I've been in this business for a while now, and I'm no stranger to beautiful materials.   At this point, it takes something pretty exceptional to get me fired up.  I am currently in possession of some really exciting lumber, and it came from my own backyard.  Literally.

My wife and I moved into our home in Salt Lake City about eight years ago, and a major feature of the backyard was an old box elder tree that measured over five feet in diameter.  It pretty much defined the yard, and I loved it.  I never wanted to see it go, but one day I walked out onto the back porch to bring in some laundry, and with no warning whatsoever, a branch fell from the tree.  And when I say branch, I need to clarify that I'm talking about an enormous limb.  It was over a foot in diameter, and over twenty feet long.  It fell on our picnic table, and smashed it to pieces.  This was the same spot where we often sat with family and friends, and it was very scary to consider the kind of risk we'd been living with.  I called a few arborists in, hoping that a trim would suffice, but all of them confirmed my worst fear: that the tree needed to be removed, for safety's sake.  I cried, and I don't care who knows it.  I had hoped that the tree would outlive us all.

In a roundabout way, it will.   As they worked, the arborists discovered that the wood in the trunk was shockingly pretty.  Since I was there at the time, I was able to work with these experts to carefully cut out  a number of coffee table-sized slabs and tons of other blanks for salad bowls and other things.  The wood has been drying for almost four years, and it is ready for use.  I am now using it in select heirloom quality projects.  Here are some pictures of the wood- if it strikes your fancy, please contact me and we can discuss how it can be incorporated into your own projects.