77 replies to this topic

[Juthro]

Is that a Sitka spruce, Alder? (nice pic BTW)

[Alder Logs]

Sitka spruce is the kind we have here.  It's too bad that they can't be grown for lumber here anymore.  When they get to a certain height, say from 8 to 15 feet tall, the spruce bud worm kills the growing tip top of the tree, and the main trunk spits into two or more leaders.   The clear, incredibly strong, yet light, straight grained lumber that built the WWI biplanes, the Spruce Goose, piano sound boards, guitar and violin tops, and the rungs of our wooden ladders of yesteryear, is gone.   We only got it while the diverse old growth PNW forests remained.    No major timber company around is planting anything except Douglas fir and western hemlock on the Pacific slope and in the Coast Range.   Western red cedar is too slow growing to be of commercial interest. 

 

Edited by Alder Logs, 04 February 2019 - 08:17 PM.

[Juthro]

The Sitka's don't like to grow this far north, we're right about their northern limit to be able to survive the winter.   Around here white spruce is the large evergreen that fills the background in most of my pictures. 

 

Black spruce also grows here, but it is a smaller, very slow growing tree that looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book.

Edited by Juthro, 05 February 2019 - 01:44 AM.

[Alder Logs]

The view this morning with about 4 inches accumulation here.

 

Sitka spruce on the right margin:

 

 

My little friend came by while I was out on the porch, so I got her some seeds:

 

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Edited by Alder Logs, 09 February 2019 - 11:50 AM.

[pharmer]

there's a mine at the end of your street?

[Alder Logs]

Street?   It's a dead end county road, and we are at the end.  There are slides all over that steep mountainside, but no mines.  They mine trees around here, though they did frack under us, with the well head about a half a mile down the road.

[pharmer]

Nice pics anyway.

 

Demonic Squirrel offsets Heavenly Scene  :)

[Juthro]

Pharmer, them squirrels have been like that ever since they legalized pot over there.  :)

 

BTW, I can totally see where it looks like an entrance into the mountainside at the the top end of that slide.  Maybe it's a forward observation post / bivy setup that Soliver was using the last time he was out there?

[Alder Logs]

That's a fairly new slide, as I hadn't seen it until the snow showed it up like that.

 

Pharmer, I will take all your squirrels if you take all our stellar jays. 

 

BTW, it was 6 inches of snow when I measured it out in the field.

Edited by Alder Logs, 10 February 2019 - 12:44 AM.

[Needles]

Now that I final got cough back up you folks, and I do have to say I've been missing a bunch of cool stuff here. We've made obligations to continue chasing around the country again this year so hopefully I can come up with a few outside photos to share. But for now a micrograph from my new floresence microscope. It's hard to tell but it's blended mycelium and bacteria with a few air bubbles mixed with floresent acrylic paint. I'm still saving up to buy the biological probes used in the medical industry. So this is it for now.

[Juthro]

Amazing!  That is REALLY cool Needles!! 

 

You have the coolest toys of anyone I know, and even better yet, you use them to great effect.

[Juthro]

So did you ever get any more snow, Alder?

 

This was looking out the window into the front yard this morning.  That's the porch handrail you see just outside the window.

 

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Edited by Juthro, 17 February 2019 - 03:40 PM.

[pharmer]

I'm thinking Needles should go to work for NASA and steal all their secrets and bring them back here :)

[Juthro]

More snow today :)

 

 

Edited by Juthro, 18 February 2019 - 11:16 PM.

[onediadem]

Beautiful! I have enjoyed seeing that through the different seasons!

 

 

 

But,

 

No. Thank. You.

 

Brrrrrrrr LOL!

[Juthro]

That greenhouse has been a great tool here for our gardening, and is very photogenic, in a rustic kind of way.  And it is totally made out of scraps of garbage from a couple of peoples remodels.   Everything in that building with the exception of the poly panels on the roof was rescued from the landfill to become that greenhouse.

 

It's been a pretty strong storm through here for sure, and has dumped a bunch of snow. 

 

Here is another view of the place.   Thats the top of the front door you see over the snowbank on the left side of the photo.

 

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Edited by Juthro, 19 February 2019 - 01:30 AM.

[Needles]

That greenhouse has been a great tool here for our gardening, and is very photogenic, in a rustic kind of way.  And it is totally made out of scraps of garbage from a couple of peoples remodels.   Everything in that building with the exception of the poly panels on the roof was rescued from the landfill to become that greenhouse.

 

It's been a pretty strong storm through here for sure, and has dumped a bunch of snow. 

 

Here is another view of the place.   Thats the top of the front door you see over the snowbank on the left side of the photo.

 

oh wow!!! hurry summer and green grass n' leaves

[onediadem]

Nope. This chickodee is too old for all of that nonsense now.