Praying for the Whole World

Sunday, April 5, 2015

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.  

Harris Cox, Fred Smith and Hank Moorlag cut the broken limb off and pulled another couple of limbs together with ratchet straps because they had split as well.  They hauled away the branches from the broken limb and then salvaged the larger pieces.  Hank 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 Hank's shed.  Now they are dry enough to work with and carve comfort birds. Comfort birds are small wooden birds intended to be held in the hand to bring comfort to those who are ill or are going through difficult times.

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

Perhaps an appropriate resurrection story for today - Easter Sunday.

























Posted by Hank

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