We Celebrate Today

What a Wonderful day the Lord gave us to become Man and Wife! On June 28,1975, at Noble Center United Methodist Church, we stood before God,our officiating Pastor ,friends and family.

We shared our vows 42 years ago with the people that were/are important to us in our lives. Our paths with some haven't been crossed since that time. However, the memories still remain.

Our family is grown now...We have just experienced the High School Graduation of our oldest Grandchild. All of our life events continue to add to our relationship.

I'm honored to share with you and to still call him my Husband and Helpmate given to me by God...Corey Butcher.

Let's Celebrate

Life keeps moving on...

Corey has completed his work on the Replica Fighter Association's 2017 Pre-Oshkosh Airventure magazine. Now that it has been finished, and we've celebrated our oldest Grandson's Graduation, more time will be focused on working on our Voisin 3\5 rebuild.


Sunday evening we brought the fuselage up the drive to get the rigging started for the wings...

We did a little maneuvering to move the fuselage into the shop, removing both sliding glass doors and taking off the radiator made everything workout as planned.

Next step after that will be fabric application. We keep moving bit by bit closer to the goal of getting the Voisin 3\5 air bound.

Corey gave me a smile before he got back to rigging the bottom right wing this evening.

Corey was making everything look real easy as I watched him thread the steel cable into his modified strut attachments.

Please forgive me if I don't have the proper name for the thingy-ma-jigs. All I know at the moment is that Everything is looking GooD!

Corey shared that his goal for this evening was to get the center section attached so he could lift the top wing into place and get that rigged as well.

Before I left the shop I wanted to get a view from the fuselage, and the length of the new wing.

I can only imagine how it will allow for faster travels and maybe a little more stability in winds up to 20 mph. Corey has always been a safe flyer and due to his experiences knows the limits of his craft. 

We've shared this picture below before on the Voisin 3/5 website...I snapped the picture of The Last Flight of 2007 from our grass strip in November. The weather was getting to cold for the Voisin 3/5 open cockpit flights so after it's return, things were prepped for winter storage.

It is our hope that Corey will be able to get some aerial photographs yet this year.

Voisin 35 on Facebook

This Timber Life  blogpost is in support of a Facebook post by the builder of Voisin 35, Corey Butcher...

Facebook Post Published by Corey Butcher · May 4 at 3:59pm ·

All four wings are ready for final cleanup and cover. Hope to start on that sometime in June.









 Here are some photos of the top center section. I thought I had it ready to go, but I decided to make a slight change. I don't like the center compression plate with separate halves. (This is not the way the plans are. It is a left over from the prototype.)

You can see it in the third photo. So I am going to do a little bit more modification here. I'll detail it later.

Thank you for stopping by Timber Life, more Voisin 35 updates on the way.

Have a Great Day!

White Tail Institute Soil Testing

Thank you Whitetail Institute of North America Staff for doing an impromtu picture at the Iowa Deer Classic 2017!

It had been some years back that I purchased some seed samples for mini-plots at another Iowa Deer Classic. You can find my growth results written  here on September 2, 2010.

I'd done some research on the Whitetail Institute website about their soil sampling kits...Since I've not personally had our soils tested here at Timber Life, I wanted to verify some information I had classified by reading.  So, this year instead of buying the tests online I found the booth...I bought two of their limited supply.

The tendency of our Timber soils indicated to me a sour disposition with all the vegetation pointing in that direction. Makes sense,right?!? I had an idea of how negative the pH balance was by the specific plants that were flourishing, but to provide the proper environment to unlock the nutrients for a balanced diet for Man and Beast, I needed to do the soil test,to have my own results.

I sent in soil samples from two different spots on our property to get an idea of the pH range I could expect to modify.

To find specific results some preliminary seed possibilities, just to get an idea of what would be needed was required.

Weed populations have increased over time on my plot...They are being addressed. 

Purple Top Turnips, used for human consumption was also implemented for Whitetail Deer and Turkey here in the past. The produce became sweet after the frost and a well consumed food source. You could say they, cleared the patch,eating it down to ground level.

The annual seeds shown are those  I might consider for planting for a fall crop after the weed population is under control. Then it will open up the potential for a perennial crop to be  planted next spring, or the chance for double cropping. Keep those Deer happy is my goal!

Thanks for stopping by Timber Life today....I like talking Deer.

Have a Great Day!

Voisin 35 Parts Cleaning Moving Forward

On March 29,2017, I began more refined fabric and tape removal from a wing section Corey brought up from the Hangar.

 I proceeded onto the tail section on April 3,2017, to remove fabric;  providing time support. My efforts  will allow Corey to focus on wing modifications.

I found a weakness to pierce the fabric as I followed along the hollow just under the frame.

As you can see I was able to loosen the tail covering in it's entirety - to

preserve for Corey's personal archives the N# flown by his initial proto-type...renewing it for modification number two.

A cleaned frame ready for a fresh application of fabric.

Time to get this tail in order.

Each section became a little easier to clean, because I developed a method of my own.

I didn't need to strip it in a bunch of tiny pieces, but managed to pull off entire sections with well placed cuts and a bit of opposing power.

Next came the upper and lower left ailerons ,with both the upper and lower right ailerons to follow at a later date.

Due to my skill level I've pretty much accomplished all I'll be able to do alone for now.




 Corey has ordered some stainless steel cable, 3M Fastbond Contact Adhesive 30NF Green Glue and Aircraft Spruce has come through with some smaller parts  for the Voisin 35 at the present time.

We will be getting the order in for fabric and looking for a re-drive to to get the Geo Engine placed back in position to power-up.

Next post will show a few pictures of Corey's reworking of the wings...

Until then Have a Great Day!

The New Windsock Takes Air

Saturday morning it was time to take the Windsock frame off the hangar to get Corey's new one strapped into place.

Having the Windsock keeps an eye to the sky attitude...Good for a Pilot's altitude.

Almost all tied up!

As our luck would have it we needed to wait until the next day to get the windsock back on top of the Hangar due to a windspeed increase. The stability of trying to lift the frame pole against the drag of the wind would be impossible.

Success!

The Sunday afternoon winds were almost nothing coming over the warming ground of the bean fields.

We...I use the term loosely since I was the camera woman in command of documentation, got the Windsock up and filled with air.

Now, we can watch wind speed and direction, instead of an empty frame, that had become a perch to a few different species of birds.

Oh, and may I add? It adds color to the landscape in contrast to the soon to be rising  crops.

Beautiful!

Pella Tulip Time in Retrospect

Looking back in retrospect at my pictures of Pella Tulip Time 2015 and 2017...I gave a glimpse of what you can experience if you choose to participate.

Our visit in 2015 was on the Saturday morning of the Festival. They had a display of antique work horses (OH! And Yes! Standing beside the orange tractor is a Favorite Individual,Subject , my husband Corey) and a Flea Market where we found some bottled home brewed Root Beer from Missouri. I bought an Heirloom Brandywine tomato plant from a young woman who showed me her interest in horticulture and some potholders from a vendor who made nothing else but varied fabric patterned potholders. There were artists providing their interpretations of different media of expression.

I could understand the process of the Flea Market vendor because I myself,CDGardens, spent the summer of 2001 growing and hauling what I had planted,cultivated,harvested,cleaned and packaged from my garden on my own. It was a learning experience that I didn't repeat because of the other things I was responsible to accomplish. I wouldn't change the experience.

Digressing back to Pella Tulip Time,I would highly recommend the ambience of the Dutch Village...

Have a Great Day!