There was a linden tree in my neighbor's yard for the past 45 years. Linden trees are rare here because they are not hardy enough for our climate . The tree was planted when a long ago homeowner was given to tree and was to put it in to see how it would do. The original neighbor left a long time ago but the linden tree did well. It was the best of the few linden trees in town. Usually they don't reach maturity because they freeze before they ripen off in the fall.
Now the tree was taken down last week because the 5 main stems were starting to split and there was a danger of the tree falling and hitting the house.
Now we have wood carvers and lathers who cruise the neighborhoods watching for trees that are being taken down. If it's an interesting type of wood they ask for the wood.
My friend David was first on the scene and he took a couple of big chunks. David told his friend Andrew and Andrew showed up on the scene and promptly informed the neighbor that this was basswood and the very best wood for carving as you can carve it against the grain. Andrew further told the neighbor that if you bought this wood it would be about $300.00 for a 4 foot length.
So the neighbor kicked himself and some quick deals were made which didn't include money. The neighbor also could not believe that his tree was a basswood as he had been told by the city that it was a linden tree. The neighbor checked on the web and sure enough the linden tree is a basswood.
Now I'm sure most of you know about these trees.
Now the neighbor wanted to keep the stump and make it into a planter. He did a very good job of it. The bottom was just too big to take off with the small chain saw.
This one looks a bit like a person with mouth and eyes and legs(pants)
So an attractive planter was made out of the stump.
You've seen this figure many times. I've written of how it came to be. The birch tree died and we left a 6 ft stump to turn into "something". We wanted to carve it but soon realized carving was way beyond our ability. We settled on a little outline of a house. Not my idea though!
We've had fun with this creation as people have commented and lots of little kids have to look at it each time they go by.
We were sitting in the backyard yesterday afternoon when we noticed someone at the front door. We called the guy to the back. He had stopped to tell us to take the bark off the stump so the wood wouldn't rot.
He had just finished this chainsaw carving at my neighbors.
We visited with this guy and it was a learning experience. He had taken a good look at our creation and saw things that other people never see. There are silhouettes of faces on either side of the stump!
What he did for my neighbor has lots of detail. The ideas were my neighbors and the guy just followed instructions.
I can imagine many little kids will look at this carving.
