I don't know Bill, I smell a rat. A fix was in. Are you sure the
'landowner' and your wife didn't conspire to get you to remove the tree for
free?


First: On Sunday my wife spontaneously announced that I needed to buy a
new chain saw. Since she's right, on Monday I bought one.

Second: On Tuesday, while she was driving home she noticed a good sized
/ storm damaged paper birch and brought it to my attention.

Man, woman and chainsaw promptly got in the pickup truck but the homeowner
wasn't home. So I left a business card with a note that I owned a chainsaw
and would finish dropping the tree in exchange for the wood. Today the
owner called me back and said to 'go for it'.

The net result is one brand new chainsaw and a 16" dia. birch in my
backyard in 4' - 6' lengths. Lots of branches for pens and goblets, too.
Some of it is already spalted (a poorly trimmed branch allowed entry and
ultimately doomed the tree) and there were a couple nice crotches. I see
at least 3 bowls from crotch wood ... mebbe 5.

Bill