(no subject)

In the small, unincorporated town of Ripley, Michigan, just across the Portage Lake Canal from it's more populous neighbor, Houghton, stand the remains of the Quincy Smelter.



The smelter is the only extant facility of its type in the Lake Superior region. It was operated from 1898 to 1971, its use trailing off in its later years. From '67 on, it was used for melting scrap copper, and prior to that spent a while smelting copper out of reclaimed waste sand from the mines rather than smelting mined ore, but in its heyday, it processed millions of tons of copper ore from the Quincy mines further northeast along the peninsula.

The Mineral Range and Copper Range railroads served the site, and the tracks alongside the buildings are some of a very few remaining lengths of track of those railroads. An abandoned locomotive and tender remain on the grounds; I'd love to know more about them.

For those interested in reading more about the sites in the Keweenau, or looking for information to plan their own trips, there's a wealth of information over here at The Copper Country Explorer. What an awesome website. I wish I'd found it a month before my trip there, rather than a month after.

(no subject)

The construction equipment outside my house is warbling in a couple of sustained tones that are producing a minor chord that sounds like a horror movie soundtrack.

It's actually really neat. I wish I had a way to walk out there and record it.

My car made it back on a charged battery, so it's either the alternator, the alternator drive belt, or the wiring to the alternator. posicat has generously offered his assistance tracking the offender down since he and nova_wolf are going to be up here anyway.

I put in for that week off to visit New York. Haven't heard back yet.

Oh; never mind. It got approved without me noticing. I'm going to New York City! I don't think I know anybody in The Big Apple (except Tenebrous Kate, who I haven't seen on LJ in a long time), but in case I do, wanna meet up?

(no subject)

A car repair isn't really a car repair until:

Choose 1:

A) Blood is spilled.
B) Something breaks that requires a trip to a store that isn't open.
C) A propane torch is applied.
D) A sledge hammer is employed.


But really, why stop at 1?

Not done yet, but the alternator is out. Tomorrow I need to buy a replacement bolt to go in the bottom of the thing; the one that was in there snapped off when I applied Posi's breaker bar to it. Once we got the alternator out, the remainder of the bolt was so solidly stuck in there, just from rust and an expansion sleeve around the shaft, Posi ended up using my sledge hammer to break it loose. He set the alternator on the ground and put the end of an old bolt into the hole left by the snapped-off bolt. He used a bit of twig to wedge in with the bolt to make it stand up straight so he could apply the hammer to it, which I found rather ingenious, actually. I swore it must still be threaded in there somewhere, but no; it was simply rust locked so badly that multiple, heavy sledge hammer blows were required to break it free. I just better get my core charge back even if the alternator frame is a bit, er, marred. They never said what condition it had to be in....

Posi commented on how it seems like every time he visits, my car breaks. I really had wanted to just be social when we planned a visit at the beginning of the week. *sighs* After I bought he and Nova dinner for helping out, I said that next time I hoped I could just lean on him and watch a movie. That would be nice.

It may be a late start tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to get the new alternator into the car. Hopefully the easy part is done now, but I know better than to count on that.