The four images at the sawmill were taken by my father on the morning he delivered the Hemlock and Black Cherry logs to the sawmill. The mill is operated by an Amish farmer in the area, who sawed the wood into beams, boards and batton for our treehouse. The three 17′ long, 28″ diameter green Hemlock logs- all from the same colossal tree – were moved off the trailer to the mill by two draft horses easier than my father’s Ford F150 offered to do. I never counted the rings on the Hemlock tree but she was a big, grand old tree, and must have been nearing a century old. The Hemlock blew down in the big summer storm in late June that took with it much of the state’s power for several days. It took a storm that crippled half the state to bring this matriarch of the forest down, and I hope her strength will serve on in our tree house.