Do you ever wonder about which tools were invented first? I've thought for years that the hammer would be first, but there is also a good chance it was the shovel. Pick up a stick and you can use it to reach, to push, or to dig. Deuteronomy 23:13 tells us to carry a stick so we can clean up after ourselves. We never get done digging, until we're really done, and then somebody else gets to dig for us. Anyhow, the dogs are liking their stepping stones, and they will give us a safe path to clean the dog yard when it rains.
John Ross of WSIL TV 3 called yesterday and then came right out to do a brief interview and look at emerald ash borer damage to trees. We got lucky and found some really good galleries for the camera.
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra recorded Whispering on August 23, 1920. It went to Number 1 for eleven weeks, and stayed on the charts for twenty weeks, selling more than two million copies. It is one of the songs that made the Twenties roar.
Four years ago this fall, our friend Gary Bahre made this old basket case run. It was just a very poor parts kit when he got it, and it is really fixed up well now, and could go back to work if Gary had a mind to do that. History of this engine: Found on a farm in Lawrence County Kentucky in 1976, brought to Illinois in 1980, this engine held a mailbox by the side of the road from 1992 until 2014. Gary Bahre took it on as a project and has made a basket case run again. During this engine's working years it powered a sorghum press at Martha, Kentucky. It had water in it during a freeze, and the water jacket was broken. When we bought it there was a big, ugly brazing job holding the water jacket together. Gary Bahre cleaned that up so it hardly shows now. The farmer continued to use this engine until the rod broke; we guess sometime during the 1920's. It sat outside and rusted until I saw it in 1976 as I was going to a timber marking job at Martha. My wife and I went there after work, bought it from the son of the man who originally purchased and ran it, and we loaded it in the back of our AMC Rebel station wagon.
Walking old Jack Dog yesterday morning I observed a track in the driveway that didn't belong. It was narrow, not a car, tractor or utility vehicle. I turned around and looked behind me; the log splitter was gone. It happened sometime after 10 PM and morning, and one of the neighbors told us that he had something setting off an alarm around 2 AM.
I found footprints. The thief walked in on the old section of road, and in the dark walked through mud. The tracks are plainly LaCrosse rubber boots, but the mud did not print the size rectangle. They should put serial numbers on them and register all buyers, I guess. The County Sheriff came out, took photos and notes, and we sent him documentation for our splitter, on the long chance that they encounter it somewhere. I have long held that thieves don't steal anything they have to work with, so the thief probably had a buyer lined up. We had lots of storm damage locally, so our machine is probably helping some buyer of stolen goods work up a tree.
It was a good machine. We have been using it since the fall of '09, and it has helped send many trees up the flue. It was full of gas and had clean oil; ready to work.
