Third life of a walnut tree 

When my wife and I bought our property about 25 years ago, there was an old, neglected, rotting log cabin, still standing, long since abandoned that our builder was anxious to destroy with the bulldozer.  Fortunately, we rescued some of the timber.  We happily discovered usable cedar, walnut and white ash logs that we later milled up and have used in various projects over the years.  The following are pictures of the original cabin and finally, my last project from that lumber which was a mirror for the living room.  I made the mirror from an old walnut log, riddled with wormholes.  For added visual interest I made the bottom of the mirror about 2 inches wider than the top and put the bottom and placed the bottom rail on a horizontal plane.  I finished the wood with a couple of coats of hand-rubbed tongue oil which makes made the wood a pleasure to touch as it is as smooth as a baby's bottom.  This first pic shows the cabin before we dismantled it.  Notice how nearby trees grew up and around the structure. 

  Here we harvest some of the logs from the cabin.  Notice the cedar logs that have retained their color for more than 100 years.

There is a certain joy that comes from working with hand tools.

Although this photo doesn't show it, the walnut boards revealed hidden areas of purple and blue tones when the finish was applied. 

Here is the finished product.

Signed on the back

So there we are.  A living walnut tree cut down over a hundred years ago and given new life as part of the wall of someone's home.  Then many years later harvested again, this time from the cabin and re-purposed in it's new life as a mirror for the walls of our home.   My wife and I are very happy that these logs escaped the bulldozer and awaiting burn pile. 

My first blog post

Welcome to my blog.  I've created this blog because I have a nagging urge to create and I have the honesty to admit the ironically frustrating fact that I don't consider myself very creative.  Still, occasionally, I produce a photo that I am proud of or I create a bit of woodworking that I like to show off and so I've decided that a blog might be the best vehicle for me to put my stuff "out there." 

I'll begin with my most recent project.  This is a Lane Cedar Chest from the 30's or 40's that originally had beautiful mahogany veneer.  Decades ago someone painted the veneer a horrid shade of Pepto Bismol pink.  In an effort to strip the veneer of said sick pink, I used chemicals from hell packaged in the form of Bix Stripper which promptly removed most of the horrid pink and destroyed most of the lovely veneer.  To hide the damage I resorted to chalk paint, "tattoos," wax, and elbow grease.  Here is the result. 

I hope that someone "out there" views and enjoys my first little blog post and my cedar chest project.  There are more projects to come so stay tuned.  Peace and cheers, Gary