What good thing happened while you were at work today?

Mr.B,
I wondered what would happen if I retired. Now I'm hoping that I last long enough to do it all.

Steve.

Do what?

I've got no plans. Just don't want to work anymore.

Mr.B,
I see that your at the innocent victim stage. Retired to you means not working, feet up when you want, maybe a beer before 5:30. Work on the bike.

To the family it means Dad's free to, fix the house, baby sit, supply taxi service, fix the house, take all the trips that were ever dreamed of, fix their house. Are you seeing a pattern forming? Most victims don't. Snort. Chuckle.

Steve.

Got no kids. Ma is dead. Wife is dead. Pops is 92 and lives with me. Costs me $900 a week for a person to be here with him while I'm at work. He can't make it by himself and I refuse to put him in a nursing home until there is no other option. I hate those places.

Got no brothers or sisters or their needy offspring. House is paid for.

Not innocent, not a victim, not broke.

I think I'll hire a maid service to dust the chair under my ass with the money I'll save from 8 hours a day of Pop's care.

"Sir, could you please raise your ass so I can dust under your chair"

Really. I should leave now. It's a net zero gain. I'm just workin' for the health insurance.

Mike,
Sorry to hear about your Dad's health. Our Mother is going on 102 and mercifully her health is generally good and her mind is sharp enough to remember in vivid detail every thing I've done in my almost 70 years. Most of the time it's uncomfortable sharp and I don't know how she remembers things I've tried to forget.

I moved back home to help out since there is just me and when my brother and family have to be somewhere, I'm here. We wouldn't consider one of those places either.

And to keep the thread on track, the best thing that happened to me at work was when I told them it was my last day there.

Steve.

Your ma Rocks!

Pops don't know what day it is.

Trey said:

I have a few jobs; dis-assembling homesteads and barns, taxi driver- dispatcher- washer, lawn cutter, bar stand by guy for?, metal work assistant, lumber yard helper, odd jobs... Sometimes I'm the Foreman, sometimes nobody wants to hear a thing I have to say.
And the $50 Cruiser
Ok, so this afternoon I was tasked with getting operational; two trimmers, two push mowers, and a golf cart (cool!). Paid to do them all, and one each trimmer and mower as a bonus! Moving soon, and those will be real handy!

Little things, but good things...



Here's a look at the cart. Nothing to it, cleaned the fuel system, charged the battery, reconnected this and that. Plenty of power, no vibration, and super quiet. My first.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun way to make a living Trey.

The homestead, barn thing. I really want to get into old growth, underwater mining. Millions of board feet in a nearby river just waiting to be plucked.

I was amazed at the number of logs that came out of my families log pond on the river where the mill was. Some divers went in and cleaned it out. They had at least 500 logs piled up over the summer and that went on for years. They only worked on the weekends.

There may well be a lot of flame birch and tiger maple logs that would bring some pretty high prices to the cabinet maker and musical instrument trades not to mention the first growth wood that hasn't been seen in a hundred years.

Wonder what the State says about salvage rights?

One interesting thing is that when they cut the logs, the butt end was hit with a branding hammer so when the logs were sent down river to the mills they knew who owned the logs. The branding hammer was a large sledge hammer with the company mark raised up on the face of it. Dad said that this caused the wood fibers to shatter for a few feet down the log so the company mark couldn't be cut off and stolen.

As teenagers my brother and I dragged a log out of the river by the log sluice where the dam was and cut off the end about 2' back and there was the double diamond mill mark that belonged to the mill that the family owed. At that time (early 60's) the mark had been out of use for at least 75 years. It was as fresh as the day it was put there.

Steve.

Trey,
I didn't even stop to pack. I'll just buy what I need on the road. All we have to do now is get Dan to pick out a place to start.

I watched a short film about log salvers on Lake Superior I think it was and they showed the logs after they were cut into boards. Looking at those boards was like being 15 again and having a fresh Playboy magazine. Wood workers porn.

The logs were down about 50' under the waters surface and piled up on each other like straws. The dark and the cold has preserved them so they were as fresh as they were when they were cut some 100+ years before. Mostly hardwood as they sank more easily due to their weight.

I saw the last of the river drives down to the family saw mill when I was very young, right after WW2. As soon as the ice was out and the spring run off made the water high, the run was on. A couple of the old hands would ride the logs through the rapids in front of my grandmothers cottage and then the crew would push them out of the bay where the cottage was and back into the river again.
They never seemed to miss a step or their balance. Like tight rope walkers on a ever moving tight rope.

Steve.

Here is an interesting movie from the 1930's. A logging operation in Maine but it was pretty well the same everywhere there was logging.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIKCjQdxtO0&feature=watch-vrec

Steve.

Trey,
I'm thinking that we could casually mention that there may be some old bikes dumped into the river over the years that might be saveable and that may pick up Dan's interest. Of course I would suggest that we are not standing near the river bank when we do it for fear of being knocked into the river as he is struggling to get his wet suit and tanks on to get at them.

Next year Dan with be the engineer in charge of the mechanical side of things with his new skills as a machinist and welder. Someone will need to look after the floats and lifts that bring the logs up to the surface. He also has unlimited skills with ships so that is a plus.

I dismantled a few barns that were going to be burned in the late 60's mostly for the wood on the sides and the interior so I could make reproduction antique furniture. One had a frame made of black walnut. Not huge but when the beams were turned into boards and dressed there was a stir in the wood working community and I had a lot of new friends while the wood lasted.

Are these building from the mines in the area? I say that because they look heavy enough to have been commercial and weathered enough to have been exposed to the outdoors like a mine building would have been. Fantastic wood where ever they were used. Pine?

Here in British Columbia we had a couple of gold rush era's and there are still a lot of buildings standing due to the efforts of preservation groups. The one thing that always surprised me were the saloons. They never looked like Hollywood said they did. No fancy lights and mahogany bars with huge mirrors. No sweeping stair cases though there may have been a few like that but for the most part they we just like the one in your photos.

Vancouver B.C. started around Gastown named after Jack "Gassy Jack" Deighton the first bar/hotel owner. He got the name because he was constantly talking and was quite a storyteller
His first bar consisted of a tent, two empty whiskey barrels on end with a plank across the serving as a bar.

Steve.

Trey,
The mill we had was powered by a steam locomotive that had been used to draw logs out of the woods on tracks pulling loaded rail cars. It was very small. Story I heard was that they had laid tracks down to were it sat, lifted it up and pulled the running gear off it and used the boiler to power up a steam engines that ran the saw mill and the planing mill which were end to end. All over head shafts and pulleys and wide leather belts driving the machinery.

Dad, perhaps wisely, never let me get really close to the moving parts or in the mill for that matter. There is a story told around the family circle that on one rare visit to the mill I slipped away and was found shortly there after happily slapping a blasting cap with a stick of dynamite in the dynamite shed. After that every visit was seen through the windows of the car with my mother watching my every move I'm sure. I was maybe 4 years old.

Steve.

Well there's another dream that has fallen on the floor of despair. Seems that the Supreme Court has ruled that the states are allowed to claim that the logs at the bottom of lakes and rivers to be abandoned property and therefore property of the state that they are in.
You may have to pay the state a stumpage fee for each log if you bring them out

You have to apply to retrieve them and satisfy the fish and game people that you are not destroying valuable fish habitat. Good luck with that one.

Same deal here in Canada and I would bet it would be even harder.

Steve.

Some found out there is money in it, lol. (meaning the fed) all about the wording.

True story. (OK a sort of sea story and they always begin with once upon a time and always end with "...and they are still all messed up") I was on a research ship that was doing old growth log reclamation. The U.S. Navy contracted us to find a 30 ton anchor lost after a storm on a river in North Carolina. We had a state of the art side bar sonar but was found by a guy with a long PVC pipe and a pump. (no kidding) but we bring this thing up on deck. It could crush the house I live in and hide most of it. The EPA/fed guy motors out on a small boat very upset we had created "turbidity" (messing with fish, creating dust) and that we had to replace the mud.

Every one on deck found some thing else to look at or become involved with. I am the last man standing there. Covered in mud, sweat and scrapes. I reply; "It's winter. All the good mud stores are closed"

He got back on his little boat and left. Shaking his head.

Steve and Trey, ya got me thinking on how to go about this. It is like mining for gold only ya know where the gold is, snork.

Did 4 jobs today subcontracting for my courier gig. Turns out they are moving the mini-warehouse next door but keeping the old space. They are gonna let me set up shop there for free!

They need the space once a yr for a contract with McDonalds and use about 1/5, if that.

This is manna from above!!!!

Wut great and awesome thing happened while at work today. LOL Trey! Great thread! I wanna buy ya a beer or a cup of coffee