http://barkhouse.winkbox.com/index.php/site/index/ en chris@highlandcraftsmen.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-01T22:18:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_july_2008/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_july_2008/#When:22:18:00Z Special Issue Presenting Bark House Style:Sustainable Designs from Nature Take A Peek Inside!! Available in bookstores nationally in Mid August and in the High Country at: Asheville: Accent on Books, B&N, Malaprop’s Bookstore and Cafe Burnsville: Something Special Blowing Rock: Blowing Rock Market, Finely’s House of Antiques, Tucker’s on Main Spruce Pine: Blue Moon Bookstore To add this book to your sales venue, please email: chris@barkhouse.com. Architects and Building Professionals We are offering Learning Units approved by the AIA on The Bark Shingle Movement Interior Designers, we are offering Licensing Agreements in BHbd (Bark House by design)™. Please call us for details. 2008-08-01T22:18:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_june_2008/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_june_2008/#When:17:54:00Z Ask The Experts We invite you to submit an email and have a Highland Craftsmen expert answer your question.  chris@highlandcraftsmen.com Q:  “I understand the advantage of using your pre-fitted or coped moldings for my doors and windows, but how do I deal with crown, base, and chair rail joinery?” JD Hughes, Circa Construction, Georgia A:  The most important thing to remember in dealing with natural moldings is the observation that every running foot can dramatically change in shape, thickness and texture. Inside corners can be nicely mitered by simply matching the two opposing wall section moldings closely in width. Run your first piece squarely into the corner. Scribe the other wall piece and cut with either a jig saw or coping saw depending on material thickness. A side grinder with heavy grit paper or rotary carver works nicely for cleaning up the fit. For outside corners, nice joints are best achieved by turning the corner with a continuous piece that you have “forty-fived” on your miter saw. This ensures that the material appears to flow around the corner. As for perpendicular joints such as a chair rail intersecting with a door or window casing, you may have to run your chair rail through a joiner to ensure its thickness does not exceed the thickness of trim it’s mating into. This prevents it from “over-running” the other piece. Scribe and fit as from the inside corner techniques.  Marty McCurry, “The Bark Man"™ Bark Buddies share the space we live in “Bark Buddies” is a fun way to increase our awareness of the world around us.  Trees, animals, flowers, bugs, weather, people...all share the space we live in.  They fill our lives and make them interesting.  The Bark House® lifestyle invites each of us to breathe in the beauty of our natural world.  I have asked our expert, Marmon Thompson that is in the field everyday to provide a story for us to enjoy each month.  Below are his observations. The Tulip (Tree) Flower The tulip tree, or tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is a member of the magnolia family.  The similarities in their flowers will indicate that, but tulip poplar flower size (2-3 inches in diameter) and location (usually 50 to 100 feet up) make casual comparisons difficult.  In addition, the flower is usually partially green, in beautiful combination with orange and yellow, which camouflages the flower from the occasional viewer.  However, if you’re looking, the flowers generally begin to open in May.  The male parts of the flower, or the stamens, are spirally arranged around the central, cone shaped pistil, or female part of the flower.  The stamens are composed of anthers, or pollen bearing parts, on the end of a filament.  The flowers commonly self-pollinate, but cross-pollinated seed are much larger and healthier.  Each flower is only receptive to pollination for 12 to 24 hours after opening. Bees make good honey from tulip poplar, but much of the pollination, as in others of the magnolia family, is carried out by beetles. In the Fall, the seed pods ripen and can be observed high in the tops after the leaves are discarded. Unless eaten by bireds and squirrels, the winds disperse winged seeds to the forest floor for propagation. Bark House® Moldings integrate in-side and out-side spaces The natural world was perhaps best romanticized by classic writers such as Burroughs and Thoreau.  They understood that something reassuring and peaceful, and yet something deeply stirring occurs when man and nature are joined harmoniously.  Today, artists use numerous mediums to express this timeless truth.  Bark House® Moldings bring the natural world into human living spaces subtly.  They are not overwhelming in size or color, but can convey the same quiet strength and magnitude of being in a forest.  The sun’s rays stream inward through open windows and move across the dappled colors and texture of natural moldings.  The eye moves between inside and outside spaces, craftily unified.  Nature’s glory touches us and leaves us changed forever.  Growing Green how poplar Bark House moldings are green “Greening” is a growing phenomenon.  Every company that enters this process should be able to explain and demonstrate how their company’s practices and their community action is green.  We would like to take the opportunity each month in this newsletter to share one way that we are greening. Natural poplar Bark House® moldings are made from suppressed trees harvested in the deep forest under a dominant canopy.  Under these conditions, a 6” diameter shade intolerant poplar tree will die on its own due to lack of nutrients and sunlight that the dominant canopy retains.  On the contrary, a hickory tree would live much longer in the same setting.  HC procures poplar trees that are between 2” to 6” in diameter. TSI or Timber Stand Improvement removes small trees from the forest stand so that the dominant canopy can thrive.  Methods used include controlled burning, use of herbicides or felling.  HC does not burn or use herbicides but instead has vendors who cut the trees and removes them by hand so the forest floor is impacted as little as possible.  This improves the overall condition of the forest, as well as habitat and food sources for wildlife. Newsletter 2008-06-30T17:54:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_style_sustainable_designs_from_nature/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_style_sustainable_designs_from_nature/#When:18:02:00Z Now available Click here to learn where to buy. Where to Buy Online Gibbs-Smith Amazon Barnes & Noble Strand Bookstore In the High Country Asheville: Accent on Books, B&N, Malaprop’s Bookstore and Cafe Burnsville: Something Special Blowing Rock: Blowing Rock Market, Finley's House of Antiques, Tucker’s on Main Boone: Black Bear Bookstore, Waldenbooks Spruce Pine: Blue Moon Bookstore, Highland Craftsmen Inc. To add this book to your sales venue, please email: // . 2008-05-17T18:02:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_april_2008/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_april_2008/#When:15:28:01Z Ask The Experts We invite you to submit an email and have a Highland Craftsmen expert answer your question.  chris@highlandcraftsmen.com Q: What is it about Black Locust that gives it such a widespread reputation for toughness and longevity and makes it the first choice for many applications in rustic home construction? Robert, Banner Elk, NC A: It is dense and hard.  The only harder native wood in engineering tests is hickory.  But hickory is not rot resistant.  (See Janka hardness test.).  Black locust wood has a large portion of uniformly distributed libriform fibers that confers great strength to wood.  It is very rot resistant, making it useful in outdoor construction, even buried in the ground, without preservatives. The Jamestown colonists built hovels using black locust posts as their first habitations in 1607. The posts were noted by a visiting English naturalist to still be sound 100 years later. Black locust wood is being studied to find the chemical basis for its remarkable decay resistance. High flavonoid concentrations are important.  The term flavonoid refers to a class of plantsecondary metabolites.  Flavonoids are widely distributed in plants fulfilling many functions including producing yellow or red/blue pigmentation in flowers and protection from attack bymicrobes and insects.  When impregnated into easily decayed woods, heartwood extracts have raised decay resistance to a level equivalent to that attained by commercial wood preservatives. References available upon request.  Marmon Thompson -Bark House® Expert Bark Buddies share the space we live in “Bark Buddies” is a fun way to increase our awareness of the world around us.  Trees, animals, flowers, bugs, sun, people...all share the space we live in.  They fill our lives and make them interesting.  The Bark House® lifestyle invites each of us to breathe in the beauty of our natural world.  We invite you to share your discoveries. Lady Slipper The first, and most important, thing to know about lady slipper is that almost every article or reference one finds in the literature will have some version of the words “DO NOT DIG”.  In other words, forget every notion you had about moving the plant to your private garden.  One almost has to be a botanical expert to understand the complicated relationship the plant has to its surroundings in order to move it successfully. That, and the fact that the plant has such a difficult time reproducing itself, makes its existence precarious, and you should not be a party to the continuing decline of this remarkably beautiful plant.  Use your GPS to mark the location of the plant, note the date of its appearance, and then return to that private spot next year when you feel the need of the inspiration the flower provides. It has very long but fragile roots that will not regenerate if broken. Its roots grow only in the top part of the soil. It requires the presence of a certain fungus type called mycorrhiza in the soil. This fungus resides in the plant’s roots. To successfully grow a pink lady’s slipper, this fungus must be present in the soil. It may seem to be successful initially, but may inexplicably die after 4-5 growing seasons. It may have a lifespan of 100 years for a single plant, but the plant may only flower 10-20 times and only produces seed 4-5 times. It may take 17 years for the plant to mature from seed and reproduce. While you are enjoying the lady slippers, pink and yellow, remember that there are multiple species of other native orchids likely to be in the same environs, if at different blooming times.  There are several varieties of fringed orchids, showy orchis, green frog orchid and others to reward you for your efforts and alertness. Surely the reward for viewing a lady slipper is enhanced by the efforts one makes to locate it and understand its place in the environment. Written by HC’s Marmon Thompson, as rare and valued to us as the Lady Slipper. Email Your Bark Buddy Blog to chris@highlandcraftsmen.com.  Send images if you have them. Split Rail Fencing an American tradition This Split Rail Fence is over 100 years old.  The gentleman pictured has walked this fence since he was just a boy. Split rail fencing is an original American fence that has been widely used since colonial times.  There are many variations of fence styles and the names they are recognized by, depending on the region they originated from.  Chestnut was the log of choice from the beginning, due to its ease of splitting and rot-resistance.  After the chestnut blight that also affected bark shingle production, locust became the exclusive split rail in the south and cedar in the north. As the informatin above states, locust can last 100 years in the ground with no preservatives.  Like all of our products, Bark House® Split Rails by Highland Craftsmen Inc. are produced with the highest quality in mind.  Our goal is to provide our clients with a long lasting, consistently manufactured product that is true to the long tradition of split rail fences. Click here to learn more about Bark House® Split Rail Fencing. Growing Green a closer look “Greening” is a growing phenomenon.  Every company that enters this process should be able to explain and demonstrate how their company’s practices and their community action is green.  We would like to take the opportunity each month in this newsletter to share one way that we are greening. HC is a green-friendly company and we are constantly renewing that commitment.  In this light, we researched the sustainablity of black locust that we use for split rail fencing, handrails, poles and logs .  Resources included US Forest Service doccuments and are available upon request.  To read about how Bark House® black locust is a green product, click here.  2008-05-10T15:28:01-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_march_2008/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_march_2008/#When:17:18:00Z Ask The Experts Q: Are poplar bark shingles dry and stable, and how do you achieve that? - Mike in Boulder, Colorado A: Not all poplar bark shingles are created equal. HC efficiently handles our Bark House shingles from the early stages of harvesting in the woods all the way through to a finished piece if siding. Once bark is peeled and reaches our yards it is handled quickly and efficiently to get it initially graded, sticked and ready for the kiln. It is important to mention this because part of properly drying bark is the ability to handle it expeditiously prior to the actual kiln drying step. Once in the kilns, our material is professionally kiln dried under pressure to between 6-8% moisture content. This is optimal moisture for poplar bark siding, and at that point becomes dimensionally stable. It is then re-squared for precise installation, finally graded and palletized for storage. We then store all of our products in climate controlled facilities until time of shipment. To ensure quality, HC has an exclusive 5-point quality control program. You can ensure that you are getting the best quality, by purchasing products with the Bark House name. - Matt Weatherman, Sales Click here to Learn More the Bark House Difference. Bark Buddies share the space we live in “Bark Buddies” is a fun way to increase our awareness of the world around us. Trees, animals, flowers, bugs, sun, people...all share the space we live in. They fill our lives and make them interesting. The Bark House lifestyle invites each of us to breathe in the beauty of our natural world. We invite you to share your discoveries.  Nan Chase: We are all anticipating the early flowers of Spring. Here’s a beauty to watch for: The Virginia Bluebell is a very early spring wildflower and a rare treat “en masse” as shown here. We love it for its carpet of color in sometimes bleak spring conditions. However, it doesn’t necessarily bloom like this every year. Nan and Chris are the authors of Bark House Style: Sustainable Designs from Nature, due out August 2008 and published by Gibbs Smith. For an early discount, or to read more about the book, click here. Send images if you have them. International Builders Show HGTV films Highland Craftsmen The International Builder’s Show had a decrease in attendance this year, but our booth was buzzing.  Special guests included Tim Snyder, Editor of Fine Homebuilding, and Richard Karn from the hit TV series Tool Time. Marty nearly tackled Tom Silvia from This Old House to get him to take a quick peek. HGTV stopped by and interviewed “The Bark Man™”.  To see a clip of HGTV filming, click here. We’ll keep you up to date on when the show will air. We appreciate everyone that stopped by. You helped make this a great success. Growing Green how are our bark house shingles green? “Greening” is a growing phenomenon. Every company that enters this process should be able to explain and demonstrate how their company’s practices and their community action is green. We would like to take the opportunity each month in this newsletter to share one way that we are greening. Bark House® shingles are a “Super-Green” product and Highland Craftsmen Inc is the premier purveyor. From procurement, to processing, to maintenance, to end of life disposal, we want you to understand the why and how. When green includes a cultural, social and economic context, bark house shingles bring the house down. To get the facts on green, click here to read the brief in full. In Our Next Issue Split Rail Fencing, an American Tradition Learn more about our newest product, split rail fencing. Newsletter 2008-04-07T17:18:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/hgtv_interviews_the_barkman/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/hgtv_interviews_the_barkman/#When:02:09:01Z You need to upgrade your Flash Player to view this content. Click the play button to view movie. “The Bark Man™” is a registered trademark. 2008-03-28T02:09:01-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_february_2008/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/bark_house_newsletter_february_2008/#When:15:55:00Z In Every Issue: Ask The Experts - Bark Buddies - Product Highlight - Growing Green Our Newsletter is back and our website is All New. The newsletter will be sent monthly. We hope you find it useful and thought provoking. The four categories listed above will be covered, with different information each time. The look, function and content of our website has been updated. You will find new photos, product sheets and information that our clients have asked for. Take a look, and let us know what you think. We are leading the Bark House Movement because of you. THANKS! Ask The Experts We invite you to submit an email and have a Highland Craftsmen expert answer your question.  chris@highlandcraftsmen.com Q: I have noticed blue grey wood peckers pecking on the side of my bark house. Will they hurt it? - George in Cashiers A: It’s likely that you are actually seeing nuthatches. They jam seeds in the crevices of the bark to hold them while they pry them open. This occurs most often if you have bird feeders nearby with sunflower seeds. They will not harm your bark siding, they are just using it as a tool. - Marty, “The Bark Man” Click here to Meet The Experts. Bark Buddies share the space we live in “Bark Buddies” is a fun way to increase our awareness of the world around us. Trees, animals, flowers, bugs, sun, people...all share the space we live in. They fill our lives and make them interesting. The Bark House lifestyle invites each of us to breathe in the beauty of our natural world. We invite you to share your discoveries.  Sandy in Western NC:  I noticed tadpoles in my pond in January. This is odd because when I was a girl, the water in the creek that rushes through my farm would freeze thick enough to walk on in the winter. Our weather is changing, but not my love of watching the animals that live in my pond and creek.  Tadpoles require water temperaures of between 60-70 degrees F.  Milder weather has caused plant and animal confusion.  For information on the Impacts of climate change, and to calculate your impact, click here.  For other information on climate change, click here. It has a neat kid’s site.  For information on tadpoles, click here. Email your Bark Buddy Blog to chris@highlandcraftsmen.com.  Send images if you have them. Hand Chopped Shingle pre-dates squared edge Highland Craftsmen now offers a true “hand-chopped” shingle and panel. This siding is out of yellow poplar, same as our original bark shingle siding and offers a natural edge appearance.  Although this product is new for us, it pre-dates Henry Bacon’s squared edge shingle.  Stylistically, it appeals to true rustic sensativites such as log home or barn wood clad homes. Click here for more information on the “New” Hand Hewn Bark House Shingle. Growing Green make more space for parks, not parking spaces “Greening” is a growing phenomenon. Every company that enters this process should be able to explain and demonstrate how their company’s practices and their community action is green.  We would like to take the opportunity each month in this newsletter to share one way that we are greening. As stated on our website, proliferating sustainable living is important to us.  Parking is a big issue in our small town.  I will share more later about how HC uses bikes in warmer months to run errands in town. But this is about the fact that there are no bike racks downtown.  We decided to donate a bike rack to the town and see what happens.  We’ll keep you posted. Click here for more information on how Highland Craftsmen is a company growing green. In Our Next Issue an interview with HGTV We will have details about the Intetnational Builder’s Show including an interview with HGTV. Quick Links... Visit Our All New Bark House Website Learn more about Materials and Products About Highland Craftsmen Inc. Newsletter 2008-03-13T15:55:00-05:00 http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/2008_international_builders_show/ http://www.barkhouse.com/index.php/site/2008_international_builders_show/#When:14:53:00Z Highland Craftsmen will have a booth at The 2008 International Builders’ Show in Orlando, February 13-16, 2008. The Highland Craftsmen Booth number is S11044. Click here for a FREE Pass to the show. There are so many reasons to attend! 100,000 industry professionals, 1,900 exhibitors, 290 educational sessions, networking at hundreds of special events + fantastic giveaways, including a $50,000 drawing! We hope to see you there. Announcements, Bark Shingle Siding, News 2008-01-25T14:53:00-05:00