Christmas Times a coming....

 I have always loved the anticipation of Christmas.   Sure its nice to open gifts and see your family all together happy.   But I have always loved getting ready for the day.

A really good memory that has always stuck in my head was on the 23rd of December.   I was probably 7 or 8 at the time.  My dad James H. Arnold and my first cousin Gordon Arnold were working.  Gordon was the son of Jack Arnold  and despite the age difference, we were first cousins.   Gordon and Daddy both worked at the time for Ray Nuss of Nuss Timber in Pine Hill Alabama.  Daddy and Gordon looked after the company crew and host of contract loggers.  Daddy's primary job was timber buyer and Gordon would have been in today's term the Fleet Manager in addition to host of other duties at that time.

I was tagging along that day with Gordon and Daddy.   How my cousins Jackie and Sherry were not along still puzzles me.  I can remember us riding by Catherine Academy.  This was pre-seatbelt laws and the school was closed for Christmas but in its prime.   I had a toy Hotwheels car and was playing in the floor board of Gordons truck.  I can remember all the sand on the floor board and playing around the CB.  Daddy and Gordon were running by I believe Troy Smith's logging operation to check and see how much longer he had on that track.   We were going to Flat Woods I believe and then had to run over to Moore's Valley and check on the cows.  (Daddy and Gordon were partnered together in a pretty sizeable cattle operation in addition to their day jobs.)

On the radio, I had insisted they find Christmas songs.  I can see Gordon having a chew of tobacco and smoking a cigarette.  Then taking some of Daddy's Skoal as well.  I was amazed at the man and thought how cool he was. How the nicotine didn't blow his head off---we will never know, haha. Gordon found some music on the radio and then the song came on "Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer."   I started laughing at the song and Gordon said "Get on from here Man!" and let out a big laugh.   Daddy just shook his head at us.  

We had finished logging and went on to the farm.   Daddy cranked up the old Ford 5000 and we got a round bail of hay for the cows.  We rolled it down the hill. It was cold for Alabama and I was ready to get Christmas started.  Cold weather for Alabama and we were wishing or fresh fruit, nuts, and yes candy in our stockings.

There were no big punch lines to this but it was good memory of mine. Its the little memories that mean allot.  I thought I was big to be working with them.  Daddy always had me around the office and shop allot growing up.  But the days leading up  to Christmas as child were so exciting.   Now I live those Christmas dreams through my boy James Jordan Arnold (Jamie) and my wife Michele.  As I write these stories for my family and my friend, I realize Gordon, Daddy,  Mr. Nuss, and Mr. Troy are all gone.  They still live on in my heart.

Merry Christmas and may the song make you chuckle as well.

Injury in the Logging Woods

 The setting was Forest Home Alabama.  My dad, James Henry Arnold, had purchased his brother's logging operation (Joe Arnold Logging) and we were operating as JH Arnold Logging.   My brother Marvin Kyle Arnold (Kyle) and myself were both working at the time with Daddy.  As most everyone knows, we were a long time Rocky Creek logger which became Union Camp.  We may have been producing for Hines Steele and Steele out of Beatrice AL. at that time as my memory fails me a little.  We were however doing a select cut for a family friend right close to the our then business and second home.  That family friend was Mr. Author Till.   I was in my early 20s  working in the family business and going to college.

That summer day, We had some huge pines that would fall on the road if cut by our feller buncher or by one of our saw hands.  Daddy had Kyle added another cable onto the existing cable of the John Deere Grapple skidder.   Knump , one our saw hands, and I went to the pine near the road.  They had me shimmy up the pine and place the cable high in the tree.   Kyle was driving the skidder and they let out all the cable and took out all the slack.

The first thing that went wrong was I standing next to Knump as he set into the tree.  I had my hand resting on the tree and limb fell out and hit in the shoulder.   I said a few choice words then we continued on.  Knump was good with a saw and we hand motioned them to pull with the skidder.   We did not take into account there was small pine tree between Knump and Kyle.  For some reason Jim or as we called him Nook was standing at the back of skidder.  Nook realized late the tree would hit the small pine which would hit him.  He turned to run. The large pine fell and caught the little pine.   I can remember the little pine bending as it went down.   It switched Nook three times.  BAM.  BAM. BAM.  The small tree bent lick a switch as sailed down to the ground.

We all rushed to Nook.  It was bad.  He was bloody and broke up.  He was also unconscious.   I can remember Kyle rushing the Chevy crew cab done the logging trail to get close to him..   Kyle and Daddy rushed him to the Hospital.

What a day that was.  As you all know, I am a Risk Control / safety man for the insurance company.  Many things went wrong that day but that is not what this story is about.  However, Nook did make it through the event and was eventually able to return to the woods.   

All the memories you have are not good ones.  Some of the best memories are however from Tragedies.  I can still remember Kyle frantically driving that service truck.   I can smell the pine now like it happened yesterday.   Most of those men are long gone now.   I am probably the only one still around, but their memories still log in my heart.

Stay Safe out there.

Thanksgiving Long Past

As I just pulled the turkey from the oven it reminds me of  a Thanksgiving years ago.

My Dad , James Henry Arnold had his first surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.  He had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was to be operated on in the upcoming months.  My wife and I had traveled to Alabama a little early for Thanksgiving and were spending time with him.

It was a hot day in Pine Hill as can be expected.  My sister Lesha had come up on Wednesday evening to see us ahead of the rest of the gang.  I had got out and grilled some ribeye's on the grill and we were all at the kitchen table.

Lesha looked across me at the table and said "what is wrong with you? "  I had  huge whelps coming up on my face.   The word chicken pox came up.   Chele and I rushed down to the then emergency room in Thomasville.   To make a long story short------I had chicken pox and I was 37.  My cousins, Sherry and Jackie got them down the road but I never had them.

It was the hardest thing I ever did.  I had to leave my dad on what I knew would be the last Thanksgiving I would ever spend with him.  Chele drove home and I admit that I cried most of the way.   Missed the last Thanksgiving with the old man and honestly the last time he was sort of himself.

This blog is about Outdoor Nonsense however......................... I had a good boss Keith at the time that let me create safety talks for several weeks and work from home.  I made the most of it of course.  It was hunting season.   

Late one evening during the harrowing event of adult chicken pox,  I was sitting behind my house and was wearing PJs.   Sorry, I rarely hunt only in PJS.  A group of does came into the feeder.  I picked out a big one and BOOM!  I was not very much myself do to pain meds and self medication (I had hives and even had them on my feet).  I heard the doe crash and go down.  It was dark and I said ----tomorrow.

The next day, my dog Jake and I went to track down the deer.    I put him on the trail and we went in the direction I heard her go down.    No deer.   You could see blood where she laid down.   Old dog kept making funny circles.   I got mad at him and went searching and looked for miles.  Nothing!   Came back to the last place and the dog walked over 20 yards and there she was covered in leaves.  Something had covered her up and not started eating on it.   Somebody tried to say a CAT and others said a Bear.   

It was strange but I found my deer.

Happy Thanksgiving to All.   If you made it this far, thanks for sharing in a sad and funny moment of my life.