Noble's visit to Central Illinois

[whitepe]

Fellow Forestry Forumites,

Noble's long awaited visit to central Illinois has finally
taken place. Noble showed up at my place at 10 AM
on Friday. He brought his lovely daughter Carrie (I hope
I spelled her name right) and Carrie's fiancee Michael who works for the forest service and spent some time fighting forest fires in California this season.  My in-laws were here
this week so we all spent some time visiting and Noble showed us a photo album of the history of logging and milling in the Barker family. Noble is a 4th or 5th generation logger/sawyer. We  then went down to Detweiler Park so Noble could re-carve his initials in the big redwood log that he originally carved back when he was a kid. We then drove up to Rick Schmalzried's house where Rick scanned some of Noble's photos and burned a CD for him. Noble gave Rick some advice on rebuilding the old Miner edger that Rick brought back from Missouri.  After we left Rick's we all went to Avanti's for lunch where Noble and I had lasagna and Carrie had fettucini alfredo. Rick had a vegetable gondola sandwich.
I can't remember what Michael and my father-in-law had.
Thank goodness we didn't have to eat Rick's peas for lunch.
So you can enjoy some of the photos in full resolution I have posted them on --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- at: --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.com/user/whitepe2

You will notice that Noble is proudly wearing his Forestry Forum hat.
I really enjoyed visiting with Noble and his family and I hope that all of you get to visit in person with him someday.
They are truly wonderful people.

Noble and I are trying to figure out a way that we can work out visits to British Columbia and New Zealand.
We will keep you posted. Look for some of Noble's scanned black and white photos
soon.

Later,
Whitepe
 8)

[CHARLIE]

Looks like Rick brought some Brand Name peas! AND he supplied 3 fine wooden spoons to boot! Now that is class!
8) 8) 8)  
My boss gave me brand 'X' peas and I had to carve my own spoon. :-[
Looks like y'all are going to do some serious carving. I see Noble moved up from a knife to a chainsaw! Of course maybe that's 'cause he doesn't see as good as he used to.
 ;D

[whitepe]

Charlie,

We had to take knives and other sharp hand held
tools away from Noble. He might cut his finger or something
and then he wouldn't be able to type to make any posts
on the Forum.   :D
Man Noble was sure nervous when he was using that
009 to re-carve his initials on that big redwood log.
He kept mumbling something about I hope no cops show up.
If any did they would just be park district police and they
don't have any bullets in their guns. Besides, with Noble's
experience of scrambling up and down the hills in Ozark County MO he wouldn't have had any trouble running up
those hills in Detweiler park to get away from the cops.
Oh yes, I forgot to add.  It took Noble about 45 minutes
to carve his initials with that 009. I kept telling him that he
should start it but he said that it would make too much noise.

Whitepe

P.S.  Aren't any of you guys curious about GB beer?
One of Noble's stories yesterday he was telling about some
guys delivering logs or lumber or something and one guy
had way to much to drink and the other guys boomed him
to the wagon/trailer and when they got back he had sobered up. I can't remember whether or not it was one of his kin.

[Bro. Noble]

What a good time we had!  I felt like I had always know Rick and Perry as soon as I met them.  

I just got home and got to go milk and then to a singing, but I wanted to check and see what kind of lies Perry was telling----some of it's the truth.

Perry,  thanks for the Cat cap with racing stripes.  I finally got it back from Michael while he was sleeping.

Rick thanks for doing the pictures.  That old International semi is the one that Uncle Amos and Ray Berry boomed Rufus Tetrick down on.  Twenty five miles over rough unpaved roads boomed on the bed of a solid-tire truck would sober up the best of men.  I doubt Rufus was the only one drunk and unmanagable as Uncle Amos reported.  I'll put the pictures on the 'out of retirement' thread.

Noble

[Jeff]

Kinda makes me wonder and worry what kind a trouble we'd get in if the whole lot of us got together one day.

You guys didnt really take that saw to that log didja? And whitepe if you did did you leave out the middle initial or did you sign it PEW? ;)

[Paul_H]

Sound like a fun time,I hope you make it out to BC 8)

[Bro. Noble]

Jeff,

You really don't think we would be dumb enough to do something destructive that could be traced back to us do you?

Right Whitepe?

Noble

[Jeff]

I'm not sure if I like where this may be going. :

[Noble_Ma]

Great pictures guys.  I agree with Tom about the Forum members getting together somewhere.  I think it would be one hell of a time.

[whitepe]

Jeff,
Better keep an eye on your backside.

By the way when I use the initials PEW I do it
with distinction.
Whitepe

[whitepe]

Jeff,
Man I can hear Noble's neurons firing clear up here in
Central Illinois. Are you nervous yet Jeff?
Whitepe

[Jeff]

My Wife's moms maiden name was Depew. Tammys grampa Depew was one of the greatest men I ever knew. I never had a grampa and when Tammy and I met when we were 16, He took to me like I was his own. He became my grampa. He is gone now, but one of my favorite stories is of him asking me to go golfing. after 27 holes I said I was dog tired and ready to quit. He said, if I rent a cart will you play 9 more? He was 85 and I was in my early 20s.

[ElectricAl]

Jeff,

There is a little town in far NW Iowa named Depew.

A Cathlic church, feed store, and 7 houses.

It's been 20 years since I've been there, but I bet the church is still there. The houses were from the late 1800's and very early 1900's. The houses were getting pretty rough then.

ElectricAl

[Bro. Noble]

Al,

I think Whitepe went to a college in Indiana called Depew.  I went to a college called Silotech at Ames Iowa.  The weather there really stunk.

Noble

[whitepe]

Noble,
I went to PU not DEPEW.  Can't you keep anything straight?
Just think of it as PEW went to PU.
I guess I'm gonna have to travel down to southern MO. and
straighten out the facts.  Speaking of weather, I hear
that you guys got some snow down there.
Whitepe

[Bro. Noble]

Calm down Perry,  I was just a funnin.  I know all about those Indiana schools-----My brother-in-law went to Dpa and my nephew to Purdoo.

The weather here is imitating Iowa except without the awful wind.  Milking this morning was miserable.  There was no vacuum (a drain valve in the vacuum tank was frozen open),  the feed auger on one side of the barn wouldn't start, and the doors were frozen shut so the cows couldn't get in.  Had to carry feed in and feed by hand.  The feed the cows eat and love outside was refused inside.  The stupid cows just stomped and butted the feeders.  They were also a little sensitive about being milked.  When my son got in from putting the cows in the holding pen,  I told him not to even mention sawing in this single digit temperature.  He didn't argue so I began dreaming of setting by the fire after milking was done.  When I got to the house, my wife says if I wasn't going to do anything maybe I could bring in some more wood.  She says the weather is supposed to turn bad Sun or Monday.  Now that Harold is on the map,  maybe I'll run away from home and see if he'll hire me.  His pictures make logging look fun except for those big lizards.

Noble

[ADfields]

 :( nothing worse than weather your not set up to deal with!!   I rember milking during one BIG snow and ice storm in Arizona.   It was -20 to 0 for days on end (unreal for northern Arizona) and we made a heater for the milk barn from a weedburner and some stovepipe.   Most of the glass in the barn windows was broken out and and could not get to town to even get some ducktape, we like to froze milking cows!   The water froze up all the time so we had welders clamped to the pipes all the time in diferant spots to thaw it out then move it down keeping a rosebud on what you just did.  Had to brake ice off some of ther teets to put the cups on and NO WAY was I about to put my hand in the water the wash there bag so the setement count was out of sight.   Your hands would get so cold thay dont work and the best shot we had at geting worm was to squize between 2 cows in the barn!   It was ALL we could do just to keep the cows milked and fed.   I feel for you Noble!   When you are not equiped for it bad weather (cold or hot) it can be very ruff to take on a dairy!   Hang in ther It onley lasts for a bit and you should be about ther, you will make it!
Andy

[ElectricAl]

Noble,

Ames huh.

ISU is a respectable college.

I went to Vecia (spelling) once, what a bunch of drunks!!!!!!!

I must agree on the weather being somewhat unpleasant at times.
We had neighbors that milked and I went to highschool with the sons. Several times a year they would call needing help quick. I normally would handle the ferrowing house while they delt with the dairy problems. We ferrowed to finish, so that's what I could step in and do.
One time I was caught up on my end , so I slipped up to the parlor to see what was going on. The cows "undercarriage" was covered in mud that had froze. Wow, Beef with an Attitude.
Spring snow storm while the frost was going out. You get the picture.

My hat is off to all the Dairy men and Women.


ElectricAl

[Bro. Noble]

Al and Andy,

Thanks for the sympathy,  that's what I was looking for.  Us dairymen are really a bunch of whiners.  It really wasn't that bad and we have been through it enough that we knew how to handle things.  When it gets really cold and the power goes off is when it gets interesting.

Al, at the time I attended Iowa State it was the most beautiful campus I had seen.  Was back a few years ago and new buildings had displaced a lot of the beautiful landscaping.  It was disapointing.  

We used to have hogs too,  mostly feeder pigs, but we used to raise a little corn and feed some too.  I only know of one guy who has hogs now within 50 miles.  Used to be 6 feeder pig auction barns within the same area.  Times change.

You're right about Veshia but they had some good floats in their parade.  I was just a spectator, not a participator.

Noble

[ElectricAl]

Noble,

This summer we sawed up a Walnut log for the ISU.

The tree was in the way of a building expansion.

We are 100 miles straight east of Ames along hwy 30, and we were the closest sawmill that was willing to saw and kiln dry the lumber for them.

The hardest part was we had to tell ISU the exact price to saw, stick, air dry, and kiln dry an unseen log that had laid on concrete for a year.
All they knew was the length and the size of the butt flare.

Apparently those "engineers" scale logs at the big end to maximize volume.

So, we kinda guessed on the volume, figured the price, added $50 for possible nails, and told them $350 complete.

A week later some tree service dude pulls in from Ames with one Walnut log. This guy had charged ISU $1000 to haul one log 100 miles!

That just floored me..... >:(

ISU got burnt bad on this grand plan. They had around $4.50 per BDFT in lumber worth $2 on the average, and they still had to pay a cabinet shop to build book shelves.

A guy kinda wonders how smart those administrators really are.  



ElectricAl

[ADfields]

Noble, ther is a hog farm just outside of Snowflake Arizona cald PFFJ, PFFJ stands for Pigs For Farmer John.   In 1995 (last I was there) thay had 77 hog barns and shiping 3 trucks of finished hogs to the plant in LA a day out and were planing to TRIPLE in size by 2000!   I am shure thay did that and I bet thay are still growing.   All the hog barn boss men and managers were from your state so I think thay cleened you out of guys that knoe hogs!   The place is run like a cleen room and it's harder to get in a barn than fort knox, the guys that work in the barns come to work shower and put on a white jumper sute for work.   I was up there in 95 becous thay fliped a 990 loader into a setling pond behind a barn.  :-[   Thay had about 100 employes full time perment just to keep bilding the place, thay have 17 squere miles of land there.   Thay bring feed in on rail cars by the hole train loadand work 3 shifts every place, the place is HUGE and was not ther at all in 1990!
Andy

ONE BIG PIG FARM!   This was in 1997 and I count over 100 barns in it, take a look.   The barns are huge and thay have a galf cart in them to ger around.
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=14&x=180&y=1198&z=12&w=1

[Bro. Noble]

Al,

I took some forestry classes at ISU,  they had a fair forestry program at that time.  You would have thought they would have checked with them about prices etc.  They also have a farm service crew that would have hauled the log and picked up the lumber.  If it was their money they were spending, they would have done a little more checking.

Before I-80 was built, we took hwy 30 from the Peoria area (that's where my folks were living when I was at Ames) to Ames.  I must have gone right through your area.  Course we would never have met cause you probably weren't born yet.

Noble

[ElectricAl]

Noble,

Well I showed up in 1965.

We lived on a farm 1/4 mile south of hwy 30.

I probably missed you driving by, I was pretty focused on operating my Tonka wheel loader and dumptruck.
( Tonka did not make sawmills )

Small world.

ElectricAl

[Bro. Noble]

Andy,

Boy talk about PU-PEW!  That is a bunch of hogs!

They didn't take all the people who know about hogs, but they and other similar operations took tthe profit out of it for the little guy.  Same thing happened earlier to poultry and is happening now to the dairy industry.

Small sawmills are going the other way.  Our buyers say that every year a larger percent of their wood comes from one or two man operations.  I doubt we put any big mills out of business.

Al,

I traveled hwy 30 starting in 63.  I graduated in 67 but seems like I-80 was open to DesMoines in 65 or 66.  In any case, I don't remember seeing you but hope I do someday.

I remember going through Clinton.  The feed stores here have 'Chick day' every spring.  That's the day the baby chickens you ordered earlier are delivered.  Thet was a big day for me when I was little-----ranked right up there with my birthday, Christmas, and the 4th of July.  Our chicks came from a big hatchery in Clinton Iowa.

Noble

[ElectricAl]

Noble,

My sister raised fancy chickens when we were kids.

Got them in Cedar Rapids, some had big head dresses, other had wacky colors. 30 to 50 birds each spring.

We need to find a host for a Forestry Forum mid-west sawyers gathering. 8)

I feel sorry for the west coast sawyers: Tillaway and Doug

Kinda slim pickins' over there.

ElectricAl

[Bro. Noble]

Al,

I think we ought to have a gathering of all the forum members and have it in a central location-----let me check real quick where that would be-------looks like Branson Mo.

As far as those left coast sawyers, I'd feel sorry for them even if there were a bunch of them----just kiddin.

Noble

[ElectricAl]

Noble,

Ya, Branson is centrally located for you and Bibby.


 
 ElectricAl

[whitepe]

Noble and ElectricAL,
Have either one of you ever heard Heywood Banks song
titled "Interstate 80, Iowa"?
Heywood has been on Bob and Tom several times.
He was in Peoria last year and this. We went to
see him last year  He is one of the few comedians on Bob and Tom that is really funny and his material is okay for all ages. Check it out on heywoodbanks.com
Whitepe

[DanG]

YO, Noble "Skinflint" Barker! If you think you're gonna save gas money by having the FF gathering in yer back yard, consider that you will be providing the chicken and ribs, and doing all the legwork to get it together. Maybe you'd like to shift it down Arkey's way.

Seriously, though, if someone puts something together, I'll travel as far as I have to, to be there.

[ElectricAl]

Whitepe,

I don't think I've heard the I-80, but  "wipper blades" is a gut buster.

ElectricAl

[Bro. Noble]

If we did such a thing in my backyard there wouldn't be much for me to do because this area has everything one could ask for.    

  My Backyard

[ADfields]

Noble
Yes the same thing is going on with dairys.   Around 1990 8 dairy farmers in Chandler Arizona form a CO-OP to fend off the subbers that had sprung up all around them, people moved next to them then complain of the stink.   Thay found it to be of no use and moved all ther cows to one farm neer Congress Arizona, in the midle of noplace!   The farm thay bilt with ther selling out money from Chandler was set up for 35,000 head drylot, yes 35,000!   Thay bilt 2 milk barns that were both head to head double 40 quick out's so 160 stals per barn and thay bilt 2 of them barns, 320 cows in the barns at once!   Thay got it all bilt and were stocking it up when thay found thay had a shortage of ground water for all that stock so thay stoped around 27,000 head.   Last I knew thay were running along just fine at the 27,000 head of cows.   Thats all cows and the replacements are shiped to a place neer Maricopa Arizona till springing heavy, I cant find that place for all the feed lots in that part of the state and I have never been to it.   Also thay prosess all ther milk and ship it all over the west to stores labeled Shamrock Dairy.   Also buy milk from CA, NM, TX and OK becous thay cant keep up with just ther farm.

Shamrock Dairy's Congress Arizona farm, take a look it's something to behold!
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=12&x=419&y=4729&z=12&w=1

Andy

[Haytrader]

Just heard on the news here in Kansas last week where a 5,000+ head dairy went bankrupt. It is in Greeley, County on the Colo. line. I am not sure whether it was one that moved here from Ariz. or Calif.
It doesn't stop there either. The big packing companies are trying to control the cattle market too. It is hard to find an individual to feed a pen of cattle now, especially since 9/11. Lots of empty pens and hay usage is down....... :(

[Tom]

I guess things are getting tough all over.  Tyson just pulled out of NE Florida and I understand out of the SE all together. The Chicken farmers are stunned and don't know what to do with their unpaid chicken barns.  They say that it doesn't look like another chicken processing company will move back into the area.  With the paper mills closing and now the chicken processing, this part of the country is really going to be hurt.

[whitepe]

Noble made another trip up to Pekin, Illinois on
Feb 22/23 to visit his Mother-in-law.  It was a whirlwind
trip as I think they spent about half of their time driving
and the other half visiting/sleeping.  Noble did have time
however to spend about an hour and a half visiting with
Rick Schmalzried and I in the coffee shop of the hotel
where they were staying. Since as I type this Noble
is probably on the road driving back to MO. we now have
lots of time to get all sorts of comments in about Noble's
apparel. You will notice that whitepe is being very loyal
and has his newly acquired FF hat proudly on top
of his balding head. Noble however has a hat of some
unknown vintage.   :D ;D

You can get a full size image on my --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- page --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.com/user/whitepe2

The full size image will give all of you folks with photo
editing skills a chance to unleash your creative process.
Who knows what we will see?  

[Jeff]

O.K. Perry, you just remember, you asked for this. Remember the song Here's my sign? :D

[Jeff]

[Bro. Noble]

We left Ill. about 4:30 this morning so we could get home before the snowstorm.  Arrived at 11:45 and it started snowing about noon.  I'm gonna catch up on the forum and then take a nap before milktime.

I enjoyed my visit with Rick and Perry-----apparently we had a blast.  I don't remember no tequila,  but my head hurt this morning.  

Thanks for the Cat 2 ton, Perry.

Noble

[Mark M]

Hey! - da tree amigos.  I saw dat show on tv once  ;)

[whitepe]

[whitepe]

Noble,
I think that Jeff has found a new whipping boy. :D

[Mark M]

Did ya ever notice how them fellas from Ill-a-noise all look a like?

[whitepe]

Man that's scary  

[Mark M]

I never did see tree identical twins wid one taller than the udder two  

[whitepe]

Mark,
Come on, let's be politically correct.
The term is vertically challenged.  ;D