Totem Pole

[azygoustoyou]

I cut so many trees down in my yard. Between seventy and eighty. I thought why not make a totem pole. The kids would love it. I always thought they were cool. The first task would be to cut the tree half way up without getting hurt. So we all got on the computer and found some cool totem pole designs. I figured, I got some carving knives. Yeah right! I'm using a black oak tree the carpenter ants had killed. That thing is hard. The nice thing is the bark is already falling off.
We got the tree cut and removed the remaining bark. Got a marker and started drawing the faces from the small print outs. After two days of carving. I'm sore and tired. Just standing on the ladder balancing myself wasn't an easy task. I put away the carving knives and got out the router. Now I'm moving. Got two faces done and it's time for a beer. Here's some pic's.
I really give those totem pole carvers credit for being so artistic. It's hard to make things three dimensional.

[Foster48x]

The kids would love it.

Yea it looks like the kids had a great time watching you carve tree's for 2 days

[azygoustoyou]

LOL Your right there. They really couldn't do much of the carving. But they did have fun making their own totem face. They sound like they appreciate how it's coming out which keeps me going.

[Foster48x]

So true... whatever it takes to make the kiddos happy, should make us happy. lol, But damn that looks like allot of work!

[narfire]

Cool... are you going to use a router for carving the halloween pumpkin now..
The totems out here were/are made from red and sometimes yellow cedar.. waaay softer wood

[mdrburchette]

Cool work!

[So Cal Mark]

weren't the original totems carved while they were laying down? Very cool though, how much for shipping?

[azygoustoyou]

Thanks guys and gals,
I wish I had a cedar one. My hands are still vibrating. I did some more carving on the faces making them a little more 3 dimensional. The shipping would still be the same, charged by weight. I thought about if it was lying down then I thought how would I ever pick it up to get it in the hole to mount it. This one hopefully stays standing. I was hoping it wasn't hollow. I got lucky so far. Who knows, maybe a little further down I won't be so. I hope not though.

[Danno]

wow, that's a lot of trees. Do you burn firewood? with a source like that you could save some real bucks on the heating bill. If you already burn and you haven't stumbled across it then check out the hearth.com forum. some great guys over there that are pretty knowledgeable about such things.....

[manoa matt]

I'll bet one of those climbing metal tree stands would have helped out a lot. Some guys live in those things for days during deer season.

[azygoustoyou]

My neighbor burns wood to heat their house. I gave them some and some to my friends. I have a fire pit outside. I have enough to keep me going for awhile. My neighbor used those climbing steps to get high into one tree. They sure do work good. Really I didn't need them though. This is the only tree I ever did this to. It's one of those things that once you do, you never want to do it again. I have four herniated discs and I'm feeling everyone of them by now. Still I'm trying to get it done. Here's a pic. I almost have four done and the faces are looking better and better. I have to do the wings for the hummingbird still and I want to glue on a nose to the moon and hummingbird. Once painted, it should look very nice.

[narfire]

What are you using for wood pecker repelant? Hate to see all that with unauthorized holes in it.
Looks great though, what a great idea!

[azygoustoyou]

The wood pecker around here prefers our house. It lives down the road somewhere and every once in a while it comes to peck on our house. I tried hanging stuff off the gutters and he still comes.

[azygoustoyou]

[azygoustoyou]

We're getting it done. After about 48 hours here is what we got. We still have to finish painting plus do some high lights.