Our neighbor has been really nervous about a giant water oak between our houses for a few years now. It has dropped several limbs on her house and caused a fair amount of damage. It’s the one at the bottom of the driveway in the photo below.

So we finally had it taken out after we found a company that would do the work for $2200 less than the cheapest quote we’d previously gotten. Watching climbers take out a massive tree is really impressive.

Long story short, we just hate to see so much beautiful wood, in the red oak family, go to the dump. We asked them to drop a massive chunk in our driveway to make into coffee tables.

And there it sits.

It is a massive piece of oak. The bobcat can safely carry 4500 lbs, and this chunk made the bobcat lift forward and scrape the ground with the grabber. The tree guy estimated that it’s 5000 lbs of oak. The car in the photo below gives a good size comparison.

Our plan is let it sit in that spot for the next year and dry out slowly. I’ve painted the ends with latex paint to keep it from drying too fast and cracking. I’ve also built a (kinda crappy) hat for the log so it doesn’t get soaked by the huge downpours we’ve been having. Next summer, I plan on buying a 6 foot, 2-man timber saw to cut it into 4-inch slabs. Given its current dimensions, that’ll give us 15 slabs, ranging from oblong 54″x42″ to nearly circular 36″. We’ll sand them to a glassy smoothness, coat with varnish, and sell them.

Below are more photos of the wood.