Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | May 24, 2002 04:48am | #1

   Steve, how in the world do you find these finds?!?!?!?!?!  I am so envious!

   PS:  take a look at my "Cast Iron...mini-Gloat" post in Tools :-)

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

1. 
   sschefer | May 24, 2002 06:35pm | #3

   Talk about luck... you have a right to gloat !Steve - in Northern California

2. 
   GregB126 | May 24, 2002 06:02am | #2

   Steve,

   I'm curious.  As I am a former farmer and was raised raising walnuts, it has been interesting watching this.  We used to get people dropping by sometimes asking if we ever intended to cut any down, as they were interested in the trunks for furniture and gunstock purposes.  Sacrilegious, to me, the young farmer....  It never happened.  Thinking back on it now, I wonder how good they would have been anyway.  We raised them for production, and on heavy years, would have a bit of breakage.  As our cultural practices were "cutting edge", so to speak, it was pretty common to have advisors from the University of California, Davis down looking around, sometimes conducting field training on such things as pruning and harvesting practices.  Anyway, I discussed the breakage with the profs frequently.  Unlike trees grown in a natural way, ours were irrigated optimally and fertilized every year in order to promote growth as we wanted it and ultimately production.  Our high producing trees were a little weak in some ways.  Their growth, especially when young, was a lot in a given year.  The growth rings must have shown this as very large cell size.  Weakness.

   I am now a little curious how a production orchard will do all slabbed up.  Age and area will tell me something.  Variety should be as easy as a phone call to the past owner or real estate agent.  If its an older variety planted in an area where they've been grown historically for many years, my experience tells me they may not have been managed as aggressively as we did ours.  They could be good.  Also, I'd be interested to know how high above the ground the graft unions are.  Older trees had black walnut root stock go pretty high (approx. 4-5 feet or more in some cases up in northern California).  There could be some useable stuff for small items in that.  Is it really black walnut or hybrid root stock?  Black walnut is far rougher, too rough to even take the paint you frequently see on the trunks.  Is it in "black line country"?  That's a pollen born virus which wreaked havoc in the industry.  Sounds like quite an adventure.  What county are they in?  How far apart are they on center?  What was the irrigation method?  Now I'm getting silly.  This brings back a lot of memories.

   Cheers

   Greg

1. 
   sschefer | May 24, 2002 06:47pm | #4

   Greg, I'll kind of go backwards with the answers if you don't mind.

   The trees are in Lake County.

   They haven't been tended in 10 or more years.

   The graft line is lower than I expected, about 3 ft from terafirma, 4 ft from the crotch. I split the difference between the graft line and the crotch for the circumference measurements.

   The trees are orchard trees for sure and in as much growth rate was likely enhanced.

   I have an Arborist checking the trees this weekend. He will be taking down one of the trees to identify the species, growth properties, value for milling, etc. This is his specialty. We will be insuring the wood against damage by mills, sawyers, shipping, etc., and the insurance company wants an appraisal. If it turns out not to be worth poop, then we'll turn it into firewood. Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   forestgirl | May 24, 2002 07:23pm | #5

   Curious here -- how do you find the appropriate insurance company to insure raw trees?  Not had an occasion to look for that particular specialty.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

1. 
   sschefer | May 24, 2002 07:43pm | #6

   I work for CGI consulting at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. I just get up out of my chair, walk 30 feet and ask... I know pretty smart butt response.... but its true, its true, its really true. Its just like insuring a wedding or concert or something of that sort.Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   GregB126 | May 31, 2002 10:12am | #8

   Hi Steve.

   Just wondering what the arborist may have said about the walnuts.  Anything new?

   Greg

2. 
   sschefer | May 31, 2002 05:55pm | #9

   Nothing new yet, I might hear something this weekend.

   Steve - in Northern California

   Edited 5/31/2002 11:08:18 AM ET by Steve Schefer

3. 
   forestgirl | May 31, 2002 07:26pm | #10

   OK, since there's a pause waiting for the news, I'll tell a story here :-)

   2 or 3 years ago, I met a very talented woodworker at the big Gift Show (for wholesalers) in Seattle.  He lives in the far right hand-corner of our left-hand-corner state.  He had some drop-dead-gorgeous demo pieces in his booth, and we struck up a conversation.

   Seems several years ago he met a lady who wanted one of his (expensive) rockers.  Turns out she had a huge, giant stack of walnut from a tree that had grown on here family's land for several generations.  For whatever reason, the tree had had to come down, it was slabbed for lumber and stacked.  She kept taking care of it (I think she may have even moved it once or twice). 

   At any rate, he worked out some trades with her, and now he has a huge stack of wonderful walnut to work with!

   She should get some kind of award!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

4. 
   sschefer | May 31, 2002 07:33pm | #11

   So,,,, how many times did you move it.. LOL...Steve - in Northern California

5. 
   forestgirl | May 31, 2002 08:09pm | #12

   ROFL!! Tears, tears!  In my dreams!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

2. 
   GregB126 | May 27, 2002 09:49am | #7

   Steve,

   The location is kind of what I thought.  That is probably a good thing, as the farming of walnuts wasn't as aggressive there as in some other areas.  Low acreage is also a good sign.  Anything tending toward a more natural and less "forced" growth history, if that makes any sense.  I am curious to know how specific an arborist can go in terms of identifying the variety.  All of the so called English walnuts will be juglans regia, I think.  Is that right, Jon?  The variety could be any number of others.  For example, we had Serr (a U.C.-developed variety with a fairly high meat to overall weight percentage), with a row of Tehamas at certain intervals to serve as polinizers for the Serrs, and finally a few Amigos in the Tehama rows to help polinize the Tehamas.  I could tell the difference between all of these by sight and easily by taste (although I always hated walnuts...).  While the nut quality and other characteristics were dramatically different between these and other varieties, I'd expect the wood to be pretty similar for woodworking purposes.  As for the rootstock, a hobbyist could still have some fun with some of it.  For example, my grandfather (at between 80 and 85 years old) turned several bowls out of the rootstock of some downed trees and had fun with it.  Just playing.  If some of the uppers is bound for firewood, it burns hot and fast.  We used to heat my mother's house for years exclusively on the broken branches from heavy crops.  Boy, I haven't thought about this stuff in years.  You may just have some fun at this.

   Cheers,

   Greg