You’ve probably heard of Blue Stain Pine or Beetle-Kill Pine.  If so, then you probably know that the western pine beetle and a few of it’s buddies (Ips and turpine beetles) are responsible for the death of literally millions of acres of pine forest in both the US and Canada.  Forest fires have also taken their toll of late.

Though it may sadden you to see all the brown or burned forests in our beautiful Rocky Mountains, it does have some up sides.  More grass grows in dead sunny forests and that means more food for elk and deer.  A new vigorous forest replaces the old one.   And the biggy for a woodworker is that the colors in the lumber can be astounding.  Besides the bright yellowish color of pine, there is dark to light gray (aka blue stain), chocolate brown (caused by fire), pink and even green.

We recently did a face lift on a kitchen using blue stain pine that had every color here mentioned.  It is quite the eye candy I must say.  In addition, Susie did her magic to the face frames using a crackle paint technique and some complimentary paint colors.

What a team…My wife and I, those beetles and those fires.