Wood unfortunately grows on trees......

I found this two by ten, twelve feet long, at Lowe's in the top of the pile. In fact it was the first piece. I was deeply suspicious, treated Loblolly Pine at any big box store is not what you could call great. I dug around in the top layer for a few minutes, and came to the conclusion that (1), it was a very nice piece of wood (2), the other place would sell me something like it, not near as nice, for at least twice as much (3), and the best of the entire lot. It's pretty unusual to find wood like this anymore, most treated wood is cut from farmed fast growing Loblolly. Really big growth rings in farmed wood, sometimes up to half an inch. The wood industry would like us to believe that is fine, but really, the tighter the grain, the better it is. This was really tight, a sixteenth of an inch or less. It took a very long to grow this plank, at least sixty years. This did not come out of a tree farm. It really is a beautiful piece, only five small knots, worthy of it's fate, a drink shelf on the back porch at the "green" house.

Lousy shot, but it shows the difference between normal treated wood and this blast from the past. It only took six years for the piece on the left.

Another nice find at Lowe's, an one by six cedar trim board for a neighbor. Baja's aren't great on length, so I do this if it's too much trouble to strap it on top. Besides, my roof rack is still under repair. Got the pieces, just not the time.

The same trim board, all painted up and ready for it's big day next weekend. One coat of Kilz primer, one coat of semi-gloss Olympic white exterior, and the bottom painted gray just like in the HOA specs. It's also back painted, since the carpenter bees love this stuff.

More time at the "green" house for me. Monday will be my last day for the builder. I still got to mount the porch swings. I have some really nice close grained Doug Fir, so I'll use that for mounting blocks. Might as well carry on the theme of good wood that one can't get anymore.........