An architect friend dropped off some prints at my office and included some design magazines he thought I’d like. I really enjoyed Metropolis: The Magazine of Architecture and Design. The photos were inspiring and the writing was solid.

After reading for a bit, I was motivated to grab my chain saw and head out to my shop to start chopping away on a couple of cedar logs I’ve had drying for years. I could see the cedar was split and rotting through the heart wood, but couldn’t tell how badly. I recently conceived a design to sculpt this log into a cool shape to sit outside my office door.

I got the log blocked up off the ground and started sawing off the ends, checking for rot. If you’ve never had the privilege, chain sawing cedar trees should be on your bucket list. The heavenly smell isn’t like anything else. Unfortunately, I kept finding rot and splitting wood as I cut off pieces. So I ended up without the cool piece of wood I was hoping to sculpt, just pile of firewood.

As is often the case, though, the thing I thought would be useless wasn’t. The stump piece that I assumed would be rotten was solid with a funky shape. When I set it upside down and chopped back a few roots, it started to look like a cool little end table.

The red cedar swirls are gorgeous, though I understand that the red fades with time.

As I walked over to snap the above photos, I saw two mortal enemies sunbathing together. The frog was on the upper deck while the water snake was just below.