Greetings from Alaska

[Bearcub]

If he is who I think he is we met in passing but have a lot of the same friends

Bethel is a small town of 5000-6000people 400 miles from the nearest road

You tend to either meet or at least know the same people especially if you have similar interests

And I think I mis-remembered his first name

Tom, not Bob

I guess we will see

Michael

LOL

I missed the picture of the store

Too funny

Looks like down on the panhandle somewhere

Or kind of looks like Seward...

???

 

[hawkins111]

Tom Hawkins it is. I was at the airport until 96. Now I'm the Toyostove guy that fixes chainsaws on the side. Michael, whats your last name?

 

[Bearcub]

Tom Hawkins it is. I was at the airport until 96. Now I'm the Toyostove guy that fixes chainsaws on the side. Michael, whats your last name?

Hello Tom

Michael Brown

We were introduced a time or two over the years but I certainly don't expect you to remember

I came to Bethel following my wife who was a commission corps nurse officer at YKHC

I ended up working for LKSD most of my 8 years there and ran with Ross Boring, Nate Tabor, Richard Taylor, etc

Just ask Rafe about the guy who took him to the "Y" about a dozen times his first season before the kings finally rolled in and he caught one

To this day he thinks it was a cruel "new guy in Bethel" hazing thing

Not sure how you and I never hooked up; so many of the same friends and interests

Your duck camp at Piss Me Off Lake was legendary...

I remember my first taste of "river logging"

We went to J R and Mary Krevans' hot dog camp and while we were out J R decided to cut some drifts

I had never seen a chainsaw operated half submerged

The first time he stuck the bar half way down into the mud and sand bottom I just about lost it

The spray went everywhere and the chain was instantly dull as a butter knife

He just kept cutting though

Then later on I saw Bev and John do it right and cut em up and raft em down

Awesome

Great to hear from you

Michael

 

[showrguy]

missedbass and Gypo

Username is just the front half of my email address and it just stands for the 3 of us Browns (my last name) that were here when I got the email address

No brown bears involved

Never killed a brown bear up here

Got lots of those big ugly meeses going through the property though

We have had two back to back record setting mild winters so the moose kill by trains and vehicles is way down because the moose were able to travel with ease without using roads and railroad tracks

The Alaska Railroad normally kills dozens and dozens each year when the snow is deep because they won't stay off the tracks

Numbers are way up, in my area anyway

I have had a number of run ins with them on my bike in the last few months

They hurt way more people each year up here than bears ever thought of

I cringe when tourists walk up to a mom and calf

Mad mojo

Your not the guy/family from Alaska they made that stupid "reality" show about are ya ???
If so, I'd like to punch you in the head for having so many stupid kids !!!
lol

 

[Bearcub]

Your not the guy/family from Alaska they made that stupid "reality" show about are ya ???
If so, I'd like to punch you in the head for having so many stupid kids !!!
lol

I am sorry

You will have to be more specific

WHICH stupid Alaska reality show?

There are so many

Each more embarrassing than the last

 

[showrguy]

I am sorry

You will have to be more specific

WHICH stupid Alaska reality show?

There are so many

Each more embarrassing than the last

Haaaa,
I think it might be called "Alaska bush people" or something like that...
I do know their names are The Brown Family...
They have pending charges against em from the state, for fraud.............. go figure ???
Some of the dumbest chitt I've ever seen on TV......

 

[AKDoug]

Greetings from Talkeetna. I'm the Stihl dealer up here. I worked in Bethel in '90 or '91 (I can't remember which) surveying native allotments all the way from Akiachak all the way down to Napaskiak.

 

[hawkins111]

You must have done a fine job on Rafe, he is a fishing guide these days. Ross Boring just left us and moved back home to Montana. Rafe just finished with my splitter and has all his wood stacked. When you are cutting in the water, it's one bar per trip. Good to hear from you.

 

[Bearcub]

Haaaa,
I think it might be called "Alaska bush people" or something like that...
I do know their names are The Brown Family...
They have pending charges against em from the state, for fraud.............. go figure ???
Some of the dumbest chitt I've ever seen on TV......

Yeah pretty sad

Charged with fraud for applying for the permanent fund dividend because they aren't Alaska citizens apparently

The show is an embarrassment

I just hope people realize it's totally staged just like most of the rest of that type of garbage

And no, they are no relation to me thank God

 

[Bearcub]

Greetings from Talkeetna. I'm the Stihl dealer up here. I worked in Bethel in '90 or '91 (I can't remember which) surveying native allotments all the way from Akiachak all the way down to Napaskiak.

Hey AKDoug

Sounds like you traveled the Kusko some

Good on ya

I have seen your name and avatar on another forum

Just can't remember which one

I'll stop by next time I am up that way

Always up for checking out a new shop

I have put off culling some of the cottonwoods on our property for so long that I am about ready to break down and buy something with a 20" bar and some muscle

Or at least that's what I am telling the missus

She's the one that said they are pretty and green so don't cut them down

Now they are choking out the birch and I can't have that

Most worthless tree in the world

Thanks again for the howdy

Michael

 

[AKDoug]

I have seen your name and avatar on another forum

Alaska Outdoors Directly most likely, otherwise it might have been on some of the gun forums.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I am sorry

You will have to be more specific

WHICH stupid Alaska reality show?

There are so many

Each more embarrassing than the last

Tell me about it. My 85ish yr old grandmother who lives in Maine watches most of them and it's been pretty much impossible convincing her that those shows are mostly garbage.

I guess maybe one good thing they have done is shown most folks we don't all drive sled dogs and live in igloos...

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Poplar makes decent lumber. We mill ALOT of it each week for trailer decks, house siding, furniture, interior trim, etc... I'd say more than spruce even.

Also isn't a terrible firewood. We heat the shop with it, I heat my house with it. Sell a fair amount too, maybe 100 ish cords a year.

Yeah I realize it doesn't compare to most "real" hardwoods Outside, but I never have understood the thought that it's "junk".

 

[Gypo Logger]

Does anyone watch the Michelle Oakley Yukon vet show?
John

 

[Bearcub]

Poplar makes decent lumber. We mill ALOT of it each week for trailer decks, house siding, furniture, interior trim, etc... I'd say more than spruce even.

Also isn't a terrible firewood. We heat the shop with it, I heat my house with it. Sell a fair amount too, maybe 100 ish cords a year.

Yeah I realize it doesn't compare to most "real" hardwoods Outside, but I never have understood the thought that it's "junk".

I was reading up on it the other day and was very surprised that it is used for lumber, just as you indicate

When it burns it always seems to me to smell like a dog wet on it first

I can't be around a campfire if someone is burning cottonwood

Maybe I better quit hauling it to the wood lot and dumping it

Guess I could buck it and split it and see if somebody wants to buy it

At least it would be excercise

 

[Bearcub]

Does anyone watch the Michelle Oakley Yukon vet show?
John

My wife likes that show a lot

 

[Gypo Logger]

My wife likes that show a lot

Michelle lives closeby here and Im good friends with the family. The Nat Geo show is viewed in 130 some odd countries.
Her FIL was just here this morning. How's that for some name dropping? Lol

 

[AKDoug]

Poplar makes decent lumber. We mill ALOT of it each week for trailer decks, house siding, furniture, interior trim, etc... I'd say more than spruce even.

Also isn't a terrible firewood. We heat the shop with it, I heat my house with it. Sell a fair amount too, maybe 100 ish cords a year.

Yeah I realize it doesn't compare to most "real" hardwoods Outside, but I never have understood the thought that it's "junk".

I"ll keep arguing this It's only roughly (depending on the chart you use) 60% the btu's of alaskan birch. That means that I'd have to burn 50 cords of cottonwood to equal the 30 cords of birch. That's why I say it's a crappy firewood and a wast of money.

 

[missedbass]

LOL

I missed the picture of the store

Too funny

Looks like down on the panhandle somewhere

Or kind of looks like Seward...

???

It was in Seward.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I"ll keep arguing this It's only roughly (depending on the chart you use) 60% the btu's of alaskan birch. That means that I'd have to burn 50 cords of cottonwood to equal the 30 cords of birch. That's why I say it's a crappy firewood and a wast of money.

See for us... we sell the good stuff and burn the less desirable stuff. Also generally in order to get "the good stuff" we have to take everything.
Right now I've got easily 400 cords of poplar in logs at the shop and 2 log decks. Birch... maybe 200.

The poplar is much faster to turn to firewood. It's straight, cuts and splits nice. Makes nice lumber too.

During the winter w burn all the scraps, trash, and the "good" stuff is the poplar. Sometimes rotten birch too as I don't send that out to customers.

Shop Stove is a ~7ft length of 48" AK pipeline, it's not too fussy.

At home I mix birch and poplar because I have a smaller stove (blaze king) and no one is around to keep feeding it.

I'm not going to argue that birch isn't a higher BTU wood, as it for sure it is.