In rec.woodworking,
John Grossbohlin wrote:
"Eli the Bearded" wrote:
Well, the real professionals don't buy the wood. They carefully nuture
the sapling to grow into the tree with the wood they want. In this way
You are not far off... When I was a child an elderly neighbor made a lot of
things using that approach. He was been born in Poland, I'm guessing around

I was thinking of real world examples of when I wrote that, but it was
intended facetiously.

I recall a story, I think of Cambridge College in England, of the roof
being inspected in a large hall and inspection turning up that the huge
oak beams supporting the vault had been badly damaged by insects. The
college masters became worried because huge pieces of wood like that are
not easily obtained, and something different would be, just that,
different.

Turned out, however, their forestry people had been grooming trees to
replace those beams for over a century. Because the forestry guys
remembered, even if the professors hadn't, that the beams get "all
beetley" after a time.

I never did, however, adopt his habit of drinking sauerkraut juice for
breakfast.

Hipsters will tell you how full of probiotics that stuff is.

It was a good experience for a kid to know someone like him.

Yeah, sounds like a good influence.

Elijah
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pretty sure the story came from _How Buildings Learn_