Wood Products: Making Lemonade

by Marybeth Leu, Communications Coordinator

In one of Merck Forest’s hillside’s ferocious windstorms last autumn, a venerable apple tree in the meadow adjacent to the Discovery Trail was blown over. Ordinarily this would be considered a big loss – but when Dylan Durkee found it, he realized that this literal windfall* would provide an opportunity for creating something extraordinary. Dylan, Merck’s capable Farm Manager, Sap to Syrup captain and Woodcraft wizard, has milled the apple logs into slabs and is processing the lumber in his kiln; we can expect to see some gorgeous products made of this beautiful wood available in the Visitor Center in the future.

In another example of chance favoring the prepared mind (to paraphrase Louis Pasteur), Marybeth rescued used larch lumber from a dumpster after the re-decking of the Sap House, and has been creating small objects from it. The bookcase in the Thoreau cabin is one such item – finished to resemble driftwood, as it was described in Walden’s Thoreau – and coat hooks and key racks have been personalized with the Merck Forest logo.

Until the apple slabs are ready, some other items produced by the staff from Merck Forest resources are available:

Dylan’s bird’s eye maple and red oak cutting boards

Tim’s pine birdhouses, customized dimensionally for bluebirds

Chris’s Christmas stars/snowflakes made of maple & cherry splints

Marybeth’s coat hooks from larch, furniture & décor made of recycled snowshoes

*Windfall: an unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage

Freshly cut and milled apple slabs dry slowly until their moisture content is stable at 8%.” photo

Thoreau provided scant detail of the design of his bookcase –an odd oversight for the philosopher and author who typically detailed the minutiae of his finances and daily activities.