Wood!

So... I always said I didn't process wood, because I never had the wood to process... and it's a pain to contact orchards and get permission for trimmings and whatnot.  Much too busy for that.

But then, Jim was going to spray some chin-safe trees with vegetation killer.  And I just couldn't let that wood go to waste!

Right now, I have both grapevine and mulberry wood here.  I've processed most of the grapevine... just need to boil one and bake one last batch, and stick another batch in the oven to bake for a bit, and that'll be done. 

Grapevine in the pot, filling with water to boil a few more times.  Mulberry in the tub soaking, prior to scrubbing.

The mulberry has all been scrubbed, so then onto boiling and baking. 

Scrubbed mulberry

I made the mistake of leaving some of the pieces I brought back, overly large.  The intention was that I was going to cut them into toy pieces, so I didn't need them perfectly stick sized.  Well... those pieces, as is, will not fit in my oven.  So, I'm going to have to turn on my table saw and hack them down to more manageable pieces before I can go much further with that.

taaaaaaad bit too big

... once those are cut down, and the grapevine is all processed, then onto the mulberry!  There's even a few more mulberry tries on the property that I can trim, plus an elm and a few other fun things I can process.

So, upcoming, anticipate seeing some of this wood for sale, and some of the thicker pieces being added to toys (or maybe a new toy???) and sold like that.  Exciting!!