Weekend Steam: Across The Pond Again

Here's another video by Keith Appleton, this one featuring a Stuart Beam Engine.

Vintage Johny Cash for Good Friday

Old Cemeteries And Good Intentions

You would hardly know from a casual look that this hilltop in rural Hamilton County is a cemetery.  The last burial that we find in records was in 1915, and it hasn't been too many years since it was wrecked.  The intentions were good.

Rawl's Cemetery had eastern red-cedars growing all over it, and someone had the idea that if they sold the trees, they would have money to take care of the cemetery.  The sale was done, the trees were cut, and the care was hiring someone to mow the cemetery with a  tractor and bush-hog.  The destruction began, and continued until the money was gone.

                                                      

Stones were knocked down by the tractor and mower.  Some stones landed on the corresponding grave and were pressed down by the tractor, but most were broken and moved from where they belong.  The 

 good news is that the person mowing this cemetery didn't heave the stones into the adjoining woods, so 

many of the stones can still be located for record-keeping.

Graves can be found this time of year by the flowers planted generations ago at the headstones, and many of the graves are sunken, so the markers can be found, such as they are.

Little Dora Manchester is one that we have a photo of from the 1970's.  Her headstone was intact, and standing at her grave back then.  We found her again, but pieces are missing.  She died in 1863.  Daylilies have covered most of the cemetery now, and that seems to be keeping the ground fairly clear, except for oaks that are migrating out from the nearby timber.  We can beat the trees back with no impact to the stones but restoration of this cemetery will be difficult due to the heavy damage that occurred after the cedar trees were removed.  What a sad mess.

And, We Are Almost Out Of Firewood!

Country Boys Learn This Lesson Fast

Tractor tires are great grippers, and they will really pull you in lots of different soil conditions.  The angled lugs also have great mud-moving ability that you won't appreciate until you see it in action.  Once is enough for most of us, though I did see one boy from Chicagoland who stuck a borrowed tractor to the axle twice in one day, and couldn't understand why.  Study the picture of this old Case tractor....

Click The Pic To Enlarge

Note the 1/2 of the wheel has the lugs packed with mud.  When your load stops you in a muddy field and those wheels begin to spin, the lugs are pumping mud out from under the tire.  Figure about 1" per lug.  These tires have about two dozen lugs around the circumference, so the 1/2 turn dropped the tractor one foot.  You can't fight it by gunning the engine; you have to shut down.  This tractor is hitched to a pull-type disc without wheels and hydraulics to lift it, so it will have to be unhitched, and then the tractor should jump right out of the holes that it made.  If the driver had let the wheels spin he would have had the rear end of the tractor flat on the ground in another turn.  It doesn't take long to wreck your day, and many farmers have been hurt or killed over the years trying to extricate tractors from this predicament.  One farmer I heard about chained a fence post to each wheel, thinking that the tractor would lift itself up and out of the situation.  He paid for his inexperience with his life when the tractor flipped over backward instead of going forward.  Listen to the old-timers if you fool around with old equipment.  It will save you a lot of trouble, and might save your life.

Nobody Knows...

This song came around in my head today, and it's the right time of year to share it again.

Here's The Dirt On Microstamping

This NRA video lays out the facts on microstamping, and shows it as the fraud it is.  I saw this first on Ruger's website, and Ruger CEO Michael Fifer does a great job explaining the problems with the concept.  Basically, firearms are not metal-forming machinery, and the technology does not exist to make it work.  Even if it did work, the criminal elements would have a variety of methods available to avoid being caught by microstamped casing evidence. 

Ruger's Aucton To Benefit The Light Foundation

This week Ruger is auctioning a revolver that is still in the current catalog.  It's a Blackhawk in .30 Carbine, with a 7 1/2" barrel.  This revolver was manufactured in 1977, and has been residing in Ruger's safe for all these years.  I remember visiting with a Korean War vet about forty years ago, and he was overjoyed when talking about Ruger making a gun in .30 Carbine, because he had carried an M1 Carbine when he fought in Korea.  It's a popular caliber with many Blackhawk owners, and you will like it if you buy it.  100% of the proceeds go to benefit the Light Foundation, so Click Over to read all about it and place your bid.        Update:  Sold for $905!

Do You Remember The Joyful Feeling...

...you felt as a child, when you returned to school, and smelled the hallways and the school kitchen, and saw your schoomates, after several days at home with the mumps, measles, or other childhood malady?  That feeling came to mind last week when I returned to work after three weeks off, and felt none of that joy.  I've worked for over 48 years with only two weeks of unemployment, and I guess that I am losing my enthusiasm.  Going back to work brought this poem to mind.  I heard it first from Cliff Arquette (as Charlie Weaver) and the author has never revealed himself.  It's timely for us old dudes.

My Get-Up-And-Go Has Got Up and Went

Anonymous
Old age is golden, or so I’ve heard said,
But sometimes I wonder, as I crawl into bed,
With my ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup,
My eyes on the table until I wake up.
As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself:
Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?
But, though nations are warring, and Congress is vexed,
We’ll still stick around to see what happens next!

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!
When I was young, my slippers were red;
I could kick up my heels right over my head.
When I was older my slippers were blue,
But still I could dance the whole night through.
Now I am older, my slippers are black.
I huff to the store and puff my way back.
But never you laugh; I don’t mind at all:
I’d rather be huffing than not puff at all!


How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!
I get up each morning and dust off my wits,
Open the paper, and read the Obits.
If I’m not there, I know I’m not dead,
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed!


How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get-up-and-go has got up and went!
But, in spite of it all, I’m able to grin
And think of the places my getup has been!
 
 Well, I'm still a wage slave and can't go back to bed, but the sentiment of this poem is right.  Every morning when I wake up, it's like Groundhog Day.  I just went straight from reading glasses to tri-focals, tinnitus has been my constant companion for twenty years, and I don't walk a 40 as fast as I used to.  I guess I need to get out and burn, cut, or shoot something.

Tuesday Turbo