I am finding that in my 70s I am working just as hard and almost as long as ever but only manage to get about half as much done as I used to. After moving a pickup load of mulch for Mrs. Barn this morning, I popped up to continue building the firewood inventory for next winter and beyond. Currently I am working my way through the pile of approximately 300-pound cherry bolts, which must be handled with great care as I am not even remotely interested in experiencing a broken leg.
I roll them to the bottom of the ramp then cautiously navigate the way up until it plunks down to the bed of the splitter with a WHAM! I thought about raising the splitter upright but decided that wouldn’t really work any better. I quarter the bolts then move three of those aside (I can handle those at about 75 pounds’ apiece), splitting the remaining quarter into nine full sized pieces of firewood, then repeat the process for the other three.
Once I get done with the last of these it will be time to head back up into the woods to begin processing more windfall. I’m pretty sure we’ve got next winter covered (quite a bit left from this recent brutal winter), but you can never have too much firewood when you live in the mountains and it is your main heat source.
Not especially romantic or blog worthy, but it is a central theme for this time of year. Along with hauling mulch, of course. I’ll resume again in the fall when my brother returns for a visit.
Reflecting on the bountiful tools I saw last weekend at the PATINA tool shindig I was reminded of a tool my friend Justin showed me when he visited a few months ago. Fashioned entirely out of a whale bone, it is spectacular.
I had a great time at the PATINA toolapalooza on Saturday, connecting with many friends and acquaintances, and communing with hundreds of thousands of tools. Every year I can spend up to a dozen minutes shopping for clothes and such, but I could spend dozens of hours browsing and shopping here.
There are two parts of the event, and I always start at the tailgating outside in the parking lot. That’s often where the real deals are found.
My big score for the day was a full NOS sleeve of vintage 220-grit 3M Tri-M-ite sandpaper. My experience is that this is getting harder to find, but one fellow had several tables of sandpaper-ish inventory, most of which I did not need. But the Tri-M-ite was priced nicely so I bought the whole pack.
I was only tempted a little by a smaller patternmaker’s vise that was missing a lot of parts. It was only $60 but I let someone else go home with it.
But if vises were what you wanted, there were plenty.
Inside was packed with both people and tools. Bins and shelves of tools.
The only other things I bought for myself were a file handle for $3, a Lufkin 10-foot tape measure for $2, and an extension carpenter’s rule for $8. I did buy a number of good tools for the grandsons, small back saws, eggbeater drills, and chisels for a future date, etc.
Very much looking forward to next year.
I’m involved in a couple more tool events this year; stay tuned.
This coming weekend is the PATINA tool swap near Frederick Marlyand. You can get the details here. If you are anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic it is well worth the effort to get there. Yes, there are scores of tables with thousands of premium vintage tools, but for me the real treasures are out in the tailgating tool swap.
I’ll be there Saturday morning on the hunt for tools appropriate to little boys. Can you believe Lil’T is four years old? And his brothers and cousin are stair stepping right behind him. I’ve got plenty of tools a-waitin’ for them, but not nearly enough.
Anyway, it you see me there and recognize me come up and say “Hi.” If you see me but do not recognize me, well, don’t.
A few days, ago my longtime friend retired broadcaster Brian Wilson and I had another of our long-form chats, commenting about the state of the world. He posts these and other musings on his Substack account, Brian Wilson Writes. Feel free to indulge (or punish) yourself as our conversations are definitely no-holds-barred, not for the easily offended.
With a break in the brutal winter weather I got myself up into the woods to chop up that grove of black birch trees that came down last winter. The amount of firewood from this one incident of windfall is about what we should need next winter, but even when done here I’ll keep at it. It’s fun and good exercise.
The work site was quite the mess so I spent most of the first day just clearing brush, then got to work chopping my way up the trunks. I got two good truck loads of 6-8″ 16-inch bolts with the occasional 10-12″ piece, but those were almost outside my lifting ability. I followed those two loads with two more today.
Once I get to the biggest section of this tree, about 20 feet from the root ball, the pieces will be 20-inches in diameter or more. Those will be so heavy I will have to roll them to the tailgate and up the ramp into the truck. If past experience is any indicator each one of the biggest sections will yield 32 pieces of firewood that are manageable in size.
Another couple days and another couple truckloads and I will be done with harvesting from this site. Then on to splitting and stacking. I’ll use a system new to me I’m adapting from Mike Wilson, whose yootoob channel is one of my favorites. Previously I just spent way too much time stacking carefully to make everything “just so,” crisscrossing each layer for good stability and air flow. This new system should cut my time by at least half with even better air flow.
Then on to harvesting some more windfall elsewhere on the homestead.
Good thing my little 4WD S10 is strong and nimble. It may be dissolving before my eyes and maybe not reliable for long trips anymore but I’ll keep it until it runs no more
Now about a month out from our weather episode that brought three inches of snow, three inches of sleet, a half inch of rain, and another two inches of snow, we are starting to see some ground again.
These two picture were taken from the same spot, just turned 180-degrees. South facing slope? Grass! North facing slope? Glacier.
Every winter brings about some damage to the waterline for the hydroelectric turbine, a/k/a the penstock. Usually this is because a tree branch has fallen on some of the 1100′ of 2-inch Schedule 40 PVC, which is cheap but gets reallybrittle when cold. I knew from the very beginning that replacing some of the PVC every Spring would be an issue but just accepted it as the cost of doing business. Last year was great, I had to replace and patch only two little sections. 2015 was the worst as I had to replace 600-feet of pipe.
Except for the last thirty feet all of the penstock is above ground. I did originally get an estimate to burying the entire penstock well below the frost line, but the >$75k+ price tag was a bit much. My hydroelectric system is more of a hobby than anything else, at least until the EMP or CME or some other grid-down calamity, so that wasn’t in the cards.
A shredded section of the penstock just before the ice storm.
This damage was peculiar because it was a compound spiral fracture which is only supposed to happen as a result of water freezing in the pipe and bursting it. Since I drained the system in November this damage was a head-scratcher. I am not looking forward to surveying the entire length of pipe once the snow and ice are gone.
I am now rethinking the penstock altogether. Rather than sticking with PVC I am going to check into industrial irrigation polypropylene line which is continuous and much more forgiving to the forces that bust the PVC. Since a pressurized/enclosed water line can run down to about -15 degrees maybe I could even keep it running year-round.
In the aftermath of the snow/sleet/freezing rain/ice/snow adventure of last Sunday you could definitely say we were disheartened at the sight of the collapsed greenhouse. The broken internal structure was clearly evident, in one place the end of the snapped off arched beam had poked through the plastic skin. Mrs. Barn rightly insisted on clearing off the ton of ice to assess the damage and get a plan for the reconstruction.
One thing we did not want to do was wail away at the shell and damage the skin even more than it was already. Finding the right tool was a conundrum. She tried with one of her gardening tools but it was a poor fit for the problem, plus she was too short to get up high enough to get much done. I’m taller and with my spiked boots I could get up on the snow/ice dam along the edge of the building. And fortunately I had just the right tool.
Many years ago my woodworking pal TomS gave me my favorite walking stick, about shoulder length with a bulbous knot near the top. Since the knot was gentle in shape I could stand and whack the ice until it broke up without risking more damage to the plastic skin. After about an hour of careful work the last of the ice slabs slipped off and the arched structure popped back to its original shape. Hallelujah! You can see that slab leaning up against the greenhouse, it was about six square feet of four-inch-thick ice/snow composite. It is several hundred pounds. So even though we have not seen each other in more than a decade, TomS saved the day!
I found just a couple of punctures to the plastic skin and repaired them straightaway. I still have to build four new laminated arches, but the necessary repair is much less than anticipated. I’ll get to work on the repairs as soon as we get a bit more warming.
I just checked and the outside temp is 16 and inside the greenhouse it’s nearly 60.
PS. Here’s a glimpse of what we were dealing with. We estimate it would have taken a month to clear the six inch thick ice slab on driveway with a pickaxe and shovel. It was brutal work for us septuagenarians. Thank goodness for hearty mountain men willing to work all night long in frigid temps with their monster machines. It was well after 10pm when we finally got to the top of the list. They finished with us and moved on to the next name on the list.
PPS A fellow at church told me he had seen some of the Amish kids skating in a field. Who needs a pond or rink? We certainly could not navigate our place without snow cleats.
I am happy to report that my broom-maker is on the mend and just before the snow/ice storm delivered some new inventory. I’ve got a couple events this year so he has a standing order to crank out polissoirs as his health allows.
But for now, everything is in stock. Ironically sales for everything has plummeted, about 40% in 2025 vs. the 2024 totals. Just as well as I am making almost zero on each 1-inch ploissoir sale. Good thing this is just a hobby at this point. Not complaining, who else can say they have a hobby that doesn’t cost them anything?
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