Tree Troubles

Every summer I get calls from homeowners with dying trees hoping for an answer and a miracle. More often than not, the problem is due to construction damage to the trees which occurred five to fifteen years before the owners noticed a problem. In this first picture you can see that several inches of soil have been moved. Those few inches were home to a large portion of the root systems for the trees on this home site.

This tree happens to be on the edge of the property, and it was sorely wounded by the earth moving.

Here you can see the dead top of the tree. All you can do now is take it down and replace it with a new tree.

As I inspect trees in these altered sites I see lots of oozy places which are manifestations of various root rots which infected the trees when the wounding occurred. You can also see exit holes from borers which thrive on these compromised trees.

This is a stump of a dead hickory. Click on the photo to enlarge it, then inspect the width of the rings as the tree declined after the home was built. There is no magic treatment for trees sliding down the slippery slope. You have to plan ahead when you build so you don't lose your trees later.

Model Magic

The Boonville, Indiana summer steam and gas engine show was this past weekend, and Susan and I motored over and spent most of the day visiting with exhibitors and taking photos and videos. The highlight of the day was buying some 1920's sheet music for our collection. Dear Wife is great at bargaining and she picked up eight new-to-us songs for $6.00. One of them is a Sophie Tucker song with Sophie's autograph on the cover. Yes, the Red Hot Mama once held it in her hot little hand.


We saw the modeler Jerry Dickson again, and the video above shows some of his treasures. We will post more Boonville highlights in the weeks ahead.

Travel On Gravel

Here is an important skill to have if you drive on gravel as much as we do. Gravel gives you lots of flat tires, usually from old nails that are lurking on the surface. I have found that if I hold my speed under 40 MPH I have fewer flats; over 40, one of the rear tires will take a hit on a weekly basis. That is why I tend to putt along like an old man.

Pull the nail out of the hole with pliers or Vise Grips, use the probe from your plugging kit to make sure the hole is open all the way through. Thread a plug into the applicator tool, push and wiggle the plug into place, pull the applicator out, and air up your tire. You can plug a tire without removing it from the car if you can spot the nail and remove it. You can also plug the tire while it still has air in it, if you notice it getting low as you drive.

Go to a tire shop and have the tire patched properly as soon as possible. Tire plugs are great to get you going again, but they can cause air to go between the layers in your tire, delaminating them. In the slide show above, this tire was worn out, but was needed as a spare until we could get to town for a new pair on the rear axle.

Not My Victrola

You have probably heard Helen Kane perform this song; it is one of her classics. This is a very nice dance band version of the song presented by KSPM01. It will help you get through Monday morning. Be sure to click on the link and read the extensive notes about this record.

The weekend is over...

...and that can only mean one thing. It's back to the old grind.


It's part of a complete breakfast!

Trivia For Ford Fans

Here is a neat gadget that every Ford mechanic needed in his shop in the Good Old Days. I will put the answer in Comments.

Weekend Steam

William Seyb and Dallas Kerr showed this Wood Brothers engine at Midwest Old Threshers forty years ago. William and Dallas are no longer with us, but you can still see this engine operate at Mt. Pleasant every Labor Day weekend.

Crankin' It Up

This week's Crank Up is a comedy double of Harry Lauder and Billy Murray. Harry is having a grand time before heading home after an evening with his drinking buddies, and though it sounds like a lot of fun I am afraid I would have to think about my head in the morning. Maybe I 'guess and fear' too much. A Wee Deoch And Doris was recorded on October 18, 1911.

Mr. Murray offers some good advice in his Vaudeville presentation, but he has me worried about the poor guy who got his whiskers trapped in the street car cable. Billy recorded this obscure classic on July 15, 1907.

Not My Victrola

'Turn On The Heat' is one of many great songs form the early talkie, 'Sunny Side Up.' FuzzBear posted this version of the song on You Tube, and it is played on his Orthophonic machine. You should look up the movie if you have never seen it. The scene featuring this song is really quite incredible, and the movie is a real 'Upper.'

Bloomin' Update

You Can Do Better Than This!

I went out behind the barn a few nights ago to try the July E-Postal Target, and with careful aiming I used nearly ninety shots to make my points. A perfect score would be eight shots. I went out back again tonight and used different tactics. I snapped off six rounds as quickly as I could at the area of the target I wanted to hit, checked the target, reloaded, and shot again. I made the points I needed with seventy-two shots, and that is enough improvement that I have sent this one off for scoring.

Now, follow the link above, print your target, and show me up! The deadline to enter is midnight on July 28.

Vintage Machinery Surprise

GSC, one of our regular visitors has graciously shared some of his family photos from the Oxnard, California area around 1930. These are great glimpses of farm mechanization. The first photo is a baler at work. GSC speculates that his grandfather cobbled this up from a stationary baler, and I agree that it is probably a 'conversion' baler. Compare it to the ad from a 1921 Thresherman magazine, and you can see that a power source and platforms for the workers have been added. This vintage of baler required that two people be present just to tie the baling wire around each bale. I wish we could see how the hay was picked up to be fed into the machine.

This is GSC's grandfather; he obviously was a talented tinkerer.

In this photo we see four wagons very heavily loaded with sugar beets.

This is a thresher for dry lima beans. Harvesting crops used to require lots of workers with an iron constitution. You worked long days in hot dusty conditions for your pay. Old timers have told me that working on a stationary baler with moldy hay was the very worst job on the farm.

Thank You, GSC for the great photos. Is this land still being farmed, or has it been developed?

UPDATE!

Read the comment from GSC for news about this farm land.