Trailer design challenges LSRV teen

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

Chaunce Criswell, a Little Snake River Valley School senior, used a metal cutting torch to modify a winch for his trailer.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Of all the Little Snake River Valley vocational agriculture metal shop projects, one outsizes them all.

Measuring 41 feet long and 8 1/2 feet wide, senior Chaunce Criswell’s trailer occupies nearly one-third of the garage space at the Little Snake River Valley School.

“As the American dream grows, you need a bigger, tougher machine,” Criswell said. His project even has a hydraulic lift that angles 22 feet of the 30-foot deck toward the ground for easy loading. It is powerful enough and has enough leverage to function as a jack, too, lifting the heavy iron off the ground enough to change the rear tires.

Criswell pulls on fireproof coveralls — a requirement since he singed the others — twice a day to work on his project. He’ll even stay after school to get work done.

“I ordered the parts toward the beginning of the (school) year,” Criswell said. His family purchased the parts while the school allowed the use of the shop and its equipment. Criswell started working in October and has had little help from anyone but his teacher, Dale Wille.

The hulking web of interconnected beams has Criswell’s custom mark all over it, literally. The fancy metal light fixtures, a total of 29, that run the length of the trailer have a Baroque-like curved design with two Cs, Criswell’s initials, on either side of the opening for the light. These and the winches still need to be attached to the deck.

“I hide the tools I like to use,” Criswell said with a laugh as he moved toward the torch tucked far into the corner of the shop. “Why would anyone use this one when that one is right there?” He gestured toward the smaller, older machine in the center of the room. “They don’t know this one’s better.”

Lighting the torch with a simple spark, he turned some knobs, adjusting the flame to cut part of the metal winch.

Criswell’s trailer is a custom design, but some of the parts were pre-fabricated, including the winches, the hydraulic lift and the torsion axles — each of which can handle 10,000 pounds and allowed Criswell to widen the load-bearing frame for better support.

Could his untried, untested custom design fail? “I’m trying to think of a part I’m worried about,” Criswell said. “But really, I can’t think of anything. But, if it did break, I could fix it.” He grinned and said, “I mean, I put it together in the first place.”

Criswell thinks the vocational agriculture program at his school has utmost practicality. Almost all the LSRVS students participate in the classes. According to him, all of what the students learn in the classes is applicable.

“You can diagnose your sick dog or really understand your food,” he said.

Criswell plans to enter the trailer in the county fair with the goal of moving on to the state competition. If he goes to state, he is up against kids around the state from larger programs. Trailers usually don’t win in the contest with calf tables and loading chutes, but Criswell hopes his attention to detail and custom engineering design will prove the extra step necessary for success.

The trailer is a practical project for Criswell and his family. He’ll take it home when it’s finished, with hopes to put it to use as a hot shot worker, hauling materials from Casper to the energy fields.

Moms weather snowstorms

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

When early spring storms roll in, the Wyoming frontier becomes a proving ground for good mothers.

Amid the 10 or so inches of snow that fell earlier this week, four cows at Sandstone Ranch had calves, causing Colleen Stratton to worry. If it got too cold, the calves were at risk.

Still, each year she trusts the instincts of the mothers to take care of their young.

Born wet with low circulation, calves depend on their mothers to lick them dry and in the process, stimulate circulation.

Many cows are left on the range to give birth naturally, and sometimes this means a loss for ranchers. Other times, it simply amounts to cosmetic damage such cropped ears or shortened tails resulting from frostbite.

“(The cows) take them into the brush or into a protected spot,” she said. “In that way, they’re a lot like deer and antelope or anything else ... (they) try to get out of the weather best they can.” But, if a cow comes back without a calf in the fall, Sandstone Ranch prepares to sell.

It shows “they aren’t good mothers,” Stratton said. “It’s a process of elimination. (Bad motherhood) is a trait we don’t want in our herd.” Often, a cow is young and in good enough shape to either be sold for meat or to a rancher who wants to give her another shot at carrying young.

On the other hand, two-year-old cows — heifers — often get assistance in the mothering process. Cows, like humans, must learn how to take care of their young. They are kept in corrals or barns until they learn the motherhood ropes and can join the herd on the range.

Though some spring storms can threaten to drop a foot of snow or more, Stratton said it’s difficult to move a herd indoors each time the weather changes. Early spring temperatures generally rise quickly enough after storms to provide a livable environment for the animals outside.

Saratoga begins bug battle

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

With this year’s hefty snowfall, the cost of keeping mosquitos at bay in Saratoga for the summer may increase.

“It is a good possibility that there will be a bigger (mosquito) problem this year,” Saratoga Public Works Director Chuck Bartlett said. “It depends on how the snow melts.”

Saratoga officials are advertising for a contractor to spray for mosquitos. Bartlett expects to finish evaluating bids by the end of the month.

“We have stepped up our efforts because of the threat of the West Nile virus,” Bartlett said. Last year, Carbon County saw its first case of the virus. “But one case is one too many,” Bartlett said.

The plan of attack is to target the larvae. The first phase begins in late May, as public works personnel plan to place a larvicide in pools of standing water. The large tablets that last a few months, are designed to inhibit mosquito growth. Usually, larvicides do not pose threats to humans or wildlife because they do not generally leech into groundwater.

In mid-June, mosquito spraying is expected to begin. The Saratoga town budget includes about $70,000 for mosquito control, but because this is a wetter year, Bartlett said it may cost more to spray Scourge 412.

The mosquito control crew monitors Scourge 412’s success by setting up mosquito traps, nets that capture the pests. “We have to count and classify them,” Bartlett said.

According to Bartlett, Scourge 412 doesn’t have major environmental ramifications. It isolates four types of mosquitos and should not harm honey bees or most other insects, though it often does kill some flies.

Still, since all pesticides are inherently toxic, residents should take precautions such as minimizing contact with sprayed surfaces for 24 hours so the pesticide has time to sufficiently degrade.