Deerwood Photos

Dear Reader,

Here's a few photos from Deerwood Forest on the last day of 2009.

Happy New Year,

Bill

Out of Service

I messed up my lower back yesterday morning. I lifted up the whole Ski-Doo because its tracks were frozen into the ground. Even after I hurt my back, I had to keep doing lift after lift to pry the frozen track clear. Good to know I can do it. Good to know it will make tying my boot laces agony.

Was going to attempt some cargo sledding and maybe even log skidding today. No dice. Thank goodness for red Tiger Balm and yoga stretches.

I really have to watch out how I abuse my body. The laborious life is a hard life.

But you know what keeps me going? This great Portuguese guy, Joe, I knew in Toronto. 65 year old, worked construction on the big buildings, body of solid muscle. He said to me the secret: "Always think of yourself as young and strong and powerful". Thanks, Joe.

So that's what I keep saying to myself...

"...young, strong, powerful...young, strong, powerful...".

The Lumberjack Bill Show: An Axe to Grind

Hi, I'm Lumberjack Bill.

On this segment of the show, I'm gonna show you the basics of sharpening an axe.

Here we look at the edge of the axe head. If you can see
the edge reflecting light (the top portion here), that means it's
time to sharpen the edge.


Place the axe in a vise or hold it firmly with one hand and use a
'mill bastard' to file down the dull edge by pushing it toward
the blunt end of the axe. Take the file off the edge on the return stroke.
Start with the coarse side of the file to shape the blade,
then use the finer side to refine the edge.


You can also use a sharpening stone. This particular stone requires
the use of sharpening oil to move metal filings away from the action.


Start with the coarser side of the stone, grinding in circular
motions, then do the same with the finer grit side.


Here's the after photo.

Now, if you're really ambitious, you could also use sharpening stones to make your axe (or adze) even sharper. I switched to the sculptor's adze for this section because it needed a tune up.

First I soak the 1000 grit and 6000 grit water stones...in water.
I let them sit for about 5 minutes. Notice how there's much more
bubbles coming out of the 1000 stone because it's more porous.
The stones soak up the water and both lubricate the sharpening
surface and help flush away metal filings in a 'slurry'.

I start by using the rougher 1000 grit stone, holding the axe head
still with graduated sweep up of the stone's flat surface
from the edge toward the back of the axe. I try to use the full
surface of the stone and flip it now and then to get even wear.
I do both sides with the 1000 then repeat with the 6000 stone.

With the axe head stoned, I do the same with the adze. As the
adze head only has a bevel on the topside, that's the only side I
stone with both the 1000 and 6000. Don't sharpen the flat underside.

The final touch is to strop the sharpened edge with apiece of leather
(e.g. a belt). This will remove fine metal filings along the sharp
edge and hone the blade. I just like how it shines. Ready to chop!

I think I did okay for my first time with the stones. Here's hoping I get better with practice.

Until next time, this is Lumberjack Bill saying...

'Good Luck and Be Ready!'

Cargo Sled Built

I've screwed, hammered and bolted some old industrial metal roofing together in an attempt to have a cargo sled for the snowmobile. The 1/3 section of a plastic barrel is screwed to the front in hopes of deflecting snow and mounting bumps on the trail.


I need to move fuelwood and logs mostly out of the forest. This challenge has plagued my mind for months now. I've been quite depressed about the whole matter with the dread of failure. As soon as the weather goes minus again for a few days I'll try it out behind the skidoo and see how far it goes.

Crazy Adze

Adze wrought.

Casual Friday

Dugout Continued

Spent part of yesterday carving. The other part, reading. Oh, and the other part hauling in snow-covered fuelwood for the FMO woodstove.


If you're interested in following the further progress of the SunBurn dugout canoe, you'll find it all at my very personal, artist blog, Bill Pocock (billpocock.blogspot.com).

Happy Holidays!

Adze Repair

After the double ax fiasco of SunBurn, I started to put the pieces back together again last night. By the light of the kerosene lamp, I took the metal axe head wedge out of the broad ax and performed surgery on the adze handle to get it operational.

Here's some close up shots of my dark ages effort to wedge the adze handle into the adze head.

Taking out the old, failed metal wedge from the adze head.

After cutting off the top of the wood handle - to get the old
wedge out - I saw a channel for the new wedge down the
center for the new metal wedge salvaged from the broad axe.

Now I carve down the wood handle so it will fit inside the adze head.

Old adze wedge (left) and new adze wedge (right).

It's hard to see, but this is a photo of the new adze wedge
hammered into wood handle top inside the adze head.
I bet it lasts longer than six strikes next time.

Sun Burned

Swing on by my Bill Pocock blog and marvel at a winter solstice celebration gone rather wrong.

Still, it's a laugh.

More Trail Bridging

Had some time on my hands yesterday - waiting for the big SunBurn solstice bonfire today - so decided to work on opening up some more of the trails for winter passage.

That means crossing more semi-frozen streams. So, I set out on snowshoes through the powder to the many streams.

Here's a smaller melt stream - four feet wide
- that's partially frozen on top with fairly steep
banks on either side. I started by tossing lots of snow on
top of the passageway.


Here I do my Jesus-walk-on-water routine.
I pack the snow down into the stream, mixing
in the cold water to make slush.


Here's the wide shot of the stream again with the
snow packed down on top. I came by an hour later
and water had soaked up to form icy slush across the passage.


As the light was fading, I walked across a 15 foot wide,
1 1/2 foot deep stream. At the bank edge my
snowshoe went through the ice sheet and I
got a muddy soaker.

Crazy Builder

They call me crazy bastard, but I take my hat off to this Russian designer/builder for tossing up this 12 story structure in rural Russia. Apparently, the town officials want him to drop it to only 2 stories because it's spoiling the view, but the people are behind the guy. Do they have building codes in Russia?

Anyway, I like the guy's style. This photo reminds me of my own bare-chested casual Friday look. The bare chest thrust must be a common vanity of our type.

Thanks, Rob, for sending this whack to me.

Grouse Kill

Skiing along a trail this morning I came across a kill scene. The small patch of blood and the feathers scattered about gave it away. It was recent as I'd passed this spot yesterday afternoon with no signs of struggle.

I believe a fox killed a ruffled grouse in this spot. The predator tracks follow fox stride pattern as opposed to fisher bounding pattern. These are the two main predators in Deerwood right now. So, That's my guess.

Here's a series of photos taken at the site...

The main scene. Notice the larger prints along the
left hand side.


Closer...


Closer still.


Further down the trail, the fox prints shown in the snow
powder beside the trail.

Ruffled grouse will often rest under the snow powder which acts as an insulator and visual cover. A few days ago a grouse emerged from beneath the snow a few feet from the snowmobile and gave me a bit of a start.

I've seen fox tracks on the trails for a few weeks now. As the trails become packed down, it enables the fox to cover ground very swiftly. I suspect I'll see a lot more kill scenes along the trail in future as forest animals often use the trails because it's easier than plodding through the deep snow.

Fait du ski

With the snowmobile trails hardening up, I thought it was about time I clicked into my cross-country skis and took them for a spin this Saturday morning.

I didn't want to waste any time in the morning,
so I waxed the skis the night before.


Enjoying the fruit of my labours.

I dreamt of skiing and skiers last night. I stumbled into a secret international society of cross country skiers 'The Adventure' who played all-consuming in group social status role games steeped in secret signs and arcane knowledge. What were the stakes for this power elite? Fame and Glory. I caught fleeting glimpse of their visionary, Meryl Streep.

Sunburn Prep: Where'd Everything Go?

I made it to the winter solstice SunBurn grounds with the snowmobile - finally.

We've had A LOT of snow dumped in Deerwood Forest over the last three weeks. I could see where the burn pile was buried, but couldn't see where that big log was that I hope to carve into a canoe on the night of the burn. I mean start to carve on Dec. 21st.

I finally located the top of the log under about a foot
and a half of snow.

And with some effort, dug the snow away. I had dreams
of rolling it up closer to the bonfire location. No chance now.


I laugh because it's all a joke. I has to be a joke.
Just has to be!!!


Here's a photo of the burn pile as I found it.


Here's the after snow removal photo.

Winter Stream Bridge

Solved the problem of fording a melt stream along the Deerwood trails yesterday.

It was fine to cross this ditch stream with the snow shoes, but the snowmobile wouldn't like it much with the sharp up/down on the skis. So, I grabbed some cut off 2x4 and 2x6 then set to work.




Tried to figure out how to secure the lumber in place, then it dawned on me to cement them in place using the materials at hand. I took off my gloves and started making slush out of the cold melt water and the snow. Wow, cold!! Then I pressed the slush along the wood ends on either side of the stream, and piled more snow over all of it.

I left the seasonal bridge over night to freeze and the next day it was frozen solid with water running well underneath. Awesome!

Casual Fridays

With mornings clocking in at - 25 C, the balaclava is a

must have. Or else my face hurts all the time. Dressing
up just to go outside is a major operation. It's nice not
to have to strap on the snow shoes.