Stuck Up

Much of the lumber we use at Out of the Woodwork is material that has been milled, dried and machined starting with the log itself. It makes one appreciate the cost of a piece of lumber purchased at a retail outlet when you consider the time and energy required to turn trees into furniture. As with much of what I do, the concern is not so much with what it costs as with whether or not it is worth doing in the first place. There is little that can compare to the satisfying feeling that comes of taking a tree, an undeniable gift from God, and making something useful of it.

The expression, "windfall" took on new meaning this year with the great number of trees that came down in March and April storms. Since we only sawmill part time, we will be busy with the process for most of the summer trying to get out from under the great pile of logs we have as a result of the damage. The first of the boards from the mill are now stacked and stickered. Hence the title of today''s blog. Stickering is the process of placing dividers, called stickers, between each layer in the board pile and is necessary to allow air to circulate between them.

Unless one has a drying kiln, the process of drying takes years; several outdoors followed by a couple more indoors. It's a never ending process if we want a continuous supply of lumber dry enough to be used for most projects. I have entered that bittersweet period where it is obvious that some of the lumber being stacked and stickered today will be used by someone else because my woodworking days will be over before it is used up. But that's the way it works. Some of the material I use was put into piles by my father knowing he would outlive the need for them.

So, I ask my readers this. What is it that you have done that will enable the next generation to build on what you have done? Lumber is a very real material type thing. But what we build as good stewards of what God as entrusted to us determines the type of world our children and their children will inherit. We have all been given time, talent and treasure (The three "T's" of stewardship). Hopefully, we leave more than a pile of boards. But that's a step in the right direction.