4 July 1826

I just finished David McCullough's biography of John Adams.  I'd like to recommend it, but at 650 pages it is too long for anyone with a social life.  John and Abigail Adams were patriots and public servants the likes of which have not been seen in America before or since.  I'll just leave it at that.  But, the thing that really caught my attention was that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Maybe everybody else knows this and I just missed it in history class, but it is a very interesting fact (at least, it is if you have no social life).

On the first of July 1826 there were three living signers (out of 56) of the Declaration of Independence:  Adams, Jefferson, and Charles Carroll (about whom I truly know nothing).  Jefferson was the author of the Declaration and Adams was its most powerful proponent in the Continental Congress of 1776.  On the fourth of July 1826, at 1pm, Thomas Jefferson died at Monticello.  On the fourth of July 1826, at 6:20 pm, John Adams died at Quincy, Massachusetts.  That strikes me as a remarkable coincidence.  John Quincy Adams, John Adams son, who was President at the time, did not think it a coincidence, but called it a manifestation of divine favor.  And perhaps it was.

Job Done

It was back to (fence) post pulling today, and I was able to finish the job.  My previous (blog) post, however, generated mass confusion.  My explanation of the pulling mechanism was inadequate.  A helpful reader suggested that I take a picture of the system.  Knowing something about how to make a bad picture, I figured that the camera would only add to the confusion.  So, I asked my personal graphic artist to generate a sketch.  Here it is.  The key to the whole thing is setting the fulcrum (pole) so that it leans against the post.  Then, as the cable pulls forward, the fulcrum (pole) stands up, exerting a vertical pull on the bottom of the post.

Pulling Posts

There is an old fence on the eastern border of The Farm.  I've wanted to replace it with something newer, but haven't done much with it so far.  Part of the delay has been my reluctance to take on the manual post removal job.  I mean, have you ever tried to dig out an old fence post?  And, there were more than thirty of them.  I was imagining buckets of sweat.  On the other hand, farmers remove fences all the time, and they do it without any sweat at all, using a bucket loader on the tractor.  I thought maybe there was something to that, so yesterday I rigged up a system using the Chev, a piece of choker cable, and an old chunk of telephone pole.  One end of the cable went around the base of the post, the other attached to the trailer hitch on the Chev, and in between I put the telephone pole.  The pole was tilted against the fence post such that, as the cable pulled tight, the pole rocked towards the vertical, exerting an upward pull on the base of the post.  It took me a few minutes to fix the system on my test post.  When I got in the Chev, I didn't even use the throttle, I just let the idling motor pull forward.  Pop.  Out came the post.  Wow.  First try.  That never happens to me.  My work-saving ideas generally succeed only about half-way, leaving me to sweat, and swear, and kick at it for the rest of the day.  In a couple of hours, I probably pulled 20 posts.  Not every one of them was as successful as my test post, and I needed four-wheel drive for a couple of them, but I saved myself several days (weeks?) of labor.  There are about 15 left to remove, but I no longer fear them.

UP II

After another week at Michigan Tech, I was hoping to paddle the Potato River.  In the event, the wind and waves on the lake blocked our approach.  Instead, we decided to do some forestry on the Cranberry, and back up the river of chocolate milk we went.  At the little "S" curve just downstream from the small bridge there were three or four trees in the water that were making for a tricky run.  Mark used a couple of saws to do some thinning.  After that we paddled to the upper end of navigability and sipped some bourbon while skipping stones.  Mark and Kristi had promised me a barbeque and bonfire on the beach, but the winter weather squashed our hopes (there are still no leaves on the trees).  So, we had dinner inside by the fireplace in our long underwear.  Another great day at Camp Rubens.

The Upper Peninsula

The past week has been spent in the UP.  Which mostly means taking a class at Michigan Tech.  But, sometimes means paddling Camp Rubens with Mark and Kristi.  (Don't be fooled by the pictures.  It is winter here ten months out of twelve.)

Reforestation

Last week we were burning; this week we were planting.  (Or, I should say, the guys in the picture below were planting.  This crew of, well, non-English speakers, planted more trees, in worse conditions, in a shorter period of time than any, well, English speakers could have.)  The plan was to put 25,000 native Douglas fir and ponderosa pine seedlings on some of the steep slopes above the North Fork of North Creek that had burned during the Twitchell Fire.  Did I say steep?  Fifty and sixty percent slopes.  Rocky, too.  It will be interesting to go back in a few years to check on the survival rate.  On the other hand, there were plenty of large trees growing on these slopes before the fire, so we know that the site can support them.  It was also nice to see all the sprouting—aspen, oak, mahogany, kinnikinnick, rose, elderberry.  The early seral sprouting species certainly benefited from the fire.