Today we went to get a few birch logs and scout for bark. The season for peeling winter bark is upon us but the temps reached near 80f today. That's a little too hot as the leaves are not even fully opened. This is the fire season here in the north. The sun really bears down until the leaves fully open. We found a wind fall that was still growing as well as a few other pieces from some logging last fall. The beauty is that the wind fall was perfect for harvesting tubes from, still growing. This happens when the sap saturates the wood and is between the inner bark and first wood layer. In fact it's dripping wet with sap. This is only possible for a few short weeks depending on the season. This year I bet the window will be shorter than that. I will use these to make watertight canister with. If you are interested check out Vladimir Yarish's book here. You may remember I wrote a little bit on him and his class I attended last spring. If not check that out

here. We also got a bit of good weaving bark from a few of the trees and spoon wood as well. Watertight canisters! The is always something to do or think about.