OT Things to ponder

[Canoerebel]

Back in 1983, I was the resident assistant (RA) on 3rd Floor Center, Myers Hall, University of Georgia. That mean I was to keep order among 30 or 40 high-spirited, good-natured college men.

I must've talked too much about trees (like I'm doing in this thread tonight). One night, a mischievous resident named Bobby Ray Tompkins took a washable black marker and drew graffiti all over my door. I don't recall everything he wrote, but one depiction had a stick figure (me) saying, "I like trees."

Where the letters RA were stenciled in the door, he added new letters: RAss.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Back in 1983, I was the resident assistant (RA) on 3rd Floor Center, Myers Hall, University of Georgia. That mean I was to keep order among 30 or 40 high-spirited, good-natured college men.

I must've talked too much about trees (like I'm doing in this thread tonight). One night, a mischievous resident named Bobby Ray Tompkins took a washable black marker and drew graffiti all over my door. I don't recall everything he wrote, but one depiction had a stick figure (me) saying, "I like trees."

Where the letters RA were stenciled in the door, he added new letters: RAss.

Did the R stand for Red?

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Shagbark Hickory are my favorite nuts. No not that Shaggy .... from Scooby...

Black Walnuts for me. An uncle would take me on walks through black walnut forests and his basement had mounds of them and he used a bench vise to open them up. Oh, the memories.

These stands of black walnut trees were within walking distance of Moundsville WV.

Ive got several black walnut trees. the green husk has several uses. It can be be powdered and used to stun fish.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Back in 1983, I was the resident assistant (RA) on 3rd Floor Center, Myers Hall, University of Georgia. That mean I was to keep order among 30 or 40 high-spirited, good-natured college men.

I must've talked too much about trees (like I'm doing in this thread tonight). One night, a mischievous resident named Bobby Ray Tompkins took a washable black marker and drew graffiti all over my door. I don't recall everything he wrote, but one depiction had a stick figure (me) saying, "I like trees."

Where the letters RA were stenciled in the door, he added new letters: RAss.

Trying to make you leave?

[MakeeLearn]

Parts of the Tulip Poplar are said to have Viagra effects.

[geofflambert]

Post oak, pin oak and red oak, I used to be able to tell them apart. When I was young I renovated old buildings and they had something few of you would be familiar with, Missouri yellow pine. That species of lumber is rather remarkable. You are probably familiar with white pine and how easy it is to drill holes in it or drive nails into it. Not Missouri Yellow Pine. During the Civil War the Union built what were called "Wood Clad" boats (as opposed to iron-clads). They were made of that species of wood and it was and is like iron. In order to drive nails into yellow pine you had to drill holes in it first, otherwise the nails would just bend into pretzels. Of course you had to drill holes for screws but try screwing them in flush. Fuhgeddaboudit! You could break your screwdriver in the attempt and I'm not kidding. the head of you driver could fracture into pieces. I'm talking about framing that was in place, you wouldn't buy Missouri yellow pine on purpose.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Parts of the Tulip Poplar are said to have Viagra effects.

Tulip trees can get monstrously big and few trees have such straight trunks.

[geofflambert]

More on Missouri yellow pine. Those drill bits you used to make holes for nails, you could throw them away after a few holes, they were so dull. Carbide circular saw blades? They couldn't hold up for long either.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Post oak, pin oak and red oak, I used to be able to tell them apart. When I was young I renovated old buildings and they had something few of you would be familiar with, Missouri yellow pine. That species of lumber is rather remarkable. You are probably familiar with white pine and how easy it is to drill holes in it or drive nails into it. Not Missouri Yellow Pine. During the Civil War the Union built what were called "Wood Clad" boats (as opposed to iron-clads). They were made of that species of wood and it was and is like iron. In order to drive nails into yellow pine you had to drill holes in it first, otherwise the nails would just bend into pretzels. Of course you had to drill holes for screws but try screwing them in flush. Fuhgeddaboudit! You could break your screwdriver in the attempt and I'm not kidding. the head of you driver could fracture into pieces. I'm talking about framing that was in place, you wouldn't buy Missouri yellow pine on purpose.

There is ~60 species of Oak in North American and a lot of crossbreeding. Good info....Boatbuilding is awesome, wish I could do it.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

More on Missouri yellow pine. Those drill bits you used to make holes for nails, you could throw them away after a few holes, they were so dull. Carbide circular saw blades? They couldn't hold up for long either.

Before and/or after drying?

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

More on Missouri yellow pine. Those drill bits you used to make holes for nails, you could throw them away after a few holes, they were so dull. Carbide circular saw blades? They couldn't hold up for long either.

How did you know when it was time to throw away a bit? It wasn't going anywhere and it was smoking, if you didn't stop it would start a fire.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

More on Missouri yellow pine. Those drill bits you used to make holes for nails, you could throw them away after a few holes, they were so dull. Carbide circular saw blades? They couldn't hold up for long either.

Before and/or after drying?

Well, like I said, you wouldn't knowingly buy yellow pine for construction. I was talking about two by fours (and they actually are 2x4s, not 1 1/2" by 3 1/2", they were honest about that in the 19th century and early 20th) and they were aged like fine whiskey, they didn't need drying.

[geofflambert]

Oh, and the nails you would find stuck in them and have a hell of a time prying out, their shafts were rectangular in cross section, not round, not square.

[geofflambert]

When you would pry those old nails out the wood would groan just like when the Three Stooges were pulling teeth.

[Flicker]

CR, of course you're correct. I should have noted that the crapemyrtles are the varieties developed by the National Arboretum, which did in fact select Asian varieties for hybridization (but it took 'Muricans to get em to grow here). In addition to the Arboretum crapemyrtles, I got some of the next gen Miss State varieties derived from the Arboretum varieties. I should also fess up to having some Aucuba bushes in the yard, which also come from Asia, but they were planted before the tornado. I think everything else is native, except for the grass, which probably came from Africa / Asia.

Dang it, the Abelia are also from Asia. So are the Distylium. I give up. I don't even want to know where the weeds originated. At least the varieties of Azalea I planted are Appalachian natives.

[geofflambert]

Good thing you're not tweeting this. Someone might be watching.

[Canoerebel]

Loving trees and nature is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because...well, because I love trees and nature. It's a curse because I find fault in basically every book and movie ever written or made. Blue jays in France in The Bourne Identity, water moccasins and longleaf pines in the North Carolina mountains in a book I just finished, wisteria blooming in June in a book I proofread for the author (and corrected that mistake), all kinds of mistakes in Pat Conroy's writings, cicadas sawing at night (them's katydids, dudes), etc. etc. ad nauseum.

The most accurate writer I've ever come across is Terry Kay of Athens, Georgia. He wrote To Dance with the White Dog, which turned into a Hallmark movie starring Jessica Tandy. Terry never, ever makes a mistake in his writing.

[geofflambert]

I just got some praying mantis egg cases (the Chinese kind) delivered. I know they are going to try and eat my Monarch butterflies and caterpillars, but it's nature like it's supposed to be. Let the games begin!

[MakeeLearn]

water moccasins

I heard it used as another name for cottonmouth and others claim that its a different non poisonous snake.

Marlon Perkins insisted that the two were completely different species, that the Cottonmouth was venomous, the Water Moccasin was non-venomous.

moccasins as from a Indian pov would mean walking... safe to walk - as non-venomous snake hunts venomous.

Why... in what context would moccasin be applied to any snake?

I have King snakes around the house and Ive seen the look of terror on the face of venomous snakes when they are being stalked by them.

[MakeeLearn]

War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition Rule #1: