The eating area was long picnic tables under tarps. A small fire was smoldering in the center fire ring and occasionally the faint breeze blew the smoke my way. At the next table I overheard part of an old couple's conversation: "He is 65 and in debt. She is 65 and in debt. We may have a small place but its paid for."
After lunch was over the expo held several demonstrations. Before the demonstrations started the announcer gave away several floating beer coolers. One cooler went to the oldest audience member: a man of 75. The other cooler was given to whoever had traveled from the farthest away. The winner was a couple from southern England.
The first demonstration was by the local college (Flathead Valley Community College: FVCC) logging sports team. Yes, such a thing exists. They travel around the NW U.S. competing with other college teams in logging events.
The school team was split in two teams, and had extra members of area natives who attend other schools, and even a couple of professionals who have competed on ESPN. A couple sitting near me had a daughter on the team who had a scholorship to be on the team. An outdoorsy girl they said she started riding horses at 4 yrs old. She was the woman who competed against the guys in the log splitting competition.
The announcer gave background on the challenges and explained their roots in logging practices of old and how the challenges grew out of showing off logging skills. That made the challenges more interesting, rather than it being a mindless game.
The grandstand was divided in half to holler and clap for their team. I was on the green team. The green team won most of the challenges. Go team!
The teams seemed to be equally male and female. Yes, a few women one wouldn't want to get in a fight with, but surprisingly most women weren't muscular. One girl looked to be barely 100 lbs. Several women looked really nice in their tight fitting jeans!
Either those tight fitting jeans were slowing some women down, else they were going to split those jeans during the competitions!One challenge was to cut through a log using a crosscut saw. The green team was male and the blue team was female. The men won, but I heard a murmurings from a few women in the green team crowd around me that the men's log already had a cut started. I noticed the logs were not the same diameter to begin with and think the cut was a way to make the diameter of both team's logs the same.
There were more crosscut competitions between women teams, and also between mixed sexed teams. The green team usually won.
There was a race to the top of two very tall poles using a belt and shoes with spikes. One guy was a professional so they had his requirement to go the top and then back to the ground, while the other guy only had to go to the top. The pro won. Having to go back down didn't take long as he was almost in free fall going down. A person has to have very strong legs and arms to compete in this challenge!
A competition throwing a two-headed ax, which grew out of how the loggers moved equipment from tree to tree in the old days.
One competition between two women was to stand with one hand on the end of long logs, which were leaning over a very large log - similar to a see-saw. At "go!" they grabbed their chainsaws and raced to the other end of the log, then ran up and along the log to the end, started their chainsaws, cut through the log, then raced back down and then back to the end of the log where they originally started. The barely 100 lb girl won, and it appeared she took her time walking back down the log to give the other girl a chance. The announcer said this was one of the few logging events where the women compete against the men, with the women doing well as the event requires speed and balancing over strength.
A male/female crosscut team competed against a guy using a chainsaw to cut through logs. The teams finished in a dead heat but most people were cheering the crosscut team on.
There were a number of ax chopping challenges.
- guys chopping through standing logs (representing trees)
- a female student, two male students, and a pro chopping through logs they stood on (all wore steel toe covers!). The announcer counted from 1 to 33. At "3" the woman started cutting, at "13" one male student, at "23" the other male student, at "33" the pro. The announcer stopped first at "20" to complain he had a dry throat, then again at "30". Still the pro won as he went through the log like nothing. Then "23" finished next, then the woman just beat out the last guy. The crowd was cheering the woman on at the end.
- lastly a pro demonstrated "spring board" cutting. This is how the loggers would "climb" a tree to get where the large diameter trees were narrow enough to cut with a crosscut saw. He would chop a notch in the tree trunk and then place a board in the notch. He would climb up and stand on the board to chop another notch higher up the tree, climb up on that board now 8 or more feet off the ground to chop the log (tree) down. Chop! Chop! Chop! and he was done. Amazing! The board he stood on looked like it would fall out of the log any minute as the guy chopped hard and fast against the log and bounced out on the springboard.
Then they demonstrated how 70% of western Montana forests are logged today in what they call "mechanical logging". One guy operated a clipper, which is a machine on tracks and has a long arm that grabs the tree near the bottom, then has a saw that cuts through the tree. The clipper hold the tree upright to then move it over to be laid down on a pile.
The skidder is next. This large rubber tired machine then takes the pile of cut trees and drags them over to the harvester. The harvester is a long cutting machine. Its "arm" picks up the trees one at a time and puts them on the machine which moves the tree back and forth lengthwise to determine its length and width. It cuts off all the branches, then cuts the trunk into lengths which a lever ejects from the machine onto the ground.
Another machine, the "grabber" I think it's called, takes the trailer part of the logging truck & trailer off the back of the truck and hooks it up to the truck. Then it grabs a bunch of logs from the ground and loads them on the truck. All the manpower needed is a guy for each machine. The machines all total about one million dollars.
Then they demonstrated a horse team that used to do the work the skidder now does. Two large beautiful horses with a guy on a platform over two large wheels. Under the platform is a hook that hooked onto a cable or chain wrapped around several large long logs. He demonstrated the various ways he has the horses team hook up to the logs, and how they could pull the logs. Impressive. He really had the horses trained well as they did everything they were suppose to based on his verbal commands.
Lastly the forest service showed off a 9 mule pack train. They showed a variety of items the mules carry and how they are carried. Mule trains are used where motorized vehicles are not allowed in the national forests.
After the demonstration was over I went on the .7 mile walking tour through the forest. They had an exhibit on fish and water insects next to the mountain stream. Another exhibit showed barred and great horned owls along with a red tailed hawk. Another exhibit was on insects that kill trees. At an exhibit showing tree rings I got a free tree. The tree was 3 inches tall and was an engelmann spruce. Now if my cattle don't eat it before it grows up!
Earlier I had noticed two guys and a girl. They all looked to be around 20. The fat guy was the third wheel. The girl wore the fashionable low rider jeans. They were tight and it appeared the only thing keeping them from falling down were the suspenders she wore. Later in the day when it was warmer she no longer wore the suspenders and the jeans were still staying up - somehow.
Earlier in the grandstand, while waiting for the demonstrations to start a middle aged man spilled his cup of ice (I didn't see any pop spilled). In the row below was another woman with low rise jeans and bare skin between the jeans and her blouse. It appears she felt the ice against her skin. She picked a few ice cubes off her and handed it back to him. I wonder if he got distracted by her and that caused him to knock his cup of ice over?
On the way home I saw the native plant nursery in the area was open. It is only open on weekends. Well, I thought it was open. The owner was closing for the day and was rolling down and tieing the sides of her greenhouse. All these years and I never have been in this nursery. Yes, she does sell serviceberry bushes so I plan to go back next weekend and check out what she sells and hopefully buy some more serviceberry bushes. While huckleberries are the "in" berry out here, she said her husband agrees with me in my preference for serviceberries.
Two partridges ran from my back door as I rode up the driveway. I didn't find any signs of mischief.
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