Steamline Trail Park - Fitchburg, MA

On Monday I had the chance to check out a park I never knew existed, and I never would have noticed on the side of the road, if it weren't for geocaching. I knew there were some caches in this park, so I took the boys to check it out.

The Steamline Trail Park is on Rt. 31 in Fitchburg; you can get there by taking Rt. 31 north from Rt. 2. The trail was developed by Eagle Scout Benjamin Lessard in 2009 with sponsorship from many local businesses. The steamline is a series of pipes that connected a steam plant to nine different paper mills along the Nashua River at this location. The steam was used to power the machinery before electricity, but later than direct water power.


The area that the park is located in is still an industrial zone, and it almost feels surreal to be walking along side old boarded up factories and crumbling railway structures. A an active rail line parallels the trail, but is safely up a steep embankment and behind a fence, so my sons were excited to see a large freight train rumble past so close to them. Along the trail are several educational displays discussing the history of the steamline, the companies that used it, and the Nashua river. At one point near the falls, a fenced area provides bench seating where you can sit back and enjoy the river.


The trail is flat and easy to walk. The self-guided tour portion of the trail is about a half mile, but the trail extends further south along the Nashua river. This is a great place to get out and get some exercise and learn about an important part of the history of north central Massachusetts.

New Boston Canning and Preserving Examiner

I've recently taken the position of Boston Canning and Preserving Examiner for Examiner.com, after convincing them that such an Examiner position should exist! This will be a great place for me to put all of my knowledge and ideas on canning, preserves, freezing, and other wise putting up food for later.

My inaugural article is Canning and Preserving Rhubarb; a topic that is great for spring, as my rhubarb is growing strong in our garden. Can't wait to make my annual rhubarb cream pie!

Just got off the phone.....

...to register for Tim Holtz's classes next month at Absolutely Everything. It took me an hour to get to through, but I did still get the two classes I wanted, so that's great. My friend Kelli is coming up for the same classes, so I'm sure we'll have a blast.

I've had the pleasure of taking some of Tim's classes in the past, so I know what I'm in for. Can't wait! I was remembering the very first class I took was way back in 2006 at CKU-M Boston (at the very last CKU Boston, *sadface*), with my friend MF. It was a class where we made a little folded book out of a sheet of paper, a lot of distress ink, and distressed hardware, and it was amazing. It was back before most of his tools were released as products, so we had homemade distress ink blenders and distress hammers that he had made with linoleum nails. I still kick myself that I didn't take his other class that weekend, it was a memory glass pendant.

A Bit of Leominster HIstory

I was working on a geocaching puzzle cache today, and stopped by this monument in Leominster. I had never heard of it, and it was interesting to learn more about the history of our city and how citizens contributed to the movement of escaped slaves. Massachusetts has so many historical markers and plaques around that we sort of take them for granted. But it's interesting to stop and take in a bit of history, and think about the people that walked the streets you are walking now.


This article from the Worcester Telegram tells more about the house and the family.

Where has she been?

It's been a bit since I've posted, mostly because life got crazy and I didn't have enough down time to post. Over the last week, I've:

Gone to a two-day conference in Washington DC for National Science Foundation SBIR Grantees. While I was there, I did manage to do a little sightseeing.


I also managed to do some geocaching in DC, which is very different than the woods caches you mostly find up here. The caches I found in DC and Virginia are either urban caches, or virtual caches, where you have to email the owner answers that you can find at the site. I felt like a secret agent pulling out some of these teeny caches.


Back Friday night from DC and up early Saturday morning for Perrin's Pinewood Derby! His "Sword of Omens" car (totally his idea, seriously), won second place in his pack and an invitation to the District race next month.



Then on Sunday after church, we decided to take advantage of the great weather and did some family geocaching at a local site that we hadn't been to yet. We had a super day, going 9/9 on finds!


So that's where I've been. I actually have a couple of projects I plan on posting later this week if I can ever get pictures taken. Too busy making memories to preserve memories last week. :)

Dream

A little card I put together for a teenage girl using scraps. I had assembled several of those large flowers for another project and this one was a leftover. I think there's My Mind's Eye, Graphic 45, and Basic Grey paper, and the "Dream" word piece is from My Mind's Eye. Small flowers I think are Prima, and bling is Recollections from Michael's.

Winter Wonderland

So, we haven't had much more of a dusting of snow since the big storm back in October, so as soon as the calendar ticked over to March, Mother Nature decided it had been long enough. This is the view out my front door a few hours ago, although it pretty much still looks the same now, although I think it has finally stopped snowing. The kids had a snow day, which means I'm ready to tear my hair out, and they only spent about 30 minutes outside.

And....here's the backyard. I'm hoping no trees come down, but that's unlikely as most of the loose and weak trees and branches came down in the fall.