We buy a chipper

We have cut down a fair number of trees over since we started our project and as we go along we are getting more sophisticated in the ways we deal with the resulting wood and brush.  At first we cut all the wood into short lengths for use as future fire wood and just burned the small branches in order to get rid of them.  We decided some months ago that we had already produced enough firewood so we have been saving the large trunks for future processing into lumber as I described in previous entries (Jan 29, Feb 2).  Burning the brush and small branches was effective but we really wanted to find something more useful to do with this material so we bought a chipper to grind it into small pieces which can be used as surface material for pathways and open areas on our land.  We don't want to use it for drivable roads - crushed stone is much better for that purpose- but in areas which receive only foot traffic the wood chips make an attractive and natural material to walk on.  We chose a chipper made by the DR company.  We have bought DR equipment before and have always been happy with the quality, and they still make their stuff here in the USA.  (I own a lot of imported things but I am really starting to feel I have enough stuff labeled "hecho en China".)  DR has three retail outlets, the closest to us being in Delaware.  So Nick and I took a drive out to Delaware to check out one of their chippers that we saw on their web page.  The one we were interested in was a tractor mount unit powered by the tractor's PTO (Power Take Off - basically a rotating shaft coming out of the back of the tractor linked hydraulically to the engine).  We liked the idea of using the tractor to power the chipper for two reasons:  First, we own a tractor and this way we can have a chipper without having to maintain yet another internal combustion engine.  Secondly, the tractor mount unit is substantially cheaper that the self-contained unit because it does not include an engine.  When we looked at the chipper in Delaware we were impressed enough to buy it and take it back with us.  They only had one of these chippers in stock, the floor model, but they were happy to sell it to us.  This was good for us in particular because it was already assembled and ready to use.  Normally these things come in a big box with the proviso that there is "some assembly required".  We drove straight back to West Virginia from Delaware that afternoon and got it unloaded from the truck.  We gave it a short test that evening to make sure it was all right. 

The chipper is heavy so we used the arm of the excavator to lift it out of the truck. 

The chipper mounted to the back of our tractor.

First test with some small branches. 

This is the dramatic warning label on the shaft connecting the chipper to the tractor.

Don't put your hands in it!

Tarp over my tent

I usually stay on the land for about a week at a time.  We have a trailer but I sometimes like to sleep in a tent.  I have a nice large canvas tent that I set up on a wooden platform which we built in the woods.  The platform keeps the tent off the wet ground but it still gets rained on.  The tent is water-proof and does not leak but after a rain it still gets a little damp and musty inside.  I like to put a plastic tarp over the tent to help keep the inside dry.  Last Autumn I draped the tarp directly on the tent.  This worked fine at keeping the tent dry but I experienced an unexpected consequence.  The space between the tent and the tarp was irresistible to mice.  They would crawl into the space between the tent an the tarp at night and scurry mindlessly back and forth for hours.  Mice can make a surprising amount of racket.  A greater concern was the fact that the mice now felt the need (as is the way with mice) to nibble on the canvas of the tent.  I knew it would not be long before they destroyed the tent so I had to remove the tarp.  This year I decided to try the tarp again with a modification.  In order to keep the tarp from directly contacting the tent and thus creating the ideal mouse habitat, I built a framework above and around the tent out of PVC pipe on which to drape the tarp. My hope is that the large gap between the tarp and the tent would not seem so cozy to the local rodents and they would not turn it into a rodent disco like last season.  

So far, no mice.

Who Ya Gonna Call? - Bug Busters!

The bugs in West Virginia are loving life this spring.  It was a mild winter and every sort of tiny creature got a head start.  The vast majority of the bugs are quite innocuous.  They go about their bug-business quite unconcerned about the presence or absence of humans.  Fortunately we get very few mosquitoes.  We are a little to high in elevation and a little to far from any sources of stagnant water to have a big mosquito problem.  There are ants everywhere, however, and certainly more types of beetle than I have ever seen in one place before.  In fact, it brings to mind the statement attributed to the evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane that God has "an inordinate fondness for beetles".  The only place where the bugs are a persistent problem is in our trailer.  At night they are of course attracted to the light and some bugs such as stinkbugs (a type of beetle) just like to crawl into enclosed spaces light or not.  To get rid of the bugs in the trailer we purchased a bug-zapper and set it up indoors despite the multitudinous lawyer-warnings on the package instructing us to use it only outdoors.  I think that is particularly idiotic.  I have no problem with the bugs outdoors.  Outdoors they can live free and be happy.  It is indoors where they are a problem.  I suppose the corporate lawyers were worried that they would be liable for fire or injury if some mishap were to occur due to the bug-zapper.  Actually, I think the lawyers got involved in this product at the engineering stage.  This device is not like the bug-zapppers of old that would make a nice spark when the hapless insect would enter its kill zone.  The thing is so safe it doesn't actually zap bugs at all;  the bugs are quite unharmed by it.  I really don't think you could start a fire with it if you shoved a kerosine soaked rag in it.  The only thing the unit actually does well is attract insects to it because it has a nice glowing blue light.  So like so many products that the irritating risk-adverse lawyer wimps of America have ruined, we had to modify it.  We thought about making it work like it should by giving it some real high voltage electronics but we discovered that we could achieve our bug elimination objective by exploiting the fact that bugs have very, very little brains.  Nick fashioned a bug trap from a soda pop bottle which he then affixed to the underside of the zapper.  The underside of the zapper is just a hole through which the dead bugs are supposed to fall once they have been zapped.  However, since the zapper doesn't actually kill them ( it might stun them a little since they do actually seem to fall through the hole rather than just hanging around the light at the top. ) live bugs come out the bottom where they just fly away again.  In our version, they enter the trap and can't get out.  It works much like a lobster pot; the bugs enter through a little hole in the middle and enter a big chamber and cannot figure out how to get back out through the little hole. They just stay there and eventually die.  It's actually surprisingly effective and we have been able to keep the trailer bug free.  We have been thinking about making a big version to see if it can catch lawyers.

Our modified bug zapper with the bug trap made from a soda bottle attached to the bottom.

After a couple of hours of operation we had already caught a number of stinkbugs.

Creatures of a lesser god and an encounter with a bear

When the weather is not too cold I like to sleep in a large canvas tent which I set up on a wooden platform in the woods a short hike from the road and the trailer.  The platform is about 5 meters uphill from the stream that runs through our property and after a rain when there is sufficient water, the stream can be heard gurgling from a distance. I have a nice comfy bed from Ikea in the tent and even have a writing table with a battery powered reading light.  Now it is normally quite peaceful in my tent and I sleep quite soundly through the night.  Last night was something of an exception, however.  At exactly 3:00 AM I was awakened by a cacophony of rustling through the underbrush outside accompanied by sounds of snorting and grunting.  Somewhat concerned as well as curious, I looked out through the window of my tent.  The waxing gibbous moon was just setting but there was still enough light outside to make out the outline of a black bear (Ursus americanus) walking rapidly downhill about three meters from my tent.  Fortunately, the bear seemed to have no interest in me or my tent in its unsubtle excursion through the woods.  Within a few seconds it had vanished completely into the night.  I scrambled for my flashlight and shone it around outside but my visitor was already out of sight.  In retrospect, I suppose that the objective of the animal was the stream to quench its thirst.  I do make sure that I do not keep any foodstuffs in the tent so as not to attract the interest of wandering hungry animals.  I am usually thinking of rodents, but now I appreciate that larger critters might also be about.


The warmth of May has brought forth many creatures, mostly small.  I managed to get pictures of some of them recently.

We found this snake near the stream.  When we frightened it it ran into the water. 

This millipede was about three centimeters long.

We often see these frogs hanging about near the water.

We found this huge female spider carrying here egg sack outside the trailer one evening.  She was about 2 cm long.

Sawdust

I described our sawdust moderated compost system in yesterday's post.  Today we picked up a load of sawdust to store in the center bin.

We picked up a load of sawdust from the mill in our red trailer with our F250 pickup.
Once on the land it is easier to move the trailer around with the tractor.

This is what a ton and a half of sawdust looks like.

We load the sawdust into the bucket of our mini-tractor...

... dump it in front of the storage bin, and shovel it in.
If I had more foresight, I would have made the bin wider so that the tractor could dump it in directly. 

A nice pile of sawdust.

Our sawdust-moderated compost system (SMCS), complete with sawdust.

Poison Ivy

I was dismayed to find this little plant growing on our land this week.  Of course, poison ivy is common enough throughout Eastern North America; I just hadn't seen any on our little plot of West Virginia until now.  I have actually been expecting to find it growing along the edges of the forest area where we have cleared the trees.  Poison ivy likes a bit of sun and is generally not found in deep forest.  This little plant was nowhere near the clearing, however, but was near our mulch box.  Perhaps the fertile exudate from the mulch stimulated its growth.  Every time I see poison ivy I can't help but get that old song in my head from the 50's by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller called "Poison Ivy".  I've always thought of that song as being a sort of sequel to that other song by Lieber and Stoller called "Love Potion Number 9".  I wonder if anyone else thinks that.

Mulch Ado About Nothing

In our ongoing effort to become more environmentally responsible and produce less junk to take to the dump we have been composting our organic waste.  We have three waste containers at our site.  One is for organic stuff (food scraps, etc.), one is for paper and cardboard, and one is for plastic.  The paper and cardboard we burn, the plastic we unfortunately have to haul away, and the organic stuff goes into our compost system.  We have a system that can handle any organic waste.  A lot of people are reluctant to compost meat scraps, for example, because they are concerned about the smell and the possibility of attracting vermin such as rats.  We use what I call a sawdust-moderated composting system.  Much like a nuclear reactor uses water or graphite to surround the radioactive material, we use sawdust to surround the rotting material.  Basically we put the stuff in a big wooden box and cover it with sawdust.  The sawdust is remarkably effective at preventing any smell from being produced and we have had absolutely no problem with vermin.  We buy the sawdust from a local wood mill for very little money.  We built a structure to hold keep the sawdust dry until it is needed.  Once a compost box is full we plan to let it rot for an additional year.  At that time we figure it will be ready for use as a soil additive in the gardens.

This is our compost system under construction.  The center bin will be covered to hold the fresh sawdust.  The side bins are for the compost.

This is the completed compost system.  The center bin is ready to be filled with fresh sawdust.  The compost box on the right is already in use.