Site Discussions

Ian in California,

I use a real thinned down mix of about 50-50 for the first coat of oil to turpentine; let it soak into the surfaces of wood in the axe eye and wedge.  Subsequent coats are thinned much less, maybe 5 to20 percent thinner, or none at all on a hot day. 

With less thinning, let the oil stay on the wood, but wipe off excess after about 20 minutes.  This way you get good drying and the finish is hard, not “gummy”. 

Many coats are good, then as needed over the years.

Ross Morgan

oh my god and please people, stop hitting your mauls/axes with sledge hammers to drive them through. THIS IS DANGEROUS!

The steel of both axes/mauls and hammers is hard and brittle,  striking the two together can easily send shards flying that could injure you or people around you.

If you need to strike the back of your axe or maul it should always be done using a softer material than the steel of the axe. Preferably wood. This is called “batoning” and is usually done with a heavy stick or wooden mallet. Safety first! Then teamwork!

I’d like to just point out that you shouldn’t be splitting wood on the ground, anyway. It should be on a stump or another log so that when your axe or maul goes through the piece you’re splitting, it buries itself in the end-grain of the one underneath instead of in the dirt where rocks can bash up the bit.

Even a blunt maul can take on a gnarly, deformed edge with too much misuse, and a messed up bit can lead to blade deflection and injury.

25 Feb - 8, instead of 2 mourning doves at feeder today - so thanks for the educational material!

Has anyone heard the expression “Bee hopper” in reference to a person who finds hives?

I remember sugaring as a child in St Lawrence County with horse drawn wagon & buckets. Then my Father work sent us from agriculture to West Side Story. No sugaring in Central Park. I returned to my love of farm country & for 21 yrs we lived in Northern VT - yrs of sugaring, sugar on snow parties, the horses etc - your blog gives me memories to enjoy & I thank you. I look forward to reading your blog in the days ahead.

As I’m reading this article, I can’t help but wonder about the practical aspects of rot-resistant trees. I look to the species that take the longest to decay, thinking of them as good for construction material, and notice that conspicuously missing from your list are species that are known to be rot resistant: Cedar, Locust, and Chestnut(?). I’m guessing that the research is not focused on discovering the best material for construction, but isn’t rot resistance essentially what is being discussed here for academic purposes?

Would appreciate more info, if it’s available. Thanks.

My guess is that the warm temperatures weren’t the cause of your bad syrup. I’d try again and see if things are better the next run. It’s hard to say what affect the warm winter will have on the trees. The sap may be less sweet this year because of the warm December. Unless the buds break, they should be able to deal with extreme cold.

Forty five years ago we built a house just inside the woods. In the backyard stood a dead 22”, 15’ beech. It fell 5 years ago. Counting the tree’s 80 yr+ life, 40+ years standing dead & 70 yrs on the ground it influenced the local environment for 2 centuries. Shouldn’t we be using a longer view when managing our woods?

Well I would find it hard to tell the age of a horse shoe without some kind of scientific metal testing. I was a Farrier for many year’s. I can say this though the thing on the front was called a toe grab it was welded to the shoe or I guess it could have been part of the shoe when it was being poured. It probably was a work horse shoe.

I was using a splitting maul? axe? and missed, splitting my fingers. The head of the maul had grooves in it that I thought were meant to make splitting the wood into smaller pieces easier. The injury caused my fingernails to be sliced in the pattern of the grooves.  I need to know what the name of this tool is. Someone told me it was called a waffle head sledge but I think that isn’t correct. Does anyone know what tool I am referring to and what it is called. Thank you.

In May 2014, on the airline trail between Village Hill Road and the power lines I witnessed a cat ~40 to 60 lbs run out on the trail, turn, run north about a 100 yard, then suddenly turn and lay down in the middle of the trail face my direction. The rounded ears, long tail was very distinct. Almost seemed domesticated. I tried to take a picture, quite blurry at that distance, then headed in the opposite direction.

Looks like a Phoenix brand horseshoe, probably 1970’s. They closed shop late ‘70’s - early 1980’s.

We had a very warm December with no snow and record setting high temperatures, unusually warm for about three weeks.

Then it turned cold until late January. At that time it started to look like a very early spring so I tapped my 75 maple trees. Sap ran well and I boiled it down immediately but to my disbelief it produced black bitter syrup. I had to throw it out and dumped all my sap. My theory is that the buds were already out and all I got was “bud sap”. Then temperatures went way down setting a new record at minus 36F below zero in Watertown. My questions are: 1) Was my bad syrup due to bud sap and 2) If so, would the super cold kill all the buds and the trees will then begin to produce good sap until new buds form?  Also what will this do to the maple trees?

This site was so interesting! My son in elementary school is doing a project on rivers and the mills that used to use these rivers for power.  A local river in CT used to have a tannery by it.  My question is the following: we know that the river water was used to soak and clean the hides, but was the water converted into power in the tanneries? If so, what was the power used for? I am guessing it was used to grind the bark, but we have not been able to find an answer to this question.  We know that the river water was used to soak the hides, but we have not yet found a source that says whether tanneries were converting water power into power to operate something in the mill.  Could anyone answer this for us? It has turned out to be a very interesting project, for both kids and parents!

Under bright moonlight I observed what I thought to be a nearly all white skunk. Just a little black on its back near the tail.  How common is this coloration?

Lichens are fascinating.  I like to take close-up photos of them, these miniature landscapes. 

I hope that more study is devoted to them.  Their ecosystem roles are so important in our environment but as far as I know, little understood.

Brings back warm memories of sap season.  I was just a kid, and one of my earliest memories was falling full-length in the sled track outside the sugar shack.  We kids were usually outside playing but I was brought in to dry off.  I was probably about 4 years old. Sugaring off season definitely gets in the blood; I am a forester.

Probably not, Christina. The worms are an issue in a forest setting primarily because they’re destroying the duff layer on the forest floor; in a yard, that layer doesn’t exist. If the trees are in decline there are a whole host of things that might be causing it, but most are human-related.  Lack of mulch, too much mulch, soil compaction, salt from roads, impervious surfaces just to name a few. The worms could be contributing, but I don’t think they’re the primary drivers of the decline.

I sit tired from climbing over and ducking under sap lines as I traverse the hillside. The previous days have been amazingly beautiful due to iced and snow covered trees beneath an amazing blue sky. My face feels the touch of wind and cold. The trees are tapped. Syrup jugs arrived yesterday. I delivered some this morning to a neighbor who was fortunate to catch the early run. Tomorrow promises a sap flow and a first boil in our sugar house for 2016. The miracle of sap to syrup shall once again cast its spell! My body feels older, but my spirit embraces joyful anticipation.