Acoustic tomography. Ever heard of it? This is a nondestructive imaging technique to determine what’s going on inside a tree. According to “Evaluation of Acoustic Tomography for Tree Decay Detection,” internal decay is an ever-present possibility which seriously compromises lumber production. For every 100 million board feet of timber […]
Here is an intriguing press release I got this week from University of Wisconsin-Madison about a new phone app that should be out soon. This seems like a great idea. One of these days, I’m going to get a smart phone, and apps like these will be a big part […]
Our house will be built of unmilled timbers, which we selected from our woods (see my post How to Peel Trees). Most of them have been peeled and are starting to dry before they will be felled this winter. Some are too tall to peel until they are felled. It’s […]
If you had been in Washington D.C. in the past few weeks, you would have seem some very hopeful houses popping up like mushrooms on the Mall. Unlike mushrooms, these structures thrive on light. Every two years the U.S. Department of Energy hosts a Solar Decathlon where college teams design […]
If you live in deer tick country, tuck your pants in your socks. I just read in my October Arboretum Newsletterthat the deer tick population there is on the increase. Researchers are on the lookout for these little beasties there, and this past summer they found deer ticks in […]
Lake Sturgeon have been around a long, long time. They were swimming in ancient seas while dinosaurs walked the earth. They are tough, crafty and have survived everything that 150 million years can thrown at them — until the 1860s when humans decided their eggs were a prestigious snack. I […]
I’ve been following Mark Bittman, food writer for the NYT for a few years, and I’ve enjoyed watching him continue emphasizing pragmatic, healthy, tasty cooking choices while turning up the gas on the ethical questions that underlie food from you next snack to the profit and loss report to McDonald’s […]
I have ambivalent feelings about biofuels in general. It doesn’t seem like a magic bullet to me, and I read that putting cropland into biofuel production will likely increase hunger in an increasingly hungry world so that a minority can continue tooling about in their fuel-powered lives. So, I read […]
Here is an article I wrote that appeared this week in Isthmus, Madison’s weekly newspaper: A first-of-its-kind study analyzes how much Madison-area gardeners produce and why Surprise, it’s not just about food! Denise Thornton on Thursday 09/15/2011 When Vincent Smith came to Madison to study urban agriculture, he picked fertile […]
“Hey!” we said. (Watch out for brilliant ideas – they always turn out to be a lot of work.) “While Bruce is here excavating for our septic system, let’s ask him to move a few trees planted by the previous owner, and we can make our future garden plot bigger.” […]
Digging in the Driftless 