Last day of the year!

I have another 5 posts cut to length (I cut them to 98 inches long) and ready to soak.  I counted the posts I have still in the pile and am pretty sure I have about 17 in total.  There are 2 that are 4.5x4.5 inches, I will probably use these as the arbor posts.  I am considering using 3 posts per corner of the grape fenced region.  I will need one (or two) for the gate.  So I will need 17 JUST for the fence!  I need 2 more 5x5s.  I might actually have them in the barn.  I have to look over the lumber stacks.

4 posts done!  5th one is in the trough soaking.  Interesting how the color varies depending on the type of wood.  I think I have basswood, red oak, and white oak here.

Considering how much I splash out, I am glad that I decided to do the soaking out in the barn and not in my shop!

First "real" snow of the season!

SNOW!

We finally got some real snow.  Still was less than 5 inches.  Cold as a bugger though.  

Wood treatment, continued

Leveling the trough

I mixed the chemicals in those old red gas tanks.  I figured that it would be best to do the soak out in the barn in case of a leak in the plastic...

A post is in the trough and the solution is covering it!

Bubbles coming out of the log.  Probably an insect hole getting filled in with solution!

The wood floats in the solution!  I hadn't anticipated that.  So I guess I will have to flip each post once to make sure they get well coated,

Lumber weather treatment

Apple leather done

This all amounted to almost 3 lbs of leather - 2 lb 10 oz.  Not bad.  Space saving is remarkable!  This is equivalent to about 8 quarts of applesauce, or about 1/2 bushel of apples!

Chemical treatment trough

I desire to do a really good job at treating this wood so as not to have to replace these posts very soon.  Therefore, I decided that instead of painting the CuNap solution onto the wood posts, I would instead soak the posts.  I used some of the scrap lumber to make a wooden trough which I then lined with heavy PVC sheeting.  I used hot glue to attach the PVC to the wood.

I dry-fit a post inside to be sure that there was clearance.  I used some old antenna wire to raise and lower the post in the trough.

The trough is about 100 inches long (needed it to accommodate an 8 ft tall post).  The height of the walls and the distance between the walls is about 6 inches to allow room for a 5x5 inch post.

This shows a bit of the process I used to place a post into the trough.  I first move the post onto a couple of strips above the trough to align it with the trough.  Then i place the wires around the post.  After that, I go to one end and lift the wire and the post, then remove the wood strip and lower the post.  I repeat for the other end.  Then I add the chemical solution to fill the trough.

I bought 5 gallons of the cuNap (88%)  chemical from Poles, Inc.

In the cold, this stuff flows like molasses!  What a mess!  I mixed 1/2 gal of this compound with 4 gallons of diesel fuel to make the treatment solution.

Apple leather and nuts

 Apple leather 

We had purchased some eating apples from costco that tasted like crap, so I decided to use them instead to make some apple leather.  The idea was to mix the new apples with some of the old canned applesauce that I had up at the farm.  I really like fruit leather in that it is convenient to take as a snack to work and greatly shrinks the space needed to preserve the fruit. 

I did a number of estimates to get an idea of the caloric value of apple leather.  My best estimate is about 83 Cal/oz.  This is a bit higher than what is referenced in some databases.  I am considering mixing the apples with pumpkin or squash to lower the calorie count but keep the flavor non-squashy!

Here are some pictures of the apple-leather process.

This leather took a while to dry.  I set it to 125F for 23 hours.  I think I added some time though.

I read this label and realized that the canned applesauce from 2014 had a batch that I had burned!  We will see how this turns out!  Hopefully it won't be too bad.  Mising weird tasting new apples with burned applesauce.  Yeah, that sounds promising!

More hickory shelling

I worked on shelling more hickory nuts while the apple-leather dehydrated.

Thawing out, hornet nest, and water tanks saved!

Hornets nest

Well, it warmed up today so I went out to scout around a bit.  Look what I found pon the back pf the garage!  Ugh.  I wonder if this is where the European Hornets are staying?  I am not going to check while its this warm!

Water tanks thawed!

At least enough to drain them, and that's all I need!  Yayyy!

Vacation update

It's been cold...

And of course I did not empty these water tanks for it got cold!  I am hoping we will get a warm spurt of weather and let me drain these before they freeze solid and rupture the tanks, if they aren't already damaged.

 

 Everything is chipped!

 I have chipped up all of the old wood scraps!  Yayyy!  That's quite a pile of chips.

 Some "trimming" opportunities exist...

 

There are some dangerous widowmakers along the edge of my property and along my field.  I will have to think on how to address these.  Ladder?  Climb with rope? Ugh.

There is a significantly large limb caught up in that tree!  Delightful

This is just a panoramic view from the top of my field looking out over the valley.

 Wood chipper Modifications

 The chipper feed roller control bar broke off again.  I decided to "re-engineer" the components so that all of the torque is not put on a small piece of metal.  This looks like crap but it worked!