Thought I would post this for a few assenting Haroom Ha's, as I only get "The Look" from my wife...
Also thought it would be instructive to some of the newer stave hunters out there looking for wood sources.
I work out of my house these days and look after my two youngsters, 1 and 3 year old boys.
They go to school part time, which gives me some daylight hours to call on clients as not all are up to after hours work.
So anytime I'm out running the boys around or to and from work calls I drive the neighborhood.
Three weeks ago after a humdinger of a storm front moved through I came across a beautiful sight, to me as a wood hunter at least.
Sticking out of a Smashed down chainlink fence was some beautiful Yella Wood.
We done have much Osage around this area so I figured it as Mulberry, correctly.
After a week of dropping back by a couple times a day trying to catch the land owner at home I left a note.
In the note I offered to cut up the tree for free to his specifications and stack it out for heavy trash pickup.
And that I would like to take the straight stuff of a certain length for use in making Wooden Bows.
The property owner called me back after about a week and a half.
He said he was intrigued by my note, and that he was an Old Archer, now reduced to using a crossbow to hunt, by age and wear and tear on his person.
We talked for a while about Archery and the tree and made a date to cut her up.
We got her cut and most of the tree hauled out, leaving 2 seven foot trunk sections to deal with.
He asked me how I would get the Trunks out and was dubious when I told him I would split them on site with a sledge, three wedges and a couple of hatchet heads.
It took me about an hour to split the upper trunk section into eights.
I'll be doing the same with the lower trunk early next week.
So far I got five billet sections 20" to 30" in diameter.
The two Trunk sections range from 24" to 33" in diameter.
Thanks for looking!
-gus
