Here come the judges!

April 27. The day we had been waiting for was finally here! The barn was swept and the deer exclosure repaired. The donuts were fresh and coffee hot. Arik even had on his custom jeans!

Saturday was a big day for us on the Farm - as finalists for the Regional Tree Farm of the Year, two inspecting judges paid us a visit. They wanted to see how Joe and the Farm incorporated the core tree farm values of water, wildlife, wood and recreation.

Talking with the judges and foresters under our "logo tree," a massive white oak. 

Earth Day 2013

Mother Nature cooperated (finally!) and our Earth Day celebration went off without a hitch!

Over 130 students, teachers and aides from Cambridge Elementary School and Walbridge School participated in our program, which was held in partnership with Aldo Leopold Foundation and made possible by a crew of great volunteers!

Students worked through five stations, including:

Planting fruit trees and shrubs to create a wildlife habitat area (the walnuts and Kentucky coffee trees we had planned on planting were still frozen in the ground at the nursery!)...

Houses for rent!

I was able to navigate through the mud and muck to install a wood duck house overlooking one of the many ponds on Arington Tree Farm. Ideally these houses would have been installed a few weeks ago but getting into the field has been a challenge with the wet conditions.

Wood duck house on Arington Tree Farm

In the middle of the drought of 2012 the pond shown above was bone dry. However, after the heavy winter snow and the wet spring rains, this is a much different landscape than seven or eight months ago. 

We've seen a good number of wood ducks around the farm and are excited to offer them a place to nest. 

New chainsaw mill brackets

As my earlier post mentioned, the chainsaw mill brackets for the first slab didn't work well. The system was simply turning 2x4 lumber on edge to then run the mill along. The weight of the saw, the lack of perfectly level and straight 2x4s, and the narrowness of the rails all factored in to a less than flat initial slab. 

Well my Yankee ingenuity got the best of me. I spent some time building my own slab rail system. I cut a 3/4" thick piece of plywood down to 24" wide and 7' long. To add even more height and strength to the bracket, I actually sandwiched two sheets of plywood together, then added a metal frame to the underside (1 1/4" square tubing). The frame adds strength as well, but I mostly wanted the metal to create a level and square frame to attach the plywood.

Chainsaw mill is up and running!

I got a heads up that Arik was running the Alaskan chainsaw mill today so I ran back to take some photos. He and Joel were busy slabbing up the Big Oak and a black oak.

I had never seen a chainsaw mill in action before, so it was very interesting and educational to watch! While Arik has used the saw solo, it's definitely helpful to have an extra pair of hands on deck.

Under construction: new office space

In addition to a few things we have going on next month, there's also some construction going on back at Husker Barn. We're renovating the Bronco Room to turn it into our Tree Farm office space.

Pine paneling is up on a couple of the walls and new fluorescent lights are in; the next step is putting in doors!

Future home of ATF offices

Two glass sliding doors will be fitted into the openings in the photo above, along with another large door on the north side. These doors will add a ton of natural light to the office but I'm most excited about the incredible view we'll have of 4 Winds Pond:

The slabbing of the Big Oak!

Winter has held on here at Arington Tree farm. I had hoped to slab the Burr Oak months ago, but snow plowing has occupied my time. However, with no measurable snow the last few weeks I was finally able to use the new Stihl 880 running an Alaskan chainsaw mill.

The photo below shows the slabbing brackets setup for the first cut. From all my prior research, the importance of a level first cut can't be stressed enough. I didn't like the slabbing brackets that were supplied with the kit. They only require two, 2x4's on edge, which is what this photo shows. After a challenge first cut I will be building my own bracket. That will be another blog post.

I didn't have anyone available to take an action shot. I'll get Holly or Joe to do that soon. But this second photo shows the log with three slabs removed. At the widest part, the log is 42 inches across. I feel that the scale is hard to appreciate in the photo. We have some ideas of what we want to do with slabs. My next post will show the action photo and what those slabs look like. But if you have any ideas post a comment.

I learned that an Alaskan mill is loud, dusty, and creates a lot of vibration. After three cuts I was close to being done for the day. I actually ran out of sunlight, but it was a welcome interruption in the process.