Global wood.

Working on firewood has gotten me to thinking about wood in a broader sense. I did a little search and found photos of people and wood from Italy, Poland, Russia, Bolivia, Peru, Korea, Africa, Southeast Asia, and more.... here are a few views......
You really do need to enlarge these to appreciate the faces. Enjoy!

The firewood hits.....

As always, a double click on a photo will get you a larger view, then hit your "Back" button, or arrow.


I finally got that haymower to work and got the fields done. The ground is rough for mowing, no plowing or disking lately and logging trucks and skidders have been using the field. See the blob in the top left of this photo?




Yes, that's the load of firewood delivered a week and a half ago. After finishing the siding and deck leveling, we planned to start cutting the wood last Saturday.




Ivan came down about 8:00 in the morning and by 11:00 A.M. we were done. Peggy had put some venison loin on the grill and had cooked potatoes, onions, green peppers and cherry tomatoes. A great lunch after a hot morning of sawing.




Ivan, as usual, worked like a trooper! I'll have to figure out a way to pay him back for his help.....




The load was seven pulp cords. A cord of pulp is 128 cubic feet, or a pile of 8 foot long wood that is 4 feet long and 4 feet high. We sawed the wood into 25" lengths, so we got 4 equal pieces from each pulp stick. (That's because the pulp is really 100" long instead of 8 feet) So we expected to get about 14 piles of firewood that would measure 2 feet deep by 4feet high by 8 feet long. Turned out to be about 13 piles, cause the wood stacks up so much tighter in firewood length than it does in 100" lengths.




We got this out right after the wasps started stinging me.....




They were imported with the wood in this nest in a hollow spot in a tree. I only got stung twice, luckily. We doused the nest and spent the rest of the cutting time with a wary eye for wasps. No more stings for anyone......

Following are some views of the splitting and stacking work on Saturday afternoon and Monday evening.

















In the background is the building that this wood will keep warm this winter.... I hope.




The brochure from the stove certainly makes the unit appear to be an attractive addition to any yard. We'll see....

I gotta go, Carlo
>
>
>

Check this silo.....

As I was returning from my awesome air adventure, I hit a detour on Hwy 70. Even thought I could have done the detour and returned to 70, I decided to keep going south on 40. It's a lovely road following the Chippewa river for quite a ways and ends up meeting Hwy 8 at Bruce, the gateway to the Blue Hills. About five miles before I got to Bruce, I saw this silo.....




I slowed immediately, pulled to the side of the road and hauled out my camera. I took a couple of shots and just then a man came out of the greenhouse near the road and asked if everything was O.K. I said Yes, just taking a picture of the silo. He replied that if I pulled my motorcycle into the driveway he would show me that silo.




He was very happy to be showing this silo and telling about the construction and planning they did. Each floor has this same partial winding staircase. The silo is 40' tall, 14' diameter, five floors and very interesting!





I think this is of the third floor, maybe second. The silo originally had little wooden doors up one side, for throwing silage out and down the chute. The chute is gone and some of the holes were used for windows like this. By now you can see the barn roof out side.




This is the 3rd or 4th floor, don't remember which. It serves as the office for the man's wife, she runs the greenhouse and gardens. You can just see the end of the greenhouse out the window. The first floor will serve as a wash-up for the greenhouse workers, the second floor will serve as a lunch area, and as you can see, I'm confused about the 3rd and 4th......




When you arrive at the top of the silo, it's a breath-taking sight! It's like walking into the sky. Light blue walls with a slightly darker ceiling, a large skylite at the top, it's perfect!




With some small lights on the wall, some art and the nicely finished stairway top, it's a very pleasant room. They refer to it as their 'meditation room. I have long dreamed of building something inside a silo and now it seems more possible and quite appealing as well.




Here is the west view, looking over the barn to the fields beyond. You can see a pigeon sitting on the barn roof ridge. You will want to double click these photos to get a better feel for how this all looks.




Here is the view from the top, looking south over their house. The view from up there was not what one expects up here in the land of one or two level buildings. I fell in love with the sense of height you get up there.




Here is a view of the greenhouse and gardens. It think this view was from the 3rd floor. I asked for an email address, and while we were walking to the greenhouse for a buisiness card, I remarked at what a large, well kept place it was. He asked if I knew of the big greenhouse north of Winter? I said yes, my mother used to go there and always said what a nice place it was. He said that his wife was the head grower there for 13? 15? years. "Your mother would probably recognize my wife. Tell her she's a tall girl with a pony tail." Does that sound familiar, Lucy??? This woman, Susanne, also does some photography. You can visit the greenhouse website here. Some nice photos of the grounds can be seen there.

Hugh, if you see this post, let me know what you think.

I gotta go, Carlo
>
>
>