The Rebel

This past Monday, February 20, 2023, the wife and I participated in another water color painting class. This time we painted roosters. Generally, the instructions had us using Antwerp Blue, Paynes Gray, Quinacridone Gold and Windsor Red. The first image was the completed rooster on the instruction sheet. Much of the rooster was to be blue in color, and the wife did not like the idea of painting a blue rooster, so my red-haired Rebel used more of a earth-tone color motif.

Final rooster on the instruction sheet

The red-haired rebels rooster is really quite nice, with well accomplished tail feathers, waddle, comb, not to mention the main body and the way the colors turned out using the salt technique. For part of the breast of the bird, you scatter some salt on a damp, but not too wet or too dry water color on the paper and it crystallizes giving a pattern to the water color. It is really quite interesting. 

The Rebel's rooster

My rooster, on the other hand, lacks refinement and detail. No matter how light I tried to paint, I could not get the feather technique correct. Look at my initials compared to my wife's, both done with the same sized small brush. However, I did receive a compliment of sorts from the instructor on my use of salt as she wondered if I have water colored much before. One look at my tail feathers would have given the answer. But, the salt technique on my rooster I think was enhanced by accident. When you desire to not have a hard edge to a water color, you wet the surface. I used the brush and water to wet the surface. Of course, part of it I wetted too much, so I took the edge of a paper towel and put it on the paper to let it soak up some of the water with the paint. I think this allowed channels to form and which gave part of that salt appearance, but seemingly with more a channel appearance. 

Author's rooster

My wife was the most rebellious person in the class doing a completely different color rooster than prescribed by the instructions. Although it looks more like roosters I have seen, because I don't know if I have ever seen a blue rooster. Water color painting can be forgiving with the right techniques and delicacy of hand. The more water, the less harsh the color and the more it spreads. Even though my wife was the rebel she was also the teacher's pet, getting many compliments on her use of color and her techniques. The instructor appreciated her rebelliousness. I would have done a different color, but, I lacked the confidence to approach on what colors to use. I even used the wrong blue for a while and that is why parts of my rooster has a hint of green.

My channel technique, above the legs

What I do know, is the more I do this, the more my appreciation for artists grows. For example, the red-haired Rebel knows what she is doing. Technique is one thing, and it certainly helps, but an eye for color is just as important, if not more important, in this method as technique. If the colors don't work, I don't think a painting can be saved by technique as it is the colors that first catches the eye. 

Showing more detail of the red-haired Rebel's rooster

A Village Burned

Historical events are often viewed through a present time lens. This makes some sense, as it is the time with which we are engaged. While much of history took place in time with differing values, or cultures, it can still be instructive. From about 1618 to 1648 Central Europe was involved in what we know as the Thirty Years War. I have many lines of ancestors from Bohemia, but research into one line shows the effect of this war on a village they would come to inhabit a century later. This is the story of the burned village of Hlavatce and how Viet Jodl, my 6th great grandfather, came to acquire a holding (to be known as house #8) in Hlavatce in 1720.  

Stable Cadastre Map of Hlavatce, ~1835

The Thirty Years War started when two newly assigned regents of the Austro-Hungarian Empire arrived in Prague and were promptly thrown out the upper floor windows of the Hradčany Castle by Bohemian protestants (this incident is known as the defenestration of Prague). This started what is known today as the Thirty Years War, a mainly religious war that took its name from its length. As with many wars, this resulted in depopulation and migrancy. The US is worried about balloons flying in the atmosphere, and here Hapsburg regents who were to be the Crown's representatives in  Bohemia were thrown out a castle window, or maybe each got their own window. It is reported that both regents survived the 96 foot fall without serious injury. Interestingly, many of the power lords of Bohemia at the time were protestant and it was under their control that the second serfdom commenced in the 16th century, and then continued through the Thirty Years War and until partial emancipation of the serfs in the late 18th century and the final emancipation with land reform in 1848. 

Present time distance Lazistka to Hlavatce

During the Thirty Years War, terror would strike varied settlements. Hlavatce was one settlement affected by the uprising, which is supported by two main pieces of evidence. First, is the 1654 Berni Rula which was an inventory by the governmental authorities for taxation purposes. (Unfortunately, the 1651 census of population known as the 1651 Soupis is lost for this district, which would have provided other evidence.)  We are fortunate that the 1654 Berni Rula survived. The Berni Rula had a column for designating when a holding was resettled, a clear indication that many villages or dwellings saw the same fate as Hlavatce. A review of the Berni Rula for Hlavatce provides a total of 20 landholdings, which would represent many parcels of land around the village. Of these 20 holders only four appear to have either survived the terror of the war or (perhaps more likely) had already resettled on the holdings prior to 1654, but after the destruction. Two more properties are accounted as having been resettled in 1654, leaving 14 total holdings which were still vacant. The title heading these 14 holdings essentially says they are desolate. Further explanation on the page indicates that the properties were burned. 

1654 Berni Rula Holdings in Hlavatce
Simon Soubar would become the Jodl holding
See Haas, 1954

The next, more descriptive evidence comes from the land registers for Hlavatce. Richard D'Amelio translated the Jodl line in two land registers for about 70 years starting in 1720 when Veit Jodl acquired the Hlavatce holding. Richard is diligent in is work, and as part of it he looked back in time from before Veit Jodl acquired what was known as the Šimon Šaubar  holding. The summary Richard provided notes the following: 

The Šimon Šaubar holding (1626-1711 land register for the court district of Hlavatce). This holding is identified as burned at the inception of the 1626 land register. The initial summary text states that the holding had remained abandoned for a period of 40 years to 1662. Furthermore, the register suggests almost every holding in Hlavatce had suffered a similar fate. The descriptive text of a holding sold in 1676, specifically states that it had remained abandoned for a period of 60 years, from the time of the „Vnglikhafften Böhmischen Rebelion [unglückhaften böhmischen Rebelion]“ (Folio 126), suggesting the holding had become so during the Bohemian Revolt of 1618.

From this we are informed that the village saw significant destruction of most, if not all, structures by vandalism induced conflagration in the early part of the Thirty Years War, or Bohemian Revolt. If not in 1618 itself, the destruction likely occurred by 1622. This is supported by the aforementioned tax inventory of the Berni Rula which noted that a vast majority of holdings were still desolate due to being burned. We don't know what side caused the destruction, we only know the village was destroyed.

Hlavatce House #8, Stable Cadastre Indication Sketch
~1826

Following the war, according to the D'Amelio summary, the Šaubar holding was first rebuilt in 1662 by Michael Kreüsinger, with permission of the then Hauptmann (director) of Libějovice dominion for the sum of 77sß 8g 4₰. This amount was was due the manorial authority, since the property had effectively reverted to its control. However, Kreüsinger would only farm the property for three years with the holding being sold in 1665. It must not have been easy to reclaim farm fields that had been fallow for forty years. Pioneer trees, think box elder and silver maple, could easily take hold and be rather good sized trees within only a 20 year time. The property would see seven additional owners over that 55 year time span until 17 Oct 1720 when forty year old Veit Jodl acquired the holding.

Vit and family in 1719 Seigniorial Register for Lazistka
Trebon Archives, Ord 51

Veit Jodl hailed from the village of Lažišťka, which is about 16 miles from Hlavatce, although both villages are in the Libějovice dominion. Veit Jodl acquired the property due to negligence of the prior manger who controlled the holding for only three years. The land register, in its handover to Veit Jodl, makes a point of the condition of the holding, lack of payment and the debts acquired by the previous holder: 

The previous holding owner, Martin Novotný, had managed the land negligently for a period of three years so that the property has become completely dilapidated. In addition, he has accumulated debts here and there, consequently paying little in the way of land tax, and nothing at all in the way of ground rent, for which reason the gracious manorial authority has ordered him to leave the holding....

This would be an expensive property to purchase. Veit's father still controlled the holding in Laziskta, and in the 1719 Seignorial Register Veit, his wife and four of their children are living with his parents and are part of the lodger class, that is he does not hold property. The land register is clear that Veit made no down payment for the property. Generally, it seems to me, the oldest son had more difficulty in obtaining a farm. Generally, in Bohemia, the youngest son took on the father's farm, and if his father is deceased at that point, he may at least have a "down payment" on the holding with his share of of the inheritance being deducted from the amount due to the heirs. I have not had the handover register for Veit's father translated which would give the inheritance that Veit would receive and maybe when he received such payments. 

Land Register Introduction to required Payment
Trebon Archives, Ord 17

In agreeing to purchase the rights to manage the holding, Veit Jodl took on a great deal of debt as the total price was 100sß 8g 4₰. The purchase included the stipulation that "he pay each and every debt which the previous holding owner had been liable, promptly and diligently, alongside an annual installment of 2sß against the carried purchase price".  At 2sß per year on a debt of 100sß 8g 4₰ meant that it would take over 50 years to pay off the encumbrance. By comparison when of Michael Kreüsinger purchased the property in 1662 the price paid was: 77sß 8g 4₰. The additional accrued amount was debts accumulated by the previous owner. Veit not only had to pay the amount due over time he also was agreeing to grant a life provision to the widow (it is unclear whose widow, but probably a prior owner) but such arrangement was "agreed in advance." The register gives a great level of detail on what makes up this over 100 schock grossen debt. The bulk of the payment owed is to the manorial authority, there is also payments to heirs of two prior owners (going as far back as the heirs of the owner from 1681 to 1692), and payment to the negligent owner Martin Novotný for the value he had paid. The manorial authority was gracious to waive the registration fee for Veit, so no payment was due in 1720. It must have been a difficult holding to farm and revitalize, as from 1721 to 1734 Veit only once made a payment over 2sß or more and that was in 1723 when paying 3sß 30g. The last payment to satisfy the debt was made in 1787. Therefore, it took 67 years for Veit, his son, Martin and his grandson, also named Veit, to pay this large debt. 

Detailed accounting of the breakdown of  the100sß 8g 4₰
Veit Jodl has to pay
Trebon Archives Land Register, Ord 17

When Veit Jodl decided to uproot his family he had to weigh the benefits of his owning a farm against the risks of incurring so much debt. Using the 1654 Berni Rula we can see that the Šimon Šaubar holding acquired by Veit Jodl was 30 strich, or about 21 acres. It was slightly larger than the Havel holding in Raiborova Lhota, but its poor condition required a great deal of work. Veit saw that this holding represented his best option for farming.

About one hundred years after the village burned Veit Jodl took advantage of the poor situation, and reconstructed a neglected farm. This began a long-term Jodl family relationship with the #8 Hlavatce holding. The Jodl family would farm the land for many generations as my second great grandmother Anna Jodl's brother Mathias would take on the holding in 1846, just two years before the full serf emancipation and the land reform. The Thirty Years War desolated the village of Hlavatce, and it took two generations for resettlement to occur and even then there was much trial and difficulties. History is complex, but this provides an interesting insight into the Jodl line of the Havel family.

Sources:  

D'Amelio, Richard. Summary of early land registers, Feb 2023.

1954, Haas, Antonin, Berni rula 27 Kraj Prachensko (1654 document)

Trebon Archives, Land Registers, Ordinal 17. Translated by Richard D'Amelio

Trebon Archives, Land Registers, Ordinal 29, Translated by Richard D'Amelio

Trebon Archives, Seigniorial Register, Ord 51. 

. 

Healing Concrete

With present time thinking many seem to think we are most advanced age, and that we have most all the answers. After all, in our world today there more experts in more fields than at anytime in human history. Yet, for all of the learning, certain items can still be wrong. It happens in the health field, it happens with food (remember trans fats?), and it even occurs with concrete. Concrete is a common construction material since it was first used by the Nabataen's in Syria and Jordan over 6500 years ago. (We best know the Nabataen's for having built Petra in the early fourth century.) As a construction material concrete rose to popularity with the Romans who were the first to use it on a large scale--the Pantheon, the port of Ostia, just two of their large projects. Roman use dates back to perhaps 600 BC. It turns out that all our present time engineering of concrete it is not as good as what the Romans developed over 2,000 years ago. What engineers and scientists thought was sloppy mixing of concrete was in fact something much different. Recent research indicates that the material that was thought to be of sloppy mixing, was actually part of the Roman process of having created self-healing concrete. 

Crack in Concrete Driveway

We have all been on concrete roads with cracks, particularly in northern climate zones with freezing weather. Water that makes its way into the concrete freezes and expands and then cracks the concrete. Perhaps 30 years ago WIDOT attempted to place clear stone, rather than gravel under concrete roads with a drainage system in an attempt to get the water to move out. Two examples of which I am aware of this use are Highway 51 near McFarland, WI, and Highway 151 north of Sun Prairie toward Columbus. I am not sure that met with success. I think the clear stone, rather than a gravel base allowed other soft spots and cracks to develop.

Cracks in one area lead to more cracks as water continues to intrude into the mass. Concrete has very good compressive strength but has poor tensile strength. Concrete is made of small "stones" or grains which means it will always have some microscopic cracks in its formation. Thus, when tensile forces are applied to concrete, these cracks become elongated and eventually the concrete breaks apart. Hence, the need for reinforcement to improve the tensile strength. The reinforcement is usually what we know as rebar, but for some situations like, sidewalks fiberglass strands are used. If concrete is not too thick it may not need much, if any, reinforcement. 

Interior of part of Pantheon Dome

Ironically, the study of Roman concrete by MIT, Harvard, and universities in Italy and Switzerland, was published in the journal Science Advances. In this case, science was advanced by looking at the advanced methods of Roman concrete, processing and construction methods over 2000 years old. For many decades it has been thought the strength and durability of Roman concrete was related to the use of "pozzolanic material such as volcanic ash from the area of Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples. This specific kind of ash was even shipped all across the vast Roman empire to be used in construction, and was described as a key ingredient for concrete in accounts by architects and historians at the time." (MIT News)

Part of the Exterior of the Pantheon

However, it turns out the durability of Roman concrete comes from something called lime clasts, which present day genius' thought was the result of sloppy mixing practices, or poor quality material. Also crucial was the material used and the processing--hot mixing of the concrete. The Roman process also sets and cures much more quickly than our current concrete. It turns out those Roman engineers knew quite a bit more about concrete than our present day engineers. But, it gets much better, and let me quote MIT news so I don't get the substance wrong:

During the hot mixing process, the lime clasts develop a characteristically brittle nanoparticulate architecture, creating an easily fractured and reactive calcium source, which, as the team proposed, could provide a critical self-healing functionality. As soon as tiny cracks start to form within the concrete, they can preferentially travel through the high-surface-area lime clasts. This material can then react with water, creating a calcium-saturated solution, which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate and quickly fill the crack, or react with pozzolanic materials to further strengthen the composite material. These reactions take place spontaneously and therefore automatically heal the cracks before they spread. Previous support for this hypothesis was found through the examination of other Roman concrete samples that exhibited calcite-filled cracks.

Hence, the ingenious Romans developed a self-healing concrete and being over 2,000 years old makes modern day concrete look cracked up (pun intended). The Roman leaders liked their public work projects, regardless of debt, to keep the masses happy. Public works projects to please the masses became more and more prevalent during the dictatorship era, from Julius Caesar becoming the anointed Emperor, on to the end of the empire when it was  overthrown by the Visogoths, a Germanic tribe of barbarians. Some of the Roman Emperors may have taken depravity to new heights, but their engineers knew what they were doing. 

The end of the Roman Empire led to a decrease in learning and opportunities. The barbarian invaders apparently did not much care for concrete or the unique methods the Romans used to make this durable material, and it has now taken 1547 years for why Roman concrete was so good to be made known. I wonder if the road building lobby will adjust to this process? There is already much debate about asphalt or concrete and the state tries to please both powerful lobbies. It could give concrete an advantage, but it may mean they are not rebuilding roads as often. The healing concrete is an amazing invention, and a very good reason why modern people should not think they do every thing better and know more than those in the long past.

Reference:

https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106

Photos by Author

Alexa the Quilter

The Amazon Alexa device is interesting in what information it can provide. My wife was telling the story about a former co-worker who volunteers in the school with young children. Her former co-worker was working on "Th" sounds, and she was wanting the kids to say thermometer, so she said something like your parents would look at this to get the outdoor temperature? They looked at her with rather befuddled faces and she said, what do your parents do when they want to know the temperature? The children responded, "they ask Alexa." Alexa is great telling one the weather, and the outdoor thermometer is going the way of the can opener. But, is Alexa is a quilter?

Amazon Echo Dot

The wife quilts, and sews. Right now she is making quilt that she donates to an organization that works with pregnant women in non-ideal situations. This past Friday night I asked Alexa how much snow are we going to get. She responded 2.16 inches. I have asked before for both rain and snow and marvel at how she gets it to a hundredth of an inch. She could have said 2 inches, or 2.2, but no, she has to go to the hundredth of an inch. Her prediction probably was true as of 5 pm Saturday, but Saturday, from 5 pm to early Sunday AM, we had a good 6 + more inches of snow. I don't even know how you would measure snow to that level of accuracy. I was commenting on her precise amount, and my wife said "she must be a quilter." 

My wife can judge measurements very well, particularly in the smaller dimensions. It comes from her years of sewing and quilting. She may not be as precise as Alexa, to the hundredth of an inch, but she is very close on her estimates. I have even measured times when she gives has given me a measurement, say 2" and I measure and she is right on. Years of sewing and quilting have given her an eye for measurements. 

A Quilt

Alexa has a habit to get chatty, particularly after I ask the question of the day. Alexa always seems to be wanting me to get into some trivia club or group, or try Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader" challenge. The next morning, after my wife's comment Alexa was in one of her chatty moods, and I asked her to stop or end and she continued. My wife made a comment about her being so chatty, and I responded to my wife that, "Well, she is a quilter." I think that is the first time I can recall when my wife did not have comeback, I left her speechless. 

Alexa is great for providing current weather or forecasts for a specific area, although I tend to think her wind level is off. I am still trying to understand how she describes wind speed, breezy one day light breeze even though a higher windspeed the next day. I then came to realize understanding Alexa is like trying to understand what a woman wants.