Steam power (pics)
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>My in-laws bought a place a little ways out of town a few years ago, and there is a steam show next door that has been going on for a number of years now and I just found it because they live next door. Last year I wandered through the flea market that is there and found a few tools, and it's the same place I was wandering though recently that I found the #4 trammel points in a 1940's stanley box for $12, which is doing quite well for the old tool sahara that I live in. Last year I watched them run this old saw mill with a steam tractor and thought it would be kinda neat. Last fall my FIL mentioned a dead tree in the woods he thought was a walnut, so my brain instantly connected the two. I took the tree down about a month ago, and it turned out to actually be elm instead of walnut, but I have plenty of walnut so that was a nice surprise. There was about 15 feet of trunk before the first fork, and I took a ten foot log off the bottom and then cut a few feet above the crotch for the second log. We set the crotch flat and trimmed one side straight, then set it upright and sliced off 8/4 planks, which if they dry reasonably well will make something nice but I'm not sure what yet. I had all the wood sawn into 8/4 stock and it is stacked and drying now.
These are 2 pics of the tractor and the saw; it was a neat experience, and I'm thinking if I can get a couple logs like this every year I'll have a nice rotating crop of wood. I ended up becming a member of the St. Joe Valley Old Engine Association, although I think I may be to young to join; it's full of neat people just like the M-WTCA, and was a nice weekend. The big bad bald guy is Roger, the one running the saw, and was really nice to work with.
