Texas, my Texas

[TexasTimbers]

  :P Alberta - 98.56 million acres of forest 

  8) I just had to throw THAT in.  :D  :D

That's because it grows faster than it can be harvested;  It takes a lot longer for frozen lumberjacks to cut down frozen trees.   :-\ 

This thread is great fun for Texans. We get a whole lot more entertainment out of it than the non Texans. Growing up as a Texan, it becomes second nature at an early age to be able to discern the two types of non Texans; those who are just having fun, and those who can't stand NOT being Texan.

Don't worry, we won't call you out in public ~ you know who you are.  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

I to was wondering where Maine fits in. Someone once said, the US forgot about Maine. You could group quite few of those NE states inside Maine's borders. :D ;)

[beenthere]

and those who can't stand NOT being Texan.

Are you turnin this into a "who is it" thread?  I hain't ever seen one of these 2nd types.

8) 8)

[SwampDonkey]

Private woodlots here in NB alone comprise more than #31 on the list, that's about 30 % of the woods in NB.

[WDH]

Why, we even have Georgia foresters coming out here to see trees. :

A little Pinus envy, perhaps.

Yes, quite a bit of pinus envy. 

[barbender]

I liked the joke about the Alaska legislature voting to split Alaska in half so that Texas would have to be 3rd biggest :D

[pasbuild]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Texas Ranger]

Yeah, and when global warming really cuts in, Alaska will be smaller than Rhode Island 8)

[Gary_C]

And Texas will truly be TOAST.   :D :D

[ARKANSAWYER]

  They did not even have Arkansas on the list.  We have about 19 million acres of forest land and some very fine trees at that. 
  If we were to count the cotton plants (which are taller then most Texas trees) we would be #2.  But then Norm would want to count them corn stalks in Iowa.

[stonebroke]

I wonder how that list would look if you ranked on the value of timber?

Stonebroke

[TexasTimbers]

If we were to count the cotton plants (which are taller then most Texas trees) . . . . .

C'mon Arky, you know Texas has the biggest small trees in the union. :D

[Texas Ranger]

The timber counties in Texas account for about 72,000,000  acres.  Of course, ya got to take out cities, lakes, etc, from that.

[TexasTimbers]

During the war, there were times the Rebs and Yanks would take a break from killing each other and trade tobacco for coffee and what not (of course the Yanks always wanted to trade for grits but most Rebs were unwilling to trade those ) Usually the truces were small numbers of men, unofficial, and spontaneous. The meetings are described in letters to home from soldiers on both sides, and most of the truces began quite tentatively as you might imagine.

But the distrust usually melted pretty quick. One of my many WBTS books has a photocopy of a letter I remember in particular; it's from a Yank who recounts to his parents such a meeting with the Rebs ~ his first exposure to southerners.  In it, he described how the enemy he had been fighting for so long,  was nothing like he had imagined. He had described his hatred for the south, after all the carnage he had witnessed and hardship he had endured, and the description soon evolved into a description of how this hatred had seemed to vanish and he had not even realized it.

One of the southerners had a banjo, one of the Yanks had a harmonica, and the way he described the singing and music they made well into the night would bring a lump to anyone's throat. They also prayed together over a meal (the description of the meal alone was interesting to read), and before they parted to take up the sword against each other the next morning, they bid each other Godspeed; each expressing to their hopes that they might survive the war and not meet again during it.

So let's take a break and listen to some good banjo music and look at some pretty southern countryside. Then we can go back to belittling the south in general, and Texas in particluar. ;D

Truce

Each photo has a location description on the lower right in white text. I didn't notice it until halfway through so just giving you a heads up.

[stonebroke]

I don't mean to belittle Texas. I will praise Texas.Particularity the pioneering oil industry that has lead to horizontal drilling and fracing in the Barnett Shale field. These advances will make a lot of Yankees in the Marcellus Field very properous. So as a northener I salute Texans. But I still think we can grow better trees.

Stonebroke

[LeeB]

Stonebroke, I may be wrong, but i think fraccing actual started in the Giddings field in the Austin Chalk.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Being a native born Texan I have to be kind to my brothers.  But them boys sure do need a 10 gallon hat for them big heads. ;D

[LeeB]

Hey now, I think I resemble that remark.

[TexasTimbers]

  Being a native born Texan I have to be kind to my brothers.  But them boys sure do need a 10 gallon hat for them big heads. ;D

I hear ya. But I think the majority of the loud-mouths are the ones who were not born and bred here. the vast majority of natives that I know are soft spoken men who do much more than they talk about.  I think that's true everywhere though.

stonebroke y'all got some good timber for sure. The way the market is up there I wonder if harvesting will slow down or increase over the next decade or two? If it slows, you're going to have even more timber.

Now that TR has let the cat out of the bag I suppose the world will beat a path to our doorstep to harvest all this secret timber we've been sitting on. :

[beenthere]

..............Now that TR has let the cat out of the bag I suppose the world will beat a path to our doorstep to harvest all this secret timber we've been sitting on. :

I think the world has enough brush piles of their own.   ;D ;D ;D

[WDH]

I am already harvesting the DanG out of it  ;D.

[Radar67]

Another native born Texan (Borger) here too. I'm just sitting here listening....

[dail_h]

  Shoot,all this hurah 'bout the size o' texas. Why in a frenzy of random cogitating the other day,(Thanks Dang for instillin in me the wonders of cogitating)(oooops, ramblin) I cogitated that if you wuz ta flatten all the mountains, an hills in West Virginia,Texas likely would be the 3rd, maybe 4ht largest state

[Woodwalker]

I cogitated that if you wuz ta flatten all the mountains, an hills in West Virginia,Texas likely would be the 3rd, maybe 4ht largest state

There's a few "hills" and "mountains" about 10-12 hours drive out west of here. We can iron them out, give you a flat spot to sit West Virginia on :D :D





Big Bend State Park, looking east thru the "Window" into the Cincos Basin.

[TexasTimbers]

if you wuz ta flatten all the mountains . . . .

If. If if if.

And if Mirabeau Lamar would have had his way, Texas today would consist of modern day Texas and all the states to our west all the way to the Pacific ocean, and a few to our north like Colorado, Oklahoma, and a corner of Arkansas.

And if the Pacific Ocean was dirt instead of water, it would be slightly larger than oh, anything on the planet.

And if Len Bias hadn't decided to take drugs and die right after the Celtics drafted him, Boston would have almost certainly won more than the three championships they did in the first half of the 80s. They would have dominated well into the late 80s/early 90s. And if Bill Walton's knees had held up . . . . . . .

Lotsa ifs a fella can conjur up. : ;)