Cowfeathers Farm to Foxcroft Farm: 2017

"It is hard to find skilled help, plumbing, electric, painters, all that! I can't get anyone to come out here." I spoke with Mom on the phone yesterday. My parents live on a lovely home on the water, but it is pretty distant from any large metro area, and not in the "country" - of middle America, where we have active Vo-Tech programs.
She also pointed out that Houston, Florida, northern Cali, large areas devastated by recent natural disasters are going to be rebuilding- and do those areas have the labor force skilled in the tasks needed for so much at once?
We live in rural Ohio- not the most rural, still... In my Connecticut high school, we had student council, soccer and orchestra. Here? FFA, football and Marching Band. ( There certainly is a student council...pretty sure...but I don't think an orchestra?) And out of high school in CT, you went to College. Or University. But in our area, although those are still options, and many do go on to college or uni, a large chunk of high schoolers leave the high school every day for Vocational Technical College. There they learn skills like the ones my Mom needs to hire. I think that makes us lucky. I can find a plumber, or an electrician, or a car mechanic. And the country life means many kids are farm kids that know how to operate large machinery and fix diesel engines, let alone jump start a car or change a tire. (Even in Connecticut, my Dad made sure his daughters also had those last two skills.)
Some things are still hard to find here, though. It was challenging to find someone to fix a wonky beam in my 200 year old barn last year but, done.
Also have yet to find a skilled painter/restorer for the soffiting and trim on our 200 year old house. I'm afraid it will be me in a cherry picker.

I did find a nice fix for the aged sills. Thanks to advice from Tom K. who, with his wife Leslie, took on the project of restoring this once abandoned farmstead (see The Big Daddy of Before and Afters from May 2017) and pointed me in the direction of a newer wood repair product, Abatron.
Every few years, I have had to re-do the sills by peeling off the already peeling paint, filling the sills with wood filler and repainting. It just doesn't last. I have great hope for this product giving me a reprieve from the repeated repairs!

This is what the sill looked like after removing the peeling paint. The shape is meant to be a bullnose, but so much wood is deteriorated, there isn't much original shape left.

A close-up of the most damaged portion.

This section is in the best shape. You can see bits of the wood filler left in some of the horizontal cracks.

The Abatron Liquid Wood gets poured and brushed into the exposed, damaged wood. Then you mix together the Wood Epox and make a new sill where the old wood has disappeared. I just kept piling more Wood Epox on and smoothing it out. I found it really important to have good gloves- like nitrile or latex, and a little water to help smooth it out.
Below is how it looked before it dried. After it was dry, I then could sand it down to be nice and smooth.

I was not pleased with the dip at the bottom, but I ran out of Wood Epox! Having never before used the product, I had a lot of Liquid Wood left over and used all of the epoxy. I can't find it locally, and order it from Amazon, so I couldn't quickly remedy the situation. (We do not have 2 hour Amazon here!)

This is how the sill looked after it was dried and sanded.

And finished with a new coat of paint. That is the worst of the sills. Only more minor repairs to do in about 13 more. So this window has a repaired and repainted sill, plus both shutters. And, still, I need to work on the top of the window!
Maybe I could petition they begin to teach "Sill Repair and Painting of Old Houses" at the Vo-Tech?

Ciao. It is a lovely, warm day in central Ohio, and a perfect opportunity to share memories of a beautiful day in northern Italy!

As I've mentioned, when we are on these conference-centric trips, Huz heads off in the early hours to his lectures and lunches, and I head off to adventures. Works for me! I have managed to find great travel companions at times, and this day was rich with good company.

Steve and Matt, with whom I had walked the Verona bastions, and explored the Arsenal and Castelvecchio joined me again, and we were lucky enough to add a fourth in Shane.

The crew looked to the cruise director and asked the plan. I didn't have one. But, I do like to get off the beaten track. I truly enjoy the big cities and famous places, but when I look back on these trips, often my favorite memories involve finding the smaller places, the quieter hamlets and discovering what they have to offer.

So, a few words with the hotel reception desk, and we headed off to Porta Nuova Stazione and platform 3 to await the train to Vicenza. At the hotel, I had googled "Vicenza" and up popped some of the sights to be found in this small town between Verona and Venice.

Aqueduct. Roman. Sold. I have never seen one, and I recall being fascinated by the idea of the Roman Aqueduct in middle school. I think I even made a model of an aqueduct in a single grade. 6th? Plus, hours spent playing with water and gravity in the Little River next to Puckihuddle- my childhood home, had me motivated to see the real deal. The location was Fogazarro... which may have been a bit vague for most adventurers, but we had time, and my companions were an engineer, a roofing and guttering specialist and a general contractor/pilot. So, my sell didn't have to be hard. Basically, I said "Vicenza has an aqueduct."

We arrived in Vicenza and headed in the direction that seemed to lead to town.

On the way we found a helpful map. It did not list our quarry-the aquaduct, but we found a Corso Fogazarro, and headed north as indicated. To the east was the obvious entrance, through a formidable wall and tower into the town, but we headed through these lovely gates instead to a green space.

This lovely building over water, so quiet and peaceful was in a garden, the Park Giardino Salvi.

Quite fine. But, it is not an aqueduct.

We headed out of the park and into town north of the gardens. Finding Fogazzaro. We headed out in search of Roman delights.

In front of the Parrochia di Santa Croce ai Carmini was an assembly of well dressed people. It appeared as if we had happened upon a wedding! So, we searched the crowd for the bride and groom, and couldn't definitively identify a groom- there were several possible candidates, but no apparent bride. Until a flash of white down the street caught my attention and I pointed it out to my companions. A bride, facing a gent who was pulling the veil over her face. Could we have just happened upon a father about to walk his daughter to the church? The aqueduct has been here for 1000 years, and can wait!

And, here comes the bride! But, unusually, her stride is quite, long. And she is very tall. And she is wearing rather large trainers. And, as she gets near us, she has an impressive amount of facial scruff. My friends, that is a dude. Maybe we are at a gay wedding? Not expected, but still cool. As the bride was presented to the fellow we could now assume was the groom, the crowd response, and theatrical "kiss" and "dip" made it clear we were just witnessing the age old pastime of dudes everywhere. Taking the mick out of their buddy on his wedding day. Or, since this is Italy," far ridere i polli. "

So, enough of this nonsense, we have an aqueduct to find.

We walk up to the Rio Bacchiglione, and water seems like a logical place for an aqueduct? Sure enough there is a ruin across the water. It doesn't look Roman... more medieval. Still, worth checking out. So, we find a bridge to cross and then into someone's back yard to get closer to this structure, deciding, nope. Not aqueductal.

It is a cool portion of the medieval wall, with some serious Goldilocks and the Three Bears choices for entering and leaving.

Consulting the map on cell phone says we are off track, and so make our way back to Fogazzaro. The wedding party is no longer in front of the church. And we are stumped in finding our aqueduct. Steve heads off to chat up a nun in the square to see if he can suss it out.

I head into a pharmacy to ask the old gentleman behind the counter. "Dov'è l'aqueduct romano?" I say. He replies that he's never heard of it. Hmmmm. So, I ask him " Avanti Corso Fogazzaro, c'è qualcoso di romano?

Now, my Italian is terrible, but he is trying to understand. I ask "Parla inglese?" He does not. But he does not know "aqueduct." It is unclear to me if it is the word, as they may call them something else in Italian? Or, he knows what I mean, but has never heard of one here. He instead draws me a lovely map in shaky hand to the Piazza dei Signori. I want to stay and plague him more, as the shop is empty. But, it is about 120 degrees F in the shop, and smells strongly of camphor, and I must dash. So, I tell him, "Grazie mille!" and head back out into the street.

Steve has not gotten anywhere with the nun. I tell my companions that a local thinks there is no aqueduct here. We may be out of luck.

So, we head down the sidewalk towards down town, feeling a failure.

Until I stepped on this.

A glass window in the sidewalk on Fogazzaro. We decide that it is a tad anticlimactic, but this is our aqueduct. When you pay to see the "Two Headed Boy!" at the sideshow, and it is a kid holding a puppet.

But, undeterred, there is still much to see.

The very pretty Piazzo dei Signori is a great destination, thank you Signore old pharmacist guy!

The dominant building in the Piazza is the Basilica Palladiana. In our wandering of Vicenza, we find that Palladia was an architect in the 16th century that held great fame. He designed many buildings in Vicenza, more here than in any other city. So, it is a World Heritage sight for Palladian buildings. Now, in the US, we have many buildings of the 1990s that feature Palladian windows...and as far as I know, World Heritage has yet to recognize us for this, but, whatever.

My adventuring fellows note there are people on the roof. So, we head to the Basilica to see if we can join them. Plus, there are statues on the loggia roof that are intriguing. Especially the single statue on right, just shy of the corner, that appears to be wearing verdigris copper boots. I like the look, and am curious about the fashion choice.

We pay a few euro for access to the second and third story views.

Totally worth it.

On the top story, we enter the wide marble terrace ringed by statues in various states of decay. And, I go in pursuit of my copper-booted pal, recognizing that boots would be impractical, as he's naked. And only an impractical fellow would protect his shins and let his bits lead the way.

It seems the copper was devised as a way to protect the statue from crumbling to the piazza below.

In fact, most of the statues are reinforced in some way. And looking a bit rounded and pocked.

I decided to take a panoramic photo, and my fellow travelers had a bit of fun with it. Speedy boys. (Do you see?)

We had a cappucino and un aqua frizzante at the rooftop cafe, and headed back to the piazza.

In the square below are the now familiar tall columns we had seen in Verona, with the winged lion of Venice atop one. A bit shorter was this colorful creation, that looked to be painted wood? It also looked like it may have been temporary, brought out for a festival, perhaps. But is was so pretty, especially with the blue, orange, rose and yellows surrounding it.

Our course was toward the other side of town, and the Teatro Olimpico. Not sure what it is, just that it seemed like a destination. Also, it was where the tourism office was located (as far as is possible from the train station and still be in the town- Perchè?)

We found the entrance marked " Teatro Olimpico" and walked into this courtyard, sort of a Roman yard sale. All around were bits and pieces of architectural detritus, a wonder to behold. A promenade around the courtyard yielded an inestimable opportunity to become an instant goddess. I said "YES!"

Okay, maybe slightly out of proportion to my body, but hey, I'm the Goddess of...music and toilet paper?

Steve (talks to everyone) stuck his head in a window and had a grand conversation with the man inside, and I tried to figure out how to get into this Teatro...which I assume is a theater.

Finding the Tourism Office seemed the ticket ....to a ticket. And yes, that is correct. I also got a map of Vicenza to carry around- finally, and some words of wisdom about Andrea Palladio. Shane elected to join me in checking out the inside of the theater. Of all my traveling companions, Shane seemed to be the most concerned about my getting lost, or left behind. A fine trait in a traveling companion!

Inside it was as hushed as a church. The theater seating was rounded to the stage, great hulking wooden risers with tiny little stairs to mark the aisles. The theater is still in use, and it seems that with your ticket, you find your seat by the red cushions they place on these wooden risers, each cushion marked with a seat number. But, with no performance happening, we just found ourselves a place on a wooden seat, polished by 450 years of hineys.

The stage is elaborate, and looks like a Roman street. Three entrances to the front of the stage, one in center, one each side, are sloped and lined with buildings that get tinier as they recede. It is a beautiful piece of scenery. It is certainly possible, timing wise, that Shakespearean plays were hosted here when the theater was new.

Have a seat. The orchestra is tuning up......

While we have been in the theater, although there is no actual orchestra, Mother Nature is tuning up outside, indeed to have a nice little thunderstorm. Our band decides to find lunch. The TO fellow recommends a vegetarian place near the main gates- on the other side of town- and we head off. Matt is likewise a vegetarian, so it isn't just for me. And, Steve and Shane are uncomplaining. Another fine trait in traveling companions.

A brisk walk across town shows us our next "fail" for the day. No aqueduct, and the vege place is closed.

By now, it is getting late for lunch and the rain is nearly here, so we just dash into the next open restaurant. I explain my eating limits to a doubtful waitress, and then ask for "Un piatto di formaggio?" She looks a bit more optimistic with this and takes the orders of the fellows. As we start into our bottle of wine, the rain starts coming down outside, and the open window next to me bangs shut in the wind.

I am delivered this plate of heaven.