New Bedford Whaling Museum

A few from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, where I spent yesterday researching for the Hallelujah Wonder book...

Mandible of a Humpback. This one is still seeping oil. If you look closely, you will see a plastic plate catching the drip.

skeleton of the Humpback.

I forget the name of this thing, but it was used by captains and sailors to hop ships. They'd string a rope between the two ships and pulley this thing across over the ocean. Ninety percent of sailors, captains included, did not know how to swim.

Harpoon number 17 was invented by a blacksmith and revolutionized whaling. The blacksmith, an escaped slave, never made a fortune from it even though every harpoon after it was based on his model. He was afraid that if he filed a patent, his old master would come and claim him. And his money.

Today's view of the port. 

Scrimshaw.

Close up of the oil in the whale bone.

Those two knobby bones are what's left of the legs whales used to have.

A whaling scene by William Bradford. 

Happy Birthday...

to my mom. It's not easy to survive this flood of estrogen. Good times at George's in New Ulm.

Nevada, Nola, me, Neah (standing), mom, Natalie (standing), Nancy

Southern Minnesota. January.

Grain Elevator, Sleepy Eye.  

Earth Movers, Mathiowetz Construction, Leavenworth, MN.

Bulldozers and Excavators, Mathiowetz Construction, Leavenworth, MN.

Ice Houses, Lake Sleepy Eye.

Dirt road, near Stark, MN.

Stark Ballfield.

Stark Ballfield.

Dugout, 1st baseline. Stark Ballfield.

Sign in Iberia, MN.

Dirt Road, near Sleepy Eye, MN.

Anderson Center, Red Wing

spent a couple days here trying to finish some projects. interested? find them here: http://andersoncenter.org/

i've got more of the perfunctory pictures of the sculpture garden and house on facebook. 

Minnesota River. October.

Fowl carcass with leaves. Head was removed. I can't identify it. Female wood duck, maybe? Don't know...

Minnesota River at Eckstein Landing near New Ulm.

Wild turkey tracks. Have you guys watched Vernon, Florida, the documentary by Errol Morris? You can stream it instantly if you have Netflix. I used to use it to teach characterization, point of view, and setting for Creative Writing and sometimes as an example of how to reveal a hometown for Composition. There's a really funny turkey hunter in it who would have a aneurism over these tracks. Incidentally, my big boys, Mitchell and Phillip, have it in their heads that they are going hunting this fall for pheasants and turkeys. Fine by me, said I, so long as you process and consume the kill. I hate when people just blast the shit out of animals and then don't eat them. So, assuming they knock a few down, you may be subjected to a bird-butchering and roasting one of these weeks on this blog.

A nice reflection.

Raccoon tracks.

Red-Tailed Hawk feather, maybe?