Reunited And It Feels So Good

The banjo has been found.




Here's the message we got from Jim, who had it:

Gentlemen,

I'm very happy the banjo is back in the calloused hands of its rightful picker. Bob, I was going to write in chalk on your front porch, "I HAVE THE BANJO" and keep the suspense going, but thought it might frighten the kids. The banjo brought great joy while housed on Beechwood. We used it as a table centerpiece for a holiday dinner with Suzanne's family. The symbolism was for Suzanne's 95-year-old grandmother, whose husband was a great banjo player and bandleader in the Macon area with his group the Georgia Footwarmers. It brought a tear to her eye. The 3.S.B. also served duty as the "dinner bell" when I would pluck out the call to the table for Arthur. That frenzied playing led to the demise of string #3 during an ill-fated tuning session. So there you have it, the banjo's adventure from the terrifying bends and swirling waters of the Buffalo, to bungalow life in our waning days on Beechwood. Sorry I can't be with you this Thursday evening, but being in the mountains of West Virginia is the next best thing to roughing it at Savarino's with the RRCC.

Cheers. Jim.

More Heavy Metal

It's winter, it's the off-season and the RRCC is going shopping.

Our next possession comes straight from the "I-Can't-Believe-We-Didn't-Have-One-Earlier" Department.

The two-man crosscut saw...
























This has Rebel Rivers written all over it. It's big. It's steel. It brings down full-size dead trees. It cuts through 9-Man Logs in about five minutes. It gets us in lumberjack competitions. It fits perfectly in a canoe.

Josh gave a mildly alarming financial report at JJ's the other day, but this has got to fall under the "essential items" exception.

Just ask yourself this. What's cooler....

(a) Albert King?


























I'm your crosscut saw
Baby, drag me across your log
I'm your crosscut saw
Baby, drag me across your log
I cut your wood so easy for you
You can't help but say "Hot dog!" Listen

Or

(b) These two jessies using a camp saw engineered for patio living?




UNACCEPTABLE! Say goodbye to that old knucklebuster because at the meeting next week we will seek approval for the club purchase of a 5-1/2 foot, two-man, Western-style felling saw from Jim's Crosscut Saws in Roseburg, Oregon.

That's Crosscut Jim on the right.

The "bible" for crosscut saw users is called "Saws That Sing: A Guide to Using the Two-Man Crosscut Saw." What's not to like about a title like that? So we're getting one of those, too.

Looks like we'll also need a sharpening kit.

A scabbard for transporting...





And perhaps a Handy Hookeroon...?




According to "Saws That Sing," the crosscut saw has the following advantages over chainsaws:

1. Never fails to start
2. Safer when dropped
3. Lighter
4. Quieter
5. Burns no fuel (may need beer)
6. "Less susceptible to damage when dropped by parachute"

There's all kinds of interesting stuff out there. Like the difference between felling saws and bucking saws, the different settings for the teeth in different conditions, and why they call it the "misery whip"....

Introduction: Crosscut Saw Manual, 7771-2508-MTDC

USDA Forest Service

National Smokejumper Trail Manual

Apparently it takes hours and hours to sharpen one right. But who among us can possibly take on more tasks during the busy camp set-up period? Where will they find the time?

3.S.B. - A.P.B.

Has anyone seen this banjo?






We had it for the Buffalo River this spring but no one knows if it actually made it on the trip. If it ended up in your gear, please bring it to the meeting at Savarino's in February. Bob is doing an experimental version of the Brandenburg Concertos using a 3-String Banjo on the candenzas and needs it ASAP.

Last known photos of the 3.S.B. in action are from the Piney River trip:




Take one, Billy!



_____________________________________________________




Bob says: "If I don't get my banjo back I'm gonna Uke!"



~

Meeting Thursday, February 7

The countdown clock says "-76" days from the fall trip so it's time for a meeting. Will it be post-trip from the fall, or pre-trip for the spring? February 7 will be almost exactly half way between the Buffalo River in November and a likely April date for the next one, so we'll cover both.

7:30 pm. At the upstairs speakeasy above Savarino's.

Here's an interesting little comment about the Buffalo from a float book published in 1979....

Stay tuned for announcements regarding the after-party a.k.a. post-trip meeting.

Get your $$$ to Josh if you haven't already.

Ohhh-Ai-Ohhh-Ai-Oh....

The dogs were barking as the cars were parking.



Practically everyone was there.

There were forty italian sausages cooking on the outdoor grill. And they were sssssssizzlin'.


This is the first trip we decided to go without plates and silverware. Anything to avoid the "women-tended" label:

The owner of the Ser Sta Gro offered me fifteen dollars for the pup, and when I turned it down, he said he didn't blame me, and went out to commandeer a seat for me, regally, in a blue pickup truck that stopped for gas. The two men in it were brown lean small-townsmen headed out to a deer lease, and made room cheerfully for me and the pup. They were talking about how they'd packed the eggs and whether the milk would keep without ice and such matters, the talk of women-tended men magnifying the maleness of a three or four-day expedition away from their women.

Goodbye to a River, p. 81





We had to eat with some shhhhhharp objects.





Or perhaps, catch a few fish. Whatever came first.

Standing by peaceful waters.