Save that lantana

In England, lantana is a lovely hedging plant with pretty flowers.  But in Australia, lantana is a weed -- a noxious pest that spreads everywhere (and when you throw fresh branches on the ground, the buds take root and grow new bushes!).

A few weeks ago I had cut down a few lantanas and piled them up (suspended above the ground, so that they wouldn't take root) to deal with later.  But recently I cleaned up my mess a little, and cut the main trunk into lengths that I could eventually burn.

The main trunk is about as big around as my wrist.  As I was cutting it into lengths, I realized that it actually has a pretty nice color!  So, I saved the two larger-diameter pieces.

Here's the first photo, which is kind of an optical illusion:  to me, it looks firewood-sized.  (Note that I oiled the wood, to make the color and the grain look more like what a finished project would look like.)

But, here's the same pieces with my thumb as a size reference.  Pretty small.  Barely usable.

But, "barely usable" is usable nonetheless.  I'll make a very small box out of this -- one of these days.


--GG