Mayday Comfort Bird

I think it was early October when we had a really heavy snowfall. You know, that wet, heavy snow so common in southern Canada, but quite rare in the Yukon.

Anyway, we had such an overnight snow on the trees before the leaves had dropped off.  The effect it had was to weigh down the branches to the breaking point.

In front of our church we have a beautiful mayday tree (Asian bird cherry - Prunus padus var. commutata). When it's in bloom, it is a truly awesome sight. Sadly, one of the large limbs of the tree was so heavily weighed down by the snow that it broke off.  

We cut the broken limb off and pulled another couple of limbs together with ratchet straps because they had split as well.  We hauled away the branches from the broken limb and then salvaged the larger pieces.  I took them home and cut them up on the bandsaw into 2" X 2" blocks, about 12" long. 

Since then, they've been drying in the shed.  Now they are dry enough to work with and carve comfort birds.

So, here is a photo of the damaged tree with an insert of the first comfort bird carved from the broken limb.

Perhaps an appropriate resurrection story for today - Easter Sunday.