You have to read The Beast to get the jest of this post. The huge and heavy chunks of wood (it broke in two when I moved it with the tractor) sat on the tree line for a few days. I reached out to a friend of ours, Dave McCrocklin, who is a master with wood. He accepted the challenge and picked it up. He had to build a special lathe to handle the job. He leveled it and oiled it for months. He made a special back frame for it and pinned it together to form one unified piece.
The finished piece is beautiful That chuck had two bullets in it, and the tiny outer pieces that were the only parts alive are even clearer.
It hangs beautifully now in our new home on the ranch, just inches from where it once stood. I placed a picture in the center, that was all rotted out. It shows the tree how it once lived here.
The Story About the Red Tail Ranch 