Friday  4/29:  I made a quick trip over to be available to help Doug Fox on a project he was wanting to complete.  Mrs. Korstange wanted the switch stand removed from the front yard and a mailbox planted. Since Friday was a work day for Doug, I stayed on the RR and took the Bruce Bus #3 for a ride around to see if we had any trees down since the last time over.  Glad to report we had none!  I took a work train down to Clear Lake with #25 to ditch around the TT and clear the ditch that drains away from the TT from dirt and leaves for a ways.  After that, I took #25 and grabbed the tie flat and was backing thru the switch for the tie barn and the front axle dropped off the rail.  Upon investigation, the guard rail came out and that allowed the wheel set to drop.  I rounded up the bottle jacks and lifted the front end and was able to guide it back on.  I pushed #25 back across and looked the switch over and found there was no tie under one end of the guard rail to hold the spikes.  So I went up and got the tool car and came down and got a tie to put one there.  After that one got in, 2 others were bad at that end so I put them in while there.  That wrapped up Friday.

Saturday  4/30:  was the day to go over for the switch stand but my help had to beg off so it was put off till Sunday.  First up was clean a spot by the shop for the switch stand.  While digging there I found all kinds of short rail pieces.  Must have been Jacks graveyard for short ends.
Since I needed switch ties, I had a pile cut that needed preservative, I setup shop at the horse barn and painted away between short showers till the big one came near the end of the day.  I got all but 5 done.  Here is a pic of that along with the bare frame that Tom Weaver and I repurposed from a canoe rack that Jack had parked outback of the tie barn.  I used it for a drying rack.

Sunday  5/01:  help came, I had Brayden and Nick to get the switch stand along with meeting Bruce there with his trailer and hand cart.  It popped right out of the ground as Mel had it spiked to 4X4 treated wood that held up very well over the years.  It went on the hand truck and rolled into the trailer.  Bruce whisked it away and we met him at the shop to unload.  A quick roll of the handcart and it was placed. 
Back over to the Korstange house and we planted the new post and mailbox.  Doug showed up while we were at lunch. After lunch, we grabbed #25 and a flat and the gon to go up to Old George to retrieve the switch that was waiting pickup.  We placed it on the Mill 3 spur for future use. Next up was loading the treated ties on the tie flat.  Brayden was backing #25 thru the switch frog while I watched.  It clunked the first wheel on the guard rail so I had him stop.  It seems it needs some adjusting!  We hand pushed the flat back to the tie barn and loaded 60 some ties on her.  While going up to Old George, Doug noticed the bad ties on the CBE branch and said something about that.  I agreed and we headed over to it and started pulling out bad ones.  We did about 30.  That ended a productive day.
- -  Tom