I Think the Birch Will Win.

       I made a rather rash post a little while ago. I described taking down my birch tree and that my wife had asked that the stump be left long. She wanted to do something with the stump which I thought was carving. Now I had the sneaking suspicion that I would be ordered to do the job. I know that my talent in this area is completely lacking.

The stump was a meter and a half or five feet.

      The first thing I was requested to do is trim the top of the stump in a vee shape. Now chain saws are not at all precise ...especially in my hands. That worked out not too badly and after 4 hours of sanding it looks pretty good.

Not bad for angle but a little rough.

      The next request was to peel the bark off at the top of the stump. Where I started taking off bark I had a surprise as the bark did not come off like it was supposed to. I found out that over half of the tree was dead at that level. Where the tree was living , the bark pealed off nicely.

Peeling the bark took some time.

    Now when I got the bark off and looked I found a surprise. There was a face that had been hiding under the bark for about 40 years. What luck! Maybe I won't have to carve it after all. 

Now I swear that I see a face. Too bad I took the guy's fore head off.

   I showed the face to my wife but she wasn't impressed. Now I found out that her idea was to paint the outline of a house on the stump. I had to sand  the side of the stump as some of the bark had stayed on. Then she prepared a stencil and put it on the tree and said, "Paint this." She gave me brown paint. After some very careful painting when I looked up and the thing was a total disaster. I called my wife to look at the output and she was disappointed too. 

    So I think the birch won on this go round. I might have to crawl on my hands and knees to my friend Bob or maybe talk to Far Side about this project!

Demise of My Friend the Birch

    A few days ago I had to do the honorable thing and cut down my friend the paper birch. I moved to this place in 1970 and the birch was a nicely established young tree. Over the years I have enjoyed it's color , shade, shelter and company. Birch have very bright yellow fall leaves and a good pleasant summer green leaf. Birch have dense branches and leaves so provide excellent shade. Shelter from winds and rain have been provided by my birch. The company of my birch has been enjoyed for 42 years. Whenever I came home the birch was standing tall to welcome me.

     Over the years the birch has fought off  leaf miners and gone through a few droughts. Birch do not have a long life span and this one had lived past its normal life span. In other words it was a very elderly tree. Lastly the birch leaf borer attached the tree and this time the tree did not have the strength to fight off the infestation. Bit by bit , branch by branch the birch lurched into a decrepit state until it was time to take it down. This is the tree that had a branch break off and break my car window and trunk.

Last minutes of a long life

    So recently my friend David came over to take down the birch. David was supposed to get the wood but he declined as he didn't want to get the birch borer in his tree. Fortunately neighbors across the street came to my rescue and took the wood and most of the bigger branches for their outside stove. They were extremely helpful and helped in the total clean up of the tree,

More branches to clean up

    So there we are cleaning up the branches and wood.

Branches to be cleaned up

    The tall stump is left so that we can carve a simple sculpture on it and put our house number on it. 

Good neighbor Barb and the stump

    So another old friend has passed and gone.

    

Beautiful Birch Bowls

        I have recently become the owner of a set of beautiful birch bowls which were produced from my own birch trees.

        Two years ago two of my four birches decided to depart from this life. Since I had a chain saw and had felled hundreds of trees I decided to take the trees down myself. Birch trees aren't that tall and I could safely drop them inside my yard.

      I was busy taking off branches and loading them when a person I knew slightly stopped and told me his story. I knew that David was dedicated to using wood for heat and super insulating his house so that less energy would be consumed. What David wanted was part of my trees as he wanted to make bowls. David's hobby is making things on his lathe and one of the things he specialized in was bowls. So sure I told him to take what he wanted. Before he left my wife had come on the scene and  said that she would like a sample of what he would make.
 

     David explained the long process of making a bowl. First, he cuts the log to the diameter if the bowl. Then he cuts the log lengthwise. Now the wood is coated with wax and left to dry for about a year. This process prevents the would from splitting. When the wood is thoroughly dried he saws it  into a rough bowl shape. This piece is put on the lathe and the bowl is carved out using the lathe. Now it's waxed and left to dry again. The final process is the to finish the wood by sanding with ever finer sandpaper. And voila you have a bowl. Yes the wood is oiled to keep it from cracking and splitting. So two years later you have a birch bowl with the rich wood color and grain patterns.

    This relationship went further as David had loads of shavings which he didn't want to dispose of at the waste site. So I get shavings every year to dig into my garden. The Medicine River Wildlife Rehabilitation center takes lots of shavings for the bedding for their animals.

    I have been fortunate to visit David's shop and see the many special tools he uses and see him start on a piece of wood and shape it into a bowl. It's interesting to watch him before he starts as he looks at the wood and decides what he will produce. The skilled hands and machinery seem to magically bring a bowl out of the wood as if the bowl had always been  in the wood.

    So from the death of my trees I discovered a whole new process of making bowls. I also renewed my acquaintance with David.