The beginning and the end.

Last week we had an almighty wind storm through the region. Real 'blow a dog off it's chain stuff!' As you would expect, trees all over the place came down. As I've said previously, drought has affected the roots of many of these old trees. Above is a good example of that. This pine started a domino effect that resulted in over a dozen trees in this stand coming down.

It's a real mess in there with trees hung up and half down. Flip side being there's some nice saw logs amongst them.

This massive Radiata Pine came down at Rock House. It's 1200mm ( 47" ) at the base where I let it off the root ball and 990mm ( 38" ) just under the crown,  6.8m ( 22' ) away. There may even be some good stuff for seat blanks in there somewhere.....

While I was there I took down another dead Elm just across the driveway from where the last Elm fell. It was only a matter of time before it fell itself. There should be a good 3 or 4 sawlogs from this tree. As well as a generous supply of firewood for Mum and Dad's wood heater.

In just the same way as my connection to the above trees has begun, I'm now at the other end of the process with logs I milled 18 months ago. The London Plane above will be turned into panelled doors and drawer fronts for the last of the built-ins in the cottage.

Here's the frame just fitted into the old chimney cavity. Honed Limestone tiles ( just sitting there at the moment ) will cover up the old concrete hearth.

I broke up the monotony of the graduated drawers by dividing the top left into two smaller drawers. As I've seen in a good deal of other Shaker built-ins. Just the drawer runners in the bottom to go now and the frame/carcass is finished. With age and the sunlight streaming in of an afternoon, the Vic. Ash frame will turn a really rich golden colour.

All the uprights are dovetailed into the dividers. Dividers are loose mortise and tenoned into the uprights and the runners are all glued and screwed into place. Should make for a sturdy piece. It's a constant process, but a rewarding one. As a good friend of mine says. "It's never ending mate." "There's a beginning, a middle........ and another beginning!"