Earlier this summer, my daughter was driving home and went past a house that was having a huge maple tree being taken down.  Most kids would wait until they got home to say anything, tell their dad what they saw, then leave it up to him to decide if he wanted to do anything.  Not Megan…  She called and asked me if I wanted any free wood.  That’s kinda like asking a pyromaniac if they’d like a new lighter.  She laughed and said she’d be home in about 15 minutes.  When she got here, her little car was just about to scrape the pavement, because the whole trunk and the back seat were all filled with great big chunks of freshly cut maple.  After telling her how bad this was on her car, I asked her how she got so much loaded up.  She laughed and said she went up to “the guys” who were working and asked if they minded if she took a piece of wood or two.  Apparently, but the time the conversation ended, all the saws had been shut off and they were all loading up whatever chuck of wood she pointed to.

Here’s the first of the finished products from Megan’s Maple tree.  There was a big knot on one side, and when it finished drying, the knot had split like a star and the whole middle had fallen out.  The fix was to add colored epoxy.  It was supposed to be a cobalt blue, but this was the first time I’ve used the dye and apparently a little goes past a long ways, so it looks black.  There was also this weird deformity under the bark on one side, so I left some of that in the final product.  All things considered, I’m pretty pleased with this one!

Thank you, Megan, for feeding my addiction.  Love you lots!