Joe's Notes

Bark Peelers' Convention 2009

2009-07-05T12:57:00.026-04:00

2009 Bark Peelers' Convention
at
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum

This years' convention was the biggest I have ever seen, now keep in mind that we haven't been there in the past couple of years, but it has a great event to see.
The old time tools and machinery was great to see and seen being used, maybe not quite like the old days but close.

Broom making like back in the old days.

Yes, even back in the 1800's they had to deal with "Anthrax" it came from hides while working in the tanneries, the bark from the trees that they fell down with used in the tanning process of the hides.

This was the water lines back then and I believe there are still some in service in the Emporium Water system (just kidding.) and looking in the middle of the line you will see an hole that is where a plug would go and thus the old name for fire hydrants was fire plugs, because they would uncover the plug by removing an brick or two in the roadway and remove the plug and stick there fire hose in the hole. Although this picture says it was used another way for in the tannery the concept was still the same.

The picture is not real good but you can see some of the bark peelers doing their job by peeling the bark off the tree before it would get bucked and pulled to the landing where the log loader would put it up on the rail cars for transporting down to the saw mill.

I believe my great grandfather Krieg was a bark peeler when he first came to this country. This will be another great history study that I can do.

You can the showman showing the use of the two headed axe and Max, Lisa and Mathew sitting in the bank in the yellow Steelers sweatshirts.
The kids look like they are learning something about the past.

He is making a starting cut and then he marked off how far back the log the bark peeler would cut off in sections of 4 feet.

Working hard to peel away the bark on an Aspen log, hard work even on this soft wood. could you see yourself doing that from sun up to sun down.

A start video showing him peeling the bark with a tool.

What would a woodsmen show be without some axe throwing.

Back cutting a log using
an axe handle.

He had it through the log.

50 Years

2009-06-22T07:44:00.004-04:00

My desk was decorated over the weekend and this is what I came in to find waiting for me.

How does your Garden Grow?

2009-06-09T18:44:00.018-04:00

2008 late summer:
Last year I set out to make a area in my backyard into a small compacked garden area an area that can be maintained easier without a lot of work, one thing that I don't have a lot of and here is what it looked like. I just finished making the raised beds out of pressure treated 4 x 4 's and this year I am putting a coat of all weather stain on them.

2009 early summer:
I started off planting some of my favorite greens "Swiss Chard" and I love to thin it out when it is still young and steam it down and add vinegar to it and eat that way.

Pictured here is my Swiss Chard growing around my Tomato plants, by the time that the tomato's get to big the Swiss Chard will b done for the season and there will be enough room for the Tomato's.

Close up of the Swiss Chard.

Next I clean it and break it up into smaller pieces and put it in my steamer pot.

Starting to steam it down.

After it is steamed.

Put the vinegar to it and enjoy.

Swiss Chard

Weekend of caching

2009-06-02T19:23:00.020-04:00

Well we got Saturday morning and needed to run down to Dubois to Lowes and pick up some stuff for the house and the ponds, but of course we can't just drive straight down and back we cached our way down and back and the following are some places went and things we saw.Thanks for Jeeps when your geocaching in some way back areas.
They hide them in trees, which took us a half an hour to find.

It was great getting out in the woods on a cool morning and it warmed up as the day went on.
They come in all sizes and in this piture Jill has what they call a "micro" size and these ae sometimes the harder ones to find.
Sometimes they out in the open and we have to be stealthy so that you don't get it away to passer bys.
this is the symbol for stealth required.
Sometimes they are hanging on the backside of trees and you could just drive right by they and not even see them.

A view overlooking the city of Dubois.

Can you find the cache in this picture? (it is just to the right of my GPS)
Nice walk along some old railroad beds that hve been turned into rails to trials.
I like to find benchmarks as well, when we are out geocaching.
You never know where caches are going to show up.

Inside of stumps on the ground.
After a day of a caching we found 22 out of 24 and then on the next day we did another 8 out of 8
This does make for a fun day outside and seeing things that you would not have seen any other time.

There is light at the end of the Tunnel

2009-06-01T21:14:00.016-04:00

We found this railroad tunnel some time ago and forgot where it was, but on Sunday Jill and I went Geocaching and we found it again and this time we walked through the tunnel and here are our pictures of the Caledonia Railroad Tunnel it was started in 1873 and was finished in 1876.

This is an Aeriel view of the tunnel, can you see it?

It is hard to see the date just above the key stone because some kids paint balled the date, but it reads 1873.

Lighting was not real good and I tried to lighten it up a little but I think I may have made it worse.

You really can see light at the end of the tunnel!

This is Jill coming out the other side of the tunnel, we always wanted to walk through a railroad tunnel and now we did.

the date just above the key stone, just think only 11 years after the end of the civil war and all those men that fought in the war looking for good hard work to do, most of these tunnels and viaducts (the stone work.) was done by Irish immigrants because they where good stone workers. Today you have mine boring equipment that would complete this in only 6 months.

Jill tied me up and placed me on the tracks, but no train came and she let me get up.

2009 Fire School

2009-05-25T15:26:00.006-04:00

Joe Jr. in the top row on the right; at this year structural burn class in Tri-County fire school in Smethport.
Joe Jr. was one of the fire starters for the second day of the class and it got so hot at one point that his helmet face shield melted. But that is why they train so much.
Photo by: Kevin Costanzo

Geocaching

2009-05-25T15:14:00.003-04:00

Geocaching today; Jill and went out caching and ran into a fun cache called the "Troll Bar" and it was quite a fun cache.