What is that thing??

This is a fairly common sight where we live:

But this one has generated a lot of questions.

Most people are familiar with drying clothes using the sun and warm air moving.  But you can also dry lumber using the same principles.  This small building is our solar kiln, for drying lumber.  All the glass is south facing to collect heat from the sun.  It is painted black for the same reason.  It was designed by the Wood Technologies department at Virginia Tech, and we attended a short class there on the subject (which was great and we recommend it to anyone interested not just in kilns but wood/woodworking in general).   The solar panel on the left runs two 12 volt attic exhaust fans that circulate the warm air.  We can dry 1200 board feet of lumber in about 5 weeks, give or take.  This wood will be ready for cabinet-grade work, about 8% moisture content.

So why is this important?  Commercially dried lumber uses huge amounts of energy in the drying process.  In fact, 80% of the embodied energy in the average piece of lumber bought at a lumber yard is in the drying.  Also, most commercially available wood travels a long way to get to your local home improvement store.  Oftentimes, this is literally half-way around the world.  We live in an area with wonderful wood available, but it can't be used for interior work without being dried first (or finished products will shrink and warp when brought into climate-controlled space). 

Having the ability to dry lumber has allowed us to custom cut trees for people with the portable sawmill, dry it and build cabinets, trim, mantles, furniture, etc, often with trees from their own property.  These trees frequently become waste at a job site so this is an added benefit.  In addition, we are able to use tree species that are normally quite expensive to buy but are common in our forests such as black walnut, figured maple, cherry, quarter-sawn oak, etc. 

If you are interested, there are more pictures on the Flickr page. 

cool cabinets

We have been lucky enough during this blustery weather to be building some cabinets in the shop.  The wood for the cabinet fronts came from trees on the homeowner's property that needed to be removed for construction.  This type of "waste" is generally burned or buried on-site.  We took the trees back to the shop, cut them into lumber with the sawmill and dried the boards in the solar kiln.  The cabinets are almost done...

 These doors are oak, and the darker strips are black walnut.  They look great.

This is the sunny room of the barn, supposedly dedicated to starting seeds and growing plants for the garden...right now just growing cabinets.

Before and After

While not the bulk of our business, we do some remodels, like the kitchen below: 

We kept the existing boxes/frames for the cabinets and painted them, made new maple doors and drawer fronts, and replaced the countertops with concrete ones, plus a concrete and recycled glass backsplash behind the stove.  The maple was from a tree that we cut, milled and dried in the kiln.  We built the doors and cabinets in our shop.  It was a relatively low-impact and low-cost facelift for a typical older kitchen. 

local birds

In an effort to be more sustainable and self-sufficient as a family, we grow a big garden and hunt for our meat.  However, we have always drawn a line when it came to domestic livestock. 

But we've been chicken-sitting.  And these four girls (and their eggs) are changing our minds.  They are portable, traveling in their own chicken tractor.  Our thinking with the portability is that we could drop them off with some other willing chicken-sitter when we go to the beach.  They are fun too, and great for the kids to pretend that they live in the Little House on the Prairie.  I guess we'll see what spring brings...

reduce, reuse, recycle

So we had this old cracked kayak that we just couldn't leave at the dumpster.  Seemed like something good could be made out of it, or we could fix it, or, or, or...

A snowy day in North Carolina, three kids and only one sled.  Enter the kayak:

Josh cut it in half, opened up the top, added backs and we had two more sleds!  And they were really fast.

some pictures

If I manage to do this correctly, you will be able to see some pictures of cabins Barred Owl Builders have completed in the last couple of years.  Keep your fingers crossed.

www.flickr.com/barredowlbuilders

Getting Started

We are just getting this blog started.  We are hoping it will allow people to see Josh's work and also give Josh an opportunity to share new discoveries and current interests.  Please be patient as we figure out the blog world and get pictures loaded.  Check back soon for more!