Turf Grass Beef Jerky Wood Chippers Bowling Pins
With commercially cultivated grass, you could have the perfect lawn in minutes. It comes in pre-grown sheets, fresh from the turf farm, ready to transplant. First produced in the middle of the last century, commercially grown grass continues to change the landscape and make the neighbors green with envy. Don't feel like sitting around, watching the grass grow? With commercially cultivated turf, there's no need. Upon delivery, workers simply unroll it and trim it. It's like installing carpeting, and this is, in fact, a living carpet. With regular watering, it will start to put down roots. It should take about three weeks to become established, and then it's time to rev up the lawn mower. It starts with a seed variety appropriate to the climate. This farm is in the american midwest, and that calls for a cool-season species, kentucky bluegrass. They compost grass clippings and leftover turf in a big pile and use it to enrich the farm's soil. Next, using an aerator, they punch holes in the soil. This loosens it, allowing nutrients and oxygen to infiltrate. Aerating also breaks up the rootstock left from the previous crop. Since grass is a perennial, a new crop will grow from these leftovers, and they'll only need to plant seed every three or four crops. After about five weeks, the grass has begun to sprout. A sprinkler system helps spur the growth. It's a central-pivot irrigation system, a wheeled tower that is 1,200 feet long, with numerous sprayers. It slowly circles the turfgrass field to give it a thorough soaking. Next up is the fertilizer. It will give the grass the energy it needs to flourish. The big three ingredients are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. But the mix also contains micronutrients, like iron, zinc, and magnesium, for an extra boost. They fertilize the field four to five times a year, using a supersized version of a home rotary spreader. Pulled by a tractor, it flings fertilizer out the back to cover a lot of terrain very fast. An application of herbicide keeps the weeds at bay as the grass grows and the blades become denser. Once it's thick enough, it should resist weed invasion. They mow it three to four times a week, never cutting more than a third of the total leaf. Anything more would cause the grass to focus on repairing top growth at the expense of establishing a substantial root system. When an ordinary lawn tractor can't keep up, they bring out a mega version. It has three mower decks, each with three blades. It can mow an area the size of 10 american football fields in one hour. They leave the clippings behind for added fertilizer. It takes about 18 months for the roots to fully develop and form a thick mass. That means the turfgrass can now be harvested without falling apart. As the harvester moves forward, rollers at the front compress the grass. Behind the rollers, a wide blade cuts the turf at the roots, removing just 2/10 inch of topsoil. At the sides, spatula-like mechanisms lift the turf onto a conveyor. Once there, another blade cuts it into strips. The strips head up to a device that rolls them up like one would roll a sleeping bag. The conveyor transfers the rolls to a platform where a robotic arm with spears retrieves them and stacks them on a pallet, five at a time. When the stack is big enough, the harvester lowers the pallet of grass rolls onto the field. It moves on to continue harvesting. A forklift collects the rolled turf for shipment. This turf has been cut to order for same-day delivery. They'll install it fresh from the farm so it doesn't have time to dry out and turn yellow. This grass has been a year and a half in the making. It's now ready to transform a dusty yard into a lush, green one for instant curb appeal. If you're craving a snack that's portable and packs a good dose of protein, then some beef jerky might just hit the spot. Eating dried, cured strips of meat dates back to the ancient cultures of south america. Jerky may be an english mispronunciation of a native word for burnt meat. Beef jerky is no longer a means of sustenance but rather a popular snack food that comes in a variety of flavors. This premium brand is hand-crafted in small batches. The process starts with bee rounds-- a lean cut from the muscular hindquarter of the cow. There's just a bit of fat-- enough to give the meat good flavor. Workers put the beef rounds through a slicer, which cuts them into thin strips of identical width so that the jerky pieces come out as uniform as possible. The direction in which the slicer cuts, as well as the thickness of the slices-- 2/10 inch-- are calculated to maximize flavor and tenderness. The next step, marinating, will further tenderize the meat. Many large producers inject the marinade prior to slicing. This company marinates after slicing so that the marinade is sure to tenderize and flavor every single slice of beef. After loading a small batch of meat into a rotating drum, workers add the marinade ingredients-- a secret recipe consisting of both dry and liquid seasonings. The meat and marinade spin together for more than an hour. By the time the strips come out of the drum, they're drenched in marinade. After marinating for another 24 hours, they're ready to go into the smokehouse. Workers lay the marinated beef strips on stainless-steel rods. They space them well apart to enable the hot air to penetrate each and every one from all angles. Once they fill a rod, they hang it on a rolling rack. A rack holds 100 rods-- roughly 240 pounds of beef strips. Each rack goes into its own individual smokehouse, inside which two simultaneous processes occur. Water-soaked hardwood chips burn, slow-smoking the meat. The jerky also cooks slowly at low heat, no higher than 180 degrees fahrenheit, to maximize the flavor. The variety of beef jerky dictates the type of hardwood they use. For sweeter flavors, such as honey barbecue or teriyaki, they smoke with hickory or applewood, whereas for more savory or spicy flavors, they use mesquite wood. Over the course of 5 to 7 hours in the smokehouse, the circulated warm air gradually dries out and cures the meat, and the smoke from the wood infuses it. Quality-control technicians take samples from each fully-smoked batch and measure to make sure it's the required thickness of just over 1/10 inch. After workers cut the strips to between 2 and 3 inches long, the jerky enters an automated scale, which weighs out the quantity per package. Meanwhile, an automated packaging machine heat-seals the bottom and sides of printed plastic film, forming a pouch, then inserts a resealable zipper and prints on the lot number and best-by date. The machine then cuts apart each individual pouch and flushes the inside with nitrogen. This forces out fresh food's worst enemy, oxygen. Then, the machine drops in additional ammunition-- a tiny oxygen-absorbing packet. Now the pouch is ready to receive its allotment of beef jerky. In the smokehouse, the raw beef loses about three-quarters of its weight as the moisture inside evaporates and the fat cooks off. So one pound of raw beef yields only about 3 1/2 ounces of beef jerky. A conveyor belt transports the now-sealed pouches to the boxing and shipping area. Every 5 minutes, quality-control technicians take a sealed pouch off the line to measure the nitrogen and oxygen levels inside. Earlier on, they tested samples from every single batch coming out of the smokehouse to make sure the slow-cooking process killed off all the bacteria in the beef and dried it sufficiently to ensure this meaty treat has a minimum shelf life of 14 months. The wood chipper was invented in germany in 1884. Today's commercial-size chippers devour wood debris and even entire trees in mere seconds, spitting out chips that can be used as garden mulch. That's why the wood chipper is one fierce recycler. Whether it's a fallen tree or just a few broken limbs, a wood chipper will sink its teeth into the problem and transform it into something useful. There are different kinds of chippers. This one is drum-style. It has a feed wheel with serrated edges that pushes wood into the revolving drum. Inside, knives tear into the wood to chop it into little pieces. It's the forestry equivalent of a paper shredder. To make the chipping drum, rollers curl a rectangular sheet of steel to transform it into a cylinder. The gap between the rollers determine the cylinder's diameter. It takes a few passes through the rollers before one end of the rectangle meets the other and it becomes round. At the next station, a worker cuts four large rectangular holes into the cylinder, using a plasma torch. He staggers the location of the holes. Each hole will be equipped with a blade and a deep pocket for catching the wood chips. He now inserts those pockets into the slots and welds them to the drum. The staggered location of the blade pockets means that no matter where the tree branch ends up in the drum, it will come into contact with the chipper blades. Those blades will be installed later. Next, he welds the ends to the chipper drum. The ends have holes for a shaft and for accessing the inside of the drum. Then, the drum spins, and sensors pick up vibrations, which would indicate an imbalance. A computer analyzes the data and determines how much weight needs to be added to the drum and where. The technician locates the spot on the drum, using this gauge. Once he finds it, he marks it with a piece of soapstone. He then places a metal weight on the mark and welds it there. Like the tires on a vehicle, a wood-chipper drum needs to be balanced in order to run smoothly. Four super-sharp blades are installed horizontally above the blade pockets. He bolts them down tightly to withstand a spinning speed of 1,200 rotations per minute. Once the drum has been equipped with a shaft and a fan for moving the wood chips out, they lower the drum onto the base. A crane does the heavy lifting as a worker guides the shaft bearings into the mounts. He adds some upper housing to protect the bearings from debris. These bearings will need to be replaced after extensive use. The hood is next. It's equipped with a chute for ejecting the wood chips. They attach the hood to the base, and this encapsulates the wood-chipper drum to keep the chipping action under wraps. Moving to the other side now, they install the feed rollers and another chute. They activate the feed rollers manually and check the distance between them and the chipper drum to confirm that there's adequate clearance. With a crane again bearing the load, workers now steer the diesel engine towards the chipper and lower it into position. They thread a drive belt around the engine pulley and link it to one that's been attached to the drum's side bearings. They complete that installation and install the tires. They mask the tires with plastic to protect them as they now prime and paint the entire wood chipper. They use a polyurethane paint developed for american military vehicles. This tough finish will resist scratching as tree trunks and branches are dragged through it. They paint the wood chipper a brilliant orange so it will stand out on the work site. Once the paint is cured, they shield the drive belt with a metal cover, painted to match the rest of the machine. They transfer a vinyl decal onto the side. It conveys the make and model of the wood chipper. After nine days of work, the wood chipper is ready for action. Ripping big trees to shreds should be no trouble at all. Here's a somewhat striking statistic. An estimated 95 million people worldwide partake in the sport of bowling. One of the most popular variations is 10-pin bowling, in which you roll a big, heavy ball down a lane, aiming to knock down 10 large pins. The sport's international governing body dictates very strict and precise specifications for pin manufacturing to ensure pins worldwide react uniformly to the ball. As required, this bowling-pin factory uses hard maplewood with a moisture level within regulation range. Workers weigh the slabs and calculate which ones they'll group together to produce a regulation-weight pin. They glue together three slabs to form a starting block for a single pin. Then, they stack several blocks in a vise and clamp them tightly until the glue dries-- about 15 minutes. A few light taps with a rubber mallet separates any stuck-together blocks. Next, a custom-designed machine drills three holes in each block, hollowing out what will be the center of the bowling pin. This removes some weight and leaves space for the wood to expand and contract with humidity levels. One hole is at the bottom of the block for the base ring they'll later attach underneath the pin. They lay the block in a carousel vise and glue a small slab of wood to each side. After 12 to 15 minutes under pressure, the glue sets and the now-wider block comes off the vise. They transfer to another carousel, which runs it through a planer. This removes gobs of dried, excess glue and levels the top and bottom surfaces. Now on to another carousel, to receive wood slabs on the two remaining sides. After the glue fully cures for 24 hours, those sides also go through the planer. The block is now ready to acquire the bowling-pin shape. Workers mount the block on a lathe, via the hole on the bottom for the base ring. As the lathe spins, cutters gradually shave away wood, forming the pin shape. This whole operation takes about 45 seconds. The next machine saws off excess wood from the top and bottom, then drills and cuts those surfaces smooth. The machine inserts a nylon ring into the hole in the pin's base. Next stop, an injection-molding machine. It coats the entire pin surface in liquefied nylon, then quickly cools the nylon solid. This protects the wooden pin with a hard, durable covering. Now a weigh-in to make sure it falls within regulation range-- between 53 and 56 ounces. In the final operation, a printing machine spins the pin under an inkpad to apply decorative stripes. Then, another pad prints the manufacturer's logo. The ink dries to the touch in just 5 minutes and fully cures in 24 hours. Crafted from wood slabs in about 40 minutes, plus ink-curing time, these bowling pins are alley-ready.