Bio Fuel

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That's the latest buzz word around here. Seems some forward thinkers have been pondering what to do with the Bug Killed Pine which covers 80% of the provinces mature pine forests. Why not grind it all up and turn it into BioFuel. I am not sure how I feel about that. I think it just lets us prop up the Auto industry which needs to be put out of its misery. In this day and age we can only use so many buggy whips. On the other hand that just may be a poor analogy. Maybe we need more.

I love the techno-babble and politics that go with the crisis. Government propaganda at selected road side sites proclaim how the bug kill is a "natural occurring phenomenon", that couldn't have been prevented. Of course planting huge tracts of the same species, because that's what industry wanted, and not burning the outbreak when it first occurred in Tweedsmuir park - because we didn't want to upset the tree huggers. Let's not talk about that.

We don't even burn wood these days. We convert bio mass. Well, here's the latest load of bio-mass getting loaded into the cavernous bio mass storage facility under our veranda where it's close to our bio mass converter.

We use an acronym for Bio Mass: W.O.O.D. ( Woodlot Originated Organic Deadfall) instead of processing Bio Mass we just B.U.R.N. it ( Burns Up Really Nice ) Another four or five loads and we ought to be set for the winter. It's pouring rain today so not much inclination to be out hauling wood. Time to Sharpen the Saw ( with apologies to Stephen Covey )

I was hand filing my saws before trying this jig. Hand filing works O.K. for a quick touch up but for the best results I use this jig. Straight and effortless.

Despite the tongue in cheek reference I do believe that one of the most important things I need to do on a daily basis is sharpen the saw. Not the Husqvarna so much, as my Spiritual saw. The tools I need to use on a daily basis. Whacking at the Forest with a dull blade is a lot more tiring than it needs to be. Yet my ego will have me swinging a dull blade all day like a madman insisting that I don't have the time to sharpen the saw. But that's only because it thinks it can get along just fine without me.

It's in for a big surprise.

Hope you get to cut through it all with ease today..

Comments

Yeoman said…
Very fine post.
11:31 AM
Walter Jeffries said…
*grin* Guess we've been in on this fad too, for about 47 years? I learned about this bio-fuel from my parents who learned about it from their... :) Good thing it's getting reinvented although all of this intermediate processing is questionable. I just sold 2,832,000 pounds of bio-fuel that is going to a plant for making pellets for wood stoves. The one plus I'm able to think of is they take anything. Even leaves and twigs. That was useful as we cleared new pasture that will someday be hay fields. Apparently the market is high right now for chips so we did our clear cut.
12:58 PM
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