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Jun. 19th, 2013 06:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSummer's almost here. The days are light until after 8 PM and I've been trying to spend more time not-on-my-ass-in-front-of-a-computer-screen. It's good for weight loss, good for getting-things-done, good on many fronts.
Well, ponies, of course. That's going swimmingly. Punch is doing fine, about ready for cantering (should be by the end of the month). Te put someone off but I have plans to fix the issue that appear to be working. Fiddler is almost ready for real riding (certainly by the end of the month), and Nick is still talking to me. I have been neglecting Peake, but I will get back to her.
Aside from ponies, I've gotten the wood lathe in the shed at the lodge up and running. Turns out (this is a play on words, which I am mentioning for the people who don't know that making shit on a lathe is called turning and not lathe-ing or something.) that once you have a functional lathe (Delta Milwaukee 1460, 12" max diameter stock, like 40" bed, outboard center, four speed pulley drive) you want to start making things with it.
On a related note, our ash trees are currently undergoing an extinction event much like the American Chestnut underwent an extinction event in the early 1900's. Not kidding. This is a big deal. There are rather a lot of ash trees in the forests of the northeastern United States and it's a widely used wood. Emerald ash borer kills ash trees dead extremely quickly and we're talking millions and millions of trees. *sigh*
So I have dead/dying ash trees that really cannot be saved. A homeowner with one ash tree can maybe spray their single specimen ash tree several times a year for the rest of its life to control the borers, but a landowner with hundreds of ash trees is not going to spray the forest several times a year for all eternity to control the borers.
Some of the ash is going to be firewood. It makes nice firewood, but it seems a shame for them to all end up ashes given that this is their one and only extinction event. Also, we have a number of tall, straight, first-rate timber-quality ash trees. They're not dead yet -- they have a few leaves clinging to them yet -- but the bark is chopped up by the pileated woodpeckers and the cambium is shot (that's what the emerald ash borer eats) and they'll be dead-for-real within the year. :(
I am going to see what may be made of the ash trees as they are dying. Hopefully I can learn fast enough to be able to accomplish useful things before the trees are all the way dead. We shall see.
Well, ponies, of course. That's going swimmingly. Punch is doing fine, about ready for cantering (should be by the end of the month). Te put someone off but I have plans to fix the issue that appear to be working. Fiddler is almost ready for real riding (certainly by the end of the month), and Nick is still talking to me. I have been neglecting Peake, but I will get back to her.
Aside from ponies, I've gotten the wood lathe in the shed at the lodge up and running. Turns out (this is a play on words, which I am mentioning for the people who don't know that making shit on a lathe is called turning and not lathe-ing or something.) that once you have a functional lathe (Delta Milwaukee 1460, 12" max diameter stock, like 40" bed, outboard center, four speed pulley drive) you want to start making things with it.
On a related note, our ash trees are currently undergoing an extinction event much like the American Chestnut underwent an extinction event in the early 1900's. Not kidding. This is a big deal. There are rather a lot of ash trees in the forests of the northeastern United States and it's a widely used wood. Emerald ash borer kills ash trees dead extremely quickly and we're talking millions and millions of trees. *sigh*
So I have dead/dying ash trees that really cannot be saved. A homeowner with one ash tree can maybe spray their single specimen ash tree several times a year for the rest of its life to control the borers, but a landowner with hundreds of ash trees is not going to spray the forest several times a year for all eternity to control the borers.
Some of the ash is going to be firewood. It makes nice firewood, but it seems a shame for them to all end up ashes given that this is their one and only extinction event. Also, we have a number of tall, straight, first-rate timber-quality ash trees. They're not dead yet -- they have a few leaves clinging to them yet -- but the bark is chopped up by the pileated woodpeckers and the cambium is shot (that's what the emerald ash borer eats) and they'll be dead-for-real within the year. :(
I am going to see what may be made of the ash trees as they are dying. Hopefully I can learn fast enough to be able to accomplish useful things before the trees are all the way dead. We shall see.
