an american in belgië : National Park

This past weekend, Norbord participated in an outdoor event at Hoge Kempen.

Hoge Kempen is the only National Park in Belgium and really the only large green space in north Belgium. It opened in 2006 and has trails for walking and horseback riding as well as paved roads for biking. It covers nearly 25 square miles.

It is also adjacent to Zutendaal, which is really where this event took place - right on the runway.

Zutendaal is about a half hour from us and is the location of an Air Base, originally built in 1917 by the Germans. After WWI, the name was changed to Asch and it became a flying school for Belgian military.

aerial view of Zutendaal Air Base

In WWII, the airfield again became important. On New Year's Day 1945, Asch airfield was the site of a major aerial battle which came to be known as the Legend of Y-29. Pilots of the 487th Fighter Squadron took off under fire facing overwhelming odds. For their performance, the 487th received the only Distinguished Unit Citation given to a fighter squadron in the European theatre.

After the war, the airfield was closed in 1945. It's currently used by the Belgian Army for storage - and for events like the one this past weekend.

This is Norbord's booth with everything you ever wanted to know about OSB.

Another attraction was this Wood Mizer.

A few trees were cut down on site and turned into lumber right there.

And if that wasn't enough - here, these guys are using that lumber to make a chicken coop. I figure they can sell it too because it seems everyone here owns a chicken. In the city. You would think farm animals would be illegal within the city limits, but not here.

Although there was only beer to drink - okay there was Coke too - the only food I saw were these.