Heat doesn't come from the furnace...

 

    There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm.  One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is that heat comes from the furnace.

    To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to    confuse the issue.

     To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside.  If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.

              - Aldo Leopold

                   "The Good Oak"

                                 A Sand County Almanac

A line in the sand - Mission Creek (07 DEC 2015)

One final post about my recent trip to Mission Creek Woodland Park.

Mission Creek Park is divided into two distinct areas an upland area with sand soils and a lowland area with muck soils.  The lowland is part of the Chippewa River and Mission Creek floodplains.  The transition between the upland area and the floodplain is a steep bluff that is as much as 20 feet high.

While walking along Mission Creek, I noticed an area of the bluff that had collapsed exposing layers of soil on its face.

Fortunately, I had worn my rubber boots so I was able to wade across the river and examine the sand more closely.

The sloping layers of sand (middle of the picture) are an indication that the sand was being moved by wind or water when it was deposited.

One thing that I noticed right away was the presence of cross-bedding in the sand - it was not laid down in uniform horizontal layers.  Cross-bedding is evidence that when this sand was deposited it was being moved by either wind or water currents.  Cross-bedding is commonly found in dunes, ripples, and sand/gravel bars.  The direction of the bedding can be used to indicate the direction of the current.

The cross-bedding was interesting, but I found something else to be even more interesting.

That line of black specks in the center-left of this photo is a layer of charcoal.  A closer view can be seen below.

I dug back several inches into the bluff to see if this was indeed a layer or whether it was a single narrow line.  A single narrow line of charcoal could be caused by the roots of a tree burning deep below the surface.  This was not a line like that - the layer extended back into the bluff.  I did not attempt to dig very far back.  I really did not want to disturb the overlying layers of soil and cause further collapse. 

What could cause this layer? 

One possible explanation is that before the layers above were deposited, the area was lightly forested.  If the forest burned (creating the charcoal), surrounding soils could become destabilized by the lack of vegetation.  Winds then caused the soil to drift, burying the thin layer of charcoal under many feet of sand.  The cross-bedding in the overlying sand makes this theory seem likely to me.

Does anyone else have a better theory?

Michigan Forest Association Teacher Workshop - Day Three

Today was day three of the teacher workshop being hosted by the Michigan Forest Association.

While Day One and Day Two focused on the historical side of logging and forest management, today's focus was on current manage procedures and logging operations.

Our first stop of the day was a hardwood sawmill operated by AJD Forest Products in Grayling, MI.   AJD primarily produces hardwood boards that are used in the flooring industry, cabinetry, and furniture industry.  Lesser grades of lumber are used in the packing industry for crates and pallets.  Their waste products are used as mulch, processed into pellets for pellet-burning stoves, and used as fuel for power generation. 

The visit started in the parking lot where we were greeted not only by AJD employees, but also by a massive pile of decked logs. 

Log deck in the yard at AJG - Grayling, MI

These logs were being sorted and carried with a clamshell-equipped forklift to a debarker - a clamshell is kind of like a giant version of a claw machine at the fair.

A forklift sorts and moves logs in the yard at AJD

This machinery peals or debarks logs before they enter the mill

After running through the debarker, a series of conveyer belts carries the logs to one of several band saws - a band saw is a continuous saw blade that runs around two pulleys.  Before entering the band saw a computer scans each log to optimize the amount of lumber that can be cut from each log.  The band saw itself is not new technology; it was used in sawmills during the 1800s.  However, in older sawmills the location of the saw was fixed and the logs passed through the saw.  In new mills, the log is often held into place and the saw travels along the length of the log.  The AJD mill cuts boards into thicknesses of 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4 inches.

A large band saw cuts slabs of lumber from a pealed log

Band saw blades in AJD's sharpening shop - the back blade is being calibrated by a computer

After being cut into slabs by the band saw, the lumber then passes through an edger that cuts it to standard widths.  Although much of the process is mechanized, human hands touch the boards throughout nearly every step of the process.

Running boards through an edger to determine their final width

It was interesting to see that although the technology is different, the process would not be entirely unfamiliar to millworkers from a century ago.  In fact some of the equipment remains exactly the same.

A millworker from the late 1800s wielding a cant hook

A cant hook, pickaroon, and single-bit axe on the production floor at the AJD mill.

After the boards are edged, they are then graded and sawed into standard lengths before being sorted and bundled for their final destinations.  Over the course of today, AJD would process approximately 70,000 board-feet of lumber.

Grading boards by hand before they go through a computer controlled grader

This conveyer drops computer-sorted boards into the correct slot for their length and grade

Boards undergoing a final sorting and bundling

Piles of select grade red oak lumber awaiting sale at AJD