Concrete Heaven

Posted on By Tom 18 Comments on Concrete Heaven
Local

Ware Place Statuary

NOTE: Lately I’ve gotten several questions asking about pricing, inventory, and contact information for this business. I Am NOT THE OWNER, NOR DO I HAVE ANY ASSOCIATION WITH THIS BUSINESS! I just wrote about my visit there.

Seriously, some of you need to learn how search engines work. If a link appears at the top of the list, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s that business, or the link you want.

Now on to the original post…

If it can be cast in concrete, chances are Estelle King sells it. If you’ve ever been through Ware Place, South Carolina, you’ve seen Estelle’s place at the intersection of Highways 25, 418, and 8. The over-sized concrete roosters and horses and lighthouses are hard to miss. The spry 84 year old has operated her lawn ornament shop for over thirty years now, and shows no sign of stopping.

We had driven down Augusta Road to Estelle’s place to find a couple of small concrete cats to memorialize our recently departed felines.  When we arrive, Estelle was helping an elderly (probably younger than she is) woman load a large concrete birdbath into the woman’s trunk.

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3D Virtual Modeling with ARSights

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on 3D Virtual Modeling with ARSights
General Technology

Have you ever held the Parthenon in your hand?  In the picture above that’s what it looks like I’m doing.  The image isn’t a Photoshop job, but a rendering by ARSights’ latest software. The system makes use of Google’s Sketchup 3D Modeling software.  A gallery of significant architectural landmarks that have been created in Sketchup … Read More “3D Virtual Modeling with ARSights” »

Fire Towers – Paris Mountain and Cleveland

Posted on By Tom 10 Comments on Fire Towers – Paris Mountain and Cleveland
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography

My first lookout tower adventure was actually Saturday afternoon, and I decided to hit a couple of local sites. That morning I had called my good friend Cathy Taylor (no relation) who is a park ranger at Paris Mountain State Park. It turns out that she has the same interest in fire towers, and was … Read More “Fire Towers – Paris Mountain and Cleveland” »

Searching for the Towers

Posted on By Tom 2 Comments on Searching for the Towers
Geocaching and Maps, Local, Miscellaneous

You would think that something that stands 100′ high would be easy to find.  Certainly, when you’re close enough they are very visible.  However, locating lookout tower sites on maps turns out to be harder than I had thought. I knew of several definite locations such as the Duncan Tower, Glassy Mountain, Paris Mountain, and … Read More “Searching for the Towers” »

All Along the Watchtower

Posted on By Tom 6 Comments on All Along the Watchtower
History and Genealogy, Local, Photography

Duncan Lookout Tower Cab

This is going to be one of those multi-part posts. I’ve got tons of information on this subject, and it won’t be possible to put it all in one story.

I’ve always been fascinated by lookout towers. Near where I grew up in Laurens County there were two small monadnocks called the Little Knob and Big Knob. The Big Knob had a fire tower on it, and I longed to scale its steps and enjoy the view from the top. Some miles to the north is another prominent, larger monadnock with a fire tower – Paris Mountain. When I was around eight years old I did get to climb up the steps, but never made it into the cab at the top. I distinctly remember the trap door being padlocked when we got to the top.

I had forgotten all about the towers until just this past week. I had been looking for locations to do long-exposure photographs of I-85 for traffic trails when I spotted the Duncan lookout tower on the way home from work on Friday. At the intersection of Danzler and Victor Hill Roads it had a perfect view of the Interstate, so I went to explore. I found the tower in the front yard of a house on Victor Hill Road. The fence around its base now had a dog house within, and it was clear that the tower had not been used in years. I gave up on using this location as a photography platform, but now I wanted to learn more about the towers themselves, so a new quest was born.

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Google Earth Plus PowerPoint Mash-up

Posted on By Tom 5 Comments on Google Earth Plus PowerPoint Mash-up
EdTech, Geocaching and Maps

Slide1

In mid-March I will be heading to SCETV studios in Columbia for a week of workshops, teaching South Carolina teachers about Google Earth. I do this every year and thoroughly enjoy meeting educators from around the state. Each year I try to change things up a bit, and this year is no different.

I’m really tired of PowerPoint. Or, more specifically, I’m tired of the laziness of boring bullet points read to an audience. I try to keep these to a minimum in my presentations, preferring to demonstrate actual software rather than spend the entire presentation in PowerPoint. This time I think I’ve found a way to combine both PowerPoint and Google Earth for an effective presentation, and here’s how I’m going to do it.

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