alternatetheory

holy crap

this explains a lot.

the hickory

the hickory
Originally uploaded by hellbender

this is what's left. maybe you can see why i felt like i needed the log splitter. cuz omfg.

it's a lot. of very hard wood.

i may continue to chop it up, time will tell. i've got about a ton cut and stacked now, it'll depend on how cold the spring is, and whether i want to start using the coal i dumpstered (that's another story).



i might as well mention, i actually used the bark, also. where it fell off the trunk in large chunks, i've carried them and am using them as path mulch, for which it is EXTREMELY well suited - durable, rot resistant, high traction..

splittin wedge

splittin wedge
Originally uploaded by hellbender

i was wrong.

wrong wrong wrong.

the log splitter was (probably) a waste of money.

splitting wedges are teh win.


it's all the best of mauling plus extra - to maul wood apart is always a marksmanly challenge, because the closer you hit to where you've previously hit, the quicker it will split. this just takes it to the next level.

it makes a most awesome, resonating metalic "k'ang!" like something from a blacksmiths shop.

it requires focus. absolutely.

its a simple machine. there are no parts to break. theres nothing to maintain. you dont need to drain its fluids, or even protect it from rain.

the wedge is actually still where pictured, in that wood. mauling is very interesting in that it tires you quickly, and when tired, your accuracy diminshes quickly, so that you can objectively, quantitatively watch yourself get stupider.

new haircut

Photo_02.jpg
Originally uploaded by hellbender

now, strangely, he looks like a boyish girl.

my own oil spill

Photo_02.jpg
Originally uploaded by hellbender

my very own oil spill heading directly to my very own watersource, after yesterdays shenanigans, after the oil pan i used was too damn small.

total spillage did not exceed .25cup, and most of that was caught by the tarp i laid down beforehand. but some always gets away.

oak-hickory

mixed mesophytic.

the hickory that has been our heat, or incredibly bountiful and easily extracted resource of that one katrina-felled tree, is, at a guess 90% gone.

lets go into that math.

lets use as an assumption that at some point about midway up the main trunk is the center of gravity of the tree, with an equal mass granted for branches and roots, wioth the mass balance ending up heavily above ground, in the form of the trunk (and what a trunk it is (that's what she said)).

now discard the, at an informed guess, 35% of themass that makes up the roots. unburnable (as far as i know). discard also at least 15% of the small branches in wastage, twigs too small to be worth gathering, sawdust and branches of the tree that had rested in immediate contact with the ground for 2yrs and were too rotten. i would have to estimate furthermore that i have used easily 40% of the tree, from nearly every tig and branch from 2" diameter to 8" diameter, and trunk sections in excess of 24" in diameter.

what's left is the root ball and the trunk up to about four-5 feet (and three half-slices that have proved unsplittable).

only now, after slowly cutting, splitting, stacking and storing increasingly huge chunks of hickory, a single wedge weighing from 30 to 50 lbs. which is nice, if you can get them to burn. theyll burn all night, easy.

if you can get them through the stove door. more than half of the quarters i split now wont quite make it through the stove door. and goddamn. goddamn. this stuff wont split under a maul. i have a new pile outside the door of wood rejected from the stove for size reasons, and which wont succumb to 20+ blows from the maul.

the goddamn log splitter is basically on the fritz. i need to remember that warranties are usefull on farm equipment. never EVER had one pay off on electronics (except ipods, where theyve paid in spades), but farm equipment gets used in a whole other class of hard. meh on that. who knows, maybe it'll respond to a hydraulic fluid change, but not until i get a decent oil pan, after yesterday with the spillway oil change. until then, i guess i get to try out frickin splitting wedges. gah.

learning is annoying. it means being wrong and having trouble all the damn time. i want to go to hawaii.

in other words, and fewer pictures

ALSO, today,

after filling each of the 8 new food grade barrells i just bought off eddy (sale creek honey) with aroud 10 gal of water (in order to hopefully eventually evapo-condense all the coagulated honey from the interior) i notice the central water tank (1000 gal) is pretty much empty.

go down to the dam, uncover the pump, move it and crank it up, after remembering to turn the switch to "on." realize i havent put the sucking end in the pond. rush over to toss it in, and knock the pump in the water. whoops.

it stalls, and wont start. so i leave.

the tank is empty, the goats need water so i putter around the house and think, fill the water filter and drain the line of the remaining gallons into 5gal jugs, which i put under the house, in reserve.

gather tools, ratchet set and channel lock pliers, manage to lose the channel locks for about 20 excruciating and exhausting minutes, and then return to the pump, prepared to remove it from the line (not easy) in order to return home with it, to maybe-just-maybe fix it, and thence, otherwise, to the repair shop. but none of this occurs.

i arrive at the pump, hard-won tools in hand, and it starts. runs. then dies, and wont restart. i check the gas. empty. i check the oil. it's white and milky (thats never good)((in my own defense, it's only ever been run maybe 6 hrs... over 6 mos.). so crap, i return uphill again, to retool, and then again return to the pump (not a little distance, i should mention) to to add gas and slowly drain the scary-ass oil into an inevitably too-small container, finish that and try to start it.

no good.

keep yanking the cord while i go over my day again, trying to imagine explaining the day to the repair-person, when i notice that at some point i turned the "on" switch to "off." turn it on. it starts.

exeunt, one farm morning.

see: goats

  Photo_02.jpg 
  Originally uploaded by hellbender

in hierarchial order:
front and center/alpha/biggest and heaviest - copper
his right hand man/beta/second biggest - gold
lil bitch/zeta/smallest (by far) - pearl
i like goats. they're curious, friendly, and have a lot of personality.

but jesus are they misogynists. or in any case hierarchial. but copper is frighteningly stereotypical - sometimes when i push him off the fence, partly in the hopes of training him off the fence, and partly to show I'M THE FUCKING ALPHA, he frequently turns around and just butts pearl, apparently just to reestablish who's the alpha(goat).

exactly like i do. so maybe we havent learned so much from thatlesson.

at least i dont push nada away from the trough until i'm full. i'm just saying.

the control: invasive overgrowth

Photo_02.jpg
Originally uploaded by hellbender

directly across the road from the photo below. especially note all the purpley (extremely hard to see) honeysuckle leaves (contrast with below), and privet sprouts. this area was mown (bushhogged) about 18 mo ago.

the test case for goats: denuded honeysuckle

Photo_02.jpg
Originally uploaded by hellbender

the goat aftermath. brittle vines. slight grass growth, no leaves of any kind.

granted, it's january. we'll see what returns, post-goat.

it's all terribly exciting.