Notes from a Small Island

[adarbrauner]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've been reading an old book on Trees of America, published by the American Forestry Society a long time ago. I enjoy the descriptions of trees, the information about uses of the wood and how much a cubic foot weighs air-dried (live oak, our heaviest wood, is nearly double the weight of spruce and basswood and others). Another thing I enjoy about the book is that the photos seem to have been taken from the '30s to perhaps the '50s - the trees are the focal point but it's interesting to see fences and buildings and farm fields and wide open spaces....and no cell phone towers or wind turbines or McDonalds (stuff like that was present, but not like today).

Another thing I've enjoyed is refreshing my memory about the botanical (scientific) names of trees. So many of them are beautiful: Thuja occidentalis (northern white cedar); Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar), Diospyros virginiana (persimmon), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum), Lireodendron tulipifera (yellow poplar) and a host of others. There's poetry in the botanical names of trees.


The genus name of the apple is Malus, as Lokasenna is referring to. Apples, pear, plum, rose, hawthorne, prune, blackberry and a zillion other fruiting plants are in the Roseacea (rose) plant family.

I enjoy knowing that, so sitting around reading an old book by the American Forestry Society is time well spent.

Especially when there aren't any Braves games on the radio!

<3

[AcePylut]

BANZAI!!


Oh wait, wrong thread, wrong opponent

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've been reading an old book on Trees of America, published by the American Forestry Society a long time ago. I enjoy the descriptions of trees, the information about uses of the wood and how much a cubic foot weighs air-dried (live oak, our heaviest wood, is nearly double the weight of spruce and basswood and others). Another thing I enjoy about the book is that the photos seem to have been taken from the '30s to perhaps the '50s - the trees are the focal point but it's interesting to see fences and buildings and farm fields and wide open spaces....and no cell phone towers or wind turbines or McDonalds (stuff like that was present, but not like today).

Another thing I've enjoyed is refreshing my memory about the botanical (scientific) names of trees. So many of them are beautiful: Thuja occidentalis (northern white cedar); Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar), Diospyros virginiana (persimmon), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum), Lireodendron tulipifera (yellow poplar) and a host of others. There's poetry in the botanical names of trees.


The genus name of the apple is Malus, as Lokasenna is referring to. Apples, pear, plum, rose, hawthorne, prune, blackberry and a zillion other fruiting plants are in the Roseacea (rose) plant family.

I enjoy knowing that, so sitting around reading an old book by the American Forestry Society is time well spent.

Especially when there aren't any Braves games on the radio!

I read the excellent "Six Frigates" last year. One thing I did not know was that the first American frigates were framed with live oak and this is what gave them their amazing resistance to damage-not the white oak planking. So Old Ironsides should have been called Old Ironframe. However, that just does not sound too good. [;)] The British has no access to wood like the live Oak. It really gave the American ships a huge tactical edge.

[Canoerebel]

The joints in some wooden warships were also made from live oak. The joints were cut whole from the massive "knees" where roots joined trunk, so the angles were "real" rather than "cut." The joints were thus much stronger.

Recognizing the importance of live oak to the Navy, the US government first bought about 300 acres of live oak stands in the southeast in the late 1790s. I think alot more acreage was added later.

On a related note, when I worked in the timber industry in the early 1980s, some of the old timers were still telling stories of government purchasing agents meeting with farmers to buy black walnut timber, used in airplane propellers. Even at the time, I thought that was a remarkable step into the past. Now it seems like lore from some vanished civilization.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've been reading an old book on Trees of America, published by the American Forestry Society a long time ago. I enjoy the descriptions of trees, the information about uses of the wood and how much a cubic foot weighs air-dried (live oak, our heaviest wood, is nearly double the weight of spruce and basswood and others). Another thing I enjoy about the book is that the photos seem to have been taken from the '30s to perhaps the '50s - the trees are the focal point but it's interesting to see fences and buildings and farm fields and wide open spaces....and no cell phone towers or wind turbines or McDonalds (stuff like that was present, but not like today).

Another thing I've enjoyed is refreshing my memory about the botanical (scientific) names of trees. So many of them are beautiful: Thuja occidentalis (northern white cedar); Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar), Diospyros virginiana (persimmon), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum), Lireodendron tulipifera (yellow poplar) and a host of others. There's poetry in the botanical names of trees.


The genus name of the apple is Malus, as Lokasenna is referring to. Apples, pear, plum, rose, hawthorne, prune, blackberry and a zillion other fruiting plants are in the Roseacea (rose) plant family.

I enjoy knowing that, so sitting around reading an old book by the American Forestry Society is time well spent.

Especially when there aren't any Braves games on the radio!

I read the excellent "Six Frigates" last year. One thing I did not know was that the first American frigates were framed with live oak and this is what gave them their amazing resistance to damage-not the white oak planking. So Old Ironsides should have been called Old Ironframe. However, that just does not sound too good. [;)] The British has no access to wood like the live Oak. It really gave the American ships a huge tactical edge.

Weren't the hulls also double walled with an airspace? Seem to recall that description from Master and Commander as the French frigate he was fighting had been purchased from the US and one of his deck hands had seen one the type under construction.


yea, yea....I recognize the danger of relying on movie quotes for historical accuracy....

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've been reading an old book on Trees of America, published by the American Forestry Society a long time ago. I enjoy the descriptions of trees, the information about uses of the wood and how much a cubic foot weighs air-dried (live oak, our heaviest wood, is nearly double the weight of spruce and basswood and others). Another thing I enjoy about the book is that the photos seem to have been taken from the '30s to perhaps the '50s - the trees are the focal point but it's interesting to see fences and buildings and farm fields and wide open spaces....and no cell phone towers or wind turbines or McDonalds (stuff like that was present, but not like today).

Another thing I've enjoyed is refreshing my memory about the botanical (scientific) names of trees. So many of them are beautiful: Thuja occidentalis (northern white cedar); Chamaecyparis thyoides (Atlantic white cedar), Diospyros virginiana (persimmon), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum), Lireodendron tulipifera (yellow poplar) and a host of others. There's poetry in the botanical names of trees.


The genus name of the apple is Malus, as Lokasenna is referring to. Apples, pear, plum, rose, hawthorne, prune, blackberry and a zillion other fruiting plants are in the Roseacea (rose) plant family.

I enjoy knowing that, so sitting around reading an old book by the American Forestry Society is time well spent.

Especially when there aren't any Braves games on the radio!

I read the excellent "Six Frigates" last year. One thing I did not know was that the first American frigates were framed with live oak and this is what gave them their amazing resistance to damage-not the white oak planking. So Old Ironsides should have been called Old Ironframe. However, that just does not sound too good. [;)] The British has no access to wood like the live Oak. It really gave the American ships a huge tactical edge.

Weren't the hulls also double walled with an airspace? Seem to recall that description from Master and Commander as the French frigate he was fighting had been purchased from the US and one of his deck hands had seen one the type under construction.


yea, yea....I recognize the danger of relying on movie quotes for historical accuracy....

Saw a TV show where they test militaria. In that one they built replicas of the wall of a standard British warship and one replicating the US frigate design (which was indeed multi-layered and may have included live oak walls near the waterline). They proceeded to fire a cannon at both replica walls. The shot punched through the British wall sending large numbers of wood splinters from the back as it passed through. The shot that hit the American design cracked the outer wood but could not punch through.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

The joints in some wooden warships were also made from live oak. The joints were cut whole from the massive "knees" where roots joined trunk, so the angles were "real" rather than "cut." The joints were thus much stronger.

Recognizing the importance of live oak to the Navy, the US government first bought about 300 acres of live oak stands in the southeast in the late 1790s. I think alot more acreage was added later.

On a related note, when I worked in the timber industry in the early 1980s, some of the old timers were still telling stories of government purchasing agents meeting with farmers to buy black walnut timber, used in airplane propellers. Even at the time, I thought that was a remarkable step into the past. Now it seems like lore from some vanished civilization.

Ah, I'll have something to do with my walnut tree that's currently in decline, then. I've already been talking about arranging to get it turned into lumber.

[Canoerebel]

In forestry school circa 1982, I remember a professor telling us that a single black walnut in Illinois had sold for something like $20,000! Probably that would've been in the '70s. Black walnut was (and is) prized for gunstocks, fine cabinetry, etc.

Black walnut has a very sharp-smelling odor from a chemical compound - as a result, tomatoes and oaks will not grow beneath a black walnut (probably plenty of other things won't, either).

The botanical name of black walnut: Juglans nigra. The genus Juglans is in the family Juglandacea. That family includes the hickories (genus Carya) and pecan (also Carya).

[Canoerebel]

I did a quick internet search, trying to verify that a black walnut sold for about $20,000, circa '70s. I came across this info on a website, making in seem plausible. If premium black walnuts are selling for that amount today, I suppose it's possible that a superior specimen might have done so in the '70s.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Erik positions I-38 in the hex Death Star is heading to. A small TF of Dutch DDs, fresh in from Shikuka, tangles with the sub, scoring one hit.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Erik continues giving attention to Allied subs off Hokkaido. Three E-class have been sunk, including this one, while one sub has been sunk.

I continue to wonder if this new interest is indicative of something more than "general warfare."

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: The Empties Herd breaks from Death Star and begins the long journey home.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: All available Allied LBA bombers target Ketoi, both airfield and ground troops. Damage isn't remarkable but is decent. Ketoi isn't going to be a coup-de-main battle. More like Iwo or Okinawa, I think.

I'm glad to see carrier fighters providing LRCAP, as ordered. This is partly to interdict enemy air transport missions. That's any iffy undertaking. Any suggestions from Ye Experts?

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Strike vs. LST riff-raff at Uruppu. A second strike a bit later finishes off more of them.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Allied fighters intercept enemy transports over Ketoi. Well, that's good.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

10/16/44: Opening Allied bombardment. The results are rather encouraging. Usually, bombardments focus on the support units (engineers) before "getting through" to the infantry.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Bombardment results inconclusive.

[Canoerebel]

10/16/44

Ketoi: Well I'll be dogged. Enemy carriers in the Pacific, after all.

Should I send Death Star to protect the Empties Herd? Would Erik even take a chance that I'd so so?

Maybe, after all, had DS continued SW today, we'd have had a carrier clash.

Or was he trying to provoke a reaction?

Too many possibilties. Too many permutations.

I have a headache.

[Lokasenna]

I looked up black walnuts vs. other types, as I didn't think mine was a black walnut (for starters, it's not a very large tree - 50 feet at most).

Yep, it's a butternut. Softer wood but still desirable for home goods applications. Not that I want the tree to go, but when it does I hope I'm able to get a ton of wood out of it. Maybe I'll redo the door and window casings in my house with some of it, or something of that sort.

[Canoerebel]

If memory serves, butternut is where southerners got the die used for many Confederate uniforms, especially in the western armies. That's the origin of the nickname "Butternuts" applied to Confederates, the equivalent of "Bluebellies" for the Yankees.