Ooops!

Terry read in the paper that the Photography Club, meeting over at the Wellsboro Library this evening, was to have a speaker who would talk about The Wolves of Yellowstone. Having some interest in photography, Yellowstone and wolves it sounded interesting so off we went after dinner.

The meeting was supposed to start at 7 PM and we arrived ten minutes early to find a speaker already making a presentation...about woodworking. He talked about how he made pine trees out of single billets of wood, inlaid trees, birds and turtles into the backs of plank chairs and deacons' benches and the making of several other items from his shop. I found this all very interesting. Then his partner talked about her working with wool and leather to make rustic clothing for reenactors, rendezvous, and pow-wows. Yet another topic of interest to me.

Needless to say we were at the wrong club meeting! Turns out these folks were from the Wellsboro Arts Club. Talk about serendipity! I spoke with the craftsman and his lady afterwards and they invited me to their workshop. That's an invitaion I will definitely accept once the Dickens Christmas weekend is over. (He's trying to produce another hundred or so trees in the next three weeks so he can sell them--and the four hundred or so he has in stock--at that event.

The Photography Club? That meeting is on the night of November 13. So between that and the Tiadaghton Audubon Society dinner meeting on the 14th our week is pretty well planned.

Best laid plans

Well, I was supposed to be heading up to the Bolt Hole at this hour, but…. The truck’s electrical system has been acting a bit strange lately.

Four weeks ago, while out for a Thursday morning bird walk, Gary and I got caught in the rain. We opted to sit it out in the truck and I periodically turned the wipers on to look out. Eventually the battery died. Gary jumped me with his truck and I drove back to the house without a hitch. It was a thirty-forty minute drive and the battery charged nicely, thank you. The truck has been working well since then including several short trips to Wellsboro and one long trip up to the Bolt Hole and back (500 miles).

Until today. This morning I drove down to get the papers and do a little shopping at Wally-World. The truck ran fine and started right up at home and in the parking lot. Then I stopped to fill the gas tank. Once filled, the truck would not start. All I got was a horrible clicking sound which could be starter, could be alternator, or could be battery. I got a jump start from another gas customer and drove home.

It was only a short drive so, while the battery did charge slightly, it did not have enough juice to start the truck once I was in the driveway. I hooked the battery charger up and in a few hours had a full charge. My charger can also test the alternator. That said there was a fault and the alternator might be in need of service.

Now, I would have driven up to the Bolt Hole (250 miles) with little concern IF I didn’t know about the alternator. In fact I contemplated doing just that and getting a new battery at the Wal-Mart up there. But, I have had a vehicle’s alternator fail on me before while driving to the Bolt Hole. It is not an experience I wish to repeat. Plus, Thursday night four of us are driving to Quebec to go fishing. That’s a long haul in the middle of the night and 100 mile of secluded dirt road at the end. I do NOT want to have the truck die along the way.

So, I’ll be getting up early tomorrow to call the local mechanic (the same one who just did the oil change and the fuel and air filter changes on Friday) to see if he can squeeze me in to have a look-see at the alternator.

[I should mention that the truck is a 2000 Silverado with nearly 150,000 miles. Both the battery and the alternator are originals. It's not surprising that they should begin to show their age--but the timing is damned inconvenient.]

The Law of Unintended Consequences

It’s events like this that should make people stop and think before they leap to “do something for the environment.” Seems all too often those acts come back to bite you in the a**.

It took only days to create what was touted as the world's largest artificial reef in 1972, when a well-intentioned group dumped hundreds of thousands of old tires into the ocean. Now divers expect to spend years hauling them to the surface.

The tires turned out to be a reef killer, turning a swath of ocean floor the size of 31 football fields into a dead zone.

Military crews began retrieving the tires this week from about 70 feet underwater, where they had broken loose from bundles and wedged along a natural reef. As of Thursday, they had pulled up about 1,600 of the estimated 700,000 tires that must be hauled to the surface.

The idea was sound but the materials and method of implementation—well, not so good.

The dumping of nearly 2 million tires began in 1972 with much fanfare by a group called Broward Artificial Reef Inc., which had the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, support from Goodyear and help from hordes of volunteer boaters.

The project was intended to attract a rich variety of marine life while disposing of tires that were clogging landfills.

But hurricanes, tropical storms and cold fronts created wave action that loosened the tires and moved them around, killing part of one of three coral reefs off Fort Lauderdale, said Broward County marine biologist Kenneth Banks. Hundreds of tires have also washed up on beaches over the years.

If left unchecked, the tires could kill acres of coral and eventually start destroying other nearby reefs.

Divers from the Army, Navy and Coast Guard are cleaning up the mess, which already has proven to be much trickier than making it. The teams have been hampered by thunderstorms, wind-whipped waves and a balky crane that brought operations to a halt Thursday.

Weather permitting, divers will spend the summer months for the next three years bringing up the 700,000 tires while leaving behind the ones that seem to have remained in place — at least for now.

The tires will be trucked to a Georgia facility where they will be burned to power a paper recycling plant at a cost to Florida of $2 million.

I read last week about how one New Jersey shore-town has forbidden digging in the sand beyond a few inches. Sand replenishment activity has brought unexploded ordinance to the Jersey Shore.

Enjoy your summer.