It will be lumber

About a month ago, on the road where I live, there was a pile of cut logs by the side of the road:  the local road crews leave piles of branches and/or logs when they cut down trees that are in danger of interfering with the power lines, and a few days later they come by with the chippers and pick up the branches.

So, I saved two of the larger pieces.  I didn't have time immediately to split them into blanks -- to prevent them from cracking while they dried.  So, I stuck them in my kids' wading pool. 

A few weekends later, I split one of the logs into blanks -- each about 1/8 of the circle.  And two weekends after that -- which was last weekend -- I split the other one.

Here's what they look like at the moment (I need to find a better place than "on the edge of the kids' trampoline"):

I realize that at the moment it's indistinguishable from firewood.  But in a few years the moisture content will have reached equilibrium -- and then I can saw it to my desired thickness, handplane it smooth, and make something useful out of it -- probably some sort of storage box.

Something more useful -- and interesting -- than the mulch that it would have otherwise become.  ;)



--GG