Joe's Notes

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.