Five or six months ago, a huge limb fell off the back of our beautiful apple tree, managing to avoid people, animals, and our pasture fence.

Mike Conklin came over to chop it up, leaving us with a dozen beautiful stumps of wood. Some will be chopped into firewood.

Right away, I thought one of them would be perfect for my office; I could put one next to my chair and put tea or coffee or my daily veggie snacks on there.

I could also put my camera there when I am uploading photos. We rolled three or four of the best stump cuts into the big barn to keep them dry.

After sanding and polyurethane coating, there is one more coat, at least, to go.

The old farmers told me that apple is a fine wood, but the stumps needed four to five months to dry, and then the bark would start to peel off by itself. Some said I should keep the bark on, it won’t hurt anything.

The wood will dry a lot faster in our house, with the wood stoves going in the winter.

This drying process has begun to happen, so I decided to clean it, sand it, coat it, and bring it in.

This project is taking some sweat (much of it from Maria) but a lot from me. We had to scrape and brush off bird droppings, hay, dirt, and bumps. They did not go easily.

That took two brooms and a half-hour. We went to the hardware store to get one piece of rough sandpaper and one soft one. That took a half hour of sanding, until the wood was white and smooth.

Maria rolled the stump onto the porch with a rolling cart, and I did the sanding.

I sanded with both sandpaper pieces and an electric hand sander,  and then put polyurethane on, two or three coats.

When this one dries, I’ll paint two or three more. I should have it in my office tomorrow, and I’m excited to be getting it.

After the first sanding above, it took a lot more to get the surface down to the wood and smooth.

Maria might take another one of the stumps for her studio if she decides to.

The biggest one will go outside to live on a stool for us to sit on when we visit the donkeys. It is just at their head level so we can look into the eyes of one another.

I appreciate living on my farm; it is truly a gift that keeps on giving (and taking.) I think this will be in my office by lunch tomorrow. Take that, Sue Silverstein.