Alyssa and friends keeping warm around the kitchen campfire. The cold, snowy and rainy Spring of 2011 dragged all the way through much of May.A clear winner in the “Easter Beer Can Hunt” at Black Butte!Our first event of the Spring was hosting an opening for the “Resourced” Art Show of the Just Seeds Art CollectiveOur PFE reefer ready for the “Resourced” art show.“Resourced” Art Show OpeningLater in the evening “Crackbox” — a band from New Orleans, played in our boxcar.Minneapolis-based band “Dark Dark Dark” playing a late April boxcar show at Black Butte.Despite the unseasonably cold weather, our late April music show, which also included “Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?” and “Y La Bamba”, attracted a good crowd.Get to work! Project list for our annual Spring Music and Work Party held in mid-May.Get your beans!Our new caboose, BN #10772, arrives from McCloud just as a southbound UP freight passes by out on the mainline.The BN caboose move crew — the Carlton Crane guys, our friends and supporters and our widely-feared pack of watch dogs — celebrate the arrival of BN #10772.Musicians playing old time railroad tunes gathered at Black Butte and then made an appearance at Dunsmuir Railroad Days and the “Foamin’ in the Pines” railfan gathering in the Sacramento River canyon at Sims campground.“The Bindlestiffs” playing the boxcar on Dunsmuir RR Days weekend.Getting a music lesson. They’ll probably be headlining our shows in a few years…An epic “dog vs. dog” struggle at milepost 347.5. (photo by Ben Daniels, used by permission)
Handcar Regatta 2011
On September 26, 2011 the BBCRC took our six-person railbike, the “Bindlestiff Express”, down to Santa Rosa for a second appearance in the “Handcar Regatta”. We were one of the fastest bikes on the tracks, although we were technically disqualified in the last round for having too many people (10) on our bike when we were only supposed to have four. Thanks to the big group of Black Butte friends who showed up, rode, pushed, and cheered us on! The photos below were taken by Stephanie Shaver — you can contact her at [email protected] for high-resolution copies of these photos as well as many others of the regatta.
Summer/Fall 2011
Sunset at our Fall Work Party. While the numbers of attendees was relatively modest, a lot was accomplished!Shannon Knox had an art show opening at our Fall gathering, displaying work she had done over the last few months at Black Butte.In addition to Shannon’s work, the show featured photographs taken by North Bank Fred at and around Black Butte over the years.Merch table at Shannon and Fred’s show.Too many cooks? Meal preparation at the Fall Work Party.Newly constructed tree house back in the woods.Amelia performing in the boxcar at the Fall Work Party.Among the major accomplishments of the Fall Work Party was the re-roofing of our leaky shop building.Another major project was completion of the “loading dock” running alongside our boxcars. Niko is taking a break after a long day of tree house building.Over the weekend of July 15th we had a mid-summer multi-media art show installation, “No One’s Home”, by Beckey Kaye.Beckey installing one of her pieces.“No One’s Home” installation in our PFE reefer.Some people just come to art shows for the free snacks and drinks.In conjunction with Beckey’s art show, we had four metal-oriented bands, including EMBERS, play in our boxcar.This was one of the first shows to take advantage of our new “loading dock” deck running alongside our boxcar.
