Never Seen One Like This (long)

[Glenn Hodges]

A tree surgeon that I have befriended called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted any wood. I asked him, "Whatcha got?", and he started naming all types of trees. I stopped him and said I am looking for holly, and old fashioned pear I don't need any of the other stuff, but I will take some of that dogwood if it is large enough. He said you better come on because I am about ready to burn. When I arrived he had 3 piles each one larger than my house of cherry, pecan, bradford pear, oak, sycamore, etc plus this giant dogwood which I thought I would share with you. The butt of this thing is 20 inches in diameter and I don't know how tall it was, but you can see all the pieces in the floor of this 18 ft. long 4 wheel trailer we are about to unload. I will test some of it now, and probably let some of it spalt. This is considered a giant in our area, in fact he said it is the largest dogwood he has ever had to cut down, cost, 1 bowl. I could not stand to allow this to be burned, and wanted to share it with all of you. The boy in the picture is Mark and he helped me unload it. The other picture is the trailer fully loaded, he had some nice pecan with a lot of red in the center.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Great haul Glen! Looks like you are going to have some fun with that load.

[Fred LeBail]

Nice haul Glen, how are you going to process your blanks ? With a chainsaw or do you have any other tricks up your sleeve ?

[Glenn Hodges]

Fred, I will be using a chainsaw on something this big.

[Mark Cothren]

Hey Glenn,

That IS a huge Dogwood! I have 35 on my 1.8 acre lot and a few of them are big, but nothing near the size of this one.

One of mine died this past year and I cut it and have turned a small bowl out of one piece of it so far. It has some very unique coloring - pink and purple tint. Here's a pic of what it looks like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/markfromark/a_dogwood5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/markfromark/a_dogwood2.jpg

Congrats on the haul and enjoy the wood!

[Gary Max]

You live just far enough away from me that I can't stop in and vist---dang-it
Super nice haul.

[Glenn Hodges]

You sure would be welcome anytime. I wish all of you could have visited yesterday and gotten into those big piles of logs before he put the torch to them. What a shame for them to burn, and lots of people are buying wood like that on ebay. He invited me to stop by and visit his wood pile once a month and get anything I want, I belive I will take him up on that offer.

[Dee Dee Martin]

Glenn, what kind of crane affair do you have on that trailer? Does it work well for loading logs on and off?

[Ernie Nyvall]

Congratulations on that haul Glenn. Dogwoods of that size are very rare to come across.
Near my home town there is a dogwood I go look at from time to time that two of us couldn't reach around. I never measured it though. It grows in a open field unlike most around there that grow amongst the other trees, so it is the shape of a mushroom about 25' tall. It is a sight to see when it blooms.

Ernie

[Glenn Hodges]

Dee Dee, I have a hydrallic crane that is located on the back of the trailer. It picks up the log so that it clears the back of the trailer. I then pull the log with an electric winch which runs off the truck battery. The winch is welded to the front of the trailer. I have never seen any setup like this but it works for me, and I have been able to load some pretty big logs. The hydrallic crane will swivell so if I need to lift a log after it is being pulled by the winch, I can. I unload with a tractor or chain a log to a tree and drive forward and it comes off the trailer with ease. I am unable to send any pictures at this time because I am up in East Glacier Park, Montana for the summer turning bowls beside a store that sells my work on Hwy 49, The Spiral Spoon, and catching cutthroat trout. I am using a borrowed computer.

[Gary Max]

Gee Glenn ----this almost sounds like a ---EAT your heart out gloat.
So how is the fishing??????

[Glenn Hodges]

Gary, I went Tuesday, and caught the limit (5) cutthroat. Smallest was 14 in, and largest was 17 inches. I plan on going back this weekend. The backdrop was snowcoverd mountains. This is pretty to a guy comming from South Georgia, and it is hard to keep your mind on your business. While I am turning I can stop and look at the Mountains in the Glacier National Park across the road. You know what they say, its tough, but someone has to do it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glenn.....is Going To The Sun Highway open yet? Can you get across the pass? My FIL and MIL visited us 5 times and tried to go across from the west side of the park to where you are at. The 6th time the LOML and I took them and the road opened on July 2. We went across with a tour on those White buses and had whiteout conditons in the morning at the view point at the pass and ealier summer conditions at the same viewpoint that afternoon on the return trip! Glacier is one of the most grandeous places I 've seen. If you get a chance be sure and tour the park and consider driving by the Grand Tetons in Wyoming on your trip home!

[Glenn Hodges]

Hi Ken, yes the Going to the Sun Road is open. I have done the Grand Teton trip, and probably won't do it this time, but thanks for the suggestion.