| June 8, 2019
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening Robert Frost
Robert Frost comes to mind so often when I am outside. While the setting for this poem is in winter, the weight of the logs, and the lack of me knowing what I was doing, reminded me that there was much work to be done, many things to be learned, before I could find myself with results from that before me.
Through a few pep talks from friends, I got the logs moved to a place where they could be stored dry and I painted all the ends with some leftover paint, I think I had leftover exterior “November Rain” and then “Ultra White” so I ran them through the Magnum airless sprayer and got the ends covered pretty well. They had already started splitting from sitting out for a few months; probably would have been better to cut fresh ends and then paint. At any rate, several years later, it did seem to save some of the splitting, but definitely not all of it. I was able to get plenty of boards out of the three logs that I have since turned to lumber.
This was quite a day. There are two piles of logs, and looking back now, I didn’t really need to save them all, as some of them are more like branches. Some of the smaller limbs/logs had gotten some rot on them and so I downsized a lot of those by slicing up and then making into bowl blanks. There’s some cherry and sassafras in there. The woods are completely different in their handling. The sassafras tends to rot pretty quick and is a fairly light wood. For the really small items, I have already cut them up and split into firewood.
I feel a little bad for going ahead and using for firewood, but I have more logs than I will probably use in the next 10 years, and certainly more than enough to make a lot of stories. I am so glad that I’ve taken the effort to save these logs. When I’ve made something from the trees and gift to our visiting friends, it fills me with pride to know that will be a part of their home.
But, so much to learn! I had help from a neighbor with their mill for the first three logs, but I’ve decided it’s probably best to go ahead and slice the logs on my own, on my own time. It’s a lot of work, but taking the time with the wood will allow me to select the grains and the orientation, and learn so much about the trees around me.
Miles to go before I sleep.
Miles to go before I sleep.