Cloned Males Declining “Untidy” Females & More Tree Facts of Life
Since the dawn of time trees hold significance. The awe-inspiring gifts we receive from them every day are immeasurable.
At Western Timber Frame, we specialize in utilizing heavy timbers; solid wood timber shade structures, pergolas, gazebos, pavilions, arbors, and trellises to give families the ultimate experience in everyday outdoor living. Working with wood, especially on a massive scale, we are continually reminded of the authenticity of these botanical blessings that build our world and invoke health and spirituality.
Discover some cool, crazy, and curious facts about tree life around this fascinating earth.
#DIYPergolaKit DIY Pergola Kit
390-Years-Old Pear Tree Bears Fruit!
A pear sapling was brought across the Atlantic ocean and planted in the 1630s by John Endecott, the Bay Colony Governor of Massachusetts. This was the very first cultivated tree to be planted by European settlers here in America.
When planting the tree John Endecott said: "I hope the tree will love the soil of the old world and no doubt when we have gone the tree will still be alive."
Growing close to 400 years, the original Endecott Pear tree is still living having withstood neglect, infestation of insects, decay, storms and even greater obstacles. It has survived numerous hurricanes over the centuries with some serious ones in 1770, 1804, 1815, and 1843. Then a hurricane in 1938 severely damaged the tree.
In 1952, the CBS-Hytron company built a large plant and a parking lot on the site virtually hiding the tree.
The tree received its worst setback ever, in 1964, when a teenage vandal cut off every limb and chopped the trunk down to around 6 feet. News of the tree spread across the country. Despite all the failed attempts and the sincerity of people to save the Endecott Pear tree —it was by all appearances dead. The following year it surprised everyone by sprouting out approximately 100 new suckers.
Today, the Endecott Pear tree is still continuing to bear fruit!
Cloning Males to Avoid "Untidy" Females
On the 8th of April, 2019, the residents in the area of Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina experienced what some dubbed as "pollmageddon." Clouds of pollen enveloped the region and can be seen in this stunning aerial footage titled: "pollen-pocalypse."
Many people described it as terrifying — like a science fiction movie — as an evil greenish-yellow, allergy-inducing substance blanketed everything. Sadly, this is not an isolated occurrence, It happens every year in many places around America.
With this much pollen it definitely would not be a good time to hang your clothes out to dry. The human spirit enjoys laughter in spite of the obstacles of life. There are many comics and satire suggesting making pollen-angels, building a pollen-man, going pollen-skating, writing your name in the pollen, or enjoy a pollen-ball fight. This comedy clip: How to Survive Pollen Season in the South, is a delightful example.
All this excessive waves of pollen is a man made problem and not a natural occurring phenomena. For three quarters of a century, the USDA of Agriculture has encouraged a policy to create a tidy environment without seeds, fruits or pods by planting only clonal male trees in urban landscaping.
Horticulturalist Thomas Ogren, author of Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping calls this "botanical sexism" and is something that does not exist in nature. Thomas Ogren counted 9,000 ash trees in his hometown of San Luis Obispo, in California. And of those, only 6 or 7 were female.
Female trees are naturally designed to capture pollen, as well as other harmful pollutants that circulate in the air.
Thomas Orgen specializes in the relationships between planted landscapes, asthma and allergies. And he links too many male trees as the major cause of exacerbated allergies. Interestingly, on the flip side, if female trees dominated the urban landscapes, seeds and fruit, it would still be "tidy" as isolated female trees would not bear seeds or produce much fruit without male trees,
Additionally, some research has shown that planting male clonal trees without female trees places people who have airborne allergies at a greater risk, particularly in women to develop leukemia, and ovarian or breast cancer.
Trees Change the Climate
Cities have the power to change their own weather through installing shade, planting and caring for trees. A fine example of this in Charles Mulli, Father to the Fatherless, founder of the Mully Children's Family in a documentary of his life in Kenya. The Mully Children’s Family has planted thousands of trees, turning thirsty desserts into beautiful, productive spaces.
"Every time we put a road down, we put a building and we cut a tree or add a tree, it not only affects that site but it also affects the region." – David Nowak
Old Trees Do Not Die
Trees are the longest living organisms on earth. Trees do not die from old age. Insects, disease, or people are the general reasons a tree dies. The Giant Sequoias and the California Bristlecone Pines are regarded as the oldest known trees some dated to be between four and five thousand years old.
Creates Conservational Chemicals
Once a sequoia tree has grown, outlasting anything that could have taken it when it was young its bark becomes so thick and the center wood is impregnated and ingrained with natural chemical fungicides that preserve it against fungal canker and decay. Termites, wood ants and wood-boring beetles do not faze or effect them.
Navigate With Trees
Trees can help you to navigate. In the Northern Hemisphere, moss grows on the northern side of a tree’s trunk where there is more shade. Also, if you find a cut-down tree, look at its rings. The southern side of the tree that gets more light grows a little thicker. There reverse is true if you are in the Southern Hemisphere.
Biocompatible Bone
GreenBone, an Italian Biotech Company has created a synthetic bone from heated rattan wood that the body will accept. It is load-bearing and so similar to the real bone that tissue cells and blood treat it as if were actually bone. A bone-regenerating implant would eliminate the need for bone replacements and is far surpassed in excellent than any metal or ceramic material.
Floating Forrest
There is a strange, yet fascinating relic left over from a ship-breaking yard. At the Homebush Bay in Sydney, Australia, a large old watercraft called the SS Ayrfield, a steam collier built in 1911 and later used as a transport ship during the second world war, was brought to Homebush Bay to be dismantled for salvage. However, the operations of the salvage yard ceased and several vessels were left behind including the SS Aryfield. The old ship is now over one hundred years old and has become a floating forest of vegetation that has seeded itself and sprouted up over the last several decades. Photographers come from all over the world to capture on film this unusual remnant left from the past.
Fruit Grows On Trunk
The Jabuticaba tree of Brazil grows its fruit directly out of its trunk. The fruit is said to taste like candy grapes.
Vaping Water
Large trees can require a lot of water. The giant sequoia tree can consume up to 500 gallons a day. A mature oak tree can take up approximately 100 gallons of water daily. If this seems bad when considering water conservation, thirsty trees is actually good for people and the environment.
In low lying and flood areas, trees help to absorb more water and their roots hold the soil together reducing the risk of property damage from erosion and flash floods. Trees transpire, and as the vapor releases water back into the air. Though the rate of transpiration will vary through the seasons, a single tree such as a mature oak, for example, will vapor out 100 gallons per day, and around 40,000 gallons a year. The emitting of water vapor also assists in weather changes and helps to make it rain.
An Extinct Living Tree
Scientists believed that the Wollemia nobilis tree grew during the so called Jurassic dinosaur-era but then disappeared from the earth 150 million years ago. The extinct tree has since been found growing wild in an Australian rainforest.
Longest Flying Seeds
The wind-blown seeds of a Cottonwood tree can travel airborne for several days before landing. Cottonwood seeds can fly longer than any other seeds from other tree species.
Objects Absorbed By Trees
If an object is in the way of a tree, the tree will stop growing, grow away or simply grow around it. Entire objects have been absorbed by a tree.
This bicycle, park bench, and gravestone are three of many objects encased by a tree.
Tree of 40 Fruits
Sam Van Aken grew up on a farm and later became an art professor at the University of Syracuse in New York.
Van Aken learned that an heirloom orchard station was closing for a lack of funding, he bought the orchard to prevent over 250 varieties of trees from going extinct.
Combining his artistic talent and agriculture knowledge he grafted 40 varieties of trees into one root structure. In the spring, the tree is a gorgeous array of pinks, red, purple and white blossoms. In the summer, it produces rare varieties of almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and plums.
Privately Owned Forests
In the United States, 60% of all forested land is privately owned. Over four million trees are planted every day in the U.S. averaging five trees for every person in America.
Seeds Germinate In Rock
Boswellia sacra is a bizarre evergreen tree that grows in the most unforgiving of terrains, It is so tenacious it has at times been known to sprout and grow out of a boulder or solid rock. The Boswellia sacra are treasured for its the bitter-tasting resin exuded by striping the trunk causing milky fluid to bleed and harden into crystals called "frankincense tears."
For thousands of years, frankincense has been used in animal sacrifice, for religious ceremonies, to embalm, ward off disease and treat a variety of ailments.
Aggressive Foreign Weed Tree
New Zealand foresters brought the Douglas fir thinking it would be an awesome tree species for their timber industry. Now, the Douglas-fir has become a seriously invasive problem for New Zealanders.
The climate of New Zealand causes the Douglas-fir trees to grow 25-times faster than it does in the United States. Douglas-fir roots make it hopeless to grow native plants so the ground beneath the trees is barren. Extracting these unwanted organisms costs more than the value of the timber.
Fireproof
Timbers have a higher combustion rate which makes them more fire retardant than conventional stick frame construction.
Blast Testing Timbers
We build pergolas from timber. It is our material of choice because it offers so many advantages in terms of construction ease, speed, and costs but primarily because of its reliability, and time-tested strength.
In the field of wood science, technology has made significant advances. Along with new inventions and applications, wood is tested for its endurance and strength under a variety of conditions.
WoodWorks is a team of field experts offering technical support to make wood buildings easier to engineer and build with code-compliant designs at a lower cost. To do this, they test and access buildings of wood like this explosion test of three cross-laminated timber structures.
Woodworks worked with The USDA Forest Service Products Lab and Softwood Lumber Board at Tyndall Air Force Base predicting acceptable levels of damage under large-scale explosive loads. In a series of successful blast tests, their prognosis matched their model builds. All two-story, mass timber structures remained intact after significant explosions. That's impressive! You can watch their video footage here.
World's Most Poisonous Tree
According to The Guinness World Records the Manchineel holds the record as the worlds most poisonous tree. The Manchineel is native to Florida, Mexico, Central America, the Keys and the Caribbean islands and is called the "tree of death." Sap from its bark blisters the skin and can temporarily blind a person if it gets in their eyes. The fruit looks like a bright green to greenish yellow apple. One small bite will cause ulcerations in the mouth and esophagus and swallowing it can be lethal. It can poison water and its deceptively sweet fruit can cause death.
Oddly, the wood from Manchineel has been prized by Caribbean carpenters. After carefully harvesting, the furniture makers sun-dry the wood from the Manchineel trees to neutralize the poisonous resin to make furniture.
Talking Trees
Scientists have discovered that trees communicate with each other. For example when a willow is attacked by caterpillars and webworms that will give off a chemical to alert neighboring willows of the crisis. The nearby trees react by sending higher amounts of tannin into their leaves so the insects have difficulty digesting the leaves.
Rainbow Bark
The rainbow eucalyptus tree is pure delight. Some say it is the most beautiful tree on earth. As the season’s pass the bark peels in strips revealing intense bright colors of blue, green, gray, pink, purple, orange and red like an artists painting.
Oxygen Release Proportional
The air we inhale is the greatest source of our life. Trees provide oxygen for us to breathe. We derive more real nourishment to our body from this element than from the solid food we receive into our stomachs. Oxygen release is in proportion to the overall size of the leaf area. Pines give the least amount of oxygen whereas Dougals-fir, beech and maple are at the top of the list for oxygen release.
Columbus' Ancient Futuristic Discovery
Christopher Columbus was a daring navigator who is famous in world history for discovering the Americas, previously unknown to Europeans. On his return from his second voyage to the Americas, he brought with him fascinating latex rubber balls. The natives shaped this strange substance into a recreational sports ball out of the milk of a tree; when hardened it would bounce.
Pictured is a model and Caravels of Christopher Columbus: Santa Maria (sunk in a storm), Nina, and Pinta in the port of Palos de la Frontera village, Huelva, Spain.
Waterproofed World
Ariel View of Rubber Trees
The Mesoamericans made shoes from the Hevea Brasiliensis rubber tree by repeatedly dipping their feet into the latex rubber, drying it and then peeling a shoe from their feet. The new shoe was then smoked to harden it. They also waterproofed their clothing and by adding morning glory juice, created hollow rubber figurines.
Today rubber is used in surfing wetsuits, swimming caps, elastics, hoses, toys, tires and the list is endless!
Warm Wood
Timber is the best natural insulator, better than concrete, brick or steel. Wood is a natural and extremely effective insulator. It retains heat during the daytime and releases heat at night and is four hundred times warmer than steel.
Timber creates a condition for comfort. Wood by nature is the world’s best insulator and is a poor conductor of heat. The more mass it has the better it insulates against heat and warms in the cold. In the heat of the day, wood will absorb the heat from the air and at night when the temperatures lower, the timber lets out heat to keep a natural balance of temperature.
Dandelion Tires
Tires are made of at least 30% natural rubber from Hevea Brasiliensis trees and the rest is compiled of synthetic rubbers. Synthetic rubber, however, is not suitable for truck tires because it does not have the same abrasive action as does the natural product.
As an alternative to rubber trees, a new biomimetic synthetic rubber has been developed from dandelions that claim optimized abrasiveness. Just as the rubber tree does, dandelions consist of 95% polyisoprene. And Dandelions only takes eight weeks to grow as opposed to six years.
Nature never ceases to delight and amaze us. Who would have ever thought that a rubber tree and a dandelion have so much in common?
Flight Began In The Trees
British World War 11 Night Time Aircraft
The first airplanes were built with wood and fabric. The famed Wright Flyer was made out of Ash and Spruce trees.
An all-wooden aircraft of World War II, called the DH.98 Mosquito dubbed the "Wooden Wonder" flew at super high speeds for a twin-engine bomber. It flew carrying remarkably heavy loads over great distances. Initially, it was rejected by the British Air Ministry but after extensive and impressive flight trials it outperformed even the manufacturers' expectations.
Chandelier Cones
The name Douglas-Fir has earned the respect of structural engineers for its beam strength and remaining straight and true, with a high-resistance to corrosion. Nonetheless, this majestic tree is not true to its name, The Douglas-Fir is not a fir tree at all.
Fir trees have cones that sit upon the top of the branches like little owls. Douglas-Fir cones hang down underneath the branches like a chandelier.
At Western Timber Frame™ we use sustainably harvested free of heart Douglas Fir timber in our ShadeScape® arbor, gazebo, pavilion, pergola, and trellis kits. It minimizes checking, ensures lasting durability.
Stories of a Tree
Dendrochronology is the science and study of dating annual rings in trees. But the rings do more than just reveal a tree's age. A trees rings provide us with a year by year record of the past and what the climate conditions were before we had the advantage of instrumental record-keeping. It shows if there was good weather or drought, forest fires and insect infestations. It can also show us signs of an environmental change such as a volcanic eruption.
Tree of the Gods
The Lebanese Cedar is sometimes called the Cedar of the Gods. The Phoenicians valued cedar wood and used it to build their ships. This tree is the national emblem of Lebanon and holds religious significance to Christians. The Lebanon Cedar tree is mentioned 71 times in the Holy Bible and cedar 103 times. King David said, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” (Psalms 92:12) It's wood is considered powerful and precious and the trees live for thousands of years. A UNESCO World Heritage Site claims some Lebanon Cedar trees have survived five millenniums.
Food For Wildlife
There are around 600 species of oak trees. An average oak tree produces 2,000 plus acorns every year. Botanists say that only 1 out of 10,000 acorns will actually fully develop into a tree. The acorns they bear is a large part of deer, squirrels, mice, and many other critters diets. However, the acorns as well as the leaves can be poisonous in large amounts for goats, cattle, horses, and sheep.
A New Wood Kind of Wood
Insulating with foam helps to lower energy usage. Conventional foam is produced from petroleum or natural gas is not at all eco-friendly. There is though a new greener alternative, a new wood-based product: Wood Foam.
The technique to manufacture wood foam works similar to raising bread dough and baking it in the oven. The wood foam sheets are lightweight and can be flexible or rigid, easily cut and sawn like regular foam.
Oldest Living Organism
The oldest organism still alive upon this Earth is in Utah and is believed to be a colony of Quaking Aspens called the Trembling Giant or the Pando. The tree colony is also the heaviest known organism weighing 6,600 tons as it extends itself over 103 acres.
Timber Gives On
Incredulously, trees do not stop giving us life after they have been harvested. Unlike concrete or steel; which only emits the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, mass timber continues to absorb and store carbon dioxide. A ten-story wood building at 2590 square feet per story stores 1570 tons of carbon dioxide whereas a comparable concrete building will emit 2175 tons of carbons.
Bridging America With Timber
Timber frame bridges have been among the most visible and noble testimonies of the integrity of timber. Some still in use date back as early as the 16th century; proven masterpieces of engineering, technology, and long-lasting endurance spanning great distances against the violence of water and storms.
In the United States, the USDA Forest Service has more than 1,000 timber bridges spanning 20 feet and beyond, 90 years old and older which are still in service today with more being built every year. There are also more than one thousand five hundred miles of trestles and timber bridges to service the railroads. Timber bridges still remain a choice of engineers today for its ability to bear the dead-load and the live-load of the pedestrian, vehicular, railroad while remaining steadfast under continual exposure of powerful winds, seasonal freezing, thawing and resisting the side effects from adverse de-icing agents.
Prison Tree
The Boabab trees are used for art, food, medicine, and shelter. This Baobab tree, in Kimberly, Australia was sometimes used as a temporary prison cell.
The aboriginals call this bizarre-looking tree, "The Tree of Life," and rightly so, as it is a godsend to the poor. The seedling baobab roots are eaten like carrots. The leaves and flowers make a nutritious salad. The pith from the fruit nuts is often cooked into porridge, filled with healing properties such as vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, magnesium, and iron.
30,000 Gallons of Drinking Water
The Boabab is also called "The Miracle Tree" because of its trunk and branches store life-sustaining water. A large tree can contain more than 30,000 gallons of supply of drinking water to thirsty people and animals.
Tree Services
In stark contrast to prison, the oldest tree in France is a church. Located in Allouville-Bellefosse an oak tree was constructed into two small chapels still used for worship today. It is charming and looks like a child’s fairy tale with a wooden staircase surrounding the outside of the trunk.
Prayer Trees
In Serbia, when the building of churches was barred, people would sometimes inscribe crosses on a tree, usually oak. It was called a zapisi and was considered sacred, used as outdoor churches in many communities.
The Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury
In Southern England is a lone Thorn tree called The Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury.
It is believed by many Christians that after the crucifixion of Jesus, his Uncle, Joseph of Arimathea traveled to England bringing with him a wooden staff. Legend says that Joseph of Arimathea rested on Wearyall Hill, and the following morning he saw that a miracle tree had grown up out of the wooden staff.
During the English Civil War the original tree was cut down. Specimens from the original stock were planted to ensure the continuance of the sacred tree. What has brought these thorn trees to their sacred status more than anything is that the thorn trees of Glastonbury bear flowers only twice a year, during Christmas and Easter. This gives it holy significance to Christians in England.
Every winter, a twig from the holy tree is sent to the royal family.
Physically Connected
The pattern of the tree is even physically written inside of your brain. The arborvitae cerebelli, Latin for the tree of life is a white tree-shaped substance inside of the cerebellum.
The arborvitae plays a major part in the role of motor and sensory information at the center of the body’s nervous system which involves the body’s movements, transmitting signals, coordination, and timing. It is also a path that coordinates our actions and connects with everything through our body.
In every design, we find tree-like structures that move currents from one point to another. The tree has a natural flowing design for currents to flow through and absorb shock and movement and physically connects us to the earth.
The President
In the Sequoia National Park in Sierra Nevada there is an ancient tree, so large that as you look up at this towering monarch of majesty of more than fifty four thousand cubic feet of awe inspiring wood. The total sum of this king of trees can not be seen in its entirety without lifting the eyes up, up, up in a sweeping panoramic view. The tree is fondly called The President.
The President is a tree so large, it cannot be viewed all at once.
Photographers for the National Geographic used pulleys and levers, hoisting a camera into the air and snapped 126 photographs. In the December 2012 issue, they published one breathtaking composite, capturing this majestic monolith, in its full glory.
The Society Grant concluded that there is no tree that has more wood in volume than The President. The President is said to be over 3200 years old.
Tree Characteristic Metamorphed By Seeds Flown In Space
Space flown seeds are baffling scientists. In 2008-2009, Astronauts from Japan took approximately 265 cherry seeds from an old cherry tree thought to be 1250 years old. The seeds were then planted in 14 different locations.
This is where it begins to get a bit weird. The trees grew at an astonishing super-fast rate. Typically Japanese cheery trees take ten-years to bloom. The Japanese cherry trees grown from the seeds that spent a little time in outer-space bloomed after four years, six years ahead of schedule!
Phenomenally, the tree's characteristics have changed. The Blossoms on the trees from the space-flown seeds have only five petals instead of the thirty petals their parent trees have.
This was not an official scientific test. It had only been a fun school project. No one expected a tree to metamorph. Since then, there are several International Space Stations that are flying seeds into space for school children to plant and experiment.
Living Church
Artists have shaped, grafted, and formed trees into growing artworks. Artist Giuliano Mauri is building a living "Tree Cathedral" in Bergamo, Italy from beech trees. It is still being built, growing up towards heaven, the trees will eventually form walls and a vaulted ceiling.
Perpetual Work
Living bridges formed from the roots of a tree.
Since the beginning of time, people have been manipulating trees to create art. Or as pictured here — to aeroponically grow and shape the roots of a tree to form a natural and ever-expanding bridge. This is done without the aid of a scaffolding or any other materials made by man.
World's Oldest Verified Planted Tree
The oldest verified planted tree, known by the date was planted is a fig tree in India. It was planted in 288 B.C. and is called Bo or Sri Maha Bodhi and is considered sacred by many of the native peoples.
Wi’áaşal
Somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 years old, a great oak tree stands grand on the reservation of the Luiseños Indians and is sacred to the Pechanga people. They call this impressive tree Wi’áaşal. To them, the tree embodies determination, a long life, strength, and wisdom. The trunk is well over 20 feet around, and it's height is 100 feet. The largest branches of Wi’áaşal touches the ground supporting the heavy weight of the tree creating a canopy that has sheltered generations of people and wildlife. This old tree continues to produce acorns and saplings.
The World's Oldest Tree
There is a bristlecone pine tree in the White Mountains of California that is believed to be around 5,000 years old. The tree is called "Methuselah." However, the Forest Service keeps the location of Methuselah a secret to hide it and protect it.
Shades of Justice
The Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg, Indiana, has a tree growing through the roof tower . People first noticed a tree in 1870, growing through the roof of the Courthouse. It became a novelty in the town. When the tree died it was removed. Years later, another tree sprouted out. No one knows how the trees seeded in the tower. There have been over 16 trees grow in the tower and not of the same species. The current tree is a Mulberry tree.
Wood Windows You Can See Through
Scientists at the University of Maryland created see-through wood. The material is stronger glass with better thermal and insulating properties! The treated wood has natural micro-channels acting as it did when it was a tree; it causes light to scatter creating more light through the windows than a glass window does.
Wow! Think for a moment, this solid wood ShadeScape® gazebo kit has the properties to potentially be transparent.
Forrest in the Sky
Built in the 14th century, the Torre Guinigi or the Guinigi Tower is located in Lucca, Italy. It was built with stunningly beautiful, red bricks. On the top of the tower is a garden of ancient Holm oaks, 125 feet high up in the sky.
No Waste
Nearly every product in this world is made or produced through the resources of trees.
Nothing is wasted in trees with the industry of timber products. Even the residue of sawdust and bark are made into mulch to replenish and give back to the earth.
Impressive Shade
On John's Island in South Carolina is an oak tree called "The Angel." The tree is about 400 years old and produces around 17,200 square feet of shade.
Combats Air Pollution
Municipal trees are one the best and cost-effective ways to combat urban air pollution levels. A study of the Global Burden of Disease estimated that 3.4 million people died prematurely die to outside air pollution. The World Health Organization estimates the figure at 7 million. The numbers are a bit hazy but trees are notable for indirectly saving lives and health care costs.
The Oak of Abraham
The Oak of Mamre, also known as The Oak of Abraham, was said to be about 5,000 years old and marked the place where Abraham pitched his tent and entertained three angels. Another long-standing tradition said the tree would die before the coming of the Anti-Christ. The appears to have been dead since 1996. In 1998 a sprouted root appeared.
Vertical Forrest
The Bosco Verticale features a vertical forest on a high-rise complex in Milan, Italy. The plant life is said to equal at least 20,000 square miles of forests. The trees naturally moderate the temperatures for both summer and winter while filtering and protecting from noise and particle pollutants.
Sampling of Products Made Possible by Trees
shaving cream yeast • Linoleum • soap guitars • wax paper • corks • molds inflatable beds • window seals • boots • mace gazebos • prosthetics • calculators • cushions • oxygen pavilions • flip flops • computers • boots • shade • dye • pillows Bibles • trelliese • rubber gloves • bathtub plugs • surgical supplies refridgerators • rubber ducks •gaskets • mattresses • asphalt • synthetic bones bay leaves • surgical gloves • tools • melamine • rug backings • toilet paper car dashboards • lab flasks • calcium carbonate • aquarium tubing • wheelchairs glu-lam beams • brake pads • door stops • toilet seats • veneer • books • ear plugs wallpaper • cabinets • vials • myrrh • cell phones • maple syrup • raincoats • pond liners coffee filters • shingles • hot water bottles • varnish • cabinets • protective helmets • paper ice boxes • fabrics • faucet washers • protective shields * waterproof compounds • tires bowling pins • shoes • cosmetics • salicylic acid • Compound W • diapers • art paper • ink printing press .• marine plywood • ballpoint pen • electrical outlets • baseballs • rubber gloves wheelchairs • footballs • basketballs • fishing buoys • turpentine • nitrocellulose • ice cream candle sticks • vacuum cleaner bags • medicines • waxers • road materials • zippers • insulation pears • gum • molasses • syrup • carob • rosin • pitch • film • life preservers * primers • footballs anti-fungal oil • rocket propellant • particle board • pet litter • fireworks • insulation • walnuts hot tubs • erasers • crayons plastic • recyclable solar cells • artificial flavorings • movies • almonds Fishing buoys • checkbook • fishing floats • wall tiles • ceiling tiles • gutters • receipts • hairspray cars • oranges •candy bars * bandages • shampoo • nutmeg • ammonia • corks • signs • car keys snow-shoes • pallets • vitamins * houses • carpets • menthol • guitar pics • shatterproof glass play tiles • telephone • smokeless gunpowder • glucose • beds • gum • tin cans • rubber belts paint • coffins • ceiling tiles • musical instruments • adhesives • antacids • cardboard • shoes violins • olives • drywall • tannin • baby food • furniture • combs • shampoo • pecans veneer • decks • lubricants • airplanes • rayon • electrical energy • camphor • coffee • concrete forms • airplanes • blocks • cloves • latex gloves • furniture • bowling pins phonographs • chemical resistant pads • cinnamon • food containers • pianos water pipes • computer casings • bicycles • stain removers • apples bath tubs • fuel • coffee • cider • spinning wheel • hunting bow arrows • figs • furniture polish • scientific instruments activated charcoal • silos • mail • Benzoin gum ball point pens • flooring equine products foam rubbers aluminum foil rust remover cellophane photographs baking yeast frankincense disinfectants thermoplastic cellulose acetate
The Thinking Tree
In Puglia, South Italy is an olive tree that is at least 2,000 years old. The local people call it "The Thinking Tree."
Planting trees with accountability and expertise is a not simply a springboard to the succeeding generation of forests; at Western Timber Frame™ successful reforestation is taking a lead in our responsibility as caretakers of our earth. Our approach is that we leave everything better than how we found it. This is why we have 50+ trees planted for every average size pergola we do! All of the timber we harvest is sustainable and renewable timber.
Trees power everything; they absorb movement from the earth and energy from the sun. We conserve energy with trees as well as converting and producing energy for human use. In essence, trees are a great big battery and continue to do give to us even after they are harvested. Unlike other energy sources, such as oil and coal; which can be depleted and forever gone — trees are renewable and sustainable.
There are around twenty-thousand recorded tree species throughout the world. Second only to India, the United States has the largest treasury of trees. Timber in Old English used to mean "house" which is fitting as 70% of the developed world lives in timber framed housing.
One of the most profoundly beautiful thing about trees is that our DNA is same DNA as a tree. When the tree breathes it needs us. When we breathe we need what the tree exhales. We all have a common destiny with trees. It is trees that give us the energy to walk, talk and breathe, not to mention the thousands of foods, medicines and other wonderful products we use single every day.
ShadeScape® DIY Pergola Kit Diving Platform
The ShadeScape® Series represents excellence in world-class architecture, all built with true to size, rough-sawn timbers. Each kit provides timeless quality while embracing authentic old-world craftsmanship.
The Western Timber Frame® ShadeScape® Series offers a wide range of size options to create superior outdoor living experiences.
Each landscape is unique in size, location, and application. The ShadeScape® Series can be customized to fit any outdoor environment.
#DIYPergolaKit with 2-step roof design.
The Cameau Family Pergola Party
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