Site Discussions

What a beautiful writer you are. Such an interesting article! I’ve learned so much. Thanks for sharing!

Just happened upon this old wood splitters discussion. Im the novice of all of you woodsmen, Young and old spent the last 4 days at a friends families cabin just outside of West Yellowstone on Hegen Lake in Montana. Its an annual opportunity to drink vast sums of whiskey and beer, catch as many fish as we can and pile cord after cord for the next summer season. To blast through the cords we used a powerful little Briggs and Stratton splitting screw ... but the large fresh Ponderosa logs put too much torque on the support arm and tore through the steel.

L. obscurum is commonly called “princess pine,” but this is one of those plants that has a dizzying number of informal names, depending on where you are and whom you’re talking with. While I haven’t heard it called “prince’s pine” before, it may well that it has that name in some circles.

I wonder however if you’re thinking of pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) which is not a clubmoss but also grows in our region. One of its common names is prince’s pine. 
- Elise

I agree with the CU in principle but I’m pretty sure it’s the forest getting screwed. Our neighbor just had her regularly scheduled “logging” done, which I was assured by the logger would be a “selective cut”.

If I wanted them to preserve the bike trail I could flag it every fifty feet. Naively, I spent an afternoon doing just that. What a joke. Even the state forester I got out here to have a look called it a “clear cut.” Nary even a seed tree left standing in the 5 acre gash in the forest.

It’s hard to reconcile something that’s supposed to be protective of Vermont’s environment with DESTRUCTION of that environment. I know, I know, it will all grow back eventually. When I’m old and grey. So I said well, at least it must have given scores of loggers food on their table. I met the loggers. Not including the guy who drives around from site to site, there were three. Who were about .0001 percent by mass of their diesel-guzzling, out-of-state-made machines….

What is there to keep the loggers from taking everything?

Dave - Thanks for the enjoyable reading! I’m a woodworker, and wood movement in these remarkable temp/humidity swings in the NE is definitely important. For furniture, there is a whole bag of tools. For a camp door, I’d go with option B. You’ll likely rework anyway, and do you really care about a few cracks? Keep writing!

The saw tooth graph seems to prove that wood burning is not carbon neutral. As soon as the trees reach as size where they are absorbing a reasonable amount of CO2 they are felled and it is back to virtually zero and it takes a decade or so before they start to absorb much CO2.

Son and I hand built small cabin & made the door with tongue in groove boards. Perfect fit. But then rain, winter drafts, etc., so we had to do lots of incremental retrofitting over the next two years and then added an off the store shelf storm door to protect it. It’s stayed pretty tight the last eight years.

What is correct “Prince’s Pine” or “Princess Pine”? Field guides have Prince’s Pine and you used Princess.

Very informative article, Susan.
Thanks. My husband and I are canoeists, and it was super to see an otter swim in front of us one time. They’re my totem animals!

Have an old ross and having trouble with blade guide. Is there an owners manual, parts supplier, any info appreciated. Could I use woodmiser parts on it? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks. This was very helpful.

I wonder if I saw what you saw, a kettle of broad-wing hawks flying very high in the sky over my house the middle of last week (around sept.25-26). The sky was very blue and clear. I notice something very high in the sky. It look like a swarm of something, moving. I noticed again in the early afternoon. I talked with Sara Sergent (Audubon spokesperson). She said that raptors are migrating now.

Mike,

Piptoporus betulinus is specific to birch trees, there are many other polypores found on other tree species but not P. betulinus.

Dave

Hey there! Awesome photographs. I have a question, is there a way to estimate the machine operating costs? This is for making my budget because I’m trying to buy some machines.

I still don’t know which kind of aster grows at my place, but here is pretty much the only place I see it. Lovely, small, cornflower-blue flowers, it may have been planted by previous owners but has spread so much it’s all over our immediate landscape, making a cloud of periwinkle in a beautiful showing of good-bye to summer. It indeed stands up to frost and gets devoted attention from the lingering pollinators.

Wow, this is a *camp* ? Sounds like you’re building a real house! (And also seems better built than houses I’ve lived in!)

Nice work, hope you finish in time for deer season.

I just found a really well taken care of Vermont Castings Defiant Encore #0028
I got it for $500.00 and this thing is in great condition.
It needs a little tlc but we are so excited at getting this into our home.We are going to try to heat 1000 sq. ft with it. Our home is well insulated. I can get cut, split and delivered wood for $250.00 a full cord….next year will cut our own. We get to 40 below zero at times here.. hoping we can use this stove to keep us warm.. if not, we have a Toyo 56.. new.. but at nearly 4.00 a gallon for fuel.. would rather use wood.

I sell firewood, and some customers were asking me so many questions about how many pieces I sell per cord, I decided to cut my pieces shorter, 14 or 16 inches long, just so I could give them more pieces.  People like to see more pieces, even though it is the same amount of wood by volume.

Just made a handle in 2 hours. Very useful. Never thought bout the center ring before. Made handles before but they usually break and are oddly shaped.

All of the above is very interesting. My kids and I have raised frogs all summer long this year. our first batch took about 6 weeks and were mainly Cope’s gray tree frogs. We handled that as best we could with limited knowledge, but lost too many of them. The information that we found -tadpoles only need boiled lettuce- is nonsense and it’s unfortunate that this is such a widespread concept.we lost many frogs due to a lack of protein and calcium in their diet.

The second batch we raised have all been extremely healthy. We included spirulina wafers, added liquid calcium to their water, and did not boil the all the nutrients out of lettuce. We blanched dark green lettuce, romaine to be exact, and froze it so it would retain all the healthy nutrients that our little hoppers needed.

The result from our second batch was a whole lot of healthy strong little jumpers that were ready to go out and conquer the world. We did have a few problems with air bubble disease, but that was about it. I wish every article encouraging those who want to raise a few ttadpoles to feed them only boiled lettuce would be stricken from the internet. It broke our hearts to raise tadpoles who ended up with useless back legs.we know better now. we have the system down pat. we know what to feed them to make sure they’re healthy and we now have at least 3000 froglets hopping around in our backyard. It’s been one heck of a summer! :-)