Weekend Steam: Sharpthorne Steam Channel

 Another good steam engine channel in the UK, spotted by Merle. Thank You, Sir!

Valentine Countdown Bonus! Tyler Childers Performs John Prine's They Ought To Name A Drink After You!

Valentine Countdown! Dancing In The Moonlight, Rudy Vallee

Turkeys In The Mist

 We had a foggy morning the other day, and also a bunch of wild turkeys on the other side of the pond. They look like bugs running around in the woods from 200 yards away. Our surviving deer herd is hanging around the house, too. A couple of good looking bucks visited, and it was good to see they survived all of the deer seasons.

Valentine Countdown! She's Always A Woman, Billy Joel

The Need For Thinning

One of my landowners planted these white pines in 1989. He used a planting machine, did a fine job, and had good survival. The spacing is 10' x 10', for 436 trees per acre. He sold the ground and this photo was taken in 2015, when the new owner was harvesting trees and sawing lumber. Note that the crowns are crowded and the live crowns are quite short because of overcrowding. 

I looked it up on Google Earth the other day, and it was flown last October. Only part of the project was cleared, and a home now sits where the portable sawmill was located. The new owner has not thinned the trees, and you can see that they are hanging on. White pine is fairly tolerant of overcrowding, and if you plant a stand of pure white pine you must thin to maintain a good growth rate. 

I planted a shelter belt of white pine around 1990 alongside one of our hardwood plantings, and planned on being lazy. I mixed red pine in the rows, because red pine gets pine wilt disease at our latitude, and they passed out of the picture after 15 years. If you have a tree planting project that is older than 15 years, contact your forester, get out there with a chainsaw, and do your thinning. 
 

Valentine Countdown! Love Potion Number 9, The Searchers

Valentine Countdown Bonus! St. James Infirmary Blues, Arlo Guthrie and the University of Kentucky Orchestra

Valentine Countdown! Cherish, The Association

Tuesday Torque: Two IHCs, A Titan and a Famous

 Merle found a good channel with some nice engines. The Iron Works "Teaching The Future About The Past" has a rare Titan throttle governed hopper cooled engine. The rarity is that it is on a factory sub-base. Followers of this channel will remember that a tank cooled 6 HP Titan used to reside in one of our outbuildings, and it was restored by Gary Bahre. Many Thanks, Merle, for spotting this one!