Week of "real" Work! 
Saturday, September 9, 2006, 07:35 AM - Work
Well, I went to work for my Biological Fathers Line logging company last week. it was interesting! The site was about 2 hours from his house, so they have campers setup near the site. So I didn't get to see miranda all week... sounds like she enjoyed some quiet though... Work day is as follows: Get up a little before 6am, Hike up to the work site, and be ready to go prior to there being enough light to "see", the rest of the crew is running around getting their machines ready. Soon as light breaks, My job was to run down the Mountain slope hooking fallen trees into this sky-wire hauling contraption that would haul the logs back out to the road with machinery. Then the "Yarder" would grab the logs while another person "Unhooked" the logs. Then the yarder would place the logs in front of the delimber, which would grab the log, inspect it, cut off all the branches, then cut both ends of the log to the proper size that the Wood Mill wanted. Another Crane behind that would load wood trucks for mill delivery.
Currently the forrest service has a 1Pm limit for working with saws/fuel in the woods, so it was a mad rush to get the logs out of the woods between 6:30am and 1 pm. After words the delimber and crane could continue working.

It was fun work, awesome sunrise every morning, and great mountaintop views..
We were at 6000 feet. trying to decide whether to do it another week.. or more... .

The whole Line logging biz is neat also. It is not nearly as scarring as normal Clear cut logging, and These guys try to leave plenty of good "seeding" trees behind so that everything can regrow. for the most part it looks pretty sustainable, and pretty slick.
-Joe

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Wild Horse Island 
Sunday, September 3, 2006, 02:50 PM - Friends/Family
Today we went on a boat ride in Flathead Lake with Pat and his wife Nancy. We stopped at Wild Horse Island. It is a state park and there are actually wild horses on it, though we didn't see any. We did see Mule Deer and Big Horn Sheep though. We hiked to, probably, the highest point on the island. Joe did this all barefoot becuase he didn't bring his shoes on the boat...
On the way back to the dock Nancy and Pat did a little fishing. Nancy caught a good sized fish, but let it go. Then Joe went water-skiing all the way back to the dock.
-Miranda


Osprey we saw near the boat launch.

Big Horn Sheep

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In Kalispell 
Friday, September 1, 2006, 12:57 PM - Friends/Family
We are in Kalispell now, and will likely be here for a while.. (until the weather forces us out!) Don't know if we'll have internet or not. So the updates may slow down.
-Joe

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Dickey Lake Campground 
Thursday, August 31, 2006, 12:47 PM - Friends/Family
We spent August 30th & 31st at the Dickey Lake National forest campground. At only $7/night we decided to stay 2 days since it was cold and rainy. Sat and read and played Erin's Rainy-day gift of Battleship and Chess in addition to starting to watch KungFu Series on DVD... Very lazy days :)
Also used the fancy Gift of Iron roasting sticks for doughboys and smores. Mornings have been dipping below 40 degrees.. Starting to get worried about pipes freezing.. GOnna have to insulate this thing so we can run the thermostat at about 40degrees.. the furnace uses up LP way too fast to use more than a tiny bit. Also the choke has been failing more.. Gonna have to work on it in Kalispell.
-Joe


Cooking wheat doughboys on our fancy-shmancy roasting sticks.

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Logging Road Boondock 
Tuesday, August 29, 2006, 12:20 PM - Friends/Family
We spent our last remaining Canada "Clearance" boondocked down a logging road. (N 49°19'24" W 115°12'28") We took a bike ride down an unmarked road towards a nearby lake. Ran into a Grampa and a couple grandkids. He invitied us to swim off of his dock, Had a good time. nice little spring-fed lake. Otherwise, we mostly "vegged".
-Joe

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