AMISH COFFEE TABLES

A "Confederate Officer", a modern-day re-enactor portraying a recently captured rebel officer during the Battle of Second Cold Harbor, June, 1864, is chilling his heels with the Union Army topographical engineers, who are beginning to think that General Grant's bluff to 'fight it out on this line if it takes all summer' will become a literal threat and siege forts will need to be laid out and excavated all up and down a six mile long line facing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. the general's boast MAY have been a bit of psyhcological warfare, in knowing that the 'other side' in this conflict often gleaned information on the intents and movements of opposing armies by simply reading the newspapers that the soldiers frequently traded across lines during called truces between pickets....all the better to lull the rebs into a bit of complacency and then silently slip out of the trenches and head off to the eastern river crossings of the James at Weyanoke...
some of the various pieces of equipment and instruments and tools on the table were still being used by a large number of Virginia surveyors in the early to mid-1970's, when i first began to work at the highway department district headquarters just north of Colonial Heights, Virginia. the men re-enacting the personages of Union Army Topographical Engineers that day were more than happy to talk at length about their own careers, companies, and the professional business of land surveying. being a crew supervisor in Ashland, Va., at Downing Surveys, Inc., since October, 2000, i have learned to appreciate whole-souled the way that men and some women before me have accomplished the tasks of marking on the ground the boundary lines between land owners and putting to paper the findings of evidence that demarcate these boundarys. it is a profession that combines mathematics, physical clearing of lines, common sense, a deep knowledge of area history and economics and politics, and the ability to draw notes and descriptions in field books just like the ones Washington used in his day, plus an innate honesty and altruism that enables a judge to trust your work, your sharp eye, and your testimony in courts of law. it is a profession that requires people who are very real, to do very real work, and then stand behind it as necessary.

I realize this is the crappiest picture evar. However: Alex came through and brought me his drafting table that he's unloading while he's working for Sony down in LA. So, I get a drafting table for a year! Which is nice because I can't afford one right now.

<< Arhiva >>