Finding New Life (and Profit) in Doomed Trees

THE wooden kitchen bar in the suburban home of Richard and Donna Majer has a canyonlike crack ripping right down its middle, which is exactly what the couple cherish most about it. It’s not just furniture — it’s a story, complete with a moral.

“As I spend time with it, I see the beauty of the hard life the tree had,” Mrs. Majer says. “And it helps me find the beauty in my own life’s scars.”

The crack occurred three years ago in a storm that mortally wounded the towering oak in the Majers’s backyard. It was a family member; Mr. Majer had planted it with his father 53 years earlier. Devastated, the Majers consulted an arborist, who said yes, it had to come down, but that there were a couple of guys in Seattle they should talk to.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/energy-environment/08sustain.html?hpw

So do I.


I love to see articles like this and I'll add it to the "scrapbook" I display at arts & crafts shows. Living in Arizona for 25 years, I've seen a lot of beautiful desert landscape turned into developments, and it's not always possible to salvage the very usable materials before they're literally carted off to the landfill. About 10 years ago, when the massive developments began around Buckeye, Arizona, where we lived, my husband and I did get permission from the contractor to take whatever we wanted prior to it being removed. We could not cut standing trees, but we could take anything that had already been downed for construction.

Having neither the time, equipment, or market for custom furniture, we still were able to make some cool stuff.

All the jars and bowls and boxes in these pictures were made from salvaged wood. The ironwood box in the center is lined with cedar, salvaged from a wild bird food display at Walmart.


Tansy Gold

My cousin (in DC) has been using his father/my uncle's HUGE desk, from 70+ years ago; it is from one tree. Unfortunately he's no longer able to use it, and can't give it away!

And I posted this recently; should be LOTS of wood available around here!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=148x3238