This Friday we will help out a neighbor - Johnson Farms. Johnson Farms as many of you know is a farm which was donated to the Henderson County School system several years ago. It is preserved as a site to show the history of Henderson County and how people lived years ago. They suffered storm damage and need help clearing up the mess. As I understand it there are several large trees down that need to be removed. We can do a good neighbor a favor and this would be a good time for our newly trained sawyers to get in some practice on a little better ground than most of our trails. So let's meet at the gate to Johnson Farms - across the road from the middle school on 191 - at 9. Note the VERY late start time - I want school traffic to clear out before we get there. And besides, its cold out there. Would like as many recently trained sawyers out as possible - this should be a good chance for some of the more experienced sawyers to work with the newer ones. This will be our last outing for the year. I am authorizing paid holidays over Christmas and New Year's. As ever, please let me know if you will be out this week. Bill

Just returned from Johnson Farms. There are many trees (maybe 40?) down that they would like cut. I am trying to locate a logger who may want to come in and remove the logs - don't know if I will have any luck with him or not. But what we will do tomorrow is remove limbs and drop some that are hung above a short trail they have. There are some we will not cut because they are too dangerous - need a pro for them. If I can locate the logger, we will cut the trees into 12 foot lengths - maybe 12'6" or so - which will make good lumber logs for him. Or we may cut some of the smaller ones into firewood length. Main thing we are after on this trip is to make the area around their trail safe for children as they have large numbers of them frequently. Pizza is served at 11:30 - How's that for service??? We can use lots of saws tomorrow. I would like our newly trained sawyers to do lots of the work, but there is enough for anyone trained who would like to run a saw tomorrow. Others will be needed to clear and as best we can stack the wood to make it safe. See you at 9 in the front parking lot of the farm. Anyone not familiar with the farm, there are two drives - one for exit another to enter on the south end of the farm. The farm is located across from the middle school just south of the traffic light - a large brown sign shows the way. Skip - let your crew know what's going on. Bill

Folks, We have a little problem with our workday this Friday. All our job sites are covered with snow and/or ice, so we can't get to them. I have sent a note to Bill Newton asking if their crew can use any help this week, and as soon as I hear back from him, I will let you know. This will be our last workday for the year, as the following two Fridays are Christmas eve and New Years eve, so I would like to get out if we can. Keep an eye on your E-Mail, and I will send out a note as soon as I hear from Bill. Skip

Folks, This is the work Bill's crew is doing this Friday. I suggest we join them. Forest Service office would be a good place to meet for the Asheville folks who want to carpool. I would suggest around 8:15. Johnson Farm is located in Hendersonville on Highway 191 just past West Henderson High School. You would go to the intersection past the Mills River restaurant and turn Left on Rt. 191 toward Hendersonville It's on the left about a mile from this intersection. Hendersonville people just go straight to Johnson farm. Digging tools would be the best thing to bring. Please let me know if you are coming. Skip

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

Either there will be sidehilling in at 74A OR Don may want to go back to MST above the spring at Rattlesnake Lodge...so he should direct where you go. Reply to Don: dlcsmc@charter.net Have a good one. JS

Howard McDonald's Saturday Work Crew

John Webb reports mucho snow in his area and, as we know, it is cold!! We now need to bring out the carts, log carriers, etc., and forget about working at the site until Spring. If the snow is too deep to drive in on the FS road, we can walk in, pull the carts up to the road and pull everything out using the carts. This assumes we can drive in to the gate at Max Patch but we may even have to wait to do that! I can carry all the stuff to my house for storage with the roofing but my car will not go well, if at all, over a snow covered road. Howard

nyone interested in joining the trail crews contact: Hendersonville area-Bill Newton, 828-693-4033, Brevard area-Dick Johnson, 828-884-3685, Asheville area-Skip Shelton, 828-891-3264 or Piet Bodenhorst, 828-298-8371, Misha Lazer, 828-259-9729, lazerm@bellsouth.net , Mike Lang, 828-658-1914, mlang626@buncombe.main.nc.us

USFS policy is that no sawyer ever operate a saw alone. So the minimum work party size is two -- the sawyer and one other person, call them what you will - swamper, assistant, safety valve, etc. This policy is in the USFS Health and Safety Code Handbook -- so it's policy based on regulation, tied to OSHA. I believe that ATC policy mirrors this. For chainsaws, that the second person is NOT required to have any special qualifications == doesn't have to be saw certified, doesn't have to be certified in First Aid or CPR. Of course, there is value in that person being able to give first aid and CPR if the sawyer is hurt, but it's not a requirement. There's been a lot of discussion in a lot of circles about that issue, and the rationale came down to having the sawyer be certified because he's the one person who we are sure is going to be onsite if the saw is operated. And, lots of saw accidents involve injury to folks other than the actual sawyer. Pete Irvine, AT Coordinator, USDA Forest Service, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425 pirvine@fs.fed.us phone: 304-535-6737

There has been a Sawyer S212 chainsaw certification class set up. The following information should be communicated ASAP as time is short.

WHERE: December 17 Pisgah Ranger Station Conference Room December 18 Pisgah Ranger Station Work Center Shop (east end Of building AKA Carpenters shop)

WHO: 12 (TWELVE ONLY) Persons in need of certification. Class members will be selected from all clubs/crews.

PREREQUISITES: Student MUST have a current First Aid and CPR card in hand on the day of the class. No cards - no class. See class availability schedule attached.

WHAT TO BRING: December 17. Lunch and open mind! December 18. Hard Hat (FS will provide if student does not have). Eye Protection “ ” “ ” “ Hearing Protection “ ” “ ” Leather work gloves Minimum of 8" high leather work boots - This is MANDATORY. Lunch Plenty of water Be prepared for inclement weather. Class will go on in cold weather. Only exception is heavy rain or icy conditions. Field class would then be postponed.

Each crew chief will be notified of selected students by Monday, December 13, 2004.

Additional S212 classes and re-certification classes will be announced as soon as classes can be set up. There is a new FS rule that requires one instructor for each four student. We only have three certified instructors.

The Forest Service will schedule First Aid and CPR classes at the Forest in January/February - - as soon as we can get then set up. The Forest Service will pay for them so nobody will have to pay out of their pocket and then be reimbursed. I think this is great news. Then we will schedule a sawyer classes and get anybody who wants to be certified done! Bruce

The Red Cross in Asheville has continuous First Aid and CPR classes with scheduling quarterly. There is even a Wilderness First Aid Class. They are easy to get into and cost around $40 for both First Aid and CPR combined: http://www.ashevillemountainredcross.org/courselink.html .

Those of you wish to get your certification or re-certification done, the Transylvania American Red Cross is offering first aid courses on the following schedule:

12/14/04 Tuesday Adult CPR Recert. MUST have a CURRENT Red Cross CPR card or an American Heart in the first year of certification on that card. 9 AM - 11:30 AM. COST = $25.00

January 4, 2005 Tuesday First Aid 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM 6 Thursday Adult CPR/AED 5:30 PM to 8:PM 11 Tuesday Adult CPR/AED 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM 13 Thursday First Aid 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM 20 Thursday Adult CPR Recert. 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM 20 Thursday Adult CPR/AED 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

12/11/04 Saturday First Aid 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM 12/11 Saturday Adult CPR 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM 12/16 Thursday Adult CPR 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Wilderness Basic First Aid :The Transylvania Red Cross is willing to put on a Wilderness First Aid class provided we can get at least 5 students. The class is 16 hours over 2 days or one day and 2 evenings. The cost is $75.00. Please have any interested persons contact me either by e-mail Bruceeryden@aol.com or telephone my home 828-891-2753. I will collect the names and when we have sufficient students I will set the class up with the Red Cross. December 7, 2004

There's an additional First Aid/CPR course opportunity for CMC sawyers. It will be held on Friday, March 4-Saturday, March 5 in the Cherokee, NC area and taught by Landmark Learning of Sylva. The course will be similar to the one we put on for your folks last March here in Asheville. It will consist of CPR on Friday evening 6-10pm, Basic First Aid from 8am-noon on Saturday, and then a "Wilderness Workshop" from 1-5pm. The cost to participants would be $80 or only $15 for certified sawyers. I'll have more details soon. Please help spread the word to your folks! Matt Davis

Our agreements with the Forest Service and other government entities require that chain saw operators be certified in chain saw operation and that they have first aid and CPR training. The Education Committee has developed a CMC centralized database recording the sawyer certifications and expiration dates. An up to date list of qualified sawyers is maintained on the CMC web site. It is the individual responsibility of each sawyer to report certification changes to: cmctm@carolinamtnclub.org .Currently 60% of the chain saw operators do not have the required certifications. Please do NOT saw for the CMC or any other public organization unless you are properly certified.

Save the date - February 5, 2005 - for the FMST Annual meeting in Greensboro, NC. This years guest speaker will be Deirdre F. Hewitt with the RTCA program under the National Park Service in Asheville, NC. She will tell us all about the RTCA program; you can visit here for more info: http://www.nps.gov/rtca/ . The FMST is discussing along with the Department of Parks and Recreation in using this program for the MST East Plan. This meeting of Task Forces has proven to benefit the MST with reports and planning for the new year. Information will be mailed out in the near future about this meeting. Thanks for your time. Jeff Brewer www.ncmst.org

A record of each person certified to operate a chainsaw on trails that the CMC maintains has been added to the web site. The list is intended to serve several purposes. First, the list will show for the first time the names and location of the sawyers that are available to contact to help clear the trails that we are responsible for. Second, the listing also accumulates for the first time our expiration dates for the three certifications that you must have to remove trees for the Forest Service and National Park Systems in our region. The three certifications are: Sawyer, First Aid and CPR. The typical terms of certification are 3 years for sawyer, 2 years for First Aid and 1 year for CPR. the listing may viewed here: Sawyer Certification List

We are going back to Holmes this Friday to finish up the trails there. Meet at the Holmes ranger station at 8:30 (note late time) as before. Please let me know if you are coming out. Bill

Folks, Well we are going to go back to the new shelter area on Friday, but not to move logs. Instead, we will head North on the AT and do some tread repair. Piet and Howard walked this section the Friday after Thanksgiving and found it needs a little TLC. Bring digging tools. There are a lot of roots to cover over and some widening to do. This part of the trail will be included in the hikes at next summers AT conference, so we want it to be in tip-top shape. Howard, please bring your saw as we need to cut some cribbing. Asheville folks meet at Home Depot at 8:00, Hendersonville people at Ingles at 7:20. Please let me know if you are coming, and try to make it before the last minute. With the small crews we have been having out, when everyone I have heard from is there, we leave. Sometimes that is before 8:00. If I know you are planning to come, we will wait, but I sometimes don't check my E-Mail late Thursday evening and if I didn't see your reply, we may leave you. Skip

Pre Work Report: Folks, The latest forecast I can find shows this rain continuing though at least tomorrow morning and then the strong possibility (70%) of showers thought the afterneen. Doesn't sound like a good bet for us old folks who can't afford to get sick this close to the holidays, so lets call off the trail work for tomorrow. Will try again next week.

PS note that next Friday will be our last one for trail work this year as the following two Fridays are Christmas eve and New Years eve

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

The weather should be sunny and warming up as Wednesday passes along. We are going to BRP access to Rattlesnake Lodge...climb up above the lodge on MST and pass the spring. Above that we will find our work for tomorrow. Some tread work; steps and good fun. Bring tread tools...Mr. Brooker, if you are coming bring your saw. I will call Charlie. We will be missing Jorge for close to 4 months and we say our good byes to him and wish him a safe journey. I got an encouraging email from our number 2 man, David Bair who is "beginning" to prepare to return soon to our Crew. MEET at Folk Art Center at 8:00 AM...Reply as usual: to jr4152@bellsouth.net See you out tomorrow. JS

Post Work report: You guys will be may notice that I'm sending a copy of this post trail report to the MST Section Trail Maintainer, a man or women by the name of Beverly Van Diver so you will have to forgive my politeness, which is very unusual. Having Mr. Walton on the Crew makes for easy learning and this was his very gracious suggestion...let's get friendly (heaven forbid) with the section trail maintainers...We will EVEN begin to invite them out (sometimes) to join us...(maybe they will bring the beer. A great day to be outdoors with the heavy, long rains clearing out. Park at Tanbark Tunnel and hiked with a full Crew of 7 (all heavy hitters) up beyond the spring on the MST to rebuild trail...4 steps, 187 feet of sidehilling, plus one 22 foot, 3 and 1/4 inches of quality cribbing (installed the proper way). A saw team removed 6 trees and one bad snag from the MST and the south access trail to T. Tunnel (thanks to Barth Brooker). One of our Crew dropped off at the very beginning as we started up the north access trail and cleaned 47 water bars of which 3 were on the MST above Rattlesnake Lodge (good show, Don C.) Don't know how the cold beer was left out of the truck and for some reason it probably has to do with Bill Newton. Outstanding performance today on trail building, tree removal, step cutting and installing. Thanks guys. Official Report follows.

It looks as if the weather people are again going to favor us. Let's see if we can go in again on Saturday, Dec 11 and put up a few more logs so we are ready to put on the platform the next time. Let me know if you can make it. We will meet at the Home Depot at exit 44 from I-40 at 8:00 AM. Howard

Pre Work Report: It looks as if there will be a very slippery slope down to the shelter site even if there is no ice or snow. I guess we had better call it off for now, maybe we can do it on the 18th. If not, then that is it for this year and probably for most of the winter. I will check with you next week as to if we can go on the 18th. Howard