Big Muskie Bucket?
One of the things about being a wildlife rehabilitator is having to be eternally flexible. Good thing I don't have a real job, because this morning I had to dedicate my day to transporting a broken bird to Columbus, a mere 2 1/2 hrs. away. I'd tell you its story, but I want to make sure there's a happy ending first. See, I protect you from a lot of the heartbreak that dogs wildlife rehabilitators. Last evening I had a blog entry all prepped about this amazingly sweet baby bird, that I was already completely in love with, and then an hour later it fell and broke its leg, and my world turned upside down. Things look fairly good for it right now, but I don't even want to introduce you in case things go south.
So I had some time in the car, five hours in fact, alone with this bird, and I listened to my favorite songs and thought about NPR commentaries I might write. I was cooking them in my head. I haven't been on the air since May. There was one just minutes from being aired in June, about something that happened to my kids in school, and then my editor found out that my kids were already out of school, so the commentary wasn't "true," and it was pulled. It hurts to break a streak like I've had the past two years, being on All Things Considered monthly and sometimes twice a month. My commentary mojo just slipped away. I've been groping around for it, but it's like feeling under a bed for a scared cat. You don't connect with the cat, or the mojo, by grabbing for it.
So I scrawled some things in my notebook, and I'm hoping a few of them turn into commentaries. Maybe when we're in Chautauqua I'll have some peaceful time to write.
I pulled off in Easton and ogled new Mac PowerBook Pro's at the Apple Store. I can dream, can't I? I have this mad vision of being able to blog on the road. I went back to Origins and bought some more pots of scrubby creamy things that make me feel fabulous and look somewhat less wizened. I stopped at Zanesville Pottery and bought some pots for my bonsais to grow into, and some more ceramic pedestals for displaying orchids. On the way back home from Columbus the Explorer slogged through a bitchin' electrical storm with blinding rain and bolts of lightning and thunder that shook the car. Loved it, loved it. After being bathed in a 90-degree sauna for the last week, it was truly a gift from heaven. The storm chased me all the way home; it hit here as I was pulling into the garage. I figure it must have been doing about 50 mph to my 65.
And I saw this new tourist sign, and I have to say it is one of my favorites ever. I know what a Big Muskie Bucket is; do you? Hint: It has nothing to do with BOTB's boxers.
Guess away! I'll give you useful hints if you beg nicely. Or you could send in your guesses on the backs of $20 bills that I could go and stuff down the shirt of the skinny pale pierced Apple Store Genius who made me lust for something I can't afford and don't actually need.
posted by Julie Zickefoose @ 7:30 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
LOL...
Oh, Julie! The heat has made you silly!
It doesn't seem fair to others, me living in Ohio and knowing what the Big Muskie Bucket is (or should I say was).
Big Muskie Bucket was the world's largest "earth moving" machine. It could about a zillion tons of dirt per hour.
All that is left is the big bucket.
How do I know this? My dad traveled alot for his work and he knew sorts of weird trivia, especially if it involved ginormous machines. :-)
Okay, Julie...what do I win?
Agh, should have followed my hunch and pre-disqualified you, SGN! And duh, I don't have a prize. I know! Big wet Chet Baker kisses--many, until you yell for help!
I'll take the Chet kisses!
Sorry I spoiled the trivia contest...I could have played dumb, but that's just not me.
I'm disqualified, too, Julie. I grew up in eastern Ohio in the 60's and 70's. I actually SAW the "Big Muskie," and also another large, dragline called the "Little Egypt" (whose name apparently reminded my Dad of some famous exotic dancer!)
These huge machines were used for strip mining. Coal companies ripped all the topsoil off the hills to get to the shallow layer of coal beneath. I remember seeing the devastation they left behind. The song in my head - John Denver's version of John Prine's song "Paradise":
"The coal company came with the world's largest shovel,
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land.
They dug for the coal till the land was forsaken.
And wrote it all down as the progress of Man."
"Daddy, won't you take me back ... where Paradise lay? ...
Sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."
At that time, there were a lot of "strip pits" left over; gouges in the land that filled up with rain water and became swimming holes for the local teens. Nesting platforms were placed in some of the pits, to encourage Canada geese to breed. (Wasn't THAT a good idea?)
When they were done, the electric companies "reclaimed" the land. First they flattened it out and planted crown vetch, a sort of clover-looking legume. Now, the land has been converted to grassland - the Wilds and the surrounding area that is becoming a popular birding spot.
In the long run, I guess they did an OK job, but trips back east still seem foreign to me, as I drive through this strange habitat. I miss the rolling hills of my childhood.
Kathi
I'll top all of them, at the very park that the bucket is now located is where my wife (yes STILL the same one) got her engagement ring.
You'd have to know the back story to understand.
Saw it built, saw it run, saw it dismantaled.
Kathi- the 1st of I believe 3 Canadian Goose re-introduction areas was in a section of land now owned by the Wilds.
It googles well too. Lots of pictures from google images!
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22Big%20Muskie%20Bucket%20%22&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi
Sorry, that link was truncated. 8-(
Just to to http://images.google.com/ and enter "Big Muskie Bucket", including the quotes.
Maybe when you are in Chatauqua you'll have some time to read too, since you can't possibly have a moment now, from the sounds of it!
Try this one:
Timothy; or Notes of an Abject Reptile
Author Verlyn Klinkenborg
If you have not already read it. It came to mind when I was reading about Belle.
Caroline in SD
It was a coal mining Bucyrus-Erie dragline owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company (a division of American Electric Power), and was the world's largest mobile earth-moving machine, weighing nearly 13,000 metric tons and standing nearly 22 stories tall. It operated in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1969 to 1991, and was powered by 13,800 volts of electricity. The only thing left of it is the bucket, which is a tourist attraction.
Dang, I was sure it was big fishing hole!
I second the recommendation for Timothy or Notes of an Abject Reptile.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Is Big Muskie anything like Little Egypt? My brother in law took us to see her once when she was in the Freeport area I think. It's been 40 years, what do you expect?
Post a Comment
<< Home