I want to thank all of you who follow my blog. As you can see my posting is falling off in frequency. I could make ’excuses’, but the fact of the matter is that my ambition and time slip away very quickly. Due to the minor detail that I have lost almost a month of productive work in the woodshop, I am now way behind where I should be on projects. That however, is not really an excuse since I barely have the energy to work 5 hours or so each day and this only by forcing one foot in front of the other. For the most part I save my energy for the one day a week that I grade lumber, when I have no choice but to exert all my strength to get that job done.
I have also been spending some time thinking about the direction I want to take this blog in. One thing seems clear to me; if I don’t write about subjects that really interest me, then having a blog called “Ernie’s World” is rather misleading. It might seem that a common working person’s world would be rather dull, but the truth is, for every individual, their world is very important to “them”. In school they taught us, that when writing an essay or such, one should never use “I”, supposedly this was taboo to proper writing. But to borrow a thought from Henry Thoreau, he said, he would not use the personal pronoun “I” so often, except it was the only way he knew to express that it was “him” making the statement or opinion. (Or something to that effect, that is not a direct quote.)
There are many subjects and opinions that I am bound to touch upon while expressing myself on matters that are important to me. I find a couple of themes that constantly come to the forefront of my mind when I sit down to make a post. One, since we are in an election year, I can’t help but express my very strong feelings about how this should go. It is unavoidable that those opinions are going to offend “someone”, which is not my wish at all, however, how can it be avoided? Everyone has heard the old saying, that the two subjects that should be avoided to “remain polite” is religion and politics. I heard a “Dr. of Theology” one time that made the statement that people avoid religious discussions because the don’t care about it. In my experience, that is not the case. The only reason people avoid politics and religion is because they don’t want the “heated emotions” that come from the discussion. “Heated emotions” do not come from a passive subject, but rather from a subject that we take very seriously and hold dearly. This is why religion and politics are prone to get the “blood pressure” raising.
The fact of the matter is that religion and politics are going to affect everything we do, believe and practice. So it does not seem unreasonable to me that I express my opinions on either subject. There can be no mistake that the state of the U.S. economy and our foreign affairs will have something to do with the welfare of each and everyone of us. We might not acknowledge that in an attempt to ignore all the controversy and conflict, but don’t make the mistake in thinking that it has nothing to do with “you”.
It might be true that there is not much, if anything, we can do to influence the outcome of elections, but at least we can inform ourselves as best we can concerning the politicians involved and make some kind of decision and vote for who we think will be the best person for the job. Setting aside the fact that most of us will have little or no ’vote’, in who our particular political party puts on the ballot in November. My thinking is that I can vote for the lesser of “evils” and hope for the best, realizing the ultimately God is in control of nations and knows what he is doing, whether I understand it or like what I am seeing taking place.
The other subject that is constantly in my mind, as it has become a ‘way of life’ for my family, is the ideal of “Simple Living” and how best to live in a manner that attempts to avoid a lot of the “stress” associated with modern life. These two subjects, politics and simple living will be the things I find most interesting to write on. I could easily get started on religion and faith, but if I go there I think it will be necessary to start another blog just for that subject. I have mostly avoided doing that for several reasons, mainly I don’t get the time to faithfully post on this blog, how could I keep two blogs going with very limited writing time? In addition to that, there is a lot of blogs dedicated to Christianity and faith already and I am not sure that I could add a great deal of useful thoughts to the subject.
As I am writing this, the morning is slipping away and the shop is almost warm enough to begin work. By the time I finish up my day there I will not have the energy left to think straight, so I write this before getting my day started and will post it this evening.
I see it is also snowing outside my window, but I don’t think it will amount to anything that will require my snowplow, that is my hope anyway.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Pliable As Water
Sometimes it seems strange what energy we expand working at, or planning for things that we question the value of to start with. I thought about this today when I finally decided I just had to get back to the woodshop and work on a project that I had started just before Christmas. Since my hospital visit and surgery I have picked up most of my work load, but I have been avoiding the woodshop, due to the fact that working with power tools that can very quickly remove body parts, particularly fingers and hands, that I would prefer to keep attached.
Today I decided was the ‘day’ to get back at it. The first thing I discovered was that “the dog had ate my homework”! Literally! The little ‘criminal Beagle” has been sleeping there at night, due to the winter cold and I never gave another thought to my project plans, that I had left laying on a low shelf, after having expended a lot of time and energy in drawing them up. Mr. Trigger must have gotten bored and decided my clipboard looked like a good ‘chew toy’, all I could recover was a few well chewed pieces of scrape paper. Since I had the framing for this project mostly done, it won’t take as much work to re-draw my plans as it did the first time. But it got me to thinking about the way we go about our lives.
It is my decided opinion that a person, young or older, should have some plans and direction they want to go in their life. It appears too many people simply ‘float’ with the stream, never having any solid ideal what who or what they want to become. The result is often poor. We find people who are never content, but from all known appearances, we can’t figure out why because they don’t seem to be working toward any tangible goals in their life. Often they jump from one meaningless job, that they despise, to another that is just as hateful. Complaining all the while that they are ‘mistreated’ by ‘society’, as if, society owed them some kind of debt by making them “happy”.
I consider that since I have reached the prime age of mid-50’s that some advice might be worthwhile. No one can make decisions about my life except me and the same goes for you or anyone else. The ultimate responsibility for our contentment must rest upon on our own shoulders. No matter what circumstances come our way that might interfere with our plans, we have to become like a stream of water. What I mean by that is this; water will find a way to flow downhill to it ‘goal’ no matter what is standing in its way. It might have to go around bends in the earth, cut its way down steep mountains or make a path around large boulders, but by and by water will reach the ocean for which it is headed, one way or another.
It is certain that all people cannot possibly reach some ’pie in the sky’, unrealistic goal. In our society, it appears that most people think only in terms of “wealth” as a measure of ones success. No wonder there are so many miserable people walking around. It is impossible for all of us to be multi-millionaires, that just can’t be under any known economic system. So using ‘wealth’ as a measuring device is a poor standard to judge a persons life, in fact, it is right down foolish or maybe a better term would be “insane”. Yet, all the communication media we see paints the picture of ‘contentment’ as, in one way or another, having to do with money or the things money can buy as the means to be ‘content’.
The “American Dream” that has been ‘sold’ to a couple generations now is something that has been modified and twisted into the “American Nightmare” for far too many people. Just look at any real estate advertisement. What you have is a nice house in the suburbs with a small yard and a two car garage that has many times been ‘thrown together’ with junk building materials and doctored up with cheaply made but nice looking furnishings. You can have it all if you will only take out a 30 year mortgage, that a two income family can barely manage to pay each month.
My advice to young folks is, don’t buy that “dream”. You will be far ahead in the long run to buy a smaller, older, better built, cheaper house. One that you could make the payments on even if you were reduced to a ‘one income family’. By exerting all your effort to pay this house off in less time than the mortgage calls for you will save a bundle of money and, if you are lucky, the value of that house will increase. At which time if you still what the more expensive house, you can sale your first one and use that money to greatly reduce a new mortgage.
This gets to a flaw in our current thinking, as a society. It has been said over and over, because it is true, that Americans no longer look to the ‘long term’, but want everything “now”! The bankers, finance companies and government have been very helpful in seeing that we don’t have to “wait”, they will find a way to “loan” us the “funny money” for whatever we want. At least that was true 5 years ago, now, as the saying goes, ‘our chickens have come home to roost’ and it is time to pay the bill.
I know that not everyone in our society has fallen for that ‘dream’ (nightmare), but enough have to put our whole economic welfare in danger of collapsing on our heads. I won’t go into a ‘rant’ on how the government and our politicians have helped to enable this mess, I would rather consider ways to “escape the trap”.
To start with we have to change our thinking if we find that our current mindset is flawed, in other words, “check your premise”. The ’premise’ of our current system is that a modern society like we have is “too big to fail”, or we are too advanced to collapse as a society. Sorry if I am the one to inform you of this fact; but it is not true. Many great societies and empires of past history were not much different than we are. The only difference between us and the Roman Empire is really just in our technology and that might be a questionable “advantage”.
By 400 A.D. Rome had lots of high level creature comforts that many people aren’t even aware of. For example most people know that they had aqueducts to deliver running water to many homes, but they also even had ’air conditioning’ that was provided by water pipes that would circulate cold water through some of the wealthier homes. Imagine air conditioning long before the invention of electricity!
Rome also had something that proved to be their “Achilles heel”, it was the “Just in Time” deliver system of food and other necessary products to a city of over a million people. It is not much different than most all of our cities, and even small towns, which are dependent on the steady flow of goods to the grocery stores on a daily basis. Just imagine what would happen if for some reason, any reason, the trucks were stopped in their tracks for even a week or two. This is what happen when Rome was surrounded by her enemies, the supplies to the city was shut off. Before that was over, people in Rome were reduced to little more than animals, even resorting to cannibalism, eating each other. As they say, the rest is history. The marvel of the Rome that was is no more than ruins that amaze tourists.
Let me advise you to think over your current state of affairs and ask yourself some questions. Then make some common sense plans on how you will deal with any crisis that might occur. Remember that water is pliable and will go around any obstacle, so I like to think that I will learn to be as pliable as water. I might have to change course and do a lot of turning and wandering, but as long as I have life I will keep moving, no matter what might stand in the way.
Got to get those chewed project plans redrawn and go back to work.
Today I decided was the ‘day’ to get back at it. The first thing I discovered was that “the dog had ate my homework”! Literally! The little ‘criminal Beagle” has been sleeping there at night, due to the winter cold and I never gave another thought to my project plans, that I had left laying on a low shelf, after having expended a lot of time and energy in drawing them up. Mr. Trigger must have gotten bored and decided my clipboard looked like a good ‘chew toy’, all I could recover was a few well chewed pieces of scrape paper. Since I had the framing for this project mostly done, it won’t take as much work to re-draw my plans as it did the first time. But it got me to thinking about the way we go about our lives.
It is my decided opinion that a person, young or older, should have some plans and direction they want to go in their life. It appears too many people simply ‘float’ with the stream, never having any solid ideal what who or what they want to become. The result is often poor. We find people who are never content, but from all known appearances, we can’t figure out why because they don’t seem to be working toward any tangible goals in their life. Often they jump from one meaningless job, that they despise, to another that is just as hateful. Complaining all the while that they are ‘mistreated’ by ‘society’, as if, society owed them some kind of debt by making them “happy”.
I consider that since I have reached the prime age of mid-50’s that some advice might be worthwhile. No one can make decisions about my life except me and the same goes for you or anyone else. The ultimate responsibility for our contentment must rest upon on our own shoulders. No matter what circumstances come our way that might interfere with our plans, we have to become like a stream of water. What I mean by that is this; water will find a way to flow downhill to it ‘goal’ no matter what is standing in its way. It might have to go around bends in the earth, cut its way down steep mountains or make a path around large boulders, but by and by water will reach the ocean for which it is headed, one way or another.
It is certain that all people cannot possibly reach some ’pie in the sky’, unrealistic goal. In our society, it appears that most people think only in terms of “wealth” as a measure of ones success. No wonder there are so many miserable people walking around. It is impossible for all of us to be multi-millionaires, that just can’t be under any known economic system. So using ‘wealth’ as a measuring device is a poor standard to judge a persons life, in fact, it is right down foolish or maybe a better term would be “insane”. Yet, all the communication media we see paints the picture of ‘contentment’ as, in one way or another, having to do with money or the things money can buy as the means to be ‘content’.
The “American Dream” that has been ‘sold’ to a couple generations now is something that has been modified and twisted into the “American Nightmare” for far too many people. Just look at any real estate advertisement. What you have is a nice house in the suburbs with a small yard and a two car garage that has many times been ‘thrown together’ with junk building materials and doctored up with cheaply made but nice looking furnishings. You can have it all if you will only take out a 30 year mortgage, that a two income family can barely manage to pay each month.
My advice to young folks is, don’t buy that “dream”. You will be far ahead in the long run to buy a smaller, older, better built, cheaper house. One that you could make the payments on even if you were reduced to a ‘one income family’. By exerting all your effort to pay this house off in less time than the mortgage calls for you will save a bundle of money and, if you are lucky, the value of that house will increase. At which time if you still what the more expensive house, you can sale your first one and use that money to greatly reduce a new mortgage.
This gets to a flaw in our current thinking, as a society. It has been said over and over, because it is true, that Americans no longer look to the ‘long term’, but want everything “now”! The bankers, finance companies and government have been very helpful in seeing that we don’t have to “wait”, they will find a way to “loan” us the “funny money” for whatever we want. At least that was true 5 years ago, now, as the saying goes, ‘our chickens have come home to roost’ and it is time to pay the bill.
I know that not everyone in our society has fallen for that ‘dream’ (nightmare), but enough have to put our whole economic welfare in danger of collapsing on our heads. I won’t go into a ‘rant’ on how the government and our politicians have helped to enable this mess, I would rather consider ways to “escape the trap”.
To start with we have to change our thinking if we find that our current mindset is flawed, in other words, “check your premise”. The ’premise’ of our current system is that a modern society like we have is “too big to fail”, or we are too advanced to collapse as a society. Sorry if I am the one to inform you of this fact; but it is not true. Many great societies and empires of past history were not much different than we are. The only difference between us and the Roman Empire is really just in our technology and that might be a questionable “advantage”.
By 400 A.D. Rome had lots of high level creature comforts that many people aren’t even aware of. For example most people know that they had aqueducts to deliver running water to many homes, but they also even had ’air conditioning’ that was provided by water pipes that would circulate cold water through some of the wealthier homes. Imagine air conditioning long before the invention of electricity!
Rome also had something that proved to be their “Achilles heel”, it was the “Just in Time” deliver system of food and other necessary products to a city of over a million people. It is not much different than most all of our cities, and even small towns, which are dependent on the steady flow of goods to the grocery stores on a daily basis. Just imagine what would happen if for some reason, any reason, the trucks were stopped in their tracks for even a week or two. This is what happen when Rome was surrounded by her enemies, the supplies to the city was shut off. Before that was over, people in Rome were reduced to little more than animals, even resorting to cannibalism, eating each other. As they say, the rest is history. The marvel of the Rome that was is no more than ruins that amaze tourists.
Let me advise you to think over your current state of affairs and ask yourself some questions. Then make some common sense plans on how you will deal with any crisis that might occur. Remember that water is pliable and will go around any obstacle, so I like to think that I will learn to be as pliable as water. I might have to change course and do a lot of turning and wandering, but as long as I have life I will keep moving, no matter what might stand in the way.
Got to get those chewed project plans redrawn and go back to work.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Fishing The Lake Of The Woods In Winter
Ernie is back to his ‘world’ after having spend a few days in another. I am referring to my winter fishing trip to Lake of the Woods. This rather huge lake lays on the border of Canada and the U.S. It is the next largest body of water, after the great lakes, that is part of this country. It is roughly 70 miles from north to south and just slightly less east to west. One remarkable thing about this big water is that it contains over 14,500 islands, most of those are on the Canadian side of the border.
We enter the lake near Baudette, MN right along the side of the Rainy River. Depending on the snow conditions our travel on the lake will either be on roads that are plowed and marked by the guide or if the snow is too much to keep a road open, we will be transported in a tracked vehicle. These are often a converted cargo van that has been fitted with huge tracks like a snow machine and can ride on top of the snow and go almost anywhere as long as they don’t hit a spot of slushy water on top of the ice. For safety they are also outfitted with an emergency floatation system that by pulling a lever the guide can inflate huge air bags that is suppose to float the vehicle. I have always wondered if they would work, but fortunately have never had the experience for finding out.
Depending on where the good fishing is located, we go out from 7 to as much as 15 miles from shore to what is called a “sleeper house”. This is where we spend the weekend fishing, sleeping and living.
This year was considered a good one for us. We did not keep track of the number of fish we caught, which were Sauger (a crossbreed fish much like walleye but never get very big), walleye and a couple whitefish. Sometimes we also catch large eel pouts, that look a bit like a cross between an eel and a catfish, only uglier than either, but fun to catch. We have eaten them, but I am not fond of their fatty soft meat, although if cooked properly it can be good grub, especially if you have nothing else!
We got started fishing around 11 AM on Friday morning and by evening had enough fish to feed 4 hunger fishermen all we could eat of the crisp fried fillets. Saturday night we even ate more, plus we froze some for bringing home.
There was no really large fish caught, the longest I think was a 22 inch walleye that was caught at 1:30 AM on Sunday morning. It seemed the sauger were biting during the daylight hours and the walleye after dark or late in the night, at least this year.
Being that the wind was on a ‘roar’ the whole time we were there with the thermometer around the 0 mark or below, we did not spend anymore time outside our fish house than necessary. The wind did bring warmer air by late Saturday night, but with it came snow on Sunday morning. That made the first 100 miles or so of out trip home Sunday a bit ‘dicey’ for the road conditions, but we made it safely back, having had a grand time on the ice.
For those unfamiliar with this type of fishing, there are a few things that are remarkable on a large lake like this one is. For one, the ice was good since they too had very little snow this winter. The ice on average was around 18” thick and even on a large lake that is enough to support almost any kind of vehicle. But the lake is never ‘silent’, there is a stead sound of popping, cracking, groaning, mixed with a roaring wind outside our house.
When it is really cold and new ice is forming, the whole body of ice moves slightly, especially in a wind. This creates what is called ice heaves or pressure ridges. I have see these heaves that were over 10’ tall, made by two opposing is shelves crushing against each other at a crack in the ice. These break the ice and push up huge blocks of ice to make almost a wall of ice that can for miles on a large lake. When these are encountered on the roadways, the ice must be chopped out and a temporary bridge put in place to drive a vehicle across the broken up ice.
On Friday night it was very cold and at one point we heard one particular ice crack that went for the longest time I believe I have hear one run. It must have lasted a full 20 seconds and rumbled close enough to our house that the water was pushed up through out fishing holes slightly. It is nothing to be fearful of, but interesting to watch the water raise up, maybe as much as in inch and then settle by down to its normal level. We wondered that time if a crack would actually form on the ice under our house, but it must have went somewhere else near us.
Now that my ‘winter vacation’ is over, it will be time to get back in the swing of a full work load that I have been avoiding since my hospital visit over Christmas. But today I must first do a little snowplowing to clean up a few inches that has gradually accumulated over the last week or so and has now gotten to be a nuisance to walk around in all the time. But being past the mid-point of January, I am not going to complain about a little snowplowing, it was months past due and still not very much of it.
We enter the lake near Baudette, MN right along the side of the Rainy River. Depending on the snow conditions our travel on the lake will either be on roads that are plowed and marked by the guide or if the snow is too much to keep a road open, we will be transported in a tracked vehicle. These are often a converted cargo van that has been fitted with huge tracks like a snow machine and can ride on top of the snow and go almost anywhere as long as they don’t hit a spot of slushy water on top of the ice. For safety they are also outfitted with an emergency floatation system that by pulling a lever the guide can inflate huge air bags that is suppose to float the vehicle. I have always wondered if they would work, but fortunately have never had the experience for finding out.
Depending on where the good fishing is located, we go out from 7 to as much as 15 miles from shore to what is called a “sleeper house”. This is where we spend the weekend fishing, sleeping and living.
This year was considered a good one for us. We did not keep track of the number of fish we caught, which were Sauger (a crossbreed fish much like walleye but never get very big), walleye and a couple whitefish. Sometimes we also catch large eel pouts, that look a bit like a cross between an eel and a catfish, only uglier than either, but fun to catch. We have eaten them, but I am not fond of their fatty soft meat, although if cooked properly it can be good grub, especially if you have nothing else!
We got started fishing around 11 AM on Friday morning and by evening had enough fish to feed 4 hunger fishermen all we could eat of the crisp fried fillets. Saturday night we even ate more, plus we froze some for bringing home.
There was no really large fish caught, the longest I think was a 22 inch walleye that was caught at 1:30 AM on Sunday morning. It seemed the sauger were biting during the daylight hours and the walleye after dark or late in the night, at least this year.
Being that the wind was on a ‘roar’ the whole time we were there with the thermometer around the 0 mark or below, we did not spend anymore time outside our fish house than necessary. The wind did bring warmer air by late Saturday night, but with it came snow on Sunday morning. That made the first 100 miles or so of out trip home Sunday a bit ‘dicey’ for the road conditions, but we made it safely back, having had a grand time on the ice.
For those unfamiliar with this type of fishing, there are a few things that are remarkable on a large lake like this one is. For one, the ice was good since they too had very little snow this winter. The ice on average was around 18” thick and even on a large lake that is enough to support almost any kind of vehicle. But the lake is never ‘silent’, there is a stead sound of popping, cracking, groaning, mixed with a roaring wind outside our house.
When it is really cold and new ice is forming, the whole body of ice moves slightly, especially in a wind. This creates what is called ice heaves or pressure ridges. I have see these heaves that were over 10’ tall, made by two opposing is shelves crushing against each other at a crack in the ice. These break the ice and push up huge blocks of ice to make almost a wall of ice that can for miles on a large lake. When these are encountered on the roadways, the ice must be chopped out and a temporary bridge put in place to drive a vehicle across the broken up ice.
On Friday night it was very cold and at one point we heard one particular ice crack that went for the longest time I believe I have hear one run. It must have lasted a full 20 seconds and rumbled close enough to our house that the water was pushed up through out fishing holes slightly. It is nothing to be fearful of, but interesting to watch the water raise up, maybe as much as in inch and then settle by down to its normal level. We wondered that time if a crack would actually form on the ice under our house, but it must have went somewhere else near us.
Now that my ‘winter vacation’ is over, it will be time to get back in the swing of a full work load that I have been avoiding since my hospital visit over Christmas. But today I must first do a little snowplowing to clean up a few inches that has gradually accumulated over the last week or so and has now gotten to be a nuisance to walk around in all the time. But being past the mid-point of January, I am not going to complain about a little snowplowing, it was months past due and still not very much of it.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
We Needed That Pipeline
Most Americans work to provide for themselves and their families, which is only right and proper. But what some of us “working people” don’t understand is; why does it seem that our government is doing everything possible to make our lives “harder”?
Case in point, today the President has determined that the Keystone pipeline that has been in the works for sometime now, cannot go forward and must be put on hold until after the next election.
Mr. President, I have some questions; 1) Why is it important to hold up this nations supply of oil that Canada, our “friendly neighbor” wants to sale us? How can it even be questioned whether or not this “Private financed” project is good for our nation and economy? I also see where you want another 1.2 trillion dollars to spend for only God knows what, money that must come from the pockets of working Americans, but at the same time your policy in stopping this one project is costing us billions more by way of jobs that could be created with money put up by industry and not the taxpayers. It would help us toward cutting down on the amount of oil that we have to buy from the “not so friendly Arab nations”. It might also help stabilize the price that we have to pay for gasoline, the only viable fuel source we have right now to power this country.
2) Mr. President, who needs Iran for an enemy when we have you sitting in the White House, in effect holding us hostage? Why say we need to wait until after 2013 to decide whether or not to build this pipeline? Do you really think there are enough votes by the “anti-pipeline” environmental “nuts” in this country to assure you a re-election? Then, if you are elected, what happens? Will you be beholden to that crowd and thus put a stop to this project ‘forever’? All at the same time you are feeding us a complete line of ****** that you want what is best for the USA.
With respect, Mr. President I don’t think you need those few votes nearly as bad as our country needs oil from Canada.
Something is wrong with this picture folks. Our own president, who knows better than any of us, how close we are to another war in the middle east, with Iran this time, refuses to let Canada ship crude oil to us.
I will be the first to admit that I never had much faith that Barack Hessian Obama was going to be “good for our country” from the beginning. That based upon his own statements while campaigning for office the first time. One of those statements was to the affect that the coal companies would have to go out of business, because we could not longer be using coal as a source for electric power. Yet, he nor anyone else has a reasonable alternative at this point in time. What? Are we suppose to go back to the ‘dark ages’ and do without electric just because it “might” be having some affect on our weather, like warming us up. I wish he could have stood with me today, while I worked in sub-zero wind and then tell us that “warming” was a serious problem!
Ok, Ernie’s World is not very pleased today with our beloved president. Of course he is not the only one standing in the way of our survival. There is a whole army of liberal over educated fools standing side by side with him. Many politicians and tax leaching bureaucrats who are playing ‘high and holy’ with environmental claims are right there on his side.
Here is my opinion of the whole bunch. Hypocrites one and all! They deny common tax-paying working Americans the energy we need to “produce something” and pay their salaries, while at the same time while spending us into bankruptcy, they are flying around all over the world on fuel consuming jets and using up more energy than most large cities, and then tell us, we have to pay more for gas from the Arabs, because they just can’t allow us to buy oil from Canada.
The rumor is that if Canada can’t get this pipeline going soon, they will turn to China to sale their oil. Who would blame them?
If there was ever a time in our nation, when our national leaders have truly worked against its citizens, it is happening now right before our very eyes.
I think I best go fishing and forget about the “fools”, I don’t have a vote until next fall, but it is certain my vote won’t be for someone who is either ‘stupid’ or ‘anti-American’.
Case in point, today the President has determined that the Keystone pipeline that has been in the works for sometime now, cannot go forward and must be put on hold until after the next election.
Mr. President, I have some questions; 1) Why is it important to hold up this nations supply of oil that Canada, our “friendly neighbor” wants to sale us? How can it even be questioned whether or not this “Private financed” project is good for our nation and economy? I also see where you want another 1.2 trillion dollars to spend for only God knows what, money that must come from the pockets of working Americans, but at the same time your policy in stopping this one project is costing us billions more by way of jobs that could be created with money put up by industry and not the taxpayers. It would help us toward cutting down on the amount of oil that we have to buy from the “not so friendly Arab nations”. It might also help stabilize the price that we have to pay for gasoline, the only viable fuel source we have right now to power this country.
2) Mr. President, who needs Iran for an enemy when we have you sitting in the White House, in effect holding us hostage? Why say we need to wait until after 2013 to decide whether or not to build this pipeline? Do you really think there are enough votes by the “anti-pipeline” environmental “nuts” in this country to assure you a re-election? Then, if you are elected, what happens? Will you be beholden to that crowd and thus put a stop to this project ‘forever’? All at the same time you are feeding us a complete line of ****** that you want what is best for the USA.
With respect, Mr. President I don’t think you need those few votes nearly as bad as our country needs oil from Canada.
Something is wrong with this picture folks. Our own president, who knows better than any of us, how close we are to another war in the middle east, with Iran this time, refuses to let Canada ship crude oil to us.
I will be the first to admit that I never had much faith that Barack Hessian Obama was going to be “good for our country” from the beginning. That based upon his own statements while campaigning for office the first time. One of those statements was to the affect that the coal companies would have to go out of business, because we could not longer be using coal as a source for electric power. Yet, he nor anyone else has a reasonable alternative at this point in time. What? Are we suppose to go back to the ‘dark ages’ and do without electric just because it “might” be having some affect on our weather, like warming us up. I wish he could have stood with me today, while I worked in sub-zero wind and then tell us that “warming” was a serious problem!
Ok, Ernie’s World is not very pleased today with our beloved president. Of course he is not the only one standing in the way of our survival. There is a whole army of liberal over educated fools standing side by side with him. Many politicians and tax leaching bureaucrats who are playing ‘high and holy’ with environmental claims are right there on his side.
Here is my opinion of the whole bunch. Hypocrites one and all! They deny common tax-paying working Americans the energy we need to “produce something” and pay their salaries, while at the same time while spending us into bankruptcy, they are flying around all over the world on fuel consuming jets and using up more energy than most large cities, and then tell us, we have to pay more for gas from the Arabs, because they just can’t allow us to buy oil from Canada.
The rumor is that if Canada can’t get this pipeline going soon, they will turn to China to sale their oil. Who would blame them?
If there was ever a time in our nation, when our national leaders have truly worked against its citizens, it is happening now right before our very eyes.
I think I best go fishing and forget about the “fools”, I don’t have a vote until next fall, but it is certain my vote won’t be for someone who is either ‘stupid’ or ‘anti-American’.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Ice Fishing With Line or Spear
Soon it will be time for my annual trek up to the Lake of the Woods for a winter fishing trip. While going over my ice fishing gear this afternoon it occurred to me how important fishing has been to our wonderful state of MN, both in the past and current.
Prior to the coming of European peoples to this part of the world, the native Americans settled on the major bodies of water, for good reasons. One is obviously transportation. It was much easier to travel along the waterways of this state than ‘cross country’. I would say any time of the year. For during the short summers, the consuming insects, mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies were/are a horror to anyone caught in the woods or even on the prairie, if the wind was calm and the grasses were high.
During the wintertime, the many large lakes and rivers make for ‘super highways’ to travel on, either by snowshoe or dogsled. I have often wondered how the reality would have been to have been in this state, say around 1800, before there was much “civilized” influence to bring in roads, railroads and other modern forms of transportation. I have heard some “old timers” tell stories of their parents and grandparents who were some of the early settlers to the northern part of this state. They describe fish and fishing in terms that is hard to imagine for current day sportsmen. Naturally, the big excitement was in the spring of the year when the northern pike and walleye are moving up the small rivers from lake to lake. I have seen by spotlight some remarkable “schools of fish” at that time of year, but nothing like the old timers talk about.
The natives and settlers would harvest an mountain of fish in the spring by means of spearing fish in the streams as they migrated. Even now, the game wardens have about a month or so of busy activity during that time of year when they patrol for ‘outlaws’ who can’t seem to resist the urge to spear fish in the springtime.
Another means that was used in the past was fish traps. These were generally wire cages, just imagine a cage about 4 feet long and 2 feet all around, with a funnel of wire on each end and you have a fair ideal of a good fish trap. They would put these in steams under overhanging banks which are the fishes favorite passage way. Stories are told of traps so full it took several men to pull them from the water.
What I can’t get over is thinking about the fish feast these folks must have had! That at a time of the year when fresh food was hard to come by.
Then there is winter ice fishing. Most years from the central part of the state on north, from late November until April the lakes are covered with several feet of ice. I have wondered how the natives cut their holes for fishing, but I suppose they chipped them out with an ice chisel before the invention of augers. I am also guessing that they would have done what I would and that was to cover the hole over at night so a chopped out fishing hole could be used for many days before freezing shut.
For those who have never ice fished with a decoy and spear, it is an activity that is far different than fishing with a hook and line. I will describe the way it is still done and assume it was not a lot different from how it has been done, for who knows how long.
You start with a dark house, that means a structure build without windows of any kind and sealed against any light shining through the walls, doors or around the bottom of the shack. For the ideal is to lure the fish up close to the surface where you can run him through with a spear, about the size of a pitchfork, only the prongs are heavier with barbs to prevent the fish from getting off once you have it speared, northern pike is the legal species now, but in past history, any fish would have been ’fair game’.
The ideal spot is to go out on the ice in fairly shallow water, say 6-8 feet with some cabbage weeds showing in the water. That is a favorite place for the pike to hang out looking for an easy meal. Then you cut a hole in the ice, usually around 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, although we once used a house build for two people, that had a hole that was 2’ wide by 8’ long, that made a nice big hole to watch.
Once you have your shack over the hole and banked on the outside with snow to prevent light and cold air that will freeze your hole, you are ready to fish. It is best to have heat in the house, not only for comfort but also to keep you hole open and free of ice. Then the most common practice is to use a artificial decoy carved from wood with a lead weight sunk into it to hold it under the water. These come or are made in almost any size and form to be imagined. It is common for them to be from 4-6 inches long and of a bright color, red and white being the most common. You put this decoy on a string tied to the roof of you shack and drop it into the water anywhere from 2 to 4 feet below the ice. The decoys are made with metal fins that can be adjusted so that they will swim in a circle when you work the string, this swimming action is what will attract the predator fish. Then you wait. Sitting there in a darkened shack while the cold wind roars, with the water clear and bright enough to sometimes reflect light back into your shack and watching and waiting for a great northern pike to come in to attack your decoy is exciting to fisherman, all the more if you are hungry for some fish!
Sometimes a northern will cautiously swim up to have a look at your decoy from several feet away, usually under the edge of your shack where you can’t get a jab at him. At other times they will cruise in like a torpedo and attack the decoy like lightening and be gone before you know what is happening! It is for that reason that we sometimes use a live sucker. These baitfish are around 7 or 8 inches long and are rigged up with a harness around their middle and tied to the string just like the artificial decoy is. Under this circumstance you have to be on close watch or a northern will come in and kill your live decoy with one good bite and sometimes make his escape when he discovers his food is anchored to a cord. Then you are left with a piece of dead meat that is not likely to attract anything. No matter how you do it spear fishing for northern is great fun and can be very exciting. Regrettably, I had to give up the sport several years ago due to arthritis in my neck. One can be amazed at how stiff your neck will get while staring down into a hole of water all day. All the more reason for us to not put off the things we wish to do while we are young, there will come a day when we can’t do some of the things we would like too, due to the great enemy “time and age”.
All ice fishing is not so demanding. When we arrive at the Lake of the Woods, we will be met by our guide who we rent the ice house from. He will escort us out however many miles it is to where the fish are located this season (sometimes as far as 15 miles from land) and see that we are settled into a large sleeper house. These houses are completely outfitted with bunks, tables, gas lights, a gas cook stove and all along one wall will be our fish holes cleanly cut and ready for fishing. Such services come at a “cost”, but once a year me and three friends ‘bite the bullet’ and make the trip. If all goes well we will have a couple good feasts of fresh walleye cooked right in our ice house and good memories.
Sometimes I think God gave us fishing, more for the joy and memories than for the meat. I will enjoy both.
Prior to the coming of European peoples to this part of the world, the native Americans settled on the major bodies of water, for good reasons. One is obviously transportation. It was much easier to travel along the waterways of this state than ‘cross country’. I would say any time of the year. For during the short summers, the consuming insects, mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies were/are a horror to anyone caught in the woods or even on the prairie, if the wind was calm and the grasses were high.
During the wintertime, the many large lakes and rivers make for ‘super highways’ to travel on, either by snowshoe or dogsled. I have often wondered how the reality would have been to have been in this state, say around 1800, before there was much “civilized” influence to bring in roads, railroads and other modern forms of transportation. I have heard some “old timers” tell stories of their parents and grandparents who were some of the early settlers to the northern part of this state. They describe fish and fishing in terms that is hard to imagine for current day sportsmen. Naturally, the big excitement was in the spring of the year when the northern pike and walleye are moving up the small rivers from lake to lake. I have seen by spotlight some remarkable “schools of fish” at that time of year, but nothing like the old timers talk about.
The natives and settlers would harvest an mountain of fish in the spring by means of spearing fish in the streams as they migrated. Even now, the game wardens have about a month or so of busy activity during that time of year when they patrol for ‘outlaws’ who can’t seem to resist the urge to spear fish in the springtime.
Another means that was used in the past was fish traps. These were generally wire cages, just imagine a cage about 4 feet long and 2 feet all around, with a funnel of wire on each end and you have a fair ideal of a good fish trap. They would put these in steams under overhanging banks which are the fishes favorite passage way. Stories are told of traps so full it took several men to pull them from the water.
What I can’t get over is thinking about the fish feast these folks must have had! That at a time of the year when fresh food was hard to come by.
Then there is winter ice fishing. Most years from the central part of the state on north, from late November until April the lakes are covered with several feet of ice. I have wondered how the natives cut their holes for fishing, but I suppose they chipped them out with an ice chisel before the invention of augers. I am also guessing that they would have done what I would and that was to cover the hole over at night so a chopped out fishing hole could be used for many days before freezing shut.
For those who have never ice fished with a decoy and spear, it is an activity that is far different than fishing with a hook and line. I will describe the way it is still done and assume it was not a lot different from how it has been done, for who knows how long.
You start with a dark house, that means a structure build without windows of any kind and sealed against any light shining through the walls, doors or around the bottom of the shack. For the ideal is to lure the fish up close to the surface where you can run him through with a spear, about the size of a pitchfork, only the prongs are heavier with barbs to prevent the fish from getting off once you have it speared, northern pike is the legal species now, but in past history, any fish would have been ’fair game’.
The ideal spot is to go out on the ice in fairly shallow water, say 6-8 feet with some cabbage weeds showing in the water. That is a favorite place for the pike to hang out looking for an easy meal. Then you cut a hole in the ice, usually around 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, although we once used a house build for two people, that had a hole that was 2’ wide by 8’ long, that made a nice big hole to watch.
Once you have your shack over the hole and banked on the outside with snow to prevent light and cold air that will freeze your hole, you are ready to fish. It is best to have heat in the house, not only for comfort but also to keep you hole open and free of ice. Then the most common practice is to use a artificial decoy carved from wood with a lead weight sunk into it to hold it under the water. These come or are made in almost any size and form to be imagined. It is common for them to be from 4-6 inches long and of a bright color, red and white being the most common. You put this decoy on a string tied to the roof of you shack and drop it into the water anywhere from 2 to 4 feet below the ice. The decoys are made with metal fins that can be adjusted so that they will swim in a circle when you work the string, this swimming action is what will attract the predator fish. Then you wait. Sitting there in a darkened shack while the cold wind roars, with the water clear and bright enough to sometimes reflect light back into your shack and watching and waiting for a great northern pike to come in to attack your decoy is exciting to fisherman, all the more if you are hungry for some fish!
Sometimes a northern will cautiously swim up to have a look at your decoy from several feet away, usually under the edge of your shack where you can’t get a jab at him. At other times they will cruise in like a torpedo and attack the decoy like lightening and be gone before you know what is happening! It is for that reason that we sometimes use a live sucker. These baitfish are around 7 or 8 inches long and are rigged up with a harness around their middle and tied to the string just like the artificial decoy is. Under this circumstance you have to be on close watch or a northern will come in and kill your live decoy with one good bite and sometimes make his escape when he discovers his food is anchored to a cord. Then you are left with a piece of dead meat that is not likely to attract anything. No matter how you do it spear fishing for northern is great fun and can be very exciting. Regrettably, I had to give up the sport several years ago due to arthritis in my neck. One can be amazed at how stiff your neck will get while staring down into a hole of water all day. All the more reason for us to not put off the things we wish to do while we are young, there will come a day when we can’t do some of the things we would like too, due to the great enemy “time and age”.
All ice fishing is not so demanding. When we arrive at the Lake of the Woods, we will be met by our guide who we rent the ice house from. He will escort us out however many miles it is to where the fish are located this season (sometimes as far as 15 miles from land) and see that we are settled into a large sleeper house. These houses are completely outfitted with bunks, tables, gas lights, a gas cook stove and all along one wall will be our fish holes cleanly cut and ready for fishing. Such services come at a “cost”, but once a year me and three friends ‘bite the bullet’ and make the trip. If all goes well we will have a couple good feasts of fresh walleye cooked right in our ice house and good memories.
Sometimes I think God gave us fishing, more for the joy and memories than for the meat. I will enjoy both.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Simple Pleasure of Heating With Wood
Having used wood heat for part of my childhood and most of my adult life, I find that no other kind of heat source has what we might call “character”. Without a doubt all other common heating systems are ‘convenient’ when compared to wood. So ’convenient’ in fact, that they are taken for granted and forgotten about, that is until it is time to pay for the “fill up” whether it be fuel oil, propane or even electric.
For many years we heated our home with a combination of heating oil and wood. That had a great benefit, for if we were not at home to keep the fire up, the furnace kept the house at a reasonable temperature. But at that time heating oil was relatively cheap compared to now. I remember nearly having “the big one” when I had to pay over a dollar a gallon for it. We most often got by with two 250 gallon tanks that we would fill in August, as that was usually the cheapest time of year to buy heating oil.
Then a little over 10 years ago we moved to the farm. No furnace, just wood with a couple small electric back up heaters, plus a vent-less propane heater in the bathroom for quick heat when bathing. That we run from 100# tanks, one most often lasts the winter, unless it is especially cold.
Our heat source is wood. Two stoves, one in the middle of the house which is the main stove, plus a small stove in the kitchen that we use on cloudy days or really cold weather. This year we have had the pleasure of using, for the first time, a Soapstone stove. These stoves are build with cut soapstone, each square being 1¼” thick, all held together with a cast iron frame. They are also the most expensive free standing woodstove I know of, apart from the outdoor stove furnaces.
Those who know my wife will guess where she found this stove, at a garage sale of course. That is the only way we could afford, or justify the cost of one of these stoves. We got it in a good used condition for less than a third of the cost of a new one. Having used it this winter I can safely say that the cost of a new one would not be too much, as long as one can afford it. They are a marvelous heating unit! Naturally, they are heavy stoves by their very nature of being build from solid stone and cast iron. Ours weighs something over 500#. That is part of the secret to their great usefulness. The mass of stone once heated will hold heat for many hours after the fire has gone cold. I think the manufactures claim is 14 hours, in our experience, I have every reason to belief that this is close to the truth. Certainly when we wake up in the morning, even if the fire is long out, the stove is still very warm to the touch.
But there is more charm to wood heat than simply the stove that the wood is burned in. It is not always a lot cheaper. If one must purchase all their wood from a firewood dealer, I doubt that they would save any money at all. We use a mixture of purchased slab wood that we buy in 8’ bundles and must cut with a chainsaw and dry during the summer, plus we take out fallen or lightening struck trees from our own woodlot. This is our greatest cost saving item for heat, however it is also ’labor intensive’. I try to get the trees down and cut to 9’ lengths in the spring before the mosquitoes hatch and also before the sap gets up in the tree. They will dry much better and burn hotter if harvested when the sap is down in the fall, winter or early spring.
Then we have to cut the logs into 18” pieces and split them on the wood splitter. I used to split wood with a splitting maul, but after a couple hernia surgeries, back surgery and other physical problems, those days are over. We now use a good gas powered wood splitter.
As heat, wood has warmed and comforted millions of common people for as long as we have been on this globe. In nearly all countries of the world, wood has, at least in the past, been as necessary to survival as food and water. I like doing things in a way that I know my remote ancestors also did. I certainly got the better end of the stick, when it comes to the technology used to harvest firewood. The axe was the traditional method going back to biblical times. Even the crosscut saw is a relatively late invention in its use for felling trees, in this country it was late in the 19th century when the narrow crosscut design began to be used for felling, prior to the invention of a narrow blade the trees were chopped down with axes, then bucked up (cut to length) with a wide blade crosscut saw.
When you think of the pioneers having to mostly use an axe to gather firewood, no wonder we read about them building fire places that were up to 6 feet wide. Stories are told, which I have no reason to doubt, that some pioneers would drag a 6’ piece of log into their dirt floor cabin with a horse and then roll it into the fireplace! I am thinking that log would burn for awhile, if you could keep it burning. For wood does not dry very well in large log form, it needs to be split to dry properly.
As to the details of using wood as heat, it is usually a “learning experience” for the first few years. One will quickly realize that the specie and quality of your firewood will make a considerable difference in your comfort. Some wood, cotton wood for example, or Norway pine, will nearly put your fire out if at all green. Cotton wood, which thrives in western MN and ND and I am sure many other places, when freshly cut is will latterly drip water, it has a very high content of moisture. Then if it is well dried it will give off fair heat, but like many other soft textured woods, it will burn up very fast, almost like paper.
The best woods to use for firewood are the harder dense hardwoods. Hickory being one of the best, but that does not grow in central or northern MN. Our most common good wood is either white oak or red oak, followed by birch and ash. We do have in places and our farm is one of them, a specie of ironwood that rivals hickory when it comes to heat production, but they generally do no grow very big before they die. We have a few that are around 8 or 10” at the stump and still living, these are ‘huge’ for an ironwood tree. There is another specie of ironwood which has a different bark and purple wood on the inside, but that is properly called ‘hornbeam’; of course, the names of some of these trees are dependent upon the “authority” you talk to. Hornbeam is more of a ‘shrub’ and does not get very big at all that I have ever seen and generally rots before it even falls over.
Another thing about wood heat that should always be stressed when speaking of the subject, is safety. Many of houses burn to the ground yearly from wood heat. There are lots of causes, some just plain carelessness and others are sometimes things hard to control. Other than being careful in general, the best policy is to keep you chimney cleaned of creosote buildup. A chimney fire is a dangerous situation and has been responsible for a lot of fires. What happens is that by having greenish wood or keeping a low fire the heat is not enough to burn the wood clean, thus as the by products go up the chimney they cool and cling to the inside of the tiles or pipe, depending on the kind of chimney one has.
We make a habit of cleaning our chimney with a stiff chimney brush several times during the winter and always in the spring and fall, plus cleaning the stove pipes more often than that. It is in the stove pipe that many chimney fires get started and then set the creosote in the chimney itself on fire. By making certain creosote is not building up in the pipes is one way to help prevent a chimney fire. That said, it is still always a risk when one must take in heating with wood. That is why insurance companies hate woodstoves in houses. I understand their concern. But on the same hand I am willing to pay for the extra risk I cause them in order to heat my home the way I want.
The old saying that “firewood will heat you twice” is not quite accurate, in my experience. Certainly not the way we put up the wood. If we speak of trees that we take from our own woods. First, no matter how you do it, you are going to get warmed up running a chainsaw to drop the tree or if it is downed by the wind, cut it to lengths than can be gotten out with a tractor. Second, then you must cut it to 18” firewood length. Third, you split the wood and stack it on pallets that can be handled with the forks on a tractor. This is so it can be set out in the open air to get the benefit of the wind and sun to dry good before putting it into a shed for winter. That is the ‘fourth’ handling of each piece of wood. Fifth, you move the wood from the woodshed to the woodstove, usually with a stop by the wood box on the closed in porch before it actually gets to the stove and ‘makes heat’. By my count that wood will warm you anywhere from 5 to 6 times! It surely is more than twice.
On a cold snowy winter evening, it is a pleasure to sit before a glass door of a good woodstove, watching the fire while sipping on a cup of hot tea and reading a good book. When you choose to live in the country away from any semblance of city or town life, nor TV, the simple joy of a warm woodstove is something that I would not want to give up. Nor would I trade places with any of the ‘rich and famous’, who, though they may be able to afford a grand fireplace with ‘easy bought wood’, it is nearly assured that they cannot appreciate or enjoy their fire more than I do. For I am reaping the direct reward for my own labor, and that, without the cares of worries of a rich man.
This is a quote from William J. Dawson in “The Quest of the Simple Life”, published in 1907, it hit’s the point when we speak of ‘simple living’;
“It would seem that the anxieties of getting money only beget the more
torturing anxiety of how to keep it.”
While I set by my woodstove this evening, I won’t be bothered by such ‘anxiety’.
For many years we heated our home with a combination of heating oil and wood. That had a great benefit, for if we were not at home to keep the fire up, the furnace kept the house at a reasonable temperature. But at that time heating oil was relatively cheap compared to now. I remember nearly having “the big one” when I had to pay over a dollar a gallon for it. We most often got by with two 250 gallon tanks that we would fill in August, as that was usually the cheapest time of year to buy heating oil.
Then a little over 10 years ago we moved to the farm. No furnace, just wood with a couple small electric back up heaters, plus a vent-less propane heater in the bathroom for quick heat when bathing. That we run from 100# tanks, one most often lasts the winter, unless it is especially cold.
Our heat source is wood. Two stoves, one in the middle of the house which is the main stove, plus a small stove in the kitchen that we use on cloudy days or really cold weather. This year we have had the pleasure of using, for the first time, a Soapstone stove. These stoves are build with cut soapstone, each square being 1¼” thick, all held together with a cast iron frame. They are also the most expensive free standing woodstove I know of, apart from the outdoor stove furnaces.
Those who know my wife will guess where she found this stove, at a garage sale of course. That is the only way we could afford, or justify the cost of one of these stoves. We got it in a good used condition for less than a third of the cost of a new one. Having used it this winter I can safely say that the cost of a new one would not be too much, as long as one can afford it. They are a marvelous heating unit! Naturally, they are heavy stoves by their very nature of being build from solid stone and cast iron. Ours weighs something over 500#. That is part of the secret to their great usefulness. The mass of stone once heated will hold heat for many hours after the fire has gone cold. I think the manufactures claim is 14 hours, in our experience, I have every reason to belief that this is close to the truth. Certainly when we wake up in the morning, even if the fire is long out, the stove is still very warm to the touch.
But there is more charm to wood heat than simply the stove that the wood is burned in. It is not always a lot cheaper. If one must purchase all their wood from a firewood dealer, I doubt that they would save any money at all. We use a mixture of purchased slab wood that we buy in 8’ bundles and must cut with a chainsaw and dry during the summer, plus we take out fallen or lightening struck trees from our own woodlot. This is our greatest cost saving item for heat, however it is also ’labor intensive’. I try to get the trees down and cut to 9’ lengths in the spring before the mosquitoes hatch and also before the sap gets up in the tree. They will dry much better and burn hotter if harvested when the sap is down in the fall, winter or early spring.
Then we have to cut the logs into 18” pieces and split them on the wood splitter. I used to split wood with a splitting maul, but after a couple hernia surgeries, back surgery and other physical problems, those days are over. We now use a good gas powered wood splitter.
As heat, wood has warmed and comforted millions of common people for as long as we have been on this globe. In nearly all countries of the world, wood has, at least in the past, been as necessary to survival as food and water. I like doing things in a way that I know my remote ancestors also did. I certainly got the better end of the stick, when it comes to the technology used to harvest firewood. The axe was the traditional method going back to biblical times. Even the crosscut saw is a relatively late invention in its use for felling trees, in this country it was late in the 19th century when the narrow crosscut design began to be used for felling, prior to the invention of a narrow blade the trees were chopped down with axes, then bucked up (cut to length) with a wide blade crosscut saw.
When you think of the pioneers having to mostly use an axe to gather firewood, no wonder we read about them building fire places that were up to 6 feet wide. Stories are told, which I have no reason to doubt, that some pioneers would drag a 6’ piece of log into their dirt floor cabin with a horse and then roll it into the fireplace! I am thinking that log would burn for awhile, if you could keep it burning. For wood does not dry very well in large log form, it needs to be split to dry properly.
As to the details of using wood as heat, it is usually a “learning experience” for the first few years. One will quickly realize that the specie and quality of your firewood will make a considerable difference in your comfort. Some wood, cotton wood for example, or Norway pine, will nearly put your fire out if at all green. Cotton wood, which thrives in western MN and ND and I am sure many other places, when freshly cut is will latterly drip water, it has a very high content of moisture. Then if it is well dried it will give off fair heat, but like many other soft textured woods, it will burn up very fast, almost like paper.
The best woods to use for firewood are the harder dense hardwoods. Hickory being one of the best, but that does not grow in central or northern MN. Our most common good wood is either white oak or red oak, followed by birch and ash. We do have in places and our farm is one of them, a specie of ironwood that rivals hickory when it comes to heat production, but they generally do no grow very big before they die. We have a few that are around 8 or 10” at the stump and still living, these are ‘huge’ for an ironwood tree. There is another specie of ironwood which has a different bark and purple wood on the inside, but that is properly called ‘hornbeam’; of course, the names of some of these trees are dependent upon the “authority” you talk to. Hornbeam is more of a ‘shrub’ and does not get very big at all that I have ever seen and generally rots before it even falls over.
Another thing about wood heat that should always be stressed when speaking of the subject, is safety. Many of houses burn to the ground yearly from wood heat. There are lots of causes, some just plain carelessness and others are sometimes things hard to control. Other than being careful in general, the best policy is to keep you chimney cleaned of creosote buildup. A chimney fire is a dangerous situation and has been responsible for a lot of fires. What happens is that by having greenish wood or keeping a low fire the heat is not enough to burn the wood clean, thus as the by products go up the chimney they cool and cling to the inside of the tiles or pipe, depending on the kind of chimney one has.
We make a habit of cleaning our chimney with a stiff chimney brush several times during the winter and always in the spring and fall, plus cleaning the stove pipes more often than that. It is in the stove pipe that many chimney fires get started and then set the creosote in the chimney itself on fire. By making certain creosote is not building up in the pipes is one way to help prevent a chimney fire. That said, it is still always a risk when one must take in heating with wood. That is why insurance companies hate woodstoves in houses. I understand their concern. But on the same hand I am willing to pay for the extra risk I cause them in order to heat my home the way I want.
The old saying that “firewood will heat you twice” is not quite accurate, in my experience. Certainly not the way we put up the wood. If we speak of trees that we take from our own woods. First, no matter how you do it, you are going to get warmed up running a chainsaw to drop the tree or if it is downed by the wind, cut it to lengths than can be gotten out with a tractor. Second, then you must cut it to 18” firewood length. Third, you split the wood and stack it on pallets that can be handled with the forks on a tractor. This is so it can be set out in the open air to get the benefit of the wind and sun to dry good before putting it into a shed for winter. That is the ‘fourth’ handling of each piece of wood. Fifth, you move the wood from the woodshed to the woodstove, usually with a stop by the wood box on the closed in porch before it actually gets to the stove and ‘makes heat’. By my count that wood will warm you anywhere from 5 to 6 times! It surely is more than twice.
On a cold snowy winter evening, it is a pleasure to sit before a glass door of a good woodstove, watching the fire while sipping on a cup of hot tea and reading a good book. When you choose to live in the country away from any semblance of city or town life, nor TV, the simple joy of a warm woodstove is something that I would not want to give up. Nor would I trade places with any of the ‘rich and famous’, who, though they may be able to afford a grand fireplace with ‘easy bought wood’, it is nearly assured that they cannot appreciate or enjoy their fire more than I do. For I am reaping the direct reward for my own labor, and that, without the cares of worries of a rich man.
This is a quote from William J. Dawson in “The Quest of the Simple Life”, published in 1907, it hit’s the point when we speak of ‘simple living’;
“It would seem that the anxieties of getting money only beget the more
torturing anxiety of how to keep it.”
While I set by my woodstove this evening, I won’t be bothered by such ‘anxiety’.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Deep Cold and Contentment
We are having a more normal January day. It was 4° this morning with the northwest wind still a-howling strong. I think it got up to around 13° this afternoon, with that wind still ‘on the job’. It is one of those days when I am glad I don’t happen to be working out on a lumber pile, but know I will see many such days and much colder ones, before my career is over, at least I would hope to work for many years to come yet.
There is something ‘exotic’ about deep cold, which we have not seen yet this winter, but we have a couple months left and might get some before it is over. When you grow up much further south as I did, it was only a few times that we ever reached as cold as -20° , until we moved to MN.
In our early years here, late 80’s, we came to expect a lot of nights far below -20° . I think the coldest we have recorded was -59° and I took a picture of the thermometer that morning, just so folks would not call me a liar! Cold is a relative matter. Most generally when you reach about -30° or colder, the wind just does not blow. The humidity in the air also drops, I suppose it simply can’t exist and freezes, falling to the ground as ice fog very quickly. I have always observed that when it reaches deep cold that they atmosphere does not seem as cold as it really is. Not that you want to bare you hands very long, they will stiffen up in a big hurry, nor do you want to remain motionless for a long period of time. But if one is working steady, it is not a serious matter to keep warm, once you get your blood flowing to the extremities of you fingers and toes. Then, if you keep a steady pace and don’t overheat, it is not that miserable to work at -30° .
Some things about cold that many people don’t know. One is that a match, unless kept in a warm pocket will not strike at -30° . A portable propane heater will not light much below -20° , unless the tank is warmed up first.
That reminds me of a funny story on a friend I was working with one time. We had a sawmill set up just outside the Red Lake Indian Reservation. I would go up a couple days a week and grade lumber. One of the fellows was working there all week and was living in an old camper, on the back of a pick up truck. One night it reached -40° and Glen said his propane heater quit working and he was getting cold. He knew that his propane tank had frozen up, so in desperation he went out and brought it inside and put it under the covers with him until it was warm enough to operate again. I really laughed about his “cold bed partner”, but he simply said it was better than the alternative, which was freezing to death.
The coldest day I recall working outside was -40° one winter day near Menahga, MN. None of the crew wasted any time getting things done, that you can be sure of. But that was not the coldest I have been on a job. That distinction goes to a day we graded lumber near Enderlin, ND around 1989.
The Red River Valley on ND is not really fit for human habitation, in my humble opinion. That country is as flat as the ocean on a calm day and very few trees to block the wind. I think we were inspecting the lumber from the last stand of trees within miles of where we were. It was only -20° and did not warm up, but the real problem was the wind, it blew at a steady roar the whole time we were working. Once we got the job started we did not stop for breaks at all for 7 hours, for we knew it would be hard to get going again if we stopped. That was a serious cold day. In fact, after the job was done, I got in my little S-10 pick-up and started the 150 mile drive home. But that little truck could not put out enough heat to get me warmed up to anything like “reasonable”. I got to Fargo and found a cheap Motel and got a room. Before having supper or anything, I cranked the heat as high as it would go and piled on all the covers they had in the room and crawled in bed. I suppose it took me more than an hour to get warmed up that time. J I have never been as cold as I was in the Red River Valley of ND.
Since that time I have done some work farther north in the area of Cavalier, ND, which is only a very short distance from the Canadian border. But that country is more rolling and the humidity must be lower, for although it was very cold a couple times, we never suffered the cold like we did around Enderlin. The difference has to be in humidity and wind.
I have read stories of people in Siberia who, in the 1800’s lived on the great vast tundra areas who lived much like Eskimos. In their Caribou parkas would think nothing about living and working in deep freeze temperatures for months at a time, even their huts only reach barely above freezing, but they seemed to have acclimated to the cold that they showed no signs of suffering.
It reminds me that so many things are relative to what we become acclimated to. Whether it be in our environment of heat and cold, or the food we eat, etc. What becomes ‘normal’ can vary a great deal and very quickly. Habits can be formed, whether good or bad, in a very short period of time. What most of us forget is that we have a ‘choice’ in how we live. Even contentment and happiness to a great degree is a “choice” we make. It matters not if every detail of our lives are lined up to suit what we imagine to be “ideal”, if we choose to accept things that are, as reality and live with it, we are generally more content, than if we are always discouraged and distressed that things and people we deal with, don’t always meet our expectations.
It is a wise policy to learn the difference in what we can change vrs. the things we cannot. A general guideline is this; I can change myself and my reaction to other people. Sometimes I can change “things” to better fit into my life and activity, but it is seldom that we can “change other people” and in some way force them to be what we want or think they should be, sometimes the problem is not in other people but my own perception of them.
Our lives would be enriched if we could learn the fine art of training ourselves to be ‘content’ with things the way they are. Not that it is always a mistake to attempt to make needed changes in people or things. But when it comes right down to ‘reality’, all we really have a choice about is ‘ourselves’ and how we decide to live.
I choose to be ‘content’, at least until such a time as I have opportunity or ability to improve on any situation.
There is something ‘exotic’ about deep cold, which we have not seen yet this winter, but we have a couple months left and might get some before it is over. When you grow up much further south as I did, it was only a few times that we ever reached as cold as -20° , until we moved to MN.
In our early years here, late 80’s, we came to expect a lot of nights far below -20° . I think the coldest we have recorded was -59° and I took a picture of the thermometer that morning, just so folks would not call me a liar! Cold is a relative matter. Most generally when you reach about -30° or colder, the wind just does not blow. The humidity in the air also drops, I suppose it simply can’t exist and freezes, falling to the ground as ice fog very quickly. I have always observed that when it reaches deep cold that they atmosphere does not seem as cold as it really is. Not that you want to bare you hands very long, they will stiffen up in a big hurry, nor do you want to remain motionless for a long period of time. But if one is working steady, it is not a serious matter to keep warm, once you get your blood flowing to the extremities of you fingers and toes. Then, if you keep a steady pace and don’t overheat, it is not that miserable to work at -30° .
Some things about cold that many people don’t know. One is that a match, unless kept in a warm pocket will not strike at -30° . A portable propane heater will not light much below -20° , unless the tank is warmed up first.
That reminds me of a funny story on a friend I was working with one time. We had a sawmill set up just outside the Red Lake Indian Reservation. I would go up a couple days a week and grade lumber. One of the fellows was working there all week and was living in an old camper, on the back of a pick up truck. One night it reached -40° and Glen said his propane heater quit working and he was getting cold. He knew that his propane tank had frozen up, so in desperation he went out and brought it inside and put it under the covers with him until it was warm enough to operate again. I really laughed about his “cold bed partner”, but he simply said it was better than the alternative, which was freezing to death.
The coldest day I recall working outside was -40° one winter day near Menahga, MN. None of the crew wasted any time getting things done, that you can be sure of. But that was not the coldest I have been on a job. That distinction goes to a day we graded lumber near Enderlin, ND around 1989.
The Red River Valley on ND is not really fit for human habitation, in my humble opinion. That country is as flat as the ocean on a calm day and very few trees to block the wind. I think we were inspecting the lumber from the last stand of trees within miles of where we were. It was only -20° and did not warm up, but the real problem was the wind, it blew at a steady roar the whole time we were working. Once we got the job started we did not stop for breaks at all for 7 hours, for we knew it would be hard to get going again if we stopped. That was a serious cold day. In fact, after the job was done, I got in my little S-10 pick-up and started the 150 mile drive home. But that little truck could not put out enough heat to get me warmed up to anything like “reasonable”. I got to Fargo and found a cheap Motel and got a room. Before having supper or anything, I cranked the heat as high as it would go and piled on all the covers they had in the room and crawled in bed. I suppose it took me more than an hour to get warmed up that time. J I have never been as cold as I was in the Red River Valley of ND.
Since that time I have done some work farther north in the area of Cavalier, ND, which is only a very short distance from the Canadian border. But that country is more rolling and the humidity must be lower, for although it was very cold a couple times, we never suffered the cold like we did around Enderlin. The difference has to be in humidity and wind.
I have read stories of people in Siberia who, in the 1800’s lived on the great vast tundra areas who lived much like Eskimos. In their Caribou parkas would think nothing about living and working in deep freeze temperatures for months at a time, even their huts only reach barely above freezing, but they seemed to have acclimated to the cold that they showed no signs of suffering.
It reminds me that so many things are relative to what we become acclimated to. Whether it be in our environment of heat and cold, or the food we eat, etc. What becomes ‘normal’ can vary a great deal and very quickly. Habits can be formed, whether good or bad, in a very short period of time. What most of us forget is that we have a ‘choice’ in how we live. Even contentment and happiness to a great degree is a “choice” we make. It matters not if every detail of our lives are lined up to suit what we imagine to be “ideal”, if we choose to accept things that are, as reality and live with it, we are generally more content, than if we are always discouraged and distressed that things and people we deal with, don’t always meet our expectations.
It is a wise policy to learn the difference in what we can change vrs. the things we cannot. A general guideline is this; I can change myself and my reaction to other people. Sometimes I can change “things” to better fit into my life and activity, but it is seldom that we can “change other people” and in some way force them to be what we want or think they should be, sometimes the problem is not in other people but my own perception of them.
Our lives would be enriched if we could learn the fine art of training ourselves to be ‘content’ with things the way they are. Not that it is always a mistake to attempt to make needed changes in people or things. But when it comes right down to ‘reality’, all we really have a choice about is ‘ourselves’ and how we decide to live.
I choose to be ‘content’, at least until such a time as I have opportunity or ability to improve on any situation.
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