yellow cedar
Reader’s Forum – Yellow Cedar Deck Chairs
If you live on Vancouver Island, you have a deck or patio and have some nasty chairs and tables. If you are a woodworker on Vancouver Island, winter is the time – the gardens are done and the fishing is waning.
Two winters ago, my dear friends asked me to build some deck chairs and a small table for their cabin. Their cabin is on a small island in the Gulf. I tried to entice them with the prospects of Ipe or Sapele, but their wishes were for something lighter, so anyone could lift the pieces and store them away. My friends had an article from a very old magazine that had a rough plan to work from. My good friends were both born and have lived on the Island all their lives. They like local.
So, off to West Wind Hardwood. Yellow Cedar was the choice: light and very strong, and durable for the ages. We bought some gorgeous large slabs of cedar.
I buy small amounts of quality wood from West Wind. I look for the wood of the highest quality and grain. To finish, my camera work sucks, the woodwork is great and the basic wood is the best.
The Yellow Cedar
A Communal Resident
It’s a given that my mission, when on holidays, is to take tree and/or wood-related pictures for our newsletter…and what an opportunity Strathcona Park gave us. This past September, found us on our annual tenting holiday; just before the park closed its gates for the winter. We came prepared, both mentally and physically, for full-day hikes of 5-6 hours; weather permitting. And thus we made a 6-hour round trip trek to Bedwell Lake; bringing us into the sub-alpine; home to the yellow cedar tree.
Although comfortable at lower elevations especially in the mid or north coastal regions, the yellow cedar is most common at higher elevations.
As we walk along, I’m constantly asking what tree is this or that. Of course, I never remember and why should I? I have my handy-dandy walking reference………..better than an IPAD or smart phone; don’t have to worry Wi-Fi hot-spots!
