Chestnut blight

[Mapleman]

Has anyone heard of homemade treatments for chestnut blight?

Some guy in the mountains of North Carolina was having good success with a concoction of shoe polish and I believe tobacco spit (either Skoal or Copenhagen), plus a few other ingredients which may have included alcohol.

I would have liked to been climbing when the chestnuts were around. I caught the tail end of the elms when I moved to Vermont in '83, but swinging around in chestnuts would have been boss...

 

[tree md]

Never even seen one to work on. Do a search for Chestnut on here. We had a pretty good thread going about them awhile back.

 

[Mapleman]

Cool, I'll try it later...

 

[Mapleman]

Climbing with los muchachos

About ten years ago while I was visiting my folks in San Diego, I started working up in North County. I was the only anglo climber, and I think there were just two other anglos among the 12 or 15 workers there. A young kid named Christian was the lead climber. He'd only been climbing for a few years, but he had the instincts of a veteran.

At that time, all of los muchachos were illegal to one extent or another. My boss, an ex-Marine, said he'd hire more anglos if they would just show up for work on time and lay off the drugs. When we would hire a new ground guy from south of the border, we would have to tell him to stop for lunch. These guys worked their butts off.

Most of los muchachos were cowboys from the Vera Cruz area and related in some way or another. They had pooled their money and bought a ranch there, and were in the process of stocking it with cows--the real American Dream. They were also buying houses in the San Marcos area of San Diego. They would all move in together and pool their money to buy the house for the guy who'd been there the longest. Then it was the next guy's turn. Seemed like a pretty good arrangement to me.

I've worked on a lot of crews over the years, but the only guys I ever worked with who could compete with los muchachos were the Samoans and Filippinos in Hawaii.

 

[tree md]

About ten years ago while I was visiting my folks in San Diego, I started working up in North County. I was the only anglo climber, and I think there were just two other anglos among the 12 or 15 workers there. A young kid named Christian was the lead climber. He'd only been climbing for a few years, but he had the instincts of a veteran.

At that time, all of los muchachos were illegal to one extent or another. My boss, an ex-Marine, said he'd hire more anglos if they would just show up for work on time and lay off the drugs. When we would hire a new ground guy from south of the border, we would have to tell him to stop for lunch. These guys worked their butts off.

Most of los muchachos were cowboys from the Vera Cruz area and related in some way or another. They had pooled their money and bought a ranch there, and were in the process of stocking it with cows--the real American Dream. They were also buying houses in the San Marcos area of San Diego. They would all move in together and pool their money to buy the house for the guy who'd been there the longest. Then it was the next guy's turn. Seemed like a pretty good arrangement to me.

I've worked on a lot of crews over the years, but the only guys I ever worked with who could compete with los muchachos were the Samoans and Filippinos in Hawaii.

I've worked with some good Mexican climbers but can't say that I've seen any better or worse than American climbers. No doubt they have a good work ethic but so do a lot of Americans. I have learned some things from the mexicanos tho and vice versa. Had one working under me when I worked for one of the larger services in Atlanta. I taught him what I could about climbing. Before he went home he shook my hand and profusely thanked me for teaching him what I knew.

 

[tree md]

Oh yeah, the guy I mentioned was from Acapulco and was used to barefooting it up palms. He never even strapped gear on til he met me.

 

[Mapleman]

Hey,

I meant that to be a new thread. Looks like I double-dipped. I agree with you though, a good climber is a good climber, no matter the nationality. I was thinking more of work ethic, ground guys as well as climbers. It's almost cinco de mayo, I've been drinking red wine, and it's getting late, so I guess I was ruminating a bit.

Immigration is a hot button issue, again. If a guy can scale a 40' to 50' wall to get into the country, I guess that's a good enough climbing reference for me, lol.