Monday, June 19, 2006
Wilmington visit
I begin this with a cautionary quote for my friend Roey, who from our last conversation seems to believe that if enough of the 'little guys' get together and act, they can wrest power from the 'big guys':
Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. - Milton Friedman
A couple of weekends ago we went down to Wilmington to see the ocean again and visit the workshop of the Full Belly Project. We got a late start (you can see in the first two pictures that Kate and Pete are impatient to get going - I am at that time chasing Ed around the yard to get him away from the apple trees and into the car.
Once we finally got loaded, we ran down to Wilmington, found the shop, and talked with Roey Rosenblith (it was late enough that everyone else had gone home) about the Nut Sheller and a new project, a corn cracker. These projects are meant to be sturdy, inexpensive, and able to be produced and maintained with appropriate technology. Here's a picture of Roey with the sheller:
A video of Bill and Roey demonstrating the sheller with its winnowing fan attached:
And a picture of the corn cracker:
A video of the corn cracker in operation.
I also learned about and got to see neem nuts, which are beautiful. And we played around with a simple hand mill with steel burrs used for milling small grains and corn, or even spices.
After the visit, we took the dogs on a tour of Beaches Where Dogs Are Not Allowed, moving on with brief stops to read the NO DOGS signs, until we finally arrived at the refuge of Fort Fisher, which was welcoming to dogs and surf fishermen alike, and where we had a nice moonlit walk on the beach. Then we had a a drive-up dinner (the dogs really like that, as I am sure you can imagine) and a loooong drive home as we are rather out of shape for road-tripping. ¶ 9:37 PM
I begin this with a cautionary quote for my friend Roey, who from our last conversation seems to believe that if enough of the 'little guys' get together and act, they can wrest power from the 'big guys':Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. - Milton Friedman
A couple of weekends ago we went down to Wilmington to see the ocean again and visit the workshop of the Full Belly Project. We got a late start (you can see in the first two pictures that Kate and Pete are impatient to get going - I am at that time chasing Ed around the yard to get him away from the apple trees and into the car.
Once we finally got loaded, we ran down to Wilmington, found the shop, and talked with Roey Rosenblith (it was late enough that everyone else had gone home) about the Nut Sheller and a new project, a corn cracker. These projects are meant to be sturdy, inexpensive, and able to be produced and maintained with appropriate technology. Here's a picture of Roey with the sheller:
A video of Bill and Roey demonstrating the sheller with its winnowing fan attached:
And a picture of the corn cracker:
A video of the corn cracker in operation.
I also learned about and got to see neem nuts, which are beautiful. And we played around with a simple hand mill with steel burrs used for milling small grains and corn, or even spices.
After the visit, we took the dogs on a tour of Beaches Where Dogs Are Not Allowed, moving on with brief stops to read the NO DOGS signs, until we finally arrived at the refuge of Fort Fisher, which was welcoming to dogs and surf fishermen alike, and where we had a nice moonlit walk on the beach. Then we had a a drive-up dinner (the dogs really like that, as I am sure you can imagine) and a loooong drive home as we are rather out of shape for road-tripping. ¶ 9:37 PM
