WHAT MADNESS

What madness is it that  causes normally sane and reasonable men to go to extremes to acquire a little  ukulele wood,  wood that they will not be able to use for years (if they live long enough).
On an earlier blog I showed you the magnificent black walnut growing out in the county.  Today I learned that it grows beside the location of a long gone pioneer homestead deeded in 1896.  This tree is almost certainly of that era, 129 years old.

Last winter a lower limb crashed to the ground, apparently a victim of its own weight.  I happened to come across it recently and negotiated a four foot piece of it to salvage for pinecone necks.  I won't be able to use it for years, but I could not stand to see the wood from this magnificent tree wasted.  I will save photos of the tree and give them to people who buy a uke with a walnut neck from this tree.

Here I am at the base of the tree with the limb cut into sizes I could handle and long enough for pinecone uke necks.  Now that I have cut it up I have to get it to the truck, into the truck and home.  I am thinking about martinis about this time, it is 4;45 pm.

Another look at the logging operation.  There is some nice wood there, A challenge for my band saw when the time comes.  In the meantime I hauled it into the workshop to seal the end grain.  Otherwise it will dry too rapidly and develop cracks and all my labors would have been in vain.

Here is the goop I will seal the ends with.  Kind of a waxy paint like substance- no smell, dries kind of rubbery.

And here they are all gooped up and ready to be put away in storage for maybe a year before I take them to the bandsaw and cut them into smaller pieces.  Then another year of storage and drying and I might be able to make some necks.  Phew, I think a trip to the lumberyard would have been easier.  Now it is time for that Martini.