Over the decades, I have collected interesting pieces of wood from my 55 acres in northern Michigan. How do I decide what to pick up and what to leave? How do I know when it is time for a log or a limb to be harvested? How do I figure out what to do with it when it’s aged enough to be worked with? Look at the photo above. This ash tree uprooted a couple of years ago, and is hung up in neighboring trees. It may be a few years more before it finally comes down. In the meantime, the wood is changing; drying out, getting wormy, decaying………….all of which give it the character I love to work with. Only after I get some of it cut up will I have the slightest idea what to do. And it might be a lot of years before that happens.