Ted/Parry
Had one of them great winter days today. Started out at 9° at 8:30 am walking 3,000 L.F. or so back in over small ridges to start the days work. Easy going with only 8" of light snow on the ground and brilliant sunshine. Left the coat and gloves hanging on a tree on the way in, will pick them up tomorrow. Cut line and reconed all day without them. As Teddy says, no gloves unless below 5°. No water either. Was going to start a fire to warm up my can of frank and beans at lunch time but didn't want to waste the time to start a fire so just ate them cold with the spoon I use for cleaning out holes. Yum.
Really one of those special northeast winter days that remind you why we survey.
Kent:
As I had no stonewall to follow (yes I know that is hard for you to believe 🙂 ) I found the use of a metal detector greatly aided in the recovery of 2,400 L.F. of ancient barbed wire fence that was completely buried with not even a stump found above grade.
Jim Vianna
http://www.colvincrew.org
Well, I hope you didn't stop cutting line just to eat lunch.....
James... I can stand those days one after the other... as long as there is no wind... I have become a bit of a wuss in that respect.
On a side note, I like your link at the bottom, very interesting!!
Carl
Carl, I can't remember ever having so much wind here in the Commonwealth in December. Can't wait to see what March brings.
D.J.
Yes sad to say I did, Sat on a rock facing the sun and reviewd my fieldnotes from seven years ago when I was last in the vicinity. No phone calls just enjoyed the view looking down the valley.
Jim
yeah... I can't "wait" either... I always thought you had much more wind up that way than we ever had though... might just be along the interstate corridor though too.
JAMES V. --I'M IN TOTAL ENVY--THEY HAVE SISSY BEANY WEELIES TODAY WITH THOSE EASY OPEN CANS--BACK IN MY DAY HAD THE RODMAN MAKE A FIRE --THROW IN THE CAN OF BEANY WEENIES TILL IT NEARLY BLOWS ITS SEAL THEN USING MY GI CAN OPENER AND BURNING A HOLE IN MY GLOVES OPEN THE FLAMING CAN ENJOYING THEM BEENY WEENIES ONLY TO SPEND THE AFTERNOON FARTING WHILE CUTTING LINE--
I LOVED WINTERS IN N.H., NOWS THE BIG PRODUCTIVE TIME--GET THEM SNOW SHOES WAXED UP-USUALLY CAN DO 2-3 TIMES MORE PRODUCTION IN THE WINTER IN SPITE OF THE COLD--LOVED THEM 20 BELOW MORNINGS WITH THAT CRISP AIR AND THE SNOWSHOES POPPING THAT CRUNCH ON THE SNOW TILL SOME ROOKIE HITS AN ICY SPOT AND SLIDES PAST YOU GOING 50 MPH FLAYLING A MACHETTE AND CURSING THE JOBSITE--IF ONLY THERE WERE ENOUGH WORK TO BE PRODUCTIVE AND ENJOY AT THE SAME TIME--MANY FOND MEMORIES OF MY WINTER EXPERIENCES--TDD
No Stone Wall to Follow
> As I had no stonewall to follow (yes I know that is hard for you to believe 🙂 ) I found the use of a metal detector greatly aided in the recovery of 2,400 L.F. of ancient barbed wire fence that was completely buried with not even a stump found above grade.
Well, I had understood from Perry that the stone wall was more of a New England thing because they were too cheap to buy barbed wire. In New York, where I take it you are, there was a bit more money, enough to buy wire. It sounds as if there wasn't enough money for good fence posts, though. Glad you were able to figure out where they laid the wire on the ground in expectation of some posts appearing.
No Stone Wall to Follow
> > As I had no stonewall to follow (yes I know that is hard for you to believe 🙂 ) I found the use of a metal detector greatly aided in the recovery of 2,400 L.F. of ancient barbed wire fence that was completely buried with not even a stump found above grade.
>
> Well, I had understood from Perry that the stone wall was more of a New England thing because they were too cheap to buy barbed wire. In New York, where I take it you are, there was a bit more money, enough to buy wire. It sounds as if there wasn't enough money for good fence posts, though. Glad you were able to figure out where they laid the wire on the ground in expectation of some posts appearing.
We ain't to cheap...we just gots to many rocks!
No Stone Wall to Follow
> > Well, I had understood from Perry that the stone wall was more of a New England thing because they were too cheap to buy barbed wire. In New York, where I take it you are, there was a bit more money, enough to buy wire. It sounds as if there wasn't enough money for good fence posts, though. Glad you were able to figure out where they laid the wire on the ground in expectation of some posts appearing.
>
>
> We ain't to cheap...we just gots to many rocks!
Yeah, but in New England, don't you also figure in the cost of the survey that you save by building a stone wall? I mean, if there's a stone wall in place, that's an Insta-Boundary, right?
No Stone Wall to Follow
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast."
...
"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence."
from The Mending Wall, Robert Frost.
No Stone Wall to Follow
Something there is that does so like a wall,
That sends the mappers up to traverse it
Finding all the angle points but one,
And draws it out upon the map, a jagged line just run.
...
Before you build a wall, though, why not ask:
What need have you of survey maps?
When the neighbor's off in Florida,
Why not just a fence?
Question for Mr. Vianna
What part of Upstate New York? Anywhere near Saratoga County or the Town of Moreau?
That's the hometown of one of my great-great grandfathers. He was born there in 1833 and appeared there in the 1850 Census at age 17. By 1860 he lived in the Town of Russia in Herkimer County. He them wandered to Illinois, fought for the Union as a member of an Illinois Infantry Company, met my great-great grandmother there and settled for maybe ten years near Peoria, Illinois where my great grandfather was born in 1871.
By George, I think he's got it!.
> > >
>
> Yeah, but in New England, don't you also figure in the cost of the survey that you save by building a stone wall? I mean, if there's a stone wall in place, that's an Insta-Boundary, right?
Like that Thoreau guy said, Good fences make good neighbors.
And there ain't no fence like a stone wall.
Nothing like a good cold winter survey. All the bad stuff is frozen.
> Nothing like a good cold winter survey. All the bad stuff is frozen.
>
No worries about Poison Oak, Ivy Or Sumac. So far I have been lucky. Have not YET been nailed by any of the three and have been in all three.:-)
By George, I think he's got it!.
> And there ain't no fence like a stone wall.
And they've got to be real cheap to build, too. You figure you can build - what? - about 50 ft. of wall in a day while your neighbor's away in town. That would only take maybe a couple of weeks to wall up an acre or so. At $6.00 per hour, that's only about $700. 'Course summer folk would pay more.
> No worries about Poison Oak, Ivy Or Sumac.
I got the second-worst case of poison oak I've ever had in March of 1983, working in Trinity County, CA. There was still lots of snow on the ground, and I was wearing at least 3 layers of clothing. But the leafless branches fooled me and I walked through the stuff in order to get to a log across a large creek. I awoke at 2:00 the next morning scratching the daylights out of my face and neck. Within a few hours it was all over my arms, legs, chest and (of course) crotch. The following day my eyes swelled nearly shut. It was 3 weeks before I felt human again.
Poison oak is merciless, doesn't matter where the oil comes from, direct or indirect contact, no difference.
It can be hot enough that the oil can drip from the leaves and vines and sometimes fill the air with its mist and you do not even have to touch the plant.
When cut it splatters everywhere like the CSI images.
Certain varieties and age of plant and number of leaves and plants in vicinity will add to the equation of damage done.
In your case, you found it frozen, it thawed at your touch and it got you.:-(
Been happy many times to have a can of bennie weenies in my pack down a line, far from anywhere, P38 on my keyring makes quick work of any can.:-)
No Stone Wall to Follow
> Well, I had understood from Perry that the stone wall was more of a New England thing because they were too cheap to buy barbed wire. In New York, where I take it you are, there was a bit more money, enough to buy wire. It sounds as if there wasn't enough money for good fence posts, though. Glad you were able to figure out where they laid the wire on the ground in expectation of some posts appearing.
Kent,
Now that is some funny stuff, You are correct on the New Englander's being to cheap
James Vianna