Bleeding Hearts trembling in the breeze. Be still my little hearts.
This is a Bumble bee with purpose. Manzanita flowers are in it’s sights. It’s time to fuel up!
Curious Young Bear in pen and ink.
As we rounded the corner, we spooked this young bear. He ran up the hill a short distance and hid behind a large Douglas-fir tree. His curiosity got the best of him as he peeked around one side of the tree and his behind stuck out the other. I stopped the rig so we could watch him. He didn’t run away. We got out and started taking pictures.
His curiosity got the best of him. He had to get a better look at us.
He watched us for a while and we watched him. An older bear would never have stayed for a look. Soon his curiosity was satisfied and we went our separate ways.
California Black Bear, Ursus americanus
Monica was our pole plant/log clerk for many years and is a dear friend. She lives near Shasta Lake and has told me countless stories of her encounters with bears around her home. Of course she had to listen to my countless bear stories too. She just retired, so I gave her a signed and mounted print of this pen and ink. I think of her every time I look at it.
The Northern California skies from sunup to sundown.
The color is going on and the background is developing. Time to grow a forest. I’m well into the awkward phase and the quality of the photo isn’t very good.
It was a perfect day in the woods. I was visiting a more modern logging crew.
Loading the truck and filling out the load receipt.
What do you think the steam donkey crew would have said about this equipment.
A dozer skidding in a log turn.
I get to go to places like this when I’m at work.
Looking north toward Lassen Park.
Nothing like a little inspiration on the way home to prepare for painting.
Sunset over the Sacramento River.
The inking is complete!
Steam Donkey
My progression since my last post is shown in the gallery below. I’ve included how I mount my paper for watercolor painting. Click on the images to enlarge.
This old donkey wasn’t alone. Very nearby was a second steam donkey. It was another Willamette. These two machines worked together on the same logging site.
The second steam donkey. It’s had parts removed by collectors.
Mark, the photographer, commented on my last post:
“The historians on our Steam Donkey expedition had a schematic of this Donkey. The manufacturer (Portland Iron Works) listed the Capistan (an option used to guide the cables in and out) as weighing 2,200 lbs. This donkey and another smaller unit were used until the Depression when they were parked on the side of a hill. By the time the Depression was over, other methods to yard logs were discovered, so they sit in the same resting place today. The original steam donkey was invented by John Dolbeer in 1881 in Eureka, California.”
Look how steep the hill is. It appears, they stopped in the middle of moving this donkey. Things must have been bad for them to abandon this equipment in the woods.
Now it is time for me to start slinging a little paint. Stay tuned for the next installment.
This huge steam engine has waited silently for years. Seasons passed, leaves turned, and its only visitors were the wild creatures paying it no attention.
The Willamette Steam Donkey. Photo courtesy of Mark Lathrop.
Steam donkeys were the cutting edge technology for powering logging operations a hundred years ago. Serving as yarders, they brought logs to the landing. They were the loaders, too. These huge machines provided any heavy lifting that needed to be done. Steam donkeys replaced horses and oxen for moving logs.
Steam Donkey work in progress.
I’m doing a mixed media watercolor painting of this steam donkey for a forestry education fund-raising auction. The auction will be held at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference coming up in February. You can follow the progress on this piece in my future blog posts. I’m using a Canson Bright White 90 lb hot press cotton paper. I sketched out my pencil guide and am inking. I’m inking with a brand new Lamy All-Star extra fine point pen.
Mark at the historic site.
The pictures were taken by my friend, Mark, who has graciously given me permission to use them for this project. He had the awesome duty of leading a team of historians to the donkeys to record the site. Keep following for more on the story behind this steam donkey.
Otter in pen and ink.
I did this drawing at the same time as “Forestry Friday … Otter, Otter, Otter.” I’m just now getting around to posting it.
Our local otter enjoying a yummy frog breakfast!
Pen and ink prints available at Fine Art America.
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/otter-in-the-water-timothy-livingston.html
One advantage to having a truck for an office, is to take a few minutes in the woods during lunch to engage in a bit of en plein air sketching. En plein air is a french term meaning “in the open air.” It refers to painting or sketching in the outdoors.
En plein air pen and ink of a lodgepole pine cone.
Here is some of our local lodgepole pine.
Click on the images to enlarge them.
In this year of drought, our forests are a tinder box waiting for a spark. That spark came from the sky on the last day of July. It reached 108 F in the valley. A major lightning storm rolled across the North State and left numerous forest fires in its wake.
Looking east toward Burney. On the right is smoke from the Day Fire and on the right is the Bald Mountain Fire.
Bald Mountain.
A huge thundercloud forms above the Bald Mountain Fire. Burney Mountain on the right, has a fire lookout on its peak.
The cloud above the fire continued to grow all day as the fire exploded in size. These clouds create erratic winds that cause the fire to spot.
The air tankers bombed the fires throughout the daylight hours. This S2 is on its way to the Coffee Fire.
More fires were burning to the west. This column was from the Coffee Creek Fire.
A new fire called the Eiler Fire took off on the second day. It’s was close to the Bald Mountain Fire. The two fires were threatening the town of Burney. From the valley in Anderson, we could see at least six major smoke columns in all directions.
The beginning of the week brought us a rare and very wet cold front. The rain helped the firefighters get a handle on many of the fires. The same storm created flash floods and mud slides in Southern California.
Wildfire sunsets are a silver lining.
Most of the east side fires are under control now, but several fires in the Klamath Mountains are still burning. We still have a long way to go to reach the end of fire season.
THE FORESTER ARTIST 