Picture found on a table in Liberal Portland

Things in my neighborhood

Free Firewood!*

(* of course you still have to collect, load and split it yourself.)

So this morning, my first one back after a nice trip to visit with H7HT members, I woke up early and joined my next door neighbor Chris and two of his buddies, Ed and Dwayne. We drove about 10 miles up into the hills and started looking for standing dead trees. Ed and Dwayne are old hands at this and they are able to tell between tamarack, red pine, white pine and all other trees after they are dead. Seems the red pine is the key to high BTU output in the ole' wood stove. I don't have a wood stove so I opted for the faster burning and more "crackley" white pine.

After finding the proper tree it is cut at the base and felled. I stayed way the hell back because I have watched a little of American Loggers or Extreme Loggers or whatever that show is and I know that someone dies in every episode. Then Ed hooks it up to his truck with a long cable and flogs his truck like a rented mule to drag the log out onto the road. Two chainsaws go to work to cut it length and then I throw it into the trucks, what I am there for.

When all is said and done I end up with a solid half cord of dry white pine cut into the 20" fireplace lengths perfect for my big stone fireplace for more or less free. Only cost me 4 hours of time in the woods with a couple of good ole' boys and 1/4 tank of gas. Sweet.
GBCH

Well....

While I'm posting video, one for Fred G. Something he will likely never see again.

4?

It won't be long now......

Here is Cliffy getting ready to take a shot at the ole' 10 for 10. I bet 2 shotguns he misses. I however will never miss. I am the "Expert".

It won't be long now......

click on picture to read

Happy Mothers Day

Well it's Mothers Day time of year and I hope you too had the chance to send your Mom a nice card or perhaps some flowers. The following picture is one of my Mother, one she never intended you to see. This was taken sometime in the 50's at the Hamden Fish and Game Club. It shows some of the skeet houses in the background and Mom holding some kind of rifle. Word on the street is that Mom was quite the shot back in the day, possessed of deadly accuracy and Heston like skill. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Happy Mothers Day Mom!

Spring fishing trip. 2009

Things in my neighborhood

The Sunshine Miners Memorial.

Yesterday I went to the yearly memorial for the 91 miners who died in the Sunshine Mine back in 1972. The mine itself sits about a mile up Big Creek just down the road from us in Kellogg. More than 170 miners were on shift when a fire broke out over 3000 feet below the surface. The carbon monoxide quickly overcame many miners and others perished waiting for the mine elevators to get them out. Only 2 miners survived the deep depths of the mine as they were fortunate enough to be near a fresh air source over a mile below the surface. The cause of the fire has never been determined and the disaster changed the way of safety regulations of hardrock mines.

38 years later there were still over 200 people at the anniversary service. Seems that almost everyone around here lost someone, or was close to someone in the fire. People shared stories of the miners and told how that day changed their lives. The end of the service had the mayors of each town that lost citizens in the fire read off their names, as the names were read family members extinguished one of the 91 headlamps on mining caps placed at the base of the memorial.

It was a melancholy service to be sure but also underscored how deeply ingrained the mining culture is here in my part of the world. Even after only a few months here I knew at least one person in the crowd, a guy I worked with this winter who's Grandfather was one of the 91 dead. Also interesting is the fact that the man who created the sculpture for the memorial used to live in our house. We found slides of the sculpture, and others he has done, tucked back in the attic. Small towns are cool.
GBCH