Surprised Carol yesterday..........

[Wayne in BC]

i had been eyeballing several big Cedars that blew down at the back of my property. Too costly to get them out of the swamp there and i hate the thought of using Cedar for fire wood as it is such a valuable wood! It burns quickly and is ok for early season fires.

So, after a few weeks of thinking on it i finally grabbed my two chainsaws, the little one for carving and the big one for cutoffs. This tree was lying on its branches and rootball so was 4 ft off the ground. Knowing i could not even drag the 200 lb piece the 100 ft through the swamp and heavy underbrush, i did most of the cutting right there which brought weight down to about half and was able to it drag to the quad and trailer, then finished by my shop where i had the tools. Wish i could have found my adze! I will find when i don't need it:veryangry:

About 6 hours of work including clean up of the hollowed part, but i will do it different next time LOL!
Lined with poly because the fresh Cedar is so toxic to other plants. The bottom slopes to one end and the poly has holes in the bottom to allow draining, i bored a couple 1/2 inch holes in the bottom of the low end of the log also.
I cut a couple slices off the bigger end of the log for a stand and did a bit of a rough job of it.

Perhaps a mistake because several friends and family are hinting that they want one I have quite a few big Cedar trees down back there but not sure how long my back, shoulders, and arms will last! It was okay 20 years back when i worked building log houses but now........

That is the upper pond behind it and i chose low growing flowers so the view is not restricted but heck the pond is overgrown anyway and i have been too lazy to clean it up.

[attachment 166928 Planter2.jpg]

 

[Royal]

more complicated than one would guess. Now I gotta find a tree. Will oak work or will it split too easily?

 

[George-CT]

the yard work.... Nice looking place. Any fish in the pond?

Geo

 

[Wayne in BC]

that is the smaller pond, about 5x6 ft. The lower pond in not real big perhaps 12x8 and i have a couple small pumps to move the water between them. For several years i had a dozen large and very tame Koi, a couple 16 inches long. They would eat from your hand and beg like dogs. Last year a damn Mink showed up and slaughtered all but a few recent young ones! The nasty critter just killed all of them, piled them under the nearby shrubs and only ate a couple!
The three young ones are now about 6 inches long but i have about given up on fish as it there is always a predator around and i'm getting to feel like Elmer Fudd around here between Deer, Coons, Bears, Mink and herons

 

[Wayne in BC]

but i'm thinking Oak would be so hard that it would be quite a chore to hollow out the log and the weight would be a real issue to move around.
Next time i will do a horizontal "plunge cut" near both bottom ends to the length of my big saws 22 inch bar at each end and stay just an inch or so inside the walls. Those cuts at bottom of each end will serve for drainage, give a fairly flat bottom and save hours of careful chipping away to hollow it out without hitting the edges and sides with the saw. Then two slices, one down each side to the depth of the bottom cut, then one across end and lift out the plug.

 

[Micheal_R]

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[Cupajo]

Wayne you're right handy with that saw!

Some folks make money with that sort of thing.

Looks like a professional job to me.

As for ponds, I had a nice one for a while with bull frogs and a few fish, but the raccoons reduced their number and keeping the pond clean and looking nice got to be too much of a chore for me and I gave away the pond denizens and filled the hole with mulch.

My hats off to Ya buddy!

Nice work,

CJ

 

[Wayne in BC]

n/t

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

I bet Carol is proud of it, especially knowing that you made it for her. I bet they would quickly sell if you made several more and put them out front with a for sale sign on them. Wayne, you did a beautiful job! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Wayne in BC]

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