Monday July 18, and Tuesday July 19

Monday took us to bear country, Vermont Teddy Bear! Most of you New Englanders have visited I'm sure. For those that haven't it is a kid's dream, no matter your age. They, of course show you how the bears are made, provide plenty of "bearly funny" puns,

and show you the bear hospital, where your injured bear can be brought back to it's former glory under the lifetime warranty.
On Tuesday we stopped by Maple Landmark, another Vermont company using native Vermont material to make products and shipping them all over the world. This one started with a 12 year old Mike Rainville making things from maple in his Mom's garage. The company has grown nicely, and Mike is today using the latest in laser engraving with old time New England craftsmanship in his products. While he is in a large ~ 50,000 sq ft plant now, he still has A LOT of family employed.

Everyone from his Grandmother (who sits upstairs in an inspection station with a view!) to his sons, and about 35 other employees.

They bring in the finest quality kiln dried maple and pine for their products. While my eye picked up a few potential OSHA problems, the shop was amazingly clean ,and the employees were protected from injury to an extent often not found in a small operation such as this. When we first walked in to the shop, they showed us the laser cutting machine where they cut logos for attractions and other names.

I looked down and saw "Home of the Shays, Cass West Va" being burned in a mass of train whistles. What a serendipitous event! Liz's father grew up in Cass W. VA. He logged on the mountain when he came home from fighting in WWll. They used the Shay engine then to get the logs off the mountain. He witnessed an accident, where dozens of logs broke free and came flying down the mountain at him and his fellow loggers. He said then that this job was more dangerous than fighting Germans and he left for Ohio! These train whistles were being laser cut for their gift shop.

As we toured the shop, we saw lots of things you'd see in gift shops, but also many toys, which is their main business. They make, paint and assemble thousands of "Name Trains", "Montgomery Schoolhouse" toys and many other well known wooden toys. The laser cutting ability is a great addition to their capabilities enabling them to be competitive on short runs and produce products successfully in high cost VT. As we were completing the tour we came across the guy who was drilling the train whistles we started our tour with. We Also saw a picture of John Ratzenberger from the travel channels "Made in America" from when he did an episode on Maple Landmark. This was a personal tour given by a woman who cared deeply about the company and what it stood for.

Just around the corner, we discovered the workshops of Fred Danforth and his wife Judi, Pewterers. Fred is one of a long line of pewterers and only took up the craft after he met his wife to be and saw pewter spun. He loved it immediately and went to Canada with her to learn the trade from an artisan. Pewter is an alloy of 90% tin, 8% antimony, and copper.It is extremely malleable which makes it excellent to work with. It can be spun, molded, and soldered to make interesting artwork, as well as dinnerware, and jewelery. Here is Fred in the back spinning a candle holder. Spinning is a technique that allows a metal blank to be put in a lathe and spun. A shape tool is then pressed against the metal, pressing it towards a shape mounted in the chuck. Gradually, with repeated pressings from outside to inside, a flat metal blank will take the shape of a candle holder base, or even a creamer, such as Fred's helper is making in the foreground. The shop displayed many of Fred's work for sale, as shown in  the photo. They were also pouring pewter jewelry, Christmas ornaments, and small components for dinnerware. Judi carves the mold, a reverse is made, and then molten pewter is poured in to it.

On the way home we stopped by the Univ. of Vermont 's Morgan horse farm. It was the place where the U.S. Govt. started a breeding farm to preserve and to promote the breed. Morgan horses served with distinction during the Civil War. They are all descended from a horse owned by a General named Morgan. His horse was very distinctive. It has one less vertebrae then other horses, and a couple of other characteristics. These are transmitted no matter what breed of horse they are bred with. They are closely related to Arabians.  It was thought they would be a strategic benefit to our country. Later, UVM took it over and now runs it. They actually make a profit selling Morgans to people from all over the world.
Whew! what a day.