to windy to haul feathers

     would most adequately describe today's weather , or something you might lose your head over as i did when the wind blew. clean blew his head right off his shoulders. if nothing else it is kind of a surreal shot comparable to the iraqi president khomeni's head when they upset his statue in iraq after our second invasion of that country. 

      don't ask me what i am waiting for to finish this carving . i guess to get caught up on everything else in my life. sometimes i just have to be in the mood to do the carving work . i have several pieces that need painted and finishing such as this one. first i have to glue his head back on to his shoulders . in order to do that i need both pieces, the head and the shoulders part to be wet where i glue them so i really need a bucket of water and some rags to soak the joint in between before applying the glue. i should soak a day ahead of time. then i will trim excess off with chainsaw after it sets and dries. this will make a watertight bond.i will also fill large cracks with glue and give a seamless finish to carving. then i can paint entire statue a grey color like stone as if someone carved it out of a hunk of stone. 

             this large tree looking kind of eerie is from oardc and i decided to include it in today's discussion as was kind of neat , as it had not leafed out and you could see its bare bones structure and a multitude of low hanging branches. this tree could be found close to the administration building on the oardc campus. 

        

           

          this is a tree we found on a drive back from oardc a couple of weekends ago on back orrville -massillon rd . outside of dalton . ohio, in an old farmstead yard. i was impressed by the huge size of the stump , and it is clearly has to be one the largest stumps i have seen in ohio. i don't think it is all for the logs benefit as it has a huge knot that makes up most of the base of the tree . unfortunately it is hollow on the back side and may not last long. you can see from the size of the mini van behind it, it is a huge tree though. 

         it reminds me of a tale of early settlers using trees like this one to hide from indians on the warpath. one story i read of a young mother with a buck board and a horse being chased by indians sought out a huge sycamore she knew of , and hid horse buggy and herself in side the hollow cavern of the tree as the indians chasing her went right by with out seeing any trace of her. that would have to be one huge old tree. this story i heard of when living in marietta area and was featured in the marietta times i believe. trees like this were common place 200 years ago but are very rare today. judging from its log size alone i would say that tree was here 200 years ago. if it could talk i am sure it would have some stories itself to tell . at least a few knotty ones.