Assorted woods and shapes

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Aspen1, Red Elm Chalice, Honey Locust top hat, Red Maple	Aspen1 before polishing
Red Elm, Chalice style	Honey Locust, top hat style
Red Maple	Aspen1
Red Elm chalice	Honey Locust top hat
Red Maple	Paul gave these to the Greyhound Christmas Auction.
Aspen2	Aspen3, spitoon style
Walnut	notes

More bowls

Here are a few pictures of Aspen bowls that all came from the same log.

Square bowl, 7" in diameter and 3" tall.

It's interesting to see the grain pattern on the inside and the outside of the bowl.

Classic round bowl about 7.75" in diameter and 2.5 inches tall.  This one has an interesting grain pattern. (see Nov. 6)

The Aspen log was felled over 2 years ago, and the section I cut for the bowl blanks was 14 inches in diameter.  The log had dried out a bit, but there was still some residual moisture in the wood. The square bowls take a little more attention, because I have to cut the blank into a cube with the face of the cube, which will become the top of the bowl, as close to a perfect square as possible.  When turning, I have to avoid hitting the blank where I want the top of the bowl to remain square. First, I make the corners about 0.5 inches thick by plunging in a parting tool to the depth of the outside of the bowl.  I then move the parting tool to remove wood from the bottom side of the corners until the thickness of the corners is about 0.25 inches. Later, when sanding the bowl, the sanding will take the thickness of the corners down to 0.125 inch.  As always, when turning the inside of the bowl I have to be careful with the thickness of the bowl sides, particularly because the corners tend to mask the outside profile of the bowl as I am hollowing out the inside.  The classic bowl is probably fully dried out now.

3 in tall Spittoon 6 in diameter, 4 in tall (see Nov 6)

	This Bradford Pear (6 in diameter, 2.5 in tall) bowl has a deep polish to it that makes it seem like glazed pottery.

More Aspen

The one with the square corners on the top was a little bit different to turn.  The other bowl is more of a classic shape.  Note that there are worm holes (small black holes in the outer side of the bowl) but they do not migrate all the way through the wall of the bowl.

Aspen

Yesterday afternoon I cut a section of an Aspen log that had been felled in April 2012.  The log was just over 12 inches in diameter and the wood seemed to be mostly solid, without any rot.  I used the chainsaw to cut the section in half, trying to cut right down the pith to remove that area as it is the most unstable part of the log.  This resulted in 2 bowl blanks.
I turned one of the blanks last night. The wood is still wet after 2 years.  I trimmed up the blank on the band saw to make it fit on the lathe, so the resulting bowl ended up just under 8 inches in diameter and a little under 3 inches tall.  I was seeing a lot of end grain tear out as I was turning and so I had to try several methods to minimize that.  I used sharp chisels and that helped to cut down the tear out quite a bit.  I had to make very delicate cuts with the chisels to remove the tear out.  I found that the carbide chisels do not do a good job on end grain and scrapers are not much better.  Even a shearing cut with the chisels would not make much of an improvement.  The best result was with my Dave Ellsworth grind bowl chisel and a finishing cut with the tip of the chisel.  I have to admit that I had a couple of deep catches while removing the tear out, so I had to repair that damage as well.  Luckily, the catches did not penetrate the wall of the bowl and I was able to smooth out the digs and dings.  I used Abranet sanding screen instead of sandpaper as the wet wood loads up the sandpaper, while the screens can be cleared of the dust easily.  The bowl sanded up nicely.  I left the tenon on the bowl foot in case the bowl warps while it dries.  To let the bowl dry out slowly, I put the bowl in a paper bag with a lot of the Aspen wood chips.  The damp wood chips should allow the bowl to dry at a slow rate.

Aspen bowl

I cut up some firewood, including some of the aspen logs we had collected from the aspen regeneration cut in the spring this year.  While the 30 inch long, 12 inch diameter log I selected was cracked and checked on the ends, chain sawing off about 8 inches from each end eliminated all the cracks.  I chain sawed the resulting 14 long log in half, cutting down through the center of the log, right through the pith, giving me 2 bowl blanks.  Next, I used the miter saw to cut off the corners of one of the blanks.  I screwed a faceplate on the flat, sawn surface of the blank and then mounted the faceplate and blank on the lathe.
The first attempt to mount the blank showed that one side of the blank was still too big to fit on the lathe, so back to the miter saw for additional trimming of the blank. Second attempt at mounting the blank was successful.  The blank was still a bit out of balance, so I had to spend a lot of time with the lathe revolutions held down to 200 RPM, trying to turn the blank into a balanced cylinder.  Getting the blank balanced was pretty slow work--I need to get better at shaping the blank before it gets mounted on the lathe.  (NOTE to Santa:  band saw?) The attached bark on the blank also took some time to remove before I could do some real wood turning--next time I will try to peel off the bark before mounting the blank on the lathe.  I eventually sped up the lathe RPMs, even though the lathe started vibrating, because increased rotation speed made the turning action more effective.

Once the blank was turned into a balanced cylinder, I turned a tenon on the side of the bowl opposite from the faceplate--the tenon side would become the bottom of the bowl, the faceplate side would become the interior of the bowl.  While turning the outside shape of the bowl I opted for a rounded bottom edge and straight sides with no decorative curves or beads.  I noticed a lot of tear out on
the surface of the bowl, something I have encountered before with soft woods, but I suspect my turning technique and the sharpness of my tools also contribute to this effect.  I took the blank off the lathe, removed the faceplate, and mounted the tenon side in a 4-jaw chuck for hollowing out the
inside of the bowl.  Because the sides of the bowl were straight, hollowing the bowl was fairly easy and I got the thickness of the walls down to 0.25 inches.  The walls meet the bottom of the bowl with a 90 degree corner and the flat bottom of the bowl is a between .025 and 0.5 inches thick.

I sanded the bowl and used mineral oil as a finish.  The bowl is now sitting in a plastic bag full of the moist shavings from the bowl turning as the aspen log was still green and hopefully the shavings will allow the bowl to dry out over the next 30-60 days without cracking.
The other half of the aspen log is now coated with sealer on the cut surfaces to minimize cracking until I can try turning another aspen bowl.

Pierce's Passage reconfigured

Pierce wouldn't recognize his little trail with the aspens all gone and some of the pines too.  We built another log cabin style brush pile with pine sides and stuffing. 

looking west

a new brush pile in the works

Gambol inspecting the expanded Pierce's Passage

Aspen regeneration cut

John showed up about 0800.  He was in the forest by 0830. Trees are coming down at the rate of about 1 every 10 minutes. Once he cuts the tree, he carries it over to where he wants it to fall and then the shearer tips the tree over. Once on the ground John can then push the base of the log into position. The slope in the forest is a little problematic as the tall tree and the weight on the skid can cause some "tippy" moments. If it gets too dicey, John can either release the tree or put it back down on the ground.

Aspen doubloons

Did someone spill a treasure chest of gold doubloons in our back yard or did the aspens just decide to drop their golden leaves?  We report, you decide. 

Aspens: done

We killed the last standing aspens below the toy shed today, even the one that might have fallen on the shed in a wind storm.  Just the stumps are left. Now let's hope they had enough mojo in them to send up sprouts.
Then we emptied the 8th load (in 8 days) of compost.  Between these jobs the dogs, of course, whined that they hadn't been out in 2 weeeeeks, Mom.  Dad neeeeveeeeer takes us out when you're at work.  Ha!

Reading: 25The Crossroads Cafe**** Deborah Smith  Obsession with physical beauty and food as caregiver themes; "The Lard cooks in mysterious ways." " Everything in life leads us where we are supposed to go.  It's not always easy to see our destination in the middle of the journey."
Geronimo Breach ***Russell Blake  Albert Ross is a malingering misanthrope - a boozing, chain smoking philanderer; shifty, lazy, cowardly, going to fat, & more prone to doing the wrong thing than any man alive. His purgatorial existence working for the State Department in Panama gets shattered when a routine errand becomes a race against the clock, battling adversaries for whom no price is too high to protect a secret that could topple the world order. As the body count climbs in a struggle without rules, Al must face his own demons, as well as the myriad very real ones intent upon destroying him. The unexpectedly shattering conclusion of this richly drawn thriller is both topical & chillingly plausible, making for a roller-coaster action/adventure. (Kindle review) 

Spring clean up

We've made a bit of a mess in the forest by taking down most of the aspens near the shed and the leaner sassafras on the west side of the house. They've been bothering me since we moved in.  Paul has the lavender bed renewed and ready for a new layer of oyster shells; the Panicum is shaved down as well. The daffodils across from the house are blooming and free of weeds.  The mountain ash have all been clipped.  2/3 of the meadow trees/bushes have been raked and are ready for a dose of Roundup and compost.  And we continue the war on invasives by hacking (and squirting) olives on the meadow edge.  Bring on some rain.
fyi

http://tinyurl.com/cousinsTrainTrip
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Work in the forest

72 degrees and we were playing in the aspens below the Toy Shed: took down 12 big (+6" dbh) ones and 2 deformed red oak that were in the way.  We still have a dozen or more to get rid of.  The nice thing about aspens is that we can just let them rot in place, no hauling to the fireplace. Two fell over the shed apron so we moved them on to a brush pile.
Later Paul spread 9 bags of 5-20-20 fertilizer from the back of the RTV as I drove v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y.  He started with a lawn sized spreader but only got 3 bags done when it died.
Yesterday we cleaned up the fruit trees by raking grass and leaves out in a 6' radius and picked up the rocks that Paul stored there.  His collection filled the RTV and added 10 feet to the length of the rock wall.   We put the big flat ones on top and I added a few buckets to the width, too.  It's looking good.
The dogs chased smells and generally wore themselves out as they played around us.  One time Buddy went looking for us in the wrong direction and it looked like Gambol ran after him.  The next thing we saw was both dogs racing to us.

Bear

Gambol and I collected 1/2 sunflower seed bag of garlic mustard (I weeded; he chased 2 turtles) in the meadow.  The soil is just right for weeding and the flowers are showy now.  I put the bag by the garage door, under the deck so it could dry for burning this weekend.  The next morning the bag was gone!  Paul didn't know anything about it;  he didn't see it on his dog walks through the day.  How could a bear carry off a bag that heavy...and wouldn't you think the garlic mustard would far out-smell residual sunflower seed odors?
I found the torn apart bag 50 feet from the chicken coop,  behind the stumps, mustard in a fairly neat pile, the only green stuff in that area.
Today a 2" diameter aspen near the coop was broken off at about 12" off the ground. No aspens in the meadow have been bothered (yet).
I guess Brittanys don't feel the need to warn us that bears are in the 'hood; we haven't heard a sound from them.
We've only had 2 small caterpillar tents so far.  We crushed a lot last year so perhaps our cherries will be healthier this year. We are noticing more seedlings in the forest.
Paul made grilled asparagus with romano cheese and a spray of balsamic vinegar to finish.  The purple color stays bright.  He also found FOY 4 black morel mushrooms under some may apples and sauteed them with onions.  A spring delight.
FOY scarlet tanager and 3 black rat snakes

more crop tree release

We are cutting mostly soft (red) maples, but occasionally we have taken down some aspens too.  Neither are great for firewood; we'll use the maple but make brush piles out of the aspen. Some of the aspen is too big for us so we are girdling them.  They'll fall eventually but make good woodpecker holes until then.  Since none of the trees that we are cutting are top heavy, a couple trees have hung up on other trees; that requires cutting off small sections of the trunk and dropping the tree down a couple of feet at a time, like a string of pearls, until its branches clear the tree it is hung up on.  It is rather tedious and nerve-racking as you have to be careful not to get the chainsaw blade caught in the trunk of the leaning tree and everyone in the forest has to watch where the leaning trunk will start to fall as it can change the direction of fall with each cut.  Every once in a while we do get a tree to fall exactly where we were aiming.

Today one maple fell just as planned and it even managed to prune off several dead oak tree branches from one tree we were releasing. At this time of year it's still easy for us to identify the trees; oaks still have dead leaves, maple bark is silvery, and aspens have bulby buds.

Paul has tried to keep the stumps low to the ground but with larger trees that becomes quite a chore, sometimes requiring the use of a wedge to keep the stump off the chainsaw blade.  It is hard work, but we are making progress.  We have released about 35 trees so far. We have blue dots on the keepers and red slashes on trees to cut in the future.

 

Reading  Tillie, a Mennonite Maid: a story of the Pennsylvania Dutch **** Reimensnyder  A tough young girl makes her life goal happen with no help from her very strict father but lots of help from the English community.

As part of the NRCS grant  we are targeting oaks, black cherries, and hickory trees to release on 1-4 sides exposing them to more sunlight and allowing their crowns to expand and hopefully result in more hard mast (acorns/nuts/berries).   Today, after a quick trip to Lowes for 16" Poulan chainsaw, we took down 5 or 6 red maples that were shading some oaks and cherry trees.  There were others in the way of the saw, but they were rainbowed or already dead.  Maybe 50 left to cut, then we'll call in an expert to do the big aspen.
All of this wood will have to dry for next year's firewood.

Reading: Focus ****Leo Babauta,  a free ebook available in PDF format  at http://focusmanifesto.com/
simplify declutter and focus time to create.

Evidence of Deer

Color is past prime for maples but the oaks are coming on

Locust torn to shreds

scrape at the camping fire pit

Buddy points on a scraped aspen

We had a very strong fox scent in the lower meadow this morning.