Sean and North Bank Fred enjoy a late season snowstorm as they start to frame up our office/caretaker residence addition.Once the weather improved, we made rapid progress.Before long the roof was on and shingled.In late March we had our first public event of the year — an opening in our PFE reefer gallery for David Eberhardt’s photo show, “You Can’t Catch a Ghost“.Visitors came from as far away as Wisconsin and New York for the show.A popular eating spot in downtown Weed for BBCRC folks is the Asian-American B-B-Q. For our show opening, we convinced them to come out and serve up some Lao specialties right outside the boxcar gallery.At our Spring Work Party, held in late May, we moved ahead on many projects, including work on our stable of bicycles.Volunteers extended the fence along our eastern property line alongside the Santa Fe and BN cabooses. Multi-talented Pokey demonstrates how to use a level and a hammer all at the same time.We used boards milled on our land from trees thinned out as part of our forestry restoration project to build the fence.Xarick, our past garden coordinator helped to bring our new garden volunteer crew up to speed on the challenges of growing vegetables at our mountainous location.Getting mulch into the garden the easy way.Heather, our 2013 garden coordinator, getting starts in the greenhouse ready for transplanting.Repainting the BBCRC sign.Upside Drown, featuring Rosie and Colleen, playing a set in the boxcar.The Dirty Pluckers, from Cave Junction, Oregon, also performed a great set during our Spring work party.
RR Days/Hobo Olympics 2013
The BBCRC once again participated in the Dunsmuir Railroad Days event, entering a large float that included our railbike, the Bindlestiff Express. On the Friday evening before the parade a number of BBCRC affiliated musicians provided entertainment on stage by the depot.The BBCRC parade entry won the award for best railroad themed float. This helped build the momentum and excitement for the next day’s event at Black Butte — the first ever Hobo Olympics competition!In preparation for feeding the masses, we acquired a huge 7½ gallon cauldron. A local friend, Ben K ingeniously welded together a tripod for the cauldron using old railroad brake rigging and rail spikes.Something long talked about over the campfire finally became reality in 2013: The BBCRC organized and hosted the first ever “Bo-lympics”, a one day competition celebrating the not quite lost arts of riding the rails. Poster artwork by Shannon Knox.Early arrivals helped construct the “Bo-Lympics Village” out of random scavenged materials. It is estimated that upwards of $200 was spent building infrastructure for the great event. The Hamm’s Beer Company is reportedly interested in a sweet corporate sponsorship deal for next year.The Bo-Lympics begins with a solemn ceremony — the lighting of the Official Torch! Yes, that is a railroad style fusee.The event featured “Celebrity Hobo Judges” including Guitar Whitey who rode all the way back in the Great Depression and who was featured in the PBS documentary “Riding the Rails”.The “Rail Wobble” done with packs on, was our version of a balancing beam competition.Claire modeling the official Bo-Lympics t-shirt. We quickly sold out of the highly prized shirts. More will be available soon, check out our Store page.Among the many competitive events was Bos in Jeopardy — a challenging quiz of random railroad trivia — geography, history, operations, and the like.The Bean Can Open event measured skill (speed and good form) in quickly opening a can of beans with a P-38 military surplus can opener — an essential piece of traveling gear for many a tramp.A tough and unruly hometown crowd left some contestants feeling sad and demoralized.The “Wet and Windy Cigarette Roll” simulated the conditions experienced by a hobo trying to get a smoke rolled and lit in the middle of a storm.Cody got extra punk points for safely pinning his 666 number board right to his chest.Some of the many bo-lympics competitors, spectators, organizers, and dogs gather for a late afternoon group shot at the Loeppky Monument, the site of the tie plate discus toss and the hobo horseshoes spike bucket competitions.Suspense built as the judges compiled the results and the crowd gathered at for the awards ceremony. Cody, the “Hub City Kid”, brings home the gold medal.The “Hub City Kid”, flanked by Silver Medal winner Grizelda to the left, gives an inspiring victory speech.
For more images of the ‘Bo-lympics, check out the ‘Bo-Lympics section on our Videos page.
We had a great turnout for our annual Fall work party gathering with lots of old friends and supporters as well as many new faces.For the first time we used a log splitter allowing us to increase our production of firewood.Several experienced volunteers used chainsaws to buck up logs for the splitter crew. Meanwhile other crews brought logs in from our forest areas and helped build trails.Over three days, we amassed a huge pile of firewood.Our newest BBCRC boardmember, “Radio-Active” Ron Angle set up his ATCS monitoring system so we knew when trains were going to be passing by. He also helped out as our camp medic/first responder.Amaranth in the garden: The work party was well-timed to take advantage of a ton of ripe produce from our organic garden project.One major project was continued work on our office/caretaker residence expansion project.After a year of volunteer effort, the expansion is nearing completion.Emily completed work on a totem sculpture for Black Butte, made out of a pine log cut by the forestry crew earlier in the year. Some note a resemblance to a certain former Black Butte caretaker and a certain dog on the property!
