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Tidewater VA

Started by WV Sawmiller, January 16, 2017, 04:32:05 PM

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WV Sawmiller

   Well, we left the mountains and visited the Tidewater VA area around Windsor Va this past weekend. We had a dear friend getting married and we went to attend and for my wife went down to photograph the wedding. We had a blast seeing our old friends (I met them in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia about 20 years ago).

   I had forgotten how much the terrain and flora changes in just 350 miles to the east and slightly south. I am convinced some of the farms we saw there had more flat land that we have in the whole state of WV. I kept drooling seeing the big straight pine trees there and thinking how much fun they would be to cut on my mill vs the poplar and ash and such I typically cut. I did not see a single dying ash tree in the area. We saw massive beaver swamps just a few feet lower than the road level. Huge flat fields showed where peanuts and cotton had been harvested a few weeks to moths ago. I saw one field of soybeans with standing water that may never get harvested before the beans fall off.

   There were plenty of old pole barns and churches aching to be photographed. Neat old houses are everywhere. Thousands of Canada geese were out in the pastures and we did see a couple of wild turkeys and deer.

   Holly and cedar trees were common understory and fence row trees. I have not cut holly and not much cedar so I also envy the sawyers there who get to cut them often.

    I just wish we had more time to visit and take more pictures but at least we have an excuse to go back soon.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

WV Sawmiller

   Something else new to me was a new type of grain storage. On the way down we spotted big white plastic "tubes" about 3' high X 5'-6' X 70-80 yards long. I asked and discovered they are filled with dried, shelled corn. Evidently they auger the grain into the "tubes" and vacuum it out somehow. I guess the plastic must be pretty resistant to UV rays. Not sure how long they actually leave them out in the storage yards like that. I also would worry about flooding in the low areas but I guess the storage yards are traditionally above the high water marks.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

sandhills

Hi WV, around here they use those bags quite a bit, I used to work for a dairy that put a lot of their first cutting alfalfa in them.  Going in was easy, getting it back out was not much fun but it'd be green and juicy as the minute you dropped the hay, as far as grain goes I'd want it to be plenty dry or the opposite, they pack it in air tight so you're either keeping good dry grain good or putting wet grain in for making silage so to speak.  The machine blows the bags full (looks like a 2 stage snowblower basically) and will actually push the wagon, truck, or semi trailer along as they're emptying ahead of the bag as it fills (think sausage stuffer).  Worst part about them is all the cut off plastic you get to deal with as you empty the bags.

landscraper

They use those storage bags here for high moisture hay and silage also, never seen them put shelled corn in one but you never know. 

VA definitely flattens out from West to East but most dramatically once you cross the fall line, which if you took I-64E would be about Richmond.
Firewood is energy independence on a personal scale.

killamplanes

On good yielding corn years here its fairly common to see them used. They are the first to be drained due to the vandalism. A vandal or someone can easily take a pocket knife to them and it's a real mess.
jd440 skidder, western star w/grapple,tk B-20 hyd, electric, stihl660,and 2X661. and other support Equipment, pallet manufacturing line

Don P

There are still some remnants of canals that would get you around the falls on the James in Richmond, surveyed from there up and over the mountains by George Washington. Raleigh is also on the fall line, Falls of the Neuse is nearby, and then Great Falls of the Potomac at DC. When I was younger we would scoot down to the piedmont and coastal plain in the winter and plant trees.

WV Sawmiller

   Maybe I had always visited my friends there in the Spring or Summer before and the terrain differences were just more apparent this time of the years with more leaves off the trees. Also since getting the mill I look at trees differently than before they were potential lumber.

   I grew up hunting in the swamps in NW Fla including a lot of coon hunting in my late teens. I've taken the scenic route home a few nights (like the night I was following highway sounds straight west a couple hours till the nearly full moon came up straight ahead of me) but the swamps in this region got my attention. I don't know what the local hunters use for landmarks to find their way out. I know for a fact compasses don't work well when they fill up with water after wading a deep slough to reach my dogs and suspect GPS units are similarly negatively affected.

   After seeing these big bags of corn I also bet it sets the local moonshiners to drooling.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

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