I am building a workshop in my back yard. One day, when it is finished, I'll do a few blog entries on the process. At the moment, I want to share a random detail of that process. I was building forms for the concrete slab we are going to pour. I picked up a 10' 2 x 6, and out of habit, eyed the length of it for crown, bow, and twist. I don't think that I have ever seen a board this straight.
I felt bad about using it for such a humble thing as a concrete form.
How many people do you know who have a benchmark for their computer screen background? This BM showed up in a blog entry in the past year? Do you know what state it is in?
I was mowing grass and needed gasoline from the crawlspace. Look what was guarding my crawlspace latch? (I made this picture extra-large, so that LF and BST could enjoy it.) It is not a wolf spider. It is a water spider of the genus Dolomedes. It is also a pregnant female.
Walking along a country road near my house, I spied this raggedy old Eastern Redcedar. Tain't beautiful but there sure are a good number of cedar chests in that log. This tree has prospered on a steep, dry, rocky site at the edge of an abandoned field. What changes has this slow-growing tree seen in its 100+ years? Cedars grow extra well on limestone because they compete well on these basic soils (pH above 7). The bottom branches are all dead because they are very shade intolerant and easily shaded out by shade tolerant deciduous varieties.
Several trees next to each other at the edge of the street in the neighborhood near where I work appeared from a distance to have been planted. But upon further inspection, I doubt it since they are definitely not the same species. The cone on the left is Eastern White Pine, while the one on the right is probably Scarlet Pine. Have you ever counted how many scales there are per rotation? These spirals are always an odd number, usually between 7 to 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment