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).

The post Buildings tomorrow’s heirlooms — with yesterday’s wood appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Short-term contracts for four forestry technicians based in communities in the southern part of the province were allowed to expire in March, and grants for logging based on beneficial management practices will no longer be offered.

A provincial spokesperson confirmed the Manitoba Agro Woodlot Program is now being delivered by GO teams across the province.

The long-term costs will be much higher than the short-term savings, said Allan Webb, secretary treasurer of the Manitoba Woodlot Association, because the program helped farmers and landowners capitalize on the formerly overlooked economic value of well-managed forests.

“I was very disappointed, but I wasn’t terribly surprised because natural resource management isn’t a priority in this province,” said Webb.

The Agro Woodlot Program staff were doing “really good stuff that nobody else was,” he said. That included training people how to operate chainsaws safely, how to estimate the value of standing timber, and providing advice and sample contracts for landowners dealing with private loggers, he said.

It’s doubtful that GO team staff, who probably aren’t familiar with the intricacies of forestry, will be able to provide meaningful hands-on assistance, he added.

Webb also questioned the wisdom of shutting down a one-of-a-kind program aimed at turning a neglected and often wasted resource into hard cash and jobs for people in rural areas. Less assistance for people wanting to start up small-scale sawmill operations will likely result in more finished products being imported from Ontario or the U.S., he said.

“A lot of landowners didn’t realize that they had a valuable resource,” said Webb, who predicted the result will likely mean more potentially valuable bush pushed into ugly piles and burned.

How valuable is the resource?

A March presentation by Agro Woodlot staff pegged the value of firewood at $150 to $275 per cord, and kiln-dried burr oak at $3.20 per lineal foot.

For example, four cords of ash or oak saw logs are worth $400 to $600, or $100 in stumpage fees for the landowner. If turned into rough cut lumber, that same four cords could fetch $3,000, or $7,000 if turned into tongue-and-groove flooring. If an ambitious sawyer were to install, sand and stain that same four cords of sawlogs, it would be worth $14,000, they said.

The post Province bulldozes Agro Woodlot Program appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Debbie Pankewich has come a long way since she walked the decks of ships at Thunder Bay and sampled outgoing grain cargoes by hand.

Hired in 1979 by the Canadian Grain Commission to work in the weighing program, by 1982 she was one of a small group of female “pioneers” working in the inspection program. Traditionally, both disciplines had been a man’s domain — and Pankewich knew she was on ground-breaking territory.

“The microscope was on you and you had to prove yourself to other staff and to management,” she said. “For me, it was a motivating factor.”

Over the next 30 years, that motivation took her up the corporate ladder, first in Thunder Bay, then on to Winnipeg where she eventually established the national monitoring program that reviews the work of grain inspectors across the country.

When Pankewich moved on to Montreal, and then to Vancouver as manager of inspection services for the eastern and western regions respectively, it was fitting that her replacement was also a woman whose early days included hand-sampling in the inspection program before working her way up. Laurie Campbell was the first female grain inspector on the Prairies.

“I was a rarity in what some might consider a man’s world — I was in the last part of an era,” Campbell said. “It was tough walking into an elevator, but once they learned I was a farmer myself, it was much easier.”

Initially hired in 1986, by 1998 Campbell had become manager of Inspection Services for the prairie region, and in 2009, when the region was amalgamated into what is currently the central and western regions, she moved into her present position as manager of the national monitoring program.

She is adamant about the importance of inspection and grading, and the way they are done.

“You either have an aptitude for it or you don’t,” she said. “But you also have to develop a very unique skill set that needs to be constantly honed, to be sure you stay sharp.

“You look at a kernel of wheat and you have be able to distinguish between degree of damage and the direct correlation to qualities for milling and baking. Because of Canada’s reputation for producing top quality, we can export grain to customers based on a simple document attesting to this quality — something that a lot of countries currently can’t do.”

The inspection process starts when automatic grain-sampling systems take representative samples from each rail car going into a given port. Samples are first cleaned to assess dockage, and preliminarily inspected for moisture and protein. Then a grain inspector visually assesses and assigns the sample a grade which forms the basis of payment to the producer. Grain is exported using a similar process, and all information is stored electronically.

Gone are the days of inland (primary) elevator inspection on grain destined to port — and in the very early days, of breaking the seal on rail cars, climbing in overtop the grain, and thrusting a probe down to acquire samples. Gone, too, are the days of hand-sampling aboard ships.

According to Pankewich, not just the physical work of the job, but also the health and safety regulations have evolved. Back in her day, she said, “only the fittest would survive.” Many moved on.

She stayed, and today she manages an inspection program with over 175 employees who grade all grain moving in and out of west cost port facilities, and at service centres in Calgary and Saskatoon where farmers can bring or send samples for personalized grading at a nominal cost.

Campbell, meanwhile, runs the lab that checks the work of these and all other CGC grain inspectors from across Canada. She and her staff select graded samples from approximately three per cent of all railcars that go into ports, and a larger percentage from export cargoes, reviewing the grading that has been done in order to make certain current grain standards and guides have been met.

This process helps ensure that grain is consistently graded the same way, regardless of where across Canada it is being done, and also helps identify any training needs that may be required by inspectors, Campbell said.

“The process is not to point fingers, but to ensure our inspectors have the training and skill they need in order to provide consistent grading and analysis,” she said.

To maintain consistency in the lab, equipment is precision-checked each day before use — including the machine that exactingly divides down all components of samples, the screens used to separate dockage, the protein testers and the moisture meters. Precision scales are calibrate every day, and even the grading lights have an expiry date because they affect how the grain will be seen.

Despite her obvious passion for her job, there is a downside, said Campbell — and it’s that she no longer deals directly with producers.

“I really miss having that face-to-face contact and assisting them in understanding the grading system,” she said.

Campbell is still farming herself near Teulon, Manitoba, and said she is grateful to the CGC for allowing her to work her vacation schedule around her farm work.

Pankewich, too, is appreciative of the opportunities afforded her by the CGC. During her various capacities, she has travelled domestically and internationally to promote the quality assurance programs that make Canadian grains so reputable worldwide.

“The CGC has allowed for growth, development and movement,” she said. “I’ve loved the opportunities and the challenges — and I’ve taken them and ran with them.”

The post Breaking into grain inspection was tough, but the rewards were worth it appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) researchers recently demonstrated the “BioBaler,” a patented juvenile-hardwood baling system developed originally by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in collaboration with the CWFC and Laval University in Quebec City.

The system requires no additional special equipment and the BioBaler can be pulled by a standard 200-horsepower tractor to produce wood-fibre round bales, weighing between 250 and 400 kilograms, that are similar in appearance to straw ones.

The BioBaler, which is now being manufactured commercially by Quebec company Anderson Group Inc., is suited for stands containing fibre with stems no larger than 10 to 12 centimetres thick. The round bales can then be loaded onto a flatbed truck for transport, just like straw or hay bales, or stored on site to dry even when exposed to the elements.

“That’s what we think is key to using this technology,” says Tim Keddy, CWFC’s wood-fibre development specialist.

“Outside of the baler itself, there’s no new infrastructure needed for a farmer or forestry business to run this operation and it gives farmers use of their equipment at different times of the year when it would be sitting idle.”

Creating this sort of value-added biomass product is important to forestry companies, which increasingly rely on green fuel or creating raw material for production of bioproducts in their business model.

According to Anderson Group, each bale contains about one megawatt per hour of energy, depending on the type of vegetation. The BioBaler can produce up to 40 bales per hour on plantations and 15 to 18 bales per hour in natural environments. It can handle different species of shrubs and trees and be transported from one field to another without special regulations.

The bales can be stacked on a conventional 53-foot-long trailer, with about 40 bales per load, handled with standard equipment at the receiving site, and because of their dimensions, easily stored in the field or at a power plant site. They also dry naturally, which is important for energy production. It takes about eight weeks of warm weather post-harvest to decrease moisture content from 50 to 55 per cent to between 20 and 25 per cent.

The BioBaler is versatile, and able to produce bales from natural forests, under power lines, and in short-rotation wood crops.

Power for the grid

Alberta Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac), a large pulp producer in Athabasca, has asked CWFC to use the BioBaler as part of a study to identify possible options for acquiring an additional 50,000 green tonnes annually of biomass from existing regenerating managed aspen stands. The company already uses 500,000 green tonnes in its boiler, with about 75 per cent coming from wood residues collected from its woodyard. The biomass fuel is used to generate power for the pulp mill, as well as for the provincial grid. Upgrades made to the Al-Pac boiler will require an additional 50,000 green tonnes of biomass to be consumed annually.

CWFC is harvesting fibre from managed stands ranging from less than 15,000 stems per hectare, between 15,000 and 25,000 stems per hectare, and more than 25,000 stems per hectare to evaluate the most economical sites and harvesting methods. The sites were harvested last winter and the bales hauled to the pulp mill. Post-harvest assessment has been completed and researchers are now conducting long-term regeneration assessments on the harvested sites. CWFC will present its findings to Al-Pac this fall.

Keddy says the centre has been evaluating a variety of methods to economically harvest juvenile hardwood stands located near forestry operations for nearly a decade. Researchers have also been studying options for harvesting biomass from power line and pipeline easements where, at present, much of the vegetation is simply mulched on site.

Private landowners currently supplying Al-Pac with a portion of their wood supply could also substantially benefit. At present, they are growing aspen trees for pulp, which take about 80 years to grow. However, after that crop is harvested, they could choose to bale the regeneration and produce another cash crop from the site on a much more frequent harvesting cycle.

As part of its study for Al-Pac, researchers are evaluating the economics of different removal rates. A control site of no removal is being compared to sites with 50 per cent and 100 per cent removal rates, comparing regeneration, post-harvest growth, and total volume per site.

The estimated cost of the machine is between $140,000 and $150,000. For more information on CWFC research related to woody biomass harvesting of juvenile hardwoods from managed stands in the Boreal Plains region and the BioBaler, contact Tim Keddy at (780) 435-7212 or tkeddy@NRCan.gc.ca, or Derek Sidders at (780) 435-7355 or dsidders@nrcan.gc.ca.

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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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Out of the seven-acre plot from which they are doing a managed harvest, they have already removed 30 cords of firewood in the form of crooked, dead, over-mature or otherwise undesirable trees as part of the timber stand improvement project’s first year.

Currently in year two, the Manitoba Agro Woodlot Program’s Best Management Practices or BMP harvest-incentive program is aimed at helping woodlot owners and loggers develop the skills necessary to develop a local, self-sustaining microforestry industry, said Shawn Dias, a woodlot forester and MAFRI business development specialist.

As part of the tour of a woodlot north of Mather last week, Dias showed how two seven-acre parcels of river bottom, hardwood forest could be managed to improve the yield and quality of timber harvested, as well as improving the stand’s value as wildlife habitat.

WORST FIRST

In January of last year, Dias and the Pogsons selectively cut in the first block; the second block has been flagged but not cut. Doing the work in winter with plenty of snowpack over frozen ground prevents damage and compaction to the forest floor. A 100-foot cable winch on the tractor helps them get the logs out using only narrow access trails.

The timber stand improvement harvest strategy is the opposite of the way logging is typically done. Instead of “high-grading,” which means cutting only the best and leaving the rest, the BMPs call for a “worst-first” strategy.

“The selection criteria is anything dead, diseased or dying,” said Dias, adding that it may also include thinning of trees that are growing too close together for optimal growth.

“There’s a misconception that doing nothing is the best thing to do. But what we’ve found is that in certain circumstances, doing nothing is actually doing a disservice to your bush because your stand is slowly degrading.”

The first phase of the program generally involves mostly pulling firewood out, with the occasional good-quality saw log. In the years that follow, better logs might be taken.

To be eligible for the BMP harvest program, the woodlot must be a good-quality hardwood stand in a river valley setting. Those doing the logging – often the landowner and the logger is the same person – must have taken a chainsaw safety course and a two-day, low-impact logging course.

In return for a one-year commitment, the landowner gets an improved seven-acre timber stand and the logs harvested.

PROGRAM EXPANDING

Compensation, a one-time payment of $390 per acre, is aimed at paying the logger for their time and effort. But the landowner must also contribute 25 per cent in cash or in kind, generally a share of the logs or firewood. Some landowner-loggers have used the cash to invest in equipment such as winches or grapple forwarders, he noted.

This year, the program has enough funding from the province’s climate change action plan to cover 57 acres of managed woodlots, expanding to 72 acres next year.

The Pogsons have been using the wood from the BMP block to heat their own buildings. But if they chose to sell it, prices generally rise and fall with the cost of heating oil.

Currently, oak firewood currently sells for over $200 per cord, while poplar brings as much as $180 per cord in Winnipeg.

For the Pogsons, fourth-generation farmers, using the bush as a source of income has a long tradition. Back in the days before green treated fence posts were available, Pogson’s grandfather cut and sold oak posts for fencing out of that same bush.

OLD TRADITION REVIVED

One winter during the Depression, he cut 10,000 posts and sold them to farmers living in the virtually treeless areas further south from the forested area near Rock Lake.

“That’s how he fed his family in the ’30s,” said Pogson. “Times were tough. And he didn’t have a chainsaw.”

The effect of his grandfather’s selective cutting of fence post-sized trees can still be seen, even some 80 years later by the absence of trees of a certain size.

“With Shawn and the Woodlot Association’s help, I’m hoping it will be an even better bush.”

MAFRI business development specialist Shane Tornblom said that although the culture of woodlot management historically never made it further west than Ontario, the program aims to change that for the benefit of farmers and rural communities.

“We’re not trying to tie this in with traditional industrial forestry. We’re trying to make this as close to the farm and rural communities as possible with the potential for producing high-quality products that they could sell into the urban market.”

The post Money Grows On Trees appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Bravely crossing the ocean Looking for a better life You came

To a land of bush and harsh climate

To back-breaking work of clearing the land and settling On ten-dollar homesteads.

Every task to be done by hand

With saw and axe you carved a place in the wilderness Hewing trees, extracting roots, picking rocks While scorching sun beat down Mosquitoes and black flies swarmed Muscles ached, joints protested

Husband and wife together working side by side Grateful for so much land

For a country that offered a new life and opportunity For freedom to worship God and build a home.

You became self-sufficient and prosperous Proud of this Canada, spacious, glorious and free

A country enriched by these hardy souls who made Canada their own Today their legacy remains

In the names of towns, cities and landmarks In the prosperity of this nation

In the descendants who proudly remember Canada’s past and the role of the pioneer.

The post Canadian Pioneers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“It’s like money in the bank. Once these trees are free of competition they have more available light, more available water, more available nutrients. “

– Shawn Dias

Dave Pogson’s grandfather helped feed his family during the Dirty Thirties selling oak fence posts he felled with an axe in his bush south of Rock Lake.

Some 70 or so years later Dave and his brother Barry are preparing to harvest oak and ash from that same woodlot, which they also use to pasture cattle. But unlike their grandfather the Pogsons will harvest trees with the aid of chainsaws and a tractor.

And instead of fence posts, the brothers will use their homemade sawmill to make lumber they can use themselves and sell. Perhaps one-third to half of the timber they pull out will go for firewood. That’s because the emphasis is on rejuvenating their woodlot – removing dead and dying trees as well as those that will never make good lumber. By doing so they’ll reduce the competition for sunlight and nutrients for the remaining trees.

“It’s like money in the bank,” says Shawn Dias, a woodlot forester with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) based in Somerset.

“Once these trees are free of competition they have more available light, more available water, more available nutrients. That will put on more diameter growth over time versus if there was nothing done.”

The Pogsons built their own sawmill, powered with an 18-horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine, five or six years ago and they’ve been refining it ever since. Dave says they sell their lumber to local crafters and use it themselves. They might even make flooring and cupboards.

The part of the woodlot visited by participants in the low-impact logging workshop here Nov. 4 is mainly forested with oak and ash, with a lot of hazel underbrush. Although it’s also used as cattle pasture one wouldn’t know it; there are no signs of worn cattle paths or even old cow pies. Dave credits “holistic management” that he and Barry have adopted. Their cattle graze the area for five days. The pasture has 60 to 65 days without grazing to recover. The result is the Pogsons have a sustainable pasture and woodlot. Overgrazing reduces grass production and kills trees.

The woodlot has several “steps” of relatively flat land connected by steep slopes. Workshop participants walked the area scouting out a skidding trail designed to be efficient but also minimize damage to the terrain and remaining trees. Dragging trees up a steep slope can gouge the land making it vulnerable to severe erosion. Moreover, any soil washed away from this woodlot could end up in nearby Rock Lake, reducing its water quality.

Before harvesting begins, the logger needs a plan, says Ken Lallemont, a game of logging instructor from Catawba, Wisconsin. In addition to marking a skidding trail, the logger needs to know if they have the necessary equipment to get the logs out of the bush.

MAFRI has a program to assist woodlot owners to replant, but since the Pogsons have such a large woodlot and pasture it, they’re better off to focus on natural regeneration, says St. Pierre Jolys-based MAFRI woodlot forester Ian Kirby.

“There are thousands and thousands and thousands of acorns here waiting to get a shot at life, we’ve just got to give them the opportunity,” he says.

Coincidentally, dragging logs across the ground assists the process by scarifying the acorns, making them more likely to grow. allan@fbcpublishing.com

The post The Pogson brothers are harvesting trees from the same bush as their grandfather Third generation earns money from woodlot appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.