Life on the Farm

[chamookman]

Way Cool ! That's a project that I've always wanted to do, but guess will never get at. Love Canoeing, have a 12' Sports Pal Solo.  Bob.

[GlisGlis]

Birch bark canoe is an awesome project! Wanna see that !
I bet you'll need alot of spruce roots and tar to seal all the holes and sewings!
I also imagine that it will be very difficult to find the right balance between strength and lightness

here is an interesting page on building birchbark canoes (you may already know it).

[bjrogg]

Way Cool ! That's a project that I've always wanted to do, but guess will never get at. Love Canoeing, have a 12' Sports Pal Solo.  Bob.

I really think it’s cool how they are built. And they look amazing and function well.

I hope I have enough time left to get it finished and take a few good friends out in it.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Birch bark canoe is an awesome project! Wanna see that !
I bet you'll need alot of spruce roots and tar to seal all the holes and sewings!
I also imagine that it will be very difficult to find the right balance between strength and lightness

here is an interesting page on building birchbark canoes (you may already know it).

Yes it’s probably going to take me longer than I’d like to collect all my materials and I’m know I’m going to need a lot more roots, but I’m hoping I get to hang around long enough to use this canoe.

I’ve seen the link you posted. Watched a bunch of YouTube tutorials and I love how they are built. I guess that’s the biggest reason I want to try. I will definitely try to post my progress but it’s probably going to be in spurts and I don’t think I will finish this summer. Maybe I’m underestimating myself though, but probably not.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Well I haven’t had any time to work on my canoe. I guess that’s a good thing. The rain quit long enough for us to get caught up with the sprayer and then plant our edible beans. It was quite the endurance test. We got a lot done in the past week and a half. Now hopefully everything comes up good and grows good.

Supposed to rain this afternoon and every day for the rest of the week. Maybe I can work on my canoe again.

Not a lot of pictures but a few.

Bjrogg

PS one of my cousins stopped by and road in my planter tractor with me for a few hours. He really enjoyed it and was blow away by all the technology. After he left he asked if he could go to our beach. I told him yes but he had to send me a picture . Here’s a selfie of my cousin on the beach and me scratching seed to finish planting my Pinto beans.

[bjrogg]

Then a few pictures from my planter tractor. Sorry nothing fancy.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Could have used a canoe yesterday afternoon. We had a storm come through. It rained over three inches in just a few minutes. The water literally couldn’t get out of the fields fast enough.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

By this morning stuff looked much better. We are flat landers, but actually we have a lot of “fall” (grade) to the lake. The water came very quickly. It didn’t leave quite as quickly but it ran off fast enough that it didn’t soak in as much as a day long 3” rain.

It’s never good to get 3” of rain on beans you just planted, but all of our beans were at least sprouted. That is very important.

The ponding didn’t last for days.

The first beans we planted were starting to heave the ground.

Hopefully they all make it and grow good.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

We have had a few of them kind of rains lately, never good except for filling the pond. To bad we can't spread the rain we get in the spring over the whole summer, that would be great.My ground is mostly red clay/rock and hilly so it goes away pretty quick. 
 Pappy

[GlisGlis]

Bj in my limited experience (only made some birch bark boxes) I've experienced very different types of birch bark qualities and reactions while collecting.
It's likely a lack of technique on my part but i suggest you to start making some test in collecting and preserving the bark

[bjrogg]

Yup to much or not enough pappy.

GlisGlis I plan on doing some testing and experimenting. Heck I didn’t even say what size canoe yet. Eventually I want a two seater though.

I did get some more done.

Boiled my roots. Cleaned off the bark and split them

Bjrogg

PS does anyone know. Do I have to keep them in water?

[GlisGlis]

PS does anyone know. Do I have to keep them in water?

I do not have experience with spruce root but many weaving material are stored dry while coiled and soaked in water just before use.
guessing by the diameter of the roots I'd say a couple hours in water before use should work

[bjrogg]

PS does anyone know. Do I have to keep them in water?

I do not have experience with spruce root but many weaving material are stored dry while coiled and soaked in water just before use.
guessing by the diameter of the roots I'd say a couple hours in water before use should work

Thanks GlisGlis. I have a really good understanding of how this build works, but I have lots of questions pertaining to how best to store and process my materials.

Bjrogg

[Muskyman]

Got curious after reading your post about building a birch bark canoe. Watched a couple videos on building them. Pretty involved but nice looking end result. Always love the look of them. Good luck with your build..I’ll be watching..

[GlisGlis]

there are obvious differences in materials
As an example elm is to be woven while fresh as it would not soak and regain elasticity well
the majority of other materials can be stored dry tough
here is a pictures of strips of brambles i prepared last year waiting to be woven

this site of Acho Dene native crafts tells about spruce roots:" If they are not to be used immediately they are coiled and dried for storage"