Ringing-in the New Year

I was moping around the Platz today performing chores and recovering from all the other after affects of chores at the city house that The Frau and I are preparing to put up for sale.

I despise moving - nevertheless I place a high value on downsizing.

I was feeling a bit better but since only the Blonde Lab and I were here it was a wee bit lonely.

My pal Sid called while we were out tromping in the deep snow today.

And he invited me over for dinner tonight at High Cliff with Lawyer and his Frau and Sid's Bruder und Frau.

Nice time - and great eats.  I think the venison loin beat-out the beef tenderloin.

It's always a good thing when you have good friends looking after you. 

Another Treasure

Bayonet.  

Circa late 1800s.

click the weapon to enlarge

Weyersberg Kirschbaum & Co. Solingen.  

Company is still in business - website here.  Learn more about the history thru Wikipedia.

Treasure Hunting Continued

Emptied-out a large plastic tote filled with stuff sacks, briefcases and duffels  - most of them sporting logo advertising.  They're going to Goodwill for someone to use to tote their books or groceries as I'm not making any use of them.

But in the bottom of the tote I found a couple of treasures.

Two official BSA (Boy Scouts of America) backpacks.  The smaller of the two (my first) is a Haversack Pack.  The larger of the two is called a Cruiser Pack.  The Cruiser sports an aluminum pack frame and larger carrying capacity for backpack camping trips.

They both are well-worn from plenty of outdoor use and have genuine brass fittings on their canvas.  The Cruiser has old-school leather straps (oiled-them up to keep them pliable).

Unbelievable what vintage scouting gear is selling-for on eBay.    

click to enlarge

 

Treasure Hunting

Been cleaning out stuff at the city house in anticipation of moving this spring.  There's nothing like hauling things to Goodwill, Habitat Restore and the dump over the holidays to keep you in the Christmas spirit.

Over the weekend I tackled the camping gear and stumbled across a couple of gems.

In the bottom of a box of camp cookware I discovered my original-issue Boy Scout mess kit and utensils.  

I also found this handy tool.  

Still in its maker's original packaging - a P38 can opener.

And a half a package of Glad Ziploc bags - Édition en langue française.  

A relic from a two week camping road trip in Canada. 

Earth Rise

click to enlarge

This NASA high resolution image was taken by the the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

 This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon's farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC's Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!

You can learn more about it here.
 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

The staff here at The Platz would like to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays

In keeping with the deer hunting holiday spirit...