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Posted by tree68 on Monday, October 20, 2014 2:57 PM

So, this was my Sunday morning:The Pumpkin Patch

It all melted shortly thereafter, but it was still a cold day.  By 4PM, however, it was all history, with nothing left but some random stalks of straw scattered here and there.

Everyone seemed to have a good time.

The red building in the background was the tool house, to go together with the section house that was behind me.  After the NYC quit using it, it was rented by an employee ($60 a year...) who eventually bought it from the railroad shortly before NYC went under.  Just to the left of the Punkin Patch was a passing siding that came up in the late 1930's.

We were the guests of the current owner (third generation), and they were kind enough to give me a "tour" of the section house and some of the history of the site.

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Posted by Mookie on Monday, October 20, 2014 2:43 PM

Joe - forgot to tell you we saw a DE heading west.  So at least they are still in business and preparing for winter?  Shy

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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, October 20, 2014 2:35 PM

afternoon

some sprinkles here in Nw ohio.They are working on the road to our front door at work so we have to go in the back way.I think the local was working uptown.Saw a westbound stack train as I left too.Chores to do and homework to check.

stay safe

Joe

 

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, October 20, 2014 11:48 AM

Murphy Siding
 
mudchicken

Can't see the jackelopes because of the snipes migrating south. They saw that ski season started Friday morning up in the high country.

 

 

 

 A snipe story:

      I went to college in Springfield, SD, along the Missouri River.  One fall evening, during a conversation at Ye Olde Tap Club, a group of us college students convinced a student named Donovan that he would be a good candidate for a snipe hunt.

      Being typical college students, we packed up about 2 carloads of snipe hunt enthusiasts, Donovan and a pillow case, and headed down on the bottoms by the river, where the trees and undergrowth were thick.  Someone showed  Donovan the finer techniques of snipe calling and how to catch them with the pillowcase.  So off he heads into the darkness, calling the snipe, while the rest of us casually discuss his snipe hunting techniques.

     Then we lost Donovan.  We fanned out in groups and covered a lot of brushy forest in the dark trying to find him.  No luck.  We all made it back to the cars and panicked.  While discussing who was going to go find the town cop- who was usually pretty intoxicated this late at night- and who was going to have to call the sheriff, Donovan showed up out of the dark.

     He was all scratched up and dirty, and he was covered with bird poop and pine needles.   In the pillowcase he had a bird.  As he explained it, he had to climb up and pine tree, and pretty much ambush a group of birds on a branch.  When he jumped at the birds to get one in the pillowcase, he fell down into some juniper bushes, but he got his snipe to show the crowd.

     In front of car headlights, he slowly opened the bag to show us a very disgruntled  grackle.  Then we all went back to Ye Olde Tap Club for refreshments.

 

 

Murphy, you and your friends were cruel--I thought that when you hunted snipe, you simply told the inductee to stay where you leave him, thus he would not be tempted to climb a tree after the snipe.

No, I never had the pleasure of being taken snipe hunting.

Johnny

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, October 20, 2014 11:45 AM

Murphy Siding
 
Murray

 

 
edblysard
The thing with Jackalopes is ya can’t barbeque them or chicken fry them, ya have to stew them…
 

 

 

Ed, there are two BIG critters that like to relax in the shade between the building that I work in, and the parking lot. 

As I am walking to my car in the afternoon, he sees me...he says "howdy" and I say "howdy" I go on my way.  They don't even run away....

 

 

 

 Are they woozles, or hephalumps?

 

 

We can be sure they are not boojums, or else he (and everybody else who comes by) would have vanished.

Remember, if you build a heffalump trap and bait it with honey, do not sample the bait before leaving it in the trap, for you may like it so much you get your head stuck in the jar and you will frighten your friends who come by to see if a heffalump has been trapped.

Johnny

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, October 19, 2014 10:52 PM

mudchicken

Can't see the jackelopes because of the snipes migrating south. They saw that ski season started Friday morning up in the high country.

 

 A snipe story:

      I went to college in Springfield, SD, along the Missouri River.  One fall evening, during a conversation at Ye Olde Tap Club, a group of us college students convinced a student named Donovan that he would be a good candidate for a snipe hunt.

      Being typical college students, we packed up about 2 carloads of snipe hunt enthusiasts, Donovan and a pillow case, and headed down on the bottoms by the river, where the trees and undergrowth were thick.  Someone showed  Donovan the finer techniques of snipe calling and how to catch them with the pillowcase.  So off he heads into the darkness, calling the snipe, while the rest of us casually discuss his snipe hunting techniques.

     Then we lost Donovan.  We fanned out in groups and covered a lot of brushy forest in the dark trying to find him.  No luck.  We all made it back to the cars and panicked.  While discussing who was going to go find the town cop- who was usually pretty intoxicated this late at night- and who was going to have to call the sheriff, Donovan showed up out of the dark.

     He was all scratched up and dirty, and he was covered with bird poop and pine needles.   In the pillowcase he had a bird.  As he explained it, he had to climb up and pine tree, and pretty much ambush a group of birds on a branch.  When he jumped at the birds to get one in the pillowcase, he fell down into some juniper bushes, but he got his snipe to show the crowd.

     In front of car headlights, he slowly opened the bag to show us a very disgruntled  grackle.  Then we all went back to Ye Olde Tap Club for refreshments.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, October 19, 2014 10:35 PM

Murray

 

 
edblysard
The thing with Jackalopes is ya can’t barbeque them or chicken fry them, ya have to stew them…
 

 

 

Ed, there are two BIG critters that like to relax in the shade between the building that I work in, and the parking lot. 

As I am walking to my car in the afternoon, he sees me...he says "howdy" and I say "howdy" I go on my way.  They don't even run away....

 

 Are they woozles, or hephalumps?

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, October 19, 2014 10:34 PM

edblysard
The thing with Jackalopes is ya can’t barbeque them or chicken fry them, ya have to stew them…
 

Holy horned hossenffeffer Batman!

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Posted by mudchicken on Sunday, October 19, 2014 9:44 PM

Can't see the jackelopes because of the snipes migrating south. They saw that ski season started Friday morning up in the high country.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 18, 2014 10:40 PM

edblysard
The thing with Jackalopes is ya can’t barbeque them or chicken fry them, ya have to stew them…
 

Ed, there are two BIG critters that like to relax in the shade between the building that I work in, and the parking lot. 

As I am walking to my car in the afternoon, he sees me...he says "howdy" and I say "howdy" I go on my way.  They don't even run away....

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Posted by edblysard on Saturday, October 18, 2014 9:43 PM
The thing with Jackalopes is ya can’t barbeque them or chicken fry them, ya have to stew them…

23 17 46 11

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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, October 18, 2014 7:25 PM

Well Charlie Brown.  Don't step on Linus while he is sitting in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin! 

What fun!  Except for the weather!  Smile, Wink & Grin

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, October 18, 2014 6:59 PM

Gee  Spend the day in the pumpking patch and see all I missed!

It was a wet, miserable day.  At least it let up when the train arrived, for the most part, so the passengers didn't get soaked.  

Very glad for my enclosed canopy and propane heater  It was a balmy +70F inside as I listened to the raindrops fall.  It was when I had to go outside to greet the passengers and then restock the patch to replace the pumpkins they took that wasn't so much fun...

Got to meet the owner of the site  the former MOW buildings there  which have been in his family for three generations.  Pretty cool.

I'll be back in the patch tomorrow  and even more glad of my heater, as temps are supposed to drop here overnight.

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by JoeKoh on Saturday, October 18, 2014 6:32 PM

evening

was able to get out a bit today.Saw a rainbow in the west this morning.(we usually see them in the east after an afternoon thunderstorm). Ma nature might freeze us tonight. Heard csx dispatcher trying to get things moving again.Going to see if the Irish have any luck in Florida.Tomorrow it's church and Sunday school.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Saturday, October 18, 2014 6:32 PM

     From that information, it seems we have plains bison.  We'll just call them buffalo, so no one gets them confused with their eastern cousins. Until now, I never knew there was a wood bison.

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Saturday, October 18, 2014 5:05 PM

Murphy Siding
[snipped - PDN] Is there a difference between an American woods type bison and a plains buffalo? . . .

Although I'm no kind of expert or even knowledgeable about this (nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), I believe there is is a difference, though it might be pretty small - down at the genetic level.  My recollection is that there were 4 different species of buffalo/ bison in the US, but the "American plains' type was extirpated/ extinct by the late 1800's, having been used to feed railroad workers and amuse dudes from the east, etc.  General Trexler imported his from Canada - way up in the far reaches of Alberta, as I recall - and they were the woods buffalo type.  I have no knowledge about the provenance of the herd at Yellowstone National Park or elsewere, either.

For more info - apaprently better than mine or my memory - see: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_bison 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison 

http://www.hww.ca/en/species/mammals/north-american-bison.html 

http://www.canadianbison.ca/consumer/Nature/conservation_success.htm 

http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/bison/bison.htm 

http://www.fws.gov/alaska/fisheries/endangered/pdf/wood_bison/faq.pdf 

- Paul North.        

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by Murphy Siding on Saturday, October 18, 2014 9:53 AM

Mookie

Someone will need to tell Murphy what a tourist is...  Mischief

Moo....

 

 ZOOM!   Someone indeed!  That's the sound of that comment going right over my balding head.Stick out tongue

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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, October 18, 2014 9:06 AM

Someone will need to tell Murphy what a tourist is...  Mischief

Moo....

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Posted by Norm48327 on Saturday, October 18, 2014 7:44 AM

Murphy Siding

 

 
Deggesty

Do you have any jackalopes there? I have never seen a live one, but I have seen several mounted for sale in Evanston, Wyoming. Several years ago, as I was on my way to Chicago, a coach attendant said that we should be on the lookout for herds of jackalopes (none showed; perhaps the train frightened them). The man sitting beside me had never heard of them, so I felt obliged to describe them--body like that of a jackrabbit with antlers like those of a pronghorn.

 

 

 

 The Jackalopes all seem to live out near Wall Drug. Wink

 

 

And I'd bet some of the tourists believe they are real. Wink

Norm


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Posted by Mookie on Saturday, October 18, 2014 5:51 AM

We had one wander into town many, many years ago.  It ended up mounted on the wall of a popular steak house.  Guess it scared all the rest into not wandering into our town! 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, October 17, 2014 10:21 PM

Deggesty

Do you have any jackalopes there? I have never seen a live one, but I have seen several mounted for sale in Evanston, Wyoming. Several years ago, as I was on my way to Chicago, a coach attendant said that we should be on the lookout for herds of jackalopes (none showed; perhaps the train frightened them). The man sitting beside me had never heard of them, so I felt obliged to describe them--body like that of a jackrabbit with antlers like those of a pronghorn.

 

 The Jackalopes all seem to live out near Wall Drug. Wink

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, October 17, 2014 10:13 PM

Murphy Siding

     I don't know that I can recall just exactly how my college professors wore their hair, but there were a few that had buffalo breath.

     I suppose next you're going to tell me that we really don't have antelope either.

     Music Oh give me a home
          where the bison roam
          and the deer and the pronghorn play Music

Nah......I don't think so.....Cowboy

 

Shame on you; it does NOT scan, whereas the original (with its errors--buffalo and antelope) does.

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, October 17, 2014 10:10 PM

Do you have any jackalopes there? I have never seen a live one, but I have seen several mounted for sale in Evanston, Wyoming. Several years ago, as I was on my way to Chicago, a coach attendant said that we should be on the lookout for herds of jackalopes (none showed; perhaps the train frightened them). The man sitting beside me had never heard of them, so I felt obliged to describe them--body like that of a jackrabbit with antlers like those of a pronghorn.

Johnny

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, October 17, 2014 9:42 PM

     I don't know that I can recall just exactly how my college professors wore their hair, but there were a few that had buffalo breath.

     I suppose next you're going to tell me that we really don't have antelope either.

     Music Oh give me a home
          where the bison roam
          and the deer and the pronghorn play Music

Nah......I don't think so.....Cowboy

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Posted by Mookie on Friday, October 17, 2014 9:40 PM

Paul - They used to have a Jack and a Jennie.  They got rid of them many years ago and that park has never been the same for me.  But I did enjoy the elk - which have disappeared.  I think getting this close to cold weather, they have moved the animals around and now the bison that were way out on the horizon are now in pens closer to the "ranch" and the Elk, I hope, are just over the hill in another set of pens we can't see. Maybe a privacy issue for the females?  Or not....

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Posted by Mookie on Friday, October 17, 2014 9:35 PM

My understanding is there are no buffalo in the USA.  They are all bison.  Africa and Asia have the buffalo that part their hair in the middle.  Ours look like they should carry a shotgun and sing for ZZTop and the true buffalo looks like he should be wearing a bowtie and teach @ university.  (you didn't see my college professors!)

Moo....

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, October 17, 2014 9:27 PM

Paul_D_North_Jr

Funny coincidence - one of our Lehigh County parks just a few miles west of us - the Trexler Game Preserve (1,100+ acres, almost 2 square miles) - is well-known for its herd of bison (American woods type) 

- Paul North.    

   

 

  Is there a difference between an American woods type bison and a plains buffalo?  (If you call it a bison in these parts, you're likely to get strung up.  Ditto if you say the word row-day-oh Cowboy)

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Friday, October 17, 2014 8:45 PM

Murphy Siding
 Mookie

Another successful 2.5 hours trackside. 

21 locomotives - 2 of them CSX.  Moving a lot of them around since DE came in with 6 on the headend, headed west.  And a lot of grain moving back and forth.  I heard they are just about done with harvesting in some areas, so this didn't surprise me. 

Went to look at the bison/geese/ducks at a local park.  Couldn't find the Elk but did see a red-tailed hawk sitting on a fence post right in front of Millie's nose.  He didn't seem too concerned about us.  And while I was watching an eastern bluebird on a fence with binoculars, he was watching me thru the other end.  No, Murphy - I had the binoculars, not him! 

Score one for Mookie!

Life is good!  Chilly, but good!  

 Yes, yes.  Tell me more about the bison and the elk in the park.  Are they  usually there, floating along with the geese and ducks? 

Funny coincidence - one of our Lehigh County parks just a few miles west of us - the Trexler Game Preserve (1,100+ acres, almost 2 square miles) - is well-known for its herd of bison (American woods type) and elk (Rocky Mountain type) in their own ranges of several hundred acres that you can drive through, plus a 20-some acre Lehigh Valley Zoo, and a highlight when departing - a genuine ford of the Jordan Creek that you drive through to leave the place.  Unfortunately, no railroad in or next to it, though back in the day a branch of the Reading RR wasn't too far away (that's how General Trexler had the bison and elk shipped in).  See:

http://www.lehighcounty.org/trexlernaturepreserve 

http://www.lehighcounty.org/Community/TrexlerNaturePreserve/PhotoGallery/tabid/1508/Default.aspx - image 8 of 17

http://www.lehighcounty.org/Departments/ParksAndRecreation/OurParks/TrexlerPreserve/tabid/462/Default.aspx 

http://www.lvzoo.org/ 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/trexler-lehigh-county-game-preserve-schnecksville  

A running joke in our family is how (quite) a few years ago we took a camping trip to Michigan (northern part of the lower peninsula) to see elk - of course, we saw none while there (Petoskey area and easterly).  Not only are there elk at the Trexler Game Preserve, but there's a pretty good-sized herd in north-central Pennsylvania, near the town of Benezette (not far from the Buffalo Line and Keating Summit on the ex-PRR/ PC/ ConRail, now NS).   

- Paul North.    

   

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Posted by rvos1979 on Friday, October 17, 2014 7:38 PM
Had my laptop rebuilt last time I was home, was running extremely hot, needed new heat sink grease. Runs cooler and faster now, though he said I'll probably need a new one in about two years........

Unloading in Cherokee, AL, tomorrow, then over towards Memphis for a load of air conditioning units to the Twin Cities. I don't ask questions, I just drive.......

See everyone later.........

Randy Vos

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"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV

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Posted by Mookie on Friday, October 17, 2014 7:10 PM

I still don't know what went wrong, but I think it might have had something to do with either Java or drivers.  Or fat fingers somewhere.  Only Driver I want to mess with sits downstairs and is connected to a tv a lot of the time. 

Even our iPad went haywire today.  It must be an electronic virus that is airborne!  iPad was something to do with the battery and was corrected with plugging it in for a couple of minutes. 

Norm - my usual fix-it-place-we-do-house calls said it would be 3 weeks before he could get to my problem and I would have to bring the whole studio puter to him.  (When pigs and BNSF fly!)  So I called a little known place that looked pretty competent on paper and they were here in about 2 hours.  Took that 12 year old looking young man about 20 min and it was all fixed! 

My now new fix-it-and-make-house calls-place.....

 

 

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