Frosty The Snowman, Jimmy Durante

Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms

Tuesday Torque: Steamboat Arabia Artifact

I've been fascinated by steamboats since I was a little kid, but there aren't very many around to study.  There have been a few dug up by adventurers who did research and then went looking. Digging up a steamboat wreck is a tough job, because even though the boat may be under farm land now, it is still in the river valley, and the river also flows through the alluvium.  Digging out a boat is a real engineering feat, and you must have good pumps  to keep the hole dry, because the river will fill it right up from the bottom.

The Arabia is an exhibit  in Kansas City, and it is a must-see museum if you are in the vicinity.  Here is a necessary little steam engine from the boat that is little known today.  Boilers need to be fed, and water must be pumped from the hull to keep the boat afloat.  It looks like this engine performed both tasks.  It is a real piece of history.  Video by our friend Gary Bahre.

Silver Bells, Dean Martin

The Chickens Are Waiting For Their Dinner!

Back To The Old Grind!

Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella, Mannheim Steamroller

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Brenda Lee

Weekend Steam: A Whole Lotta Iron!

It's hard to believe that big engines like this are still being found and saved. These videos are from '09 and 10, so I will have to look for more information and see if the engines have been reassembled.

There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays, Perry Como

Visiting Old Places

Most of my time during the last year was spent looking at tree plantings done over the last 25 years and writing new plans for them.  I haven't been back to many of these fields since I checked them after planting, and it is satisfying seeing a good looking young timber replacing a farm field that doesn't fit today's agriculture.

These pines and oaks are a project that repaired a worn out, eroded field in Wayne County, Illinois.  The fellow that planted these trees also planted a couple fields on his parent's farm, a few miles away.  I wrote up over a hundred projects like these over the last year, and more are showing up to do every week. I don't know how many trees I have helped people put in the ground, but one file drawer is nearly full of tree orders  from the last 28 years.

Getting back to this project; the man who planted these trees never got to enjoy them, and he comes to mind every time I go near this project.  He died in a house fire shortly after he planted them and that has always weighed on my mind.  He was just an average country boy who grew up on a farm and held down a job in addition to farming a bit. I called on his mother a few years back, and she was dressed up as if she was going to church.  She had fallen and actually broken a leg the night before.  She showered and dressed up, and she had me get her car out so she could drive herself to the hospital.  She wouldn't hear of me giving her a ride; she said she wasn't hurt that bad.  People's Good.