With a box full of non-electric tools that included augers, drawknives, braces...a shaving horse and a work-kilt Rod Northcutt was able to build a support structure that will hopefully extend the life of one of the Art Park's favorite trees.

Rod Northcutt came to the Art Park and expressed an interest in assisting older decaying trees but also to further his pursuit of creating traditional woodworking for sculpture. Using the Art Park's scrap 2 x 4's & 2 x 6's Rod was able to produce a consistant straight stock of 1" x 1" material to build a support structure around "Old Hickory".

For those of you who don't know "Old Hickory" is the tree (wikipedia.org/Bitternut_Hickory) north of the entrance road that "waves" to Art Park visitors as they drive up to the hilltop. There is now a new cage-like support around the trunk of the tree that his preventing a large fissure from opening further and one of the secondary branches has gotten some more help in "hangin" in there". There are no nails or screws in the tree itself just wood on wood. Rod was also able to connect three adjacent hickory saplings to the older tree in supportive roles much like three children caring for an elder.

(wikipedia.org/Oath_of_the_Horatii)

Thanks Rod for helping one of the Art Park's landmarks!     

                                              The Oath of the Horatii by Rod Northcutt                                

                                                                                     Rod made good use of the short scrap we had for his sculpture!