If Dirt Roads Could...
 
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If Dirt Roads Could Talk...

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(@j-penry)
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Did some static on a control point along an isolated dirt road today, so walked down the road for a ways. Each one of these shells has a story. Perhaps a dove was shot off the power line, a "No Hunting" sign was blasted, or a pheasant brought a smile to a young kid. All probably illegal of course while shooting from the road, but we all did it as part of growing up.

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 11:40 am
(@dougie)
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That blue one looks like it coulda been mine....;-)

I miss upland game hunting with my buddy's....

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 11:56 am
(@pin-cushion)
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peppered road sign near by?

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 12:25 pm
(@andy-bruner)
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A friend of my father had had a stroke and couldn't use his right arm. He loved to hunt more than anyone I have ever met. Our farm has a dirt road through it that ONLY serves our property (not public). My father brought his friend to the field, loaded his gun, and set up next to a fence on the edge of the road so he could, at least, be there for a dove shoot. Along comes a Game Warden and writes the old gentleman a ticket for no license and hunting on a public road. I don't believe I have EVER seen my father so angry, he doesn't use profanity but he did that day. Of course the judge threw the case out and told the game warden that it would probably be a good idea if he stayed off our place for a few years.
By the way, I always pick up my hulls, it's just good manners and I know a lot of folks who reload.

Andy

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 12:36 pm
(@adamsurveyor)
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> ....and told the game warden that it would probably be a good idea if he stayed off our place for a few years.

Yeah...I bet. With an angry older guy sitting on the side of the road with a shotgun, I think it would be a real good idea. 😀

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 1:19 pm
(@paden-cash)
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My most prized surveying 'find' trophy was a porcelained steel 12"x16" sign. Black on yellow, stating "DO NOT SHOOT AT WIRES". They hung from the W.U. 10-pin crossarms that used to parallel the railroads.

This one was special because there was a perfect 30 cal. hole dead center through the first "O" in shoot.

Lost it in a divorce years ago.

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 3:09 pm
(@loyal)
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About 35 years ago, another surveyor and I were working our way up an old abandoned road along the East side of The Henry Mountains in a Toyota FJ-40. The road had not been traveled for quite some, and where it crossed washes, it was pretty nasty (hold my beer, get out, and direct me over the boulders). In fact, it wasn't all that great ANYWHERE.

Well to make a long story short, we were putting along @ ~5mph over a low bluff, and I spotted an OLD sign laying face down in the desert sand. Being a curious sort by nature, I leaped out and stood it up so that I could read it...

It's been one of my most prized artifacts ever since!

🙂
Loyal

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 3:29 pm
(@don-blameuser)
Posts: 1867
 

>
>
> I miss upland game hunting with my buddy's....

With your buddy's...what?:-)

Sorry, Radar, just being a jerk.

Don

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 5:27 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

>

That is what is called a "fingerboard", I believe. In the early 20th century, that was the main type of road signage in Central Texas. Are the letters branded or cut?

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 6:02 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
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Probably my favorite roads (and a category that is getting to be rare) are the roads that look pretty much as they probably did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when they were established. These are the roads you could drive a Model T over and there would be few clues as to the fact that you were in another century entirely.

So much has changed, from road signage to fencing, not to mention the utility lines.

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 6:07 pm
(@loyal)
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They appear to be cut. There is white paint UNDER the BLACK paint in the letters/numbers, and no sign of charred wood.

Loyal

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 6:28 pm
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

> They appear to be cut. There is white paint UNDER the BLACK paint in the letters/numbers, and no sign of charred wood.

So, considering the uniformity of the letters, they were probably cut with a router? I wonder if it was WPA-vintage or newer.

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 6:38 pm
(@holy-cow)
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We still have a few places where you can look at a section or more at one time and see nothing that would tell you it was 2012 or 1912 or 1812. That is, unless some fool jet pilot decides to fly over.

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 7:20 pm
(@ridge)
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Flint Hills are something to behold! To rocky to plow so they remain grass as far as you can see (which is not all that far). Do the B 52's still catch you by surprise?

 
Posted : September 20, 2012 8:03 pm
(@holy-cow)
Posts: 25292
 

Over 15 years ago there were two stealth jets that would come near the little town of Moran, make a U-turn and head home about lunch time a time or two each week. Whenever we were working in that area and saw them, my helper and I would look at each other and say, "I didn't see that."

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 4:11 am
(@joe-nathan)
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But did anyone find the humor in the name of the trail?

Or is my mind the only one in the gutter this morning?

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 5:38 am
(@paden-cash)
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Nope...your the only one!:snarky:

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 5:59 am
(@ridge)
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I was out laying out a terrace in your part of the world about 20 years ago. All of a sudden great big noise from above. Looked up and thought a B52 was about to crash right on top of me. Man they are big and I don't think it was all that high maybe a thousand feet at the most. Guy I was with said it was quite common that they had some training route they flew all the time. You don't hear them until they are right on top of you.

Back in the 80's I worked a few days with a guy that claimed he had seen a stealth fighter out in Nevada early one morning. The government denied they even had such a plane at the time. Sure enough when the first gulf war got under way they had them. Guy said it came up a valley he was gathering wild seed in with two F16's flying with it. They must of been late getting back to base that day.

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 12:25 pm
(@dougie)
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I asked my buddy if he wanted to go hunting; He said, "I'm game"!

So I shot him.....;-)

The moon is bright and I'm half tight.......

[flash width=420 height=315] http://www.youtube.com/v/injCL7H8wxI?version=3&hl=en_US [/flash]

Turn the magazine to page 32....:-O

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 12:50 pm
(@mike-berry)
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fingerboard

> That is what is called a "fingerboard", I believe. In the early 20th century, that was the main type of road signage in Central Texas. Are the letters branded or cut?

Round here you used to see these along logging roads. The nail on the township diagram indicates the corner the sign references:

 
Posted : September 21, 2012 9:42 pm
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