Approaching from the south on No. 10 Highway, visitors will not feel the park is mountainous. But from the north via No. 10, the highway up the escarpment climbs abruptly, and from the east by No. 19, the road rises through wide turns, with an excellent viewpoint from the top.

Before the region achieved national park status in 1933 it was classed as a forest reserve, and the timber was the source for a thriving logging industry, which continued for some time even after 1933. The relatively flat to rolling top yielded two types of timber — for lumber white spruce, black spruce and jack pine; and for fuel chiefly tamarack, oak and birch.

Many portable mills were established there, as well as some stationary mills. One stationary mill, owned by the Peden brothers, operated on the shores of Whitewater Lake from 1910-38. Alex Kippen also ran mills, both portable and stationary, along what is now No. 10, north of Clear Lake. At the stationary mill, he provided a camp for workers to stay, and produced lumber for relief camps of the 1930s, and for cottages around Clear Lake.

Still another mill was run by Bert Walker and Howard McCracken at Rat Lake, on the southeast side of the reserve, from 1925-38. It employed about 25 men to cut jack pine for railway ties which were hauled out by sled. In 1935, 16,000 ties were hauled out, at the rate of 40 to 50 per sleigh.

The villages of Laurier and McCreary were two northeast centres for the logging. Area farmers used the winter months, when farm work was lighter, to get out fuel and lumber, for their own use and to sell. The Forest Service required them to get permits, stating what type of trees and quantity could be cut. Sometimes, in the case of spruce and jack pine, the rangers marked which trees could be cut.

On the lower slopes were stands of bur oak, often sold to tanneries in Winnipeg for tannic acid. Since the best stands were about 16 km from the towns, it was most efficient to spend several days at a time there. Younger farmers, especially unmarried ones, often did that, while older men hired young men to fill their permits for them. Hay and food supplies would be taken in for the week. The cutting began in late autumn but transporting the wood had to wait until sleigh travel was possible. About two to 2-1/4 cords of wood could be hauled on one load, and several trips were needed to fill a railway car, which held 16 cords.

When the region became protected, sawmills eventually had to move outside the park. The logs were hauled out full length, usually about five metres. Spruce and pine were then taken full length to the sawmills, while tamarack logs were hauled to the bottom of the mountain and cut into cordwood length.

Logging for lumber usually lasted all winter, as conditions permitted, while tamarack cutting was normally done in the spring, once melting snow on the flat land below made hauling longer logs impossible. While snow still lay on the mountain, tamarack logs could be hauled to the bottom and left there until the following winter, when sleighs could be used again.

Bringing five-metre logs down the steep escarpment on the north and east was often a problem. The nightmare of a runaway sleigh was always in a man’s mind, so to slow down sleighs, large chains were placed around runners to act as locks. Also, manure was spread on trails to make them less slippery. In one place, the slope was so steep that a timber chute was used to slide logs to the bottom.

Centres on the south and west sides of the mountain didn’t have an escarpment to deal with. Mills in more distant towns such as Birtle and Minnedosa sometimes had logs floated down to them by river, and shingle mills were popular on the south side of the park for a time.

The next time you take a winter’s drive through RMNP, look around at all the trees, and think back to those times. In summertime, check out the short trail to the remnants of one of Kippen’s Mills, located about 40 km north of Wasagaming.

For more information on Manitoba’s logging history you can download this pdf, The lumber industry in Manitoba, courtesy of the Government of Manitoba.

Donna Gamache writes from MacGregor, Manitoba

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Blayne Wyton does both.

His four-year-old company, Morden-based Prairie Barnwood, does a brisk business handcrafting fine furniture from boards, beans and posts salvaged from old barns in the Pembina Valley.

The idea came to him during a road trip a few years ago as he was admiring the character and patina of wood of old barns, said Wyton, a cabinet maker and refinisher of antique furniture.

“I often make the joke it was sort of like when God told Noah to build the ark,” he said.

He couldn’t wait to get back to Manitoba to find a barn and turn its wood into country-rustic style furniture, he said.

Today, he and six other craftsmen produce dining tables, chairs, beds, living room furniture and accessories, countertops and flooring in a 9,000-square-foot facility on the edge of town. Their products are sold online (www.prairiebarnwood.com) to customers throughout western Canada.

All the wood is salvaged from barns, wooden structures, and dilapidated homesteads landowners agree to have taken down, including one house that yielded some very valuable oak. It is then pressure-washed, treated if required, and sorted by size and grade.

The first was a barn from near Rosengart, an old pitched roofed structure dating back to the 1920s. Some of it became small hall table — and the beginning of much bigger things. So far they’ve taken apart about 25 barns in the Pembina Valley, all found through word of mouth, said Wyton.

Usually some of the building is rotted beyond usability, and more can be destroyed in the deconstruction process, but there’s still plenty of good wood to be had.

“You can typically get anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent usable lumber,” said Wyton.

Owners often view their old building as “a piece of history” and may have an emotional attachment to it, but they often don’t see much value in the wood itself.

That’s where Wyton begs to differ — and has proven with handcrafted furniture appealing to buyers precisely because of the character and patina derived from the wood’s knots, burrs, and nail holes.

“What’s so interesting about barn wood is that the value is actually in the wear, and almost the abuse, that the wood took over the years,” said Wyton. “That’s actually what makes it so beautiful in furniture.”

It’s valuable for another reason — there isn’t much old-growth fir around anymore, said Wyton. The tight grain of old timber makes it quite different from what you find in lumber yards today.

“Nowadays when you look at a board, it’s a wide grain, and it makes the wood softer,” he said.

While barn wood is fairly easy to find right now, Wyton has already noticed a decline in the amount of useable wood.

“We’re definitely pushed by Mother Nature.” he said. “Rot is probably our biggest competitor.”

As well, the inventory of old barns is diminishing as landowners clear homesteads to make fields bigger.

Tommorows heirlooms today

Furniture made by Prairie Barnwood borrows from the designs of William Morris and his Arts and Crafts movement, which Wyton has long admired. It suits reclaimed wood perfectly, he said.

“It blends into a modern home but it has that authentic look with a lot of character to it,” he said.

No two pieces are alike, there’s no assembly line at the company, and the finished products reflect the talents of the craftsmen. Wyton said he doesn’t even like to talk in terms of ‘employees.’

“I like to say we all work together,” he said. “Right now we have six people and myself, and each person basically runs a different department or section of the company.”

Everyone enjoys the craft of creating unique pieces that are essentially “tomorrow’s heirlooms today,” he said.

“There’s an artistic element to this — the thing has been to find the job that fits the person, not the other way around,” he said.

“When people start working in the back, I always ask them, as a piece comes up, ‘Don’t just build a piece of furniture. Build a story. Think of a story. If you build a bench, maybe that bench sat outside a general store in 1910 and there was an old man that sat on it every day.’”

The business also fits in with the modern era. Two years ago it won an award for outstanding contribution to green initiatives and sustainable practices under the Community Led Emissions Reduction Program from the MSTW Planning District (the towns of Morden and Winkler and RMs of Stanley and Thompson).

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He’s now a passionate advocate of both sustainability and repurposed timber, and has made unique furniture and architectural products out of everything from downed elm trees to old grain elevators.

“We’ve got a product that architects are excited about using, and we get to do a lot of very interesting projects,” he said.

This fall, Wood Anchor beat out four other Manitoba companies to win Manitoba Environmental Industries Association’s Green Dragon Lair Award, for the way the business diverts biomass from the landfill. And earlier this month, the province gave it a $25,000 grant from its Waste Reduction and Pollution Prevention Fund, which has awarded $154,793 to 13 projects this year.

“Taking wood destined for the landfill and turning it into beautiful flooring and furniture is an innovative way to recycle,” said Conservation Minister Dave Chomiak.

Wood Anchor will use the money to increase hiring.

The company’s reclaimed wood was featured in several high-profile building projects this year, including the new children’s garden and family centre in Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg. Wood Anchor also provided benches to the new Richardson International Airport.

The company has its workshop and yard at Winnipeg’s Brady Road Landfill because it doesn’t want to inadvertently spread elm bark beetles — which carry fungus that causes Dutch elm disease. The company has a 20-year contract to dispose of all species of trees felled by the city of Winnipeg, but just because someone else does the chopping, it doesn’t mean reclaiming the wood is easy.

“When you’re dealing with elm trees there are nails and metal inside the trees,” said Neufeld. “Some guy 100 years ago put a nail up and the tree grew around it, so you kind of find them by accident at the sawmill.”

All milling is done on site using an outdoor sawmill, equipped with blades with replaceable teeth so each long-lost nail doesn’t result in buying a new $4,000 saw blade.

Once the timber is cut, it is kiln dried.

When it comes to grain elevators, Wood Anchor moves in after a company or farmer has knocked the building over.

“The quality can really vary with the elevators. Some of the old grain elevators, which there aren’t very many of these days, are all fir, a really strong hardwood,” said Neufeld. “The more modern grain elevators — modern meaning the 1950s, ’60s — these are spruce typically, so not as strong.”

The entrepreneur also salvages the floorboards of old boxcars, warehouses, churches and homes.

Prior to Wood Anchor, Neufeld was using reclaimed wood for his custom furnishing business, Further. Founded in 1998, Further specializes in custom millwork and is now supplied by Wood Anchor.

With seven employees on site, the business is working to expand into the biomass field as well, chipping up unused wood for fuel.

“Developing a market for that is a bit tricky right now,” he said.

Low hydro and gas rates are a disincentive for switching to alternative heating fuels, but Neufeld hopes to develop a market for commercial boiler systems, like those used in greenhouses.

The post Shiver me timbers… again appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

I designed this centrepiece for a cowboy-theme Christmas banquet. To keep costs down, I went to our pasture for some small birch trees, and to my garden for wild bittersweet vines and grapevines. Armed with my trusty glue gun, some Christmas corsages from the dollar store and my sister for help, we made 20 table centres.

Materials: Saw

Birch log – long enough to be cut into three pieces measuring 6 inches, 5 inches and 4 inches (other varieties of logs

would work as well) Power drill with a 1-3/4-inch

Forstner bit Approximately 7 fairly straight sticks of various lengths clipped from the branches of a

tree Vines – wild bittersweet and

grapevines work well Small bit of florist’s wire or a large twist-tie Small Christmas items or

corsages

Hot glue gun 3 tea lights

Directions:

Cut the birch log into lengths of 6 inches, 5 inches and 4 inches. Try to cut so the pieces will stand fairly straight. Then, using a 1-3/4-inch Forstner bit in a drill, drill into one end of each log to a depth of 1/2 to 3/4 inches (deep enough to accommodate a tea light). I used a drill press but any drill will work. I was cutting and drilling green wood which is easier to cut. Glue the logs together with hot glue.

Glue the sticks into the spots where the logs join together, with the tallest sticks beside the tallest log and the shortest sticks beside the shortest log.

Take a good length of vine and circle it round and round the logs in a wreath fashion. The vine should be very free form with loops or curlicues to add interest. The wreath should touch the logs in several places so it can be hot glued to the logs. Secure the vine with wire (a flower can cover up the wire later.) Hot glue the vine wreath to the logs in about three places or more so the wreath and logs become one unit that is easy to pick up and move.

Decide which Christmas items look best or disassemble the corsages if using, and hot glue the pieces onto the wreath. Little decorative birds are especially effective, as they can be hot glued onto a vine or branch and they look very natural.

Place the tea lights into the logs, light and enjoy!

Note: If green logs are used, they will be easier to cut and drill, but will leave moisture on a surface. To protect the table, place the centrepieces on a mirror or piece of glass with a paper towel folded up beneath the logs to absorb the moisture. This paper may have to be changed until the logs dry out.

– Blythe Kneeshaw farms in the Carberry area

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But David Pogson and his brother Barry decided to take the cheaper, more labour-intensive – and they would argue – more fun route.

With a homemade sawmill, an apron-winch equipped tractor and a neighbour with a stand of 80-foot hybrid poplars that she wanted gone, the full-time farmers near Mather had all the necessary components for putting together a one-of-a-kind building.

So far, Pogson’s “free cabin” made of dovetailed 8×10 timbers resting on hand-poured concrete footings, and a massive ridge pole timber holding up a roof made of sturdy 4×6 common rafters sheathed with one-inch boards, has cost him about

LOG LORE: David Pogson answers questions from visitors in front of the partially completed workshop that he is building from giant hybrid

poplar trees taken from a nearby shelter belt planted in the late 1960s.

$1,500 in cash out of pocket for the concrete, spikes, Styrofoam insulation and some steel bolts and brackets.

“That’s just a guess,” said Pogson, who also farms 800 acres of grain and 150 cows with his brother. “If you were going to buy it the way it is right now, you’re probably looking at about $25,000.”

That’s because he and his brother and an army of timber-building-course students have spent about 1,000 hours logging the trees from a neighbour’s 40-year-old shelter belt, then hauling them home and sawing them into timbers and boards on his homemade 18-HP bandsaw mill.

Once the windows and doors are in, and the pipes for a heated floor are installed, he estimates the completed building would be worth $75,000 to $80,000. Again, not counting labour, he figures it will cost him about $10,000 to get it completely finished.

Some of the savings will come from his plan to saw oak shingles for the roof on his bandsaw mill instead of buying roofing materials.

The dovetail cuts for the wall logs were done with a chainsaw and a jig on green timbers fresh from the mill about a year ago, with the roof just recently installed. Building with green wood may seem contrary to common sense, but with timber buildings it is the preferred method because the timbers are easier to work with, and when they dry, the fit in the joints actually tightens over time, he said.

“If you put it up green, you won’t have to deal with shrinkage and warpage and you’ll have square logs to work with,” said Pogson.

In the end, the fourth-generation farmers with the lumber milling sideline will have a unique building that will add character to the place for decades – if not centuries – to come.

“Anybody can have a stick frame,” said Pogson with a laugh, referring to the modern practice of building with softwood 2x4s and 2x6s.

“We had the sawmill, we had the trees. We haven’t had to buy a stick of lumber yet.”

Shawn Dias, a woodlot forester with the Manitoba Woodlot Association, suggested the square timber design, and helped with the design and building.

The 20-foot portable sawmill capable of cutting a 27-inch log was built on a frame made from two old harrow bars at a total cost of about $2,500. To buy it new would cost at least $10,000, he said.

“Dad always wanted a sawmill,” said Pogson, who has a B-class welding ticket. “So, one winter, my brother and I just decided to build one.”

daniel.winters@fbcpublishing.com

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Sprout damage is a grading factor in Canadian wheat. When kernels begin to sprout, they release an enzyme that breaks down the starch in wheat kernels, damaging its milling quality and changing how it performs in processing.

Canadian grain grade standards are based on scientific research. Sometimes, based on results of scientific research conducted at the CGC, changes are made to grade standards. Under its mandate the CGC establishes, reviews and updates grain grade standards. The CGC supports improvements to grading standards and methods used to assess grading factors as long as these improvements are achievable and appropriate for the Canadian grain industry.

The grain industry has asked for an objective, efficient way to measure sprout damage on-site at primary, transfer and terminal elevators in order to help maintain the accuracy of the Canadian grading system. The CGC is open to exploring alternative methods as part of its mandate to establish, maintain and update grain grades.

VISUAL ASSESSMENT

Currently, CGC inspectors assess sprout damage visually. That is, they look at wheat samples and visually determine how many kernels appear to be sprout damaged. According to the CGC’s Official Grain Grading Guide, kernels are sprouted if one of the following conditions exists:

Kernels show clear evidence of growth in the germ area.

The bran is noticeably split over the germ from apparent growth.

The germ is missing and there is apparent greyish discolouration normally attributable to sprouting.

The germ, though intact, appears distinctly swollen as a result of sprouting activity.

Visual assessment is an effective method for determining sprout damage in wheat, particularly in elevator and port settings. However, it can be time consuming for an inspector to find all of the sprout-damaged kernels in a sample. As well, it does not offer an accurate picture of the level of enzyme activity in the sample.

Many customers of Canadian wheat understand sprout damage through a measurement called falling number and may ask for the falling number value of the Canadian wheat they buy.

FALLING NUMBER

Falling number refers to the amount of time in seconds it takes for a stirrer on an instrument to fall through a slurry of ground wheat. A higher falling number indicates that there is not much sprout damage. Falling number is used only for analytical purposes and represents a measurement of enzyme levels. Falling number is not a grading factor at this time and it cannot be used to replace any grading factor other than sprout damage.

Currently, falling number is usually measured using the Hagberg test method. This method is an objective method, but it can only be performed easily in a laboratory setting, making it logistically inappropriate for use on-site at primary, transfer and terminal elevators.

RVA TECHNOLOGY

The CGC and other industry partners are actively collaborating on research looking at using Rapid Visco Analysis (RVA) technology to determine falling number in Canadian wheat. The goal of the research is to decide if it would be appropriate to use RVA testing at primary elevators.

Like the Hagberg test, RVA testing is an objective method to assess sprout damage. The equipment has been designed to be easy to use and it may be possible to use it outside of a laboratory. As well, the RVA test can be performed in approximately half the time of the Hagberg falling number test, an important consideration in high-throughput conditions.

While results of this research have been promising, the CGC has not made a final decision about the use of this technology. The CGC will not move ahead with this technology until sound science supports it.

At this time, there is no plan to use falling number as a grading factor. Visual assessment of sprout damage will continue to be the standard practice. Research into the use of RVA technology continues and any change made to how the industry currently tests falling number will only be adopted if it is cost effective, feasible and based in science.

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