Outdoorsmen New 2/4/2009

Friday's motorcycle movie night was pretty fun. We started off by watching some of On Any Sunday II while waiting for everyone to show up. We watched Faster and then Faster '03-'04 and also a bit of a movie made by a friend of mine of a group of us riding in the Klickitat River area of Washington back in 2002. Pizza, pop and motorcycle movies; what more could you want? We are planning on another motorcycle movie night for early March and plans are to watch The Worlds Fastest Indian (a very good film starring Anthony Hopkins).



Saturday's ice-fishing adventure had a few hardy souls attend. I understand two different groups went out: one early group (for the men; right Jason?) and a group that met at the designated time and went to Canyon Ferry. I've heard the Canyon Ferry group caught......a cold and not much else. Not sure how the early group faired but I understand they went to the causeway. Probably caught 75 lunker trout and a paddle fish......but they let them all go; you know, catch and release and all.....



Tuesday's meeting and Bible study had a good turn out again (we had 10 show up). We spent quite a bit of time going over Outdoorsmen business. I feel we need to get Outdoorsmen business taken care of sooner so we can get into Bible study earlier and go longer. I'd very much like to get feedback from all of you though. The meetings are for all of us so please respond with your thoughts and opinions.

We studied Luke 17:20-37 but didn't get all the way through (the discussion was excellent though and we ended up doing as much, if not more, study in Exodus thanks to me getting us off topic....a bit....).

Glenn introduced an idea about possibly getting involved with AngelFood Ministries to bring low cost food to the Helena area for needy families. You can find out more about AngelFood Ministries by visiting http://www.angelfoodministries.com

We discussed an idea for a community free firewood outreach that we'd most likely begin this spring. Still many details to work out but the basics are a local contractor is thinning beetle-kill trees in the general Helena area and is enthusiastic to have a group such as ours help remove the felled trees from the private properties. I contacted the US Forest Service rep assigned to the MT Governor's office with a few questions about handling beetle-kill trees and his response is below.

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From:
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 2:53 PM
To: Noble, John
Subject: RE: Questions about handling beetle kill wood


I’m glad you’re thinking about this. Trees that are obviously dead and have no needles pose no problem—the beetles have hatched and flown on to attack green living trees. However, trees that still have needles but appear dead, especially if the needles are just yellow rather than red, probably do have larvae that will hatch in May or June and if brought into town, could attack pine trees here. The safe thing if at all possible is to cut the trees that have obviously been dead for more than a year. They make better firewood too. Hope that helps. Jerry.




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From: Noble, John
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 11:35 AM
To:
Subject: Questions about handling beetle kill wood


Jerry, Our church Outdoorsmen group is looking into doing a firewood outreach for local Helena families. We've contacted a local contractor who is conducting beetle kill removal on private property in the surrounding area. The contractor is enthusiastic to have our group assist in removing the felled trees from the sites. I have some questions and/or concerns about this however.


Can beetle kill trees be safely brought into town and split for firewood? Are there any concerns we should have about transporting beetles and/or their larvae from the cut site to a storage/distribution site here in Helena?


Our goal is to provide free firewood to needy families in the Helena are but we want to make sure we do it in a responsible manner.


Thanks,

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Upcoming Outdoorsmen Events


Saturday 2/7/2009 - Outdoorsmen Family Ski Day at Great Divide
Great Divide opens for skiing at 9:00 AM. Keith and a couple of others are planning on meeting at Great Divide at 8:00 AM sharp. A few other Outdoorsmen will be on site by 8:30 AM to help direct people as they arrive and help distribute lift tickets and get people their rental equipment. Look for signs that read HSBC Outdoorsmen attached to Glenn's big white pickem-up-truck.

For the record, Keith reports we had at least 38 paid attendees as of last night. Great job Keith and everyone else involved.



Next Outdoorsmen Bible Study's
Sunday 2/8/2009 - Starbucks on Prospect, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
We didn't get all the way finished with Luke 17:20-37 so we will finish that up and possibly get started on Luke 18:1-8. Please come prepared to get started no later than 5:40 PM.

Tuesday 2/17/2009 - 7:00 PM at Smith's Place in East Helena




John Noble outdoorsmen@hannaford.org
HSBC Outdoorsmen