Austrian wood industry

[WDH]

Sorry.  They export to the US. 

[Magicman]

My Sister is presently traveling in Norway, which is not Austria, but she just posted a bit about how the lumber was prepared before many of the old 1000+ year old churches were built: 

"We also learned more about how trees were prepared for these churches–and by extension gained more understanding of how wooden buildings in general can last so long.

Of course, they were starting with what we today call "old growth" timber which has grown slowly. 10-20 years before cutting the tree down, they would begin cutting off its branches. This would cause the tree to produce more sap. Then somehow that I didn't understand, they would gird the tree to cause it to expend its moisture without splitting.  It would take 20 years to prepare the wood, carve, etc., then a church could be erected in a summer. "

[WDH]

You could not do that down here.  The beetles would eat it up and bring in the rot fungus. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Fla,

   Great pix. Interesting to see how things are done in other countries.

MM,

    I worked a project in Kristiansand Norway from 2007-2009. I did not see any lumber being cut or stacked around the houses like Fla showed. We had a Norwegian daughter (former exchange student) we'd visit. I did see lots of firewood which is still widely used.

    Firewood I saw there was mostly birch and cut to about 1' lengths on a buzz saw on a tractor PTO. Looked dangerous to me but while many restrictions there that did not seem to be one on that. They'd drag the small logs to a landing then cut them with the tractor powered cut off saw and use conveyer rollers to move the logs and wood. They split logs as small as 4" diameter 4 ways which I thought was excessive. They'd place on pallets and shrink wrap and you bought a cubic meter of firewood. They used small wood heaters as individual room heaters. I have a big wood heater as a whole house heater but their little individual one (look like old coal heaters in the caboose on an old western movie) are much more efficient I am sure. Also the homes were built in the valleys and often real close together and the community councils would periodically send around chimney sweeps to clean everyone's chimneys so they did not have chimney fires from creosote build up. A fire there spread easily.

    Ruth showed us how to tell if the wood was dry enough to burn. She'd blow through one end of the stick and air had to pass through it.

   Another neat thing we saw in Norway was old buildings built on wooden posts. The posts were tapered up then suddenly flared out sort of like a flange on top of the small end of a funnel. This design helped keep mice from being able to climb around the "flange" to get in the building. Some of those old building were hundreds if not thousands of years old. We did visit a tiny church that during rebuild they found dates of 1011 on the rafters.

    Hope your sister gets to Flam (tail end of the Bergen fjoid - longest and deepest fjoird in the world) and the town there. Old farm is et up overlooking the fjoird is where Ruth works. Has a railhead and lots of people come in by ship and leave by rail or vice versa.

[florida]

 I'm running out of wood related stuff but I'll see what I can find.


This guy was watering a tree in central Vienna. We all have to help in our own way I suppose.



 

I managed to sneak a photo of the Lipizzaner Stallions at practice at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The horses and riders are both amazing. The horses start training at 4 and spend as much as 6 years training. Same with the riders who spend 6 years to 10 years riding before they become Master riders.



 

I'm always as much interested in infrastructure as the scenery. This is a standard toilet. Wall hung, short and flushes with pressure bu pushing the large plastic thing on the wall. It works great.



  

This was on top of a mountain near Brenner Pass. See the very, very  obvious electric fence? I didn't! It was one of two I missed. It sure wakes a guy up.



 

This is the highest, longest suspension bridge in Europe. The Highline179 near Reutte, Austria. 450' high and 1200' long. It will sure make you pucker!



 

For those who are really, really interested you can read my travel blog of the trip at

https://travelwithrickandcathy.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/austria-hungary-and-beyond-2015/

[WV Sawmiller]

Fla,

   Did you see many P/U trucks? We saw very few in Norway when there. Heard they are expensive to buy and operate. Even Auto transmissions are pretty rare and cost much more to rent and run. They used trailers a lot. All had electric brakes and the cars all had electric brake hookups. Instead of our ball hitches on a receiver hitch they had a curved arm with what looked like a 1-1/2" (or smaller) ball head. Seemed like every gas station had 3-4 trailers to rent. Tiny cars would be seen towing these 5X8 or bigger (approximate sizes) trailers on the really steep hills.

[Ken]

I've had the opportunity to visit Linz Austria for a wood pellet conference a few years back.  I remember the countryside being very beautiful and some of the coniferous forests were amazing.  Not forestry related but was able to spend a couple days in Vienna.  Amazing history there. 

[florida]

WV Sawmiller- Saw 1 pickup in 3 weeks. Even my wife noticed it because it was so unusual. Mostly big vans made by VW. You'd think they would be  a slam dunk for builders and loggers.

Drove past Linz without stopping, one of the few places we didn't go.  Yes, Vienna is beautiful and a nice place to visit if you like cities.