How many years have you all been involved in the Bronco world?

[Yeller]

Cool story @.94 OR! My cone picking was for Douglass Fir, my dog had a nose for squirrel nests so I did a lot less climbing lol.

 

[.94 OR]

If I can bore you with a little more to the story.
I now almost exclusively work with Douglas fir. Western Red Cedar, Lodgepole pine, Western White pine, Ponderosa pine, Western Hemlock and Noble fir were mixed in years ago, but not so much now.
Anyway, the process of woods collecting the cones (think climbing or squirrel cache) has zero genetic gain. By finding a suitable mom (flower/cone donor) and a suitable dad (pollen donor) in the wild and crossing them by excluding any other pollen, you get a "family" designation for that cross. There is still massive diversity within family but it helps select the desirable traits. Do that several times across the landscape and you have enough to test. These seedlings from the crossed seed is put into a progeny trial, ideally several to sample across geography, geology, elevation and weather influence. Once this is done, then the trees can be measured and determine which ones meet your objectives. They can either be used for creating an operational orchard for seed production, or selected to be grafted into a breeding orchard to make more crosses for future gains in traits of interest. Very similar to crop breeding but on a tremendously longer time horizon.
Picture attached has a progeny trial across the top 60%, and 3 other blocks below it. Believe it or not, the fence that I install around these tests keep the deer and elk from browsing them as is evidence in the photo. The area surrounding the test is the same age! Lower left block are family blocks of 5x5 so you can see one block that is dying out already, and others that have color differences.
Anyway, you can continue this process of breeding, growing and testing, measuring, selecting, crossing/breeding, growing etc. for many cycles and continue to gain value in desired traits. I don't have to climb trees anymore since we are working on younger trees and can reach most of our material from the ground.

 

[nvrstuk]

Interesting work. That deer/elk fence sure makes a case in point! What's the rainfall in this area if you know? Eastern Or?

Learn something every day!

Thanks again

 

[.94 OR]

What's the rainfall in this area if you know? Eastern Or?

about 47" annually.
Some places a little less, some a lot more.

 

[nvrstuk]

47" in E. OR?

Must be up against the Cascade range?

 

[.94 OR]

Not E. OR.

I cover from the salt line to the Cascades. I used to have to cover WA as well but that was too many miles and way too many contractors for one person to keep up with so they finally hired me some help.

 

[nvrstuk]

Was wondering where the mini rain forest was on the east side...

 

[toddz69]

This is all very interesting! Thanks for sharing these details.

Todd Z.

 

[.94 OR]

I had a series of weather stations installed a while back. This graph shows total annual precip across the stations I had in 2009-2011. Pretty impressive since I didn't know really how much water we were dealing with.
Top line is about a 30 minute drive from my front door in the Cascades, 2nd line is a rocks throw from the salt line. Go figure.

 

[VISPDX]

Since 1992 - so 34 years. Found my Bronco full of garbage on the north side of a barn. Spotted it while driving - walked up and asked if they would sell it. It had been sitting for 7-8 years. Later last week It was mine - drove it home.

 

[surfer-b]

The cones were collected for seed to be used for reforestation purposes. The cones had to be removed from the tree just as the seed was getting mature but before the cone had a chance to desiccate and open allowing the wind blown seed to be released to the wild. I didn't know anything about the process but I was not foreign to climbing trees as a younger kid. My neighbor at the time worked for the USFS and would come up and help my dad and I on weekends build our house. He asked me that year if I wanted a job. I told him I had one as it was just my dad and I building his 3600 sqft, 3 story house. He came back with: "a job that pays", that got my attention. In this case, the USFS managed the orchard for Western White Pine seed. The white pine has a storied past of being preferred for main masts in the ship building era. Both eastern and western. https://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2013/11/white-pine-trees-and-american-revolution.html
In this case, the USFS managed the local orchard and were recruiting climbers. I took to it pretty fast outpacing the earnings of any other climber the first year. Years later crews would show up to challenge my production and yet failed. My older brother would come over and pick and since we were by far faster, I was able to lock in my preferred 10 rows; 4 for me, 3 for my brother and 3 for my dad. My dad would show up on a cool morning and pick one tree for me and one tree for my brother and call it a season. Then my brother and I would pick the rest of the trees in the 10 rows. Nobody else got more than 2 rows assigned to them. These trees were about 60' tall or so.
The white pine is a preferred timber species, although waning, because it has a problem with blister rust. The orchard I was picking in had been genetically selected and bred to be somewhat resistant to the rust so it would hopefully grow to full maturity in the woods. Therefore, woods collection of cones/seeds was frowned on.
I had also picked some Ponderosa Pine cones but those trees were massive and the production was a lot slower due to the climb time. It's a bit humbling when you would pick cones into a burlap bag, tie it off and then hang out as far from the tree bole as possible and let the bag go. Get a solid 8 second count and sometimes more before the bag would hit the ground. A guy's got to trust his equipment at that height.
I've worked in other orchards since then and most recently helped on a woods collection for Noble fir using a helicopter. That was a fun project too.
Pic of me climbing the tree: I had to run up and collect some foliage for grafting to add this family into an orchard block. They won't let me climb anymore.

now thats not the everyday job, I don't think you would have to worry about job security very much, I wouldn't think many people would be willing to do that

 

[bronconut73]

1983 for me....probably about June or July.
Picked my 1973 Wagon up from a Jax, Fl. city auction.
It had been a linesman vehicle so it had a big cable spool on the front of it.
I was only 13. I paid $650 for it... Oh my old man paid the other $650 that I didn't have at that moment in time.... He really made me work my ass off for that other $650 haha..And yes even in 1983 that $1,300.00 bucks was a damn good deal.... Which is why my stepfather stepped in to help me complete the purchase. Besides I was too young to actually have an auction ticket but they were letting me bid like I had one... I think my old man was standing behind me.
And I still have my Bronco today. I have done just about everything you can do to one of them including driving it through high school and college and to the interview for the job that I am still at 36 years later. No i am not a young man but I am very lucky to still have my old Bronco and I still got my old stepdad.
Love me some old Bronco stories.

 

[nvrstuk]

1983 for me....probably about June or July.
Picked my 1973 Wagon up from a Jax, Fl. city auction.
It had been a linesman vehicle so it had a big cable spool on the front of it.
I was only 13. I paid $650 for it... Oh my old man paid the other $650 that I didn't have at that moment in time.... He really made me work my ass off for that other $650 haha..And yes even in 1983 that $1,300.00 bucks was a damn good deal.... Which is why my stepfather stepped in to help me complete the purchase. Besides I was too young to actually have an auction ticket but they were letting me bid like I had one... I think my old man was standing behind me.
And I still have it today. I have done just about everything you can do to one of them including driving it through high school and college and to the interview for the job that I am still at 36 years later. No i am not a young man but I am very lucky to still have my old Bronco and I still got my old stepdad.
Love me some old Bronco stories.

Cool story... love the memories, good times & family involved in it...
Thx for sharing!

 

[Grey owl]

Bought my first Bronco in 1978.

 

[Vincen]

Bought my first one, 1976 with Kayline soft top and hard top, in 1992. Had a 1969 Sport and a 1970 Sport since.

 

[RODRIG3911]

I bought mine and started building it in 2004

 

[JeepGuy]

Oh boy... Prior to owning one I spent several years trash talking them in our little off road group. All in good fun of course as we were all out there just enjoying the trails together and helping each other out anyway. Bought my first one from another poster on here and the infamy began... Stolen Bronco, Luckily discovered before I put any real money into it, other poster had an extensive collection and pieced together the Bronco I currently have now to replace the stolen one he sold me. It's been at least a couple decades of actual ownership, with maybe two years of actual driving .

 

[stuclary]

This is my first post after lurking for a while
My dad bought a '75 on New Years Day, 1977.
I was a junior in high school when I got it from him in 1980. I drove it every day for the next 20ish years until, because of life and kids and whatnot it I found myself driving it less and less until I finally parked it in the garage and covered it in blankets.
I got off my ass last year and committed to a full restoration. Some of which I can do myself, but mainly at a local shop
Should be back on the road soon
Trying to post pics but phone and/or laptop are letting me down at the moment, but that's both of us in my profile pic from 1977. The picture has faded but it's Wimbledon White (of course) over Baytree Green
Kinda wish I still had some of that hair

 

[Yeller]

This is my first post after lurking for a while
My dad bought a '75 on New Years Day, 1977.
I was a junior in high school when I got it from him in 1980. I drove it every day for the next 20ish years until, because of life and kids and whatnot it I found myself driving it less and less until I finally parked it in the garage and covered it in blankets.
I got off my ass last year and committed to a full restoration. Some of which I can do myself, but mainly at a local shop
Should be back on the road soon
Trying to post pics but phone and/or laptop are letting me down at the moment, but that's both of us in my profile pic from 1977. The picture has faded but it's Wimbledon White (of course) over Baytree Green
Kinda wish I still had some of that hair

Nice story!

Here’s a link to Post pictures. pay a small annual membership fee and post all you want

 

[Jdgephar]

Does the 1978 my dad owned when I was born in 1981 count? I can remember riding in it as a kid. I was probably 3 or 4 when he sold it. Then a short time gap until I bought my own white 1994 XL in the summer of 2003 (not OJ's). Both of my brothers also drove 1994 full size Broncos. I also had a 1996 Eddie Bauer for a few years. Drove the '94 daily for several years until I found a 1968 EB (my avatar) and purchased it in 2008. I ended up giving the '94 to my middle brother, who still has it. I knew a friend of a friend who had a 1972 Bronco and a spare 302 engine. I contacted him and made a deal in 2012 to buy the spare engine. I went up to get the engine and came home with an engine and a '72 Bronco, lol. After the 347 blew up, I tore it down to the frame and rebuilt it. Finished that two years ago now. This spring, that same friend contacted me about a '70 for sale on face-space. I ended up buying that. Goal is to get it running and driving, and reliable. My youngest brother really wants to buy it when I get it running. Body is not great, but it'll run and drive. It also came with all new fenders if we want to use them. Just got the V-8 painted and mounted in it last weekend. Transmission and x-fer case are ready to mate up and go in probably later this week. More stuff on the engine side to finish up before I can start it, but the goal is to have it moving on it's own before winter hibernation.

So if you count the one my father had in '81, that's 45 years.

My grandfather had a '78 K5 Blazer that he sold when I was 15 or 16. I really wanted that...