This was the Lodge in which we stayed about ten miles
north of Broken Bow the morning after THE Electric storm of the month. |
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Oh yes and a tornado that passed by not far
to the south. That's a TV reporter on the weather channel with a wrecked
house behind him. |
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and this was the scene from our lodge during said
storm. Just a little flash of lightning... |
...followed by this!! |
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The local creeks are still high from the previous
nights rain. |
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In downtown, there were sights to be seen... |
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such as cars for sale with a feature made of their
fuel (gas) consumption. Is the US of A finally accepting the reality of
the finite supply of petroleum on our little planet? I hope so. |
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Possibly more typical of a bygone era |
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School of Dance, no less. |
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No 18 wheelers? How many people want to take their 18
wheeler to a car wash? All mod
cons... |
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This is one of the areas most hated
beasties, an Armadillo. If it gets into your garden, its goodbye plants.
I don't know what happened to this one, it was just sort of dead on the
road (but not squashed) |
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The following evening was just calm and gorgeous. |
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Terry had connections to the lumber industry and had
arranged a trip into the woods to see trees being 'harvested' for want
of a better word. The groanching noises that
came from underneath made me think that we would have to take our shoes
and socks off to get across! |
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| These massive trucks somehow weave their way through
the huge forest plantations to collect their loads of pine. Including
crossing creeks like the one shown on the left which gave our four wheel
drive vehicle a hard time. |
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There was a lot of investment in specialised
machinery to make the tree harvesting a quick and efficient operation.
This beast picked up a severed trunk and ran it through its 'claws'
backward and forward to remove all the small branches. |
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Four vehicles in all are involved, in no time at all,
the truck is fully loaded with (I think) 18 tons of freshly cut pine
ready for the sawmills. It took about 2 hours maximum from being a
growing tree to arriving at the sawmill. Smaller
stuff was shredded for cardboard. |
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Another site saw this flailing chain beastie removing
side shoots and branches by a different method. |
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One of our guides of the day. |
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Now this is a very expensive
sophisticated piece of kit. It presents itself to a chosen tree, clamps
it lovingly, and then cuts through its trunk in three seconds flat using
a rather sharp toothed blade rotating at 2500 rpm! |
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In seconds, it is on its way to one of the other
machines shown above for a haircut and then stacking.
I was pleased to see that all the timber cut in this way
is replaced by new trees in due course.
Sustainable forestry.
Here is a real bit of forest near Beavers Bend. |
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Playtime followed when terry introduced me to Marion
who gave me the chance to explore the forests of Oklahoma on a four
wheeler powered by a powerful 600 cc engine. We blokes never grow up, do
we? |
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Into the thick of it we went with the
intention of crossing this creek. However, it was so full of water that
we decided it might not have been a good idea. Shame, it looked
'challenging!'
This is the last river in Oklahoma to
run its own course with no intervention by man. |
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Marion, right, and his two brothers who also joined
in the fun on their machine. Thank you guys for a great day. |
| Our holiday was all but done, we had
some very nice family time with Jeans relations but then had to head
home via Dallas Airport. Best of all, we were upgraded by B.A. to Club
Class on the way home! Thank you very much British Airways. Fillet steak
at 38,000 feet. Oh Boy! |
