Arbor Day Preparations

Mt. Vernon Garden Club members and Tree Board members got together this week to package seedlings for school kids in Jefferson County and Mt. Vernon. Pines and hardwoods were individually bagged and stapled to an instruction sheet that shows the kids how to plant a tree properly. This dedicated crew has been helping with Arbor Day festivities for several years, and they make it possible to distribute trees to every school in the county. SALUTE!

Ticket To Adventure

Qualifying for a Red Card from the US Forest Service doesn't guarantee adventure, but it does enhance your chances for memorable experiences. I got my first Red Card in 1979, hoping to earn a little extra money and some fire fighting experience in the West. At the time, I was working in Eastern Kentucky, and had lots of practice fighting fire in Appalachian hardwood forests.

Earning one of these thirty years ago required doing the Step Test, which was pretty easy for anyone used to climbing hills regularly. You had to step up and down, on and off of a one foot high step for five minutes, and have your pulse monitored to check your fitness. After I passed, I packed a duffel bag, and waited for a call. In August we were flown out of Lexington, KY to Butte, MT to work on the Barker Creek fire, near the town of Anaconda. Our crew spent four days mopping up fire line, riding in deuce-and-a-half trucks, sleeping on the ground at night, and loving nearly every minute of it.

Here I am with friend Ken Powers working near timber line in subalpine fir forest.

The vistas were a bit longer, and the mountains were a bit taller than we were used to in Kentucky.

Our ride is sitting on the Continental Divide. It felt good to start out at the top of the hill.

Our crew managed very well in the high altitudes. The air was thin, but we all knew how to pace ourselves from working in the Appalachians.

When we came off of the Barker Creek fire, we were sent to Missoula, where we spent five days on the Grant Creek fire. We had more excitement than we wanted on that one, with long hikes, hot firelines, and big Douglas-firs crashing down around us. It was a memorable trip.

More training is required today by the Forest Service for fire fighters, and I have been getting a Red Card again since 2005. My employer let some of us go on a fire assignment in 2006, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime fire assignment. Minnesota had most of their personnel committed on big fires that summer, and our crew from Illinois was sent in to stop little ones from

becoming big ones. Since we weren't on a big fire, we stayed in real lodging, not tents, and had a shower every night.

We had to do 100% mop up on the fires we were assigned, and we got some experience using water, and dropping trees.

Minnesota has lots of water, and you are never too far from it, so fire-fighting involves moving water more than digging line.

We were sent to this smoker late one day. Part of the crew set up a pump in a beaver pond and carried hose uphill while we made our falling plan. As soon as we had some water on this white pine, we dropped it, chunked it into movable pieces, hosed it down, stacked the pieces around the stump and hosed it more.

One of our brave crew members mugged for the camera the next morning when we checked it to make sure it was cold. Dropping trees with a crew watching is good practice. You have to plan every cut on every tree before you crank up, because burning snags don't let you stop and think about your next move. It was exhilarating.

Speaking of exhilaration, I just passed the Pack Test to get a Red Card again this year. You have to carry forty-five pounds three miles in forty-five minutes or less, and I surprised myself by improving my time. I don't know if the boss will let anyone go this year, but it felt good to qualify.

The Way Of All Iron

This old binder was probably parked only a few years before the fields it harvested were abandoned and allowed to grow up in briars, sumacs, dogwoods, ash, and persimmon. It is a sad looking case now, with all of the wood and canvas gone, along with the memories of the farm it worked on. The remains of the farm house are caving in across the road, a sad reminder of days gone by.

There isn't much left of this one. I think the parts that could easily be removed have been carried off to a scrap yard, leaving just the bones to remind us of times past.

We're Bugged!

These purple box-kites started showing up in Illinois recently, and I figured out what they were before I stopped to look at one. The emerald ash borer has been on the move, and governmental agencies who watch these things are trying to track them.

The bugs are probably all over Illinois already, and are just waiting to be discovered. Ash is one of our greatest hardwood trees for growing useful and beautiful wood, but I quit recommending it in tree planting projects as soon as I heard about this insect arriving on our shores. Ash has serious disease and insect problems that are native in this country, and I think that the new bug on the block will make it impossible to manage for ash timber in the future.

Not My Victrola

EdmundusRex has posted another great song by the "Victrola Girl," Aileen Stanley, and Cliff Edwards. This YouTube posting is guaranteed to brighten your Monday!

Here Comes Monday!

Back To The Old Grind!

Beating The Wildlife

We went looking for morel mushrooms Saturday, and it was slow at first, but we found a recently-deceased elm tree with the tasty treats growing above the dead roots, and we felt like we were in Hog-Heaven.

This is our haul; we had some with supper, and we are eating the remainder with Sunday breakfast.

If you have morels in you woods you have to find them before the deer, turkeys, and squirrels eat them. This cute gray squirrel was hunting alongside Mrs. TBS for quite a while, and I followed him around taking pictures. I was only five or six feet away from him when I took this shot.

Weekend Steam

Case steam traction engines climbing a steep incline were a popular attraction at rural fairs in the early Twentieth Century. It was a pretty gutsy demonstration, and I don't know of any other manufacturers who showcased their engines doing this. If the single cylinder engine stopped on the way up, it would have to back down. The backing down after the engine reaches the top give me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. These engines do not have brakes, and the steering is a rudimentary system of chains pivoting the front axle. The first video is courtesy of Jrcaseman, and the second one is from hartparr, both fellow YouTubers.

Crankin' It Up

We had a fan of the Benson Orchestra leave a nice comment on YouTube, so this Friday we are playing the flip side of last week's record. 'My Little Bimbo' is a One-Step, and I have no idea how you dance to this. It sounds like good music to go with the old 'Fractured Flickers' show hosted by Hans Conried many years ago. Have a great weekend!

More Instruction From Joe Glenn: Chainsaw Kickbacks

Joe Glenn demonstrates the power and danger of a kickback from your chainsaw in this short video. Note that Joe directs the kickback horizontally so he is not in danger of being hit during the demonstration. He performs this by using only the tip of the saw; engaging more of the kickback corner would propel the saw out of his grip. A major kickback that launches toward your head and shoulders can be deadly, so you have to pay attention to the tip of your bar at all times when you are cutting. Joe is wearing all of the personal protective gear recommended for chainsaw operators, he locks the saw between his knees when he starts, and he wraps his thumb around the bar in order to have a firm grip on the saw. A chainsaw will blast right out of your hand during a kickback if you don't have that thumb in the right place.