Time For New Jackets!

The Mrs. and I were invited to the annual FFA banquet in Cisne last week, and we were surprised with an honorary FFA degree for promoting forestry education with the agriculture students in our area. This will be a great wall-hanger, and now we can wear those sharp looking blue jackets with the corncob, plow, and owl.

Many years ago we took some high school students from McLeansboro to a forest soils conference in Kentucky. One of the students was a senior girl who was all set to go into forestry when she entered college. At the conference our students met forestry students from the University of Kentucky, and they were a bit on the rough side. On our return trip to Illinois the girl announced that "I'm not like those people." She ditched her forestry plans and went into Pre-Med, and now she is a reconstructive surgeon. You never know how your work will pay off.

Weekend Steam

Most steam traction engines have no braking system at all, but they can be stopped quickly by closing the throttle, reversing the engine, and re-opening the throttle momentarily. This video shows the technique being demonstrated at the Wisconsin Histroical Steam Engine Association Steam School. Their next class is scheduled for September, and they only have room for fifty people, so don't delay in signing up if you need to learn how to operate a steamer.

Hot Times This Spring

I think that when people think about fires they bring up mental images like this one. You see some of this on prescribed burns, but more of your time is spent watching less exciting sections of fire line.

This fire had lots of soft maple leaves where we started, and it skunked along for a good while until we got into oak leaves, which have a higher oil content.

Yesterday I was on a section of line with a creek, which served as a natural barrier. This section required quite a bit of hand labor because of accumulated debris which was lodged in various places along the creek bed. Most of it was a nice, wide fire line, though.

This area had lots of storm damage and snags, so quite a bit of time was spent taking down problems like this one, which can spread fire to the wrong side of the line.

There is usually some collateral damage in prescribed burning. This nice white oak had multiflora rose and honeysuckle around it, which held lots of leaves; and it was an impressive hot spot.

The combination of a moist duff layer, and the vegetation greening up can make a spring burn extra smokey. You learn pretty quickly to work in clear air as much as possible to avoid a CO headache the next day.

This is what we like to see. The line is black and cooling down.

This is something you do not want to see. Both sides of the line are black, and regular patrolling while the burn progressed caught this little breakover before it was a problem. Some quick line building with a leaf blower cut it off and tied the line back into the creek. The video below shows a few shots from a fire in Pope County, Illinois. Titles have been added for your viewing pleasure.

Try To Control Your Excitement

Spring tree planting season can run from February clear to July in Southern Illinois. The field being planted in this video was underwater until June last year, and success is not guaranteed when the trees go in the ground on a site like this one. The soil here has a high clay content, and it is chunking some as the planter runs, leaving air gaps in the top of the planting slit. We need dry weather to finish the job, but we want rain right away when we are done to seal the trees in. We have seen flooding do an excellent job of sealing the planting slit, too, in years past. This project is 165 acres, so it will take about ten days to complete; we probably will have a rain delay before it's done, and that will be okay. I had a nice comment on YouTube after I posted this video. I was surprised, because I figured watching a tree planter would seem about as exciting as watching paint dry for most people. We'll see if we can post something a little more dramatic tomorrow.

This Should Not Be Difficult

This white oak sits next to a nice home, and it is dead from the left side of the picture all the way to the sounding axe. The bark is about ready to fall off, but the tree still leafs out, so the landowner was reluctant to make a decision to take the tree down. This is a fairly common problem with homeowners who do not want to give up a tree that they treasure. I once had a lady ask me to identify only her trees which were the "Most Dead" because she couldn't stand to have them cut down.

Out behind the house this dead hickory (and a black oak snag) stand directly over a swing set that the homowner's grandchildren play on. I finally convinced the man that these two had to go to keep his grandkids safe, and then he decided that he would get rid of the white oak threatening his house, too.

Having One Of Those Days Every Day

This white oak popped up after being released by a harvest in the mid-1950's. Unfortunately, it is just a stone's (or trash) throw from a township road, and it came up right through the middle of a discarded tire. The landowner is doing some work in his timber, so he is going to save it from a slow strangulation, just in the nick of time. I see a lot of interesting discarded junk when I am out and about, but old tires in the woods are always ugly. It wouldn't be right to leave you with this image in your mind, so here is a closeup of a little flower like the ones growing around the tire.

That's better, isn't it?

Some Mondays I Feel Hardly Able

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

Courtesy of bsgs98 on YouTube. Recorded by Paul Whiteman, July 26,1927.

Alive Because They Were Armed

This news video was posted by Xavier, and after you watch it, be sure to watch the second one, too. Criminals don't fight fair, and they intentionally seek out those who they think are safe targets. Elderly, infirm, or impaired people need to be able to defend themselves against thugs, and I am glad to see in the news that more law abiding folks are arming themselves.



This video was posted on No Quarters Blog, and the news guy quoted a good point made by the victim that "owning a gun is a good idea, particularly for elderly people." Anyone can be a victim of crime, and preparing yourself before you are a victim is necessary if you want to survive encounters with thugs like this lady met.

Weekend Steam

This YouTube video was shot at the 2009 Pawnee, Oklahoma show*, and it shows us a time honored game of steam shows, the Slow Race. The winner is an unusual engine, a return flue Minneapolis with a tandem compound engine. One of these is pictured in the slide show for this year's National Threshers Association Reunion, which happens in June at Wauseon, Ohio. I might have to schedule a weekend and go over there to see that beauty.

*The Oklahoma Steam & Gas Engine Show
All roads lead to Pawnee the first full weekend in May for three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) for one of the largest displays of the giant machines at work in the country ... The largest in the southwest.