Friday Nite Check In

 I did a little tree trimming on my property this week..., instead of helping the neighbors like I did a month ago.  Some of the limbs were drooping a little too low for my liking..., so I fired up the power saw and got a good load of limbs to load up the old Tundra.  The sad part is that I got a little to close to the barb wire fence with the chain on the saw..., luckily that happened after the heavy work was done.  It was super sharp before that happened..., in fact it had impressed the neighbors when I put it to use for them.  The saw had belonged to my brother before he passed away..., and he was very good at sharpening saw chains.  He used a file guide for precision sharpening and had the process tuned right in.  My neighbor Dave had been a life long logging contractor before he retired and I saw him eyeballing the saw..., and he asked what model of Stihl saw it was.  I had to admit to him that I didn't know..., and had even had trouble figuring out how to open the gas and oil caps on a saw that was 25 years newer than the last model that I had worked with.  I am not sure just why I didn't tell him that I wasn't the one who had fine tuned the chain that was on it.  And I am not looking forward to touching up that chain myself after it tried to eat up that barb wire.  I am pretty sure that super fine cutting is a thing of the past now.

I still have plenty of room for limb deposits over the bank..., and I will probably be making more deposts of apple tree limbs in the future.  The trees are so loaded with apples this year that they are shedding tiny green apples already.  I delivered a 22 lb. cat food sack nearly full the the little nuggets to my friends who feed them to the deer behind their place.

Other than that there isn't much to report on The Ranch..., so I will get on with the Friday Nite Music Video.  The hits on the blog have been a little low lately..., just 40 some hits in the last 24 hours..., and 11 of those hits were on the piece about The Clearwater Log Drive..., and my dear old Dad's participation in it..., titled "The Drive"..., here's a link to the story...,

https://scottrthequillayutecowboy.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-drive.html

In the last 24 hours there were only three hits from the USA..., but 16 from Singapore, 7 from Vietnam, 6 from Brazil, and one and two hits from other assorted foreign countries..., so I hope those foreign folks like this song about another log drive up in Canada...,

Lyrics

In the melting snows of Ontario
Where the wind'll make you shiver
It was the month of May up in Georgian Bay
Near the mouth of the Musquash River

Where the bears prowl and the coyotes howl
And you can hear the osprey scream
Back in '99 we were cutting pine
And sending it down the stream

Young Sandy Gray came to Go Home Bay
All the way from P.E.I.
Where the weather's rough and it makes you tough
No man's afraid to die

Sandy came a smilin', Thirty Thousand Islands
Was the place to claim his glory
Now Sandy's gone but his name lives on
This is Sandy's story

Young Sandy Gray lives on today
In the echoes of a mighty yell
Listen close and you'll hear a ghost
In this story that I tell, boys
This story that I tell

Now Sandy Gray was boss of the men who'd toss
The trees onto the shore
They'd come and go till they'd built a floe
100, 000 logs or more

And he'd ride 'em down toward Severn Sound
To cut 'em up in the mills for timber
And the ships would haul spring summer and fall
Till the ice came in December

One Sabbath Day big Sandy Gray
Came into camp with a Peavey on his shoulder
With a thunder crack he dropped his axe
And the room got a little bit colder

Said, "Come on all you, we got work to do
We gotta give 'er all we can give 'er
There's a jam of logs at the little jog
Near the mouth of the Musquash River"

With no time to pray on the Lord's day
They were hoping for God's forgiveness
But the jam was high in a troubled sky
And they set out about their business

They poked with poles and ran with the rolls
And tried to stay on their feet
Every trick they tried, one man cried
This logjam's got us beat!"

But Sandy Gray was not afraid
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"

Now every one of the men did the work of ten
And Sandy scrambled up to the top
He is working like a dog heaving 30 foot logs
And it looked like he'd never stop

They struggled on, these men so strong
Till the jam began to sway
Then they dove for cover to the banks of the river
All except for Sandy Gray

Now with thoughts of death they held their breath
As they saw their friend go down
They all knew in a second or two
He'd be crushed or frozen or drowned

They saw him fall and they heard him call
Just once and then it was over
Young Sandy Gray gave his life that day
Near the mouth of the Musquash River

But Sandy Gray was not afraid
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"

East of Giant's Tomb there's plenty of room
There's no fences and no walls
And if you listen close you'll hear a ghost
Down by Sandy Gray Falls

Through the tops of the trees you'll hear in the breeze
The echoes of a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell"

And Sandy Gray lives on today
And he let out a mighty yell
"I'll be damned, we'll break this jam
Or it's breakfast in hell, boys
Breakfast in hell!"

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Slaid Cleaves

Breakfast in Hell lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC