Steve Schreiber

Don's Hoot 'n' Holler Garden Railway

On a recent visit to my in-laws, we were fortunate to meet one of their neighbors Don Parker. Don has a hobby that I love - model railroading. This year, Don has built a fantastic garden railway outside on his lawn. He calls it the Hoot 'n' Holler.

The Hoot 'n' Holler occupies a space that is over 750 square feet. The working train (of course!) runs on over 300 feet of track, through a community of over 25 structures and 80 figures. Running water (that turns a working overshot water wheel), beautiful landscaping and exquisite attention to detail make this layout a wonder to behold.

All of the approximately 25 structures in the layout were made by Don. Some of them pictured here are:

Several Train Platforms:

Some of the seven bridges, three trestles and the tunnel:

 

The Coal Tower:

 

A Small Log Cabin (made from sticks):

Houses and Commercial Buildings, including a Saw Mill:

 

Don told me he enjoys the juxtaposition of the plants and the rock components in the landscape. All of the plants are live, and feature Bonsai and miniature trees, flowers, shrubs and even tomatoes. The railway bed is made of graded gravel, and the buildings are connected by gravel roadways.

Don's marvelous attention to detail can be seen in all aspects of the railway, including the many people and animals that populate a realistic post turn-of-the-century American town.

The buildings and models all come inside in the winter, but the track and landscaping stay outside. In building the Hoot 'n' Holler, Don describes all of the challenges of real-life outdoor construction: weather issues, collapsing walls, water management, proper track ballast and grading and pests!

Big thanks to Don for sharing this excellent project with us!

Resources

Garden Railway Magazine

Getting Started With Garden Trains

Summer Concert Series On The Lake

 Our local community arts organization - Arts On The Lake - finished up an excellent four concert series last night. Despite one of the rainiest summers on record, three of the four concerts managed to find the few sunny evenings to be had, and were held outside.  AOTL members built a stage right on the edge of Lake Carmel, facing a good size yard of mowed grass that accommodated audiences in their yard chairs and blankets.

The concerts were held at dinner time, so food was readily available. Even setting up for the concerts was fun - while the musicians warmed up, the grills got fired up and everyone was psyched for the tunes ahead. This scenario repeated itself for each event, with an excellent band each time!

 

The series was made possible by Putnam-residing musicians Kati Mac and Tim Ouimette, and Arts on the Lake. Kati did the logistics legwork including sponsorship, to make the series possible, and both Tim and Kati provided extensive musical contributions including singing in the bands (Kati), horn and song arrangements (Tim), and primary trumpet in three for the four bands (Tim). Arts On The Lake hosted the concerts at their Lake Carmel center. 

Each band was different, and great. Tim Ouimette launched the series with his Big Band, playing swing and jazz tunes. The following week was the funky and blazing Roxy Perry Blues Band, featuring Roxy's bad-to-the-bone harmonica playing. Concert number three featured Swamp Gumbo Mardi Gras Cajun Rock, complete with the steamy weather, and this past Thursday night (8/27) concluded the series with R&B Soul artist Vaneese Thomas. Concerts started at six, had one intermission to let the sun set, then concluded shortly after nightfall.

For me, the series was great because it brought some new elements to Arts on the Lake. Each band was fairly large (5 - 9 pieces) so there were plenty of new, talented musicians who hadn't performed at AOTL before. The outside setting with nice weather made for a fun, relaxing summer picnic vibe to the events. 

I hope it happens again, and I'm already looking forward to seeing the words "2nd Annual" on the poster!

Resources

Arts on the Lake

Kati Mac

Tim Ouimette

Roxy Perry

Vaneese Thomas

Garden Gammon - Big Dice, Frisbees and Mosquitos

Whoever said Board Games are not athletic?

Over the course of four weekends, I built a 12 foot by 12 foot Backgammon Court in my backyard. The board utilizes three different colors of gravel for the surface and points, the checkers are 175 gram Ultimate class Frisbees, the dice are four inch foam dice, the dice cups are blue and white five gallon buckets and the Doubling Cube is made out of a cardboard box.

Inspiration for the project came from a walking tour in Zurich, Switzerland. We came across a group of men (and a pigeon) playing Chess on a life sized chessboard, and after a short period of percolation, the idea came to us. "Wouldn't it be cool to make a large scale Backgammon board in our backyard!" Once the synapses were formed, I never looked back.

I've been a serious Backgammon player for the last seven years, playing occasionally in American Backgammon Tour tournaments and locally as well as online. Backgammon is an excellent game involving the skill of the play with the luck of the dice. It can be a highly technical game involving over-the-board math to estimate winning chance probabilities. It's frequently exciting with turn-on-a-dime game changing plays. It's a social game, and I've met many excellent people along the way.

Being a lover of organization and plans, I decided to experiment with a Mind Map for the construction project. In my experience, Mind Maps are less suited for step-by-step project plans, but I was pleasantly surprised with how this one came out, and I ended up following it exactly.

It was fun to watch the board materialize over the course of each work session.

As a crowning touch, we felt a Mascot was in order. My wife Mary, who is a potter,
made a fired clay Badger with backgammon dice cups (and dice) who umpires the games.

     Additional Resources

     Backgammon:

         Backgammon Glossary

         Chicago Point Backgammon Links

     Frisbees, Dice and Dice Cups:

         You Gotta Go Throw

         Dice

         Dice Cups

     Gravel, Sand and Paving Edgers:

         Putnam Stone and Mason Supply