It’s been a quiet week around the osprey nest. They’re hunkered down and sitting on the eggs. It’s a good week to share another one of our locals. I ran into this youngster out behind the log decks. I can never guess what animals I may bump into around the mill. Wildlife will exploit habitat wherever they find it.
If you like opossums and you want a great children’s book about an opossum I highly recommend Oh No! Baby-O. Written and illustrated by Mary A Livingston.
I started this post last June, but never finished it. Better late that never. Here are just a few pictures of our birds that make their home at the Mill. It defies conventional wisdom that so much wildlife makes it home at an industrial complex and thrives. It’s all about the habitat.
Wood Ducks.
Osprey
Wild Turkey Hen
Killdeer
Great Blue Heron
Black Pheobe
Cattle Egret
Blackbirds on a pole stack.
Wood ducks hanging out in the canal behind the sawmill. Something a little more serene than the Halloween post.
Just a few of the birds hanging out around the mill these days.
Just a few more of our feathered neighbors at the sawmill.
Great Blue Heron
Mallards
Me and Bliss.
The mill pond, also known as the otter pond, is visited by various birds all year long. This was a snapshot of the visitors one day in November.
The truck is fueled and ready. Do you want to go for a ride along?
Ralph was a state forester. He’s retired now, but he’s been a friend throughout my career. He gave me my first ride along.
When I met Ralph, I was a firefighter in the summer and attending community college. I declared my Forestry Major and was preparing to transfer to Humboldt State University. I had not taken any forestry classes yet. That would start the next year. I didn’t have much forestry work experience. I knew Ralph from my job at the fire station. I asked if I could ride along with him for a day. He gladly took me up on it. I learned a lot from Ralph.
Jaime spent the day exploring a little West Coast forestry.
The other day I took a young woman, named Jaime, for a ride along. She’s contemplating her next career move. She is a cousin of a close friend.
The night before, Mary and I visited with our friends, Jaime, and her father. We had a wonderful conversation. Jaime recently completed her Bachelor degree at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. Now she was considering going for an environmental law degree. Mary and I were both thinking, She needs to go for a ride along. When offered, she leaped at the chance.
The next day we started out with an introduction to our company’s head research scientist, CJ. These two women hit it off famously. After an insightful conversation about environmental science, careers and education, we headed out to the mill.
We toured the mill complex where Jaime started out watching the pole plant processing logs. Next, we went through the sawmill. She asked a ton of questions about the process and took a few pictures to send to her friends back in North Carolina. After the mill tour it was back to the truck.
She saw some modern logging technology in this tree shear.
We headed out to look at the timberlands. Our conversation centered on forestry practices, land management and environmental issues. We started near Shingletown, looking at forestry practices, and ended the day at the Ponderosa Burn, talking about fire restoration.
Valley Quail in the Ponderosa Burn.
Now, if I sound like the wise professional bestowing my vast knowledge from on high, let me correct that right now. This education process is a two way street. Our conversations weren’t all about forestry. I learned about all manner of issues important to her generation. We both had a fun and instructive day.
Channeling her inner Vanna White, Jaime shows off some old time milling technology in this teepee burner.
Making time for young people to go for a ride along or job shadow for a day is time well spent. A day job shadowing does something for them that a semester of school doesn’t do. It gives them a big picture of the profession. As professionals we benefit from this time too. We’re never too old to learn and they too have a lot to share.
Jaime’s career is a like this little pine tree, just starting out.
Blitz likes a good ride along, but don’t take her seat!
This morning’s sunrise over the otter pond at the sawmill.
This morning, sunrise was quite a treat for the eyes. Even in the middle of a large industrial site you can find a moment to enjoy nature.
Looking east over the mill site toward Lassen Peak.
A red tail hawk perches on a log deck while on a morning hunt.
The big log deck forms a wall of wood.
A great blue heron gets in a bit of morning fishing.
This gallery contains 9 photos.
We store logs in decks during the Summer so we have enough wood to run the mill all year-long. Logging is curtailed in California during the Winter. In the Winter logging is restricted to dry rainless periods or hard frozen … Continue reading
When I first posted A Memory In The Mist I thought it would be an unusual sight for most folks. With so many people unfamiliar with teepee burners and their use, and add to that a picture of one decaying into the earth, it would be something different. I decided I would show you a few more images of full standing burners that are still around. They represent something from the past that was left behind by the forward march of technology.
This pen and ink represents an old-time sawmill with a teepee burner.
In the old days, before sawdust was used for particle board and bark was used for landscaping, it was burned. Much of it was burned to power the boilers at the mill, but excess wood waste was just burned. Today’s mill residues that cannot be used in other products are burned in co-generation plants to generate electricity. Nothing goes to waste anymore.
The Carlotta, California teepee burner was an extra-large one.
A big one like the Carlotta burner could handle a lot of mill residue. With the mill gone the old burner stands like a grave marker of the old mill site.
It is a tall skinny teepee burner in Nubieber, California.
A tall burner like the one Nubieber was built with a tall chimney. This reduced the risk of sparks starting a fire outside the burner.
This teepee burner is located between Anderson and Redding, California.
The Anderson burner was a very typical design around here. As a child I lived about a half mile from this one.
A teepee burner in use from 1932.
The teepee burner from A Memory In The Mist.
Where once was smoke now there is foliage.
Nature is resilient and relentless and will be here long after we are gone.
Here comes the sun.
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