My husband's favorite tree fell down. The "Grandfather Tree" lived on the other side of our creek, on the edge of the woods. It is the tree that the grandfairies walked to with him, to hear his stories about our family's history.
When it fell over in a big storm, we decided to salvage the wood (oak) to make a table for our dining room. We found a guy who could slice it up, but that was complicated, and we had to first have another tree guy out to cut the main trunk and place it on the ground to make it easier to approach.
My husband loves playing with a chainsaw, more than about anything. But this thing was waaayyy too big for his saw, this required a pro.
It will also require a mill to cut it up further and a kiln to dry it. Months later, we will have the pieces to build our table.
Of course, before that, it has to go across the creek…. Yes, the pieces are as heavy as they look….
It took 6 people with those appliance dolly straps on to lift one onto the trailer. We are transporting them to my son's farm to store and age, one at a time, that is all the trailer will hold. The weather turned cold and rainy after this one was moved, we will have to wait for a dryer time to move the rest. Plus my boy is just moving into his new place this week and is busy getting settled and working on projects there.
This is the table I have now, which I've been pretty happy with, but we regularly have dinners for at least 10 people and it isn't big enough. I've been thinking about getting a rustic, farmhouse table for the room, something long and narrow. At least 10'. (this is an old photo, the room is different now, this was the best one I could find of the table itself, it can seat 10, but we often need 11, and 10 is slightly crowded)
The style of table I had in mind was more of a repurposed, old wood in planks. But now that we have this, sentimental hunk of oak, I need to decide what to do with it. It is worth more as is, and is almost a shame to cut it into boards. So, do I want to have it milled to become wide planks, or do I want to leave it as is and have a live edge?
We could trim it up, something like this.
Either way I decide, I want to find old legs to use. But man, they will have to be STURDY! Although, that might not look as good with the slab top, I might need to consider a bit.
And I want it light. Maybe a pickled stain? White or gray rubbed in, wiped off, then sealed with a mat finish. When we began discussing this, I started a pinterest board with a few ideas, and none of them are quite right. But still kind of helpful. I'm still pondering, and need to make a decision before we move the slabs across the creek. It would be easier to move them if we cut them first. If we are leaving the slabs as is, the process will be harder. One definitely stays as is, our son is building a table for his new farm from one of them. We have 5 slabs, total, so there is plenty to go around, and he is going to build my table too.
Here is another photo of the existing table, that I found from Christmas time. 8 fits nicely, you can see how 10 can be a squeeze.
The style of the room will be changing, with the new table, but I'm ready for a change. A bit of roughness will compliment the stone of the fireplace we built a couple years ago.
EDIT- We have come to a decision! We will have an 11' x 35" slab, with the edges cut off for our table. For a desk in my husband's office, he will have live edge on the outside of the slab.
