Good day everyone, I hope this post finds you well!
The title of this post says it all. While milling on this splendid day, I felt as though my emotions were on a rollercoaster ride, and they were sitting in the front seat.
As you can tell from the time stamp on this picture, it's a shot from almost two years ago, on Christmas Day.
I'm always on the lookout for standing deadwood! I've had my eye on this beauty for a few years now, even before this photo was taken.
The colors that were being created as the tree was decaying were awesome. Much of the discoloration you see on the exterior of a piece of deadwood will also be found in its interior. Needless to say, with the mill now at the farm, this old White Ash was one of the trees I was so looking forward to milling.
Three weeks earlier I had dropped this monster with my son @ryan313. When dropping a dead tree, one can't be too careful. This is a situation when #farm-mom's advice should always be practiced, "Wear Your Helmet!"
Our daughter Erica made a few dozen of these T-shirts for the family, and of course, she had to include, "Wear Your Helmet,"
After a multitude of broken bones, dislocations, torn ACLs, a fractured hip needing a steel rod and pins to repair, and more stitches than I can remember, I guess that's the reason for her concern.
You know how mothers can be though, overprotective loving.
I guess that's what happens when you bring four rough and tumble kids to the middle of nowhere, and they are given the freedom to explore and soak in everything Mother Nature has to offer!
These minor setbacks were well worth the pain. All of our children now appreciate and coexist with THE GREAT OUTDOORS, in harmony.
Visiting the farm and getting lost in nature's magic is something they all look forward to. Plus, we're pretty cool people to hang with.😁
In this picture, the 3rd bolt in from your left was the only salvageable log from the entire tree.
At the time of dropping this decaying White Ash, I wondered if I had left it rotting for too long?
Well, there was only one way to find out, hoist it to the bed of the mill and get busy.
Again, you can see the multitude of colors in this bolt that had excited me for several years now.
When I saw this picture, I also thought of @melinda010100 and her partner in crime @archon, and some of the cool stuff that was happening over there #shadowhunters.
I figured if they ever had an event centered around a pic of a person's body, with the smallest head, this could be a possible winner.
Need I explain? Being a little stubborn, I refused to believe that I had completely blown the timing on this one, in a big way. There wasn't one stick of usable lumber in the entire tree.
Despite the integrity of this wood not being sound enough for woodworking, the real value in each cell of this #naturalresource can still be realized. For those of us who choose to admire and respect these creations of #nature, a plethora of uses waits for our imagination to be kicked into gear.
Getting some more wood for the outside fire is never a bad thing. From there on in, the day of milling only got better.
The boards you see here were milled from a piece of Hard Maple crotch wood.
The name crotch wood seems to fit the bill for me. These two pieces were milled to be book-matched as well. With the length of these two pieces being over eight feet, with some imaginative joinery, a very unique table could be crafted.
The unique characteristics of the grain and the color of the wood, at the crotch, are due to the stress at this point.
As the two branches grow and the stress becomes greater in this area, the grain in the stressed area will start to twist and swirl.
This imperfect grain pattern increases the strength of the tree at that point.
Here is a piece of crotch wood from a Black Cherry tree that I used for the base of a coffee table.
The live-edge top to the table is from a Black Oaktree.
As I said, the day only got better, and now with @farm-mom on the sticks, the disappointment from the earlier part of the day was completely a thing of the past.
The previous time we milled together, she was gone in a flash, off to do her thing. Later that evening she said how much fun she had milling, despite only hanging for a bit.
On this occasion, she milled, and milled, and milled some more. I guess she really did have a good time, the first time she took over my job.
After several hours of working as a team, which saved me a few hours, the day's bounty was loaded in the truck waiting to be stickered and stacked.
Knowing that there was no (EXPECTED) precipitation in the forecast, I put the stacking gig off until the following day.
The stacks are growing. I believe we now have about 1,000BF of lumber air-drying.
I was hoping to be able to find the time to drop this Hard Maple. The deformity you see growing from the side of the tree is called a burl.
Burls from a tree trunk can yield valuable material for custom craftwork. Insect infestation and certain types of mold are the most common causes of this condition.
With the temps in the twenties, and it snowing like a bat out of hell, as I finish up with this post, I guess we'll all have to wait to see the glory, #nature has encapsulated for so many years, in this deformity anomaly, until next year. 😥
I have mill envy. That thing is sweet and does an outstanding looking job. I've had a dream of my own mill for many years now.
That burl is going to be killer and it looks huge! You've got me excited to see what's in it!
Owning a mill is a dream come true, for sure. With the price of lumber these days, many of the projects that I do would be financially out of reach if I were not able to mill my own wood.
The glass-half-full way of looking at not having the time to mill the tree with the burl this year is that the tree has another year to grow. 😀
Just letting you know that goldenoakfarms husband died on Christmas Day. I know you and @farm-mom often commented on her blog so thought youd like to know. I messaged her via Facebook and she is devastated of course. I might try to send her some flowers via Interflora if I can find her address..
Thanks for the info @riverflows. We have been checking for any posts on a daily basis, and seeing no activity, we knew things were not good.
If by chance you do get her address, I wonder if you could forward it to us. If that is possible, just let me know and I will give you my e-mail address and you can forward her address to me that way.
With all of the work, these two lovely people did in their home and then to never get a chance to enjoy it together is a tragedy.
Thanks again for the info, events like this remind us of just how fortunate we are.
That table base looks like a crotch indeed.
In Finland, most of the forests are privately owned, including the ones that the paper companies buy from. This means that they are pretty well cared for and are grown back for the next harvest, 30 odd years down the track. This has led to lots of quite skilled hobby woodworkers, which is pretty cool.
GREAT INFO THANKS!!
Being a steward of the forests is a huge undertaking. Many of the federally protected forests in the states have been neglected. This neglect is a part of the reason for many of the forest fires that have ravaged millions of acres here, and have displaced so many people.
Designing a project using wood, and then bringing those ideas to life gives me a sense of comfort and a greater appreciation for this wonderful resource.
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Thanks for the update. You guys are on top of your game.
Wow! You're welcome @thebigsweed 😁
We wish you a wonderful day!
@thebigsweed, Mother Nature gives new Learning Experience everytime. Stay blessed.
Thanks for stopping in @chireerocks.
Owning and caring for our small piece of dirt and learning to appreciate what nature offers does make us feel like we have been blessed for sure.
Welcome and enjoy your Natural Blessings.
Ooh! Bob, now's a good time to do that thing where you click the three dots and click add to blog.
K, now I'm gonna read this
I'm back. That glossy table base looks like someone sculpted a human torso. That shadow shot, you said with the smallest head and had I not already said something about human torso, I mighta mentioned something about biggest wood.
Thanks for keeping an eye out for me. This morning I told you I had it down, and by this afternoon I forgot to do it, not how to do it.
That last line,
maybe I didn't word it like I would have liked, or as clearly as I could've, but you get the idea, don't you? 🤞🤞
I was thinking about getting in touch with Calvin Klien to see if he would like to purchase this table.
I think it would fit his office decor perfectly. Just slip on some of those form-fitting, testicle squeezing, private revealing underwear onto the crotch wood and just stand back and admire. From the commercials he puts on the TV, he wants you would feel like slipping on a pair of his undies was going to increase your magneticability, is that even a word, tenfold.
Way to hold your tongue.
You know what John Wayne says,
Talk low
Talk slow
and don't say too much!
Nice post!! From now on I’m pretty sure you won’t have this problem since the mill in SET!!
1000 BF 😎!!
Thanks Ry. I know that's Ava in the pic, but with part of her face covered, she looks like Mia, I had to check it out for a second. Plus this colored blindness thing I've got going on is getting a little worse. 😁😁
It’s MYA!!
Boy, she is getting big. I told you that condition I've got going on with my eyes is getting worse!
Nice post.
Your partner looks to be quite a hard worker, I think she should get a raise.😘
Raise, what do you mean, you can't live on minimum wage.
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