Mud Ranch’s Real Dirt

I finally took my camera, or was inspired at the time to actually shoot it, at my Godfather’s property where he mills all our lumber.  Lewis has milled our lumber since we started our barn building around 6 years ago — if my husband realized how long we’ve been building our barn he’d have a heart attack. 

I can’t remember exactly how much acreage he has there, but this is the back side and the house is down through the trees out of view on the left.  Behind me and a little to the right is where he has his mill set up and lots of stacks of already milled lumber.

Above is what used to be an oak log, now turning into some nice looking lumber!

Lewis has what is called a Woodmeizer band-saw mill and it is actually portable and very efficient.  The motor that drives the mill is a four cylinder diesel.  When it cuts, it is very efficient in wood as it’s only losing a small amount to shavings as where you would lose a big amount with a thicker saw blade. 

Lewis has been working in the woods his whole life and enjoys being out in the shavings of his mill.  There is a man who can fall a huge tree in exactly the spot he wants it to — it really is an art.  And the biggest art is to love the forest and take care of it, which includes (unbeknown to radical environmentalists) logging.  When you log trees, you are essentially thinning the forest which creates a healthier environment for the trees that are left to grow in.  Otherwise they’d be crowded — kind of like if you left a bunch of livestock in a small pen, they’d get sick and eventually die off.  The other thing that Lewis gets irritated with is when we aren’t allowed to log forests that have burned (something that happens regularly around here in Northern California) the bugs move in and attack the dead trees, they then move on to trees that have a low “immune” system in the surrounding live forest and start to kill off good trees.  He believes that we are given a large duty on this earth, and that is to be good stewards of the land and animals that inhabit it — just as God has asked us to.

Part of the logged tree’s problems are the pests that move in, and quickly.  Here is one of Lewis’ prized firs that is inhabited by carpenter ants, no sooner did we leave than he started to mill up this log.  He didn’t want the rot in the tree to become a nuisance and create a home for the bugs to live.

Part of the fun in the visit to Lewis’ place is the interesting machinery around.  He has very old machinery, but that’s the way he likes it — because they are good “work horses” and last long and are hardy.  Lewis isn’t in to new and fancy things.  I like the contrast of flowers and equipment — one of my weird-isms.

This is the same type of flower that is growing in between the tires of that big tractor above.  This particular plant is growing out in that large luscious meadow.

This is the same flower but at a different stage in it’s life — I’m not sure if it’s going to open here, or if it’s done blooming.

And this lovely plant, which grows every where around here (and actually I don’t get along with it all that well,) is poison oak.  I have a nice little batch of it right now, the first of the season, on my arms and legs.  Not too many spots but enough to be a nuisance.  It does look pretty growing on this tree though, and in the fall the vibrant red color is gorgeous!  Someone once told me they saw a person collecting the poison oak in the fall along a road side and they were sure the person had no idea what it was — and assumed they thought it would make a nice wreath.  Who knows?

Here’s Lewis’ old faithful tractor.  He actually hayed our field with this thing and that sure was a pretty picture!  There’s just something picturesque about an old tractor sitting out in a field.

I actually got Annie to kind of smile at me — after multiple times of trying to get her attention.  That’s the trouble with kids who have moms that are always pointing a camera in their face — they quickly learn how to ignore it!

See the patch of little white flowers to her left there in the grass?  I have never seen that flower around here before and maybe it’s just because it only grows at that certain elevation or area (Lewis lives about an hour away from us — everybody is about an hour away from us.)

Here is is up close in it’s little family cluster.  They grew only about an inch and a half tall so they looked like they were sitting right on the ground.  Anyone know what it is?

In another post, I’ll show you what we’ve done recently with Lewis’ milled lumber, and what Hubby has turned it into.

Photo-ops abound at Mud Ranch.