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Woodshop Time Again: Blanket Chest #1
When I had finished the frame for the hall mirror in this post about my previous woodshop project, I had an idea to start working on a blanket chest. I had just finished…
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Woodshop Time: Hall Coat Rack
Hello world. It has been a little bit since I posted a build article here on a woodshop project, so today I’m writing two! The first is for a coat rack that I…
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In Which I Embarrass My Younger Sisters
Olivia turned fifteen years old last week. Olivia and I have the same mother and father, but I am the oldest of the five Gaffron sisters and she is the youngest. I grew…
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It’s Maple Sugar Season!
Every winter, my sisters and I listened to a radio broadcast of the Maple Queen Contest for the Pennsylvania Maple Festival in Meyersdale, PA. When March came, I and the other members of…
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My Hometown Has an Elephant Farm
This is the first blog post in an occasional series about what makes Berlin, Pennsylvania fantastic. About a year or so ago, I saw a job posting on the Pittsburgh Zoo’s website for…
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“Down by the Riverside”
This is what the Allegheny River looked like today, on one of the coldest days of this century. I had Jonathan stop at Firemen’s Park in Arnold when we were out so that…
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Fort Pitt Had A Moat
January is the perfect month to . . . catch up on past seasons of Downton Abbey and read. After I finished “The Day Must Dawn,” I read another historical fiction novel by Agnes…
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A Local Novel by a Local Author: “The Day Must Dawn”
One of the main characters in “The Day Must Dawn” by Agnes Sligh Turnbull watches Colonel William Crawford burn at the stake while Simon Girty laughs. That scene isn’t the only dramatic one in…
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The “Ghost” of Simon Girty
My Grandma Gaffron often joked that the ghost of Simon Girty hung around the Gaffron family property in North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County. “Simon Girty took my glasses,” she said when she couldn’t find…
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Great Expectations
Last night, we and several family members walked for two and a half hours on the Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour. Jonathan believes that he and I have gone on the tour…