Mastodawn

I've been getting ready to offer students the chance to split wood. Maybe one Monday the wrestling team and I will both here at 6:30 in the morning but it hasn't worked out over the past couple weeks. It makes you contemplative to be out early in the morning with the sun and the trees, you come to feel like the communications snafus were fate and no matter what you'll work out a way to avoid this being a waste of time and effort. Just noticing that the netted-in field is surrounded by Kurogane Holly クロガネモチ trees has been nice. And the one growing over and around an old wire reminded me of why I like the FukuRokuJyu 福禄寿 wooden figures. All gnarly and wounded but growing, blooming, enjoying anyway... One of the stumps for chopping (A base, second from right, with two smaller stumps on it) is a section of Kurogane Holly. The other sections are Ginkgo mostly and a few OoAburaGiri. Just in case 30 or so people want to swing the ax these woods that require a lot of work will give everyone a chance. For a while videos of an Russian arm drag wresting move came through my FB account. I'm wondering if holding the ax with one hand while yanking up the 4.5 kilo sledgemmer to drive the ax-head deeper into the wood, maybe that yank could translate into training for that outside arm drag? When I was biking by the field at 7 in the morning the wresting team was doing interesting exercises with their bodies. It looked fun in spite of Monday Morning("Tell me why! I don't like Mondays..." --- BoomTown Rats) That's what gave me the idea but the times and places haven't matched up yet. It's kind of involved to load the wood (3 trips) into my little K-car, so 'll work out a way to make use of the chunks where they are.. one way or another... Is in these vague, ambiguous stages where all the potential is right? The sage is confused.. As Paul Goodman writes of the Taoist LaoTse writings..
#薪割り #クロガネモチ #福禄寿 #KuroGaneHolly #薪割り準備

TAO1215 May 9

この時期に葉っぱを落とすのかお前は
#クロガネモチ

#マストドン植物部
 #fedibird
#マストドンスマホ写真部
 #昼休み
 #お散歩

Brian Small Apr 28

Can you see how the wood doesn't want to split, it grudgingly rips apart. Great exercise! with 2.5 and 4.5 killogram weights on the ends of ax- and hammer- handles. KuroGane Holly, I guess the tree got the Holly name because the little green pointy leaves and red berries look like Wester holly? I'm wondering if this woould be be great as a pillar, it won't split, mabye it could have strengthened buildings against earthquakes? "Inquiring Minds Want to Know" . My woodstove buddy neighbor brought a big chunk of some other wood down from the waste disposal center. It should have been an easy split but it may have been old.. You can't rush, just feel like your saving yourself from wasting time on something that costs more money, or sending money to fossil fuel companies... I have a bring a chunk of this pale Kurogane Holly wood in for the art teacher...
"Big tree... we are the small axe..." --- Bob Marley
#KuroGaneHolly #薪割り #クロガネモチ #ChoppingWood

Brian Small Apr 28

I've been working on a big KuroGane Holly tree that was felled in the neighborhood. One neigbhor contacted the owner of the old home to get permission to take the downed trees from the property. Hopefully it's saving him money (not having to pay for a crane or disposal) since another neighbor and I chainsawed the big trunk into sections and wrestled them onto a Kei Truck. The place is only a couple 100 meters down the street from my place so it wasn't such a worry to put so much weight on the truck. This wood does not want to split. It seems to rip with a lot of effort instead of spitting with flair. It's not something you'd notice until you did it yourself: that local trees can vary so much in the amount of effort needed to get them into firewood ready for a little wood stove. Some would might not be worth the effort if you didn't have other reasons, like exercise (weight training!!) or the idea that it's better for the environment to use nearby fuel for heat...
The 82 year old neighbor buddy that's showing me how to work with trees, a fellow wood stove enjoyer, said I was "macho" for yanking a hung of trunk off a retaining wall and easing it down into his KTruck bed. So I started singing Village People songs and me and his 79 year old wife were dancing Y.M.C.A. Some kind of Fun!! He had been worried I'd break his truck by dropping the section, but I assured him I saw it as practice for doing the spousal "Princess Carry", and how back when I wrestled there were still the rules that writer John Iriving mentions in on-line interviews. If you pick a guy up you are responsbile for getting him back to the mat safely. With all that I was able to talk myself through the work without breaking anything, like a spine.. We did good, the only limbs cut were the trees'. And it was already sawed and craned down so we were making the best of a sad situation..
#KuroGaneHolly #ChoppingWood #薪割り #クロガネモチ

bsmall2 Apr 13

クロガネモチの木が近所の空家の敷地内^1にあって、前から気になっていた。友達と相談したら、家の持ち主と連絡してもらって、取っていいということになった。別の近所の82歳の薪ストーブ仲間と分厚い部分を運べる(ぎりぎり!)サイズに斬って、自分の所に持って来たけど、以外と水分の多いクロガネモチの木も割りにくい。いい筋肉トレになっている。チェンソーより斧で薪割りが好きけど、写真にある木を取っておこうといる。子供たちと薪割りイベント(？時間？)したら面白いかもしれません。

^1 https://pixelfed.social/p/bsmall2/816841012285460133
#薪割り #クロガネモチ [参照]

Brian Small (@bsmall2@pixelfed.social)

People came in to see SIlky chicks. One was passing by on her bike when she stopped to marvel at Marron up on the wall. Marron likes looking around from up on the wall when her lead is moved to the wood pile frame. We know the girl from organic farmer events. She was helping me understand that there are really two different kinds of 仏の座 (Clommon Henbit and ?) the common weed and the one in the January 7th 7-grass rice porridge. My 82yo wood-stove buddy just told me last week, and now an 8yo: but her mother his from Shiiba Village where some still know how to do the Yakihata fire-cleared mountain-side agriculture and make food from acorns. The next day I ran eggs over to the sweet farmer neighbor how cares for the birds when we go away for a night. We thought the bird going over to her yard were a nuisance but after we fenced them in we found out she used to feed them when the came and sort of missed them. She seems too jump at the chance to feed, cage and uncage them and help make sure they are safe. Too Cute!! So I invited her into our yard to check out the chicks and was surprised that she agreed and crossed the street. Usually she seems to busy for a lot of chit-chat, but her husband's recent knee replacement may have her slowing down a bit, or maybe it was just luck with the timing. Anyway, she came over and MIo came out to introduce her to a golden chick and we had the longest conversations yet: what a nice Saturday morning. And seeing the chick in her hands reminded me of a moving illustration and annotation from the Organic Festa Kagoshima pamphlet from years ago. > Farmer's hands are truly kind and beautiful. > 農家さんの手って、本当にやさして美しい I included a digital camera copy of the illustration with the annotated fingers from a 2023 post.. I have to keep that year's Festa lines in mind too: > Things of Life, For Life to Be, With things of Life, Live on.. > 命あるものが、命あるように、命あるものと、生きていく https://mstdn.jp/@bsmall2/111492089362204540 #SilkyChick #農家さんの手 #FarmersHands

Pixelfed

Brian Small Apr 7

The big KuroGane Holly tree trunk that we got back to the house last week has been surprsingly hard to split. I had to split the sides off some of the trunk sections to make them light enough to hug down off a retaining wall and into the little Kei truck. All the splitting with an ax was tiring but maybe it was a helpful warm up before risking the back and the Kei truck bed with the heavy sections. Usually I like to avoid using the battery-powered chainsaw and get the splitting done with the ax (and hammer and wedges) as much as possible. I like to think it saves on electricy or energy production somehow, and it's a better, safer workout probably too. But you only have so much time and energy so I went back and forth with the ax and sledgehammer and the chainsaw as a compromise. Once you get started it's hard to stop, was just going to work through one battery charge but did two charges. Getting smarter about sharpening the chain during each re-charge, I've been going through too many chains and will have to consult with a wiser friend to see if it will be worth it to sharpen an reuse three or so that I gave up on so far...

#薪割り #クロガネモチ #KuroGaneHolly

Brian Small Mar 30

Saturday bonding with my 82 year old neighbor and wood-stove buddy. We were a successful combination of brains and brawn, wisdom and barbarian since the only limbs severed were tree-limbs and we were still walking after loading the wood onto his K-truck a few times, Accomplishments!!

No one lives in the house on this nice plot of land, so I was wondering about what woulld happen to some of the nice big trees here. It's right down the street so moving it to my place for the stove would cut down on "food miles" or "heat miles" I guess. Luckily I noticed the big trees had been taken down and managed to get in touch with another buddy that knows the absantee owner of the place... I guess we're saving him money by getting most of the wood of his place, and it's fun too, and educational, finally gonna remember the trees name: Kurogane Holly, KuroGaneMochi...
#薪 #薪ストーブ #WoodStoveAdventures #ChainsawFun #クロガネモチ #KuroganeHolly