Gulf Island Building.

cocobolo

Love the carving!!!!

I have not heard of the cotton plant growing up here. Perhaps it needs a warmer climate than we get...??

If I had paid a bit more attention to what you wrote I might have sent a better reply!

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Bud Cline

Cottonwood trees are plentiful in this part of the country especially along the river banks. Here too, cottonwood is considered a scamp wood but is routinely harvested for making pallets and cribbing for crane-mats and construction uses. It is a throw-away wood basically. Over time it gets very very hard and in fact has been used for flooring and slat-sub-flooring years ago because of its availability. It doesn't sand well and doesn't really stain well, but it is durable apparently.

Years ago I did some logging with a friend here and cottonwood was the loggers choice because the local saw mills could sell it for utility grade lumber in pallet construction. Most all of the local saw mills have gone away these days so the cottonwoods are being spared.

It takes hundreds of gallons of water to support a single cottonwood tree. This is why they thrive near the rivers I suppose. When we were cutting them it wasn't unusual for water to gush from the saw cuts before you could fell the tree to the ground. The tree would then lay there and drain water in abundance. When cutting in dry weather it was normal to have nothing but mud in the area the trucks were being staged for loading. The interior of a cottonwood tree smells very sweet, it's kind of a pleasant smell to tell you the truth. There is no mistaking the sweet fragrance of a fresh-cut cottonwood tree.

BigJim

Thanks Keith, that is what cottonwood bark looks like inside and it carves like butter.

I think I will look and see how long the growing season is for cotton, I think it is about three months, the best I can remember.

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Jim

cocobolo

Checked the meter for solar input a few minutes ago, and it was reading in the minus range. Since the only thing running was the computer on idle, that was a bit odd.

Then I remembered that I hadn't even thought about the snow on the panels!

Quick trip to the roof to clear them off...and what to my wondrous does appear but a telescope I use from the roof! Forgot to bring that in as well!

Fortunately it had a plastic cover over it, so no harm done.

Panels are now all cleared off, but the brief appearance of the sun has now vanished.

Attached Images

 

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ccnvchris

Hi Cocoblo. I'd like to complement you on the beautiful woodwork in your home. Pretty awesome! And an awesome site too. I have a question for you concerning your solar setup. Do you or any of your neighbors use wind generators there? I'm curios for two reasons. Being on the coast I would assume( there's that word. ) that you have more breezy/windy days than calm ones. Is there a consensus on your island about which suits your needs/situation best?

I live on the east side of the Sierra Nevada's. We have plenty of sun and quite a bit of wind. But the mornings are usually calm so I'm leaning toward solar myself. If you get a moment I'd appreciate your insights. Thanks.

jlhaslip

Found a picture to show the lay of the land around here.

It shows the local ski hill during summer time taken from a location about 1/3 of the way up the opposite side of the valley.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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cocobolo

Many thanks for your compliments.

You are quite right about the wind. We typically get north west or south east winds much of the time.

We did try a wind generator here, but the height of the trees on the island did not allow much of the wind to get to the wind genny. A friend of mine at the south end of the island bought the genny from me, and he is right at the top of a high bank in line with the south easterly's, so it works much better for him.

Pretty much everyone here just uses solar panels.

If you are in open country, a wind generator works very well, as it doesn't care whether the sun is shining or not. I think the best system is a combination of both wind and solar.

I would refer you to the Homepower website, which I think is www.homepower.com

There is more information on there than you could digest in a lifetime, well worth your efforts to check it out.

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cocobolo

Barely two weeks ago, a good friend of mine was diagnosed with a 4cm tumor on his liver. They were going to give him a single chemo shot which was supposed to fix it. Three days ago they said there was nothing they could do for him after all and he only had 3 months to live.

I have just received a phone call that he passed away at 8 o'clock this morning.

Please forgive me, but I will not be posting any more today.

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Bootz

Sorry to hear about that CoCo I really hope all is well and my prayers for you and the family

BigJim

Keith, I am so sorry. You and your friend's family will be in our prayers.

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Jim

jlhaslip

My thoughts and prayers are with you at this time of sorrow.

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ccnvchris

My condolences Sir.

scoggy

Keith, Jim, ..over 'up' here, we got 14 inches, and like Keith stated, the underlayers were sopping wet, and a real Bear to shovel, but then later it froze, so was glad I shovelled it when I did! Got about 2 more inches this afternoon, and decided to fire up the downstairs wood stove, so house is all warm and cozy, but the wind is still high! Had to ask city to come and salt hill here, because vehicles going down were spinning 360s, and although fun to watch, not good! Noticed lots of medium sized 'import' trees all broken down on lawns!
Cheers
Scoggy

BigJim

What kind of wood do ya'll burn in your heaters up there? Down this way we burn oak, hickory, birch, cherry and some other hardwoods. We don't burn the soft woods unless it is Aromatic Cedar and that stuff pops like there is no tomorrow, you sure don't want to burn it in an open fireplace. If you want to warp the doors and things on your stove burn straight hickory.

If we had snows like ya'll do it would shut the town down. It is pretty but after while it needs to go away.

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Jim

jlhaslip

Minus 24 Celcius here this morning. (-11F)
Too cold to be snowing.

I burn Pine and Fir here mostly, but also some Birch and Poplar when they are available.

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