All this talk about apple wood - and especially the beautiful plane 
Andrew made (kinda unfair of him, backing up his stories with pictures 
like that) are like salt on a fresh, open wound to me.
   As the houses we're building get close to completion, turns out a 
couple of trees needed to be removed so the adequate slope can be graded 
on the 350' driveway.  Also turns out, they were full size apple trees 
the Dad of the previous owner planted ~60 years ago.  When the builder 
told me he had to take them down, I told him to leave the trunks, from 
the butt swell to the first fork, on the ground.  Of course, the 
landscaper chipped everything on site.  When I got there Saturday, there 
wasn't a branch or leaf to be seen.  I should've had two apple logs ~18" 
diameter by 5'-6' long.  They did offer me all the wood chips I want ;-( 
  I don't even want to ask about the black walnut tree that they were to 
take out this week...
Charlie Rodgers  For another 6 weeks or so, in
Clinton, Maryland