Wyldespun Inventory Day

A little about how we get stock! All wood need to be dried, so when we forage for wood around the Farm, we don't normally have to worry as much about drying it. Which takes time. A lot of time. The wood that we forage comes from dead or diseased trees or branches. When we first moved to the Farm 37 years ago, there were very few trees there. We have planted a Lot of trees. I have very clear memories a a child of us going out for a walk and planting trees all over the place. I love seeing them grow, and I love that from the Road you can barely see the houses now. Thursday was nice and cool, and we have to restock for the Sit and Spins, so we decided to rope my Dad in and go down to the dead Elm tree and see if there weeany of the chunks that we cut off earlier in the year were viable. (Also it seemed to be meadering over into the field, so it had to be moved out of the way.)

We get my dad to drive the truck, he recently got a new one, he is very proud. its large, diesel, and super high up for people under 5'5''. We did get up there though, because when you are on the farm you ride in the back of the truck. Even my mom, neither of us were the most agile getting up (again, super high).

My favourite thing as a child was to ride in the truck bed down the driveway, I never remember my mom coming with us, ever. So this was super fun and special. Also frankly amusing.

We had cut and placed a large part of these tree branches/trunks in the spring, and we needed to come back for the rest that we thought would be useful. When we had originally gathered the first batch we only brought my sons old red Wagon (I have no idea what I was thinking) to collect with. The tree had died quite a while ago, and large storms had blown down quite a few large branches more recently into the farmers field, all akimbo for the most part.

My memories on the Elm tree

This Elm tree has been a part of my life forever. I remember gauging the distance to whether or not I would miss the School bus (The driveway is 0.6 km long, you have to get to a certain point of the driveway so that the bus driver could even see you, much less be willing to stop and wait while you run over half a km to catch it). So my morning mantra when I was running late in high school (my cousin at my side) Coffee in hand and knee length boots untied (mid 90's) was "just get to the tree, get to the tree, the bus will stop if you get to the tree... also wave enough if you see it." The other set of trees which are now also gone for the most part will not get you picked up by the school bus. especially if you have a supply.

I cherish using this piece of my life to build spindles, etc. Its a beautiful continuation of a part of my life, I love this tree. I love Elm wood, its beautiful, and a piece of my families history, its great to give it new life. Also, I don't have to race to it anymore, so that is also great.

After that was distraction time... could we put up the old dining tent for more room? Answer, we haven't put up this tent in 15 years. The last time was with my ex-wife. We thought that this could extend and expand our space and seasons, as far as making goes, since once the snow flies, we have an 8x10 shed for our maker-space. We had the best of intentions, but the mice got to the tent first, so the outside was a no go. next Brilliant idea, was "Hey, can we use the poles? Then maybe some like tarp contraption to wall it in for windy/rainy/snowy days?"

We thought we were brilliant! So we emptied and sorted the poles, not only did we all have different memories of what the tent looked like when assembled, we either had enough poles for one and a half tents, or not enough poles for this tent. No assembling the puzzle of a dining tent we realized we had all hated in the first place. Too Bad, I was really hopeful for the extra space once our office under the trees gets less practical.

we had some family friends drop off a large amount of Cedar that they had cut down to make room for a garden. This is all recently cut, so it will need a good chunk of time to dry out. Its cut in sections, which should help, but we will probably cut it down a bit smaller in some cases as well. So while my mom went in and made us all Meatballs for lunch, I said I would sort out our Priority wood. Basically I dug through the pile, found all of the straight pieces, the interesting pieces, and the larger pieces first. Everything that initially tickled my fancy got tossed into two separate piles, and then I put our "later stuff" back into a neat pile.

These are some of what made my first round pick, it ended up being one wheelbarrow, and about four trips with that handy little Red Wagon (with the sides off and a small skid on it) worth of wood. I would guess maybe 1/3 of the pile? I love that wagon, it works great when the pieces are between 3-5 feet long. not so much at 7-15 feet long.

Then we stored it in what I will Optimistically call The Garage of Hopes and Dreams. Which in actuality is a cement brick block with no doors left that is a little slanty, but dry. Its where the wood gets its initial dry, furniture to redo gets stored, skids, and bikes and outdoor toys for my nephews. I tried to get a picture, but my phone was having a hissy fit and decided that wasn't going to happen.

My mom would say that thankfully the pics didn't work, there is 37 years of... Stuff... in there in addition to what I mentioned. So we organized, we rearranged stuff and put down the bases to dry some of the freshest wood we have seen yet.

With those chores done, we are finally in a space and a place to get some more actual making done. In addition to spindles, now that we are better set up with wood, we want to play with making even more items! Creativity is starting to flow!

As always, more to #gowyldegetspun and #Wyldespun to come! So many plans, so little time!