Twitching Wood

Now that the haying is done, it's time to do some other jobs.  This past weekend, Whit and our friend Jacob took the horses on a job twitching wood.  That's what they call hauling logs up out of the woods...twitching, because a twitching chain is used to skid the logs out.  A twitching chain simply has hooks on either end.  One end is wrapped around the log, then hooked back over the chain, while the hook on the other end is used to fasten the log to the double-tree behind the horses.

Generally, when someone wants to clear some land they can just pay someone to bring in a skidder and do it.  This job, however, was to selectively clear some trees that were blocking the owner's view of the lake without cutting a lot of extra trees or roughing up their property, plus their woods are on a pretty steep hill.  So Whit took Pat and Scooby to haul the logs up a relatively narrow path, wending their way between the trees.

Whit and Jake worked all morning bringing up some smaller logs.  I arrived with lunch and my camera.  Here, lunch break is over.  Whit is walking the boys back down the drive from the trailer where Pat and Scooby had their lunch, and across the yard to the top of the path leading down into the woods.

Jacob is carrying the double-tree in the foreground.

You can get an idea of the view the owners are trying to preserve.  (The house is off to the left here.)

 

 The horses prefer to watch what's going on while Jake wraps the chain around the log in preparation for hauling.

Hitching them up to haul.

And off they go.

Everything is pulled up to the driveway where they can be loaded onto a trailer.

Headed back down the hill again for a big log this time.

 

This is a pretty big log.  Whit had created a hoist to lift it up off the ground, but it needs some modifications to get around the rocks and trees.

It is kind of a donkey path with a really annoying rock in the way.  The front end of the log didn't miss it this time.

The cable snapped!  Back to using the chain.  But first they have to get around the rock.

Using a peavy, they roll the log sideways enough to get around the rock and tell the horses to giddup.

Unfortunately, the next obstacle was this annoying tree.  Hauling logs behind horses is a little like trying to play crack the whip while attempting to get up the path...around the obstacles.  Jake has his trusty peavy.  (Never leave home without it.)

They finally made it up the hill.  Because the horses had to pull pretty hard to get the log up over the top of the hill, Whit didn't want to stop them.  Notice the little two-step Whit does between the log and that rock on the right to keep the log from running over his toes.

That was a good haul.  The horses need a  break, so Jake is going to fetch his chainsaw and take care of that annoying tree in the trail.

The troublesome tree is on the right.  Jake is contemplating which direction he wants it to fall before he starts sawing.  (Well, okay, he's also wondering why I'm taking so many stupid pictures. :)

 No more tiresome tree in the trail.

Whit and the horses are watching Jacob finish the tree job.  Then they'll head  back down  into the woods and haul up another log.

They're all good boys.  They did a good day's work, but it's not nearly done.  They'll be back again next weekend.

Chemical Reactions: a Science Experiment

This year we're enjoying the General Science course written by Dr. Jay Wile.  TBear recently did an experiment on chemical reactions that was kind of fun... and funny.

The set-up was to boil a few leaves of red cabbage in some water, then add the bluish water to  vinegar in a 2L bottle.  Next, he was to put some baking soda into a 6-9" balloon.  He was supposed to attach the balloon to the top of the bottle without letting any of the baking soda fall into it just yet.  So while I boiled the cabbage for him, TBear went in search of a balloon.

 
Unfortunately all we had were those tiny water balloons.  Then TBear hit on the brilliant idea of a rubber glove from the barn.  I wasn't sure it was a brilliant idea yet : ), but it was an experiment, and the glove was about the right size, so why not.

 Pouring the bluish cabbage water into the vinegar

Getting that glove with the baking soda in it rubber banded to the top of the bottle was interesting. Here he is adding the baking soda from the glove into the blue vinegar

 Whoa!  The glove worked!  Apparently there was enough carbon dioxide produced to inflate the glove.  (The baking soda combined with the vinegar produced carbon dioxide, sodium acetate and water.)

And the more you shook the bottle to mix up the baking soda, the bigger the glove got.

 

Fortunately I took pictures because he was also supposed to notice the change in the color of the vinegar water from blue to pink and back to blue again as a second chemical reaction was taking place.  TBear commented on it, but then had to think about it when the question was asked. : )  The second reaction happened as the vinegar was used up.  Something from the red cabbage (anthocyanin) interacted with the vinegar to turn the water pink.  As the vinegar was used up in the baking soda reaction, the water returned to its blue color.

I love fun science!  I also love the creativity of TBear.  I never would have thought of the glove; I'd have just put the experiment off until after I'd found a balloon.