From little things, big things grow...

A few weeks back we had an unexpected deluge in Kyneton. It was early evening and after hastily sandbagging the back door I headed off down to the factory to check the damage. A quick run up the ladder and onto the roof cleared out some blocked downpipes and I came back home looking like I'd been swimming in my clothes. But before I could head inside and get changed, Lisa let me know that an acquaintance had rang to say that a large Oak had fallen down in their front yard if I was interested in the timber.

Suffice to say I shot down there straight away, only to see a large portion of a once grand English Oak, sprawled across the drive, front fence and unfortunately a car and the remnants of a fairly new carport! The owner Genny told me that she believed the tree was at least 120 years old and possibly older.

 A glance at the trunk immediately told the story of how the tree had given way. The vast majority of the trunk was one huge termite nest. The little blighters had undermined so much of the tree, that the huge soaking of water was more than the trunk could support and down she came.

The next day champion axeman and oracle of all things tree related, Pat O'Toole and his crew slowly dismembered the tree until it was not much more than a pile of sawdust. On a positive note Pat managed to recover 3 very nice sawlogs for me. Great. And I took away a couple of tandems worth of Oak firewood for the workshop heater. Terrific. 

Due to the damage caused by the first tree an inspection of a second and equally old English Oak in the backyard, found that trees root ball to be almost non existent and so with Council approval it too has had to come down. Pat being the gentleman he is again took the tree down in a manner which preserved the best of the usable timber. Much appreciated.

Today the logs went out to Keith's property just out of town, where I mill all my timber. Keith, like Pat, is another example of an unquestionably helpful and downright good bloke. The logs are piling up out there now, so I'm glad that the weather is cooling as there's a lot of milling to be done. Chairs don't make themselves out of thin air you know! But I have to say, there is something very heartening about being able to produce our chairs and other products out of truly local timber. And I'm glad that some good can come of what was the loss of two very beautiful old trees, which will be missed on the Kyneton landscape.