A & A Metal Shop- Ulysses, Pa

I have been thinking a while about some of the local businesses around here and how they really deserve a little recognition for their services to the community. Some are not well known and often do not advertise. Their reputation goes before them through their satisfied customers, and frankly, that’s really the best kind of advertising.

Today I would like to talk about A & A Metal Shop. This small business is run out of  the owners shop at 464 Collins Hill Rd, Ulysses, Pa. The owners name is Aaron and his son Amon, hence the A & A in the name. I happened upon them through a friend of mine and through Mapletrader.com,  as I was looking to purchase a maple syrup evaporator. I had found one in New Hampshire and my friend told me to check out A & A before I made a long trip. So after looking him up, I found a few threads mentioning his business on Mapletrader.com and they were all praising his work.

I decided to take a road trip one day after work since it was only about 40 minutes away.

Typical Amish house. Picture credit: amishtrail.com

As I crossed into Potter County and on to Collins Hill Road I was entering an Amish community where Aaron lives. The homes are large, white , well kept, simple, and efficiently serve a purpose as they are spacious to large families. Out in front of Aarons home is his red metal shop with a small sign hanging on to the mailbox with the words “A & A Metal shop”.

I entered through the door and stepped into his little office. I could look through a doorway into the main shop and see all the men diligently working with metal in some way or another. You would think of a metal shop as loud and industrial like, but this was quiet other than the occasional sound of metal on metal and conversation in Pennsylvania Dutch. The shop was warmed by a wood stove. No electric lights, though the windows all around gave ample light by which to to work.

Inside the shop.

Aaron eventually came over and inquired as to what I needed. He was dressed in simple work clothes, and a caring face, kind of like a real nice Grampa. We talked about the different kinds of evaporators he made and their pricing. I had settled on their smallest model, the Hobby Model, which is actually a bit larger than the large manufacturers version. I didn’t measure it but it looked to be almost a 2X4. I was really impressed with all the options that came standard: a pre-heater pan, 8′ chimney stack, fire brick for the arch, and fire cloth. That set up came in UNDER $1000. I had ordered a tin tester cup ($12) so my total order was $987. I may order a steam hood which would be around $140.

Hobby Evaporator

The construction of their stainless pans is done without welding. He uses all 304, 24ga, B2 finish stainless steel. They still use soldering which some people frown upon due to the old kind of soldering which uses lead solder but all joints are crimped and are lead free soldered. He also does not use the shiny anealed stainless steel as it is hard to solder.

I am very glad I stopped in to visit his shop. If you want to order from him, you’ll have to either write a letter or stop by as he does not use a telephone. Its actually quite refreshing to see a business run the old fashioned way with a smile and a handshake instead of an impersonal email or long distance phone call.

Large evaporator ready to be shipped.

Sugar Shack mailbox

Large drop flue with pre-heater piping.

 

Pallet Barn Update

It’s been a while since I posted updated pictures of our Pallet Barn. We have since poured a concrete floor and set up the dividing wall for the goat area. Pouring the concrete was a learning experience. The floor was too large to have any kind of way to scree it level and I did not have a large float so I did it by hand. So with the help of my brother nephew it turned out ok…not perfect, but ok. I am satisfied with it.

Concrete floor (4.5 yds)

I also made use of more pallets for the goat area. The only new material I purchased for this was the wire mesh and the hardware for the gate.

Divider for goat area.

 

It’s not about hunting

I’ll start this post by stating that I am not an NRA member, nor do I plan on being one in the future.

The recent events at Sandy Hook Elementary School have left many people rightfully upset. So upset that finger pointing has begun. The feeling to just DO something to make us feel like something is getting done to make it better, or to make us, who are still living, feel better.

If you have read any of my posts in the last few years you would have gotten the understanding of my somewhat pacifist bent. So my view point is not coming from the bias of a gun-wielding ”lets fight” attitude. To me, using a gun against another human is the last resort… if ever, and that is only concerning one on one confrontations, not war. My opinions on war can be found in other posts.

Anyway, lets take a step back and look at the situation as a whole. Here is an incident where a mentally impaired individual had access to a firearm. This individual was a boiling pot before that morning. His family was broken, he had estranged himself from his father, who it seems was separated from his mother.  He had mental issues, serious enough for her to look into committing him against his will. To him, he had nothing to lose and he was going to let everyone know how he felt. So we see there were MANY red flags that weren’t tended to.

The firearms that he used should have been under lock and key. This is well stated in documentation that accompanies any new firearm purchase. But it wasn’t, which is probably the biggest argument used by the anti-gun crowd. The ease of access to firearms such as the one he used, by people like himself, is a serious concern regardless of any law that would be put in place.

So, we have a young man with mental issues, very angry, nothing to lose, and access to a firearm. Now he is heading to the school to make a statement…an awful statement. The school is a gun-free zone. Do you think that if you were to ask anyone if they knew this man was headed to the school with intent on a killing spree if they would have been ok with someone shooting him down to prevent it? I think you’d get a resounding “YES!” You would be insane to look at the situation and say, “No, let every one keep going about their business and don’t let anyone else come on the property with a firearm.”

That is essentially what is happening now.  Even after such a horrifying event, people (mostly influenced by emotions and/or media) are demanding that we disarm. They look at the inanimate object he was carrying and put blame on it rather than on the killer, or on the failed mental health systems.

Taking the argument that you could prevent him from ever having an “assault” rifle in the first place is not a worthwhile argument. Because, if he didn’t have an AR-15, he would have used a handgun. If he didn’t have access to that, he would have taken a bulky hunting rifle or shotgun. If he didn’t have access to that, it would have been a knife, explosives, a hammer, a bat, a vehicle. He was determined to do anything that he possibly could to get his point across. Did you know that on the same day a man in china entered a school with a knife and started attacking students and teachers there?

The saving situation would have been if an upright citizen within the school was responsibly carrying a firearm. Whether a security guard, a teacher or part of the administration, this whole situation could have been mitigated by one shot. Some 26 children and adults would still be alive in their parents arms today.

But instead there is great sorrow. The shooter shot himself anyway after his horrible actions. Now the liberal media and politicians are spewing out accusations against the type of firearms the sick young man used. Its ridiculous!  Instead there should be stiffer regulations keeping those types of people away from using those tools.

How many children have died from automobile accidents? How about ….abortion? There I said it. The United states allows the murdering of millions of children through abortion, but somehow condemns a gun for the death of these school children. Don’t dishonor the lives of these children by making such wrong conclusions. Honor them by taking a hard look at the real problem, the reasons behind the wicked actions of people. The loss of the value of life.

Through poor social situations, entertainment, and other media, humans in generation after generation are being desensitized by evil and losing the value of life. Human life is not as important as it once was. When a woman is pregnant, it’s an inconvenience. In the movies and video games, human lives are a dime a dozen. Where will it end?

Again, I am not an NRA member, but after hearing their Executive Vice President, Wayne Lapierre, speak on the issue at their press conference I thought he really nailed it. The media ignores the important facts that he stated but rather, with a political agenda, they just summarizes what he said by “NRA says more guns”. That’s not at all what he said. Our values are so backwards that we would rather make sure our money is more secure than our children. We make prison “Easy Street”, then let them back out on the street before they should be. We pour fully automatic weapons on foreign citizenry to protect themselves against warlords and evil government (which often end up being used against our own military) but push to pass laws that disarm our own citizens here in the United States. Isn’t something backwards here?

Is difficult to keep my thoughts from going in a few directions at one time. What lies at the core of the problem, but most all people are unwilling to recognize it, is the state of man…a sinner.

 

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 24,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Clustr Maps

I just want to say HELLO! To all my readers both near and far. If you look down on the right hand column of this blog, at the bottom is a thumbnail for Clustr Maps. When you click on that, it will show you all my visitors to this site. It really is quite amazing to see such a wide dispersal of readers from all countries around the world!

I just like looking at it now and then to see all of you folks that live all around the world that have stopped by to read a post or two. Thank you!

If you look at the post below this one, you will see that I have added a new feature to my blog…Polls! From time to time I will be throwing up a poll now and then. Let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to poll.

 

Do you make use of roadside produce/farm stands?

 

…pallet shed pics cont’d.

Lifting a truss.

Setting a truss.

Fir strip for setting trusses and for nailers for the metal roofing.

Shell is done.

Leftover metal roof from my house a few years ago.