HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1959-03-12, Page 3•
Creepers Helped
On Icy Roods
We've had a couple of good
ice storms this winter, after
several seasons without Made
me think of the old "creepers",
and perhaps a few words won't
be too many. The creet er was
a device you strapped around
your instep, to help matte you
sure-footed on glare toe, and
they were common enough To
almost everybody wore them
when needed.
I suppose it would be hard to
buy a pair today. They were in
vogue before the days a sett
ail sand, and in a time when
sleighs and Sleds needed smooth.
going. The blacksmith would
sharpen the calks on horseshoes
so an animal could go as well
as in summer. Indeed, harness
racing on ponds and rivers was
common, and is far from extinct
even now in some sections, On
ice that is almost too slippery
for a man to stand on, horses
with sharp points on their shoes
ran skim along faster, than nu
dirt. The creeper was ,,upposee.
to gives man,something of the
same security.
The ice storm is a peculiar
thing, in that it rides the ther-
mometer somewhere around 28
degrees. At that temperature,
we'll get an old he snnwstorm
at times, and at other times we'll
get a rain. that freezes when it
hits, Our proximity to the coast,
and our own weather belt, per-
haps give us ice storms moi e
Often than not at that tempera-
ture. I suppose the dominant
thing is the air, upstairs
A really bad ice storm cripples
us, breaking trees across power
lines, and doing all manner of
damage to farm buildings. But
even though they are fairly fre-
quent in our winters, an ice
storm always seems to have a
laculty for sneaking up on you,
and you find yourself flat off the
stepsand astonished..
Many times, now mostly in
the past, I' have stepped blithely
from the kitchen door, bound
cn a bleak winter morning` just
prior to daylight to feed calf
in the barn, and hit the frozen
dooryard some 30 feet from the
house. I'm• sure many'have shar-
ed this glad surprise in other
dooryards, "*The night before I
had come in and the snow creak-
ed under my boots and all was
ON PURPOSE - Wonder of a
Winter's land, was. created re-
cently when foliage in the yard
of the H. P. Collins Jr. family
was deliberntely' sprayed with
Water during a cold snap.
well. But an ice storm had tille
the night.
I would like to speak abuts
calf mash, ft is composed o
warm skimmed oiilk, into whiel
a lacing of special grow-quici
meal has been stirred, and it i
a most friendly solution. It sitck
eth closer than a brother. It ha
a penetrating power so It W1.1
go through whistle -britches and
red flannel underwear instan
taneously, and it has a rich, tasty
complexion as it embraces your
thigh and runs down inside you
hi -cut boots.
When you skid on an icy door-
step and the pail shoots into the
darkness, it has an unerring ca-
pacity for finding you out there
in the lonesome dawn, and it
comes down to snuggle close and
comfort you. You can hear the
calf in the barn blatting like a
tugboat afire, and you are late
for school, and there is calf mash
in your, ears, and nothing to grab
holt of and get up.
So you crawl on all fours back
to the house, take off your
clothe's, bathe off the sticky goo,
and ready another pail. You also
tie- on your creepers, and after
that everything is all right. This
last storm, a sedate and upright
neighbor lady backed her auto-
mobile out of 'the barn, and slid
neatly down the driveway and,
into the pines across the high-
way. She didn't know it was icy.
She couldn't crawl up her own
driveway, so she crawled down
the road to the next house What
she' needed most was creepers:
But creepers require some'
skill in their use. You need w
believe in -them, first. You need
confidence. They come up under
your foot so they , give you a
teetery feeling, and there is a
tendency to mistrust them. 'You
overcompensate at first. This is
almost as bad as not having any,
and you can take an old h'ister
of a dump if you aren't careful,
coming down all askew and off -
center.
I saw a chain reaction once on
this account, One of our busi-
nessmen put on some creepers
snd started,, to cross the street,,
but balanced himself too fat
astern, He clawed at the air
a while, but went down, and
then, several other businessmen
tried to helphim up. ,They all
went down. They sat there in
the street a time, and then
•crawled on hands, and knees
back to the barber shop, where
they got holt of the pipes of the
awning ,and drew themselves up,
They stood there quite a _ time,
all holding the awning.
Their trouble had been lack
of confidence. They should have
believed. Sb they discussed it,
and having convinced them-'
selves they all suddenly let go
and walked off in different di-
rections as certain and. safe as
you please. One little tinge of
doubt and -you're down.
The other. day I asked about
the house if' anybody knew
where the old creepers had gone:
We've got some, somewhere.
Little diamond - shaped steel
pieces with straps, and four
corners bent down. They're on
a shelf in the barn, probably,
or in a box under something.
I wouldn't know. They're an-
tiques, not needed much in our
sanded, salted, and enlightened
age. Ice storms bring out the
highway trucks, and if you waif
a' few minutes you can drive
with snow -treads.
I remember taking that second
pail of mash out, and then going
to school with a note that said
"Please excuse John, he had
extra barn work." The ice storut
often kept half the teachers and
most al the pupils at home, but
I'd come running in with my
note, „eager to embrace the day's
assignments, often with a tell-
tale touch of calf meal on the
sides of my boots.
-by John Gould in
The Christian Science Monitor.
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Simple Celia .thinks a natural-
ist is a guy who rolls nothing
but sevens.
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
5. Pees,,,,
9. Pigeon ,
10. Support
11. Fit together
16. Of the chest
20. Articles of
dress
22 Hank ot
ACROSS 2, Seed covering tsVitle
1.1find of 3. L ght cotton 23. In addition
24. Court
25. Sin ,
28, Free
29. Daughter of
Cadmus
fabric
5. Ember 4. D ets
8. Dutch cheese 6. Tune
12. Surface 6. G bee
13. West Saxon 7. Salutation
king
14. Otto part
15. Wondering
musician
17. The birds
18, Indolence
19, James- Barrie
character
21. Griefs
93. Windmill Rail
20. Short napped
fabric
27, 'word
31. Vincent
Peale
83, Card game
34, Style of
architecture
35. Cereal gratis
AL Dowry
37, Gnawed
40. Total failure
43. Ceremonies
47. Sandarac tree
48. Of a Dutch
scholar
59. flonflria•rntion
51. T.arendant
52. Wagner
charsoter
53. Portable
lodge
04. POWerful
55, Ones
DOWN
1. Plorentrir
retrie
35. Au....
82. 1Vloseue tower
33. Woltramite
35. Shakespeare
character
25. 34ajp•
39. Coins
40. Crazy islang
41. Pa, lake port
42. Florse's home
44. Baked clay
46. Relieve
46.. Easy lob
' Wang)
4-9 Minmel
MEMEMMEMEMMON
UMEMMINIMMUMEM
MEMMUMMIMUMME
UMEMMOMM mope
20
MMEMMUMMERVON
30
UMMEMMEMM MEM
MEW
UMAMMMINIMMUMM
MESHOWIMEMEEE
MOMMOMMEMMUMM
MMOMOMMMIMMIN
MIIMEMMONAMMO
MEMEMOMMEAMME
50
Answer e sewhree on this page
PRICELESS GIFT - Richard Bello, 13, gazes at Mrs. Eisenhower
in the White House through donated eyes. Richard's*lost vision
was regained through the work of National Eye -Bank for Sight
Restoration.
HE FARM FRONT
Joku
Logging today in the U.S. West
is a. decision-making job. Not
just whether to cut the tree
down. What to d� .with it after-
ward is the question.
Should the whole log go to a
sawmill, to beunade into lumber,
,or. cut into, 81/2 -foot lengths,
from ,which sheets of veneer can
be "peeled"-' oft and made into
plywood? Or can, a. few "peeler
blocks" be .cut off for plywood:
and the rest used for lumber?
• 5 •
Plywood sells for ..about four
times the price of lumber. This
is roughly true, although the fact
is not immediately apparent
from any price list, as lumber is
measured in terms of board'feet
and plywood' in surface feet of a
given thickness.
Also, material constitutes about
40 per cent of the cost of manu-
facturing' plywood. Consequently
the decisions in the woods can
easily mean the difference be-
tween prosperity and penalty
for, the user of the timber.
5 • *
If you take a typical Douglas
fir tree 120, feet in height, the
first 25% feet might make three
good peeler blocks suitable for
plywood. The balance would be
two 32 -foot logs suitable for the
sawmill.
Blocks must be 81/2 feet long,
or multiplesof that figure, be-
Caus'e 'the -normal plywood lathe
peels off a ribbon of veneer eight
feet wide,to be made into the
common 4 -feet -by -8 -feet, sheets
of plywood. The'extra six inches
allows for trimming during the
process. *
For lumber, however, logs
should be from 20 feet to 32 feet
in length, in order to get 'more
economical and profitable use of
-the wood. But with demand for
plywood becoming greater, the
temptati6ri is to cut more low-
grade logs primarily for that
purpose, and the result is likely
to be .that the rest of the log
will be too short for economical
use by the sawmill.
As mills cut deeper into the
forests, quality of the trees di-
minishes, and lower -grade -lum-
ber is required. Consequently
there has „developed a sort of
competition between sawmills
and plywood plants, to see which
parts of the tree can be most
profitably used for each purpose.
*
The consulting firm of Pro-
duction Management Engineering
Associates, Inc., has worked
extensively in this field to de-
velop practical controls as an aid
to better log utilization. They
have collaborated with the
United States Forest Service in
producing such reports as the `
latter's Research Paper No. 23,
"Veneer Recovery from Douglas
Fir Logs," published in 1957,
* • •
In earlier years it was as-
sumed that labor was the main
item of cost in lumber and ply-
wood production. Consequently,
it was difficult for mills to ac-
cept ,the concept that in some
cases adding more employees for
the purpose of gaining greater
recovery of materials would pay
off. Plant tests of logs, however,
disclosed the importance of con-
trolling the use of the wood.
R'esearch to determine how to
get the greatest amount of usable
wood out of a log in the mill it-
self is not new. For many years,
everyone has kept close watch
on the recovery of usable mater-
ial, from the little "pecker -wood"
mills to the biggest 'establish-
ments, * * *
' In the last 10 years, recovery
has increased from about 50 per
cent to 85 per cent or better. This
is partly due, to the development
of by products. Edgings, trims,
and waste are now made into
chips for the pulp mills or
ground up into fibrous or flaked
material for use ,in hardboard,
pressed board, or other patented
wall boards: -These various
boards are sold' under some 200
trade names, but all of them
are' basically the same, a sheet
formed under compression with
a binder to hold .the material
together. 4
In many industries' it is con-
sidered -cheaper .to transport raw
material to the market for fabri-
cation or processing, because
freight rates are higher on the
finished product. Logs, however,
have to be trucked in some cases
as far as SO miles over special
roads' built by the users of the
timber, with grades as high as
30 per cent. This is 'obviously a
costly operation.
Freshness From
The Old Farm Pump.
Few of the old farm's imple-
ments can be, more endearing, or
more conducive to contemplation
and reflection, than the barnyard
pump, a pulsing link that draws
a liquid nourishment from the
throbbing veins of the earth, to
bring to .the surface a silvered
,stream that had found its way
through gravel and soil, and
through the seams between the
great pressing layers of stone
'deep within the ground. One
never pumps water from the well
without giving thought to the
precious endless flow that has
gurgled its way thorugh the earth
for far more generations than
those of a century's farm inhabit-
ants.
Watching the Holsteins and
Guernseys nudge their way up
to the watering trough on a
winter's morning, one tries to
contemplate the generations of
cows that have found thirst -
quenching delight in the bub-
bling and sparking flow. A man
knows how satisfying and good
the water is. He had tasted that
same delight minutes before
when he took into the house a
pail of water from the dooryard
3
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well before starting his rnorn
ing's round of chores at the bang,
Ile and his cows drink from the
liquid purity of the slopes. They
share the nectar of the throb-
bing hills.
When winter streams, on the
surface of the slopes, are sealed
in ke and snow, the vein that
throbs and trickles deep within
the ground, below the frostline
and the freeze„iours on and on.
The song must be soft and rich.
On a zero morning of biting
winds, one sort of wishes he
could cup his' ears to listen to
the gentle and muffled song of a
stream, pouring softly under-
ground, in the warmth of soil
and stone.
It is little wonder that one
cherishes so deeply the well-
worn handle of the barnyard
pump. It is little wonder that it
seems so vital a part of living
in the country. It yields a liquid
song, a splashing rhythmic mel-
ody drawn from the flowing
chords' of the seasons and the
slopes, Fed by springs, and by
the thaws and singing rains, a
lot of songs must have poured
into the hills, like the gurgling
of water flowing gently over
stones, bubbling through the
throbbing veins of the land, flow-
ing through the coolness of an
endless shade, deep within the
ground, and fresh as a wood-
land spring that yields Its cooling
moisture to the roots of ferns.
Monkey Tricks
A murderous monkey in Accra,
West Africa, attacked a laborer,
and injured him so severely that
he died, The police arrested the
monkey and jailed him.
Soniething similar happened
m Bogota, Colombia, when a
monkey bit his owner not long
ago. The owner thirsted for
Jacko's blood, but a local animal
protection society intervened and
brought the culprit before the
magistrates.
It was pleaded on his behalf
that he had never bitten any-
one before so he got off lightly
with a sentence of six months.
A cynic knows the price of
everything and the value of
nothing.
Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking
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3 fl 5 VII: V V
MY SCI1001
LESSON
By Rev 0, Barclay Wars=
B.A., MD.
Jesus Faces the Cross
Mark 14:32.42
Memory Selection: Not what 1
will, but what thou wilt. Mark
14:36,
Travellers to Palestine visit
the Garden of Gethsemane. It is
just three-quarters of a mile from
the wall of Jerusalem and is
situated near the foot of the
western slope of the Mount of
Olives. It was to this beautiful
garden that Jesus went with the
eleven disciples after they had
partaken of The Last Supper.
After entering the garden he left
the eight disciples at one point
and took the favorite three, Peter,
James and John, farther into the
garden. Then he asked them to
watch and pray while he went
a little farther.
None of use can know the
agony of Jesus in that time of
prayer alone,
"It was alone the Saviour
prayed
In dark Gethsemane;
Alone He drained the bitter
cup
And suffered there for me,"
Jesus knew that he would be
crucified the next morning. But
it was not the abuse and torture
of the hours that lay ahead that
troubled him most. It was the cup
of sorrow of that very hour that
brought Him near to death. On
Him our sins were laid. He was
to make the complete and perfect
atonement. No wonder there was
a shrinking from this cup.
"There was no other good
enough
To pay the price of sin;
Ile only could unlock the
gate
Of heaven, and let us in."
There was disappointment, too.
The three disciples, instead of
watching and praYing, fell asleep.
How they must have mourned it
later! They failed Him when He
needed them most. It is Luke the
physician who records of that
hour in the Garden, "And being
in an agony he 'prayed more
earnestly; and his sweat was it
were great drops of blood falline
down to the ground." This des-
cription indicates something of
the intensity of His suffering.
Since Jesus loves us so, we
ought to forsake our sins and love
Him.
a
The fur coat season is begin-
ning when a wife reminds her
husband that he vent $100 fox
fishing gear early in the summer,
ISSUE 10 -- 1959
4:404t,6,
ftell&,-ttv.APA/E4stALA,f4ANA,„a.."....0,.%A., •
DEDICATED TO ANIMALS - Stylized owl, hare and fish form
design for this 20 -centime (414 -cent) Swiss stamp to be issued
in Berne March 9. It's dedicated to animal protection.
BIG BOYS' BUILDING BLOCKS - Covered since about 1822, arches once a useful part of the
Washington Capitol are revealed during extension of the east front of the building. They hod
been hidden by a stair well, Each block of stone has'been numbered according to a master
plan. Arches may be set op elsewhere some time, perhaps as a historical monument,