Just A Coffee Table

This Has A Story

Above is the root of a northern white cedar tree that used to be next to our lake up in Minnesota. How did it get to where it is in this photo?

The tree was quietly growing next to our lake in northern Minnesota. It was among three other trees of the same species. The entire lake is ringed with Northern White Cedars. During the winter, the deer come in to munch on them creating a browse line around the lake. Each year, the trees rain seeds on the ground for the animals. In the summer, it provided quiet shade and filtered moonlight where my beloved uncle would build a fire in an old Weber firepit and look at the stars. On most occasions, there would be wine involved.

This is what the firepits look like brand new. Ours was just the base, and the top to put it out.

Northern white cedars are wonderful trees. The wood never rots. They have a beautiful silver sheen to their bark and their branches grow in all kinds of funky directions. We like them much better than balsam firs, and not quite as much as stately white pines. My grandfather cut down a massive one many years ago and we are still burning the kindling from it. I have a big one to cut down this summer that died standing very close to our cabin.

Several years ago, I heard a knock on our door before we made coffee. It was my uncle. He and his daughter stayed in one cabin while my wife and I were in the other. “Uh, we have a problem.” Unfortunately, the firepit finally gave out and had a small hole in the bottom. The peat in the soil next to the lake was smoldering.

At the time we had no electricity at either cabin. Our water came from a natural spring on the hill. Cell phones don’t work well up there without access to the internet and obviously, we didn’t have that. We had no working chainsaws, the only advantage we had to fight the fire was that we were next to the lake. My uncle, cousin, wife, and I fought the fire for at least two or three hours before we finally put it out. Digging with a shovel and mattock and using manual tree saws to cut everything was a lot of fun. Of course, I am being sarcastic.

We worked up a sweat.

The soil around the three trees was so weak, they fell over into the water. Northern white cedars by the shore of our lake tend to do that anyway, though this one was premature. Here they are after I cut them down.

The root stump sat in our parking lot weathering for years. I couldn’t even estimate how long. It was a conversation piece and a reminder to make sure the fire is out when you go to bed.

My wife got the bright idea we could turn a cedar root into a coffee table for our house in Las Vegas. I had made a couple of end tables out of maple. She paddled all around our lake in her kayak, stopping to ascertain whether various roots could be turned into a table base.

I suggested the above root sitting in our driveway. I try to avoid hard work as much as I can. I was not in the mood to drive a boat out to a downed tree, cut it up, and drag it back to our cabin. I couldn’t order the mosquitoes to pick it up and bring it back either.

There is an added plus with the specimen in our parking lot. Besides no work, it helps me remember the cabin, and of course, my uncle who is dearly loved by everyone and where everyone gets their sense of humor in our family.

We found a guy with a big bandsaw and leveled the stump.

The next move is to get all the bark off. We, meaning my wife, started this summer at the lake and we brought it back to Las Vegas. She began working on it in our garage. Here it is in Minnesota as she began working on it.

It took a while. But, finally, she is ready to finish it and put a glass top on it. Here it is before finishing, but after sanding up to 400 grit. I did a lot of sanding with a DA and a Milwaukie multi-tool. You can see the burn marks on the top of one of the bottom roots from the fire by the lake.

And now that it’s finished, here is what it looks like today.