My friend, Laurie, owns a local shop – Appalachian Pieceworks –  where she sells art and antiques. Saying she is very creative is an understatement. She spins, dyes, weaves, quilts, makes baskets and I’m sure I’m leaving something out. I met her last summer and somehow during one of our conversations it came out that we had too many pine trees and she loved making baskets out of pine bark. So we had been planning this day for months.

Dave cut down one of the trees. We chose one that had pretty bark – I really hadn’t noticed how beautiful the bark is – and was in a good place where it could fall to the ground without hitting something. Always a good thing to consider.

We used a razor knife to slit the bark and then it easily peeled off. This is a good time of year to do it in our area.

Dave is using his new chipper to grind up what we didn’t use.

The bark is now drying and in a couple of  weeks Laurie and I will get together to make baskets. Can’t wait!