#1 wife has taken the old fellow across the way to raise (says he reminds her of her father). Anyway, on Wednesdays and Sundays she sends over a homecooked meal. She sends it via Alan walking over there, which I don't mind because I like talking to him too. Yesterday he tells me he cut down a Bradford Pear (smallish tree about 8" base). Now I don't know a Bradford Pear from any other kind of pear but I'm always seeing you guys talking about them. So, I ask if I can have some of it. Of course he says take it all. So, this morning I get the biggest limbs and the trunk. It's still pretty green, in fact it's all the way green. I lopped off a 2x2 piece of a limb about 6 inches long and cut the sides off with my bandsaw. As I'm cutting I see it's just another pale, nondescript piece of something that might make a fire a little hotter. So, I set it aside and worked on something else. In about an hour I come back around to it and it has turned the purtiest kind of dark orange that I've seen on a piece of wood.
Tomorrow I'll skin the bark and figure out the best lengths to cut it to, paint it and set it up someplace to dry. I think the trunk is probably too small for a bowl blank. I'd post pictures but in a stroke of good luck I managed to leave my phone at the house today when I went out to the shop. The lack of interruptions made sense when I discovered that.
I'll get some tomorrow.
Alan
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