SAWS: THE SEQUEL

OR,  GRAVITY ISN’T JUST A GOOD IDEA — IT’S THE LAW

As Doug wrote in his recent post, Two Tree Herders Upgrade their Saws, we have a lot of trees to trim.  Our architect, Della Hansmann, works with Roald Gundersen of Whole Trees Architecture, who builds homes from whole trees, culling the weed trees from the woods and counting on the superior strength they bring to bear because their fibers have not been cut like conventional lumber.  That means some fairly small trees can do a big job, and in the end you have a neat house and a healthier woods.

Our dream saw arrived last Wednesday — the Hayate 420, a 20-foot state-of-the-art, heavy-duty, aluminum telescoping pole saw. (This saw is also available from Forestry Suppliers and Ben Meadows .  Here is how its Japanese maker describes it:

Thick aluminum alloy extension poles are oval shaped, providing precise control over the direction of the blade (especially important for high cutting) thus reducing bending to the minimum. The 16-21/2-inch curved blade utilizes proprietary Silky MIRAI-ME (Smooth Cutting) Technology.  The Teeth of the Future! The taper-ground profile reduces drag and directs more usable energy to the cutting edge. This is the strongest and fastest telescoping pole saw available on the market today.  Incorrect use of the Silky pole saw may cause injury.

I added the italics as foreshadowing.

Thursday Doug and I took a half day of vacation to give this amazing instrument a test drive, and it worked like a dream.  We trimmed several maples near the house site.

..The saw has an extra blade to score the underside of the branch and make a clean cut.

And then we started to work on a massive dead oak.  It needs to be felled, but is likely to take with it some spruce that we hope to keep.

Removing a few strategic branches narrows the footprint of its fall, and with our new saw, we could reach them.  Oak sawed more slowly, but branch after branch crashed satisfyingly to the ground.

..Warming up on an easy branch. It's the one above this that was trouble.

It was getting late and cold.  The sun set into thick gray clouds. Still plenty of light for us though.  The last, highest branch was also the thickest, and Doug extended the saw to its full length, set the blade and began to work.

He sawed and sawed.  And he sawed some more.  I stepped up to help.  It’s a big enough handle that two can easily saw together, but I was beginning to wonder if we had perhaps bitten off a little more than we could handle.

We had created our very own Sword of Damacles up there.  The saw got stuck, but Doug freed it.  We sawed on.  Again the saw stuck.  Again Doug worked it loose.  In the dimming light, it was hard to actually see the blade — it was so far away.

...The branch Doug is sawing is actually attached to the Branch Too Far that ate our saw. (and I photoshopped a little more light into this shot so at least you can see)

Then the tree gave that low, ominous growl oak makes when it rips, and we watched the slice we had cut open into a narrow V – just enough to grab the saw blade with all its force and then stop.

There the branch hung.  Holding on by maybe a quarter of its diameter and holding onto our saw.

Doug tried, but there was no getting the saw free.  It was now quite dark.  It was cold and dark.  We had created a killer branch, and we had embedded our state-of-the-art, heavy-duty, aluminum telescoping pole saw 20 feet above our heads.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.  That was not one of those times.  But by the time we went to bed, we were laughing at ourselves.  We named Thursday A Branch Too Far Day.

Maybe we had been arrogant.  Maybe we had been foolish.  Maybe we had broken our new toy.  But maybe not.

As soon as we got home Doug had improvised a rescue tool out of salvaged metal bob and rope which he planned to lob over the dangling branch.  The idea was that I would pull the limb to one side and free the saw.

It’s nice to have a plan.

But when we arrived Saturday, jumped out of the car and ran back to the dead oak, that monster branch was resting comfortably on the ground. So was our saw.

Perhaps the wood sprites could tell that we had the health of the woods in our hearts, and they freed our saw.

Or maybe it was a simple physics equation.

Nothing was injured after all but our pride, and we got a sobering reminder to be careful out there. Gravity is not just a good idea – it’s the law.

So we re-straightened a slight bend in one of the telescoping poles and took our battle-tested Hayate across Lloyds Lane to lop whirl after whirl of branches off pines that stand a few yards from our building site and will become our rafters. This time, the clouds arranged themselves in a rosy, feathery fan of a sunset as we dragged the last of the cut branches uphill to a burn pile.

I always figured the Hayate 420 would be Doug’s toy.  He has more upper body strength, and that saw is both heavy duty and just plain heavy.  But on a lark, I picked it up to try it.  It was just within my power range, and it was so thrilling to use that I pole sawed most of the afternoon.

Two days later, my muscles are still talking to me.  A good tool and a bit of muscle create the kind of dialog I like.  Though it’s much better when the conversation ends with the saw hanging in barn instead of a tree.

..Our old and new saws lounging against the barn. As Doug said in his post, this saw wasn't cheap, but when compared to firing up gas-powered equipment or hiring the work out, and factoring in the great satisfaction of doing it oneself -- it seems well worth it to us.

ONE TINY PIECE IN A PATCHWORK PRAIRIE

Geography is destiny, and I got both my geography and my destiny defined a little more clearly yesterday at the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum’s Winter Enrichment Lecture Series.  Naturalist extraordinaire Rich Henderson shared his insights about the past, present and future ecology of prairies in Wisconsin.  He was speaking from 34 years of experience in natural area inventory, assessment and management.

...Farmland conserved last year by the Driftless Area Land Conservancy

Our land sits on the western edge of the Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area, which is a region in southwest Wisconsin that, because its rugged, agriculturally daunting topography, is unique for its exceptional populations of grassland birds, high number of prairie remnants, concentrations of rare plants and animals, extensive surrogate grassland, and spring-fed streams, interwoven in the farming landscape. A partnership of non-profit organizations and government agencies are working together to conserve these rare and important natural resources.

The Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area sits within the borders of the newly-formed Southwest Wisconsin Grassland & Stream Conservation Area.   Its goal is to work with organizations and individuals involved in farmland and grassland protection to develop conservation strategies that can maintain both working farms and healthy grasslands, savannas, and streams.

Today less than one tenth of one percent remains of the prairie and savanna that covered Wisconsin before pioneers arrived.  Though settlers put an end to the wild fires and plowed vast tracks of  prairie plants under,  many native plants and animals managed to hang on around the edges.

Prairie  exists today in tiny pockets, preserved by combinations of accident and luck, but luck is running out for many of these irreplaceable spots.  Rich said that many of the prairie remnants that he identified 30 years ago have grown over in trees and invasives and are now lost forever.

...Expanding a prairie remnant we call The Glade last winter with the help of the Prairie Enthusiasts.

There are two of these pockets on our land, and one just over the fence.  Rich Henderson and other prairie experts have walked our land with us and advised us on how best to protect our  remnants, which I think of as jewel boxes.  These remnants are separated by woods, and we have been working for six year to restore and expand them — ultimately into a small savanna system.

Yesterday Rich emphasized that these  little pieces are part of a big picture – a patchwork of prairie that can make a difference to birds and insects hanging on for dear life.

...The Glade, now expanded. This was a wide spot in a truck trail when we identified hoary puccoon growing there and started to work pushing back brush and trees.

There are more than 2,000 species of insects that need prairie to survive.  The red-tailed leafhopper only feeds on a grass called prairie dropseed. The caterpillars of the regal fritillary butterfly only feed on violets, especially prairie violet and birdsfoot violet. These are two of the plant that can still be found in the Military Ridge Heritage Area.

Some insects, like the regal fritillary, need a lot of elbow room.  But the red-tailed leaf hopper requires only a small space to eek out an insect living.  A patch of prairie the size of a small yard can be enough, but  unfortunately certain insects are trapped in these small islands of livable habitat.

Because of  limited mobility  many insects, Ricyh says “We will get more success for our effort if we work on restoration near existing remnants.”

That energized me.  I sat up straight and felt more alive as he spoke.  Doug and I have been pouring ourselves into restoring our bits of prairie and savanna, but with such small pieces (less than two prairie remnant acres total), I admit to having wondered whether this effort could possibly make a difference.

..Just last summer, this blazing star appeared in the Glade.

When Rich described a plan to create an area big enough for the Regal Fritillary by knitting together, preserving and expanding those tiny pockets into a larger whole, I understood how our tiny piece fits in.  Our small project will help fill out the patchwork being created by the Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area and Southwest Wisconsin Grassland & Stream Conservation Area, which could ultimately provide 12,000 protected acres interspersed in an area of almost 500,000 acres.  That seems like a worthwhile goal.

If we can keep our little pieces going and growing, they will be an oasis of diversity in the newly-broadened efforts to restore the rich prairie heritage of Southwestern Wisconsin.

...Wisconsin DNR boundary map of Southwest Wisconsin Grassland Area

TWO TREE HERDERS UPGRADE THEIR SAWS

guest post by Doug Hansmann

Our architect gave us his shopping list for 73 joists, rafters, posts and beams for our new house today.  He could supply everything from his woods, but we hope to find most of them on our own 44 acres.

Here’s what it will take:

1. Trees — check!  Those we have.  And with Whole Tree Architecture as our guide, we won’t be clear cutting our prime specimens.  Quite the opposite.  We will be weeding out the trees that are either over crowded and/or showing some irregularities, otherwise known as character. For the most part, a forester might call these weed trees.  Culling them will leave the remaining woods healthier. Talk about green.

SNOW SHOES: STRAP THEM ON NOW!

As soon as the first snow accumulates 4 inches, I strap on my snow shoes, and I live in them off still spring.  (Well when I’m outside of house and town – and there’s a part of my brain which says that the only time I am really living.)

Snow shoes are the next best things to wings in winter!

1.  YOUR FREE PASS TO PARADISE — I can get to places on our land in winter that I can’t approach any other time of year.  All those pesky invasive brambles have died back, so the world is opened up, and your snow shoes  let you walk right up the steepest slope.  Because of the way the cleeted boot bindings pivot within the broader platform, the snow shoe takes the angle and your feet remain level – it’s as easy as climbing stairs.

THE SOUL OF A CARROT: PART TWO

Ever wonder how Bugs Bunny always cleaned Elmer Fudd’s clock?

Which one was eating carrots?

Those brilliant orange, satisfyingly crunchy roots power packed with carotene are actually a newcomer in the 12,000-year-old world of agriculture.  Carrots are a domesticated form of Queen Anne’s lace, and have been traced back to the  Romans.

photo credit: andy tyler Flickr

Roman carrots were different than the kind we know and love today.  They were yellow or purple.  (As carrots don’t tend to turn up in archeological digs, most of this research has actually been done by studying old paintings.)

I learned all this at Wednesday Nite at the Lab, “Plants, People, Carrots and Carotenes,” by Dr. Philip Simon of the Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is part of the USDA Carrot Improvement Program and has collected wild and cultivated carrots all over the world.

THE TOUGH AND TENDER WORLD OF LICHEN

There is a low mist in the wood –

It is a good day to study lichens

Henry D. Thoreau

January is Bark Appreciation Month.  It’s the time when the earthy gray blue and ochre patches of lichen become vivid accent colors.

Snowshoeing in Governor Dodge Park last Sunday, I became riveted by the gorgeous splashes of colorful lichen all around me.  It is always there, quietly covering the motionless places in the landscape: rocks, trees, grave stones.  But I’ve been too focused on other things to really look at it.  Suddenly I wanted to be a lichenologist.

Today I hauled home a massive library book called Lichens of North America and lost myself in 795 oversized pages – many with gorgeous photos of lichen that look like they came from the planet Zorg.  You can see breathtaking images of lichens taken by the photographers Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff in their Lichen Portrait Gallery.

Lichen is not one, but two creatures:  fungi teamed with algae.  Like most relationships, it’s complicated.  The fungus is the dominant partner providing the algae with shelter and moisture, and essentially living off the hard photosynthesizing work of the algae.  If the algae can’t grow faster than it is being eaten — no more lichen.  And like most relationships, it somehow seems to work.  There are any number of particular fungi and algae who are willing to dance this dance, and they create enough different lichen to fill more than one massive book.  They cover the world.

PASSIVE SOLAR: DESIGN FOR THE MOON NOT THE SUN

Guest Post by Doug Hansmann

Passive solar has always topped our list of house design priorities, and here in southern Wisconsin, the trick is to capture and store as much solar energy as possible in winter while shunning summer’s overabundance.  But designing for moonlight may be a better choice.

We intend to build our new house on a south facing slope, but there’s a tree line on top of the ridge across the ravine, and if we build too far down the slope, those trees will shade out our solar gain at the winter solstice.   This past weekend, we set out to mark the ideal solar house site by measuring the altitude of that tree line to ensure we will harvest the low winter sunlight into strategic thermal mass in our living space.

...photo credit kansaspoetry, patrick, Flickr

But then it dawned on me that I had no idea how the view of the moon might be affected by our intended horizon.  Does it pass through the night sky at the same elevation as the sun?  How does it change seasonally?  For some precision answers, I went to the US Naval Observatory’s website, where you can tabulate the altitude for both sun and moon for any location, and any date from 1700 to 2100.

The sun is our source of energy, and our measure of time.  A day for each earthly revolution.  A year per orbit.  In southern Wisconsin, the sun’s fireball rises to 71° altitude every summer solstice then sinks to a mere 23° in winter, like clockwork.

But the moon moves to a more complex rhythm.

PUSH SOLAR PANEL COSTS DOWN

We don’t have to rip our mountains apart to power our toasters.  A terawatt is equal to one trillion watts, and the sun hits earth with 20 TW.  Our biggest power plants produce puny gigawatts of power a small fraction of  the terawatts that the sun is bathing the earth with — easily enough to satisfy all of our energy needs, if only we knew how to harness it.

Of course, the solar energy level varies from place to place according to geography and weather.  Here in Wisconsin we get about half the solar energy that is bathing Arizona, but it is still plenty of energy for all our needs.

So why isn’t everything humming along on solar power right now?  People still think it costs too much.

FLUSHING THE POWDER ROOM OUT OF OUR HOUSE PLAN

This weekend we had a second site visit with our architect/daughter. (Check out Whole Tree Architecture.) She, her boss and his family of four came for the weekend, and the 7 of us (one admittedly still in diapers) got along fine with 2 bathrooms.

We had a site visit Saturday and throughout the weekend mulled the question of how to whittle down our footprint.  By the end of the weekend, we had flushed the powder room.

...TOO MANY TOILETS! photo credit bikingbettie-flickr

Because we are following good accessibility practice and putting our bedroom and bath on the main floor, we decided to make that bath do double duty.  We can put the toilet and a sink into a powder room space with a pocket door that opens into the rest of the bathroom with the shower and perhaps another small sink.

We will have a second bathroom on the lower level where our offices, music room and spare room nestle.

This seems good on so many levels – not the least of which is one less bathroom to clean.  I recently posted on green cleaning, but of course the greenest way to clean is to have less objects to clean.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN MY BACK YARD

When we see the video of polar bears pacing on a shrinking ice flow, we feel both empathy for the poor brutes and relief that the warming poles and their grisly realities are a long way from us.

I have been guilty of the smug feeling that, here in Wisconsin, I am far from the poles, far from the coasts.  No rising shorelines.  Hardly any scorching heat waves.  Lots of ground water and few cities to suck it up.

When I covered local government meetings for the Chicago Tribune, what always packed the house was a mob swelling with indignation over a NIMBY (not in MY back yard).

...Explore WICCI's interactive map at http://ccr.aos.wisc.edu/cwg/

Well Global Climate Change is looming over everyone’s back yard.  Here in idyllic Wisconsin, the toll is being recorded and predictions are being formulated.  Thanks to WICCI (Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts) this state is one of the first to look closely at what is coming and how our farmers, businesses, public health officials, resource managers, municipalities and the rest of us can brace for the impact.

This was the topic of  the cover story I wrote for this week’s Isthmus, Madison’s cutting edge newspaper that keeps our town in the know.  I’m very proud of this one.  Please check it out.

It starts out:

Remember June 2008?

Madison recorded almost 11 inches of rain that month, easily breaking the previous June record set way back in 1869. Flood damage to homes, businesses, roads, bridges and water treatment plants in southern Wisconsin totaled $766 million, making it the most costly natural disaster in Wisconsin history.

This drenching came as no surprise to Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist at the UW-Madison Center for Climatic Research and a member of the WICCI Climate Working Group. “That was not a rogue thunderstorm,” he says confidently. “We will be seeing more of these in the future.”

In fact, we already have.

Read more

Read a little more the editor’s page