Selfbows

Many thanks to Jason, Chris, Eric and my wife Ruth for a sucessful and safe bowood salvage operation.

The crew and part of their haul. Left to right Jason, Steve, Chris, Eric. Thanks guys!!
Chris the daredevil.
Chris brought THREE chainsaws, but only used one. It was starting to dull by the time we got to this brushpile. Thanks Chris!.
We had to leave a few behind.
Here is another one that will become woodchips..
Eric taking care of his truckload. Call Eric if you need some wood split :)
Although this was an Osage cutting trip, for some reason Chris could not pass up the black walnut, the cedar , the mystery wood and the ash. I could not figure it out :).
Here is my truck. Notice it is only yellow wood.

I do not believe there is any good wood left that is accessible, so I will not be back on Sunday. I really appreciate everyone who chipped in and thanks to Ameriplex for allowing us to take the wood.

Update on the Osage clearing operation.

I called the property manger today and he agreed to let me take some trees as long as I left the piles neat. The tree service will move the chipper in next week and chop them up. They need to have neat piles so they can get in and out quickly. I made a post on 3 message boards asking for help since I still don't have a chainsaw. I walked the fields this afternoon and sprayed red paint on the logs I thought would be OK for full length staves. There are a lot of other logs that are not straight or have branches or have been broken by the equipment.

I have had a few people call about the post. We will meet at 10:00AM on Saturday to start cutting. Location is Ameriplex industrial park on 67 between Indy and Mooresville, west side of the road. Turn on Milhouse road and park at the red barn where the bulldozer is parked. It is muddy so we can't drive to the woodpiles. We will need to split and haul it out. Some wood is close to the road. There are a lot of shorter pieces that would make good billets but I didn't mark any of them.

I will try to get my son and some of his friends out to help moving stuff around. I will bring a sledge, a hatchet and wedges. I need to check my shellac and make sure it's still good.

Map to Milhouse road.
Use zoom control to get a bigger view.


Here's the driveway off Milhouse road.

South side of the road looking north along the fencerow.

First reasonable looking pile of trees on south side marked with red paint.
Second pile I marked.
Third pile I marked on south side.

There are a lot of trees on the south side with big growth rings. It was a fence row between two soybean fields. A lot were too gnarly or were broken by the machinery. I just marked the ones I thought would work for full length staves.
The north side of the road has a lot of piles just cut today. The growth rings are more normal looking and there are some big pieces that would make billets. I took pictures of just the ones I thoutht would make full length staves.

North side of the road.
Second north side.
Third pile I marked on north side.
Fourth pile I marked on north side.

I was at a training class today and happened to notice some clearing going on in the industrial park nearby. On the way home I drove through that section and noticed several osage trees cut and stacked in multiple piles with other trees in a muddy field. I do not have a chainsaw, but these are pretty tempting. I will stop and ask permission to take some trees tomorrow and then I will try to round up some help to cut and split some of this wood. Here's the map to the woodpiles. Use the zoom controls to orient in Marion county area. map

I was working on a piece of osage yesterday when my vise wore out ( internal nut stripped). It was a craftsman, so I waited until Sears opened and called. No lifetime guarantee on vises. So I went looking for a vise (not at Sears). I went with a bigger, deeper vise. It's big enough to hold a quarter split for debarking. It has four mounting holes instead of three so it doesn't wiggle as much. Also swivels 360 degrees and locks down easily. I like it.

I renewed my membership in our local archery club last weekend and took the family and friends and dog to the our first 3d shoot of the year. I had just finished the tapered poplar arrows and had not practiced with them. We skipped the practice range because of the dog and kids. Bad move. They shoot straight and fast. I shot over a lot of targets. I wound up using 3 1/2 inch shield cuts on them because I had a lot of them laying around.
I came back home and weighed them and they are all pretty close in weight and about the same as my hunting arrows. I practiced some this week and corrected my aim. I need to make a new tab. I lost my glove and my 2 good tabs and my stringer on various hunting trips and the only tab I have left is one that is too thick and hard. I can tell a lot of difference from the thinner tabs.