Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Unknown, Chugwater Wyoming

Churches of the West: Unknown, Chugwater Wyoming:

Unknown, Chugwater Wyoming

This is a church that has been converted into the Chugwater Branch Library, a branch of the Platte County Library, in Chugwater Wyoming.  I'm not familiar with the history of the former church, which retains its cross.

Best Posts of the Week of September 1, 2019.

The best posts of the week of September 1, 2019.

The Past as Hope for the Present and Future

Earlier this past week I posted this item on the Feast Day of St. Monica of Hippo.

Today is the Feast of Saint Monica of Hippo.

She was a Catholic Berber, married to a Roman Pagan, in North Africa. Devout throughout her life, she struggled with a dissolute difficult husband who none the less held her in respect.  Mother to three sons and a daughter, one of the sons was Augustine, who himself lived a life that caused her endless distress.

She followed him to Rome when he left for their, pursing a career in the law.  He converted to Christianity there, prior to her death at age 55. After her death, he would take holy orders, and rise to become St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest Fathers of the Church.

That's the second item I've posted here on an event that occurred in the 380s.  This will be the third.  St. Monica died in 387.

The first item was this one:

Vae victis

Woe to the Vanquished

Brennus

Brennus statement, made as a Gallic conqueror, is true in more sense than one, not as a brazen command upon the defeated, but as an existential fact.

Of course, in keeping with the nature of fate, which we've had some quotes on recently, while Brennus sacked Roman and generally acted like a bady, his troops came down with the trots in the city and the Romans ended up tossing him and followers out rather effectively somewhat later.  That may say about as much on this topic as the quote itself.

Students of history may recall both, but recalling St. Monica is much more likely.  And what they may also recall is that her famous son wrote The City of God to make, in part, the point that earthly cities, and order, would rise and fall, but the City of God would not and was the Christians only true home.

A student of history would also know, of course, that Rome and the world overcame those horrible days when people like Brennus sacked a civilized city with rapine delight.  But in the 380s it probably didn't look like that was likely to most people.

Which, by extension, would suggest that the depths society falls into at any age likewise need not cause long term despair.  The City of God is as relevant as ever.

Walmart ceases to sell certain ammunition and hanguns. . . .

Jenny on the job: Gets her beauty sleep.

As we have been recently, we revisit Jenny on the job (not Jenny from the Block. . . or maybe they're the same), and the advice given to her, or by way of her example, from the U.S. Public Health Service.

And this advice is solid, and perhaps more applicable today than ever.

Get some sleep.

Getting sleep is vital to health and mental health.  Acclimating to a lack of sleep increases your risk of disease, depression and early death.

They knew that then, and its been very much proven in more recent years.

The 2020 Election, Part 2

1919 Motor Transport Convoy,

The Long Weekend

Poster Saturday. The M-1 does my talking. . .

Poster Saturday. The M-1 does my talking. . .

This World War Two poster is one of those which remains popular today, but for some reason we rarely see the entire poster.  This poster was one of many that was designed to relate industrial production directly to the war effort, in this case the production of ammunition.

The central feature of the poster, of course, is an infantryman with his M1 Garand.  The M1 had been adopted in the 1930s after the culmination of an Army program to replace bolt action rifles with a semi automatic rifle.  Work on semi automatic rifles for this purpose actually commenced in 1919 with the first prototype of John C. Garand's rifle being made in a very introductory stage in the 1920s.  The rifle was adopted in 1936 with the first production models being made in 1937, but not before a civilian designed competitor, the Johnson, made a final run at the Garand in the late 1930s.

The rifle had some early teething problems and critics but rapidly proved itself to be vastly superior to any other rifle used by any other combatant.  By the time this poster was issued it had achieved lasting fame.

The Long Weekend

Labor Day is the traditional end of summer in the U.S., and its of course a three day weekend for most folks, although not those who work in stores and the like.

It's also the opener for Blue Grouse and Dove in Wyoming.  I go every year, being pretty much as subsistence on those sorts of things as circumstances, time and my spouse will allow.

If this sounds like a mere rhetorical flourish type of introduction, it isn't.  I truly and very seriously believe that a lot of the problems the modern world faces is that the Western world has forgotten what we are, which is a hunting species.  That doesn't diminish any of our other accomplishments, but nearly all of our social problems, and most of our problems are social problems, stem from the slow, and it was very, very slow, change from most families, and again it was families, putting dinner on the table through the labor of hunters, which includes the subset of fish hunters, i.e, fishermen.*  As we've set out in our Third Law of Human Behavior, there's a lot going on here.  Perhaps in a greater sense, the odd subtitle of a former very good, and now defunct, outdoor blog. Eat More Brook Trout, which was "Save the West. . .Kill a Brookie", is not only true, but deserving of global application.

Anyhow, the opening of the hunting seasons on Wyoming is September 1, which is always coincident with Labor Day weekend.  And that's a long weekend for most of us.

This three day weekend turned out to truly be a long weekend, in more ways than one.

The Trek

The dog. This is our bird dog, and he's at this point at about 8,000 feet in elevation after hiking about 1.5 miles or so.  All on public land.

I don't really recall how young I was when I first went blue grouse hunting, but I was fairly young.  It was well before I was old enough to drive.

On that occasion, an oral surgeon friend of my fathers asked if we'd like to go with him.  That oral surgeon was a dedicated hunter in the way that I am now and have been ever since I was old enough to drive.  I really was before then, but being able to drive, in the West, means a lot.

My father hunted, but when I was young, and probably because I was young, he didn't hunt everything you could.  When I was a kid he never bought a big game license, although he started to buy deer and antelope licenses when I was old enough to hunt them.  He always went for sage chickens, however, and waterfowl.  We hunted ducks a lot.  He was a very dedicated fisherman, and I think he preferred fishing, but not ice fishing, to hunting, although he liked both.  I'm the other way around.

Anyhow, at this time, which was likely around 1973 or so, the oral surgeon, asked if we'd like to go blue grouse hunting. We did. It involved a trip with his old style Ford Bronco that was really a Jeep trail type of thing.  Our 2x4 pickup could not have done it.  We crawled all over the Laramie Range and ended up back on a near extension of it, which is where we got into the birds. After that, we went every year thereafter, limited however to where we could go with a 2x4 pickup.

When I was old enough to drive I'd go with my friends or by myself after school.  I've never been shy about going hunting or fishing alone, although I've been warned repeatedly that I'd get hurt doing that. This will be mentioned again below.  At any rate, in my college days I started to go with my good friend Jeff.  And at that point, we started going into a remote part of the Laramie Range.

I'm not sure looking back, but I think he was the one who suggested the remote location.  I've been back every year since, and if it seems odd that I haven't mentioned him in this context, that's because he moved, first to Denver, and then to Cheyenne.  It's a really far trek for him.

But it's not a minor one for me.

Up until my 40s, the route in was by road, and then by foot.  But you could drive really easily to a drop off point. The road part of this was on an improved, bladed, road before the two track, and quite frankly the road is a stock trail.**  This is significant as the ability to close a stock trail to members of the general public was never even remotely conceived of at that time.  But a stock trail is, where it crosses private land, really only open for livestock.

At some point in time the rancher closed the road, but he continued to allow fishermen on. As I do understand the difference between private and public land, I didn't begrudge him that and I still don't.  Indeed, I'm grateful he allows fishermen on.   And I'm one of those people who are generally fine with there being less roads in the world.  But this did have the impact of closing, to vehicle traffic, a lot of access points to public land.

But not completely.

Being hugely road familiar, I realized I could still get there, on the back roads.  With a lot of effort.

That effort, the first time I tried it, involved a bicycle.  I drove to where I had to stop, as a practical matter, and rode for miles in on my old Trek Mountain Bike.  It would have been easier, frankly, with horses, and while I have access to horses, and had a good horse at that time, those horses weren't trained to gun fire and picking them up would have involved an additional 100 miles by the time I was done.  So mountain bike it was.

And then I acquired a Jeep.

I don't have a "four wheeler" or any kind of ATV and frankly I don't really approve of them.  I don't want one. But a Jeep is a car and I guess I'm willing to accommodate that much.  So with the Jeep, I could safely travel in on  the really rough, steep, narrow, bad roads and make it to the jump off point, while never trespassing on private land.

In the meantime, the ranch had become part of a Hunters Management Area, in which the rancher granted access to big game hunters. Again, I appreciate that. But it never included bird hunters.  I discussions with various area wardens later on, the Game & Fish just had never asked.  That doesn't mean that the rancher would have said yes if they had.  But the bird hunters, like myself, were just left out from the onset.

When it first was the HMA, I spoke to the rancher and got written permission for a couple of years. Eventually, however, he was of the opinion, or at least stated that he was, that maybe he couldn't do that as it was all in the hands of the Game & Fish.  So Jeeping it in was the alternative.

I've done that now for three years running.

The Game Warden

I've always been s strong supporter of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.  Indeed, when I was young I seriously thought of becoming a Game Warden or a Game Biologist with the department, with the warden position being the more sought after one.  They're outdoors all day in the wilds, and that strongly appeals to me.

It might, I'd note, appeal to me very inaccurately.   I've never done their job.  Maybe its nothing like what I imagine it to be, but then I wouldn't know.

I do know that we seem to cycle through game wardens fairly rapidly anymore.  This wasn't always the case.  We used to have the same game wardens in the area for years and years. But this is no longer true.  Now we tend to have young game wardens and most of the game wardens seem to be young.

This is significant for a variety of reasons. When I see an occupation occupied by the young, that means its not occupied by the older, and usually there's a reason for that.  Sometimes its the physicality of the occupation.  Other times its that the job features low pay.  Sometimes its the conditions of the job, which may have changed over the years. And sometimes its societal, in that occupying a job, for a variety of reason, doesn't appeal to people in one generation the way it did to a prior one.

Indeed, the few former employees of the game and fish I've known, and the one then current one, held pretty nuanced views on their employment.  The few former ones I have known were critical of their former employer in a really non specific vague way.  I have no idea what their complaints were, other than that they existed.  The one who was then working for the department had the complaint that being a game warden meant that he wasn't able to get out and enjoy the outdoors.  Indeed, he recommended that a person who loves the outdoors not become a game warden, but take up some other "good paying job" that "let's them get outdoors".

The problem with that statement ist hat "good paying jobs" that "let you get outdoors" largely don't exist in the modern world.  Increasingly in the modern world, good paying jobs put you in a steel and glass giant shipping container on 16th Street in Denver where you get to see the layers of pollutants separate each other out depending upon the day.  In our un-directed search for progress, we've made some odd progressions.

At any rate, as noted, I've generally held the Game and Fish and its game wardens in high regard.  Indeed, while I've never been a game warden, I once considered becoming one.  The thought first occurred to me when I was graduating with my undergraduate degree in geology.  There were no geology jobs to be had with a bachelors degree, but the Game and Fish didn't require masters or doctorates for game wardens, and I thought about applying to take the warden's exam.  I started to study for it, and then thought if I was going to do that I ought to pick up a degree in biology or wildlife management.  Trying that was one of my three options at the time, the other two being law school or a masters degree in geology.  I applied to the latter two not really thinking I'd be admitted anywhere, but as luck would have it I was admitted to the University of Idaho for geology, to my surprise, and the University of Wyoming's law school, the only law school I'd put in for.  I took that latter path, the future for geologist at the time looking fairly bleak.

Anyhow, even shortly after I graduated from law school I pondered the Game and Fish adn I took the warden's exam and passed it.  I was then offered a summer job, but I turned it down, being into a legal career at that time by over a year and on the verge of getting married.

So, suffice it to say, I don't dislike the Game and Fish or its wardens at all. Quite the contrary.

In recent years, when on the blue grouse expedition mentioned above, I've encountered the same warden twice telephonically, and then run into him sage grouse hunting a couple of weeks thereafter.  He was a super nice young man and in regard to the blue grouse expedition, he was very enthusiastic about how I'd gone in.  I offered to come into the office to show him the map, and he said there was no reason at all to do that, and that the next year I should just leave something in the window to show how I'd gotten there.  I think he appreciated that somebody would go to so much effort.

This year I did what the warden last year told me to do, left a note in the window.  But I didn't encounter a warden until the way out.

And he didn't believe me.

Not only did he not believe me, this very young warden called me a liar, in so many words.

I lead him out on the road I cam came in on, learning in the process that a 4x4 pickup truck could do it, to my surprise.  I stopped after I lead him out, which is what I did, which probably took about two hours or so to accomplish.  At that point he was somewhat sheepish and much nicer, but he never apologized.  He stated that part of the reason he hadn't believed me is that I'd gone to so much effort just to hunt blue grouse.

I don't know what to make of it, but I don't like it.  In an age in which a lot of hunters seem glued to ATVs, I'm not, and I don't even own one.  If it was possible, I'd frankly ride a horse in, which maybe next year I'll go.  But to get this treatment simply for putting in the effort really strikes me the wrong way.

And in saying that, I'm one of the supporters of the Game and Fish.  Not everyone is.  A long time friend of mine who has similar sporting views to me clearly is not, and he had a bad encounter with another young warden last year that really left a sour taste in his mouth (I've encountered the same one two years ago and she was very helpful to me, even allowing me to borrow her fairly untrained retriever to retrieve a goose).

Personal encounters mean a lot.  Maybe that's the lesson to learn here. Two encounters with the same super crabby policeman who ought to retire, both for minor traffic matters, has left me sympathetic with urbanites who complain about the police.  If you can't interact with the public without calling them a liar, you are probably in the wrong job.  Or it may be that your employer has the wrong man, or woman.

The Hat

I've posted my now absent 1911 campaign hat here before.

I always wear broad brim hats in the sticks and really appreciate a good fur felt hat, which is what this hat was, or is. I came by it in an odd fashion however.

I never went to buy a broad brimmed hat of this type.  Indeed, I never would have.  And at the time I acquired it I had a couple of good broad brimmed hats already.  Indeed, for general hunting, at that time, I wore a black Stetson that's since become my ranching hat, after my then ranching hat died.  And for bird hunting at that time I wore an Australian style Stetson I still have, appropriately enough termed their "Bird Hunter" model.

Anyhow, an organization I'm part of that's dedicated to the history of cavalry was looking at trying to have some hats made and the Jackson Hole Hat Company made some samples, including the hat depicted above.  The were all small sizes with the one depicted above being the only one that was really finished and the only one close to my size.  Truth be known, it was a bit small and always was, but it was a really great example of the early pattern of the M1911 campaign hat, complete with the brim stitching that served some unknown to me purpose.

When the project failed, we were allowed to keep the hats so this became my hunting hat.  Truth be known, it was always really too small and therefore uncomfortable for years.  When my kids were quite young they sometimes wore it as an outdoor hat and hence the stampede string that was affixed to it, made easy by the fact that M1911s had a hole for that purpose.  But for years I've worn it as a hunting hat in spite of it being a tad too small.  As its a beaver fur felt hat, it's nearly bullet proof and its endured.

It's endured but it's also become rather disheveled looking, quite frankly. Rain, snow, and whatever, have taken its tole, and the shape has deteriorated due to my pushing it on when its just not quite right.  The last couple of years I've thought of tossing it.

Indeed, I nearly did Sunday when we came back as its' just gotten so rough looking, but I didn't.  I left it looped over the driver's seat of my Jeep, where I tend to place it when going here and there.  Generally, it's stayed put there.

Well, even though I had the doors of the Jeep on and the top up on Monday, when I hit the highway to go look for doves, the string snapped and it went flying.  I went back to see if I could find it, and couldn't, and then traveled on. When I came back to town I went twice more.

The wind made the decision for me.  But I'm still thinking of going back one more time.

If somebody found it, I hope its a kid who it can fit who spends a lot of time outdoors.

The Boots, the Hole, the Dog and the Snake

As noted, on Monday, Labor Day, I went back out, this time for doves.

I went to a spot I always do and saw quite a few.  I took the dog with me, even though you really don't use dogs much for doves, as he likes to get out and gets upset if he doesn't get to go.

I probably should have left him at home as when we got out, he was clearly tired from the long, long hike the day prior.  But he went and we were seeing quite a few.

The grass in that spot is really overgrown this year and its covered up the ground and the terrain features pretty severely.  That always worries me a bit as I don't want to run into snakes.  As it was, it covered up a major erosion feature and I fell into it landing on my back.  I fell about five feet.

That scared me as if ever I was going to get bit by a snake, that was when it would occur.  I scrambled right out, which is saying something for a guy whose fallen five feet, hit his head on the way down, and is only 5'6" tall.

The dog jumped the ditch.

On the other side I walked past an area of tall grass.

Before leaving to go out for doves I almost put on my Red Wing service shoes. They're not really appropriate hunting boots, but most of the areas I was going to check were fairly close to roads and I was thinking that I could put them on quickly and get out.

I didn't.  Instead I put on my Hathorn (Whites) smoke jumpers, which I'd worn the day prior and which were still out.

I"m manic about good boots.

A person can skimp on nearly any item of outdoor apparel except for two things, and two things alone.  You need a good pair of boots and you need a good broad brimmed hat.  Most modern outdoorsmen have neither.

Indeed, about 99.99% of boots worn by outdoorsmen today are complete and total junk.  Synthetic crappy boots have come in which are no better, in my view, than wearing your Chuck Taylor's.  Almost any excuse of them is nothing much more than a bunch of unthinking crap.  A person needs, if they're really going to be out in the real outdoors, with the sole exception of some specialty uses, good leather boots.

I've given this lecture, I'd note, to more than one person who disregarded it and even argued against it.  In two such instances those people have blown out their ankles severely in the sticks.  I was with one of them when they did. The other had to be hauled out of the high country and doesn't talk to me about boots anymore.

Anyhow, I love smoke jumpers, which are the best general use outdoor boots of all time.  And Whites are the best of the best.

One of the features of boots of this type is that they feature really thick leather.  It's counter intuitive, but in really hot weather heavy boots are cool to wear as they keep they heat out.

They also keep the heat from transmitting from your foot out.

And that matters if you are in areas that are snakey.

Rattlesnakes operate off of heat, not sight. Their noses keenly sense any change in heat, and that change is usually when a mammal comes buy.  Nine times out of ten for htem that mammal is a mouse or rabbit and it gets no warning at all.  It's bit and eaten.

Sometimes that mammal is something the snake finds threatening, and as they have barely any intelligence at all, that's anything that's not edible and probably some things that are.  Horses, cattle, deer, dogs, and people.  If you are a people, and you are out where snakes are, you ought to be wearing a stout, high, pair of boots.

I don't care what some salesman or outdoor boot company that's going for the mass market tells you.  That boot had better be leather and stout leather.  Synthetic is just an invitation for the snake.

I walked right by the snake, which I never saw. The dog did, as the snake bit him in the face.

Swollen muzzle a day after the snake bite

We were not far from the Jeep and I walked him back to it, lifting him over the fence.  He's a big dog and he seemed okay. I called my wife to call the veterinarian anyway. By the time we hit the highway, he was not okay.  Now, several days later, and after a night in the vets, he's doing much better, but still on medications.

My wife loves the dog.  It took me sometime to get used to him really as I"m not a dog person.  He's a big, gentle thing, and a good bird dog as long as he doesn't have to go into water, which he's not particularly keen about. As he was purchased due to my wife's assertion that as an aging, often solo, hunter, I shouldn't be wading out into the North Platte, that's a bit of a disappointment, but I hope he'll come around.

The dog is a Double Doodle, which in his case means he's 3/4s Standard Poole and 1/4 Golden Retriever.  He's from a hunting line and both of those breeds are hunting breeds.  Poodles, in fact, are an ancient German hunting breed, their name evolving from Pudelhund, "puddle dog".  Golden Retrievers are a Scottish breed descended from a laird crossing a Spaniel with a retrieving dog of some sort, in search of an all purpose breed.

Poodles are the second smartest breed of dog, right behind collie, and are are third only to wolves.  There's a lot of wolf brain in them and they an odd dog for hunters who have never been exposed to them as they're a lot more like the hunting dogs in Medieval paintings than they are like the dogs on the cover of Field & Stream.  They're odd to train for that reason and they take most trainers off guard.  We bought some books as I thought I could train him myself. That thought was foolish, and the books were really deceptive. The author of the books, a highly respected series, had trained modern retrievers and water dogs, not poodles who are a really good hunting dog, but who have stepped out of the 1400s more than the 1940s.

So we took him to a trainer, who was really skeptical of him at first, but then really impressed. Oddly enough, by the end of that summer the same trainer had three hunting doodles in his classes. The breed, or rather cross breed, is really coming along.

Owning a doodle or a standard poodle is an interesting experience for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that people have opinions about it, and not always the ones you are expecting.  Hunters are pretty opinionated about dogs in general, but again that isn't quite what a person might think.  Beyond that, outdoorsmen are super opinionated about outdoor things, and this too works a bit differently than what a person might initially suppose.

What I've noted about this is that there are "experts", Experts, and then folks, so to speak, and their views vary considerably.  Everyone seems to believe that they are "experts", but few actually are on a lot of these topics.  Indeed, real Experts are a tiny minority of supposed "experts" on the topics of at least guns, dogs, trucks and the like.  Real Experts, which can be found anywhere, often have very nuanced opinions and tend to be careful and reserved where as "experts", which can also be found anywhere, but who are particularly vocal on the Internet, often have opinions derived from trends, each other, and from sporting journals on magazine racks.  Folks, on the other hand, have opinions, but they're their own opinions.

Anyhow, if you a outdoorsy guy with a great big Doodle, and they are large, regular folks don't really know how to take it.  It doesn't seem super manly, so they're surprised as as rule that he's a hunting dog, particularly as he's very gentle and friendly.  Folks who have doodles, on the other hand, are usually super enthusiastic to see any other doodle.  Lots of folks in general are surprised that doodles and standard poodles are hunting breeds, let alone good ones.  "Experts" on the other hand, think that's the most absurd thing ever and will tell you so. Doodles are dumb, they maintain, apparently not realizing that poodles are Einstein's next to Labradors.  Or maybe what they are is like mules as to horses.

Labradors and the like aren't bad dogs by any means, but the debate and doubt have been bread out of them so they're like machines in the field.  Labs know from day one that they are to retrieve waterfowl.  They're iffy, usually, on other types of retrieving but can learn it.

Poodles, and by extension doodles, also have that instinct, but it's a 15th Century instinct when to be a hunting dog, was to be a hunting dog. Today we're hunting waterfowl. . . tomorrow upland birds. . .next week roebuck.  Hunting.  They know that they're a hunting dog, but they're a generalist and the specifics have to be learned, or maybe more accurately explained, as in "Jim, I know that that's a fine flock of ducks but I don't see a really good reason why you shouldn't shoot that deer instead., now pound per pound. . ."  They will learn it, but it has to be learned.  That means the trainer has to be good (as ours was) and you have to be good with them.  I doubt they'd work for a heavy handed hunter.  Indeed, I think that's another reason that doodles and poodles are much like earlier hunting dogs.  Gerhard the Jaeger lived with that dog, and it was his pal.  He didn't go to the cubicle every day and put the dog in a dog run.  It worked for him, but he lived with it.  Doodles are like that.

Real Experts tend to know that, and that's why their opinions tend to be very carefully voiced.  Some guys I know who know a lot about hunting dogs simply ask a series of questions when they learn the dog is a hunting dog, which is how they're weighing his merits.  How does he do in water?  Does he retrieve sage chickens?  How is he in the field?

Anyway, I'm not much of a dog person and have become less of one over the years.  I've been attacked by dogs a couple of times, including by a German Shepherd once, and that's made me dog leery.  But this dog has such an odd personality and has been such a good dog that the thought of his getting injured on my watch while he was helping me was simply awful.

Day after accident with swollen muzzle, going home.

So, what's the moral of all of this?  Well, I don't know if there is one.  Or maybe there is one, or several closely connected ones.

One is that perceptions of things can be pretty inaccurate, but impressions, no matter how inaccurately formed, can have a very long lasting effect.  If a guy like me, who has been a strong backer of the Game and Fish for half a century is now suddenly reserved about game wardens, what must the view be of a person who experiences something like I did who isn't so vested in them?

And maybe another lesson has to do with the utility of the proven that works over the nifty and new.  I probably didn't get bitten last weekend as I was wearing a stout pair of outdoor boots.  I got where I wanted to go as I know how to read a map, and use a GPS, and knew the country.  Native knowledge and experience.

And the dogs doing fine.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*This reflects an interesting language evolution as well.  That fishing is fish hunting is self evident, but a lot of fishermen or, to use the less common term, anglers, fail to realize that.  But earlier on, English included other words that also delineated various other types of hunting.

Fowling, for example, is the hunting of birds, and a fowler is a bird hunter.  Lots of people today bear this common last name, stemming from the day when one of their ancestors was principally employed in that activity.  My guess is that other terms existed in older English at one time, but I don't know that for certain.  Certainly more than one for hunter exists in English, with hunter being one and names based on the German Jaeger being others.

**The fact that its a bladed road means its a maintained road, and that, combined with its distance from any town, means that its almost certainly a government maintained road.

I note that as its curious.  The road is closed most of the year, but somebody is maintaining it, and generally ranchers don't maintain roads, particularly ones far from town.  If a road is being maintained on the public's dime, in my view, it ought to be a public road, but none the less, I respect the closure.

Early scouting uniform

We've discussed Boy Scout (and Girl Scout) uniforms here several times, even lamenting the change in the uniform over the decades.  What we didn't have at any point was a good photograph of any of the older uniforms.

So here's one.

I ran across this display recently which shows one of the older pattern Boy Scout uniforms.  I couldn't find my original thread on the topic, so I haven't linked it in, but this would be a post World War One, pre 1950s (maybe pre 1940s) uniform.

It's pretty closely patterened on the U.S. Army uniform of the period, and its not the light green color that came in around World War Two, so I think it predates that.  Of note its khaki colored at a time when most American soldiers wore a green uniform year around. 

A peculiarity is the shirt front.  It's button up all the way, but the external buttons mimic the pull over appearance of the Army shirt that was in use up until the uniforms were changed following World War One.  Pull over shirts are nice but they can be a pain and around that time the Army dispensed with them.  The Boy Scouts did too, but this pattern mimicked the appearance of the pull over.  Otherwise, it's actually a bit fancier, at least in regard to having expanding pockets (the Army pockets were simply enormous).

Also displayed here is a bugle, something that's well associated with the Scouts, and a display on their rifle program of the period.  I believe that they still retain one.

September 6, 1919. End of the Trail for the Motor Transport Convoy

Fort Winfield Scott; Presidio and Fort Mason overlooking San Francisco Bay, September, 1919.

On this day in 1919, the Motor Transport crossed San Francisco Bay on two ferries, and then paraded at Lincoln Park.

Medals were awarded by the Lincoln Highway Association, the entity that had been boosting the highway for some time, and the command was received by Col. R. H. Noble, representing Lt. Gen. Hunter Liggett, commander of the Western Department.  Lunch was served at the convoy parked at the Presidio.

They did only 8 miles that day, but then they also crossed the bay, as noted, by ferry.

And so it was over.

Except for analyzing what had occurred.

On the same day, New York was celebrating Lafayette Day.

Myron T. Herrick (1854-1932), American ambassador to France from 1912-1914 and 1921-1929; Jean Jules Jusserand (1855-1932), French author and diplomat and French ambassador to the United States during World War I and Elise Richards Jusserand. They are attending the Lafayette Day celebration in front of City Hall, New York City on September 6, 1919

And the Gasoline Alley gang was getting ready to head out fishing.

Gasoline Alley cartoon for this day in 1919.  Note that they're altering their car, something that does in fact seem to be fairly common for that era.  Cars of the day had as much clearance as early pickup trucks and roads were fairly primitive.  Vehicles of the day, therefore, bore more of a resemblance to early Jeeps than cars of today do, and indeed more of a resemblance to them than some modern SUVs do.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 5, 1969. The 116th Engineer Battalion (Combat), Idaho National Guard musters out.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 5: 1969  The 116th Engineer Battalion (Combat), Idaho Army National Guard was mustered out of Federal service after active duty in Vietnam. This marked the sixth time in 70 years that the battalion served on active duty.  The Idaho National Guard unit is the only Guard unit, Army or Air, to officially serve in theater during both the Korean and Vietnam wars.  During it's tour in Vietnam six unit members lost their lives, over 100 were wounded, and two members received Silver Stars.

September 5, 1919. Stockton to Oakland California, 76 miles in 9.25 hours. The 1st Division arrives home.

The Motor Transport Convoy pushed on to Oakland California on this day in 1919, putting them just across the San Francisco Bay from their objective.

 No bridges spanned the bay at the time.  They were feted upon their arrival.

The Gasoline Alley crowd was debating their vacation.

Jenny on the job: Gets her beauty sleep.

As we have been recently, we revisit Jenny on the job (not Jenny from the Block. . . or maybe they're the same), and the advice given to her, or by way of her example, from the U.S. Public Health Service.

And this advice is solid, and perhaps more applicable today than ever.

Get some sleep.

Getting sleep is vital to health and mental health.  Acclimating to a lack of sleep increases your risk of disease, depression and early death.

They knew that then, and its been very much proven in more recent years.

Walmart ceases to sell certain ammunition and hanguns. . . .

which is a good thing for local retailers.

No serious sportsman or shooter buys firearms or ammunition on any sort of routine basis from Walmart.  Indeed, that same statement can be said about a lot of things, when bought by the serious.  I'm sure, for example, that you can buy fishing poles and cameras from Walmart, but a serious fisherman or a serious photographer doesn't buy them there.  Walmart sells most of its items of that type to people who are in a very general market.

By the same token, a person who is expecting any kind of expertise on anything also doesn't buy that thing at Walmart.  If you go into Walmart and ask the clerk behind the cameras the relative difference between Canon DSLR cameras vs. their full frame DSLR camera, you might get an answer, but it would be fairly absurd to rely upon it.  If you go in and see a camera you already knew you wanted to buy, that'd be another matter, but chances are if you are going in to buy something of that nature, you are already going elsewhere.

So too with firearms and ammunition.

I don't recall any serious shooter speaking of buying a firearm or ammunition at Walmart, ever.  Indeed, I've heard complaints from shooters regarding the chain sporting goods stores that somewhat resemble big box stores.  Stocking shotgun slugs might make sense in Michigan, for example, but not in Wyoming, Colorado, or Montana.  But the big box outfits don't know that.

So when a person goes into a Walmart to buy a firearm, they're really risking flying blind on that purchase.  I suppose that Walmart stocks all the common ammunition for hunting and probably people do go there if they couldn't find it elsewhere, but I never hear of people doing that.

There was a time, I'd note, when this was in fact a bit different.  People did buy some basic firearms and ammunition at Sears and Montgomery Wards at one time.  They've long since ceased offering firearms, but they did do that.  Kmart actually used to offer them as well (and still might. . . I haven't been in a Kmart for years).  But when Walmart entered the picture, something about its enormity removed the personal touch that certain types of purchases seem to require.  Indeed, while I'm not surprised that people buy generic things from Walmart, I remain surprised that people buy things like tires from Walmart or Sam's Club.  A person ought to know their tires.

Anyhow, the prime beneficiary of Walmart's decision will be to benefit local retailers, and that's a good thing. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the politics of their decisions, which I'll address in just a moment, but rather economics.  By and large, much smaller retailers have remained strong in this market area anyhow.  Walmart removing itself, albeit slowly, helps those local retailers, and that's a good thing.

The other thing it shows is the density of political thought and the vulnerability of the consumer to huge retailers.  Anyone who knows anything about firearms knows that Walmart is irrelevant in the market. But people who don't know anything about them assume that Walmart must be a major player as its a major player in so many other things.  Here, it doesn't matter whatsoever what Walmart does.  But people applying pressure to Walmart think it does.

The same is true in regard to the earlier decision of Dick's Sporting Goods in regard to selling AR type rifles.  In most markets, I doubt that Dick's is that big of retailer of firearms.  It does sell them, but Dick's is more of a ball and racket type of sporting goods outfit.  But it was vulnerable to the pressure.

And that national retailers are vulnerable to pressure shows a real weakness in the big is beautiful economic model.  Here, a lot of people who know very little about a topic are pressuring retailers on a feel good basis, and these big ones, that sell a lot more to really big markets, are yielding to make themselves look good in those markets. 

Last year Walmart was one of the entities that campaigned locally against a bill that would have imposed taxes on big retailers like itself that are multi state and are calculating the tax into every sale as its easier for them to do that than not.  They'd rather not pay the tax, of course, as those few extra cents go into their own coffers if the state doesn't take them, and they don't have to pay for the extra bookkeeping, etc., that paying it entails. The anti campaign was successful and basically Wyoming simply gave money away to Walmart and its kin as a result.  The bill is back for consideration now.

These two things may not seem to be connected, but they are.  Walmart makes its decisions on what the American public ought to buy and where it will be made and the price it will be sold for its own economic reasons.  It's only vulnerable to pressure from very large markets, but this demonstrates that it is vulnerable.  If the State of California, which is right now getting set to ban the sale of furs in that state, decided tomorrow that eating meat was bad and put pressure on Walmart to cease its sales, it might, and a retailer that is so large and dominant that its driven locals retailers under could in turn deprive people of things they find familiar on a dubious basis, and without any of their own say.  If we're going to put up with that, we ought to at least collect our share of the taxes.

And, for that matter, if Walmart is vulnerable enough to shed sections of its business and thereby accidentally yield them to local retailers, that's not a bad thing.

September 4, 1919. Sacramento to Stockton on the Motor Transport Convoy, 48 mile sin 7.25 hours.

General Pershing and officers of a composite regiment aboard U.S. transport Leviathan, Sept. 4, 1919

On this day in 1919, the Motor Transport Convoy, near the end of its destination, went 48 miles in 7.25 hours.

The Cadillac was about worn out.  And it seemed like the command was as well.

Maybe they needed a vacation, like the Gasoline Alley gang was contemplating.

Somebody who wasn't taking a vacation was President Wilson, who was touring the country promoting the Versailles Treaty.

Mid Week At Work: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HORSE LOGGING

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HORSE LOGGING

AUGUST 30, 2019 • FILED IN: TRADE STORIES

Best posts of the week of August 25, 2019.

The best post of the week of August 25, 2019, which we're putting up later than our normal Saturday post.

On taking and not taking vacations.

The 2020 Election, Part 2

Today is the Feast of Saint Monica of Hippo.

Jenny on the job: Has her fun after work

Gardening Costs

Back to the future.

1919 Motor Transport Convoy

September 3, 1919. Placerville to Sacramento on the Motor Transport Convoy. 52 miles in 8 hours. Wilson starts his tour.

On this day in 1919, the convoy went from Placerville to Sacramento, making 52 miles in 8 hours.  The roads were "perfect".

Indeed, the convoy received a heroes welcome, being showered with fruit along the way.  A Willys Overland salesman treated the company to dinner and a cabaret.  Willys was already specializing in vehicles that were designed for out of town use and, interestingly enough, they'd soon advertise, if they weren't already, that their vehicles were so easy to drive, that women could drive them without the help of men.

Also touring on this date, but by train, was President Wilson, who left on a cross country tour to promote the Versailles Treaty.

September 2, 1919. Meyers to Placerville on the Motor Transport Convoy. More Trouble on the Border. Storm brewing in the Gulf. The End of Summer.

On this day the 1919 Motor Transport Convoy resumed their travels towards the Bay with a trip from Meyers to Placerville.  Roads were improving.

Closer to home, Wyoming's oil fortunes were improving, while the situation on the border remained tense and violent.

The crisis on the border naturally got first place on a lot of newspapers, but the Lance Creek oil strikes were a big deal in Wyoming. The area still is a major petroleum province in the state.

Railroad bills were also big news, as Congress struggled with an industry that had proved problematic during the war. 

And the victorious Allies informed Germany that Austria was not to be admitted as a German state, now that the Austrian Empire had ceased to exist.  In fact, as we'll shortly see, this would be a provision of the treaty with Austria which was soon to be signed.

And school was starting up, which was an occasion for cartoons.

The Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger made note of Labor Day being the unofficial American end of summer, with Tuesday, which September 2 was, being the end of the vacation season.

A cartoon of this type shows how long certain American traditions of modern life have been around, with an American vacationer (showing that vacations were common then), labeled as "Everybody", has a wrecked bank account due to going over the waterfall of Vacation.

The Gasoline Alley gang was at work, or at least Walt was, with the gang urging him to take the day off and go golfing.

It was also hurricane season, with the 1919 Florida Keys Hurricane forming to the south of the peninsula.  In those days, there was considerably less warning than there is now.

Labor Day, 1919

American troops near Marfa, Texas, are treated to a picnic in honor of Labor Day, September 1, 1919.

September 1 was Labor Day in 1919, then as now falling on the first Monday of September.  The unofficial end of American summer was a day off for most people, including I'd note most local newspapers, and it was celebrated in much the same fashion as it currently is.  Foot races and picnics were held in the mining town of Hanna, Wyoming.  Motorcycle races were held in Marion Indiana.  Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge delivered a speech on labor in Plymouth.

In the case of American solders serving on the border, which was still quite tense, this meant, if they were stationed near Marfa, a lunch served by the American Red Cross.

If they were assigned to the transcontinental Motor Transport Convoy, which was now running several days behind schedule, it wasn't a day off. They traveled from Carson City, Nevada, to Meyers, California

The road was treacherous and the Nevada Highway Department closed the road in the Sierras for the convoy.  Motorcycles were used to police the convoy speed and spacing, as well as looking for hot bearings.   The convoy went 34 miles in 13.5 hours and its arrival in Meyers was treated as a great success.  The Mayor of San Francisco traveled out to meet the convoy.

A party that claimed to represent labor was laboring away in chaos on this Labor Day weekend in Chicago.  The left wing turmoil going on in Chicago saw yet another Communist Party emerge out of the departed hardcore left wingers of the Socialist Party, when the non English speakers formed their own Communist Party of America.

This is really confusing as there already was a Communist Party of America, that had existed since May. This new one joined the old one rapidly. The English speaking Communist Labor Party would follow within months.

Of interest, the new foreign born Communist Party of America that formed on this day was double the size of the Socialist Party of America, with 60,000 members, and six times the size of the Communist Labor Party, which had 10,000 members.  This pretty shows that the leadership of the Socialist Party was more conservative and democratic than the rank and file, which had gone hardcore left. 

It also shows that the sentiments of the Socialist were highly influenced by immigrant members who were likely hardcore leftists when they arrived in the country, something that the Communist Party and its sympathizers on the radical left have not really liked to acknowledge.  The 1910s through the 1930s were the high water mark of radical Socialism in the US and its interesting to note that this was also the case for Anarchism, although it was waning by the 1930s.  In both instances the movements had significant immigrant representation within them and, moreover, representation from certain concentrated areas of Europe where the movements were also strong.  It's fairly clearly the case that in those instances they brought radical sentiments with them, rather than acquiring them in the US, although there were certainly native born radicals as well.

All of these movements were on the way out by the 1940s for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they'd been tested with disastrous results in Europe by that time and World War Two caused an economic boost in the country that buried any lingering sympathy for economic radicalism.  But in 1919, Communism was untested and on the rise, even if a language barrier caused it to oddly develop in the US, briefly, in a fractured fashion.  Even at that, however, it never really had very much appeal for most Americans, including foreign born ones, let alone most American workers.

Workers and the high cost of living were the topic of that day's Gasoline Alley, which was published in the local Chicago newspaper.  In a somewhat serious edition of the cartoon, the Reds made their own appearance that day.

It was a day off, of course, for most Americans and that meant not only picnics and races, but trips to the movies, which the movie industry used to introduce new films.

Her Purchase Price frankly had a the type of plot that movie goers of the era loved but which are creepy today.  In that film, Sir Derek Anstruther encounters European looking Egyptian slave Sheka while touring Egypt.  She learns that she's been raised a slave since taken by a bandit in her youth.  So he buys her, after falling in love with her.

Low and behold this disrupts Sir Anstruther's inheritance so the loyal Sheka sells herself to somebody else so that he's not dispossessed.  But Sir Derek pursues, and in the meantime her parentage is cleared up and all is well.

Hmmm. . . .

For folks who were bothered by the racial qualities of that one, let alone the moral questions raised by buying your bride in an Egyptian slave market, The Brat was also released on this day in 1919.  It featured a a chorus girl known only by that nickname who resists improper advances, resulting in her arrest.  The prosecutor's brother, however, is studying the underworld and therefore the judge lets her live in his household so that she can be the subject of study.  Well you can see how that one goes. . . 

Frankly, that was a bit disturbing as well.

Well, north of the border there was Back To God's Country, in which the daughter of a Canadian woodsman grows up in nature and has a rapport with animals.  She falls in love with a Canadian government official and marries him, after escaping the clutches of a bogus Mountie who attempts to rape her and who kills her father.  She then travels with her husband on a whaler but the captain turns out to be the rapist in disguise, so she has to escape by dog sled in the Arctic, with her husband.

Maybe it would have been better just to skip the movies on that Labor Day.