A week ago, or so it seems, I was out in the woods across the road, looking at standing timber that might become a cabinet or dining table.  And I spy this fallen log in an advanced state of decay.  Obviously this is not going to be my next candidate for a piece of furniture. But it does bring to mind the connectedness of the woodworker and the wood.  If I do not take immediate action to harvest a downed tree, nature takes over.  In this case many hundreds of board feet of prime oak turn into hummus over a period of years.  First the outer bark decays and falls away, then the outer layers, rich in nutrients, serve as the food for this luscious carpet of moss.  Over the next few years, this merges with the forest floor Maybe 50 years from now this oak will just be a line of moss on the ground. 

So my work is to stop that process of decay for a while.  Harvest the wood, mill it into shapes. Join it using processes that have been around for a thousand years, and finish it with a coating that keeps it from decaying further.  It may not last for a millennium, but it will slow the process of aging for that particular tree.

I’m glad to have a hand in that. 

-R.