Back From Maine.

Hey Folks, Got back Sunday from our week in Maine. Some of the same sites as last year, as well as many new one. This year we spent a day in North Conway NH. walking around poking in some of the shops. The 5 & 10 cent store is a step back in time. This shop has plenty of small household and gift deadstock items waiting to be picked up. I grabbed a couple Wiffle Ball sets and extra balls for this summer as they are near impossible to find here in Canada.

From NH it was a week in Freeport, Maine. Day trips galore, from shopping and getting injured at Liberty Tools, to hiking to the top and around Bradbury Mt. On average we were out the door 7am, and back at the hotel by 6. Busy days. On Wed we crused into Portland to take in some sights and sea breeze, Portland Dry Goods was fantastic, super nice fellows working there. Prices were great...Danner Stumptown for under $200...say what! We talked for a good chunk of time, one highlight was about the different names for Salvation army thrift stores people use. Here in Canada we grew up calling them Sally-Ann's, and in Portland apparently they call the Sal-Van's.  We ate at a recommended restaurant called Duckfat. The duck fat fried fries were down right amazing, Highly recommended if you are in the area.

Also this year we ventured a couple hours West to Boston. Going from Freeport's small to Boston's crazy was quite a change. Not to mention it was the Red Socks Home opener, the Boston Marathon was coming the following Monday, and the Bruins were playing in the playoffs.  A big thanks to James @10Engines for helping me set up the day while on the move.  He helped guide us in the directions to some of the great stores Boston has to offer. The first store we hit up was Ball & Buck. Wickedly Great shop, nicely selected items for sure. We had a great time talking with the store owner Matt. It was definitely hard to step away and move on,  l grabbed myself a TOPO Designs daypack, some Juniper Ridge Incense, and Military Can opener and a couple other goodies from Matt and finally pulled myself away!

We then headed to Hilton's Tent City. All I can say is Wow!. That is a digging mans store, as you never know what you might unearth there.  As we walked in we were greeted by Javier, who took the next half hour to show us around and some of the rare items on the shelf. It was amazing seeing the old deadstock of items like US made wool lined Woolrich Parkas!?! Come on! I was digging the heavy Carhartt Logger pants with Suspender Buttons...$39, none in my size!. After leaving the store, James emailed and mentioned to check out his special nook of the store where he has a items tucked away. Sorry bro...its still there for you! Next we headed to Bobby's from Boston, Javier just gave us the general area it was and the rest was up to us. We did find it, Great pieces and prices. Unfortunately again none in my size.

The last key destination was Wilderness Workshop. As we meandered over to the store poking in and out of shops and looking at the beautiful brownstones and historical landmarks you can't help to be amazed at the beauty that is Boston. So many intresting building and designs. Wilderness Workshop was nice, unfortunately the basement is a fairly dark atmosphere and the club beat coming from upstairs was little much and took away from the "Wilderness Feel" I was hoping to get. WW had some great items like Archival Clothing's Rucksacks and flap Musettes as well as some nice Yuketen mocs. By the time we got back from Boston, it was 8 pm and we were extremely tired and hit the sac like a bag of bricks!

On Saturday we drove to St. Albans,VT for our last night. Along the way we stopped at as many yard sales and Antique shops as we could. The drive should take about 5.5 hours. It took us almost 9 in total. Below are some of my great finds from our trip to Maine and the surrounding area and back. See you next year Maine!

Scratch Awl.  Paid $1.

Small Rucksack unknown make.  Paid $2.

Military Side bag dated 1955.  Paid $2 with the other bag.

Approx 5'x3' 48 Star Cotton sewn American Flag.  Paid $2.

Flag close up.

Mash bag. $4.

Schrader Valve Balloon Tire Gauge dated 1923 w/ leather case. Paid $1

Kybo Coffee Can..Yup the coffee can where scouting might
have gotten its name for a toilet. $ Free.

Graniteware / Enamelware.

Graniteware, more commonly known as enamelware is a process that fuses a layer of powdered glass on to a base, usually metal, the result is tough, easy to clean and fairly light.  The earliest pieces were of solid color and since enamel colour cannot be mixed we also have the swirls and speckled pieces that we know.  Graniteware owes its roots to St. Louis Stamping Works owners William and Frederick Niedringhaus.   During a trip to Germany in 1865 the tin kitchen utensil manufacturing owners noticed enameled utensils in a store display and ultimately ended up purchasing the process.  Upon his return to St. Louis the brothers began working on manufacturing enamel coated utensils.  The Niedringhaus version of enamelware was coated with ground granite.  Graniteware was featured at the 1876 Philly Expo.  Like so many things, graniteware has become the "generic" term for most enamelware.  True graniteware would have it's origin in Granite City, Illinois.   How many people still use some pieces of graniteware?  Which pieces?  I still use a couple mugs for water, The colours that they come in are incredible, and stay so bright after so many years!  Great pieces of old style camping equipment that unfortunately has moved to the way side, but still makes it into the homes of people looking for that nostalgic look.

National Graniteware Society.

Sami Style Coffee Pouch.

The Sami peoples are the folk who inhabit parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Their livelihood has and does still included coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding – which about 10% of the Sami are connected with and 2,800 actively involved with full-time. They heavily rely on their passed down skills of hunting, Bushcraft, and means of survival. The Sami make a lot of their own items, Boots, clothes, knives, and general dry goods. One of the Sami items aside from their puukko and leuku knives, that has made there way into the Bushcraft scene is the coffee pouch. Traditionally used to hold coffee, flour, or any dry ingredient are now being used to hold tinder for fire starting.

These pouches would typically be made out of reindeer leather, and hand sewn, But now are being semi-massed produced for everyday people wanting to get there hands on one. However looking online at a couple pictures any crafty person could make their own out of some thin leather, or even canvas. I drew up some plans quickly and set to work. I chose a thin enough leather that I could just poke the needle through by hand, and in about 1 hour had my own pouch. The leather was fairly stiff as it is not reindeer, so a rub down with neatsfoot oil was in order. After the oil and letting it soak in the leather was supple and buttery! I have included some pics of my pouch as well as a picture of the pattern. The pattern is a guide as there might be a bit to cut off when you are finishing up one of the seams.

They make beautiful pouches for any item on the trail. I keep my fire starting equipment in it, but might line it with a plastic bag and keep some GORP in it?. Regardless these pouches make very handy, and traditional items to store and carry your dry goods. I hope you make one, and please send some pictures my way!

Pyrex Coffee Percolator.

This weekend on a early morning trip to the Glen Williams Beaumont Woolen Mills Antique Store, I purchased a Pyrex Coffee Percolator 7756-B. This Made in USA Pyrex Percolator came in 4 cup, 6 cup, and 9 cup models. The all glass construction (except the basket bottom and top) is quite a thing of beauty. The Percolator is one of the frowned upon way of making coffee. However, I find no other method fills the morning air with the smell of rich coffee and it's piping hot. Now the taste may not be " the best", but it is damn good. I actually prefer it! The beauty of this percolator is that the glass lets you see the coffee making process in action, judging how strong/weak of coffee you want. Once a perc is in full "bloom" I turn down the heat to low and let it perc for 10 min. Then pour out a great cup 'o' Joe. After I bought this I was scouring the net and came across this blog post and it gave me a good laugh! So please enjoy this post from "I Had An Idea This Morning" .

"We went to the discount store yesterday to buy a French press and spotted a stainless steel, stove-top percolator. It looks like, and sort of is, a piece of camping equipment. Boy Scouts would use it, if they took coffee breaks. It seemed American, as opposed to the Frenchy-ness of the French press. Also, a goomba passing in the aisle said, “Best way to make coffee…if you like it good and strong.”

I drank three cups of percolated coffee this morning and feel like I am going to explode with happiness and nerves. I feel as if I will disco to the subway train. The guy is right. The coffee is strong, and it is good.

Now try Googling “percolated coffee”. The internet thinks I’m doing it wrong, that I should have gone for the French press. Even the Wikipedia entry sniffs that percolated coffee is out of fashion. It’s weird; now I feel like I’ve been outrageously rebellious buying this percolator. After all, everyone who knows anything about coffee knows that this is an inferior method. And caring about your coffee is one of those markers, you know, of intelligence and sophistication. I bet if you mapped out the percolator households and the French press households, they would perfectly correlate with a map of blue states and red states. French presses are for liberals, percolators are for heathens.

But for how long? I predict within 18 months, percolators will become huge. Hipsters, tired of their espresso-brewed triple Americanos, will develop an ironic appreciation for percolated coffee. A percolator will be featured in some sort of spread in Vice, and a few months later we’ll see a percolator on the front page of Sunday Styles. And then William-Sonoma will come out with a $429 retro stovetop percolator, and I’ll sell my vintage model on eBay and use the proceeds to buy myself a shiny new espresso maker."