30 Years Later

Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them, you will be pleased you did, the definition is so much better, thanks!

Hello all, my daughters took me to Callaway Gardens for a Father's Day picnic. The butterfly house was something I had not seen despite all the years it has been at the gardens. We spent a nice relaxed day - very comfortable just hanging out together.

We also visited the chapel where I married my daughter's mother in March of 1978, 30 years earlier.

If you are in the area you should visit the gardens, it has something for each member of the family.

Life is good!

Heart Pine Headaches

These are some 12"x18"x14' heart pine beams from the former Eagle and Phoenix Textile Mill on river bank of the Chattahoochee River in Columbus GA. They are turning the mill into lofts and condos overlooking the river. The lumber from the beams are going to be used as decorative ceiling decking.

The first picture shows (to enlarge, double click on the photo) the saw cuts made before I started hitting nails. The building contractor tried to remove all the nails out he could see but apparently he missed some. I ruined 6 blades in the process. Never again, everytime I've sawed heart pine beams I've hit nails.


The second picture shows the nail holes and the distinctive staining of the wood by the iron in the nails. The lumber does have character and there is something to be said for recycling products of nature that not only took many many years to grow but also survived the impending Union attack during the Civil War. Supposedly, the machinery from the mill was removed, coated in grease, and sunk in the Chattahoochee to keep union forces from destroying the mill and the machinery. The Columbus Battle was the last major battle of the Civil War. For more details check out:

http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/GAColBattle1.html

The final picture is of the lumber I was able to saw from the beams before the nails stopped me. Fellow sawmillers, avoid heart pine beams unless you have the means to find and remove all nails and foreign objects.

Mother's Day 2008

Here is my mother and brothers Bob, David and myself. We are only three of her seven children. My brother Randy who lives in the area could not make it because he is recovering from surgery. The other siblings live in NC, WV, and PA.

My mother is a living example of the strong devoted mother. We lived the typical life of a military family back when soldiers were both severly under paid and under appreciated. To this day I do not know how she kept us fed, clean and healthy. You could always tell who was at our house by the shoes outside the front door. You could not come into her house with shoes on.

Mom is German by birth but has become Americanized to a degree. She is still opioniated and very straight forward in her beliefs. She does not candy coat anything. She basically learned how to speak English by reading everything she could get her hands on. She probably still goes thru 4 - 5 books a week. My mother's love of knitting, crochetting (sp?), and sewing - I think passed to some of us - in that we have this need to work with our hands. She is also still a great cook and baker. She makes cakes for her friends who all rave about them. I could go on and on about her skills and accomplishments. But the one thing I will always remember her for - was her ability to provide for her children and make a home for us on the very limited resources we had at the time. Mom is Great!!!!!

My mother's maiden name is Anneliese Grete Kunzel. She was born January 26, 1931 in Selb, Germany. I hope this information will show up should my German relatives look for her. Please contact me if you would like more information! Thanks, Fred

Pulpwood Days

This is a photograph of my buddy Danny on the left, me in the middle, and brother Stan to the right taken in 1977. The truck was a 1968 (I think) Ford F700 with a 15 foot bed and a cable loader. You can see the loader boom above Danny's head. The way we loaded it was to drag the cable out and wrap it around a stack of pulpwood, then I would operate the loader controls on the back of the truck to winch the wood to the truck and lift it on the bed. Danny would be on the logs already on the truck directing the load to where it would go. Once I winched the cable out from under the logs he would hand the cable down to Stan who would drag it out and restack logs on top of the cable and the whole process would start again. Labor intensive it was. The truck had the big 360 V8 with a 5 speed transmission and the 2 speed rear end. It would pull whatever you put on it.

I was thinning a stand of loblolly pines on Sand Mountain in Harris County GA. That load was a little over 4 cords. Back then I was getting about $20 a cord, so do the math. I wonder how and why I was spending half a day cutting and loading the wood to make $80 before I paid the help in addition to fuel, truck, and chainsaw expenses - in the mean time - I was a senior in college at the time majoring in accounting, working at night in a factory and still carried a full college load. So even then I was always biting off more than I could handle - I even had a girlfriend then!

Those were the days my friend!

On the positive side I was thinner and did not have grey hair. Well friends I hope I have entertained you with my discourse and a look at the past. Keep the chains sharp, water jugs full of ice and all will be well. As always, comments are encouraged.

Florida Weekend - Panama City Parakeets

This weekend I visited with my friends Leonard and Betty in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. I had not seen their house in quite a while. Leonard has the yard and his barn looking good. Lots of nice, large shade trees. I felt I was staying in a house straight out of Southern Living, Betty should be a consultant to those that want their homes to depict the decor and ambiance of the south. I should have taken some pictures. I don't know how she kept it so immaculate. It was good hanging out with them.

I stopped in Panama City and visited with my friend Becky. We ate seafood at Hunt's Oyster Bar. It is located near the city marina, away from the tourist crowd. If you are in the area you should try it, the food was great as usual. I recommend the blackened Mahi Mahi. Oysters were good too. We later went to the city pier to check out the shrimp boats.

There was a lady there with three parakeets that rode on the back of her MG Midget. She said the wings were not clipped. They were trained to hang on to the convertible top frame as she zipped around town. When she left they just rode back there like it was the thing to do. They were pretty tame as you can tell when they roosted on my arm. They liked me, they waited until they were back in the car to do what birds tend to do. She had a bag of peanuts still in the shell on the hood of her car (see the bottom picture). The parakeets would hop over to the bag, get a nut, crack the hull, and eat the peanut. I guess I better plug the business the lady was advertising for - "Legend or Legends" -could not remember which. It is a charter fishing boat based there at the city marina. When we walked by it had just come in from a charter and it was loaded with fish.

On the way home I stopped to check out Sadie's Flea Market south of Dothan. I bought a couple of tomato plants. Lots of stuff there and mostly just that, "stuff." I did pick up a few woodworking ideas to add to my "to build" list.

Well I better get back to my day job. I wish smooth sailing for all.
Comments are always welcome.

Amy's 4/15/08 Visit

My daughter Amy visited from Chattanooga to try out dad's new toy. She enjoyed the throaty sound of the 3 cylinder diesel and the ease of the hydrastatic transmission - basically a 2 pedal (one for forward and one for reverse with a hi/lo option) system. It works well if constantly backing up and pulling forward when digging a stump or loading dirt.
If you double click on the photo you'll notice the blooming dogwoods and also little flags stuck in the ground. The flags are there so I will not run over the little volunteer walnut seedlings from nuts buried by the squirrels. I've read somewhere that squirrels forget where they bury nuts within 30 minutes after burying them.

Well friends it is time for the annual Apalachicola FL Boat Show trip this weekend to look at the wooden boats and eat seafood. Every year I go I say I am going to build a boat for the next year's show, but hey we all know how that goes - something always comes up! Wellll thats it for today. Comments are always welcome!

Before and Later!

These are some logs a local farmer cut off his place near Greenville GA. My tractor could not lift any of the logs. But I was able to drag them to the mill and roll them on the lifting arms with the tractor. The pine logs (18"x17' & 15"x16') were sawed into 1 inch boards and the 2 oak logs (34" x12' & 28"x10') were sawn into 5 quarter lumber. The farmer pulled the trailer with a full size pickup, which was strained coming up my drive. It took me about 3 hours to saw the logs.

All's well that ends well - no nails or other foreign objects.

This is about 700 board feet of lumber sawed from the 4 logs, 2 which were water oaks (of the red oak family) and the two long ones were local loblolly pines.

Sooooooooo bring your logs and I'll saw them to your dimensions.

All comments are welcome!