Best Log Splitter

Lumber mills pay according to the number of board feet, or board footage, in the logs. For example, a log that is 11 feet, 6 inches would be rounded down to 10 feet.Measure the diameter of the wood at the smaller end of the log to the nearest inch.

Step 2 Jessica Walliser Use an electric drill equipped with a 1/2-inch spiral bit to drill three holes down the side of the log. The suet will need to be replaced as it's emptied. It may take a few hours for the woodpeckers and nuthatches to find it,...

Determine Your Budget There's always a link between what you want and how much it costs, which is why you should meet with a lender early in the process to determine a ballpark budget.

Now, what do I do about them? If kitty isn't naturally drawn to the new sacrificial totem pole, try sprinkling a bit of catnip and rubbing it into the bark. Mid-winter depression that can accompany less daylight and the stress of the holidays is lightened...

If a log home is your long-term desire, plan ahead, discuss the pros and cons with other log homeowners, and shop around to make sure that the dream of a log home is the right choice for you.

Fortunately, splitting is less likely to occur during the winter. The Weather Is Cooler Logging is a strenuous activity, and you're bound to work up a sweat even on moderately warm days.

From grinding up tree branches and shredding leaves into tiny pieces, leaf shredders and wood chippers not only reduce the size of waste piles, they also transform them into material that can be put to good use.

This not only nurtures forest biodiversity, it creates a natural habitat for mushrooms. Farmers in the Czech Republic have even experimented with wild-mushroom cultivation by tying burlap sacks full of mushrooms in trees so the wind will blow around the...

They don't contain chlorophyll like seeds do; instead, they rely on substrates like sawdust or wood for nutrition instead of photosynthesizing. It's giving me hope for the shiitake log right next to it—no signs yet, but I'm feeling optimistic.

Repeat this process until the rest of tree has been cut up into 8-foot logs.Hold the tape measure at the end of one of the 8-foot logs and mark the log every 16 inches with the axe blade.

Birch felled in autumn, and stored for five weeks before undergoing vacuum or high heat drying, also ensures a lighter finished color. Birch tends to discolor and darken when artificial methods such as vacuum or high temperature drying are used to prepare...

Today we celebrate the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the first day of the winter season. However, the Yule Log has now become more of a common ritual on Christmas Eve versus a celebration of the Winter...

This will protect the spawn from other contaminants. The inexperienced mushroom grower would be advised to start with growing shiitakes on logs.freestar.queue.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-300x250-ATF-1"); });Shiitakes comes from the...

I am a big fan of compact work areas. I'll also have to make a small platform that matches the lip of the doorway for smooth rolling out of the shop. I could immediately see the benefits.

Then top with compost or soil, packing it into any large cracks as you work.In urban settings, it is a bit harder to imagine a large dome of composting material in your front lawn.

An insidious but annoying detail of bamboos is that young shots are protected by minute hairs usually brown-orange which easily stick in the skin and cause itching. Actually the place looks like a giant Mikado game where we are to play! Bamboo culms as...

Granberg has custom-made bars and milling attachments up to 8 feet long for extra-large-diameter timber. The Small Log Milling Attachment and Mini-Mill from Granberg only set me back about $250, and both fit the 18-inch bar of my Stihl 029 chain saw.

The log cabin, dimly lit by oil lamps and a few small windows, bustles with activity: girls dressed in matching aprons and bonnets (and a few boys, definitely not in aprons and bonnets) kneading bread dough, churning cream and grinding corn.

While the straw is cooling, roll out a 1- to 2-foot length of plastic wrap on your table.Spread an even layer of straw over the plastic wrap once it reaches room temperature. Many people are under the impression that the only easy way to grow mushrooms...

Either way, make the pile sturdy enough to not fall on people or pets. I guess you could say we have central heat because the wood stove is in the middle of the house, and zone heating because the closer you sit to the stove the warmer it is.

Let's face it, space is limited and mushrooms will often grow where nothing else will. Indoor Mushroom Beds jamieanne/Flickr Indoor mushroom cultivation is decidedly the most involved type of mushroom production, but it can also be the most consistent...

The daffodils and flowering bushes were gone.Mr. Squirrelah helped the families with babies make new homes.They were temporary, but dry and warm. It was hard going as the ice was building up again.

It's strange how random encounters stick with you. Like many things in my life, the mini-mushroom farm quickly spun out of control. I had 131 holes, and a fair amount of log to go.

With its heavier and wider head, more power can be generated for splitting logs while lessening the likelihood of the tool getting caught in the wood. The handles are made from a variety of materials, including hickory, steel and fiberglass.

That's the basic; now let your local growing season inspire you. Garlic scapes, of course, and some onion to begin with, and I had some rich, leftover ham, trimmed off the bone. Another project at my farm garden is inoculating logs with shiitake mushroom...

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A fair amount of European farmers grow crops on hay bales in darkened greenhouses. For growers using logs, the inoculation process includes drilling shallow holes in the logs, filling them with spawn and then plugging the holes with wax.Once your mushroom...