A day in the woods

Great Horned Owl came to check on me

I spent part of the day out in the woods today, collecting wood for a Beothuk bow reproduction.  I was hoping to collect mountain ash and spruce or fir.  I did manage to cut a nice straight fir log without too many knots from a wind-fallen tree, but I fell into a bog before I could find a suitable mountain ash trunk.  I saw lots of perfect mountain ashes in people's yards around town, but I don't think harvesting those would be good for business.  I'll head out again tomorrow to keep looking.  In the meantime I have a good fir trunk to split into staves.  I should be able to quarter it and get enough for four bows out of it.  I'm looking for a similar-sized mountain ash trunk, but will probably have to settle for something half the diameter.  I plan to make a few bows side-by-side from different woods in the hopes that one will turn nice.

It didn't look that deep when I tried to walk through it.  In fact, there was so much mud and debris floating in the water, that I didn't even realize I was stepping into a ditch.

There's no shortage of spruce and fir in Newfoundland, but I'd still rather clean up windfall than cut down a standing tree.

The fir log I took is about seven feet long and I plan to split it in half and then into quarters.  

I was barely ten minutes out of town, but the woods were alive with birds.  The Great Horned owl was the highlight, though.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast