A couple of weekends ago the woman who runs our kids' daycare called and said "I've had some trees cut down. If you can get here today you can have them." I loaded up the tools and trailer and headed over, wondering what I'd find. When I arrived I was told "It's Ash and Oak." The dropped trees were actually Ash, Oak, Red Maple, White Pine, and Basswood. Since the trees were free and since the homeowner asked me to take everything, I didn't feel I had a right to refuse anything. I was able to leave most of the Pine (an old guy up the road burns Pine in his OWB) but I did have to take the Basswood. But she'd had the branches cut off all the trees and was giving the tops to her goats to devour the leaves which meant even less work for me. So taking the Basswood wasn't too big a deal.
This past Saturday afternoon I went over for a second load, which I unloaded from the trailer Sunday morning. As I'm unloading I'm trying to figure out what to do with Basswood, while my four year old son comes over to help. This boy isn't built very big and he's frequently frustrated when he can't pick up the rounds that he thinks he should be able to lift. So when he started shouting Dad! Dad! I thought he'd gotten into trouble trying to lift too large piece off the trailer. I spun around to see him holding a 14" long, 6" round of Basswood with an ear to ear grin. "Dad! I got Super strong!!" Well, that just made my day. Turns out Basswood's best use is for turning children into super heroes.
