A couple of days ago I read a piece on the hand-drill fire starting method somewhere and watched a video the poster did using a Mullein stalk for the spindle and Basswood (I hear it's called lime in Britain) for the hearth board. He got a coal really quickly and I have been wanting to do the the hand-drill method for some time now myself. I do know for sure that we have Mullein here, but it hasn't come up yet....I know. I keep watching and waiting as I have been studying this all winter and waiting for the chance to try it. Since I already know where the Mullein grows...I thought it best that I learn to identify Basswood trees in the wild and locate some while I am waiting on the Mullein. Yesterday was primarily a hunt for Basswood, and I'm pretty sure I've found some, but it was also a pretty nice day out in the woods.
I went to a 3 mile loop off of a section of the Cumberland trail that I've spent a lot of time hiking on. The loop is only about 3 miles long if you stay on the trail, but when you're constantly walking off of the trail looking up at the leaves of the surrounding trees that distance can easily double. I thought this would be a good place to start since the varying terrain types along that part offers a pretty good cross-section of most of the plants common too this area. The temp was great and the sky was clear. There are a lot of cool rock formations here.
And you see more things when you are actually looking up a lot, studying the shapes of all the leaves. These two pics aren't as good as I wish they were but I liked them anyway. This spider web is horizontal. The breeze was living it just enough sometimes to catch the sunlight, when it was down is was in shadow and nearly impossible to see. I was about fifteen feet over from me as the base of these rocks has a slope to it, and it was about 30 feet up. The range, constant movement, and bright reflection off the web made for a challenging photo for the camera I had on me.
It is a winding trail that crosses several streams with some larger than others, and for the most part under a tall shady canopy.
I came upon an old friend. A very old Cottonwood Tree down along side Bee Branch. A tree I have always enjoyed sitting against and resting there, just listening to the babble of the water and the birds. The tree is pretty tall, and I left my pack sitting next to it's base for some perspective.
There were several spider webs glowing in the sunlight breaking through small holes in the canopy. There will be fewer of those holes as the summer comes on.
I did notice that something has been effecting the Hemlocks, some of them had several holes about 3/8 inch in diameter in them.
There were several that had fallen some time back. It is interesting to note that. Hemlock produces hard knots at the base of the limbs just like pine trees, but they aren't filled will flammable resin that will take a spark. However they still don't seem to absorb water. I pulled one out of an otherwise soaking wet mass of punk wood, beat the wet rotten wood off of the hard knot and tried it for fire starting uses. The shavings from the core of it would not take a spark from a fire steel, but were dry enough to light with a flame.
I found this plant I want to I.D.
Then this little fellow kept fluttering around me in a clearing.
There are lots of mosses in the mountains here.
There were several types of fungi out. Some I've never noticed before...and some were rather large.
As for the Basswood I was looking for I do believe I've found some. It sure looks like the leaves and trunks I've seen of young trees in the pictures I've found on-line. Anyone one here familiar with it and know for sure one way or another from these pictures?
Now that I'm pretty sure it's in the local area it's time to find some larger trees so I can harvest some pieces big enough to fashion a hearth board from.
And then this little guy was on the sidewalk when I got back to my truck. It was a nice exhausting hike, I really enjoyed it and I hope you guys did too.
.
I went to a 3 mile loop off of a section of the Cumberland trail that I've spent a lot of time hiking on. The loop is only about 3 miles long if you stay on the trail, but when you're constantly walking off of the trail looking up at the leaves of the surrounding trees that distance can easily double. I thought this would be a good place to start since the varying terrain types along that part offers a pretty good cross-section of most of the plants common too this area. The temp was great and the sky was clear. There are a lot of cool rock formations here.
And you see more things when you are actually looking up a lot, studying the shapes of all the leaves. These two pics aren't as good as I wish they were but I liked them anyway. This spider web is horizontal. The breeze was living it just enough sometimes to catch the sunlight, when it was down is was in shadow and nearly impossible to see. I was about fifteen feet over from me as the base of these rocks has a slope to it, and it was about 30 feet up. The range, constant movement, and bright reflection off the web made for a challenging photo for the camera I had on me.
It is a winding trail that crosses several streams with some larger than others, and for the most part under a tall shady canopy.
I came upon an old friend. A very old Cottonwood Tree down along side Bee Branch. A tree I have always enjoyed sitting against and resting there, just listening to the babble of the water and the birds. The tree is pretty tall, and I left my pack sitting next to it's base for some perspective.
There were several spider webs glowing in the sunlight breaking through small holes in the canopy. There will be fewer of those holes as the summer comes on.
I did notice that something has been effecting the Hemlocks, some of them had several holes about 3/8 inch in diameter in them.
There were several that had fallen some time back. It is interesting to note that. Hemlock produces hard knots at the base of the limbs just like pine trees, but they aren't filled will flammable resin that will take a spark. However they still don't seem to absorb water. I pulled one out of an otherwise soaking wet mass of punk wood, beat the wet rotten wood off of the hard knot and tried it for fire starting uses. The shavings from the core of it would not take a spark from a fire steel, but were dry enough to light with a flame.
I found this plant I want to I.D.
Then this little fellow kept fluttering around me in a clearing.
There are lots of mosses in the mountains here.
There were several types of fungi out. Some I've never noticed before...and some were rather large.
As for the Basswood I was looking for I do believe I've found some. It sure looks like the leaves and trunks I've seen of young trees in the pictures I've found on-line. Anyone one here familiar with it and know for sure one way or another from these pictures?
Now that I'm pretty sure it's in the local area it's time to find some larger trees so I can harvest some pieces big enough to fashion a hearth board from.
And then this little guy was on the sidewalk when I got back to my truck. It was a nice exhausting hike, I really enjoyed it and I hope you guys did too.
.
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