My mom and dad finally decided to hire a guy to come chop down some trees of theirs that have been on the way out for about 10 years now. Ants at the base, lots of large, dying limbs up high, etc. One is a pear, one is a really big red elm and one is a nice ash. The pear and part of the elm are down, but the guy running the operation has what I wouldn't call Employee of the Year. He put gas in the boom-truck's diesel and ran it until it seized. Oops! Anyways, I went down and helped the folks move the pear and parts of the elm to the burn pile and selected a bunch for myself. This is just five or six trunk sections. The big stuff is still in the trunk, he'll be dropping that soon. It's about 40" in diameter. I've also got several more trunk sections to process at my dad's acreage. Some is also getting kept for smoking, some for small boards to make a jewelry box for my daughter and some for a buddy who makes knives and needs some scales. Really pretty wood when fresh. Hope is holds at least some of it's color. I look forward to getting some red elm too. That tree is probably 100 years old and has a diameter of something like 6 or 7 feet. Hopefully there's some nice solid hollow form material in there. Anyways, thought I'd brag. Now to wait for it to dry a bit (it's sealed). If anyone is around Sioux City, IA shoot me a PM, I'm sure dad wouldn't shoo anyone away who is taking some of the heavy stuff off his hands. He's too old to be moving that stuff around anyways. I'm glad I could help and show my kids a good day of hard work on the acreage. They don't get that enough living in town. pear wood 1.jpgpearwood 2.jpg