (theme/design) that complements your company identity, message and navigation. Materials will be needed from you at this point such as logos, editorial content, graphics and so on. We will work with you – making revisions – until it meets the goals of your project. This component can vary significantly in complexity. We work closely with you to create a great looking, functional interface while keeping within the project budget.

Content Gathering – Content (text, images, video) comes from many sources: your existing brochures, newsletters, fliers, newspaper ad copy, radio spot copy and so on. Collect it and send it to me and we will help you edit into web text.

Programming – Programming adds a great deal to a site’s functionality. Commercial scripts and are used to make sure your site rises above the average. Sample scripts include contact forms, photo galleries, mailing list sign-up, custom forms and calculators, shopping carts, browser and plug-in detection and database integration.

Construction – At this stage, we will bring together all of your site’s elements – the site interface, the text copy and images to actually build your site.

Proofing / Acceptance – We publish your site so you and your staff can review the site and give me feedback. Once you approve the site, we move into maintenance.

Ongoing Maintenance – We are here to support you and your website, if needed. Maintenance and training charges are $25/hour.

What You Get

Brand your product with the Social Media Package

Facebook Fan Page — Make friends and connect to new customers. Your Fan Page includes a Shop Tab to sell your product, a YouTube Tab to promote your product and other favorites, and more. We can customize your Fan Page to your product.

Twitter — If you are marketing a product, then you need Twitter. If your customers aren’t finding you on Facebook then this is where they hang out. Folks are either on Twitter, LinkedIn, or they’re on Facebook, so either way we’ve got you covered. You need to connect and influence them to consider your product, maybe give you a positive review.

LinkedIn — Do you have a LinkedIn account to promote yourself ? Is it connected to all of your existing profiles? Your website, your Facebook Fan Page, your Twitter account? We’ll create one for you if you don’t have it, integrate it with the other social platforms, and you sit back and watch as friends and potential customers and clients connect with you.

What Connects Them

HootSuite is the best service available for tying up all of your accounts into one tidy package and minimize the work needed to brand your book and market it across multiple platforms. HootSuite is a Social Media Dashboard. Rather than being a social network, HootSuite allows you to connect to multiple social networks from one website. Imagine, typing one short sentence into Hootsuite and having it update all of your social media applications, as well as post on your website’s Fan Page widget. Or, you can update the blog on your website and it will update all other sites, funneling through Hootsuite.

Hootsuite integrates with Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Page, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Foursquare social profiles. Free accounts are able to connect with up to five social media profiles.

For a small annual fee to HootSuite, you can update every one of your linked accounts automatically by scheduling updates. You can schedule up to 50 messages at a time, so you can sit down once a month, type up your Updates and Tweets and let HootSuite handle the posting.

We will connect all of your accounts and provide you with an Excel file for easy scheduling of messages to all of your accounts. Sign up for HootSuite today!

Publish an eBook

There’s no denying that eBooks (often called digital books) are a tremendous tool for marketing your creative work. During the past few years, eBooks have become more economical and handy. If you are a writer looking for an agent or a publisher, prove to them that your book will sell by publishing an eBook first. The rewards are innumerable and you can earn money while shopping your book around.

We can help you get your manuscript self-published on Apple’s iTunes / iBooks store, Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Border’s Sony Reader.

Not only will we proofread your book for common errors in grammar and spelling, we will format it properly for both Amazon, B&N and Smashwords, upload it for you, and then help you create the author’s page and video jacket that you’ll need to help promote your new eBook once it’s available for sale.

Our eBooks are flexible, too. You can offer it as a download in PDF, Kindle’s Mobi, or ePUB form, and can make the file size small enough so that you can easily distribute your digital books via e-mail or Internet download. Customers can even download your books to their mobile phones to read while on the go.

Maybe you’re not interested in self publishing, but are for an agent or a publisher for your manuscript. Why not prove to them that your book will sell by publishing an eBook first? The rewards are innumerable and you can earn money while shopping your book around.

eBook Jackets

An eBook Jacket is a great way to promote your manuscript or published eBook. Jackets are multi-media packages that illustrate your eBook or manuscript with a video, synopsis, table of contents and an author’s bio. Since it is web-based, you can post it online or send it to interested agents and editors on a CD/DVD. The cost of duplicating and mailing your book query is less than $3 each. Compare that with the expense of duplicating and mailing large manuscripts.

Google and YouTube

If you’re not using Google, then you need to consider all that this amazing company has to offer. Most amazing of all is that it is free, open-source and easy to use. There are literally hundreds of How-To videos available online for everything Google has to offer, so there’s no excuse why you can’t learn how to use it yourself.

Of course, if you don’t have a lot of free time, we’ll set you up with a Google account, and with it comes GMail, Google Analytics, Google Photo Album (Picasa), Google Docs, Google Talk, Google Chat, Google News, Google Reader, Google Checkout … well, you get the idea. Google is steadily infiltrating the Internet with its products, including companies like YouTube and maybe soon, even Twitter.

One thing you need to know is that Google searches the Internet and ranks pages and those with YouTube videos rank the highest. We can help you create your own customized YouTube channel, and we can help you create and add a short intro video. Connect it to your website, your Facebook Fan Page and your Twitter account, and soon your site’s ranking will climb.

Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

We’ll help you set up your own YouTube channel and then work with you to help you create your first short video to post. We can help you find the right artwork and music, and help you edit your video’s text content. We also will help you set up an basic Animoto video account with one year’s service, included in the fee.

Not ready to buy a YouTube bundle but want to learn more about Animoto? Click here, to learn more and even test drive a free account.

Editorial Assistance

Editorial and literary assistance is available for authors interested in eBook publishing, as well as municipalities, private companies, non-profits and individuals who wish to develop public or personal histories, books, reports, presentations or articles. Below are samples of projects we will work with you to accomplish.

• Art Design – Need an illustration or a logo?
• Book Development – Assistance with all stages of book development
• Copy Editing – Help with grammar, spelling, sentence structure, consistency, accuracy, etc.
• Consultation – Need to talk with someone about your project or book?
• Digital Photo Albums – Want to share your fragile photographs?
• eBooks – An eBook can be a money-making alternative
• eBook Jacket – A multimedia book jacket or PR kit
• Editing – Substantive editing and proofreading services
• Family Histories – Preserve your family’s legacy
• Ghostwriting – Need a writer, but not a co-author?
• Grant Applications – Don’t waste your valuable time
• Historical Research – Put a history detective on the case
• Memoirs – Everyone has a story to tell
• Milestones – Is there an historic milestone to celebrate?
• Oral History Projects – Memories are as valuable as documents
• Proposal Development – Get it right the first time
• Publicity & Marketing – Put your best foot forward
• Research Assistance – Find the info you need
• Web Site Design – Promote yourself on the Web
• Misc. Services – Copyright, data entry, archives

Project Time Guidelines

(writing time estimates, assuming research at hand)

• eBooks: 14-28 days
• Web Site Design: 14-28 days
• Multimedia DVD/CD: 7-10 days
• Four-page newsletter: 2-4 days
• Article (500-words): 4 hours
• Feature article (2,000 words): 1 to 2 days
• One-page PR release: 2 hours
• Substantive editing: 500 words per hour
• Proofreading: 1,000 words per hour

A Note About Literary Representation

Our editorial consultants read every query and we welcome your interest, but we do not offer literary representation and are not literary agents. If you’re interested in editorial assistance, please take a look at the offered services. If you don’t see what you need, drop us a line. We may be able to assist anyway. We enjoy the challenge of new and interesting projects.

Art Design

Need an artist to create an illustration, a graphic design or logo? We have access to a variety of talented artists in many mediums. If you need to add graphics to your book, we can scan slides, negatives and photos (11″x14″), and perform minor editing and photo retouching/restoration.

Book Development

New electronic publishing technology has made it easier and less expensive for those who want to publish their own books. We can help you with book development and selection of printers and other suppliers.

Copy Editing

A copy editor adds a professional polish to written work and prepares it for publication. Copy editing can comprise small or large jobs, for example: business editing: editing press releases, business reports, letters and memos, manuals, and other examples of business writing. We also offer copy editing for the publisher (editing and proofreading text books, user manuals, technical manuals, and novels). For the academic writer, we edit dissertations, proofread theses, and edit student term papers or scholarly papers for academic journals. We can use Associated Press or Chicago Manual of Style when editing, or the style guide of your choice.

Consultation

Are you a freelance writer who needs help but still wants to maintain artistic and editorial control? We can help as consultants in the development of the work in its entirety, from the beginning to the final edit.

Digital Photo Albums

Do you have fragile photographs that you would like to share with others? One way is to create a digital photo album that contains both high- and low-resolution images. Combined with information about the photo (a cutline), the digital photo album is a technological keepsake that also can be printed. This is a unique and inexpensive way to share your family or company’s heritage with others. The original digital photo album can be duplicated and shared with others.

eBooks

There’s no denying that eBooks (digital books that are readable on Amazon’s Kindle, Sony eReader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, iPhones and other mobile devices) are a tremendous tool for marketing your creative work or business. During the past few years, eBooks have become more economical and handy. Not just a tool for authors, eBooks are wonderful as business brochures, magazines and catalogs, family photo albums, or illustrated books. Consider self-publishing your book for sale on the Internet or on a CD / DVD. If you’re a writer looking for an agent or a publisher, imagine your savings by putting your illustrated manuscript query on a CD.

eBook Jacket

The eBook Jacket is a handy tool for promoting your new book. This enhanced, multimedia file can be posted on your website or even your Facebook page, it can be sent via email, it can be downloaded onto a DVD/CD, and even converted into an app for tablets and mobile devices.

Editing

Need help cleaning up your copy? Are you tired of reading and rereading your manuscript? Are your grammar and punctuation skills inadequate? We offer a professional, comprehensive edit for style, structure, development, grammar and mechanics. The editor ensures correctness, consistency, and completeness. By removing errors, rewriting instances of nonstandard usage in wording or style, and improving overall clarity, the editor helps the writer to connect with the intended audience. We can use Associated Press or Chicago Manual of Style when editing, or the style guide of your choice.

Family Histories

We enjoy working one-on-one with people researching and writing their family’s history, and help them create photographic albums in either print or digital format.

Ghostwriting

Depending upon the project, The Omnibus can assign writers and editors to assist you in creating a book as either a ghostwriter or co-author. If you have an idea for a book but not the desire, ability or opportunity to write it, consider our ghostwriting services. Co-authoring enables you to write a book with one or more other authors. Unlike ghostwriters, co-authors receive a byline when the book is published, however both work by the hour and not on a royalty basis.

Grant Applications

All too often, grant applications are set aside because of the time-consuming effort involved in researching and writing. A successful grant application requires much research in order to match a worthy program and an interested grantor. Time is costly when applying for grants, so be sure you’re applying for the right grant from the right foundation or corporation.

Historic Research

Need a history detective? We understand and know how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns. With this historical perspective we are able to evaluate the credibility and authenticity of historical sources.

Memoirs

Want to write a book, maybe pen your memoirs for future generations? We specialize in historic research and can help you quickly achieve your goal. We can scan your historic slides, negatives and photos (11″x14″), and perform minor editing and photo retouching/restoration to complement your manuscript.

Milestones

Observing an anniversary is an opportunity for individuals, corporations and even municipalities to preserve the history of their identity, culture, values and successes. If you have an important date to commemorate, we can help.

Oral History Projects

An oral history project is a method of gathering and preserving historical information through recorded interviews with participants in past events and ways of life. People ask for oral histories for a variety of purposes: To create archival records, for individual research, for community and institutional projects, and for publications and media productions.

Proposal Development

A proposal is a sales tool that represents your book to agents, editors and publishers. After reviewing your book proposal, we may be able to suggest elements to improve it, and we will copy edit it for grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Publicity & Marketing

Need to communicate with the masses but don’t know how? We can help put you in touch with newspapers, radio, television and online media. Want someone to design a brochure or press kit? We’ve worked with the media for 25+ years, so we know what they require.

Research Assistance

Don’t have the time or resources to perform adequate research? Editorial research assistants can find the correct info you need in a timely manner. We are experts in research from prehistory to current topics.

Web Site Design

Are you ready to join the millions of others on the Internet? We can help you with Web page design and advice on Web hosts. We also offer our services for maintenance of your site. Prompt, reliable and creative service is our forte.

Misc. Services

CD/DVD-ROM Archive: We can create a CD/DVD-ROM copy of the digital text of your book in RTF and Microsoft Word format. This archive is then sent to you via the US Postal Service.

Data Entry Service: If you don’t have a word processing file for your manuscript, we can create one for you. We will keyboard your manuscript, using whatever you have.

US Copyright Office Registration: To ensure the complete protection of your book under US Copyright law, we can help you register your book with the United States Copyright Office. Once registered, your book’s copyright is protected for your lifetime plus 50 years. All you need to do is supply us with the required copies of your book and assist us with the paperwork necessary to guarantee your book’s complete protection under the law.

Hands  On Heritage  is a unique project that collaborates with a variety of individuals to highlight and introduce historical events, traditional arts and crafts and the people who celebrate them. Our audience are educators and their students, and our goal is to enable them to make exciting discoveries about their culture and art.

Created by writer and historian Robin Van Auken of The Omnibus, Hands On Heritage also seeks to inspire, educate and entertain people of all ages, enabling youth to work with parents or other adults to discover their own family’s history, as well as the community’s.

A free eBook, “My History Is America’s History: 15 Things You Can Do to Save America’s Stories,” can be downloaded to help you start your journey. This guidebook published by the National Endowment for the Humanities helps families and individuals to explore family history and discover how our own family stories connect to the history of our nation.

Follow this link to download it now (NOTE: Large File)

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/268

The spirit of Rachel Carson lives on, instilling in the Earth’s human population awareness of its fragile environment and an urgency to protect it from toxins.

Although it’s been 40 years since the publication of her runaway bestseller, “Silent Spring” (1962), Carson remains one of the greatest nature writers of America and one of America’s Top 100 Scientists according to a Time magazine poll.

“The beauty of the living world I was trying to save,” she wrote in a letter to a friend in 1962, “has always been uppermost in my mind — that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done. I have felt bound by a solemn obligation to do what I could — if I didn’t at least try I could never be happy again in nature. But now I can believe that I have at least helped a little. It would be unrealistic to believe one book could bring a complete change.”

A Naturalist Is Born

Rachel Carson

Born May 27, 1907 in Springdale, Pa., Carson graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College) in 1929, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her master’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. While attending the university, she was published in the Baltimore Sun.

She began a 15-year career in federal service as a scientist and editor in 1936 and rose to become editor-in-chief of all publications for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Her first book, “Under the Sea Wind” (Oxford University Press 1941), was published just before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Lost in the tide of war, the book was largely overlooked.

Her next book, “The Sea Around Us” (Oxford University Press 1951), was first serialized in The New Yorker, and caused such a stir that it became a bestseller when finally printed. It was followed by “The Edge of the Sea” (Houghton Mifflin Company 1955) and then by “Silent Spring” (Houghton Mifflin Company 1962).

As early as 1945, Carson had become alarmed by government abuse of chemical pesticides (such as DDT) and pest-control programs that poisoned with little regard for the welfare of other animals.

“The more I learned about the use of pesticides, the more appalled I became,” Carson recalled. “I realized that here was the material for a book. What I discovered was that everything which meant most to me as a naturalist was being threatened, and that nothing I could do would be more important.”

Carson eloquently penned her dire warnings in “Silent Spring”: “There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings . . . Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change . . . There was a strange stillness . . . The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices.”

In a vile attack to undermine Carson, chemical companies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture had only increased public awareness. “Silent Spring” became a bestseller and is regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. Sense of Wonder Carson died in 1964 at the age of 56 following a long struggle with breast cancer, but her enduring love and wonder for the universe — and her ability to provoke the same sense in others — was posthumously published in New York.

“The Sense of Wonder,” by Carson with photographs by Charles Pratt (Harper & Row 1965), encourages adults to endow every child with “a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” Her narrative charts a path for adults and children to take together on a journey of discovery — the same path she took with her grandnephew, Roger, to whom the book is dedicated.

In her book, “The Sense of Wonder,” Carson encourages parents and other adults to overcome their sense of inadequacy when confronting the complex natural world and instead concentrating on how they “feel” instead of what they “know.” “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in,” she writes. “It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.”

What are you waiting for? Go outside and reawaken your own sense of wonder.

We also have helped individuals prepare technologically for careers in mass media or just learn a new hobby. From 13-year-olds creating their very first e-mail accounts and blogs, to 85-year-olds editing their manuscripts on a laptop, our students come from all walks of life. The one thing they have in common is curiosity and a bit of bravado, which is all it takes to tackle cloud applications like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hootsuite, Skype, YouTube, PayPal, Amazon, Dropbox, Picasa. A bit of practice is all it takes to efficiently use technical tools such as mobile phones, eReaders, webcams, camcorders, routers, notebooks and netbooks.

Students in a Classroom

There are many useful sources of instruction and I’ve gathered a few on this site for one purpose — to allow you to explore and learn about the various media on your own time, and on your own terms. Consider these articles, podcasts and videos as free workshops that you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Many of these lessons are short, so don’t let time or expenses prevent you from learning how to harness the power of the Internet.

Start exploring now by following the topics listed under this WORKSHOPS tab. They include GOOGLE TUTORIALS and WORDPRESS TUTORIALS.

Even more video tutorials are archived under the TV link, viewable in Livestream. Livestream is our Internet TV Station and features videos on a variety of topics. Occasionally, there will be live broadcasts and webinars but, for your viewing pleasure, we have included our video library of Omnibus Workshops, Writers and Authors. You may watch videos that play automatically, ON-AIR, or you may choose the ON-DEMAND option and explore.

A Message from Robin Van Auken

I’ve spent the past 25 years working in the field of communication. But the old ways aren’t working anymore. Textbooks are outdated after one year and this isn’t only relevant in communications but in business, as well.

For example, my work as an online editor means that every day I am creating content or editing content created by my contributors that consists of text, photos, canned video, live streaming video and podcasts. My writers and I produce this content using hardware such as computers and netbooks, iPads, webcams, Flip Videos, standard camcorders and even mobile phones.

In addition to updating and maintaining various web sites, we promote content through applications such as Twitter and Facebook, and communicate with other writers who specialize in blogs. We generate and use RSS feeds. Do you?

There are a variety of social media and Web 2.0 applications and they seem to change in popularity about every few months. How do we know which one is still useful? You need to understand what is available, how to use it, why to use it, when to discard it and start using another, and how not to go crazy in a digital world. If not, you’ll use your computer to stalk old beaus via Facebook or watch puppy cams instead of working productively.

The answer is to take baby steps, always moving forward in your quest to understand what is important today. I’ve collected these helpful videos and articles to empower you with one goal: A rising tide lifts all boats. The more you understand, the better you can work; the more you are helped, the more you can help others. It’s a wiki world we live in so let’s fill it with peace and knowledge.

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Use this daily newspaper to raise your awareness of the environment and the importance of our waterways. Click on any link to read regularly updated articles of interest. Or, follow this link to visit the full newspaper: BLUE TECHNOLOGY

Oceans cover 71 percent of Earth’s surface and accounts for more than 95 percent of its life-supporting space. Because the different oceans merge into one another, forming the largest habitat on earth, our sustainability depends upon the care we give this “cradle of life.”

The three major oceans of the world are the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The Arctic Ocean surrounds the North Pole while the Southern Ocean (really the southern portion of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans) surrounds the continent of Antarctica. Not only do these oceans contribute 70 percent of our oxygen but they also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Rachel Carson explains it best in “The Sea Around Us”:

“… the sea lies all about us. The commerce of all lands must cross it. The very winds that move over the lands have been cradled on its broad expanse and seek ever to return to it. The continents themselves dissolve and pass to the sea, in grain after grain of eroded land. So the rains that rose from it return again in rivers. In its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life and receives in the end, after, it may be, many transmutations, the dead husks of that same life. For all at last return to the sea — to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.”

Click on any link to read regularly updated articles of interest. Or, follow this link to visit the full newspaper: SMALL BOAT SAILORS

Canfield Island overlooks the Susquehanna's West Branch

Canfield Island is a recent addition to the Susquehanna shoreline, having been added during the 19th century during Northcentral Pennsylvania’s lumber boom. But, before sawyers toiled in the mill, processing logs into lumber, American Indians called the area home. In fact, for the past 4,000 years or so, people have traveled to the river’s edge at Canfield, following the seasons as they hunted and gathered and eventually farmed.

Northcentral Chapter 8 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology excavated at Canfield Island during the 1970s and ’80s, under the watchful eye of James Bressler, the region’s self-taught archaeological expert and patron of prehistory. I joined Northcentral Chapter 8 at Canfield Island in 2003, bringing along my Lycoming College archaeology field school. The students experienced public archaeology as they learned method and theory alongside non-students of all ages. In fact, Bressler was in his mid-80s at the time, still spry enough to join the group and point out interesting features that cropped up during the excavation.

All artifacts, field notes and reports generated by the Lycoming College archaeology, working with Northcentral Chapter 8 and its partner the Lycoming County Historical Society, are curated at the society’s museum.

Please enjoy the following photo gallery from May 2003.

Archaeologist James Bressler visits Riverfront Heritage Park named in his honor.

A stroll along the James P. Bressler Heritage Trail on Canfield Island is invigorating and educational. It’s also tranquil, this quiet spot along the Susquehanna River’s West Branch.

The trail is part of Loyalsock Township’s Riverfront Park and is dedicated to James P. Bressler. A scholar and educator beloved in his community, Bressler carved a niche for himself in the region’s prehistory and history books with his archaeological investigations.

Located on Canfield Island in Loyalsock Township, the park contains a significant prehistoric Indian village. Bressler and members of Northcentral Chapter 8 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology excavated prehistoric sites in the area for many decades and Bressler is responsible for having the island listed with the National Register of Historic Places

“That is, in my estimation, one of the best-kept secrets in the county,” Bressler said about the trail in a previous interview. “This is a unique attempt to integrate a number of different things. First of all, local history is really not being taught in our schools because there are too many competing things to teach. I understand that. But this is a unique way to combine a pleasant walk, a history lesson, and nature study. It’s just a pleasure to walk around there.”

Excavating Native American sites for the past four decades, Bressler led several digs on and near Canfield Island, a small spit of land turned into a manufactured island by 19th-century lumber mill owners. Publishing his findings in a series of monographs, Bressler and volunteers from Northcentral Chapter No. 8, Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, have added immensely to the area’s knowledge of Native American culture as far back as 5000 B.P. (Before Present).

With this tribute to Bressler, the township acknowledged his expertise and the significance of his archaeological research. “Seldom ever, in my life, has a dream come about as this one has. This whole thing is an answer to a dream,” he said.

The park has more to offer than just scenery. When designed, park plans included a tree identification area, a butterfly habitat, and eagle nesting towers and owl boxes. In addition to the James Bressler Interpretive Trail, Riverfront Park features a pavilion, a boat dock, several fishing access points, a large multipurpose field and a bike path.

“It’s very important to everybody. In the fist place, the Susquehanna River, in my estimation, is one of the greatest assets Pennsylvania has. Fresh water flowing by your doorstep. But if you have no access to it, you’re limited in how much you can enjoy it,” he said. “This park is part of a much larger, long-range plan.”

In his honor, Loyalsock Township developed a one-half-mile walking trail. Interpretive signs stretch along the trail, describing prehistoric life along the river, as well as events from modern times.

A “Welcome” sign acknowledges trail underwriters and orients the visitor.

The signs use photos, maps, illustrations and text to help visitors learn about three archaeological sites, The West Branch of the Susquehanna River (Otzinachson), the Sheshequin Trail, the Canfield and Colton Sawmill, the death of Capt. James Brady, the Revolutionary War “Cannon Hole.”

“It’s all a part of what we call heritage. This is what everybody inherits. But few people know about it. What good is an excavation, for instance, if we don’t issue a report and say, ‘Here is what we found. Here is what it means.’ Unless you say that, what have you done? Nothing but vandalism. Destroyed an irreplaceable resource,” Bressler said, adding, “So if you undertake doing a dig, you also undertake the responsibility of doing it in detail and making it part of the permanent record. That’s not a sermon; that’s a doggoned fact. That’s why I’m doing it.”

It is primarily because of Bressler’s research that Canfield Island was named to National Register. His research and excavations were, Bressler said, the Alpha; the trail is the Omega.

“By itself (archaeological research), it is incomplete. It has no means of expressing itself. It’s manifested in the trail. There, you’re touching the past. And if you want to know a great deal more, you come up here (Lycoming County Historical Society) and flesh out your interest. It’s all part of a larger effort.”

The James P. Bressler Heritage Trail is open to the public. Directions to the park: From I-180/US-220, take exit 23B toward Montoursville/Warrensville Road. Merge onto East Third Street/Old Montoursville Road. Turn right at Canfield Lane (0.4 miles) then turn right at Greevey Road. The park entrance is 0.3 miles on the left.

Hobie Mirage Kayaks

Hobie, a leading catamaran design company, expanded and introduced a line of sit-on-top kayaks, fishing kayaks and float cats. One of its more useful boats for use on local creeks, lakes and rivers is the pedal-driven Hobie Mirage Kayak.

A river reputed to be “a mile wide and a foot deep,” Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River’s depth is due to its age. During millions of years of existence, the mighty river has literally moved mountains and eroded the landscape to its present shallow, rocky state.  There are few areas that are amenable to boaters on the Susquehanna and, because of this, the boat perhaps best suited is the kayak. And given that the river, which is fed by numerous creeks and streams, has a strong current in places, the Hobie Mirage is the kayak of choice.

The Hobie Mirage is a unique boat with three forms of propulsion – you can pedal it, paddle it or sail it. Pedaling is quiet and creates no splash, and leaves your hands free for fishing, taking photos or holding a drink.

This sit-on-top kayak can be used by people of all ages and sizes thanks to its movable seat mount. It is a lightweight pedaling kayak that can be adapted to fit paddlers from age six to eighty, from four feet to over six and everyone in between.

The MirageDrive is simple and easy to use, and you pedal effortlessly similar to a bicycle. The larger leg muscles produce more powerful propulsion versus arms using a paddle.

The manufacturer tested the heart rates of several kayakers at varying speeds in several paddled kayak models. In every case, the heart rate, or effort expended to maintain a particular speed, was three to ten percent less for pedaling versus paddling.

This means the MirageDrive converts the effort of the human body into forward thrust more efficiently than a paddle.

Underwater, Hobie’s MirageDrive fins work similar to a penguin’s fins. Steering the kayak is easy with the hand-controlled rudder and, when not in use, the fin blades can be tucked up against the hull, making for beach landings.

Hobie builds the boats with a variety of recesses for stowing gear. A plug-in cart makes for easy portaging across rocky terrain both in, and out, of the water.

If you’re sailing, you steer with one hand, control the mainsheet with the other hand and pedal with your feet. The fins provide lateral resistance like the centerboard of a sailboat. The optional sail furls around the mast and can be stowed on the deck. Stretch cords hold it in place.
It’s the kind of boat that offers versatility and ease of use, which means it’s a boat that will be used more often.

Test drive the MirageDrive

By ROBIN VAN AUKEN

Boat shows are a great place to compare kayaks

FLORIDA—After viewing the Hobie Mirage line of kayaks at boat shows in Annapolis and Baltimore, my husband, Lance, and I decided we were interested in buying a couple. But, at about $1,600 each, we wanted to “test drive” the boat first.

There are few Hobie dealers in Pennsylvania, and none that were renting the kayak during the winter. We made the difficult decision to leave town (and a few inches of snow) and visit our hometown in Florida. Using the Internet, I had contacted a variety of kayak dealers in the Tampa Bay area and found one that rented Hobies for the day.

We reserved two Hobie Mirages – the Outback, a kayak that’s designed for fishermen, and the Revolution, a hybrid that offered the utility of the Outback, but the speed of the Adventure line.

Take a look at Hobie’s Web site for descriptions and details on its complete line of watercraft: www.HobieCat.com.

We also rented a trailer, wanting to see how easy it is to load and tow the kayaks. If it’s easy, we’ll probably use them more often. At least I hope so; I already have an Old Town sit-inside kayak that is collecting dust in my garage. It’s too heavy for me to heft on top of my car, so I seldom use it.

Test driving the pedal-driven Hobie Mirage Kayak was fun and easy, and the flippers could be raised in the shallows. The ability to switch between paddle and pedal meant more time on the water, and more distance covered in less time.

We got an early start and drove to Fort DeSoto, a Florida state park that recently claimed fame as America’s best beach in 2005 and in 2008. We were impressed with the changes to the park, such as new sand for the formerly shell-strewn beach, bike paths, boat launches, kayak rentals, concessions and other vendors, as well as a dog park.

We scouted the area for a quiet spot among the mangroves to launch. It only took us a half-hour to prepare the boats – 20 minutes of that was to figure out that we couldn’t figure out how to use the sail, and to slather on sunscreen. It may have been mid-winter here, but on the Gulf of Mexico, the temperatures were nearing 80.

I chose the pretty blue Revolution, leaving my husband with the beige Outback. I had looked forward to this moment and was excited about adding another boat to our “fleet.” Within minutes I was frustrated and disappointed. The seat wasn’t adjusted properly and I was reclining too much. The pedals were too far away. The kayak was too narrow and my bottled water wouldn’t sit properly in the recessed drink holder. Meanwhile, Lance was pedaling circles around me and exclaiming about how much he enjoyed the boat.

After a half-hour of gritting my teeth and cursing myself for believing the boat show salesman, I asked if we could switch boats.

That’s when it all went right. Like Cinderella, my rear end found the perfect fit. Lance took a few extra minutes to help me adjust the pedals before jumping into his kayak. Finally, I was able to pedal and paddle circles around him. We both decided that for us, the Outback was the best kayak. We spent a couple of hours speeding past other kayakers – who stared covetously at our boats – exploring the mangroves and salt flats of Mullet Key. We quietly approached nesting eagles and snapped photos, watched fish forage just inches below the surface, and luxuriated in the sunshine.

So, it’s decided. We’re ordering a couple of Hobie Mirage Outbacks and a trailer soon, giving us yet another option to enjoy the lakes and creeks and rivers of Pennsylvania.

See you on the water.

Article source: http://www.robinvanauken.com/archives/255

Working with Muncy Historical Society and the students (past and present) of Muncy Jr/Sr High School, historian Robin Van Auken created a 30-minute DVD oral history project that features 35 alumni and current student interviews.

Historical Society volunteers and Muncy students collaborated on this important project as one component of the 75th anniversary celebration of Muncy’s High School. Since the release of the DVD, several alumni have passed away, reinforcing the importance of conducting oral histories for preservation of a community.

Each contributor received a DVD of their interview; more than 12 hours of raw video was edited into this glance through school days during the 20th and 21st centuries. DVDs are available from Muncy Historical Society.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/school-days

Pennsylvania’s forests reflect a history of choices — from peaceful coexistence between humans and the forests to the massive harvesting of the forests in the late 1800s. Pennsylvania’s borders encompass 17 million acres of forestland, almost 4 million acres of which are publicly owned. However, more than 12 million acres are under private ownership. Which of today’s choices will affect Pennsylvania’s forests tomorrow?

Pennsylvania Route 554

THE LUMBER MUSEUM
Pennsylvania’s Lumber Museum preserves the rich legacy of Penn’s Woods and tells the story of these beautiful woodlands.

THE HERITAGE REGION
The Lumber Heritage Region holds a key to the rich heritage of Pennsylvania’s forests–from the struggles of the pioneers to the cut-and-run practices of the early lumber industry to the conservation efforts that led to the managed forests of today.

Funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and The Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region, Copyright 2007 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/pennsylvanias-forests

Woodhicks

The Lumber Heritage Region holds a key to the rich heritage of Pennsylvania’s forests–from the struggles of the pioneers to the cut-and-run practices of the early lumber industry to the conservation efforts that led to the managed forests of today.

Pennsylvania’s forests reflect a history of choices — from peaceful coexistence between humans and the forests to the massive harvesting of the forests in the late 1800s.

Pennsylvania’s borders encompass 17 million acres of forestland, almost 4 million acres of which are publicly owned. However, more than 12 million acres are under private ownership.

Which of today’s choices will affect Pennsylvania’s forests tomorrow?

Funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and The Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region, Copyright 2007 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/lumber-heritage

West Branch of the Susquehanna

The Susquehanna is a shallow river that flows about 440 miles, from Cooperstown to the Chesapeake Bay. Nearly 200 years ago, canals were used to transport goods and people instead of the river. Canal boats would use the river where it was deeper, or where dams had raised the water level.

The Susquehanna, stretching approximately 440 miles from New York to Maryland, is the longest river on the East Coast. Its North Branch, which begins at Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, N.Y., often is regarded as an extension of the main branch. Its primary tributary, the West Branch, rises in western Pennsylvania and joins the North Branch near Sunbury. The river drains into in the Chesapeake Bay.

The ancient river is possibly the oldest major system in the world, far older than the mountains through which it flows. Geologists believe that the mighty Susquehanna cut through the mountains even as they were forming nearly 300 million years ago. If so, the river predates the Atlantic Ocean.

Time, however, has reduced the river to a shallow waterway. Early settlers lamented that the Susquehanna was “a mile wide, a foot deep.”

The river is so shallow, small islands appear in the summer

The West Branch of the Susquehanna River, when navigable, afforded an economical and ready means of transporting articles down river, but to push a large boat or even a canoe against the rapid current, or over the shoals and rifts, was a formidable undertaking.

West Branch of the Susquehanna River

The first attempt to navigate the river by steamboat worked. The “Codorus” was 60-feet long, 9-feet wide, had a sheet-iron hull. Unloaded, its draft was 7 inches. The boat made a successful trip up the Susquehanna from Harrisburg in March and April 1826, reaching Binghamton, N.Y.

The second attempt, however, ended in disaster. The “Susquehanna,” at 80-feet with a beam of 14 feet, carried nearly 200 people. On May 3, 1826, the ship attempted to pass Nescopeck Falls (also called Nescopeck rapids). There, the river’s high ridge and shallow water forces the water into a narrow channel, creating a whirlpool. Navigation there is normally impossible, but the captain thought that the high water would permit it. The steamboat went aground on the rocks near the shore. A crew was holding down the safety valve, and the strain caused a boiler to explode.

Although the boat was not seriously damaged, two men were killed by escaping steam. Many others were scalded. The accident put an end to steamship navigation of the Susquehanna and led to renewed interest in building the Pennsylvania Canal.

Dug by men whose tools were picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, the local canals measured 28-feet wide on the bottom, 40-feet wide at the top and 8- to 10-feet deep.

The West Branch Canal was constructed between 1828 and 1834, formally opening on July 4, 1834. At this time, the canal only reached the mouth of Loyalsock Creek. The first packet boat to navigate the West Branch Canal was the “James Madison.”

Article source: http://smallboatsailors.com/archives/mighty-susquehanna

Shawn Gardner

Artisan Shawn Gardner, of Fair Chase Designs, presents on prehistoric technology and Native American art. This is presentation is suitable for people of all ages, including families and school-aged children.

Gardner lives in Montoursville, often presents programs to people who visit his teepee on school field trips. He also offers seminars and classes. Gardner specializes in making custom bows, arrows, quivers, antler and bone carvings, and jewelry of horn, wood, stone and silver. Utilizing prehistoric methods, he manufactures drums and musical instruments, makes birch bark baskets other containers, hunts and processes animal hides, knaps flint and manufactures stone tools and weapons,

Gardner brings many items of interest to his presentation, which is educational as well as entertaining. Learn more about Gardner at Hands On Heritage.

To learn more about Gardner’s unique gifts, seminars and classes, contact the artisan by calling 570-368-2489.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/8

Barbara Barnes

Barnes operates Emerald Falls Pottery in her Montoursville studio. There, she creates her stoneware vessels and teaches wheel-thrown pottery. She specializes in terra cotta garden vases, flower vases, unique art deco-style pottery and primitive pit-fired vessels. She also creates unique table-top water fountains.

All are hand thrown and most are made of high-fire stoneware, which she fires in an electric kiln multiple times until she gets the effects that are unique to her wares. She has shown her work at many Pennsylvania and New York state gift shops and galleries. She has been juried for many major arts festivals in Pennsylvania and New York.

To learn more about Barbara’s pottery and to schedule lessons, contact her through her website: www.EmeraldFallsPottery.com.

To download Barbara’s Pottery Review, click here Emerald Falls Pottery Review

Primitive Pit-Fired Vessels

Earth, wind and fire create the wondrous look and feel of pit-fired vessels. Each vessel goes into the pit in the same manner. After the smoke and fire licks the sides of the vessel weaving its magic hues, it becomes a thrill with every completed pot.

The basic steps are simple, but are complicated by the forces of nature; the humidity, outside temperature and the sun or clouds can affect the overall appearance of each piece. It is desirable to fire one piece at a time, due to the chance of multiple explosions and cracking due to the stress the pot undergoes.

A pit is dug large enough to accommodate the wares and the materials used for the fire. The burnished bisque fired pottery made of stoneware or porcelain is placed on a bed of coals and then surrounded with combustible materials and set on fire. The fire burns inward and with careful attention and constant care the fire burns for four to six hours. The fire is smothered with sawdust. After overnight cooling, the charred vessel is washed and when it dries the pot is polished over and over again to a high satin sheen.

Images from Smoke

When Barbara is creating stoneware, she often will see images in the mottled, dark smudges left behind by smoke during the firing process. As she burnishes the pottery the images become more dominant, similar to shapes in clouds. You may not see the same thing Barbara does, but let’s give it a try. Below are several pots with images that Barbara sees. Can you see them too?

Care for a Pit-Fired Vessel

Treat the vessel as you would a wooden piece. Approximately every three months, with a soft dust cloth, dust and wax the surface with Pledge or wax. Much like raku pottery, pit-fired vessels are decorative only and are not water tight or food safe.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/14

Joy McCracken

Joy McCracken is a spinning and weaving expert. McCracken demonstrates the craft of creating fabric from animal hair to students. One of her specialties is drop spindle spinning, an early technique for making yarn without a spinning wheel.

When she heard how the women of Bolivia used drop spindles as they were fetching wood and water for their families, McCracken asked for a basket filled with wool and a drop spindle for Christmas in 1989. She took lessons, bought her first spinning wheel shortly thereafter and then moved on to weaving, and followed with her first loom purchase.

Owner of a farm, she raises various types of goats, sheep and other animals that provide the raw materials for her work, paying particular attention to animals that produce long, strong wool fibers. She uses her interest in historic textiles and love of children’s literature to demonstrate and instruct at Bradford County ’s home textile museum, at Muncy Historical Society’s educational events, at Lycoming County ’s Day Camp and at the Warrior Run-Fort Freeland Heritage Days Festival.

Learn more about Joy McCracken at Hands on Heritage.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/19

The New Canoe

She’s gone. Dan picked “To Blave” up one bitter, cold day in April and headed for Wisconsin. He sent us a note; he and his son finally went sailing after picking up a new battery and repairing the gas tank.

Meanwhile, we bought a 14-foot, red Old Town canoe and have been going out to Bald Eagle Lake in Northcentral Pennsylvania. We wanted something simple and easy and quick for the summer. We plan on replacing our zippy little Precision K15 but with what, we’re not sure. I’ve suggested we go to a few boat shows — the Annapolis Bay and Boat Show, the Newport Boat Show, the Baltimore Boat Show … the list grows.

Truth is, I like going to boat shows and stroking shiny gel coats, sniffing that new boat smell. I like all boats — big ones, little ones. Fat ones, skinny ones. Wooden ones, glass ones. Boats with masts and boats without. We’re leaning towards a powerboat now so we can travel the canals throughout New York and Canada. It’s also easier to pull up to the pier in Georgetown on the Potomac if we’re not fighting bridges and shallow drafts.

I’ve been admiring the Ranger Tug for a few years. Now wait, before you point out that this site is “Small Boat Sailors” keep in mind that you can still be a sailor on a power boat — just can’t sail it. And the tug is trailerable, coming in 25, 27 and 29-foot lengths, so it is small.

Plus, we could ship the Ranger Tug to Europe and sail — err, navigate — the canals in France, scoot along the coastline of the Mediterranean, hangout in the turquoise bays of Greece, then back up to the UK and cross the channel and spend the summer over in England on the Thames.

In our own backyard, here in the United States, we can make the Great Loop. I just read an article about a man looping in a pontoon boat.

So, tucked away in the back of our minds is the upgrade to the Precision 23 (Boat No. 2 — the canoe doesn’t count) and then, when there’s a bit more cash in the stock fund, trade up a few more feet for the Ranger Tug. It’s a plan.

Ranger Tugs

Article source: http://smallboatsailors.com/archives/downsizing-for-the-summer

Muncy Historical Society

Muncy Historical Society and Museum of History, a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization founded in 1936, focuses on preservation and conservation of the rich history and heritage of Muncy and surrounding communities – its people, businesses, education, arts, traditions and folklore – by sponsoring educational programs and activities, through research and publication of our history, and interpretation of the museum’s collection for the community, including schools, colleges, community groups and professional historians.

The museum and research library are located at 40 N. Main Street, Muncy, Pennsylvania. In 1936 Mrs. Forrest Clapp donated her husband’s family homestead, the Thomas Clapp House, to the town of Muncy for the purpose of housing the Muncy Historical Society Museum of History. The oldest 2 ½ story section was built in 1812 and features the original fireplace and squirrel-tail beehive oven. The back staircase leads to the second floor bedroom which features pieces of locally-made furniture and the Society’s fraktur collection.

The museum collection includes a WPA-commissioned replica of Fort Muncy and military gallery, Native American artifacts, diverse and impressive artwork, a working barn loom and William Lowmiller’s jacquard attachment and a sampling of his woven coverlets.

The Muncy Heritage Park and Nature Trail is 11 acres of historical and environmentally significant property that is a park and trail to be utilized by all Lycoming County, Pennsylvania residents, as well as tourists and visitors to the Susquehanna River Valley.

The 8-Square School Marm

The Society operates the “Eight Square,” a fully restored one room schoolhouse, built in 1872, on the site of Lycoming County’s first public school. This frame structure replaced the original 8-sided log structure built in 1796. Volunteers conduct one-room living history programs by appointment. The annual Strawberry Festival and Old Fashioned School Social is held at this site in Moreland Township, approximately 3 miles east of Clarkstown, left onto Church Road from Route 442.

Muncy Historical Society’s Pennsylvania Canal Packet Boat is the reconstruction of an authentic 1860s packet/passenger cabin that has become the Society’s traveling educational exhibit. The project received 2004 Honorable Mention Award from PA Federation of Museums Historical Organizations and 2004 Certificate of Commendation from the American Association of State and Local History.

Contact Muncy Historical Society, 40 North Main Street, P.O. Box 11, Muncy, PA 17756, (570) 546-5917. On the web at http://www.MuncyHistoricalSociety.org, or e-mail MuncyHistorical@aol.com

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/24

Jack Davis and his monument to Exodusters

DUNLAP, Kansas — On a lonely, country road in Dunlap, Kan., a monument soars. An engraved stainless steel plaque stretches between two pillars of limestone and marks the family farm of a freed slave.

Built by Jack Davis, whose family bought the farm more than a century ago, the monument honors the thousands of African Americans who fled the lower Mississippi Valley for Kansas, seeking a better life.

Sometimes called “Exodusters,” a derogatory term coined by newspapers of the time, they’re former slaves who left the South in 1879 after Reconstruction failed to grant them the benefits of citizenry: the freedom to live as they chose, vote freely and own land. Instead, Reconstruction resulted in the Black Codes, new laws that reinforced oppression, exchanging the chains of slavery for the yoke of tenant farming and sharecropping.

But more than abject poverty, Exodusters fled the anarchy and violence that followed the Civil War when marauding ex-Confederate soldiers and angry Southerners forged the Ku Klux Klan. This “tide of disorder” swept through the South with its members stealing livestock, burning barns, terrorizing and killing African Americans.

Most immigrants were spurred by word of mouth, while others followed organizers such as Benjamin “Pap” Singleton of Tennessee and Henry Adams of Louisiana. Entire communities immigrated to Kansas, “the Garden Spot of the World” and home of abolitionist John Brown.

The story of the Exodusters is a difficult one to tell because, as historian Nell Irvin Painter writes in ” Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction,” it was a movement “of poor, rural Southern Blacks not sufficiently Westernized to write their own histories,” largely ignored by scholars.

It’s an important story to Davis, who built his monument to Kansas Exodusters and his family after a life-changing event: doctors diagnosed him with stage IV pancreatic cancer in spring 2010.

“My doctor finally listened to me in March 2010. She said I had spots and lesions on my liver,” Davis said. “I went to the VA (Veteran’s Administration). They said ‘don’t worry about your liver; you have stage IV pancreatic cancer. You have three months to live.’

“I just take life a day, a week at a time,” he said. “I have gone past the doctor’s timeline and am doing good. I could make it years longer. Not likely, but possible.”

So with the time he has left, he built the monument, which consists of donated steel and two massive slabs of limestone, purchased from Higgins Stone Co. of Wamego, Kan. The twin, rough-hewn pillars stand 10 feet out of the ground in the garden of the former family farm, which Davis sold in 2010 to his neighbors and friends Clayton and Patricia Finney, who moved in the area as a young couple and now operate a ranching business, Wright Creek Ltd.
There, Davis recalled, his family raised cattle, horses, hogs, chickens and other livestock, and grew wheat, milo, sorghum as silage for the cattle, corn, alfalfa and prairie hay.

“My grandfather always had a large garden. Everyone who came to our house, if they left hungry, it was their fault. I remember hearing the older folks say they starved, but if they went to the Davis place, they got full,” he said.

The son of a mixed-race couple, Davis didn’t grow up with his mother. “My daddy never married, and I haven’t either. I was the only child my dad had. Because of racial differences, families would not let them marry.”

As a child, he called his aunt Velera Davis “Mommie,” and would listen to her stories. “Since I was a child, I listened to the older folks talk. Unfortunately, my memories of the stories and the people are vague.”

One of his favorite memories of growing up in Kansas was the sense of connectedness.

“The older people were always ‘Cousin’ or ‘Aunt.’ It seemed like a big, extended family. They’ve since moved all over the U.S. and some are quite famous,” he said.

Davis also moved quite a bit, working as a “Jack of all trades, master of none,” he said.

His experience includes stints as a roofer, farmer, painter and a mechanic. He’s driven 18-wheelers in all 48 contiguous states, as well as dump and oil field trucks. A third assistant engineer, he’s served on ships around the world, including tankers, ore carriers, dive boats, supply boats and fish processors and catchers.

“I was going to sea making good money. While at home, I was rebuilding buildings and fences, trying to keep the place up,” he said. “Then, from 1979 to 1986, vandals destroyed the property. No one knew anything. My family tied up the farm. When I got it back, I could not rebuild. There were no others that I could pass it to that could and would successfully farm the place. I sold the family farm that my Dad and his father spent their lives building.”
It was a close friend’s eldest son, Terry Lyon, who helped “Uncle Jack” erect the monument along Road 300, Lyon County, in Americus, Kan.

“He has been an invaluable help, loaning tools, equipment, his help, the use of his place,” Jack said. “This would have been a lot more difficult without him.”
Although it is tucked away in rural Kansas, the monument is important to Davis personally, and should be important to the descendants of all Exodusters, he said.

“Very few people are even aware of the Exodusters. People forget, or deny, their history. Many have never heard of the contributions of their ancestors,” Davis said. “The descendants of the Kansas colonies have moved all over the U.S. and various countries. Some are successful; others are on welfare or in between.”

It is his hope that a local historical society will help preserve the monument. His lifelong friend Ustaine Talley, now in her 70s, is gathering notes and oral histories for the event. She is planning a dedication ceremony in August.

“I have tried to use durable materials so it will last for centuries,” he said. “I hope it lasts as long as the land.”

Robin Van Auken, of The Omnibus,
is a writer in Pennsylvania

A Monument to Exodusters by Robin Van Auken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.robinvanauken.com.

P15K on Lake Owasco

We sold our Precision 15K, an excellent starter sailboat. Hold on, I have to wipe a tear from my eye.

It moved to Wisconsin. A local judge there wants to use it on a lake. We corresponded for a few months and I sent him a little video of “his new boat.” Made it harder to let her go.

It came with galvanized Performance tilt trailer, a like-new 3.5 Tohatsu gas outboard motor (never used), an electric trolling motor with marine battery and charger, a tiller stay, a masthead float, transom-mounted boarding ladder, mainsail cover and jib sock, dock lines and all the accouterments that a savvy sailor would need. It’s a fast, yet comfortable daysailer with fixed, lead-ballasted keel, factory colored sails and a roller-furling jib.

Saying Goodbye

The tiller stay is handy for raising sails and also just steering. This boat is so responsive that the slightest touch can change its trajectory. A tiller stay helps us keep on course when we’re distracted with other chores.

We would recommend a Precision daysailer to anyone looking for a fast, fun boat. It was a great choice for us and when it’s not in the water, it is a beautiful lawn ornament. If you can’t be in a boat, at least be able to look at one.

So why have we made the choice to sell, if it is a perfect boat? A combination of reasons — time, a change of location, health. But the real reason is the boat wants to sail more than we can and it would be a shame to leave her on the hard.

A review by Bob Perry says this about the Precision 15K:

“An ideal trainer or family daysailer, providing both versatility and up-to-date performance. The cockpit is 9 feet, 4 inches long and the side decks are wide enough for comfortable hiking. The side decks will also help prevent swamping in the event of a knockdown. No centerboard means no centerboard trunk to interfere with the cockpit. The rig is a simple sloop rig with swept-back spreaders. It doesn’t get any more basic than this. There is a mainsheet traveler, and some attention to the vang is all that’s needed to take care of leech tension. Jib lead tracks are adjustable for close sheeting angles.”

Article source: http://smallboatsailors.com/archives/112

Public Archaeology

As a registered, professional archaeologist, I specialize in promoting history, archaeology and preservation. I work with colleges and volunteer agencies, museums and non-profit organizations, public and private schools, and avocational archaeology groups.  Public Archaeology services I offer include:

• Voluntourism projects
• School field trips
• College field schools
• Historical research, oral histories
• Ethnographic research and interviews
• Interpretive exhibits, video development
• National Register assessments, nominations
• Testing, data recovery programs

I also am an instructor at Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA, teaching American Archaeology, which includes a field school.

Contact me using the form on this site.

Article source: http://www.handsonheritage.com/archives/28

David Stone launches his sailboat at Rose Valley Lake in the mid-afternoon as fishermen haul out their boats.

The temperature simmered in the mid-90s last Sunday, but it did not deter the sailors from a rendezvous at Rose Valley Lake. As the bass boats trailered out, sailboats took their spot. There seems to be a mutual agreement – sailors do not disturb the fishermen in their early morning forays, and fishermen clear out when the sun zeniths.

It was a near-perfect day, sunny with a light breeze. Although David Stone’s opinion of perfect sailing is in the fall, he’s at Rose Valley every other Sunday during spring and summer overseeing the sailboat races.

On this race day, three Sunfish competed against each other, racing around large, orange buoys. Stone won the race with second place going to Bud Thomas, and third to Greg Bressler.

Stone, 66, is commodore of the Rose Valley Racing Club and he has two sailboats: A Sunfish that he trailers to the lake on Sundays to race against other club members, and a 17-foot Hunter that he keeps in a slip at Lake Blanchard, Bald Eagle State Park. He gives lessons on both boats.

He’s been with the club for 20 years and said he prefers his Sunfish because it’s easy to rig and sail and there are more racing opportunities with it. Stone, who lives in Williamsport, began sailing more than 50 years ago, as a child growing up in Michigan. Still, he said, even as knowledgeable as he is, checking and rechecking the weather is imperative. Once he was caught in a violent thunderstorm on Rose Valley, similar to the one that swept through the valley two weeks ago. It was, he said, his most unpleasant experience on the lake.

Bob Fisher of Nippenose Valley owns a 1979 O’Day Daysailer. The 17-foot-long sailboat has a 24-foot mast that he rigs and raises in the south parking lot of Rose Valley Lake. When his wife, Bonnie, accompanies him to the lake, she brings along a folding chair and sits and reads. She does not sail, especially since Fisher’s first attempt at sailing the O’Day in April resulted in a knock down on Rose Valley Lake.

“I tried to sail the first time since attending U.S. Navy sailing school in Norfolk 10 years ago,” Fisher, 58, said. “There were gusty winds and I found I had not retained many sailing skills.”

A Penn State graduate, Fisher is a Navy reservist with 18 years experience. He is an instructor with the Center for Navy Leadership Mid-Atlantic Region, Washington D.C. He also provides contributory support to the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, judging the Naval Science Awards Program.

“After nearly tipping over – the water actually came over the side of the boat – I headed for the closest dock just to get on land again. That closest dock ended up being about three miles from where I had launched and I had to walk back,” he said. “Then and there I made up my mind I was not going to try to sail without formal sailing lessons, which I received from the Lake Glendale Sailing Club.”

Lake Glendale Sailing Club, in Prince Gallitzin State Park, near Altoona, offers an annual one-week sailing instruction day-camp in late June. The camp is for children ages 8 and up, and adults.

Fisher and his son, Bob Jr., both took lessons with his O’Day on Lake Glendale in June. He said the experience at camp has been his most pleasant, to date.

“We were trying out our newly acquired sailing skills and, with a stiff wind of 15 miles per hour (about 12 knots), we were able to sail all around the lake and even got back to the same dock we left from,” he said. “I learned that to sail safe and enjoyably you should have professional lessons.”

Three Sunfish sailboats race around large, orange buoys on Rose Valley Lake. David Stone won the race with second place going to Bud Thomas, and third to Greg Bressler.

Locally, sailing lessons are available through the Rose Valley Sailing Club. Stone, who has a U.S. Sailing Instructor’s Certificate, offers beginning and intermediate lessons for $15 per hour to Y.M.C.A. members, $20 for non-members.

Fisher, who works for the Department of Environmental Protection as an emergency response manager, joined both Rose Valley Sailing Club and Lake Glendale Sailing Club six months ago. He said he enjoys the clubs’ camaraderie and group activities.

“They have sailboat races, picnics and get-togethers that help to continue interest in the sport of sail boating. They also offer an opportunity to increase your skills just by being around others who know how to do it better than you do,” he said.

Also, joining a club and meeting others gives the members a chance to evaluate a variety of sailboats and equipment, he said.

The O’Day he purchased is very similar to the boats he used at the Navy sailing school, and was featured in a boating magazine he had read.

“They have been around from the early 1970s and have a good reputation,” he said. “It is large enough to feel comfortable in, yet small enough to trailer. It was reasonably priced. A good used O’Day Daysailer can be purchased for between $1,000 and $4,000.”

Although it’s difficult to sail in a region dominated by powerboats, mountains regions have great lakes, mainly because of the topography and valleys with dams, Fisher said.

“Many lakes have powerboat power restrictions on them, making them great for sailing. For example, Rose Valley Lake does not allow any power except electric, and of course sail. Glendale Lake has a 20-horsepower size restriction, which limits boat size and speed to a level that sailboats are not intimidated,” he said. “On the other hand, Bald Eagle State Park has unlimited horsepower, so the boats are large and go so fast as to be annoying and unsafe at times to sailboats; and that lake also allows personal watercraft, which can be particularly annoying.”

Information about the lakes mentioned is on the Internet at www.rosevalleyboatclub.com, www.lakeglendalesailingclub.org and www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks.

Learn how ot handle lines properly

There’s value in sailors learning how to properly tie a knot because a bad thing can happen with poorly tied knots: The boat could drift away.

A short walk down a long pier on Cayuga Lake revealed an assortment of knot-tying techniques, mostly sloppy and dangerous. Wrapping a line (that’s what sailors call ropes) around and around a cleat until it’s a mass of cordage won’t guarantee that the boat is secure to the dock. Neither will slipping a spliced line through the eye of a cleat and then looping it over an ear. At best, this is a temporary solution.

To secure the boat to a dock or secure a line to the boat, most people use the cleat hitch. To do this, first take the line to the ear of the cleat furthest from where the line comes from the load. Make one wrap around the base of the cleat and then start a figure eight across the top of the opposite ear. Finish with a half hitch turned under so that the line is coming away from the cleat in the opposite direction from which it came.

Once the line is secure, it’s inappropriate to leave a tangled mass of lines. Leftover line lying haphazardly on the dock can trip people, or the line can fall into the water and get wet. It also can get knotted up preve
There are three recommended methods for stowing extra line on a dock:

• The first is to coil it in a flat spiral. This method is tidy and uses minimal space. However, some boaters are concerned that leaving a line coiled results in mildew and sun damage.
• The second method is to form a daisy chain. Boaters do this by making a small loop close to the cleat then pulling a length of the line through the loop making a second loop, and so on until the line ends. This method allows air to circulate around the line, hopefully preventing mildew. Daisy chains easily fall out and look decorative on a dock.
• The third method is to coil the remainder and hang it from a hook on a nearby piling.

Owning and sailing a boat is an expensive hobby so take a few extra minutes and take care of the equipment.

Not only is a properly tied cleat hitch secure, it is attractive. The extra line is coiled next to the cleat.

This boat is in danger of drifting away. The line is loosely and incorrectly wrapped around the cleat.

Here is an example of properly tied cleat with the extra line coiled on the dock.

The extra line on this dock has been tidily formed into a chain to prevent mildew.

This line is not properly tied and because the extra line has been wrapped around the cleat, it will take extra time to release it.

This is an example of an improper cleat hitch, and despite the fact that the line is balled around the cleat, it will not guarantee security.

Boat No. 2 ... Maybe?

I admit it — I’ve been waffling. There are so many awesome boats available and every time I go to a boat show I fall in love with a new one. Or one that’s not suitable for our lifestyle.

Lance, however, has not waffled. He’s rolled his eyes a few times (a lot of times), and he’ll admit he’s impressed by the loveliness of the Gozzard, or the practicality of the Ranger Tug, or the appeal of a gaff-rigged catboat, but whenever I go back to our original choice and say, “Okay, that’s it — let’s get the Precision 23″ he promptly agrees.

Why can’t I trust my first impression? We’ve gone to numerous boat shows and each time I walk aboard a new boat I change my mind. I want this one, I say pointing to the Hallberg-Rassy. Then the Cornish Crabber catches my eye. Do I want beautiful sleek lines, or traditional and salty? I want them all.

But the one boat that we keep coming back to is the Precision 23, a small, easy-to-sail, and easy-to-maintain boat with a shallow keel that can be trailered to our destination. We have sold our Precision 15K, which we loved. We wanted to move on because it’s small and we want something we can use overnight (a polite way of saying it has to have a porta potti). We can keep the Precision 23 on the trailer during the winter and during the summer, plunk it down on one of the Finger Lakes. Lance’s brother has a cabin on a lake and it’s a great excuse for a visit.

And, when we retire early to a condo on a golf course by the bay in our Florida hometown, leaving this blasted northern state and all its snow and ice, we can pull it behind the truck and plunk it down at the dock and cruise the calm, shallow waters of Tampa Bay. Ahhhhh.

Precision 23 Specs

LOA – 23′ 5″

LWL – 20′ 0″
BEAM – 8′ 6″
DRAFT, Board up – 1′ 11″
DRAFT, Board down – 5′ 4″
Displacement – 2,450 lbs.
Ballast – 850 lbs. (Internal fixed lead)
Sail area – 248 sq. ft.
Mast height above DWL – 35′ 4″
Designer: — Jim Taylor

Design Notes

Here are design notes by Jim Taylor (from the Precision Boatsworks website): Design Comments

Considered to be a “maxi-trailerable”, the Precision 23 far outstrips many boats in terms of true usable space, both on deck and below. Special emphasis has gone into giving the P-23 her particular bright and uncluttered interior. The bulkheads are intentionally trimmed back to avoid subdividing the visual space. Of special note, the typical intrusive mast compression support post has been eliminated by clever use of a rugged overhead support beam fiberglassed to the deck. The especially large companionway, multiple cabin ports and forward hatch contribute to the feeling of light open space. The double berth forward is generous and there are full sized berths aft which will accommodate 3 more.

The portable head has a dedicated space forward and the fixed galley is aft where it is convenient to both cabin and cockpit.

The Precision 23 hull represents a very careful refinement of the basic form that has proven so successful in all of our well known trailerable cruisers. Lively performance, reliable handling and high stability are all the hallmarks of these designs. They feature a sharp waterline entry, substantial topside flare forward and powerful quarters taper to a shapely transom. This precise combination of features avoids the trim and handling problems that less well balanced hulls suffer when heeled. This design provides a reassuring margin of both reserve buoyancy forward and ensures more knockdown stability.

For trailerable boats, winged keels and water ballast are more of an inexpensive expedient than a sensible design. The well proven internally ballasted shoal draft fixed keel with fiberglass centerboard used in the Precision 23 is the most practical solution for combining upwind efficiency and stability. This design allows the dense internal lead ballast to be placed as low as possible for increased stability. And the fiberglass centerboard is easily raised/lowered by a simple Dacron line. The centerboard provides lift for great pointing ability yet is easily raised up for increased off wind sailing.

The P-23 features a simple fractional rig mast that is easy put up and with her short spreaders inboard chainplates, upwind performance is impressive. A generous cockpit 7′ 3″ long with coamings high enough to keep your crew secure and the low sleekly styled cabin house provides excellent visibility forward. The cockpit seats are angled for maximum comfort both heeled and at anchor, the result of careful ergonomic design development. A ventilated fuel storage area and large cockpit sail locker round out the roomy cockpit.

The Precision 23 is a well thought out, meticulously detailed and carefully constructed trailerable cruiser whose interior lively performance will give you and your family one of the best sailing boats available in this size range.

 

 

Article source: http://smallboatsailors.com/archives/boat-no-2

The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, located at the City Dock in historic Annapolis, is the only memorial in the country that commemorates the actual name and place of arrival of an enslaved African. The sculpture group features author Alex Haley seated before a group of three children of different ethnic backgrounds. Holding a book open on his lap, he recounts his family's history and that of the Annapolis port as the symbolic beginning of the history and journey of African Americans.

If you’ve ever wanted to know who you are and where you came from, you’re not alone. More than 100 million Americans are looking for their roots, a remarkable explosion in genealogical research inspired, in part, by author Alex Haley who discovered his own “Roots” three decades ago. In fact, family research and genealogy is one of America’s favorite leisure-time activities.

Many parents keep track of the accomplishments of their children – recording first steps and saving locks of hair in a traditional baby’s first album. These precious mementos are stored away and, as a child matures, a parent will accumulate photo albums and scrapbooks, filled with school-related memorabilia.

But how do children understand their relationship with other family members – many of whom they’ve never met? And how do children understand their context of American history?

Every child born before 2001 has lived through the most tragic — and most visible — event in America’s history: the terrorists’ attack on the World Trade Center. This becomes part of their history. Every child born before 1998 has lived through the impeachment proceedings against former U.S. President Bill Clinton (although the U.S. Senate acquitted him of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in 1998).

Your 6-year-old might not realize the importance of the cloning of the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, but the medical advances scientists have made since that 1997 venture could prolong the child’s life by 50 years or more. It’s important for your child — and for you — to identify, interpret and preserve your family’s visual history.

My History Is America's History

One of the best tools for accomplishing this is to use a guidebook such as “My History Is America’s History.” An initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, “My History Is America’s History” is designed to encourage and help you explore your family history, discover your family’s place in American history and make your own contribution to history. Using the NEH’s guidebook is an opportunity for every American to be an historian — to remember, to record and to see things in the “big picture.”

These books are no longer available free from the NEH, however, you can download a PDF from Hands On Heritage.

You may even consider taking a “My History Is America’s History” workshop — a gathering place for sharing family stories, for meeting folks in the community who are prepared to share or help with your voyage of historical discovery, and for getting the scoop on Web sites, books, films, and places to visit where our nation’s past is seen through the triumphs and trials of ordinary families.

Here are some of the meanings of “My History Is America’s History”:

• We all share ownership and have a stake in America’s past, present and future.
• Every American family’s story is a part of the making of our nation.
• Ordinary men and women play an important role in history.
• Oral histories, family stories, letters and diaries are valuable resources.
• Family history and genealogy are meaningful when put in a larger context.
• History needs to include the example and testimony of those who lived it to be appreciated.

Some people wish to take their history a step further and create a memoir to share with family members or as a legacy for future generations. Such projects could be the results of long-term research. A short-term project would focus on a central idea you want to write about such as: your experiences in World War II, Korea, Vietnam or the Gulf War; a special trip; your high school life; raising your family; character sketches; the birth of each child; falling in love and other important events in your life.

Whatever you choose to recall and record, remember that your history is America’s history.

Robin Van Auken, of The Omnibus,
is a writer in Pennsylvania


My History Is America's by Robin Van Auken is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.robinvanauken.com.

Newport, RI

NEWPORT, RI – Seagulls surf the bitter wind off Narragansett Bay as a lone lobster boat chugs home. By January, the blue bay in Newport, the “Sailing Capital of the World,” is empty and few people remain in the small coastal town.

The lovely 12-meter yachts used in the internationally famous America’s up Race have been stored for the winter, and most of the seasonal residents have fled to either the Bahamas or Florida.

Don’t be discouraged, however, by the fact that Newport is a seasonal destination. An off-season weekend means you’ll have the whole town to yourselves. It is also a chance to admire the geography and geology of area instead of having your view blocked by sailboats and people. For example, the beaches are deserted, and the roads are traffic-free.

Visitors to Newport usually have two destinations in mind: Thames Street with its specialty shops, restaurants and wharfs, and Bellevue Avenue to tour the Newport Mansions, a collection of 11 historically significant properties and landscapes maintained by the Preservation ociety of Newport County.

Newport mansion

Many of these glorious mansions were built during America’s Gilded Age by captains of industry, millionaires whose fortunes were made in steamships, railroad and coal.

The most popular mansion on the tour is The Breakers, the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” that belonged to Cornelius Vanderbilt II. In 1893, Vanderbilt commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt and an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo.

Cornelius’ brother, William, also build a summer house in Newport, but his “cottage,” Marble House, was a social and architectural landmark. Marble House also was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and set the pace for Newport’s transformation from a quiet summer colony of wooden houses to the legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. It cost $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble.

The Elms, another popular mansion, was the summer residence of Edward Julius Berwind, who made his fortune in the Pennsylvania coal industry. In 1898, the Berwinds engaged architect Horace Trumbauer to design a house modeled after the mid-18th century French chateau d’Asnieres. Construction of The Elms was completed in 1901 at a cost reported at approximately $1.4 million.

Another popular mansion, Rosecliff, was commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899 and designed by architect Stanford White after the Grand Trianon, the garden.

Only a few of the mansions are open year-round, but many are decorated for Christmas. More information and a schedule are available online at www.NewportMansions.org.

Although many of the specialty shops in town are closed for the season, a few are open and two spots that preserve the ambiance of Newport are the Armchair Sailor Books and Charts at 543 Thames Street, and the Red Parrot Restaurant at 348 Thames Street.

The Armchair Sailor bookstore is operated by Bluewater Books and Charts, and is accessible on foot or by dinghy, not that many “yachties” are visiting in winter. Operated by a staff of lifelong boaters, it is America’s largest nautical bookstore and chart agency, specializing n serving yacht owners and crew. For landlubbers, the shop is a wonderful introduction to sailing and adventures at sea.

Red Parrot Restaurant

The building that houses the Red Parrot Restaurant is listed on the National Register, and was built in 1898 by John Alton Barker. Originally a meat packing house, through the years it has hosted a variety of estaurants serving heads of state, diplomats, royalty, movie stars and thousands of sailors and tourists. It serves steaks and seafood with a Caribbean flair.

After tiring of mansions, shops and restaurants, consider a walk around Fort Adams. Built at the mouth of the Newport Harbor, Fort Adams State Park looks over both the harbor and the east passage of Narragansett Bay, so wear a hat and muffler during your off-season hike.

Ford Adams

Established on July 4th, 1799, as a First System coastal fortification, Ford Adams was first commanded by Captain John Henry, who was later instrumental in the onset of the War of 1812. Construction of the fort began in 1824 and took nearly 30 years to complete.

The fort was used briefly by the U.S. Naval Academy during the Civil War. On April 25, 1861, the frigate U.S.S. Constitution carried academy midshipmen to Newport. By Civil War’s end, 400 graduates had served in the Union Navy and 95 in the Confederate Navy. Of that total, 23 graduates were killed in battle or died of wounds. On August 9, 1865, the Naval Academy returned to Annapolis.

During the warmer months, the park is the popular for its fishing, boating, soccer, rugby, and picnicking. Fort Adams is also the site of annual summer concerts and festivals.

For more information about Newport, its history and its businesses, and to request a free travel guide, contact the Newport Chamber of Commerce at www.NewportChamber.com.

Key West sunset

KEY WEST— It is time for the annual migration of snowbirds. Houses are secured, SUVs are packed, and neighbors are waved farewell. Those fortunate enough to have a lifestyle that allows them to trade views of white snow for white sand are heading south.

The rest of us are left behind, envious, while these snowbirds (nix avis) head down Interstate 95 to Florida, often staying for several months.

Believe it or not, there are a few Florida natives that have reversed the trend and moved north. We’re the ones who are most envious because Yankee retirees are going to stroll our beaches, collect our sea shells, drink our Margaritas.

Dang it; why did we move?

There is a vaccination for winter, however. A concentrated blast of South Florida hedonism that carries through the long, cold months until June (when spring really arrives in Pennsylvania). And that’s a quick trip to Key West.

The southernmost city in the United States, closer to Havana than Miami, Key West is three miles wide by five miles long. It’s where U.S. Highway One begins. It once was the home to author Ernest Hemmingway and the hometown of singer Jimmy Buffett. You really don’t need more than three or four days in Key West, if you plan the trip well.

Day One, you arrive in Key West via airplane. For gosh sakes, don’t fly into Miami and then drive to the Keys. That’s a waste of time that could be better spent doing the “Duval Crawl.” The Crawl, by the way, is an ambitious venture down the main drag stopping in at every pub or bar, having one tropical drink after another, listening to live music and making new friends. A tradition in several bars is to leave a business card and wait – sometimes for years – for a “drunk dial.” That’s when a slightly sloshed person visiting the same bar notices your card and calls and you tell them to “have one for you!”

Hemmingway's House

Day Two, you sleep off the Duval Crawl and around 1 p.m. or so, sneak into the hotel restaurant for a very light breakfast of coffee and toast, then sleep for awhile at the swimming pool. When it’s dusk, you go back to Duval but this time you concentrate on the restaurants and the art galleries and watching the sunset at Mallory’s Pier.

Day Three, you take a boat trip or a plane ride to the Dry Tortugas for an afternoon of sightseeing and snorkeling. When you return to your hotel, sun burnt and exhausted, you shower, nap and then head for Duval Street and another evening of the Crawl. This time you limit yourself. Nothing to prove.

Day Four, if you’re still in Key West, you need to head back downtown and pick up presents for friends and family, grab lunch at the Conch Republic and continue down the marina to book a sailboat, sunset cruise. Don’t forget to pick up a small bottle of champagne and toast the most magnificent sunset in North America.

Day Five, catch the airplane home. Sigh.

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, Florida Keys

DRY TORTUGAS – If you can swim – okay, if you can float – then you can snorkel and the best snorkeling in North America is at Dry Tortugas National Park, nearly 70 miles west of Key West. Its shallow waters have spectacular views and are perfect for beginners and experts.

The Dry Tortugas is a cluster of seven islands, composed of coral reefs and sand. The area is famous for its bird and marine life, and its legends of pirates and sunken gold.

Often called the “Gateway to the Gulf,” it was an important landmark to passing ships beginning with Juan Ponce de Leon who first recorded it in 1513. The Spaniards found an abundance of sea turtles or “Tortugas” using the islands as nesting grounds, and provisioned their ships with fresh meat. But the Tortugas were dry, meaning no fresh water so it was renamed “Dry Tortugas” to warn mariners of the lack of water.

The reefs and shoals of the Dry Tortugas have been a serious hazard to navigation and the site of hundreds of shipwrecks and, beginning in 1825, the United States government has maintained a lighthouse on Garden Key.

Key West's seafaring tradition lives on at the renovated Historic Seaport district, known locally as the Key West Bight. Not only do local fishermen and visiting millionaires use this marina, but sailboat charters and ferry boats to the Dry Tortugas sail from these docks.

The U.S. military utilized its strategic location in the Florida Straits and began constructing the massive Fort Jefferson there in 1846. Like many pre-Civil War forts, it was never completed because the invention of the rifled cannon made it obsolete. This probably was a great relief to soldiers stationed there because the relentless heat and disease outbreaks (yellow fever) made it an undesirable post.

Fort Jefferson lost its military value, but the area was still admired for its unspoiled coral reefs and its plentiful sea and bird life. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt set aside Fort Jefferson and the surrounding waters as a national monument. In 1992, the area was designated as Dry Tortugas National Park protecting its historical and natural features.

Getting there is the hardest part of enjoying the Dry Tortugas. Once on the main island, you can visit Fort Jefferson, which offers daily 45-minute guided tours. Sport fishing is permitted but a license is required. Private boaters can visit and tie up at the park docking and picnic or camp. Bird watching is renowned and at certain times of the year the skies are raucous and noisy with nesting and mating tropical birds. Turtles still lumber onto the beach each summer to bury eggs.

Almost 70 miles (112.9 km) west of Key West lies a cluster of seven islands, composed of coral reefs and sand, called the Dry Tortugas. Along with the surrounding shoals and waters, they make up Dry Tortugas National Park. The area is known for its famous bird and marine life, its legends of pirates and sunken gold, and its military past.

But it’s the snorkeling that is the primary attraction at the Dry Tortugas. Even the novice can enjoy the myriad of colorful tropical fish and living coral by exploring the island straight off a brilliant, white sand beach.

The water remains shallow for several yards and swimmers and snorkelers must stand in the sand, never on coral or sea grass. As a national park, regulations forbid you from taking coral, conch, lobster or ornamental fish or collecting artifacts from land or water.

In addition to viewing fish and coral, snorkelers can swim near the fort moat wall (just don’t go into the moat or stand on the wall). The fish and coral also have claimed the large limestone foundation of the fort, and some of the largest fish can be found there.

Historical artifacts also abound and, if you’re lucky, you’ll spot abandoned anchors and other pieces of machinery tossed overboard.

The park is staffed by nearly a dozen rangers and maintenance workers (and their families) who live in a casement section of the fort. Employees’ residences are off limits to the public, but there is a small visitor center and shop.

There are two modes of transportation to the Dry Tortugas – by sea and by air. There are large, fast ferries that make regularly scheduled trips to the park for about $100 per person. They also provide a refreshing picnic and snorkel gear. All you have to bring is a bathing suit, a towel and sunglasses.

If a two-hour boat ride (one way) doesn’t fill with enthusiasm, consider taking a sea plane. Although the fee is about $200 per adult for a half-day, the trip is fast (40 minutes one way), exciting and the view is spectacular. Seaplane charters, also, provide snorkel gear.

More information about the Dry Tortugas is available on the Internet at www.nps.gov/drto.

The Dry Tortugas became a military reservation in 1845 and construction on the fort began in 1846. A year later, the officer's quarters were completed and the fort was officially named for Thomas Jefferson. The walls didn't reach their final height of 45 feet until 1862. A moat surrounds the fort.

Historically, the Dry Tortugas has been a graveyard to sea-going vessels and still represents an obstacle to mariners. Here, an abandoned dingy rests on the beach next to Fort Jefferson.

Dry Tortugas National Park protects the southwest tip of South Florida's coral reef tract. This represents the third-largest barrier reef system outside of Australia and Belize, so be careful when snorkeling there.

One of the benefits of snorkeling at a historic site is the "garbage" tossed overboard from ships and from the walls of Fort Jefferson. Here is a Civil War-era anchor, covered in barnacles and spanning at least 10 feet.

Catamarans dominate the Miami Boat Show

MIAMI BEACH – The traffic had stalled on Collins Avenue, also known as A1A. Drivers didn’t seem to mind; their eyes were glued on the mega yachts moored in the nearby canal, part of the Miami International Boat Show at the Sea Isle Marina.

Sailboats, including luxury multi-hulls, were sequestered a few miles away at Miamarina at Bayside. Smaller powerboat dealers and others in the marine industry vended in the Miami Beach Convention Center, through which more than 146,000 people traversed.

“Considered the Super Bowl of all consumer boat shows, the Miami event kicks off boating season and sets the barometer for annual industry sales,” said Cathy Johnston, vice president of Southern Shows with the NMMA. “Judging by the results of this year’s show, we expect strong sales to continue through 2006 in all categories of recreational marine products.”

Attending a boat show is a great way to familiarize yourself with products you’ve been drooling over in the magazines. It’s a place where hordes of sweaty, barefoot people in shorts and T-shirts mingle with well-heeled (in Sperry boat shoes, of course) captains of industry, each waiting in line to board a million-dollar yacht.

The Miami Convention Center in South Beach hosts the annual Miami International Boat Show featuring more than 2,000 of the world's leading manufacturers and display powerboats and accessories in its 2.5 million square feet of exhibition space.

A boat show is a world of captains and first mates and, honestly, it’s a world mainly segregated by gender. Boat-owning married couples often joke that the husband is the captain, but the wife is the admiral (yes, and the first mate and chef). Women ogle galleys (kitchens) and heads (bathrooms) and staterooms (bedrooms) while men peek into lockers, examine diesel engines and admire anchoring systems.

Of course, living in Northcentral Pennsylvania means we have to travel to boat shows so we time vacations with one. Florida, one of our a favorite destination, has two large sailboat shows: Miami and St. Petersburg. Strictly Sail also hosts shows in Chicago and Philadelphia.

Some people aren’t interested in sailing; they prefer powerboats. There are several Trawler Fests each year: Annapolis and Mystic, Ct., to name a couple. Fancy and fast powerboats can be found at the New York boat show, as well as Atlantic, St. Louis and New Orleans.

If you’re not ready for a vacation that’s actually an excuse to look at boats, consider a day trip. Strictly Sail hosts boat shows in multiple places such as: Strictly Sail St. Petersburg in November. Strictly Sail Philadelphia in January, Strictly Sail Chicago and Miami both in February, and Strictly Sail Pacific in April.

See you there.

The Maryland State House is the oldest in continuous legislative use in the United States.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – If winter winds on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island aren’t your cup of tea, then consider heading south to the Chesapeake Bay and spend a weekend in historic Annapolis, Md.

Founded in 1649, Annapolis once served as the capital of the United States when the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, was signed there. It is Maryland’s capitol city and home of the U.S. Naval Academy, founded in 1845. Annapolis is a city that retains an old-world appeal thanks to its historic architecture. Some of the finest 17th and 18th century buildings in the nation, including the residences of all four Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence, are found there. It also is the home of St. John’s College, founded in 1696 as King William’s School and the third oldest institution of higher learning in the United States after Harvard and William and Mary colleges.

A historic seaport, Annapolis also claims to be the “Sailing Capital of the World” and is a popular destination for international sailors. In 2005, plans were finalized to build the National Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, lending credence to its claim as sailing capital.

The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, located at the City Dock in historic Annapolis, is the only memorial in the country that commemorates the actual name and place of arrival of an enslaved African.

There are year-round activities for the tourist in Annapolis. Downtown there are quaint shops, interesting historic structures, and even sailboat races at the City Dock. Because the Naval Academy is so close, formally attired midshipmen often stroll the city’s streets. The academy has a small and informal museum, but makes up for it with the mausoleum of John Paul Jones, the “Father of the American Navy.”

Midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy spend free time in downtown Annapolis.

A century after Jones’ death in 1792 in France, President Theodore Roosevelt launched a search to find his body. In 1905, it was rediscovered and transferred with great ceremony to the Naval Academy. It is interred below the academy’s chapel, in a magnificent marble sarcophagus modeled after the tomb of Napoleon. A Naval midshipman stands at attention beside the sarcophagus when the tomb is open to the public.

Dining is eclectic, and one of the best choices downtown is Galway Bay, an Irish pub and restaurant. Galway, on Maryland Avenue, features original red-brick walls and a beamed ceiling. There are Irish artifacts and antiques scattered throughout, along with original prints of famous Dublin scenes.

No visit to Annapolis is complete without a stop at Chick and Ruth’s Deli on Main Street. This cramped, Jewish-style (but not strictly kosher) deli serves breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night snacks. The restaurant was the site of the original Annapolis City Hotel, from 1788 to 1890, where George Washington lived for some time after he retired as commander-in-chief.

Sunday brunch is a delight at The Chart House on Second Street, where champagne mimosas flow freely. Within walking distance of historic downtown, the Chart House has outstanding waterfront views of City Dock, the state capitol and the U.S. Naval Academy, and is accessible by water taxi.

Galway Bay is an authentic Irish restaurant and pub in downtown Annapolis.

Despite its unique place in American history, its ambiance and its great food, Annapolis is best known for its maritime community. Fishing and recreational boating are popular on the Chesapeake Bay, and marine-related trades comprise a major part of the city’s economy. It is home to many maritime organizations and yacht clubs, boating schools and companies that offer fishing charters and sailboat and yacht charters, Each October, the Annapolis City Dock and harbor plays host to the two of the largest in-the-water boat shows in the world.

More information about the city is available online at http://www.Annapolis.gov.