Yes sir, I'll be there. PM coming your way.

Yes sir, we met up. It was good to meet Steve.

The sawmills in action were incredible. (completely represented by Wood-Mizer) We were both drooling at the ever growing stacks of red oak boards and beams. I want an LT70 but at $46,682, it's a bit out of my reach. :lol:

Lots of machinery there that would have great to have to raise logs and dig for foundations. We both entered some raffles for a chance at a tractor. Steve can't wait to try out my new tractor when I win it! :D

The renewable energy displays were pretty weakly represented, which was mostly dominated by biodiesel businesses. Many representatives weren't even at their booths on Sunday, to ask questions to. Several wood boiler and furnace manufatures were there again this year, along with corn stoves and an interesting corn fired boiler. It was pretty clear the theme was for crop grown energy, and sadly, solar/wind was only barely represented.

No log kithomes represented. (that's the next show there, coming up on Feb. 3rd) But there was info on Pennsylvania forests, then you had tons of displays on anything even remotely related to farming, and of course more animals than could be counted. Overall, it was worth going out.

We were talking about you Kyle. We thought it surprising you didn't say anything, and figured your free time is pretty well tied up with log peeling. Sorry we missed you.

Hey Kyle,

Sorry you couldn't make it. Rod and I had a good time. We had a chance to see some cool stuff and swap some ideas. Had we not spent so much time a the show it would not have been that much further to go to make it out your way. As it was you weren't feeling your best so it's good we didn't. Nothing like having company when you feel like crap.

As Rod said, there was plenty to look at and yes, more animals than you could shake a stick at. And those wood mills, they made mine look so primitive but hey, work with what you got and for under $1,200 I hope to cut the beams I will need.

Hope you feel better and with the warm up we are having, this weekend should be good for peeling. It has been so warm and wet lately that the guy I am using to cut and drag the majority of my logs up doesn't want to go in there and dig gouges to China. Patience isn't one of my virtues but I guess it is better to wait and do it right.

Have a good one,

Ah man I love the Farm Show. Its suppose to be 40 here Saturday so I was planning on working at the property but I might have to change the plans. I'll drop a line here in the next day or two Rod if I decide to go.

The show runs from Jan. 10th to the 17th. Weather permitting, I'll be out there on Saturday, the 10th. if anyone is looking for me. Please note, show parking has increased to $8, but the show itself is still free.

Rod and I made it to the PA Farm show this past Tuesday. We got going a little after 6:00 AM and stopped for a down home breakfast that hit the spot. There was a lot of great equipment but the Wood Mizer mills, and I am sure Rod will agree got our hearts pumping. Now they have a remote control that allows the operator to stand back and literally make dimensional lumber like there is no tomorrow. I/we came away with a few ideas for modifications I can make to my home built chain saw mill that will come in handy for the beams I will be milling.

There were plenty of critters to check out; plenty of pigs, chickens, goats, ducks, sheep, geese, alpaca, turkeys, horses and cows. There was also a massive bison, a beautiful prize bull and of all things…..a gateway cow. (You’ll have to ask Rod about that one.) He will never believe another word I speak.

In the large arena we got a kick out of the draft horse event. It is amazing how these horses literally hunker down and dig in to pull a weighted sled that can be loaded to nearly 10,000 pounds. The horse drawn carriage races were cool as well.

Another highlight was an actual functional display for brewing your own bio fuel. This is something I really want to try out. Now they have a distillation process that can recover methane from the glycerin which is a waste product from the bio fuel process. After the methane has been recovered from the glycerin, the methane can be reused and the glycerin is no longer a hazardous waste. It can be land applied without negative environmental impact.

Yes, Hud-son makes some nice, relatively affordable bandmills. If I were buying one, it'd likely be a Hud-son or a Norwood.

I want to touch on Steve's comment about the biodiesel processor. He mentioned distillation of methane. Actually, he meant to say methanol, one of the two catalyst components required for bio production. It is pretty neat that they figured out how to recover most of the methanol in the glycerin byproduct, since the methanol is probably the most expensive portion of the production process.