gryphon band saws

I first learned to drive and work with a farm tractor when I was a teenager, and no guidebooks were anywhere to be found. What it would have meant to me to have the words of John Deere himself to guide me. Tractors are pretty much the same today as they were then. The same basic components are at work; tractor logic is the same; the same principles apply to working the soil. In reading The Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery I felt comforted knowing that I was sharing common knowledge with farmers of a century ago.I am a farmer whose carpentry skills are limited to chicken coops and harvesting sheds. But if I could hold Barns and Outbuildings in one hand and a hammer with another, I just might be able to make some progress in that area. Barns and Outbuildings covers a broad range of designs, illustrations, floor plans, and building instructions. It is a charming collection of beautiful and practical ideas to answer structural needs that are still necessary: pigpens, tool houses, as well as a host of barns designed according to the whim of the owner and the lay of the land.

Environmentalists have been quick to point fingers at chip mills for devastating forestry practices. But the industry insists it''s "out of the loop" concerning timber cuts, since operators purchase their supply from private landholders. Industry officials are so infuriated, many refused to comment. The line connecting chip mills to clearcuts and destructive forestry isn''t a straight one, but it is visible. Dean Carson of the South Carolina Forestry Commission argues that chips can be transported more efficiently, using less energy, than large pieces of timber, and mills can utilize the whole tree. But processing the whole tree is exactly what has brought the mills under fire: because lumber is chipped into one-inch pieces, any size scrap of timber will do. With new markets opening up for treetops, undersized trees, and forked or crooked specimens, landowners have added incentive to clearcut a site for quick profits, instead of harvesting selected trees to be cut into boards. And timber previously left behind to continue maturing, or that provided wildlife habitat or eroded to replenish soils, now finds itself in the steely mouths of the chippers. A 1998 U.S. Forest Service report says clearcutting accounts for 13 percent of logged land in the South. And because the chips are needed for everything from rayon and plastics to particleboard and paper, chip markets continue growing. Timber giant Willamette Industries says chip mills allow landowners to merchandise otherwise unusable trees, discouraging forestry practices like "high-grading" (cutting only the healthiest trees). "Clearcutting is often the best tool to assure a rich, diverse forest," claims Willamette''s web site. "Many songbirds and other types of wildlife require open areas for nesting and food gathering."

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